I have been running a small business for nearly ten years and have used various forms of marketing ideas to help promote my services and to attract new customers. In this article, I write about these marketing strategies which I hope will benefit the people who read it.
When I was twenty-three, I had what I believed was a good business idea. I was going to offer a speech coaching service as I had managed to overcome a speech impediment and believed that the techniques which had helped me could help other people as well.
It is all well and good having an idea but if no one knows about the service you are offering, it is basically worthless. I had no real business experience and was unsure on how to proceed. By reading a number of books on marketing for small businesses, I managed to find some potential routes which could help me to get started.
Direct marketing
This was one of the first areas I tried. I had a small leaflet produced which explained the speech coaching service that I was offering and then with the help of some friends and family, went around my local area delivering them. This was not as successful as I hoped it would be, however I am...