Small Business Marketing Guide to Up Your Profits in a Down Economy

Let’s continue with profit-boosting ideas that will increase your profits without exhausting your marketing budget (I’m assuming that you are budgeting for marketing and not just hoping dollars will become available). I’m going to focus on two keywords and they are two words that can dramatically change the way you look at your business – Leverage and Systematize.

Think leverage – If there is a client in your business and they are buying from you, what can you do to leverage this contact? Here are some ideas:

• Cross-sell or up-sell to increase the value of the transaction
• Get their name, address, email address and record their buying preferences so you can continue marketing to them with coupons, newsletters and other tactics that encourage additional purchases.
• Ask them for referrals (learn how to ask for referrals!)

Give them coded coupons to hand out to their friends. When they are redeemed, send the client a thank you gift.

• Ask what business they are in and see if there are products or services you offer that the business could use.
• Start a platinum membership club for your key clients. Sell memberships that entitle them to special offers and privileges.
• Find out what other businesses they frequent and ask for an introduction to the business owner to explore joint ventures and strategic alliances with them.
• Send them a thank you note for their purchase and include a coupon for a discount on their next purchase if they return within the next month.

Pretty much every item listed is leveraging a relationship with a client. Do the same with your prospects and suppliers. You want to leverage every contact to see not only what additional profit you can gain but what additional service or benefit you can bring to your clients.