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Most of the businesses I talk to are constantly striving to maximise the return of investment in their marketing spend.

In today’s competitive environment we need to make every cent work harder for us.

Yet how are we meant to be able to also build our brand at the same time?

Once you have clarity on your target market (who you serve) and your niche (what your field of expertise), your next role is to ensure hat you understand the products and services that your ideal clients not only need but will pay for (this is step 4 in our “Biz Growth Academy” programme).

Having developed those programmes and services you role is them to make sure that your ideal clients know about them – and this is all about being effective in your marketing.

Here are five great ways that you can express your brand, market your expertise and attract more clients without spending a fortune:

1. Express your brand in your email – email is virtually free and as you probably know your email is often forwarded to others. Have you made sure that your email is up to date with details of how people can connect with you and also has a compelling call to action about one of your products and services.

   You just never know where your email may end up and with who. That’s why I update my email signature at least twice a month with a link to something I am promoting – from a new podcast to workshops and teleseminars.

2. Your branded business card – an often under utilised element of marketing collateral is your business card. Remember the saying about a world famous credit card – “never leave home without it”. Well the same goes for your business card.
   And remember to make use of both sides of your business card.

   I have what I term a referral card with details about our key programmes and how to access no-cost branding and business development resources. You might consider it a mini brochure which can sell my business even when I am not around.

3. Express your expertise in your newsletter – an ezine or online news letter is an outstanding low cost marketing tool. I recommend sending out a news letter to your clients on a monthly basis or ideally twice a month.

   A newsletter enables you to stay in the mind of your clients so when they are ready to invest in your services such as you provide, they will have received information from you in the recent past and are therefore more likely to call you as you are top of mind versus the competition. Can you think if a better way to connect with thousands of prospects and customers with an investment of only a couple of hours a month?

4. Blog your business – as an avid business blogger I have seen the benefit of blogging in my business. Not only has it enhanced my search engine rankings of my website, my articles that I have written over the last 2 years act as y unpaid sales team.

   Just this month alone I have had approaches from several journalists, event organisers and potential business partners because of the articles I have written which they found when researching online.

5. Article marketing – expressing your expertise in articles online is a strategy that fewer than 3 percent of professional services firms implement. Writing articles and then submitting them to key online marketing sites or to sites who are looking for compelling and educational content extends your reach.

   Article marketing is less difficult and time consuming than your might think and if properly executed can support you in attracting more of your ideal clients. Package those articles together and you have an information product or perhaps even your business book.

YOUR ‘BIZ GROWTH’ ACTION STEPS:

• Consider the above five ways to express your brand.
• Which of these strategies present the biggest opportunity for you and could be implemented in the next 7 days?
• Put time in the calendar to move these ideas and strategies into action. That after all is what will ensure you stand our from the crowded market of seemingly similar companies.

NOTE: Every Monday on “Biz Growth News” I make available a full length branding and business development article.

If you enjoyed this article, you may be interested in accessing more articles about branding and business development strategies to grow your practice. If so you can register to join our weekly newsletter and weekly no-cost workshops at Biz Growth Live.

TERMS OF REPRINT: You are welcome to publish this article in your own online ezine or news letter, providing the article is printed in its entirety and is left unedited and you include the copyright notice and the following statement:

©Krishna De, Oneocean Ltd 2007. All rights reserved. Reprinted from ‘Biz Growth News’ (http://www.bizgrowthnews.com/), a Oneocean Ltd publication for leaders in professional services practices, featuring inspiration, strategies and tips to build your brand, attract your ideal clients and enjoy greater success with less stress.  Subscribe today at http://www.bizgrowthlive.com/.