What are your marketing challenges?

Marketing and PR are great vehicles for small businesses, particularly in a difficult economy where a consistent marketing presence is more important than ever. The challenge, however, is having enough time, money and manpower to market to your target audience consistently and effectively.

I want to help you hit that challenge head on; I am working with Kirk Davis at Green River Community College to put together some very specific marketing "how to" workshops that can help you to grow or sustain your business, even during troubled times.

To provide content that is most useful to businesses like yours, I'd love to get your input.

1) What marketing challenges do you face as a small business owner? (e.g., limited time or money, lack of knowledge, lack of manpower, etc.)

2) What marketing tools (e.g., e-mail marketing, press releases, event promotion, etc.) would you like to learn more about?

3) Do you use social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and Biznik? Would you like to learn how to use these tools to increase your social capital?

4) What marketing ideas or tools would you implement on your own if you just knew how?

5) Do you have a marketing plan? Do you update and adapt that plan as needed?

Please e-mail your replies to me at dana@virtuallyyourz.com or call me at 360-920-1737. I value your input and will keep your replies confidential.

Thank you and may you and your business be prosperous in 2009!

Virtually Yourz,
Dana Neuts

The Value of the Referral

Referrals from colleagues, clients and friends are extremely valuable to my business. In fact, referrals are one of my top two sources of new business. Approximately 90% of the referrals that contact me, hire me.

To keep those priceless referrals coming, I do the following:

1) I ask each prospect how they found out about me (web, referral, business directory, etc.), so I know where to concentrate my marketing efforts.

2) I personally thank each person who gives me a referral. Sometimes it is a handwritten thank you note or a personal phone call, and other times I give the referrer a gift or gift card, or treat them to lunch, to thank them for thinking of me.

3) To encourage referrals from my existing clients, I include a referral offer in my business agreement. In exchange for every referral who hires me, I'll give two free hours of my services to that client. This provides them with a tangible, quantifiable reason to refer me to others.

4) I refer my favorite professionals (graphic designers, editors, printers, etc.) to colleagues, so they know I'm looking out for their businesses too. Because I often partner with referral sources on projects, these referrals benefit me as well. I refer professionals who are good at what they do and whom I enjoy working with.

What can you do to grow your referrals today?

Virtually Yourz,
Dana Blozis