How Can You Market for Free?

Although I’ve been covering a plethora of ways to market for free, there are several that you might overlook if I don’t point them out to you. Some of these are obvious, but others are easy to miss. As an entrepreneur, I don’t want you missing out on anything, so here goes some ways you can market for free:

1.  Make it easy for your customers to pay: Offer monthly payments on high ticket items, or any similar partial payment plan (no down payment, no payments until 2008). Accept credit cards, automate your billing by getting a merchant account you can link up to your website  (for more information go to www.ogandocart.com and sign up for the 30 day free trial).

2.  Feature your competitive advantage. There are many Subway delis where I live. They all offer the same quality, selection and prices, but I only go to one — because they know my name and they NEVER let me walk out of there without my favorite (chocolate chip cookies). In fact, one time they ran out, and because I was there, they baked a fresh batch. You should center your marketing on your competitive advantage. If you don’t have one, create one, then live up to it. All things being equal, the business with the most competitive advantages wins out every time.

3. Get the best possible response through email. Email gets better response rates than snail mail, costs less and allows you to test faster. This can be a topic in and of itself, which I’ll talk about later. But suffice it to say that when you use your subject line effectively, creating a killer opening line and keeping the email itself short, you are well on your way to emailing your business to the bank.

4. Make guarantees. Remove the risk in the eyes of your prospect. How big, specific and outrageous a guarantee can you think of? What would keep your competitors up all night worrying about you? That’s the kind of guarantee you want to create.

5. Offer gift certificates. Especially if you’ve never offered them before, or it is unusual for your industry, and especially around holidays such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and they work all year long.

6.  Use the free classified ads on the internet. The last time I Googled “free classified ads”, I got 86 pages of 10 sites each. So if you truly want to market for free, take advantage of these. Follow their guidelines and post often. Unlike paid advertising, people who get free classified ads are LOOKING for you, instead of you imposing your presence on them.

7.  Spy on your competitor — and yourself. Call a competitor up, request some information. See how you’re treated on the phone, how your information request is processed and how long it takes, if there is any follow up and how good it is. Then call your own company and request the same. If your competitors are doing anything better than you, make the changes so that you are doing everything better than they are.

8. Enhance your business card. Don’t just include contact information, offer them something that would entice them to keep in touch with you: a free report, a free estimate, a powerful offer. Enclose it in all your mailings, always carry some cards with you. When handing it to someone, be sure to ask for his or hers.

9. Make appearances in talk shows. If you’re not ready for Oprah yet (or Oprah is not ready for you!), then get on your local TV or radio station, have a great sound bite and prepare five main points to cover in every interview. Practice in front of a mirror or with a friend. Interviews are like alligators: You don’t have to love them or even like them, but you do have to feed them.

10.  Always follow up. Marketing is NOT over once you’ve made the sale. It’s just beginning. It costs up to six times more to sell something to a new customer than to an existing customer. Send a thank you note within 48 hours, then another 30 days later to see that everything is going allright. Then another 60 days later to let them know of any new products or offers. Always always always follow up!

11. Biggie size it. Offer opportunities to upgrade.  Perhaps they’ll buy a companion product, or the deluxe model of the economy version of your product. The cost to market your upgrade offer is nil. All profits go right to your bottom line.

Do you have ideas about how to market for free? Send them to me and I’ll feature them in my next blog. Send me an email at myspaceblog@ogandoassociates.com. I’ll make sure you give you a shout-out!

Til next time,

Coach Mo