Month: March 2015

Coming April 1st in our subscriber’s email boxes – our monthly magazine Gift Basket Business Insider. If you are not a subscriber and want to learn more about growing your business, you can still subscribe at www.giftbasketbusinessinsider.com. It’s $29.95 a year for 12 issues.

Marketing is the engine that feeds your small business.  We’re already 2 and 1/2 months into the new year and if you haven’t started your marketing, or have been lazy about it, when do you plan to start?  There’s no better time than today so in this blog post, I’m giving you five ways to kickstart that marketing machine.

1. Surprise your existing customers by sending them a note. To keep your business top of mind, send an email or better yet a handwritten note to check-in and see what’s going on with their business. Don’t make it a hard sell, just call to say “I was thinking about you.”  Be sure to put your business phone number, address, website, social media contacts in your email signature, so they can give you a quick call or note back.
2. Organize Your Calendar: Look at the remaining time in your  2015 calendar and mark down any special dates that are relevant in our industry. Think of creative ways to share information that will bring customers in especially on key holidays.
3. Build a New Partnership: One of the fastest ways to find new customers is by partnering with a business that already has complimentary clients or relationships you’re looking for.  By leveraging the credibility of a partner they can pave the way for their customers to trust your business much faster.  But remember that it has to be a win-win situation for both of you.
4. Create a new free offer: Everyone loves free stuff. A great way to get potential customers to give you their contact email is to create a free offer. How about a free report on “Strategies for Business Gifting.”  Once you get their contact information use email to nurture the relationship.
5. Get More Social: Look for opportunities to boost your social media marketing efforts. Look at ways to build more engagement on your social accounts. Consider kicking it up on your  Facebook page, Instagram account, in your LinkedIn Groups, Pinterest boards and Twitter account. Try venturing out into one new social media site this year.

You can use a combination of these methods to kickstart your marketing efforts for the remainder of this year to keep your business top of mind with your target customers and you’ll have better results when it comes to that time of year which is most profitable for our industry — the 4th quarter.