As the market tightens and business becomes harder to do, marketing experts contend that it is the time that you should be spending more money on marketing or doing more marketing than before.
Barry Donaldson said: “If people don’t know that you are in business, your not in business”.
One of the most cost-effective means of marketing is by attending networking functions.
You get to meet people that you never knew before and you get to tell them about yourself and what it is you can offer them, be it a product or a service.
I favour the networking method, its cost effective and I enjoy meeting people, I get to shake there hand and look them in the eye.
After all, the eyes are said to be the window of the soul, which is pretty difficult to do when you are sitting behind a computer monitor typing on a keyboard.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a place and a space for everything and online marketing is huge, but there is no substitute to meeting your potential customer in person.
Speaking of online marketing, world-renowned international top-selling author and consultant Faith Popcorn spoke in the ’90s about a trend called “cocooning”.
This trend is still with us 20 odd years later, where we will still do everything indoors and don’t want to venture out.
For example, we prefer online marketing or ordering our takeaways and getting them delivered, we rent movies from Netflix and watch them in the comfort of our own homes rather than go out to a movie.
Our cellphones and mobiles have become our personal space. How often don’t we see people communicating with each other while sitting right next to them?
The reality is we are cocooned in our own homes, and we do not network. Do you even know your neighbour or neighbours? If you know them you will know who should and shouldn’t be around their property and likewise, they will know the same about you.
Do your friends and acquaintances know what you do for a living, do you know what they do? Opportunity to network is all around us.
How many contacts do you have on your cellphone or mobile? I would guess over 200 because that is what the average person has.
Even if you only have 10 friends and or acquaintances, they also have 200 contacts in there cellphone or mobile, that would mean by them knowing what you do and you knowing what they do, you actually have a potential market reach right there of 2 000 people.
Lets take our streets, parks, towns and cities back by networking with everyone we come into contact with.
Its easy. Just smile, put your hand out and say: “Hi, I am so and so, please to meet you”.
Sure you may get rude people, that is their prerogative, but you have not lost anything but you may just have gained plenty if they respond with a greeting.
Article written by Derek Fox, CEO of the Aerotropolis Chamber of commerce and Industry situated in Boksburg. Contact him on 082 886 0651.
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