You Must Promote to Stay Afloat
According to the Small Business Administration, two-thirds of new businesses survive for at least two years, and only 44 percent survive at least four years. The exact reason for their failure is unknown but there are certain fatal errors that can sink your company. One of them is ineffective marketing and self-promotion. Customers won't be calling or emailing you if they don't know you exist. So Melody and I needed to make Write on Time visible.
On TechScribe's website http://www.techscribe.co.uk/ta/promoting_tech_writing.htm, Mike Unwalla, owner of this writing business based in the United Kingdom, lists the advertising and publicity methods he uses to promote his business. In addition, he summarizes which methods have worked and which ones have not. I thought Mike's list was a good starting point for a WoTS (Write on Time Solutions) marketing plan. After reading through Mike's promotional strategies, I created my own list.
Here are my ideas:
- Attend targeted professional meetings to network.
- Attend targeted professional conferences as a vendor to market our business.
- Speak at professional organizations such as Society for Technical Communication (STC), Chamber of Commerce, or the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
- Become known as an expert in our field by writing articles for magazines or newspapers.
- Create a signature and append it to all outgoing email messages. Include our name, our company name, our website address, and contact information.
- Create a contact list of potential clients and send a mailer to them advertising our new business.
- Email a newsletter periodically to clients on our contact list.
- Create a website.
- Create a blog.
Posted in: advertising, marketing, networking, promoting, small business administration, TechScribe, write on time solutions on Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at
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