Alexander Hiam

The goals of marketing your business and products are to find new clients and to keep your existing ones. So how do you do this? Use some marketing guidelines to devise a successful marketing plan, attract new customers, create more sales leads, and close the deal. Follow some basic design tips for your business card and newsletter to market you and your business in the most positive way.

Business innovation usually isn’t on people’s agendas or weekly calendars, but it’s the most significant thing you can do to make a contribution in your workplace or boost your own career. Ask yourself what you could do today that might improve the way people work, shop, or live, or that could cut costs, solve a problem, or break through a barrier that’s slowing you or your business down.

After you’ve met a prospective client and given your presentation, how do you close the deal? If you want to take a different approach to closing the sale, try using a closing technique different from your usual one: Direct close: Ask your prospect whether he’s ready to place his order. Trial close: Ask him to make small decisions that may eventually add up to a completed order.

The goals of your marketing plan are to evaluate the situation in your market, align your marketing strategy with that information, and assess how you’ll use your marketing tools to carry out the strategy. To come up with a successful marketing plan, follow these guidelines: Evaluate last year’s marketing budget to identify the most successful advertising or marketing method.

It's important that your marketing plan keeps you selling to existing customers, but growing your business depends on finding new buyers. Try these marketing tips for attracting new customers: Rent a small booth at a trade show. Bring lots of brochures and business cards, plus samples or poster boards telling stories of how you solved problems for happy customers.

When marketing your products or business, the basic business card is a low-cost, highly effective tool. Your business card gets passed around to a lot of people, so make sure it’s printed professionally and provides enough information. You want your business card to present you and your business in the best possible way.

Your newsletter is an effective, low-cost marketing tool that delivers information about your company, product, personality, and values to engage people, spark interest, and build customer relationships. Keep these guidelines in mind for your newsletter: Do lay out your newsletter with plenty of headers, subheads, boxes, figures, or illustrations.

To get more people interested and asking about your offerings, you need to have an abundance of lead-generating information out in the market at all times. Try some of these best all-around marketing choices: Toll-free telephone numbers (a big source of leads despite the rise of Web-based marketing; advertise your toll-free number everywhere) Directory listings (don’t forget Web directories!

If you’re bursting with good ideas, but your boss always rejects suggestions out of hand, it’s very hard to stay positive and continue to think innovatively. Use these suggestions to keep your own creative spirit alive and to try to bring about positive change in your business in spite of the negative atmosphere: Brainstorm strategies for making change.