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Small Business Network Marketing Plan
"The Lesson Is to Network" Author and marketing guru Nancy Michaels explains how entrepreneurs can reach and impress greater numbers of potential clients. Marketing is an important factor in the success and growth of any business. But entrepreneurs do not sell themselves as effectively as they could. Constrained by size and budgetary concerns, small businesses often miss big opportunities to position themselves. Nancy Michaels, founder of Concord (Mass.)-based Impression Impact, helps small outfits reach bigger markets through a variety of marketing strategies -- from grassroots outreach to designing a winning business card.
Q: Does having a small businesses mean having a small marketing program?
A: Not necessarily. There are ways to be creative and effective. I'm an entrepreneur too. One of the best things I ever did was to bid on a silent auction lunch with the CEO of Office Depot [Bruce Nelson] at a success strategies conference in 2002. It cost me $1,000, but I had a meeting and ended up getting Office Depot (ODP ) as a client. It was the most expensive lunch I ever had, but I am now going into my third year with Office Depot and it is my largest account.
The lesson is to network. People like to do business with people that they know and trust. I then asked him to write me an endorsement letter to provide to other CEOs and I got additional clients and business. This same strategy could be applied to a dry cleaner too. Ask somebody -- a really satisfied customer of yours, who may be the editor of the local paper or the head of the chamber of commerce -- to endorse a letter that you send out. You are doing the legwork. The letter could go out to all newcomers saying, "This is a great dry cleaners" with a coupon.
Negocios July 29, 2005 06:51 AM