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Simple Marketing Tips
By Patty Benton
www.moretime4u.org
© 2004 JERPAT Virtual Assistants
Marketing is one of the most important
pieces of your business plan. Without marketing, people will not be able
to find what your business is about and all your wonderful services. So
how do you market? What’s the most important thing you can do to market?
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Set clear marketing goals for
yourself.
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Follow up your marketing. If you send
a letter via mail, don’t stop with just one. Marketing experts advise
you to send 6-9 pieces of advertisement before “giving up” on the
recipient.
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Decide who you want to market to. Are
you a realtor who wants to market to homeowners, reminding them of your
services? Are you a VA who works with realtors? What is your target
market? Once you decide, focus your marketing efforts on your target
market. Forget letting every Joe Brown know about your business.
Focus on weeding out those who would best benefit from your services,
and spend your marketing dollars on them.
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If you have an advertising budget,
research where you are spending your dollars. Who does that magazine
or newsletter reach? Make sure it is your target market.
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Track your advertising pieces. Give
each marketing piece a special code your target market needs to use to
redeem your “offered” special. This way you know where each
“potential” client heard of you. If you advertise in a newsletter for
6 months, and never get one bite, then you probably don’t want to
renew. But if you got 10 new clients, it’s a safe bet that this is a
great place to advertise.
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Follow up. Follow up is a VERY
important piece that many of us fall short on. You get a “maybe” or
“when I need your services, I’ll call” people. Those are warm leads.
They have shown interest, so don’t let them forget you. Set up a drip
email campaign and send them information that they would find useful.
This keeps you in their mind, without you becoming annoying. Another
great thing, pick up the phone every so often and call them up. Show
interest in their business, and they will remember you.
These are just a few important things
that every business owner needs to remember when creating a marketing
plan.
Patty Benton runs a
training program for new entrepreneurs interested in venturing into the virtual assistance
industry that is affordable to all, and she has also written an e-book that
takes virtual assistants through the process of setting up their business. Visit
her coaching site at
www.virtualvacoach.com for program details and great business resources.
Additionally, Patty is the owner of JERPAT Virtual Assistants and JERPAT Web
Designs, www.moretime4u.org, which
provides affordable administrative and web design support to coaches, small
businesses, religious organizations, and more. She has also partnered to
establish the ministry Acknowledging Christ Together at Work
www.actatwork.com and is co-owner of
Virtual Business Group
www.virtualbizgroup.com an online networking organization for Virtual
Professionals.
©
2003-2007 JERPAT
You have permission to reprint this article electronically or in print, as long
as the text and byline remain unedited. A courtesy copy of your publication
would be appreciated.
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