Promoting Your Company

Depending on the size of your company, your marketing plan may be some ideas scribbled on the back of a sheet of paper or a multi-page document complete with analysis and budget schedules. The one thing that is at the heart of both marketing plans, and all types of plans in between, is the idea of promoting your company. You have good products, excellent services and a track record that you are proud of. When you promote your business you tell people about all of these things.

If you love what you do it should be easy for you to promote your business with word of mouth marketing. You simply talk about what you do with everyone who will listen. However, unless you have a very small target market or live in a tiny town, this type of marketing will not be sufficient to grow your sales and your business. There are several things that you can do to promote your business effectively in any size market.

Word of Mouth Marketing

Generate buzz about your business by being visible in your marketplace. You can sponsor events that your target market cares about, give away freebies that will get your intended customers interested or offer incentives to buy from you. All of these not only drive traffic to your door, they also get potential customers talking about you, which is the best thing you can do as a business owner.

Door to Door Sales

You can use door to door sales in one of two ways: either you can walk into the businesses of your target market and try to sell them your products outright or you can create a relationship with them by consistently dropping by so that they have you at the forefront of their minds when they need your products or services.

Promotional Items

Aside from business cards, you should also have some promotional items that you give to people that you meet on the street, distribute via your sales team and make available at all of your locations. These promotional materials should be something that your target market will use repeatedly, like an ink pen, and have your logo and company information printed on them.

Promoting your business can seem like a never ending task, and in many ways that is true, but once you get the ball rolling with many of these techniques, they take care of themselves. Make it a habit to talk about your business and what you love about your company to everyone you meet and challenge all of your employees to do the same. Provide everyone with promotional materials that they can give out as they talk about how wonderful your company is.

Attracting People to Your Trade Show Booth

Trade shows are an excellent way to promote your business, but you have to know how to use them to their full potential to make sure that you do not waste time and money. Make your trade show booth as attractive as possible to look at. Use an appealing color pattern that is eye catching and easy to look at. You may choose to use signage to tell people about your company and what you have to offer as well.

When setting up your trade show booth, you will want to add information and promotional materials in a place where people know they are invited to take one. Brochures, colorful flyers and ink pens are all great giveaways at trade shows. These will ensure that people stop at your booth and that they have something to take home with them to remember you and your services for a later time.

Another way to attract people to your trade show booth is with a drawing for a prize. If possible make the prize be something relevant to your business and something tangible. For example, rather than give away a year of free service give away an item like  a television or set of knives or a lawnmower. Also make sure that whatever item you give away is at the trade show for people to see before they sign up for the drawing. Require more than just the person’s name to enter the drawing. Take that opportunity to get contact information such as an email address that you can use to contact everyone who enters the drawing later.

Adding visual elements to your trade show booth will also make it more appealing. Use computers or television monitors when possible to showcase your business and draw trade show attendees to your booth.

Whether you own a small business or a huge corporation, trade shows can be a great place to promote your business. Attracting customers to your booth does not have to be difficult. Simply attract their attention with visuals and the promise of something in it for them and then deliver on that promise. This way you receive good publicity and a good trade show turnout.

Using Your Promotional Marketing Items

You already chose the promotional item that best fits the needs of your business, had your company information printed on it and are staring at a box full of bright red ink pens with your logo on them. Now what? It is time to use those items to promote and brand your business.

Sales Calls

You may want to consider hiring someone to make sales calls to people or businesses that you plan to target. When they go on these cold calls they will want to have something to break the ice. Enter the promotional marketing materials that you ordered. You can leave promotional items along with your business card with people to make a bigger impact than a business card alone. You can also use promotional marketing materials to grease the wheels with secretaries and gatekeepers who stand between you and the decision makers.

Trade Shows

Trade shows are another excellent place to use your promotional items. You can use them as giveaways to anyone who attends the trade shows or if they are more expensive items you can choose to do a drawing to give away some of your items to lucky winners. This technique is good not just for trade shows but any event where you have a presence and want to make an impact.

Mailings

Direct mail is a common practice especially among bigger companies, and promotional marketing materials can be an excellent way to enhance a package that you send to someone. Studies have proven that people are more likely to open an envelope or package that obviously has something other than paper in it. So, using your promotional items in your direct mail packages can greatly increase your response rates.

On Site

Be sure to also display your promotional items that you plan to give away on site at your main store or office building so that people who visit you can take an item with them. Be sure that your entire staff makes it a habit of offering promotional materials to people who visit your office.

There are dozens of ways that you can use your promotional materials to market your business. Whenever you talk about your business, you can offer someone more than just information, you can give them your promotional item as well. Use these marketing materials in addition to, or in some cases, instead of your business card and you will be amazed at the difference they make in your promotional efforts.