This newsletter contains the following sections:

- Five direct marketing strategies for a tight budget
- Tips
- Tools
- Techniques

Five direct marketing strategies for a tight budget

Most business start-ups have little to no marketing budget. If anything, your cash reserves go to pay for the accountant and you rely on friends and relatives for marketing advice and to spread the word. Well, once you've exhausted their goodwill, here are a few low cost marketing strategies that you can use to promote your business.

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1. Shrink your focus

You can't be everything to everybody, so pick a target market that is large enough to be profitable, but small enough to be accessible. A niche market to which you can tailor your marketing can be very successful. Think of all the times you've driven clear across town because the grocer there will specially order an obscure brand of imported chutney for you. Well, by finding out what your customers really want and personalising your marketing, you can achieve a loyal clientele and a better return on your advertising dollar.

The key is to set up a learning relationship with your best customers. What products do they frequently purchase? Get their permission to email them when this product is on sale. Encourage them to subscribe to your newsletter. Remember email is free and although you can't use it to spam potential clients, you can make sure your opt-in clients always have you top of mind.

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2. Cross promotion lends itself to viral marketing

Cross promotion with other businesses is convenient for your clients and adds to their shopping experience. This further builds their relationship with you. Some cross-promotional ideas include:

• Pool mailing lists and send out joint promotional material
• Print joint promotional messages on each other's sales receipts
• Offer discounts or special services if customers buy from both you and your partner
• Hold joint promotions on each other's websites
• Stage a joint event such as lecture, demonstration, celebrity appearance or competition
• Distribute each other's promotional material in shopping bags, shopfronts or parcels

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3. Networking

Networking is a powerful strategy to increase your business's profile and in many instances it is free of charge. If you have an active and growing network of people who benefit from their association with you, you can rely on them to help you when you need it. Remember, networking isn't selling - you have to give in order to receive. You're not trying to convince anyone to buy your product. However, every time you meet someone and tell them about your business you stand the chance that

• They might use your business's services or products
• They might know someone who uses your business's services or products
• They or someone they know might supply something you need
  

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4. Publicity

People get a lot of their information about new products and services by watching television, listening to the radio and reading newspapers and magazines. Your potential clients generally see publicity as more credible than advertising. Sending out regular well-written media releases, writing articles and obtaining and giving testimonials can all be useful ways of increasing your profile.

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5. Free seminars, gifts and samples

These are useful tools to open up a dialogue with a potential customer. Anything a customer must try in order to appreciate its true value lends itself to sampling.

Tools, tips and techniques

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Tool: Using Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats to solve problems

Often when we're working on a problem we feel like we're getting nowhere fast. This is because we're trying to do too much at once. We're looking for information, affected by our emotions, trying to be creative and still be aware of the pitfalls. Edward de Bono's concept of the Six Thinking Hats is very simple. Each of the hats defines a certain type of thinking. This allows you to focus on one thing at a time.

When you wear the white hat your thinking needs to be neutral and objective. White hat thinking is all about finding the objective facts and figures. You need to be especially careful about determining whether something is indeed a fact or merely a widely held belief.

Red Hat thinking gives the emotional view. It allows the wearer to say how they feel about the problem. Red hat thinking does not call for any justification of the feeling or logical basis. It covers emotions such as fear, dislike and suspicion as well as hunches and intuition.

The Black hat is concerned with caution. When you wear this hat you need to consider risks, obstacles, potential pitfalls and the downside of any suggestion. The black hat can be used at any time. It can be used at the end of a problem solving session to see if you've covered everything or at the beginning when you are defining a problem as part of the design process.

Yellow hat thinking is positive. Its constructive and optimistic. Where the black hat looks for negatives, the yellow hat looks for the positives in any suggestion. The yellow hat is concerned with making things happen.

When you wear the green hat you are going to be searching for alternatives. The green hat is about creativity and lateral thinking. It is useful in generating new ideas and concepts.

The final hat is the blue hat. This is the control hat. It thinks about the process of thinking. The blue hat makes the decisions about which hat will be worn next. The blue hat is responsible for summaries, overviews and conclusions and maintains the discipline in the process.

Using this method allows you to explore a problem fully. By the time you use the final blue hat, the solution is normally obvious. To find out more about this method read Edward de Bono, "Six Thinking Hats" (1999). Penguin Books, England.

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Tip: Choosing a tagline that works

A tagline expresses the way your customers see you. It's an extension of your unique selling proposition rather than your mission statement. It's not always easy choosing a tagline and it's not always necessary to have one. Here are some tips for choosing a tagline:

1. Don't think in terms of features, think in terms of benefits. For example, your customers aren't buying membership, they're buying status
2. Don't make you're tagline too hip, it will date quickly
3. Don't use any idioms or slang that won't be understood by an international audience
4. Does your tagline fit anybody else's business? If your competitor can wear it then it's back to the drawingboard
5. Choose a tagline that fits your image. A slick tagline looks as out of place on a conservative law firm, as does a conservative tagline on a hip advertising agency

To analyse the effectiveness of your tagline, visit http://www.adslogans.co.uk/sloganalysis/sloganalysis.html.

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Technique: Preparing for a media interview

You would never pitch up for a job interview unprepared, so don't go into a media interview without doing some homework.

1. Be clear about what you want to communicate about your business. Write down and practice your key messages
2. Remove any jargon or long sentences and explanations. Too much information tends to bore the audience
3. If appropriate have substantiating data, anecdotes or jokes to get your point across
4. If the interview is a scheduled one, try to anticipate questions and prepare a response. Practice in front of the mirror or with a friend
5. Make sure you've read some of the journalists other work, so you can get a feel for his/her style
6. Get to know the media outlet - what type of publication or program is it? Who is their target audience? What type of angle do they typically take?
7. What is the interview format? Length? Live? Taped? Solo or multi-guests?
8. If you have interviews arranged with more than one media outlet, make sure your message remains consistent
9. The day before your interview confirm date, time, place and anticipated length of interview
10. On the day of the interview make sure you leave enough time for unexpected delays (finding the venue, parking etc.)
11. Don't schedule anything important too close to your interview as you'll probably have to wait
12. If the interview is at your office, be prepared early and have all calls and interruptions held
13. Don't ask to pre-approve a story
14. Present your information in the same format the journalist writes ie main point, then flesh out
15. if you think the journalist has misinterpreted what you said, immediately correct them
16. Don't use "no comment" - the last thing you want is for the journalist to think you are hiding something. If you do not wish to discuss a topic, give an explanation - "we respect our client's confidentiality"