Marketing Tips: More Customers with Less Advertising

I’m upset with Archos, a company that makes high-end portable media players.  My new unit broke after using it just twice, and the company didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in helping me, or even keeping my future business.  I returned the broken unit for repair.

They kept me waiting for 30 minutes on the phone to speak to someone.  Then I discover that they apparently have some kind of insane policy where they offered me a new unit at a 15 percent discount.  That in itself is okay, but I would have had to let them keep the original unit.  So I would have paid for TWO units, and only have ONE.  Er, that doesn’t seem quite right.  They get to repair it then sell it on for profit, at MY expense.  Not the way to treat customers as far as I’m concerned.

On to business.  How do you get more customers without it costing you an arm and a leg?  That’s the question posed to me this week, and the answer will work for virtually any business, so take note!

What about all those long overdue jobs around the house — will they ever get done?  Well, fret not.  I have a handy solution in the form of a simple Web site where you can outsource any such maintenance or repair that needs to be done.

Finally, our big marketing lesson is from a newspaper.  Really.  I found one that’s doing a good job at marketing using a simple graphic on the front page that takes up just a couple of inches of space.  It’s a no-brainer marketing strategy, and I’ll give you a few pointers about how you can adapt it for your own business, regardless of the niche you’re in.

Let me know your opinion about the show – simply write a comment below.

Enjoy the show!

Andrew Lock is a self-described maverick marketer and the creator and host of Help! My Business Sucks, a free, weekly Web TV show full of practical marketing tips, advice and resources to help small businesses “get more done and have more fun.”