Larry Bassani Marketing & Sales

Work your customer base. This is the most important tactic. It's always much easier to get repeat business out of an existing customer than acquiring a new one. Think of the approach of the real estate industry, that encourages several touches of a prospect a year. Keep in touch with your past customers, offer them updates and specials. Actively encourage them to do business with you again and regularly.

Budget for the slow times. When times are good, you may feel no urgency to spend money on marketing, and those funds may wind up spent elsewhere. But just like the proverbial squirrel, you should be stocking up for those lean times, so you can bring marketing and promotional firepower to bear when times get tough. Advertise and market consistently.

Too many of my clients scramble during a slump to get out there and they're essentially playing catch-up. Budget to get your message out consistently throughout the year so people are always aware of what you have to offer. Put some meat behind it: If it's Labor Day talk about what you're doing for your employees, if it's Veterans Day, talk about the support you give to veteran organizations and so on.