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Many companies focus so much on how to build revenue that they lose sight of how to make revenue through giving back to the community and building an awareness campaign or through donating to a cause for awareness to build revenue.

When making business decisions of how to thrive in a downturn or stalled economy, be sure to focus on giving back to the community and creating awareness of how your company supports causes. Brand your company as a full resource center to help businesses stay profitable in a downturn or stalled economy. Be the resource for services others no longer have staff to support. Listen to the customers, walk in their shoes, and develop a marketing message and overall company strategy to meet customer needs.

One thing my business has done in the local community is implement an annual EXHIB-IT! B2B Networking Event. This event started with the grand opening of our new location on June 11, 2008. The grand opening turned into a large networking event with over four hundred  attendees, including many of the local chambers, organizations, political officials, and business owners in the community. In turn, we gave away a FREE exhibit display valued at $1,200 to a selected nonprofit organization and unveiled the giveaway at the event. This event was such a success because of the marketing strategies implemented. Since that time, we have incorporated an annual branded EXHIB-IT! B2B Networking Event that is marketed as the “Pay It Forward” community service event. We solicit nonprofits to fill out an application which is reviewed and judged for one of the applicants to receive a free display. See link: http://www.exhib-it.com/pages/nonprofit_app.html

We ask the nonprofit organizations to set out their overall marketing strategy and how the new exhibit display would benefit their nonprofit organization. The applications are judged by different off-site organizations, and one nonprofit is selected as the winner of the display each year based on the criteria set out in the application. In 2009, we expanded our community commitment by adding a silent auction at the event with donations from various businesses around the state, with all the proceeds donated to a selected nonprofit organization each year. This has garnered both local and national press for the nonprofit organizations as well as our company.

This is one example of how to become more involved in your community, show that you are truly connected to your community, and be known as a pay it forward leader. This not only shows a true commitment, but it also demonstrates sustainability and that you can grow your business network. As you apply the principles presented in this book, you will learn to be a marketing innovator as well and when people experience the difference they will refer business to you and your business growth will pick up.

The biggest DO in marketing for the small business is to get a strategy in place to drive sales, profits, and growth. It’s a blanket answer that applies to any business, anytime, anywhere. When the buyers of your products and services are really struggling, it becomes even more apparent that your marketing efforts need to have pinpoint accuracy in terms of who you are talking to, what you are talking about, and when to get them to pledge their patronage and loyalty to your brand and not somebody else’s brand.