[LeelaCosgrove]

I think the first step is to really nail the target market. Micro businesses are a waste of your time - they won't spend the money. Small businesses are probably much the same ... so, at what point do businesses HAVE to have this stuff in place? Once they get an employee?

Let's face it ... while it's optional, most businesses are going to avoid tying up their cashflow no matter HOW important it really is ...

So, get hard core on the target market you want ...

"Retail businesses with 1-5 employees, turning over $X a year".

Cool - now you know WHO you're talking to. See, that's the problem most people have when they try all of the things you've mentioned below - they just haven't NAILED their target market ...

So now, the next step is to be honest about what you know is the case ...

"Most of our clients hate working with us ... until something goes wrong"

We know you think we're an expense. We know you would rather not spend money on us. That's why we aim to simplify your OH&S to a point where you don't need to worry about it ... we'll do what you HATE doing and what you shouldn't be wasting your time doing.

Once you've got these two things together (that is, the target market and the value proposition ... value prop is especially good if you can add in some numbers about how much money and time you're going to save them), NOW you can think about direct mail, online sales funnel strategies, "cold" calling (although I strongly recommend that you don't do this on it's own ... use direct mail and online strategies to warm your leads up and THEN call them ... ).

But ONLY once you've got all that other stuff in place. Marketing doesn't work in a vacuum ... there is a strategic process you need to go through to make all the tactical bits and pieces work properly ...

THIS is the problem with all the "free" information out there ... it's been taken out of context and thrown into the public arena, where it's been regurgitated again and again until it all gets confused and becomes unrecognisable ...

Context is everything! Followed closely by strategy ...