marketingI’ve been running a local college tutoring business for about a year and a half now, and I’d like to generate more business. Marketing is challenging because our customer base turns over every 2 years (new students arrive, old students finish the difficult intro classes or graduate).
So far, our success has stemmed passively from our online presence and search ranking. Potential customers find us on Google, rather than us actively targeting students.
My marketing director thinks we should do more active marketing, specifically handing out promo items like pencils, 4-function calculators, etc. This might increase our brand recognition, but I’m not certain if it’d be worth the expense. We’d have to pay for the items, and then pay someone to hand them out. And, I feel like college students usually have enough clutter and crap dumped on them by other local businesses.
So, my question is - do promo items work?
Freebies work, but not the kind that your marketing director is suggesting for a business of your size.
There are two types of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs):
As a disclaimer, I’m admittedly biased since I advocate the second type to my customers.
Still, I sincerely believe that most startups and small businesses need that second type of CMO – the first type is primarily of interest to larger corporations.
The freebies you are interested in are actually of the info-product type. Chiefly:
The goal each time is to capture an email and feed it drip email that actually converts.
Ideally, you sell info-products using this channel too. Put customers in a situation where they’re doing repeat business with you, because it’s easier to sell your $X,XXX service after selling an $XX eBook.
In the event it needs to be stated, you want to deliver this type of thing to qualified leads – which is to say leads that actually need and can afford what you have to offer.
And as an aside, much of the same thought pattern applies for ads.
Do promo items work?
Absolutely. Like 5% or more conversion rate kind of works when done right. Aim for 10% or more with the right audience or with affiliates that pre-sell in the loop.
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