Why do you promote?

The purpose of promotion is to bring in more business and enlarge your customer base. Always try to bring in as much business as you can. It sounds like an obvious thing to say but many people still don’t follow this rule. Don’t assume any number of new customers will be too much for you to handle. If you have that much business you can always bring on temporary or temp-to-permanent staff to handle work load.

How do you promote?

There are more ways than you would ever think. Have you ever heard someone say, "I never promote and I am always busy" OR "I don’t have to promote, all my business comes from word-of-mouth"? They may not be aware of how they’re doing it, but I promise you they are promoting somewhere. Maybe they just go around telling everyone they talk to, that they don’t promote. (Sound funny? It’s still promoting.) Maybe their canary yellow window ledge with bright red apples on shelf behind it attracts so much attention that they don’t need to do anything else. Well here are some ideas you can do "knowingly" to drive in business.

Every action that every member of your staff engages in is promotion. Whether good or bad every action is giving someone an impression of how your company is or does business. Here are a few examples.

a) Greeting your customers with a smile is a great place to start.

b) Calling your customers after they have had a chance to use your product is a good way to promote that you care about their experience with your organization. It can also create an opportunity to make more sales.

c) A neatly packaged product, shipping label on straight, promotes that you take pride in what you do.

d) Always keep updated brochures or catalogs in your reception area for people to see and take with them.

d) If you have customers coming into your business, make sure they are greeted pleasantly, professionally, and immediately.

I suggest you sit down and write out all things that your company actually does to promote using above definition. Sit down with your staff and do a pow wow. Not only will it bring you all closer together and going for same goal, it will open your eyes as to all ways you can make your business well thought of.

Every little detail counts. Thanks for reading and good luck.

When you start looking at what you have to gain by increasing amount of direct mail marketing you do and what you have to lose by cutting back, there really isn’t a question as to which way to go.

Of course you should be smart about your mailings. Make sure they are really well targeted and put a little more thought into design and content so as to make sure they impinge. That just makes sense.

So while others are cutting their own throats by cutting back on direct mailing, you can benefit by increasing yours and sending your postcards into a less heavily glutted marketplace where they will receive more attention. Win-win.