EXPOSE Your Small Business
Are you making the most out of every single opportunity to expose your small business to new customers? Have you brainstormed every conceivable way to leverage your content, your logo, your products, your services, your staff, your commercials, your photographs, your existing customers? Here's a punch list of 10 things you could do RIGHT NOW to generate new exposure:1. Take some candid shots around your business place. Put them up on Flickr. Make friends with others on Flickr.2. Give your staff company t-shirts with your logo and tag line on them. Let them wear these on Fridays and encourage them to go out to lunch! (Buy their lunch occasionally to encourage this. They are, after all, walking billboards).3. If you give any speeches or talks at civic events, your kid's career day, anything, get it videotaped (this does not have to be professionally done!) and put it up on YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler-and your website. If you've paid for a commercial, add it there as well.4. Get stickers printed up with your logo and tag line, especially if it is a cool logo. Slap them on everything, include a few with orders you ship for kids to use, use them to seal envelopes.5. Turn your hobbies into ways to expose your business. If you gather with other photographers, have a great leather jacket made with your company logo imprinted. If you race motorcycles, brand your bike. If you watch birds, wear that shirt. Prepare to have a conversation about your business.6. Promote your clients. Share their stories. Tell folks about their businesses. Always have case studies in mind of where your company did really awesome work.7. Do a direct mailing to customers who have "slacked off". Remind them you are still out there and you miss their business. Add a one-time coupon just for them.8. Always offer "fries" (as in "do you want fries with that?"). On your e-commerce site with "you might also like", in your store (fabric protector by the register of a furniture store, batteries in an office supply store, touch up kits in an auto/body shop), in person. Ask or offer what you want!9. Leverage articles, press, blog posts and any other written content across other platforms: Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Ezine articles, Stumble Upon.10. Consider advertising in new and unexpected places: blogs, mobile, cable, Facebook, iPad. Measure and measure again to see if the cost is worth it.Any ideas we missed? Share them here or on our Facebook page.You might also like:Get More Business: Show Them Your the ExpertWhat Makes YOUR Offer Compelling?by Steven Schlagel