Rich

Do you belong to the local Business Networking organizations? .... and leverage them effectively? Chamber of Commerce to BNI??? Every local has a number of them and it is a great way to market your company. Effective Business Networks are like having a sales force looking for leads for you --- as you are looking for leads for your Network members. Plus your business name and YOU can rapidly build awareness in the business community.

Additionally community organization has web needs and they may be an excellent opportunity to volunteer your services/skills thus reaching a broader target market and increasing awareness of your business. AND as you know top of mind awareness is king of the marketing world. Whether it is a religious organization, Chamber of Commerce, sports team, club, school - they all have members who are business owners or managers.

Hope that helps.
Alice, SCORE Pittsburgh edit

Alice has some great points...especially joining your local business groups. I would suggest you look for ones that are small and just starting out since you will find they usually don't have a business that does what you do already in it, and most of them are startup businesses that are in need of what you offer.

Joe Villeneuve
joe@3venterprises.ws
http://socialmarketingeducation.blogspot.com/p/introduction.html edit

Hi Rich,

Great to see a fellow development firm reaching out. We have read your post and the others and if you wish to participate in network groups we'd suggest BNI (Business Network International), but you may find it hard to place yourself in there since you are restricted to only one person per industry per chapter, but there is also other great ones
such as toast masters and your local chapter as Alice mentioned.

But as we are web base the market is potentially unlimited and therefore, that is what we'd like to talk to you about. We have services/products that may help you and us without competing with each other.

Please contact me so we may see how we may help each other.

Best wishes,

Dre' edit

Hi Rich,

Have you ever heard of SendOutCards? It's a web-based stay in touch system that allows you send printed greeting cards through the mail that are highly personalized with options such as your own handwriting, signature and images. You write the card, click send and we print it and mail it. And best of all, each card cost about a dollar.

SendOutCards is a great retention and acquisition tool for your marketing efforts. Contact me for more info and a free trial.

Best,
John Wolforth edit

Depending on your market there could be specific mailing lists available. Those sources would be The Chamber of Commerce & Direct mailing companies. You could also go through the Yellow pages and make your own list. If you belong to a service club-do a little networking. Also try to be a speaker at local Service clubs to promote & explain your specialty. edit

Rich, I do this a few times a month for my web businesses and it works great! I find a business without a website, tell them I'm going to give them a free webcard, just to get them online and setup- I register the name of their choice, get their logo, throw it up on a 1 page site in a template I call a 'WebCard' I put a little paragraph writeup about them and throw up my logo and a link to my site and some google ads. I present them with it and let them get 1 email forward. off of the domain. I also do printing, so I usually get them to order new cards with their new webpage. All this for me is about 10 Minutes- Once you have a template, it's very easy. About 40% of these sites come back with actual orders for between 4-10,000 price range. Off of just those sites, I make about 300 a month in adsense from google collectively among about 60 webcards, not to mention the backlinks and the advertisement that you're getting- should be well worth the 7 bucks you spend to register their domain. If you want to see an example, I just did one for the guy that put a tile backsplash in my kitchen- check it out- http://www.blairtile.com/ I do a whole lot more as far as marketing goes, would be happy to exchange ideas anytime!

Regards,

Jay Benjamin
Art Director, Movement Media edit

Jay's idea is great, but I've done very similar things with blogs...and they are free. Set them up with their own blog, show them how they can add simple content and links, and have that lead to a website you design down the road.

Joe Villeneuve
joe@3venterprises.ws
http://socialmarketingeducation.blogspot.com/p/introduction.html edit

Rich,
I see you are in NY. We are co hosting an event with Entrepreneur magazine on July 15th aimed directly at helping small business owners use the web more effectively to increase sales. If you are interested, send me a note and I will help you get a discounted admission.

Best of luck!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/events/bizsuccess/ edit

Hello,

When you are ready to Join the Affiliate Program of Robert Kiyosaki to assist in building your Business and getting you good leads to follow up with then please do signup and get started at my link (Here is my link to the FREE CD: http://freerkcd.com/cmd.php?af=1198177 when you get here go to the upper right and there you will see Affiliate Program Signup-click that-and get started, that simple..

It is $30.00 to get started and first month Free..You will receive your Website, CD in the mail, and starter $100 bills drop cards to start utilizing-okay! Then this is $19.97 a month for this Program so that the Company can send out unlimited amounts of CD's on your behalf and provide you with accurate leads and information for you to follow up with people, okay! Any questions let me know..In each CD that people get on your behalf there will be included a card that lets them know an Expert will be following up with them via email and or phone-and that Expert is you..Isn't this great! I love it! And when you follow up with them they will be receptive to listen to you and what you have to offer of your Business Opportunity that you will take the time to share with them about it..

Talk soon and remember to keep this email and my link and please utilize it when you are ready-okay!

Thanks for your time,

Patricia Hartfield
321-984-8600 EST edit

Always revert back to the basics. The best marketing you will ever have for your business is sales. It can be face-to-face sales, phone sales, or a combination of the two. If you cannot sell your business then it makes it very hard to market your business. Marketing your business is really just another form of sales that should be a secondary focus to acquiring business. Most people rely solely on indirect marketing because they dread the thoughts, acts, and processes of sales. At the end of the day you are the face and voice to your company. You are going to be the one to sell your business, not the marketing. I would love to talk with you more about this subject.

Best Thanks
Brian Finn

303-351-2434
focusconsultingdenver@gmail.com edit

Rich, all the other comments are good ones. If you are trying to reach local businesses, also try contacting your Clerk of Court or wherever new businesses get their business license in your area. Sometimes they publish new businesses online, sometimes they publish them in the local newspaper. These would be new businesses who probably need some web services. edit

Rich,

I myself am in the sales industry and realize that one of the hardest part of any sales industry is the prospecting. Check out www.businessdoneeasy.com. This site allows you to promote yourself as the expert in your industry.

I believe that it will help. All the best.

Carlos edit

Don't be afraid to approach other businesses to see how you can cross-sell. My family has a travel agency, and I'm in the middle of working out a fundraising cruise over spring break, where we pit the music department against sports to see which group books the most cabins for an extra $$ prize in their check. I will handle the music department paperwork, and a colleague will field sports requests.

The catch? This "partner" is from another travel company. The headquarters would consider themselves competitors. At our level, we're each making money and splitting the advertising costs. edit

You can get many leads from Social media marketing like Twitter and Facebook, ask me how by private message and plus you can use our current promotion Free Professional Video Commercials for Local business owners

http://www.marketingmaximum.com/free-professional-video-commercials-for-local-business-owners edit

Alice, we can run a free diagnostic to show you gaps in your online promotion approach right now. Google Places and Yahoo Local present some interesting opportunities for geo-targeted search marketing. Also, geo-targeted PPC or organic search campaigns could be of interested. drop me an email if interested (info@brandingvine.com).

In terms of offline strategies, Ive had the best luck with trade associations and roundtable discussion events. Cold calls, even the most effectively targeted (ie specifically targeted at companies with crappy or nonexistent websites) are pretty tough. Also, companies with complementary offerings (like us) could be attractive in terms of developing 2 way referral agreements or channel partner arrangements. If youre good at what you do, companies like mine will always have development work that can be offloaded. edit