31) Know Your Customers Inside Out.

Get really absolutely and definitely clear about who is your target market.

The more you know about them, the better you can come up with clever ideas about how to target them precisely.

30) Call everybody you know.

Call for a catch up, and when the conversation turns to what you’re doing – tell them about your business and what you’re doing. And if they know anybody who could do with your service, suggest that they pass on your name and number.

Don’t pressure sell, just get the word out. And if your friends want to do business with you, quote your full price.

Business is business, and discounts don’t make for better referrals later on.

You’ll have more respect for yourself and so will your friends.

29) Network in the real world.

Joining a networking club or meeting isn’t about selling to everyone in the room.

It’s about expanding your social network and getting word out about yourself. It’s about being known as the “go to” guy or girl for whatever you do.

A lot of business happens by recommendation and word of mouth – so have a great 30 second sales pitch selling you, be a good connector (i.e. connecting the people you meet with business opportunities whenever you can) and expand your social network. Networking isn’t just limited to professional activity.

You can network at practically any social group or event too.

28) Stop Advertising.

Stop advertising that clearly isn’t producing sales for you.

If it’s not working, you need to re-think. Save your cash, work out what you can improve and go at it again.

Every single small business I know has tried dozens of things that don’t work.

That’s fine, don’t beat yourself up.

Save your energy to look for the right way to connect with your customers.

27) WWWHWW = All the right info

Look at your advertising. Have you got all the information.

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

The most important of these is why.

Give your customer enough emotionally motivating reasons to buy from you. Work out the “why” and you have cracked half the marketing challenge.

26) Stand out. Be Remarkable.

Don’t be afraid of standing out. Seth Godin advises business owners and companies to become remarkable.

Stand out – in a good way – for your customers.

25) Simple, Focused Identity

Logo and brand. Create an identity and stick to it.

Don’t spend money which you haven’t got on a logo. Save it for getting customers.

The London Olympics 2012 logo is terrible and cost a supposed £400,000 (over $650,000).

The easiest company name and brand logo to adopt is your own name.

Forget fancy pictures have a simple text logo – then focus on delivering a great service which will win you fans and people who will champion and recommend you.

24) Can You Repeat That?

Repetition works to make sales.

Single adverts rarely create an overwhelming response.

Therefore aim to reduce the cost of your individual marketing efforts so you can increase your exposure.

23) You ought to build that email list.

Build your email list and market to it cheaply.

Not just of prospects you want to buy from you, but also existing customers you can encourage to return and do business with you.

Email marketing with companies like Aweber is much cheaper than going with a marketing agency or a bespoke system.

It also allows you the opportunity to segment your lists into specific and more targeted groups.

22) Spread your information.

Business cards and leaflets. They make not profit do no good sitting in a box.

Set yourself a challenge to get rid of as many as possible each week to whomever will take them from you. Keep score. And give yourself a reward when you set a new personal record.

21) Expect Referrals

Tell your new customers that you are starting out and you want to make them so happy that they will go out and tell all their friends about you.

This shows them your commitment, but it also sets an expectation that they will recommend you when actually do make them really happy.

20) Courtesy Costs Nothing

And courtesy makes sales.

Say please. Say thank you.

Make eye contact and smile genuinely.

People buy from people they like.

You don’t have to be obseqious or sycophantic to make sales (I bet they lose a lot of sales).

Just be courteous.

19) Get Into Your Role For Confidence

Act the part.

Often small business owners and start up entrepreneurs don’t feel confident to begin with, especially with face to face conversations.

Visualise yourself acting the part of the perfect [whatever it is you do].

Study the role. Create a script and practise it religiously.

Then when you do it, make it seem and feel like you’re saying it for the very first time, like it’s just occurred to you right now, and it’s all happening naturally and spontaneously.

18) Joint venture.

Who can you team up in a similar (but not the same) industry to share customers, databases and referrals.

I have a local joint venture with a web designer.

I take my clients to him, because I know he’s the best in town.

He sends business my way for the marketing I specialise in.

We both win, and so do the customers, and look a lot more professional as a result.

17) Get Out Of The Way

Remove every possible obstacle that makes it harder for your customers to buy.

Make the pricing easy to understand.

Make it easy to understand what they get and how they can pay.

Try not to get them to fill in forms, and when they have to, keep them as short as possible.

16) Where Did They Come From?

The most important tool you have at your disposal is being able to ask your customers how they found out about you.

This tells you which marketing is working and which isn’t Stop what isn’t working and do more of what is working.

15) Money Is Time Too

Time is also a scarce resource – cost that into your marketing efforts too.

For example, don’t use Twitter unless you integrate it fully into your marketing process.

Small and start up companies are not just cash but also time poor.

Ask yourself – does something like Twitter really target the kind of customers I want to reach? How much time will it cost me?

And would my time be more profitably spent doing something else? (tip: it probably would)

Every marketing decision must also be made in the context of the time you have available to give to it and how much money it can bring you back.

14) Small Steps

Instead of asking your customers to make one giant leap, make your sales process a series of baby steps that prospects can take to qualify themselves and find out a little bit more about you without any risk.

Contact over time generates familiarity and trust – vital ingredients of a sale.

13) Goal!

Set goals. What does success look like for you?

The brain is a goal seeking mechanism and aims at what you give it.

So set positive and realistic goals. Break them down into chunks and start taking action to get there.

12) Conquer the Gremlins

Tackle your mental obstacles. De-motivation. Paralysis. Fear.

Fight back with bags of Faith, Hope, Optimism, Persistence, Patience, Courage and Sheer Bloody-Mindedness (i.e. a tenacious unwillingness to yield to defeat).

Need inspiration on that?

Try listening to a Winston Churchill speech and you’ll know what I mean.

11) What’s Next?

Keep a “What Next?” list. Write down all your marketing ideas in one place, and keep expanding on that list. When you need to do something new, review the list, select the most promising (and affordable) idea and that’s what you should do next.

10) What’s Your Story?

Get your story right.

The right marketing story will open doors, create sales, profits and translate smoothly across every single channel (online and offline).

What is your story? Write it down.

A compelling story in black and white beats a hopeless story in full colour.

9) Popularity Breeds Popularity

Create an air of popularity. People flock just like sheep. So they respond positively to signs which imply that you are popular. Hard at the beginning for any start up absolutely, but after you crack it…success.

8) Witnesses = Proof & Evidence

Collect testimonials religiously.

Put them everywhere.

On your website, in marketing materials, on adverts – and anywhere else you can think of.

Make sure they are specific and personal by getting your customers to say why they chose you and why they loved your service.

7) Controlled Spending & Costing = Profit

Unless you’re in the business of giving away money, sales will only ever create profit when met with sensibly controlled costs.

That also includes giving discounts as a promotional tool.

2 for 1 means half the profit per transaction, and having to work twice as hard to make the same profit. Are you crazy?

There are better ways to drum up customers.

6) Get on TV

Embed a simple video in your site to create user engagement an. Attention spans are super short online and a good, simple, concise video can help sustain attention and help your customers understand what you do, how you can help them, and why they should choose you.

5) Reputation is everything.

Look after your reputation in everything you do, and your reputation will look after you in return.

And before you go out and do tons of stuff – what do you want that reputation to be?

Decide on how you want people to see you, and how you must be in order to grow your business.

4) Just One More Step

Take another step. And another. And another.

Keep taking action, looking at what happens, then adjusting your strategy.

When, (when and not if) you fall over, dust yourself off, have a cup of tea, and get back in the roiling scramble for customers.

3) Write Yourself To Expert Level

Keep writing your blog. Many people start a blog, but few people keep doing it. And there are lots of good SEO reasons why you should.

Make a commitment to use your blog to position yourself as an expert and a guide in your chosen field.

Keep it subject specific, and write articles that play to the search terms your customers use the most.

Write the kind of subject specific content you think your customers will love to bookmark and squirrel away

Likewise seek opportunities to be the expert with local or even national newspapers and publications

2) Quality Not Quantity

Instead of just trying to speak to more people, aim to speak to more of the right people.

Introduce a qualifying process to work out who deserves your best marketing efforts.

Introduce a permission based marketing ethic – by getting your customers to raise their hands for more information. For more information read Seth Godin’s Permission Based Marketing.

1) Measure it.

Measure your marketing. Until you know how well its performing you don’t know whether it’s profitable or not.

Until you know what works and what doesn’t you’re just blindly feeling your way around in the dark.