7 Tips for business success | MadCris Images

Chances are you’re not the only one who is selling to your target client. Many different industries work to target the same demographic.

Consider, for example, an upscale, stay-at-home mother of three. She might spend her money at a day spa, a pediatric dentist, a coffee shop, a clothing boutique and a yoga studio all in the same week. If you sell custom framed prints or canvas’ , you might get in touch with any of these business owners to see how you can cross-promote.

Bonus tip:

When you reach out to the established business owners, you want to make sure to lead with what you can do for them. In the example above, the shop owner might offer to decorate the clothing boutique’s dressing room area free of charge. In exchange, the boutique owner might give away a few gift cards (also featured in her social media and e-blasts) to the home designer during her next trunk show.

We all know that a plain, two-sided black & white business card is likely to get thrown away. At best, it will be buried in a wallet along with a lot of other forgotten receipts and scraps of paper.

I use a business card envelope for mine with a camera stamp on the outside.  But what if your card included valuable content your target client wanted to hang onto and use? For example, I have a friend who runs a Networking Group and The front features her logo and name, the back includes all of her contact information. The inside, however, boasts a host of networking information and tips.  That’s worth holding onto!

Make sure your business card does something for your potential customer beyond giving her your name and number. Do this and you’ll avoid paying for a marketing piece that ends up in the recycling bin.

Bonus tip:

Make sure you don’t try to cram too much content onto your business card too much can be overkill.

Blogging can add lots of value for your clients and customers, as well as pages of content to your site (which makes search engines happy). Setting up a blog is easy and very inexpensive. I like to include several different types of posts in my business. I share:

Useful information – I like to teach my clients how to hang their framed portraits, where to send their personal snapshots for printing, my favorite consumer cameras, how to take better photos of their kids and where to find the cutest clothes for their session.

Featured clients/products – I’ll showcase my favorite photos from a session, or  products my clients selected. Prospective clients like to see what it is that my recent clients have experienced.

Bonus tip:

Use a blogging editorial calendar to determine what you’re going to post and when. Keeping good rotation of useful content, business news and featured customers/products is a great way to keep things fresh on your site.

Imagine for a moment that you’re in the market to buy a new car. You see an ad for Model A. It looks great and you consider maybe buying that one. Before you head to the dealership, however, your friend raves to you about Model B. She loves Model B. She tells you about how the sales and service team at the Model B dealership are amazing. She can’t imagine her life without Model B.

Which car do you think you’ll consider more carefully? Word of mouth marketing is the most powerful kind for a reason! We trust our friends and family and expect that we’ll love whatever they love too.

Create a reward system for your customers who send you new business. Make the reward system benefit both parties involved. (For example, in my business, can give a $50 credit to both the new client and the one who sent her.) This creates an incentive for your old client to pass your info along, and for the potential new client to take action.

Local media is always looking for content their audience will love. Submitting articles to the newspaper or to local magazines gives you free media coverage and positions you as an expert in your field.

Write the article about something that will appeal to your target demographic. For example, a graphic designer could write an article about branding basics for the local business section. A custom cake designer can submit an awesome cookie recipe when the holiday season rolls around. A kids’ clothing boutique can cover the five must-have closet staples for the back-to-school season.