Market like the big boys

According to the most current data released by the U.S. Census Bureau (2007), more than half of all businesses are operated primarily from someone’s home.

In more recent years, even more people have found themselves in a position where exploring self-employment is necessary or desirable.

Technological advancements are continually making running a business from the comfort of home easier and cheaper.

However, as “easy” as it is to launch a home-based business, the one area where many entrepreneurial start-ups fall short is with marketing. They may fail to plan for it, not understand it or if they do, often do it haphazardly.

How does a company go from launch mode into really selling products?

As a new monthly feature, we’re going to be exploring ways for home-based business owners to raise awareness about their products, drive traffic to their websites, convert prospects to sales, and maintain loyalty among their customer base.

Done well, this translates to business growth.

We’ll look at tactics big businesses use — public relations, social media campaigns, email campaigns, etc. — and translate the lessons learned from them into useful applications for small businesses.

We’ll also talk about budgeting for marketing and when to call on the assistance of professionals.