£1000 to market my business and get the best return

[Mezzanine-Floors]

Hi All,

I think this is the right place to ask. If I had only £1000 to market my business in the next month what would you advise the best way to invest the £1000 and what would provide me with the best returns.

Looking forward to your valuable input.

Thanks

 

[andrewghayes]

Difficult question as I suspect the answer would be different for every business?

Have you done much research on who your ideal customer is? If you know who they are, then it might be easier to know where to find them.

 

[Mike Lewis]

If I had only £1000 to market my business in the next month what would you advise the best way to invest the £1000 and what would provide me with the best returns.

Good question, but one that's impossible to answer without a lot more information about the type of business, its goals, and -- most important -- what marketing and advertising you already have in place.

To illustrate that last point ... If your business didn't have a website, than spending the £1,000 on creating one might be a good move. But spending an additonal thousand on enhancing an existing site would probably be far less cost effective.

Mike

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

I have to agree with the others. You need to work out who exactly your customers are and what you have to do to get in front of them. What does a typical customer spend each visit and what is the profit per visit. When you know this you can work out what you can afford to spend on acquiring each customer.

There are loads of ways to market your business that cost very little money. One of the biggest being joint ventures. I would have thought that what you provide would be perfect for partnering with others who offer complimentary products etc

 

[Daniel Arnold]

Agreed, there are many different options - all with different benefits. I would spread out the spend - rather than having all eggs in one basket - that way you will have a better idea about what works and what doesn't for the future. Some ideas though: one client of mine thought the best return he got was from having an add in a local/weekly newspaper - usually cheap and they tend to be kept longer than daily newspapers. I would also sign up to every free directory on the Internet/ write in blogs/ join networking groups/ spend some money on getting a list of clients in your target market and phone or mail each to introduce your services.

 

[johnthesearcher]

Hi, I had a quick look at your excellent and very informative website and would agree with the comments made in the posts above.

Though...... 'if you don't know where you're going or what you want to achieve.....then all roads lead there'

There are a lot of marketing tips that are relatively free and which would save the bulk of your marketing spend that could be used later for a longer term strategy. (so spreading the annual marketing cost)

I may have missed the part on your website but it appeared that you did not display one of the cheapest methods of endorsement for your company and it's products.......... which is Testimonials (from happy past clients)

# If your business is a market sector leader ...... say so ! and get customers to agree.

# If you offer products at higher quality and lower price ....... tell them ! and get customers to agree.

# If your service is driven by customer satisfaction ....... prove it ! and use testimonials to confirm.

It's worth remembering that - 'Features tell and Benefits sell'

A testimonial - a simple one or two line statement from current or past customers gives your company third party credibility by stating that:

'the XYZ company used Mezzanine Floors to solve a storage problem in our new office space. Their professional advice helped us to almost double our floor space which saved us a significant sum on secure storage. Excellent service from an excellent company.

Thank you John Smith Managing Director of the XYZ Company.
--------------------------------------------------------------
By gaining credibility, people gain more confidence that your company is reliable and an effective solution provider.

A positive testimonial (s) gives your company validation for your (UPS) unique positioning statement, which helps you stand out from the crowd.

So how do you go about obtaining them? Well, there are many different approaches. All equally effective.

You could go through your database and send a 'thank you for your business' card. Then state your purpose for writing to them is just to check they are still happy with their purchase and that if there is anything else they need please do't hesitate to get in touch.

Then simply ask for a testimonial from them.

You could also add that your company is always looking at ways to make your product/service more cost effecient and that you have just expanded your range of flooring or shelving to solve .......this type of storage or space management problem.

Add a p.s. asking them if they could suggest a couple of business colleagues who may benefit from using your service/product etc.

Add 's point about joint ventures......is there a specialist company you could jv with that would extend your service to customers/clients?

Hope this helps .......... with apologies for the long winded reply

John

 

[Mezzanine-Floors]

Thanks for all the great replies. Ill take these on board