Marketing Ideas for New Business

[Umar]

Hi

I am new to this forum. I have just started an online "Management Reporting" Service business.

I have few plans to Market my service, but it would be great if you can provide your marketing ideas on how to reach small and medium size businesses in Australia (particularly in Melbourne).

[mike@engagemarketing]

Hi Umar,
I think you'll find that the most effective marketing to SME's is via networking.

You'll be amazed at how much more success you'll have gaining interest in your services through talking to a potential client over the internet or at a conference.

You will have a much higher conversion rate through people that hear about your business through talking to you or a colleague, rather than the small number of people who go out explicitly looking for management reporting.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Michael

[ideasintoaction]

Hi there, there are some steps and tools that are the basic building blocks to marketing a small business.... a defined target market, a good website that is well optimised and has a newsletter sign in offer so you can build a client/potential client databse to communicate with, a crisp brand and customer value proposition that is congruent across all of your marketing material, networking, tracking in place to understand where your leads come from and what your conversion rates are, strategic alliances with other small businesses that target the same audience (non competitive of course!)...... lots of things!

There are some more ideas on my website and happy to share!
Cheers,
Angela
www.ideasintoaction.com.au

[skribe]

Apologies in advance if this appears to be blogspam.

A few weeks ago I wrote a basic primer a about using social media as part of your marketing mix. The article was aimed at restaurants but it could easily be used for any local business or adapted for a broader audience.

Hope that helps,

skribe

[@HeatherSmithAU]

mmmm I don't have a blu ray player.

[Benedict]

I don't have either a HD TV or a Blue Ray so I wonder if that pitch isn't going to miss it's mark.

Marketing has to start with the offering so be sure that your core offering is in line with your target customers or it will be miss after miss and you won't understand why.

If you are good at Accounting that doesn't mean you are instantly good at sales or marketing (often different character types). What you need to do is look at training yourself and then either handling tasks yourself or with your improved knowledge wisely outsource. A good outsource should add more value than it takes.

<shameless self promotion>
There are articles on my site that are aimed at people in your exact situation and I think start here http://www.brmwebconsulting.com/arti..._marketing.htm
</shameless self promotion>

[Renee Barber]

*off topic*

No blueray players? What is this, a third world country? Sorry, I couldn't resist!

I only recently joined the blueray revolution, but can honestly say that once you experience the difference in picture and sound quality, you'll wonder how you ever watched a 'normal' DVD.

*end free advertising spiel*

[Umar]

Thanks for posting few ideas for my business.

I had the tagline in my signature to simply say that all your bookkeeping efforts will go waste unless you start using key business reports to manage your finances.

Hope this makes things bit easier to understand.

[MissieK]

I already know I'm a traitor to my generation - I have a "normal" TV & my parents have a HD one - I can't tell the difference in picture quality!!! So I don't get that pitch - I simply can't tell the difference...

Maybe adding a blog or similar to your site that you can use to post case studies etc to better explain the difference and how your services can help businesses grow...?

Melissa

[staceybarr]

Umar, I reckon you'll benefit from building a list of your potential customers. That's so you can keep in touch with them easily and regularly. Like with a monthly newsletter (email) with a simple bookkeeping or reporting tip. It can help develop the relationship over time, beyond just the first interaction you have with your leads, like at a networking event.

I'd suggest testing a few different ways of building your list (ie attracting leads) - including networking, speaking, publishing articles, maybe even ads or Google adwords. If you track which method each lead finds you, and which leads are more likely to hire you, you can find out the best marketing method for your type of business.

It's about getting as many ideal customers as possible for the time and money you spend marketing. You know about reporting, Umar, so I imagine the idea of tracking and testing won't be too new to you!