There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to marketing and promotion materials–one is to be free and easy with promotional items; handing them out whenever and wherever–a quantity approach. The other is to be a little more selective and hand out materials only to those people most likely to purchase, or at those events that most match your target market. Which approach, however, is best for your home-based business?
For some of us, our marketing distribution plan is very much affected by our budget–we might not be able to afford to print thousands of business cards, brochures, and flyers in order to distribute them to prospects so freely. We might have to be more strategic with our promotional distribution due to necessity. There are ways to loosen up a little: printing in bulk or going with a lower priced printer; making the best use of a press run or doubling up with another business on a print order; or finding ways to do some of the material creation and printing yourself. Still, it may be that our promotional budget–especially in the beginning stages of our businesses–doesn’t allow for liberal distribution.
There are other things to consider–how many customers or clients can you handle, for example? If you really get going on your marketing and promotions and things take off–do you have the capacity to handle the outcome? If you are trying to keep your business small, or control growth–you might want to be more selective with how you prospect and where you distribute your materials. On the other hand, if you really need to start building your prospect and customer base–abundant distribution of marketing and promotional materials (especially those that include a special discount or offer) can be a very effective way to accomplish that. It also helps if you understand the “numbers” in your industry or market. Are you in an industry where it will take several different contacts in order to get one customer? Consider how real estate agents will paper an entire neighborhood in order to get one or two customers. Some industries require that you make a vast effort in order to attract a few prime prospects.
Also: It Costs Less to Keep Existing Customers