Communications Tips & Tricks For Small Firms
Small firms often view marketing as a cost which they cannot afford. They have a logo, they have headed paper and compliments slips, business cards for those who need them and a sign outside the office. Anything else is an unnecessary cost. But …
It doesn't have to be expensive
You can do a lot of it yourself
Online
Start a blog. This is as close to free as possible. Give your company a more human face. People do business with people. Provide information, not a sales pitch.
Check if there are any bloggers active in your space. Get in touch with them, leave comments, offer them free samples in exchange for reviews. These people are more influential than you may think.
*Technorati - Blog search engine
Look for any forums and bulletin boards that are relevant to your business. Get involved with the discussion.
Use social bookmaking sites. List your site and / or blog, and create links with other relevant sites and news stories.
* del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com, digg.com, reddit.com, stumbleupon
If you have some news, do a press release. These used to be expensive, but not any more. There are lots of free and cheap press release services available online.
* PR Leap, prnewswire, clickpress, prweb, marketwire
Make contact information easily available on your site. Give a name for people to contact rather than just providing a phone number and and info@ email address.
Do your own press clippings. Set up relevant Google Alerts so you know when you, your products and your competitors are mentioned online.
Pick a writing style and stick to it. Consistency equals trust in prospect's minds.
Use email signature files. Make them consistent for all staff. Include your tagline. If you have any recent news, include a link to the news article on our site in our signature file. Sig files should obviously include all your contact details (fax, phone etc.)
Grab all the free email accounts you still can using your brand name, i.e. yourbrandname @ gmail.com etc..
Start an e-mail newsletter.
Use Google Analytics to track where your site visitors are coming from. It's free and powerful.
Offline
Make T-shirts. There are lots of online and offline services that will produce small runs of t-shirts with your own design. Wear them yourself or give them to valuable customers.
Make photobooks as gifts for valued customers. You can achieve a huge amount with an inexpensive digital camera. Take pictures of your products, premises and anything else that is relevant. Add some text and you have a genuinely unique promotional gift.
* Blurb photobooks. $16.95 & postage for a 7" x 7" softcover book, 20-40 pages,
* QOOP photobooks. $12.99 & postage for 20 page softcover book,,
Get stickers with your logo on them produced. Stick these on every communication with your customers. Better still, include a book of stickers with your communications (e.g. invoices) and let your customers distribute them.
* Moo.com sticker books - $7.49 & postage for 15 sheets of 6 stickers each.
Use your logo and tagline on all communications you have with your customers. That includes formal communications like invoices and contracts.
