Q & A with Katrina #2

Many of you have written in questions in the last few months and I wanted to answer some of them for you.

Question: What are the lowest cost ways to promote my business in my local area?

Answer: Of course that will depend on the area but if you are a retail or storefront business and your target market is maybe a 5-10 mile radius, then typically it would be best to do an effective direct mail campaign to a list of ONLY your target market in households, preferably to drive them to your website which should be designed to capture those leads. Let me know if you need to find a good mailing list to do this with.

If you are a home-based business with a local target market the answer could be similar however I've found that networking at local organizations, chambers and associations where your target market is in regular attendance is the best way (and least expensive) to build relationships with new prospects. But you must have a very thorough follow up system in place or you're wasting your time networking!

Question: I'm a part of a franchise and we are very limited on what and how we can market our local business with, do you have any suggestions we could implement to help get around all the rules we struggle with? (this could also be good for network marketing companies too)

Answer: Well, I don't necessarily recommend 'breaking' the rules however there might be some things you can do to enhance your exposure online and off. You'll have to check what's ok or not for your company. Some suggestions I've given before for some franchisees and network marketers are:

• If your page on the main website or your site is limited to what you can do, start your own blog where you can say anything you want about you and your biz and you can get more personal, add photos and links to other sites, etc. from there.


• To drive more traffic to your site or special page - do social networking on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Fastpitch and other sites and forums where you can interact with your target market more on a personal level - make sure you have a good signature line with call to action and links. Say hello to ME too when you're there!

Network, network, network like crazy making sure to do all kinds of personal follow up afterwards such as handwritten notes, greeting cards, gifts and calls.

Do displays at events and tradeshows where your target market is in attendance, I find that in person you're open to a lot more possibilities.

Figure out what you can speak on and offer to speak to groups of your target market; when people get to know you better, they tend to want to do business more with you.

I hope this helps you! Remember, these are somewhat generalized answers and for a more specific and targeted approach to your marketing and business growth I'm happy to sit down with you in a 1-on-1 Planning Meeting. I recently changed the format of these meetings by the way, now you get 3 meetings, each 2 weeks apart from each other so you can better implement the strategies we discuss - all for one price! Go to

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001WPxfWm4aRWfld_4dvihDEj21KQLaVD4KTwQOd_vFMtxkS_SF7kuuDYcxNM8sp8wopdnZBWmj_hQJusWAoulMJL_aqRYCWJF2FJYegYax5YmU9L1oVDZATHhckinQ9OGo to find out more.

Kat Out --