Your Marketing Plan Check Up: Networking
Check in every week with ACPR to get new ideas to help you market your business.
This week we’re looking at your marketing your business through networking.
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to get new business: people take personal recommendations seriously. You need to be businesslike about generating recommendations, through, and networking is a good place to start growing the number of people who understand what’s great about your business and will tell friends and colleagues.
The key to effective networking is finding the right places to network, both online and face to face. Try a number of networking groups or websites. You will soon work out which ones show dividends for your business. Make regular networking online part of your daily activities, and build in face to face networking events as often as fits with your business.
Here are some networking activities to build into your marketing plan on a regular basis:
- Develop great business cards with a call to action to pass on
- Find online networking sites that suit you
- Try a few face to face networking meetings to find one that works well for you
- Practice your elevator pitch so you can sell what’s great about your business in less than a minute
- Look into affiliate networking systems
We’ll look at your promotional materials for marketing next in this series. For more ideas to help your business grow, buy A Guide to Promoting Your Business: The Ultimate Workbook for Business Owners
May 10th, 2010 at 10:11 am
[...] you need to develop links with other businesses you could use networking or offer some corporate hospitality. Take a key contact to lunch or invite them to attend an event. [...]