For about 75% of these calls, once I ask them what they have been doing up to this point with regards to marketing and public relations, it quickly boils down to very little.  Granted the majority of businesses in our field are small to mid-size firms, but in today's marketplace if you want to rapidly increase sales you need to have a marketing and public relations program.

Up until about a decade ago many marketing and public relations functions were expensive and at times complicated.  This put many of the things companies should be doing out of reach of smaller firms with tight budgets.  With the internet revolution this has all changed, but unfortunately many businesses still have preconceived ideas that go back to the 80s and 90s.

So what ideas do I have to help you economically reach thousands or even hundreds of thousands of customers and potential customers?

First understand the difference between sales and marketing.  Sales and marketing are two terms that are often incorrectly used interchangeably.  This is generally a mistake since sales and marketing are two separate functions that although complimentary in nature, work in very unique and different ways.

The role of marketing is not necessarily to make direct sales.  Now you may be saying wait a minute, then why do it.  Here's why, the role of marketing is to create situations, and the right conditions, for sales to occur.  Marketing also creates qualified leads and keeps existing customers coming back to you.

Marketing supports sales efforts and is often one of the major avenues for creating qualified leads for future sales.   Many marketing tools need to be present before sales can even take place.  For example, marketing creates the branding, company literature, website and other company pieces that sales relies on to generate leads, convey the company message and help close the sale.

With that understanding here are some things you should be doing to build your business, with links to in-depth articles, that won't break the bank:

Press Release: Article 1 Article 2

Social Media: Article 1

Online Videos: Article 1 Article 2

Online Newsletter: Article 1

Publish Articles: Article 1

Media Coverage: Article 1

Tradeshows: Article 1 Article 2

Maximizing Website: Article 1

These are just a few things to implement in your company's marketing and public relations efforts.  Do remember that these functions take time to build momentum.  I often use the analogy that marketing and public relations are like an old steam locomotive.  You can't just push a button and be rolling full speed ahead.  It takes a lot coal shoveled into the engine to get things going and this correlates to the efforts and repetition needed in marketing and public relations.