Since
1992,
NSPG has been providing the tools that allow contractors to
increase profits and minimize business hassles. With our
simple-to-use-tools, you can make being a business owner
what you always wanted to it be -
successful, profitable and rewarding.
Take
Advantage of Free Online Marketing
Over the last few years, your marketing options have
multiplied almost as fast as the national debt.
Almost all of these new options are technology related
which has limited their effectiveness for many markets.
This situation has changed recently, and Internet based
marketing is becoming much more effective for just about
any company.
 So
what makes us think that the Internet is becoming a
primary vehicle for reaching a broad market? One
of our employees here at NSPG recently took a cruise on
a Holland America ship. What he saw on that trip
confirmed two interesting concepts that we have long
held. The first of these
is that there are many free online opportunities to
market your company that will actually reach your target
market.
Until recently, reliably
reaching the over 40 market via the Internet was
unreliable at best. The over 50 online market was
very small. So how do we know that this has
changed? One bit of evidence of the changing
online landscape was obvious on the cruise.
As with most cruise lines,
Holland America offers educational lectures during its
cruises. These lectures are typically about
the history or geography of the places the ship will
visit, and are just given a couple of times during the
cruise. This cruise was different. Every day of
the cruise, a Microsoft representative taught courses on
Internet access, blogging, and uploading and storing
pictures on the web. These lectures took place at
least four times each day.
 So,
you have a ship filled with people who are closer to 75
than to 40. How many people would show up for
these classes? Unexpectedly, it looked like most
classes were full. The modern computer lab with at
least 20 computers and a projection system was filled
with retired people learning to use the web just like their
kids and grandkids. This shows the increasing
breadth of the online market. It's not just kids
and geeks anymore.
For
most companies who want to reach this huge market, there
are free and low cost steps that can be accomplished
very quickly to be sure your company can be seen.
First, start with the
giants - Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Each of these
companies has millions of users, and will put your
information out there for free. Here's where you
can go to submit your business to these giant sites:
Google Local
Yahoo Local
Microsoft Live Local
There are a number of
"Yellow Pages" type of listing services on the web.
These sites are more limited than the generic search
sites. They have the advantage of being shown on
the giant's search sites, so they can multiply your web
presence.
Localeze
is a company that sells listing to other sites, so one
entry can give you multiple exposures in your target
area.
SuperPages
YellowPages
The fastest growing
segment of FaceBook and MySpace users are over 40 year
old women. They sign up to reconnect with their
past and to communicate with their current friends and
colleagues. You can set up a company page on each
of these services that highlights your business and
especially your service area as a way to connect with
this growing market. You can register here:
MySpace
FaceBook
  Many
associations and trade groups like
Nexstar and
QSC
provide member listings for consumers. Take a look
at the website for any association you belong to to see
if they can send some business your way.
NATE Certified Contractor
Finally, having even a
small web page for your company can really pay off.
You can link from most of the local listings to your web
site to allow potential clients to learn more about your
company. Having a web site can also improve your
placement in the searches your client do. Many of
the local listing companies, Yahoo, and Microsoft offer
inexpensive web hosting that typically costs less than
$10 per month. Most hosts provide template based
page construction, so setting up your page can be easy.
Drumming up business using low or no cost on line tools makes sense for
most companies. With the broadening of the market
to all age and income segments, it would be a mistake to
ignore the Internet in your marketing plans.
By now you may be
wondering what the second things is that we took away
from the cruise experience. On Holland America, as
with most cruise lines, they add a gratuity to your bill
for every day you are on the ship.
 Most employees on cruise ships are almost
ridiculously friendly and helpful. Given the long
hours, it's hard to believe that they can perform so
well. Another well known fact about cruising is
that a large majority of the people on cruises are
over retirement age.
The power of good service
was illustrated in a very vivid way on this cruise.
On top of the automatic $11/person/day gratuity, many passengers
actually tipped individual crew members personally at
the end of the cruise. "Fixed income" passengers
voluntarily paid more for excellent service! The
superior service they received on the cruise was worth
more to them. In fact, there was a rush on the
last day of the cruise to book again with Holland
America.
Free online advertising
can be a way to reach your target market of clients who
are willing to pay for the superior services your
company provides.
National Standard Price Guide & Numbers Cruncher Hints
 Both the Price Guide and Numbers Cruncher have a button
to easily send us your data files with just a couple of
mouse clicks.
For the Price Guide users who want to have their
Flat Rate Books printed by us, this is the easiest way
to get your data files to us. You can also use this
button to get your file to
us to take advantage of our data evaluation services.
A single
click on the Send File button will compress your data
file and send it to our secure support server. No
fighting your email attachment limits or trying to
figure out how FTP works. Just click and go.
Getting your
data to us for your custom printed books, and the
Premium Numbers Cruncher Review Service has never been
easier.
- - - - - - -
Give Mike Conroy a call to
discuss your business, your numbers, your performance
benchmarks, or your flat rate
books. Take advantage of his experience working
with hundreds of companies like yours to help you achieve your own business success.
Measure Monthly, Adjust Quarterly
& Achieve Your Annual Profit Goals
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