Each of these 3 marketing strategies creates permanent growth for your business -- and obstacles for your competition. You can use them repeatedly to add new layers of income to your business.

1. SET UP JOINT PROMOTIONS

Identify characteristics and activities of your most profitable customers. Look for other non-competing businesses already reaching them. Then devise a way to set up some joint promotions. This proven strategy produces dramatic results -- for very little expense.

For example, I once saw a clever joint promotion by a health club and a gourmet restaurant. Both catered to young professionals and business executives in same town.

The restaurant's menu included several special dishes recommended by health club's nutritionist. It also distributed discount membership coupons for club. Even their advertising mentioned affiliation -- to attract health conscious customers who often avoid food prepared in gourmet restaurants.

The health club's monthly newsletters included a reprint of restaurant's healthy new menu items recommended by club's nutritionist. They also distributed restaurant's discount coupons to their members.

2. UNCOVER NEW NICHE MARKETS

Continually look for new niche markets you can serve. Then develop customized versions of your advertising appealing to special concerns of prospects in each niche. Offer specific solutions to their unique needs and you'll uncover new groups of customers eager to buy from you.

I had privilege of interviewing Diane Garrod of TalkCity.com. Talk about a marketing pro! Her online specialty is marketing - helping for profit and nonprofit clients to acquire, retain and upgrade customers and/or donors. Diane has worked with many high profile clients such as Mattel, Lipton, Costco, Novell, Kemper Funds, Columbia Studios, Toyota, and NBC. Read carefully as Diane takes us into a new level of marketing success!

KARON: Hi Diane. I’m really looking forward to talking with you today. I’m sure there is a ton of information locked up in your brain that Business Essentials subscribers will benefit from :)

DIANE: Oh, Karon… it’s my pleasure! Fire away.

KARON: All right. Getting right to point, everybody is talking about article promotion, ezines, email advertising, permission marketing and so on. What's next step? Where do we go from here? DIANE: Time changes things. One thing that hasn't changed is that "content" is still king. Article promotion and electronic newsletters are still great venues of publicity online, and customer retention technique and "permission marketing" will always be necessary.

KARON: So where does that leave us?

DIANE: The next steps are that search engine optimization has vastly changed, old rules of yesterday are no longer rules, and there are more advanced techniques of customer acquisition. In many ways we are back to old basics of business with a new twist. The exciting ever-changing electronic arena allows small business to compete with big businesses.

KARON: Right. So far, I’m with you. But something else has changed, Diane. What is it?

DIANE: Today market intelligence is key. For instance, knowing latest techniques, keeping up with what works and what doesn't, and testing continually just can't be ignored in today's online marketing battlefield. KARON: Can you expand a little bit for those that might not understand “marketing intelligence?”