Marketing Ideas – 50 Simple Marketing Ideas You Can Use To Grow Your Business

Grow Your Business Online And From Home

Work-at-home entrepreneurs have many choices when it comes to marketing. Below you'll find 50 simple ideas that you can adapt to your own needs.

Some ideas are geared toward online audiences while some target your neighborhood and involve getting to know local businesspeople.

It's a good idea to choose a few methods from each category and make them work for your own business. Give each one a try to see which works best for you and your business.

Online Marketing Ideas

1. Start a Blog and write 2 – 3 times a week. Start simply at WordPress.com or Blogger.com.

2. Post articles online that others can use with your byline and signature information – visit EzineArticles.com.

3. Regularly comment on blogs that relate to your business – you can find some great examples at AllTop.com (which list the top blogs in the world and divides them into categories for easy searching). (In fact, look for my RaisingGreatFamilies.com blog there! We're proud to have it listed.)

4. Visit Meetup.com and instigate a gathering relevant to your line of work OR join an existing group.

5. Check out Podcamp.org or Barcamp.org to see if they work well for your business.

6. Create your own Facebook profile.

7. Join groups on Facebook that relate to your business and post regularly.

8. Create your own Facebook PAGE and use it like a mini website to promote your business.

9. Become a source on HelpAReporterOut.com.

10. Suggest a story about work-at-home entrepreneurs to a blogger or offer a post for other people’s website by joining BloggerLinkUp.com.

11. Write an ebook and offer it for free on your own website or Facebook Page.

12. Send a press release about your business to PRWeb.com or PRLeap.com.

13. Reply to questions on Wiki.Answers.com and similar sites.

14. Open a Twitter account and send 2-3 tweets a day about what you are doing in your business.

15. Distribute monthly eNewsletters to your clients (having captured their names on your website or Facebook Page).

16. Put your business in both online and print directories.

17. Use Google to search for forums that are in your niche (use your keyword followed by the work “forum” to find these) and become involved with the chatter on the forum (NEVER “sell” on these – participate and leave your name with your contact information below it).

18. Write pieces for other companies' eNewsletters.

19. Keep in touch with classmates through Facebook.

20. Search Twitter for people who tweet about your type business and begin to tweet back and forth with them (find them using keywords at Search.Twitter.com).

21. Optimize your blog by using keywords in the titles of your posts.

22. Videotape short weekly talks and publish them online.

23. See if Affiliate Marketing is right for you – search Clickbank.com.

24. Trade blog ads with other work-at-home entrepreneurs.

Neighborhood Marketing Ideas

25. Join groups like the Lions Club or the Chamber of Commerce to Network.

26. Ask potential clients about their needs and follow up with them – don’t be bashful: if they say “NO” you’re in the same place as if you hadn’t asked them; if they say “Yes,” then you have new business!).

27. Ask clients for recommendations.

28. Send out a mailing to local businesses and then follow up with two additional mailings (we call that Sequenced Mailings).

29. Get other work-at-home entrepreneurs to package their promo material with yours.

30. Offer referral bonuses to clients.

31. Offer the first meeting for free with a potential client.

32. Mark the end of large projects with your clients in a public place – make it festive, memorable, and fun.

33. Attend local business mixers to meet new people and collect THEIR business cards – it’s less important to give yours out (though certainly do that if someone asks for it). Then follow up with everyone you met and keep them informed about how you can do business together.

34. Print and distribute business cards, using BOTH sides of the cards (and make an offer on the back – something like “Email for my free report, 7-Steps To Business Success.”

35. Leave your brochures with businesses where your target clients might frequent – but make this brochure gives an offer for some free information NOT a three-panel brochure about your business that most people don’t want to read (just as you don’t read most other people’s brochures like that).

36. Sponsor a local event that would appeal to your target client and then tell them.

37. Print coupons and put them on local bulleting boards – again, offer some free information.

38. Speak about your business at local events.

39. Partner with an entrepreneur who has a business related to yours.

40. Schedule a regular mastermind meeting with several entrepreneurs in your area – make time to chat about what each is doing and find out how you can help each other.

41. Visit your local bookstore each week to plan your schedule (I call that my Dreaming, Planning, Scheming Time) and chat with folks who are there – you never know what other local business person might need your services.

42. Give a class in your area of expertise – local school districts often sponsor these.

43. Volunteer your time to local charities.

44. Write some ‘case studies’ that closely parallel work you just completed and send them with a PostIt Note greeting to prospects.

45. Contact local businesses to find the right person to invite for an early morning cup of coffee – and suggest s/he tell you more about his or her business – when you offer to learn about someone, they often tell you a LOT (much of which can help you find more business for THEM and for YOU).

46. Create a 3-part postcard mailing campaign to prospects in your area.

47. Keep in touch with former clients.

48. Develop a contact at an employment agency for leads.

49. Put coupons for your services in gift bags.

50. Track down local giveaways and donate something.

Some of these ideas will cost a bit of money but many of them are free and only require your time and thought.

Make time each week to explore a new marketing option. Be creative and see how you can tailor each item to your specific needs and let us know how you're doing.

Give us progress reports so we can all be inspired by each other's success. And leave a comment here with YOUR ideas that can be added to this list – let’s grow it to 100 Simple Marketing Ideas!

Best,

Charlie Seymour Jr
A Work At Home Dad since 1983, succeeding in this economy

PS: You can find me here:

http://twitter.com/UltimateWAHDads

http://facebook.com/CharlesSeymourJr

http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesseymourjr

To learn more, stay in touch with my blog – I'll keep you informed so that YOU won't have to do the heavy lifting. Charlie Seymour Jr's Blog – Click HERE To See More!

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Keep this with this article, please:

Charlie Seymour Jr is an entrepreneurial evangelist and marketing-success coach helping individuals and companies (up to $100MM) explode their success through online and direct-response marketing. He specializes in blogging, podcasting, photography, video, and Facebook applications. Visit his blog at Charlie Seymour Jr's Blog to learn more about his successes.

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Marketing Ideas – 50 Simple Marketing Ideas You Can Use To Grow Your Business

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