Translation Practice: English Texts
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Low-Cost Business Promotion
Business promotion is to running a successful business as practicing scales is to playing the piano well; it may not be a thrilling activity in itself, but you just have to do it! The first axiom of business promotion is that you have to do this consciously. You can't rely on other people to do it for you, no matter how great your product or service is.
The second axiom of business promotion is that like every other aspect of your business, it's a budgeted activity. But business promotion doesn't have to be expensive. Here are a few inexpensive ways to promote your business:
1) Use every outgoing piece of paper, and every electronic document as business promotion.
You have business cards, but you also put out a lot of other documents in the course of doing business. Check these to make sure you're using their promotional possibilities to full advantage. For instance, business stationery is an ideal business promotion tool. Is your business name, logo, contact information (including URL if you have one), and slogan on your envelopes as well as on your letterhead? You're sending it out anyway, so why not make it work for you?
2) Use buddy marketing to promote your business.
For example, if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you. This gives you the chance to reach a whole new pool of potential customers. You might also plan and carry out business promotions with complementary businesses. A pet store and a pet grooming business, for example, might use shared advertising, or run a contest together. This can considerably cut down the cost of business promotion, and allow each business to use promotion techniques that would be too expensive to implement alone.
3) Give out freebies as business promotion.
We're all familiar with hearing or reading advertisements that promise that the first 50 people to visit a particular store will receive a free (____). You fill in the blank. It could be anything from a red rose through an ice-cream cone! Were all familiar with this kind of spot promotion because it works. People love to receive things that are free.
Besides using freebies as business promotions, you can also use them regularly as customer rewards. For example, I recently had a picture framed; the framer had attached a free picture hanger to the painting's wire, with a small card thanking me for my patronage. Its only a small thing, which certainly didn't cost him much, but as the customer, I appreciate not having to rummage through my home looking for a suitable hanger, and cant help thinking positively about the service he provides. What small, inexpensive things could you give out with your product or service that will get your customer thinking good thoughts about you? Combining business promotion with customer rewards is definitely a win-win situation.
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These ideas are just some of the ways you can promote your small business without spending a small fortune.
Translation Practice: Russian Texts
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Interpreting Practice: Interview
