by Real Business - Thursday, 30th August 2007 -

1. Carry out a thorough and honest review of your product or service and identify your “one big thing” (what a lot of marketing people call “the single minded proposition”). This is your most important point of difference over your competition and it must have a significant customer benefit.

2. Review your marketing communications – this includes stationery, brochures, advertising, exhibition stands and, most importantly, your website – to ensure your “one big thing” is the most prominent message.

3. Consider how you can, creatively, communicate your “one big thing” via different mediums – one of the potentially cheapest is PR. It’s nearly always worth investing time creating and distributing interesting press releases. For maximum impact seek direct contact with editors and journalists in the areas that will have the largest appropriate readership.

4. Optimise your website – see my article from May 2006, available at www.realbusiness.co.uk/article/areyou- googleable/50. aspx.

5. Create a real reason for new customers to sample your product or service. Often the most effective way of converting potential business is the free or subsidised trial, and in many cases this is relatively cheap and easy for you. Don’t attach too many conditions – let people experience your “one big thing” and if it’s good enough they will buy it. If it’s not, you need to reconsider your “one big thing”, or even your whole product.

6. Make a point of initiating lead generating dialogue with your existing customers and clients. Recently I contacted the chairman of a major financial services client with whom we’ve worked for seven years and asked him: “Who do you think we should also be working with?” Within two days he had not only emailed me a list of contacts but had also placed a call to a senior executive in a similar business who is now our client. Delighted clients are nearly always prepared to recommend you to their contacts – you just have to ask.

7. Ask all your friends, family and old contacts for help. A few years ago an old school friend of mine, Jeremy Cary, bought Stackhouse Poland, an insurance broker. He contacted everyone he had ever met and won not only my business but that of several of my clients on referral, with one of whom he has since entered into a successful joint venture.

8. Show off your success. Case studies are one of the most effective methods, as they bring your claims to life. Direct mail, PR and your website are three ways that you can communicate testimonials to potential clients. Distribute them to existing customers as well.

9. Business-to-business companies in particular should seek to leverage their professional relationships. Your bank manager, accountant and solicitor are always keen to find ways they can improve their service to you. One way is to ask them to promote you to their clients and contacts. My accountants, Grant Thornton, always makes sure that I’m paired with a potential new business opportunity on its golf day, or sits me next to one at its seminars or dinners.

10. Exhibitions and trade shows can be expensive, but if your budget won’t extend to having your own stand then just turn up and network like mad. For many small businesses, marketing gets far too little time and attention. Make it a priority – set aside at least 20 per cent of your time for promoting your company.