Business Ideas and Opportunity

Powerful Marketing Ideas

Are your competitors taking a bite out of your bottom line? Maybe you aren't doing enough to market your business. Bite back with these 10 ideas to help your business make waves.

1. Brochures & Fliers: Your company brochure doesn't have to be a four-color job. Use a standard 8 1/2" by 11" piece of white paper with interesting type-faces and color printing. With three equal folds the brochure fits into a No. 10 envelope. Your brochure should describe your services or products, emphasizing why consumers should use your product. For best results, enhance color reproduction by printing your fliers on high-quality white paper stock, such as Union Camp's Great White Recycled Content Papers tailored specifically for color printers. For information on where to purchase Great White, call toll free, 1-888-GR8-WHITE.

2. Press Releases: Make sure you target your release to the right magazine, newspaper, radio station or TV audience. Be sure the press release has a news angle or "hook" that makes it relevant to the media you're targeting. Your local library should have the Bacon's Directory series, which lists media people to contact. If you need a visual angle to get your message across, send out a video news release. Who knows? Your local news station may even show it on the air.

3. Online Marketing: With sites on the Internet popping up faster than you can say "Cyberspace," it's hard to stand out in the crowd. Users may visit your Web site once, but they won't return unless you constantly offer something new. Keep updating adding to and improving your site. Enter online "chat rooms" and offer advice in your field of expertise. For more ideas, check out Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing Online and Guerrilla Marketing Online Weapons (Houghton Mifflin).

4. Socially Responsible Marketing: Doing good for the community helps you gain exposure for your company, build employee morale, boost public awareness of social issues and, ultimately, improve your bottom line. Think about what your company does better than anyone else; then apply that to a need in the community. One socially responsible step that's easy to take: Use Union Camp's Great White Recycled Content Papers. They're as good for the environment as they are for your business - but run like a nonrecycled sheet.