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Quick Ways to Generate Business

January 8th, 2008 · 17 Comments

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Most of your marketing activities should be in the context of ongoing campaigns. You should think of marketing as something you do every day, every week, every month, for as long as you are in business. Advertising, direct mail and other marketing methods may be part of your long-term strategy.

However, there are some things you can do to bring quick results. The next time you need to generate some revenue in a hurry, try some of these fast and easy ways to get more business from new and existing clients.

Send an email. Create an email list of customers and prospects. Only add people to your list with permission, not just because you have an email address. A great service for managing your email list is at http://www.MailYourCustomers.com/. You may wish to send an email newsletter on a regular schedule, such as monthly, or just when you have news. The email will remind them about you, and you can give them a reason to visit your web site or your location by making a special offer or other call to action. I always see more visitors to my web site after I send one of my newsletters.

Get out of the office. There are networking events every day. Head to the local Chamber of Commerce luncheon, or the after work mix-and-mingle, or the meeting of your professional association. These meetings will help you to come in contact with new customers and connect with other professionals who can make referrals to you. Even if you do not get immediate business, you may learn something useful from a speaker, or just get energized and motivated.

Call some customers. Tell them about a new product, or offer a special price when they place an order today. Sometimes just calling to thank them for their business can result in a sale when they remember that they need something from you. Consultant Marcia Yudkin says that calling a former client to ask if she could use them as a reference resulted in getting additional work from them on the spot.

Follow up on leads. If you have leads from a trade show, networking, your web site or other sources, call them to follow up. Answer their questions, offer a deal or schedule an appointment to meet with them. They have already expressed an interest, so take the next step toward closing the deal.

Distribute a press release. Find something newsworthy about your business and alert the media. Email a release to your personal media list, or use an service such as http://www.DirectContactPR.com/ or http://IdeaLady.PRWebDirect.com/ to get your release in the hands of media, bloggers and the news wires. A good release can send visitors to your web site, bring customers in the door and get your phone ringing.

The next time you need customers and you need them now, try one or more of these techniques. Then get in the habit of doing them regularly to keep new business flowing to you.

Get a custom media list created especially for you with detailed contact information for the journalists, editors, reporters and producers you want to reach.

Tags: Marketing

17 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Judy Tovey // Jan 9, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    Hi Cathy

    The timing of your newsletter on *Marketing Discipline* was perfect. I am just finishing up my goals for 2008 and after reading this newsletter realized that I needed to be much more specific about my Marketing goals. I have posted these ideas near my computer and have put a “Marketing” appointment on my calendar everyday. I think I will even be more specific - i.e. Mondays contacting former customers, Tuesdays work on website, etc. This way I won’t have to take the time to figure out what I am going to do.

    Thanks so much for your newsletter -I enjoy it so much it has a wealth of fresh ideas.

    Judy

  • 2 Meagan Farrell // Jan 9, 2008 at 3:52 pm

    Hi Cathy,

    Your ideas have been most helpful. I am a professional organizer and your tips have really helped me to build my business. Thanks!

    Meagan Farrell
    Clear the Clutter

  • 3 Bockereyer // Jan 9, 2008 at 3:55 pm

    Hi,

    Most of the messages sent to me end-up pretty quick in “deleted items” but yours, I read them right away and I save them for later reference. Okay not all of them, I admit.

    Information, clear and to the point that’s what I’m looking for and that’s what I get from you.

    Keep up the good work.

  • 4 Simone // Jan 9, 2008 at 5:30 pm

    Hi Cahty

    Thanks for being today’s Angel for me - my question this morning was what steps to take today to focus on marketing my new business. I have been looking at email newsletter services and have been trialling mailchimp. I will check out your suggestion of mailyour Customers to see if it is a better choice for me.
    Keep the suggestions flowing
    Thanks
    Simone
    I enjoy

  • 5 Cyndi Papia // Jan 9, 2008 at 6:32 pm

    You state exactly what I tell my customers. They believe if they have a website the customers will come. I tell them, That’s just one small piece of your overall marketing strategy. Old-fashioned telephone calls, direct mail and networking are still tried-and-true ways of staying in touch with former customers, who may bring you new customers, and accumulating new customers. I pride myself on advertising that I deliver old-fashioned “customer service” using today’s technology. The emphasis being “customer service,” especially in this day of what is “seeing” people on the web. I still remember my customers are real people. I never leave home without my business cards and give them out every chance I get. A business is like a garden, it has to be tended to every day to grow.

  • 6 Irene Brady // Jan 9, 2008 at 6:39 pm

    Hi Cathy,

    I’ve been receiving your newsletter for quite some time and wanted to let you know that I started and have been writing a Nature Sketching and Journaling Workshop blog site in large part due to your newsletter urgings.

    Its purpose is to introduce myself to possible workshop attendees, to talk about the workshops, and to offer a newsletter to keep people informed about upcoming workshops. It is really working.

    People are willing to take my workshops because they feel they’ve gotten to know me from my blog. I just returned from Hawaii, and I’ve been blogging my journal entries for the last week, with great responses. My upcoming Costa Rica workshop is also filling with help from the blog.

    Thanks for your good advice. I’d recommend your newsletter to any businessperson. Your ideas are spot on.

    Irene Brady

  • 7 susan wells // Jan 9, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    Hi Cathy,
    I’m a small business owner who sees the incredible potential of teaching do-it-yourself decorating on the web.

    I’m overwhelmed and yet encouraged. Your coaching is proving invaluable already.

    Thanks

    Susan

  • 8 LeAnn R. Ralph // Jan 10, 2008 at 9:24 am

    I have been publishing an e-mail newsletter for the past six years, and I have concluded that e-mail newsletters generate sales for some products and services much better than for others. For most of that time, I have published Rural Route 2 News once a month, although for the past two years, I have published it twice a month.

    I write books of true stories about growing up on a Wisconsin dairy farm 40 years ago before most of the small family dairy farms disappeared from the landscape. I cannot say that the newsletter has generated much in the way of book sales, although it does allow me to keep in contact with my potential target audience. Each issue contains “news” about Rural Route 2, a book excerpt , several recipes, readers’s recollections, and of course, links for purchasing my books.

    Every once in a while, I receive an e-mail from someone saying how much he or she enjoys my website or the newsletters because they are so “different” from anything else they have found on the Internet. I think that means they are enjoying not being hit with hard sell every step of the way.

    I’m not much of a hard sell person myself, and the advice that I have read many times for authors is to do what comes naturally to you and not to try to make yourself into something you are not because it won’t ring true. People who have read my books say they “can’t put them down” and that they feel like they are “right there” in the story.

    Building an audience base takes time, and while an e-mail newsletter might not result in instant sales, it can be a positive part of the marketing process for any product or service.

    LeAnn R. Ralph

  • 9 Cathy Stucker // Jan 10, 2008 at 10:28 am

    Thanks, everyone, for the great comments.

    Each of the techniques in this article can mean immediate sales and should also be a part of your long-term strategy. For example, an email newsletter can create instant results with the right call to action, but is also part of the relationship building you should do with customers.

    Terrific thoughts!

    Cathy

  • 10 Judy H. Wright // Jan 10, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    Hi Cathy,

    As a parent educator, writer, and speaker your information has been most helpful.

    I am at a stage where I am trying to increase my internet exposure. I am still learning the best methods of internet marketing, so your suggestions came at a great time.

    Thank you!

    Judy H. Wright
    Parent Educator

  • 11 Will Donnelly // Jan 11, 2008 at 6:59 am

    HI Kathy,
    much applause on your new blog! very clean and easy to find what youre looking for, and as usual, top quality information.
    Ive done a Work Blueprint for 2008 and one of the top things I put on it was to get out more and do more direct marketing for my business and not to rely completely on the internet.
    It was as if you underlined this point on my list with this posting.
    Thanks for the support!
    Will Donnelly
    Life Betterment Projects Manager

  • 12 Sherrie St. Cyr // Jan 11, 2008 at 7:01 am

    Cathy,

    I am so glad to hear you mention offline as well as online strategies. With so much technology and so little time, I think small business owners sometimes forget the value of face-to-face or offline connections. And daily followup helps with the fourths, and frequently unmentioned key to marketing. Not only do your prospects have to know, like, and trust you - they also have to remember you!

  • 13 Clerical Business Solutions // Jan 11, 2008 at 10:16 am

    Great Tips,

    I have been getting your newsletters for awhile now & you give great advice. I will being using these tips to help improve on my business.

  • 14 4entrepreneur - Blog Carnival I | 4 entrepreneur // Jan 12, 2008 at 6:32 am

    […] Stucker presents Quick Ways to Generate Business posted at Cathy Stucker, saying, “Your marketing should include a combination of short-term […]

  • 15 Kelly DuByne -Distinctive Interior Designs // Jan 15, 2008 at 9:06 am

    Hi Cathy~ Great ideas! They are fresh and innovative. I have an interior design firm, and I also found the PR websites to be helpful!

    Thanks!
    K. DuByne

  • 16 fizetés + állás // Jan 28, 2008 at 6:12 pm

    thank you for the good ideas :-))

  • 17 Doodee // Feb 3, 2008 at 11:52 am

    Thanks for sharing

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