By now you may have heard that Twitter took a dive over the weekend. It was a human error, and has since been repaired, but many accounts were suspended causing a lot of frustration. Now of course, we have talked about Twitter and how it’s changing the way small businesses market themslves, but given this little glitch, which is likely to happen again given the volume of people using the system, it’s important to stay the course with other effective forms of marketing that drive your business. 
Do you have a marketing plan? You must have a marketing plan. Typically, business owners market their business when the phone stops ringing and that’s not a plan. A marketing plan allows you to capitalize on what really drives your business in a consistent manner that allows you to work smarter, not harder. By having a marketing plan, you should not have to re-create the wheel monthly, but rather have a system that works for you.
Not sure how to create a marketing plan? We have a great teleclass called Create A World Class Marketing Plan that is an awesome tool to create your marketing plan. And so what that it’s July; listen to the teleclass and create a plan thru July ‘10 or thru the end of year. Just don’t sit on your marketing any longer.
But, let say all your marketing eggs have been in the Twitter (or another lonely) basket and you are feeling a little uneasy with the recent system glitch. There are so many ways to market your business; most are low is cost, yet still achieving highest results or impact. Still do the plan, but here are a few tried and true marketing tactics that work well for small, service based businesses.
- Start a blog and consistently post. Consumers love information and people want to see new and updated information from you. A blog gives you a home base and you personally own all your content. (Need some help starting and promoting your blog, purchase our teleclass called How to Plan, Build and Promote Your Blog with Blog Expert Rich Brooks)
- Connect your blog to your monthly newsletter. Staying in touch with clients in critical to your success. Use tools such as Constant Contacts to send a monthly newsletter to your existing client base and use blog articles to link people back to your blog. (Need some help starting and promoting your blog, purchase our teleclass called Launch and Sustain Your Monthly Newsletter.)
- Automatically upload your blog to Facebook. Start turning followers into profits and paying clients by letting them know what’s going on with your business. You may be surprised where business comes from. (Be on the lookout sooner for our Facebook Teleclass with Shama Hyder coming soon!)
- Offer a workshopin your local community. Public speaking is a great way to let people know about your business and be sure to leave behind contact information and info to your Free blog. (Need some help starting and promoting your blog, purchase our teleclass called Take The Fear Out Of Public Speaking with expert Liam Brown)
- Contribute to or write an article. Articles are fantastic as you can link back to your blog and drive traffic to your website.
Are you starting to see a pattern here. One or all of things may work for you, but the plan comes first and then connect the dots so everything works together. We have lots of resources to help you market you marketing your business. Check them out and get started on your plan today.