When times are tough, something slightly outrageous may capture a potential client’s attention, leading to a meeting where you can demonstrate the benefits of doing business with your firm. Why not try one of these 10 affordable marketing tips today?

1.   Send a singing card asking to earn their business.

2.   Send a letter stating you have ‘targeted’ their company to do business with.

3.   Send a lottery ticket with the message ‘I hope you are lucky so we can earn your business today’.

4.   Send a gift certificate from your favourite coffee chain, inviting them to have a cup of coffee on you.

5.   Send an email with information about their profession or industry such as a salary survey or new research about jobs in their industry.

6.   Send a fax with a cartoon about their business, stating you want to earn their business.

7.   Give them the top 10 reasons they should use your business with a few testimonials from clients.

8.   Email some current news that is relevant to their business to them saying you hope they learned something new from this bit of news.

9.   Send a crumpled letter in an envelope that states “I have pre-crumpled this letter to save you the time of throwing it in to your wastebasket. The real purpose for the letter is to introduce our company to you.”

10.  Last but not least — don’t even attempt to market to a client until you are ready to send something five times in a row. You can do this every two weeks or monthly. 

Target — then market.

BUSINESS TIP:  Brainstorm with your staff to identify ONE clever marketing tool TODAY that will get your customers’ attention.

(Patricia Drain is a US-based business consultant who has built and sold four recruitment businesses.)