100+ Marketing Ideas
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| Marketing is all about satisfying customer needs. The
following represents a comprehensive list of marketing
ideas. Use the list of marketing ideas to help better
understand customer needs and ways to satisfy those
needs.
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GENERAL IDEAS
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• Never let a day pass without engaging in at
least one marketing activity.
• Determine a percentage of gross income to spend
annually on marketing.
• Set specific marketing goals every year; review
and adjust quarterly.
• Maintain a tickler file of ideas for later use.
• Carry business cards with you (all day, every
day).
• Create a personal nametag or pin with your company
name and logo on it and wear it at high visibility
meetings
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TARGET MARKET
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• Stay alert to trends that might impact your
target market, product or promotion strategy.
• Read market research studies about your
profession, industry, product, target market groups, etc.
• Collect competitors’ ads and literature;
study them for information about strategy, product
features and benefits, etc.
• Ask clients why they hired you and solicit
suggestions for improvement.
• Ask former clients why they left you.
• Identify a new market.
• Join a list-serve (email list) related to your
profession.
• Subscribe to an Internet usenet newsgroup or a
list-serve that serves your target market.
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PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
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• Create a new service, technique or product.
• Offer a simpler/cheaper/smaller version of your
(or another existing) product or service.
• Offer a fancier/more expensive/faster/bigger
version of your (or another existing) product or service.
• Update your services.
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EDUCATION, RESOURCES AND INFORMATION
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• Establish a marketing and public relations
advisory and referral team composed of your colleagues
and/or neighboring business owners to share ideas and
referrals and to discuss community issues. Meet quarterly
for breakfast.
• Create a suggestion box for employees.
• Attend a marketing seminar.
• Read a marketing book.
• Subscribe to a marketing newsletter or other
publication.
• Subscribe to a marketing list-serve on the
Internet.
• Subscribe to a marketing usenet newsgroup on the
Internet.
• Train your staff, clients and colleagues to
promote referrals.
• Hold a monthly marketing meeting with employees or
associates to discuss strategy, status and to solicit
marketing ideas.
• Join an association or organization related to
your profession.
• Get a marketing intern to take you on as a client;
it will give the intern experience and you some free
marketing help.
• Maintain a consultant card file for finding
designers, writers and other marketing professionals.
• Hire a marketing consultant to brainstorm with.
• Take a "creative journey" to another
progressive city or country to observe and learn from
marketing techniques used there.
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PRICING AND PAYMENT
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• Analyze your fee structure; look for areas
requiring modifications or adjustments.
• Establish a credit card payment option for
clients.
• Give regular clients a discount.
• Learn to barter; offer discounts to members of
certain clubs/professional groups/organizations in
exchange for promotions in their publications.
• Give "quick pay" or cash discounts.
• Offer financing or installment plans.
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MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
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• Publish a newsletter for customers and
prospects. (It doesn’t have to be fancy or
expensive.)
• Develop a brochure of services.
• Include a postage-paid survey card with your
brochures and other company literature. Include check-off
boxes or other items that will involve the reader and
provide valuable feedback to you.
• Remember, business cards aren’t working for
you if they’re in the box. Pass them out! Give
prospects two business cards and brochures -- one to keep
and one to pass along.
• Produce separate business cards/sales literature
for each of your target market segments (e.g. government
and commercial, and/or business and consumer).
• Create a poster or calendar to give away to
customers and prospects.
• Print a slogan and/or one-sentence description of
your business on letterhead, fax cover sheets and
invoices.
• Develop a site on the World Wide Web.
• Create a "signature file" to be used for
all your e-mail messages. It should contain contact
details including your Web site address and key
information about your company that will make the reader
want to contact you.
• Include "testimonials" from customers in
your literature.
• Test a new mailing list. If it produces results,
add it to your current direct mail lists or consider
replacing a list that's not performing up to
expectations.
• Use colored or oversized envelopes for your direct
mailings. Or send direct mail in plain white envelopes to
pique recipients' curiosity.
• Announce free or special offers in your direct
response pieces. (Direct responses may be direct mail,
broadcast fax, or e-mail messages.) Include the offer in
the beginning of the message and also on the outside of
the envelope for direct mail.
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MEDIA RELATIONS
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• Update your media list often so that press
releases are sent to the right media outlet and person.
• Write a column for the local newspaper, local
business journal or trade publication.
• Publish an article and circulate reprints.
• Send timely and newsworthy press releases as often
as needed.
• Publicize your 500th client of the year (or other
notable milestone).
• Create an annual award and publicize it– as
an outstanding employee of the year.
• Get public relations and media training or read up
on it.
• Appear on a radio or TV talk show.
• Create your own TV program on your industry or
your specialty. Market the show to your local cable
station or public broadcasting station as a regular
program. Or, see if you can air your show on an open
access cable channel.
• Write a letter to the editor of your local
newspaper or to a trade magazine editor.
• Take an editor to lunch.
• Get a publicity photo taken and enclose with press
releases.
• Consistently review newspapers and magazines for
possible PR opportunities.
• Submit "tip" articles to newsletters and
newspapers.
• Conduct industry research and develop a press
release or article to announce an important discovery in
your field.
• Create a press kit and keep its contents current.
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CUSTOMER SERVICE AND CUSTOMER RELATIONS
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• Ask your clients to come back again.
• Return phone calls promptly.
• Set up a fax-on-demand or email system to easily
respond to customer inquiries.
• Use an answering machine or voice mail system to
catch after-hours phone calls. Include basic information
in your outgoing message such a business hours, location,
etc.
• Record a memorable message or "tip of the
day" on your outgoing answering machine or voice
mail message.
• Ask clients what you can do the help them.
• Take clients out to a ball game, a show or another
special event– just send them two tickets with a
note.
• Hold a seminar at your office for clients and
prospects.
• Send hand-written thank-you notes.
• Send birthday cards and appropriate seasonal
greetings.
• Photocopy interesting articles and send them to
clients and prospects with a hand-written "FYI"
note and your business card.
• Send a book of interest or other appropriate
business gift to a client with a handwritten note.
• Create an area on your Web site specifically for
your customers.
• Redecorate your office or location where you meet
with your clients.
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NETWORKING AND WORD OF MOUTH
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• Join a Chamber of Commerce or other
organization.
• Join or organize a breakfast club with other
professionals (not in your field) to discuss business and
network referrals.
• Mail a brochure to members of organizations to
which you belong.
• Serve on a city board or commission.
• Host a holiday party.
• Hold an open house.
• Send letters to attendees after you attend a
conference.
• Join a community list-serve (email list) on the
Internet.
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ADVERTISING
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• Advertise during peak seasons for your
business.
• Get a memorable phone number, such as
"1-800-WIDGETS."
• Obtain a memorable URL and email address and
include them on all marketing materials.
• Provide Rolodex® cards or phone stickers
pre-printed with your business contact information.
• Promote your business jointly with other
professionals via cooperative direct mail.
• Advertise in a specialty directory or in the
Yellow Pages.
• Write an ad in another language to reach a
non-English-speaking market. Place the ad in a
publication that market reads, such as a Hispanic
newspaper.
• Distribute advertising specialty products such as
pens, mouse pads or mugs.
• Mail "bumps," photos, samples and other
innovative items to your prospect list. (A bump is simply
anything that makes the mailing envelope bulge and makes
the recipient curious about what’s in the envelope!)
• Create a direct mail list of "hot
prospects."
• Consider non-traditional tactics such as bus
backs, billboards and popular Web sites.
• Project a message on the sidewalk in front of your
place of business using a light directed through words
etched in a glass window.
• Consider placing ads in your newspaper’s
classified section.
• Consider a vanity automobile tag with your company
name.
• Create a friendly bumper sticker for your car.
• Code your ads and keep records of results.
• Improve your building signage and directional
signs inside and out.
• Invest in a neon sign to make your office or
storefront window visible at night.
• Create a new or improved company logo or
"recolor" the traditional logo.
• Sponsor and promote a contest or sweepstakes.
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SPECIAL EVENTS AND OUTREACH
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• Get a booth at a fair/trade show attended by
your target market.
• Sponsor or host a special event or open house at
your business location in cooperation with a local
non-profit organization, such as a women's business
center. Describe how the organization helped you.
• Give a speech or volunteer for a career day at a
high school.
• Teach a class or seminar at a local college or
adult education center.
• Sponsor an "Adopt-a-Road" area in your
community to keep roads litter-free. People that pass by
the area will see your name on the sign announcing your
sponsorship.
• Volunteer your time to a charity or non-profit
organization.
• Donate your product or service to a charity
auction.
• Appear on a panel at a professional seminar.
• Write a "How To" pamphlet or article for
publishing.
• Produce and distribute an educational CD-ROM,
audio or video tape.
• Publish a book.
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SALES IDEAS
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• Start every day with two cold calls.
• Read newspapers, business journals and trade
publications for new business openings and for personnel
appointment and promotion announcements made by
companies. Send your business literature to appropriate
individuals and firms.
• Give your sales literature to your lawyer,
accountant, printer, banker, temp agency, office supply
salesperson, advertising agency, etc. (Expand your sales
force for free!)
• Put your fax number on order forms for easy
submission.
• Set up a fax-on-demand or email system to easily
distribute responses to company or product inquiries.
• Follow up on your direct mailings, email messages
and broadcast faxes with a friendly telephone call.
• Try using the broadcast fax or email delivery
methods instead of direct mail. (Broadcast fax and email
allows you to send the same message to many locations at
once.)
• Using broadcast fax or email messages to notify
your customers of product service updates.
• Extend your hours of operation.
• Reduce response/turnaround time. Make reordering
easy– reminders. Provide pre-addressed envelopes.
• Display product and service samples at your
office.
• Remind clients of the products and services you
provide that they aren't currently buying.
• Call and/or send mail to former clients to try to
reactivate them.
• Take sales orders over the Internet.
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