Beat the Do Not Call blues with the following alternatives:
Concentrate on Referral Business: Overcome the Do Not Call blues by gaining referrals from satisfied customers. Referral business has plenty of advantages including: added credibility, lower selling costs, and a prospect willing to listen to you. World-renowned sales trainer, Tom Hopkins, author of "Sales Prospecting for Dummies" says your closing ratio for non-qualified leads is 10% versus a 60% close ratio with referred leads.
Expand Your Revenue Streams: As a business owner you must relentlessly focus on profits. One effective means to improve profitability and drive down selling costs is to sell more to existing customers. Does your current product or service provide customers with a total solution? Look to expand into related offerings with less reliance on the Do Not Call dilemma.
For instance, a carpet cleaning business can provide existing clients with blind cleaning services. This lowers marketing costs and complies with the Do Not Call registry laws in contacting your existing customers.
Embrace The Internet: Research from The Kelsey Group and ConStat Inc., indicated in 2004 that only 52% of small and mid-sized businesses have a website. Small business has been reluctant to adopt the Internet as a marketing and sales strategy. This stance has been justified in the past, however, three major developments in the recent years make the Internet an attractive method for small business marketing.
1. Web Development Costs: As a small business owner and Internet advocate for the past decade, I have been frustrated by the web development technology and services provided to small business. I have tried do-it-yourself website development technology resulting in a poorly designed website. Conversely, I have spent thousands on paying a web design firm for a professional site beyond my budget.
Now new advances exist for small business owners wanting a basic professional website at an affordable price. I recently built my business website in two hours using the easy-to-use services of a company called Homestead. Another viable alternative is creating a business blog with Blogger or TypePad. It's now easier and more affordable than ever to have a web presence today.
2. Search Engine Marketing: The cost of generating traffic from search engine marketing is much lower than traditional media. Search engine marketing has the lowest cost-per-lead and the highest return on investment. U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, estimated that the cost per lead was $0.29 for search, $0.50 for e-mail, $1.18 for the yellow pages, $2.00 for banner ads, and $9.94 for direct mail.
3. Local Web Searching: The broad reach of the Internet has been more than the targeted marketing smaller companies need. The majority of small businesses are local businesses. Consumers have begun to use search engines and Internet yellow pages to find local companies. A quick Overture keyword search shows in April 2005, over 21,427 keyword entries were done for the word "Chicago beauty salon." According to Yellow Pages Integrated Media Association, the Internet yellow pages references were about 1.6 billion in 2003. Local search is now bringing together local consumers with local business.
