Certainly if you aim to be a big company one day then throwing lots of money upfront in order to try and stir up attention for you in the marketplace where there are lots of others competing for the same business doesn’t make a sound strategy.   However by becoming number one where you are based allows you the opportunity to diversify into neighboring territories before you become a feature on a more national level.   You need to be conscious at all times about what will work for you.

Although being ambitious is great, you shouldn’t get confused between ambition and recklessness.   When running a business you need to be fully aware of what you need in order for yours to be successful.   You have plenty of time to try and reach for the stars.  Instead what you should be doing is looking to build a decent ladder for yourself.   You aren’t actually aiming for what is low, but rather you are making yourself aware of what is possible and so ensuring that you are able to grab it.

When it comes to marketing there is no disputing that having your product endorsed by a local celebrity or a national one if you can afford their fees or are able to convince them to get involved is a huge seller.   When you want to attract customers then star power is the best and surest way of getting customers to come through your door.

If you aren’t able to attract a TV legend or major sports star to get involved then now is the time to be thinking a bit more broadly.   Is there a local boy or girl that has made it good?  What is important is that you pick a celebrity for attracting customers to you who are able to give an impression of them wanting to be there.   Quite a number of endorsements made by celebrities have fallen flat due to them turning up late or read straight from a card about how much they love this product and then leave well before they were meant to.   If you have networking skills you will find that these are very useful indeed.

Having a stand at a local trade fair is the best place to start your marketing push.  Although they are fairly unvarnished in respect of what they aim to do and how they go about it the clue is right there in the name.   These are designed to help people to do business and having a visible presence at such events means you are going to be able to persuade people to find out more about you.  As a result you will be able to convince them that spending money with you is the right thing to do.

You should walk around the trade fair as it will enable you to see ways that can help you to connect with your audience better.  However it does help if you are willing to let your charisma shine.  But if you don’t think you have enough charisma then arrange to use an employee who does on your trade stand throughout the time the fair is taking place.   Although it may seem a bit corny but what is true is that people are more willing to do business with you when you smile at them.   However it will only work if the smile is one that shows to others that you are a fun company to do business and we would like to do business with you.   If you produce a smile that says I’m here because I have to be simply won’t work.

When it comes to be a face in your community it isn’t that you need to work hard at to achieve.   Of course people are more likely to think of your company when they need it if they see your name or face regularly.   But what is important is that they not only associate your name but also your face with positive things and as long as you are not a pompous idiot then this won’t be difficult to achieve.

When wanting to get involved at a local level this means doing things like raising awareness about matters of public safety and health.   However if you are constantly writing about the state of children in your area then you are verging on being a pompous idiot.   In fact it will pay off more if you are willing to take on the role of helpful and interested citizen.   Without actually thinking why most people will tend to gravitate towards a business that they can make positive associations with.  Also getting involved at a local level needn’t cost you anything all.  However if you are willing to contribute towards some local charity this won’t do you any harm either.

How you go about getting these contacts is up to you.   But a lot of companies will build up such a list through providing a comment slip with every product they sell.   Then of course all that needs to be done is for the customer to fill it in and send it back and they then have their details.  If you operate a mail order service you are in luck as you have the addresses of customers who have used you before.   As a result of this it makes sending out information on further services and products you are offering that they may be interested in much easier.  Plus you can use this information to inform them of special offers all by sending out a flyer or writing a letter personally to them which speaks directly to them not as your customer but another person.   By doing this you will help to retain an element of trust and by speaking frankly you may well persuade a great many people to do business with you.

When it comes to advertising there are no character limits so there is no need to spell words wrong in order to try and convince people that your product is something that they may like to buy.  In fact you don’t need to pretend that you are the customer because by dumbing down you end up insulting your potential customer’s intelligence which is far worse.   Clarity is far more important to you than being able to identify with your customers.  So in the nicest possible way it is important to remember you are not their friend.   They have enough already.

If you speak clearly and literately then you are placing your company in a position that customers will respect and makes them more willing to buy from you.   There is no benefit to be had from pretending you are someone you aren’t.   What is important to remember at the end of the day is you are asking them to hand over and as a friend would you ask them to do that.   Surely as a friend you will give it to them for free.

If you were to tell someone that something is too good to be true they will tend to believe it and so it must be a lie.   In fact you can go along way if you are honest with your customers.  However what this doesn’t’ mean is that you tell them to go somewhere else as you know of shop that sells what you have to offer for less.   What we mean is that you should be concentrating on the facts whilst avoiding trying to make your product look like it can solve all their problems.   What consumers want to hear is how something will make their life easier, more convenient or enjoyable.    Okay it may be that you are making your product to be better that it is and when this is the case people are often more impressed.   Certainly gaining a reputation for speaking frankly is very worthwhile indeed as people are fed up with all the lies and are more willing to value the word of someone who is prepared to be less hyperbolic and uses more constructive marketing instead.   But you shouldn’t undersell yourself and also be prepared to tone down what you say.   As you will discover people will be happy to spend more time with you if they trust you.

Yes you have confidence in your company, but then of course you should.   But how do convince someone else who is considering giving you money to go ahead and do just that, rather than going to someone else.   Remember people are free to do as they want and will often choose between different companies based on their merits.   As a result some companies decide to run advertisements that are considered hostile which actively attack their competitors in some way.   Often they choose to do it very subtly but also without any grace.   So if you think that the idea of telling people to choose your company because you are better than the others is going to work then think again.   If you decide to market your company by comparing it to another rather than showing what the benefits of using you are can prove to be a very risky strategy indeed.   Apart from anything else there is a risk of being drawn into a tit-for-tat war with other companies who are able to find things that they can use to attack your company with.   It is a totally needless situation to find yourself in and instead makes you look amateurish and immature.  Whereas if you choose to focus on your good points then it proves far more effective when attempting to sell yourself to others.

Yet viral marketing is also possible without the need for the internet.  However you will find it a lot more difficult to achieve what you want without having the instant connection to the web that it gives it users.   In fact it does require the use of some trickery on your part in order to make it work and if you are willing to put in the time it can prove just as effective as the type we see on the internet now.

First off you need to arouse the viewer’s curiosity in order to get people thinking what it is about.   This can be done through use of placement of a letter in a local newspaper that makes some claim that is totally outlandish to ensure that people will respond and help to build it then into a news story locally.   But the idea is that you build up hype around your product without actually revealing what it is.   People enjoy games where they have to guess at something and like it more when they can say to others that they were right.   Of course when you do finally reveal what all the fuss has been about you need to make sure that it is something pretty special for your customers to see.  This is a great way of grabbing the attention of a large group of people and something a great many advertisers will pay huge sums of money to get.

Predicting the future with any kind of accuracy is difficult and should you place an advertisement on National TV or with a certain radio station you cannot be sure that will not happen between placement of the advertisement and it is meant to run that causes people to turn over to watch the other.   So resulting in you losing that all important marketing punch.   Although this may not happen there is nothing to say that it won’t and you can clearly see how dangerous it is to put all your eggs in one basket.   For those who want to attract more customers then history clearly shows that they need to grab their attention from the ground up.   The more attention you get then the easier it increases your pull.   If you do this gradually instead of trying to get their attention all at once is the best way to go.   Only start using TV advertising when you can afford to do so, never use it as a gamble as the odds it gives aren’t worth taking.