Lazy Marketing Tips
By Jewel Custaya

Are you laid back when it comes to marketing your business? Are you too busy running the daily operation of your business to put in a full day’s worth of marketing? If your answer is “yes” to both questions, don’t fret. You just have one of many small businesses running on tight budgets.

Okay, so your business has a streamlined staff, limited resources, and no time or money to spend more than an hour a week (or month) in promoting your business. This could work for a while but, without a marketing strategy in place, your business will fail.

If you are a lazy marketer, these tips will help you squeeze marketing into your daily, weekly or monthly schedule:

One of the easiest ways to market your business is to develop a following or a regular clientele for your products or services. In turn, news about your business will spread by word-of-mouth---the cheapest yet most effective form of advertising.

First, make sure your product or service is something others need. If they don’t, they won’t care what you have to offer.

Second, plan and design a professional-looking website. Your site should showcase your products or services, offer them for sale online and feature Members Only areas (secure part of website or e-newsletter). Potential and returning customers should be able to sign in for free, read about the latest company news and articles related to your company products and receive member-only discounts.

Third, write a blog. A blog is an online journal that allows you to talk to your readers as though they are friends, not potential sales. While your blog shouldn’t be written with a sales pitch in mind, it also shouldn’t be a place to share negatives. Stay upbeat and keep your blog free of grammar and spelling errors.

Forums are message boards, both private and open, where like-minded people visit to discuss specific topics. What you want to do is visit a different forum each day. The key is to visit forums that your buyers frequent, not forums that other professionals frequent.

Spend no more than thirty minutes in visiting a forum. Pick a topic you know about and post a relevant solution to that poster’s question. Pay close attention to what the other posters have to say. You just might learn some valuable information that can help you redefine your business, come up with a new product or service, fix a glitch in your existing product or service or help in your marketing strategies.

Everyone loves to get freebies. Is there something that you can give away that won’t cut your profit? The idea is to give away something that helps promote your business through visual reminders, such as a pen with your company logo and contact information; or something that will entice visitors to buy your product or service, such as a trial-size version of your product or a free information course delivered by email (known as an e-course) to give your visitor a taste of the quality of your service.

One of the fastest ways to deliver information about your product or service across the Internet is to disseminate quality-written articles related to your business. Articles keep a reader’s attention without making him feel as though he is being manipulated into buying something or pitched to. Articles in quality publications validate your product or service; and if it’s really good, will cause the reader to pick up the phone or visit your website. (Just don’t include those same articles on your website, in your e-newsletter or in your paid courses.)

Interviews offer free exposure and credibility for your business, product or service. The best part is that it’s free! Getting quoted in magazine articles or books is as easy as being listed on a press release service, adding a media page to your business website with contact information for journalists, and notifying them that you are available for interviews.

Getting interviewed in radio shows is as easy as picking up the phone and calling the production assistant and asking for their contact information (such as email address or fax number) to send your media kit. Once you get the call back to be interviewed, you simply pick up your phone at a designated time. This is the phone patch interview.  You don’t even have to leave your home or office!

The least favorite way of marketing one’s business without leaving the home or office is making cold-contact calls. Depending on your business type, you can receive up to 100 no-thank-you’s before you receive a single yes. But when business is slow, drumming up new tactics is not only essential; it is vital to your profit margin.

It’s all in the numbers. So in a crunch, the number game takes you ahead of your competitors.

Whether your customer buys products from your business or uses your service, take the time to contact one customer per day (or week). If you’re in the area, stop by his (or her) place. If you’re not in the area, call or write a letter. The key to calling an existing customer (or client) is to make sure you have a legitimate reason for doing so.

Do you have a regular customer who hasn’t been back to your business in awhile? Call to find out how he (or she) is doing.

Did a customer buy a complicated piece of machinery? Call to see if he figured out how to use it.

Did you complete a project for a client a few weeks ago? Call and ask how the project went.

Did your client miss an appointment? Call to reschedule.

Did your client promise to call or visit and never did? Call to find out if everything is okay.

Attending networking events may take a little more effort since it involves leaving your home or office (and sometimes paying an attendance fee), but it’s really a lazy way of marketing your business because networking events are usually fun. They’re meant for socializing and schmoozing with business people who may (or may not) be able to help your business, aside from winning prizes in fun raffles they usually have.

The denotation of the word “lazy” is slow moving or gentle; and that’s just what these marketing tips are all about. They are gentle and easy ways for you to market your business without having to expand any more of your already depleted energy.

While these marketing tips may not offer fast results, they’re proven methods of attracting and keeping customers. So get out there and do some lazy marketing!

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