1. Be Loyal to Your Brand: You can’t be everything to everybody.  Find your niche.  Tell people of the benefits of buying your products or doing business with your company, and then tell them over and over and over again.

2. Tie-ins with Not-For-Profits: Simply donating a portion of your sales for a given period can help draw new customers.  Their support for the cause is your first bond; now build on it.

3. Keep it Fresh: With all of the competition in today’s market, it is easy for your standard products and services to be overlooked.  When marketing, dare to be different.  It is essential to grab consumers’ attention, and keep it.  Try not to use common phrases like, “The coffee’s always on,” “Plenty of free parking,” “We give great service…” Advertising experts agree that the most powerful words to use in your copy are “New,” “Improved,” and “Free.”

4. Inspire Action: As mentioned before, you need to grab consumers’ attention and draw it to your product.  If you are not going to make them laugh, make them think.  Allude to something that strikes emotion, passion, or fear, and they will remember you.  Then inspire them to do something or give them options of what needs to be done in response to their thoughts towards what has been conveyed.

5. Keep customer contact: It is important to know who your core customers are.  Even if there are too many to know personally, keep them informed, enticed, and thanked.  Have a record of e-mail, phone, mailing info, etc., for sending out coupons, announcements, newsletters, thank you’s, and whatever else you might have for them.  It takes a lot more money to attract new customers than to keep track of your previous ones.