Small Business Marketing Strategies: 4 Simple Ways to Plug the Profit Holes

A key part of my marketing philosophy is that the biggest, easiest increases in any small company’s earnings typically comes not from grinding out more sales and tapping into more markets but by focusing on what is already coming through the door. In 99% of cases, companies looking to expand marketing efforts have not yet fully optimized the systems they have in place. But the first step in smart marketing is to make sure your systems are ready for you to turn on the faucet.

Here are 4 small business marketing strategies for plugging the profit holes without seeking out new prospects.

1. Harvest Emails

On your website, forms your customers fill out when they walk in the door, prize give-aways…you absolutely need to be making the effort to collect emails and build a customer database. Email follow-up is possibly the most valuable of online small business marketing strategies available.

One reason is because it takes repeat contacts with most web visitors to decide to buy something–we’ll get in depth on why in later articles–but there’s a lot more to the story than that. Did you know that buyers who are inspired to buy via email contact typically spend 138% more than the typical customer?

2. Track Your Advertising

If you are not tracking your advertising, you are making a huge mistake, and this is number one reason small businesses who rely solely on yellow pages drive me nuts. That said, if you get creative, there are ways to do it even with yellow pages ads.

Setting up a special phone number for an ad and monitoring how many calls it brings in is one clever way to do it, and you can even evaluate what happens when the ad is changed in small ways. When it comes to online analytics, however, there is little that can’t be tracked and tested.

3. Pick Up the Phone

There are companies out there missing out on tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year simply because they do not handle their phones correctly. Many don’t even have a live operator on the phone, and this is about the biggest mistake you can make. Even in this age of technology, when it’s so tempting to send calls to an automated system, customers want to talk to a real person.

There’s a lot more to this phone thing than that, but the first thing you need to do is put an operator on that line, even if it means outsourcing to a fulfillment house.

4. Raise Your Prices

One of the easies ways to increase profits is to ask for more money. Competing on price is the worst thing a small business can do and in many cases is a surefire path to business extinction. I recommend charging higher prices but over-delivering on value. If you deliver more than your competitors–higher quality and better customer follow-up, clients will be glad to pay more.

It’s cliché, but these really are the very tip of the iceberg. From upselling to system evaluation to outsourcing

to eco-friendly innovation to promotions to dunning mailer methods, there are literally thousands of different strategies that can cut back your company’s expenses while boosting profits and bringing growth in this economy. Typically, small business owners just don’t know where to start, or they know where to start but haven’t’ got the time.

Contact me today and get a free consultation. As a disclaimer, I only give consultations to those I think would be a good fit for my business, but if I do give a consultation and you don’t want to work together, you’re free to use any of the small business marketing strategies we discuss as you please.

Go watch my free video and find out about getting a free marketing consultation now.