Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Last week, I shared a few ideas for original and creative marketing materials. Here are some more ideas for high-impact ways to connect with your customers.

Interactive Business Cards
Time: 10 min
Cost: $9.99 for design, $13.98/100 + shipping
Customer Interaction and Playing with Your Business Card: Priceless

After brainstorming, one of my clients came up with the visual analogy of a Rubik’s Cube.

Here’s how we used his brainstorming and combined it with Marketsplash’s business card creator. Using one of the many pre-designed templates, we uploaded a picture of a Rubik’s Cube and used it as a logo. Then, on the back of the card, we put an abbreviated “Rubik’s Cube Solution” which we found on the web (and not subject to copyright). The point is to have the person experience how hard it is to do the solution on your own, and how much faster it is when someone who knows how teaches you.

Welcome Kit
Time: 5 days
Cost: About $50 per kit
Customer feeling fabulous about choosing you: Priceless

A buying decision is a lot like getting into a hotel room after a long, hot, dirty trip. Will the room be cozy clean and ready for you with some candy on the pillow and maybe some luxury bubble bath and a bottle of wine? Or will it be stinky, damp with nothing there for comfort other than cable TV. Your customer’s path to choosing you is that long trip, how do you want to greet them?

Put your resources into creating a “Welcome Kit” for your customers.

1. Put yourself in their shoes. If that’s too hard, literally give someone your product and ask them what questions they have. From the moment that someone has purchased something what are they thinking or asking? Example: where is the power switch? How do I use your product? Where can I put it?
2. An obvious, easy to spot,bright, fun to read “Quick Start” guide. Let your personality shine through, make this a single sheet or a book with big letters. If it’s so easy to use that a child could do it – make it child-like and fun.
3. Other products. You’d be amazed at how little your customers know about all the other things you offer – give them a FREE sample.
4. Cool Container – Go beyond the folder and the inserts. Think three-dimensionally. What kind of cool container can your customer use and display? If you sell security, think of a safe. If you sell comfort – use a basket. If you sell fun, put it in a party box.

Have any great ideas for encouraging customer interaction in your marketing materials? Share them in the comments!

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Ivana Taylor is the Founder of www.DIYMarketers.com , a place where in-house marketers go to get low-cost, high-impact marketing strategies. She is also a contributing expert for Small Business Trends.