Marketing

At this time of year I do hope that everyone is looking at marketing for their companies.  Over the last few years our area has been working at increasing our numbers, over the last decade our numbers of girls dropped as low as 77!  At the end of 2011 we had reached 113 girls, nearly back to our 2004 numbers of 120.

Want some simple, cheap, effective ideas for growing your company?

1. Make use of your email signature
2. Get a website & keep it updated
3. Form a relationship with your local news editor & send in press releases
4. Join a business networking group
5. Use online social media i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Localist
6. Be a guest speaker
7. Newsletters to the local community via hardcopy, or inclusion in neighbourhood newsletter or e-news
8. A notice in ALL your local schools (& repeat each term)
9. A notice out to all the churches in your area
10. Write a blog
11. Bold, simple, visible SIGN outside your meeting place
12. Tell your local Citizens Advice Bureau
13. Get profiled in local/national magazines
14. Do you have a GB number plate surround?
15. Develop an effective brochure
16. Host an info/registration day/evening
17. Have an interactive stand at community events
18. GET OUT THERE IN THE COMMUNITY
19. Send thank you's
20. Register with your local volunteer centre

Like any advertising it works best if you keep at it, keep repeating yourself.  Keep regular contact with people to form good relationships - as the saying goes its not what you know but who you know.

And finally growth takes time, at first it may seem like a lot of hard work with little or no return, but keep in mind a simple snow flake, as it gathers another it starts to move, and as it moves it picks up more, and before you know you've got a snowball.

Passion, patience, and prayer