MARKETING

The huge majority of business owners (and it seems marketing consultants) seem to think that marketing consists solely of advertising and PR. Advertising (if you test and measure its effectiveness and focus on benefits and not features and not your name in big letters or a bigger advert than your competitors) can be effective but is very expensive and more often than not, is the quickest way to burn money.

At the Accountancy + Business Advice Centre we've often thought of running an alternative AA, not alcoholics but advertisers. Every time a client gets the urge to advertise, they telephone us and we fob them off, saving them 90% of their cash

More often than not, the most effective forms of marketing are virtually cost free. Consider, for example, referral strategies, testimonials from real local business owners, case studies, an emailed newsletter to keep in touch with your customers, networking or meeting your customers face to face without trying to sell to show them you care.

Another great low-cost marketing strategy is to give away stuff for free - you could offer free advice or a free trial, or you could try these: