MARKETING TIPS

by Ken Mitchell

The festive time of year brings with it many opportunities for businesses to promote themselves to both their current clients as well as potential new clients in inexpensive ways.

Some low cost ways to say thanks for your custom and promote your business include such simple things as emailing or phoning your clients with a personal message of thanks.   For email you can expand this impact by including a hypertext link to a specially designed Christmas message on your web site  - there are many fun Christmas messages available or design your own.   Don’t forget to invite at least your key clients to a thank you function such as drinks & nibblies at the office or at one of the many suitable restaurants in Canberra.   Most business is repeat business based on relationships and festive opportunities strengthen those person-to-person relationships.   These are usually best kept simple and undertaken at a relatively low cost.

Also consider some exciting event opportunities such as the Tennis and SummerNats in Canberra in January.   Both are major events that may be attractive for many businesses to involve themselves in some form.   The tennis is an ideal event for businesses to invest in a small low cost sponsorship package that enables them to invite key clients to join them to sit, relax and enjoy some of the best tennis available in Australia.   This places you alongside your key clients in an ideal atmosphere where you can both discuss the tennis and business in an informal way.   This growing form of sponsorship has proved to be highly effective for a wide variety of events.   Also, exhibiting at SummerNats must be one of the best low cost opportunities in Canberra to get your products to the attention of several key markets including the under 30 year olds market and the families markets.   A small investment in a sponsors display area could put your brand name and products in front of over 100,000 potential new clients in a few days.   Many sponsors of SummerNats are surprised how much business they do at the event and with the follow-up business after the event.

Yes, the festive season is full of marketing opportunities.   Merry Xmas.

Ken Mitchell is the CEO of Australian Marketing & Research Services and can be contacted on 62576677w, or kenmitch@dynamite.com.au