John Wakeling By

John Wakeling

Marketing Strategist, Marketing Heads Australia

These low budget marketing concepts support your image, positioning, reputation, value proposition and brand, and they don’t cost a lot. Importantly, they can be transferred to other non-services markets.

SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING TO BUILD REVENUE

So many factors can influence your opportunity to generate more leads and build revenue. At the heart of these lies your ability to effectively communicate your image, positioning, reputation, and value proposition. You do this through your brand. Your brand is your promise to your customers. 

A strong brand delivers on it’s promise, establishing a strong reputation in the marketplace. It highlights your business’ attributes, values, purpose, strengths, and passions. It sets up expectations.

Great brands are easy to recognise and they foster customer loyalty.

Little wonder that your brand is one of the most valuable fixed assets of your business, and is a key tool for creating and maintaining your competitive advantage.

An increase in brand value, in fact, can have a dramatic increase on a business’ profitability. Therefore, your brand and all it stands for must be carefully created to ensure it represents the business effectively, and resonates with your intended customer base.

Branding is not, as it is sometimes considered, merely an advertising function, or about the management of product image. Brand strategies are an important part of your total marketing mix.

A strong brand delivers on it’s promise, establishing a strong reputation in the marketplace.

Inexpensive marketing ideas

These low cost marketing initiatives may help to grow your revenue:

Explain the value of your work, how long it takes and how you’re improving your systems and processes to do it more efficiently. Provide a quote.

  • Is it your personality, culture and presentation?
  • Do you show interest in the customers’ business and their interests?
  • Are you known for your attention to detail and value for money?
  • Are you known for your particular product and service mix?
  • Do you share relevant information with your clients?
  • Are you known for your reputation, skill and experience?
  • Do you truly understand your customers, what is it that delights them?
  • What is it that they value?
  • What perceptions do they have about your business?

  • Visit clients on their premises or take them to an event.
  • Identify your top 20 clients and your top 20 potential clients.
  • Connect with the top 20 clients every month to see how they’re going.
  • Keep records of your conversations so next time you call you can start the conversation where you left off last time.

Consider lawyers, accountants, bankers, insurance brokers, business brokers, financial planners and marketers. Let them know what you’re doing and over time they’ll refer clients to you.

Run educational seminars, post relevant blogs and develop personal letters and newsletters, for example. Begin with one that deals with the basics and move through topics of interest to engage others.

One of the more popular market strategies is to establish a profile as an expert on your topics by contributing comments to newspapers, magazines and, above all, be yourself. 

Write case studies on your successes and distribute them, with customer approval, to prospective and existing clients.

  • Create a database of clients you would like to attract and communicate with them by newsletter or email.
  • Ensure the content is of interest to them and be persistent in keeping in contact with them
  • Populate your website, develop a brochure or sponsor a local sports club. Don’t expect instant success, it takes time to develop relationships.

Introduce new services and promote them. There are services that other companies don't provide that clients could find useful. Find out what they need and develop your product and service to meet that need.

Ask clients whether they’re aware of anyone that could benefit from your services. Learn about other people’s businesses, become members of business groups, sport and community groups.

Learn how to promote your business with the many available sources of information on marketing – books, self-help courses, websites, seminars, videos, webinars and newsletters.

John Wakeling

John Wakeling

Marketing Strategist, Marketing Heads Australia

John is a multi award winning market researcher, marketer and strategic consultant, delivering game changing strategy for 20 years across many markets and industries. He is the winner of the prestigious Western Sydney Awards for Business Excellence (WSABE) Excellence in Marketing 2017.