Advertising Information

By Avril Harper

If your business involves selling a service, such as consultancy, you might find blatant advertising is counter-productive. After all, no-one wants to hire someone to help make their business more profitable when that other person is so obviously hungry for money!

But you can't just sit back waiting for customers to find you; it simply doesn't work that way. You must get out there and drum up business yourself, based on subtle marketing methods that sometimes go unnoticed. But work wonderfully well, drumming up valuable advertising while costing little or even nothing. These neat ideas will get you started...

NETWORKING

Networking simply means building a client list, comprising potential customers for your business and people who might recommend or refer you to others. Networking involves making and using contacts from various circles, including colleagues and friends, family and neighbours, established clients and customers from an earlier business, and so on. The whole thing is about keeping yourself in the public eye but unobtrusively. Next time one of your network contacts decides they want the particular product or service you provide, they should think automatically of you.

For example, a leading consultant reveals his easiest, cheapest, most profitable method of generating business is to produce alerts about his area of business which is e-mailed regularly to established and potential clients.

Other networking ideas:

* Telephone just to say 'hello' whenever possible, but not too often - once every few weeks is about right.

* Find out when their birthdays are. Send a card or invite them out for a drink.

Get Listed In Directories and Similar Publications * This includes being listed in professional directories as well as trade and business journals and yearbooks. It also means having your details included in telephone and other advertising publications, including ‘Yellow Pages’.

ATTEND MEETINGS

Attend as many meetings as possible where referral sources and actual or potential clients are likely to be. Suitable gatherings might include association meetings, professional seminars, trade meetings, and so on. Always make a point of being seen but not by monopolising the proceedings. If you are an expert on some newsworthy topic, volunteer to be a speaker at some well-attended event or ask leading questions, provide answers, and so on.

MAKE SPEECHES AND PRESENTATIONS

Offer your services as speaker at popular events or to present awards, and so on. Appropriate contacts include trade and professional associations, civic groups, business clubs, large companies, and other high profile organisations.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Having your letter published - and more importantly, your name - increases your visibility and establishes you as an authority on your chosen subject. For example, a close colleague who is a management consultant, writes regular letters to management and business journals, always ending: 'M.D. is a management consultant specialising in Conflict Training and can be contacted on...'

RADIO AND TELEVISION EXPOSURE

Radio and television producers are desperate to fill odd gaps during the day when advertising falls short or other news is patchy. If you can be called on at short notice for a studio or telephone interview, you'll find plenty of takers. A friend specialising in conflict management has appeared on countless radio programmes as well as national and satellite television shows. Showing how it works he related a recent incident where the story of a local shopkeeper who had been assaulted hit the headlines locally. Mark specialises in training retailers to manage and control conflict and aggression and, following e-mailed and phoned messages to TV and radio stations, he was invited to appear several times in the days following the retailer's assault. Within hours he had also been approached by several organisations keen to have him address their employees and staff trainers in the art of tackling dangerous situations at work.

PRESS RELEASES

A press release, as the name implies, means 'releasing' information to the press in the hope it will be published. It could be about a book you have written or a recent invention, providing it interests readers of particular magazines. Press releases can be sent - posted, faxed or e-mailed - to all kinds of publication, including trade and business journals, national and regional newspapers, professional journals, and so on. Response can be immense and can even generate more business than some firms can handle. A leading Canadian publisher, for example, sold over 20,000 books on the strength of one press release in one major magazine!