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Recognize Who's Helping You |
Written by charen smith
Wednesday, 01 October 2008
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When it comes to promoting your business you are most certainly not alone. It can seem as if you're the only one doing any work. After all, you're footing the bills for the flyer printing or the posters you're putting up on different walls. You getting everything designed and setting up all of these details, so of course you're the only one promoting anything. But this is never really the case with any kind of business, because there are always going to be other people helping you out even if you aren't really aware of it. The first is word of mouth. If I like a place I'm going to tell me friends and family about it. I'll spread the word, and every time I mention it to someone else I'm helping to boost that company's sales. The fact that it's coming from me makes my friends more likely to give the place business, too, because they know and trust me. This means the words of mouth marketing you're getting for free is often even more effective than the marketing that you're getting done. Think about testimonials, too. These are the people that you actually contact yourself and ask to give a good testimonial about your company. They take time out of their day to explain why they enjoyed your business and why other people should give you a chance. Testimonials like this are what helps to augment that flyer printing, or whatever other kind of advertisements you're sending out, by adding to them that extra touch of reality with an actual person who enjoyed your business. So the question becomes, how are you rewarding these people? They're helping your business just as much as you are in promoting you, so shouldn't they be given a reward for doing so? Of course, when I just mention it to a friend, the company doesn't know I'm doing it, but if you have a referral system in place, then my friend can mention that I'm the one who told them about the store. Each time you ask someone for a testimonial you should always be sure to give them a discount or some other additional reward for helping you out. This doesn't have to be something huge to still be effective, and most people aren't going to be expecting to get rewarded, which is what makes it particularly effective. You're giving them a bonus for something they would've done for free anyways. When you reward them you increase the odds of other people following in their shoes and referring others to your business. So you end up getting even more free publicity without having to do anything but offer a discount, which is always going to cost less than getting other advertising done. This doesn't mean you should forgo the staples of advertising like brochures, flyers, and so on, but it does mean you should expand your marketing by letting your customers give you a hand. For comments and inquiries about the article visit Flyer Printing Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com |
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