by day Conrad Levinson (NAPSA)—Technology makes life easy, doesn’t it? Internet banking can be done 24 hours a day-—saving a trip to the bank. E- mail allows us to send a single message to many people, instantiy and without stamps. While these uses of technclogy are helpful, there is one caveat: Americans are now buried in an avalanche of information. This creates an obstacle for small businesses trying to market themselves, especially on a limited budget. Thousands of busi- nesses compete for consumer attention daily. How can a small business set itself apart from the sea of others? it cam be done hy following these simple principles: variety, frequency and memory. Use various marketing tactics that complement each other. For exarngle, if you advertise in the classifieds, consider a Web site promotion as well. Communicate often. Repetition will enable customers to remember your company’s name. Finally, make your company’s name memorahle so people think of you first when theyre ready to buy. Here’s a good example. Remember 1-860-FLOWERS? The CEO paid $9 million for a bankrupt company just to have that phone number. Their sales skyrocketed because the company marketed frequently in a variety of medi- remember! Some small businesses are finding ways to meet these three principles affordably by using services like 560 PLUS (www.S00phis.com), which offers a toll-free 500 phone number dike 1-500-CATERING), a matching Web site address (www. S00catering.com) and matching email address Gack@500catering. com). it’s tough to compete in an information avalanche! Small businesses must always stay on their marketing toes, using the principles of variety, frequency and memory to stay ahead of the competition. Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the “Guerrilla Marketing” series of books, the best-selting marketing series in history. His books have been translated into 37 longuages and more than one million capies have beensold.
