Business Coaching and Local Marketing

Your job as a business coach is to take a new or struggling business and teach its owner how to see success. This success should be an increase in profits and sales. There are many important components to running a profitable business, but marketing is vital. If you are not already stressing the importance of marketing to your clients, you need to start.

When getting started, create a step-by-step guide just for marketing. Step one is highlighting the importance of marketing. It enables customers to know that a business exists, as well as what they sell. Step two is the consequences for not having a solid marketing plan. This is decreased sales and loss of profits. Step three is sharing marketing tactics.

In terms of sharing marketing tactics with your clients, focus on both local and internet marketing. Some mistakenly believe they should only do one or the other. They should do both, as it expands their reach. The more consumers they reach, the higher the sales. Internet marketing is easy, as most business owners and advertising departments know the internet like the back of their hand. What many companies struggle with is local marketing. So offer a few suggestions, such as the ones outlined below.

Advertising a business in the phone book. Many new business owners list their businesses in the white pages. After all, this is free to do. What they don’t realize is that customers must already know their business name to find a phone number or address. That is why yellow page listings are a must. Yes, they do cost money, but they are a wise investment.

Advertising a business in the classified ads. The internet has made it much easier to stay up-to-date on the news, but most Americans still read a paper in print. For that reason, classified ads are still a successful marketing tactic. In the classified section, most newspapers have an “Advertise Your Business Here,” section. Your client can write a short summary of their business, where it is located, what they sell, and how to contact. For a slightly higher fee, your client can invest in a larger ad with bold printing, pictures, and more.

Advertising a business through mailable fliers. Many business owners tend to sway away from mailable fliers. This is because some consider them an invading form of solicitation. If your client is against this practice, encourage them to purchase a full-page insert in a weekly classified newspaper. This way, mailings are still delivered to doors, but no solicitation occurred. To reduce the risk of angry residents who received unsolicited mailings, your client can include a moneysaving coupon or a free promotional product, such as a magnet bearing the company name, logo, address, and phone number.

Advertising a business through a grand opening or reopening celebration. New storefront business owners need to attract customers. It is best to start with a bang. Help your client plan a grand opening celebration. Offer deeply discounted prices, have free promotional items on hand, host a contest, and hire a radio station to broadcast in front of their store. If you are helping a struggling business, help the business owner make needed improvements to inventory, management, sales, and so forth. Then, work together to plan a grand reopening celebration.

As you can see, there are many ways to market and advertise a business. A professional in the field of business management, you already know this, but not all business owners do. Help your client understand the importance of local marketing and point them in the right direction.