Sales Tips and Marketing Strategies

As a business owner, you probably give out business cards to anyone interested in your field. It is a way to advertise your brick and mortar business to particularly interested patrons. Another way to expand and grow your business is to transfer your business online. To draw more business as a business owner, you can set up a website. A website is another marketing tool designed to increase traffic within your particular specialty area of expertise.

Marketing within your field can vary from advertising in your local periodicals to banners at your local baseball field. But as a marketing developer, you must consider the costs involved in all advertising. A monthly or yearly marketing goal must be within your pre-set boundaries. To expand your boundaries may expand your sales. A website can be set up and designed within your marketing goals. How much you spend on a website depends on how much you want to spend. Some people have fancy graphics. That may add to your site but is not necessary to start off. Some people pay a web designer to set up their web site or you could do it yourself to cut costs.

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As a construction professional I am constantly trading contractor business cards with my peers. It’s a tradition that not only fosters relationships and goodwill but also helps to increase the business load for everyone involved. I’ve seen some cards that were so bad as to be laughable, some that were so outstanding that they made me jealous, and many that were somewhere in the middle. This experience has led me to make some general conclusions about business cards in the home improvement industry.

Let me start with the assertion that perception is reality. This term is tossed around a lot in marketing circles, and for good reason. When you engage the attention of a homeowner and potential client they will immediately begin to analyze you and your business to see if you’d be a good match. Therefore, the first cues that you offer them are extremely important because they begin to shape a “reality” in their mind. If the first thing you hand them is your business card and it looks unprofessional then you’re already setting the stage for them to perceive that your whole business is unprofessional, even though the reality might be that your trade skills are excellent. Remember that people will being to make assumptions about you from the very beginning, so you need to get it right.

Continue reading ‘Contractor Business Cards – Perception is Reality’ »