Marketing Tools Part 9 of How to Write a Marketing Plan

There are a lot of tools designed for marketing, and it's vital that you match the advertising tools you use to your target clients. For more info , it wouldn't make sense to dress a college student up in a costume and have them dance on the corner of the street to market your business, unless your dancing college student was at a conference of your target audience.

AdWords and Pay Per Click (PPC)

Google, and other search engines such as Yahoo, offer online advertising. When a user sits at their computer and types in a phrase, Google gives them the results. For the people that have paid for advertising, if the search phrase is triggered, an ad shows up. If the person clicks on that paid ad, the advertiser is charged.

There's a lot to learn with AdWords to make them work for you. You have to research the search term phrases that are highly relevant to your company. Some search term phrases are expensive of money and also have high competition. You might need to pay a lot per click to obtain high on the list of "sponsored links." Secondly, it is advisable to monitor the results. Some people have made careers out of AdWords consulting.

Pros: The amount of money cost, technical skill required, and time and energy to implement are average.

Cons: To get proficient at this technique, it is advisable to read a whole lot and practice.

Articles

Articles are written pieces of information, like essays. It is possible to write articles and publish them on your website, other appropriate websites, magazines, and on websites that specialize in expert articles.

Writing articles offers you the opportunity to present yourself as an expert in whatever you write. Articles give you some credibility. Also, in the event that you post articles on your website, you increase your content and raise the likelihood that people will find your website.

Pros: Articles compiled by you in areas you're an expert in do not require much research, plus they don't cost much, if anything. It generally does not take a lot of technical skill to write, and your Internet skills need only be average.

Additional hints : You must write. Some people do not like to write.

Blogging

A blog is really a "web log." The idea is that you post articles or mini-messages regularly, and people subscribe to your online log. They then read what you have posted.

Pros: Blogs are cheap and do not require a ton of research.

Cons: Blogs could be time consuming, and you need to know a little bit more about computers than you do for writing articles.

Brochures

Give away brochures at conferences and meetings to individuals who might be thinking about your services. Brochures list your services and testimonials and encourage visitors to call you or head to your website.

Pros: Brochures are nice to be able to hand out to clients. They tend to lend credibility to your company.

Cons: Brochures can be expensive.

Business cards

Business cards are a must. Business cards are cheaper, and simpler to handle, than brochures. You can provide them with out to more people.

Pros: Business cards are cheap and don't require a great deal of research to make.

Cons: All companies need business cards.

Dancing scholar in a costume

About the only way I could see this tool being useful is in the event that you specialize in a niche, like writer support, and then you go to a conference of writers and have your college student dress up like a pen. I pretty much just put this tool in here for the humor, and because there's lots of liberty statues dancing on the street corners these days.

Pros: Minimal research and time on your own part is required.

Cons: This may get expensive.

Direct mail

Direct mail is what most people refer to as spam. That is only useful when you can get a list that is relevant to your organization. Direct mail is expensive, and when you do the envelope stuffing or labeling yourself, it might be time consuming too.

Pros: Little research is necessary. Minimal computers skills are essential.

Cons: This is expensive and some people are offended by spam.

Email

Email campaigns come with a host of problems unless you only market to people who have voluntarily subscribed to your list. Sending email out to people who have not subscribed to your list is an excellent way to get yourself banned from ISPs and make it so normal correspondence won't proceed through.

Pros: That is cheap.

Cons: This annoys people. This requires a large amount of computer savvy. You should do tons of research to make certain you don't violate any laws.

Google Maps

If a person searches on a term and puts a location next to it, Google responds with a list of businesses that are near to the location. This is an easy task to set up and might generate a few calls for you each month.

Pros: This is free.

Cons: This takes just a little bit of time and energy to set up, and you need to do a little keyword research and also have a small amount of computer knowledge.

Newsletter

Newsletters should be sent out regularly to people who have subscribed to your email list. Your newsletter can contain articles that can help your readers, new products or services you'll offer, stories of interest, pointers to new technologies you've discovered, and many other things.

Pros: That is cheap.

Cons: You must write. If you don't like to write, this may not be the best tool for you personally.

Press Releases

A press release is really a written announcement that is directed at members of the press. Pay attention to your audience if you use press releases. You can find press release services that distribute the releases to different companies.

Referrals

Just ask your current clients to refer you when appropriate. You can look at a referral fee.

Schwag

Give aways is often as inexpensive as pens and will get really expensive, like leather bags.

Social media

Social media is actually web sites that normal people may use and quickly publish blurbs, videos, and pictures, for other folks to easily access. Social media marketing is used for many stuff, including planning parties, keeping the grandparents up to date with pictures of grandbabies, and connecting with old friends.

A number of the top social media websites are:

YouTube.com for posting videos

Flickr.com for sharing pictures

Facebook.com for reconnecting with old friends, sharing pictures, planning parties, doing offers

LinkedIn.com for keeping up with your business connections

Twitter.com allowing you to connect with friends and people with little, tiny messages and links

Voice mail

Change your voice mail to add a short version of one's elevator speech or perhaps a quick set of your services.

Web site

Your website can be as simple as an online brochure or it can host products that you sell, useful articles for the clients, books, classes, and calculators.

Website optimization

The gist of website optimization can be learned in a weekend, however the techniques change constantly.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the procedure for making sure an internet site follows all the rules established by the principal search engines, such as for example Google, in order that the website is indexed together with possible. The duty of search engine optimisation is good for the website, the search engines, and folks surfing the web.

Hopefully that is done when your site is made and is maintained as your web site changes.

Gwen Nicodemus is really a freelance engineer/writer and homeschooling mom. Visit her website, Notion Nexus