1. Advertise in trade journals, ezines, and web sites that cater to your ideal client.

One secret for gaining substantial increase in sales is to communicate where your clients who buy the most of whatever it is that you sell hang out.

Focus the majority of your advertising on communicating with the people who will generate the best sales for you.

2. Write Articles

Writing articles builds credibility and visibility. Write where your market will most likely see your article. No use wasting bullets shooting at targets that just ain’t there.

Where to publish articles?

Submit articles to the trade journals and web sites that cater to your ideal clients.

The SRDS provides listing of print media and trade publications through its web site at www.srds.com

For a listing of nearly 50 sites to publish articles online read my article at http://www.economicbooster.com/write-articles.html

3. Business Cards

If you invest in business cards you may as well get maximum effectiveness out of them. Your business card should be a mini-billboard to pre-sell your product and service and generate leads. It should never be a listing of your contact information along with your company logo.

Author Debbie Jenkins publishes a free ebook titled, Card Shark, that provides tips on improving the effectiveness of your business card.

Her ebook is helpful and is available at http://www.leanmarketing.co.uk/card-shark

4. Coupons

If you use coupons never offer just one choice. Multiple coupon offers of three items always out pull coupon offers of only one item.

Many of your prospects will decide ‘no’ to an offer simply because you haven’t given them options to choose from. A single offer is basically an ultimatum, take it or leave it.

Many will leave it.

5. Direct Mail

This is an outstanding medium to use for communicating directly, one-on-one with your clients and prospects -- but only if you can clearly define your target market.

A shotgun blast to every name and address in a particular area will seldom prove

Make certain your direct mail offer includes the a compelling headline, an offer, a USP, and a call to action, and preferably a deadline. Without these your direct mail offer will fail to produce measurable and predictable results.

6. Test Everything

Constantly test your offer, your headline, your guarantees, and all aspects of your communication to determine if a better response is possible.

Strive to improve the quality of your advertising and marketing responses and you will find your marketing results improving exponentially.

7. News Releases “Free” publicity can be one of the best sources of marketing. Publicity generates credibility and trust. publicity can also generate clients who are pre-sold on you and your product and service.

8. Yellow Page Advertising Most advertisers seriously miss the boat when using this medium. They run ads that are nothing more than a simple business card with contact information on it.

To be successful at Yellow Page advertising you must provide a Unique Selling Proposition, an offer, and a call to action as a bare minimum.

Anything less is a waste of your advertising dollars.

9. Viral Marketing Viral marketing is a process that operates similar to the way a virus grows, it continues to replicate itself indefinitely totally independent of its author.

Writing ebooks and distributing free content for use in other people’s ezines and newsletters are all forms of viral marketing.

In exchange for providing valuable content to others, your visibility and credibility increases. Probably no other marketing system will continue to grow independently of any effort from you as a viral marketing system will.

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Publishing guidelines: You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication or notice of use would be appreciated. A NOTICE OF USE is REQUIRED only if this article is included in a “HARD COPY” publication.

André Bell is principal marketing consultant with André Bell Consulting Group. A free copy of his new book "101 Marketing Secrets Revealed" is available through his site at http://www.economicbooster.com