business marketing

When it comes to marketing, why not use one of the most popular social media platforms in existence? Facebook marketing has taken off in recent years and for good reason, it is among the best ways to get your business exposed to the masses. Read on and learn everything you need to about Facebook marketing.

Use all of the options available to you on Facebook when using it to market your business. There are so many different ways that you can customize your page, the key is knowing exactly what those options are. If you need help there are many websites, including Facebook, that can give you some insight.

If you don't have time to maintain a Facebook page for your business, you can still use Facebook for marketing. Facebook provides ads on their site which can easily be hyper-targeted towards your exact target demographic, from their sex and age to their likes and dislikes, making your campaign hyper-successful, too.

Be sure to update your Facebook page regularly. It doesn't matter how great your Facebook page is. If you're failing to update on a regular basis, you could be losing the attention of your customers. Make sure you post to the page often and answer any customer questions or feedback in a timely manner.

Give your Facebook page a really strong theme. Know what your about and deliver it in the graphical look of your page. Remember, you have one chance at making an excellent first impression on your new Facebook guests. To turn them into real fans, you've got to deliver from the first page load.

Don't ramble on your page. Don't fall into the Facebook trap of thinking more posting is best. People don't need to know every last thing you are up to. In fact, if you tend to ramble off-topic, you may actually be doing more harm than good. People follow you for a reason, so keep your focus on what you or your brand does best.

Use photos in every Facebook update that you do. People love looking at photos on Facebook. The more visual a post is, the better chance it has of actually becoming a bit viral. So don't let any opportunity to get visual pass you by, even if your trying to get a post out quickly. Take the time to make it visually great.

Do not build any apps on Facebook that require more than three or fours steps to get started. The more complicated something is, the less likely people are to want to deal with it. If someone can use one of your apps right away, they will be more likely to sign up.

Use tools to measure the power of your Facebook marketing. There are all sorts of tools out there these days to help give you an idea of how potent your Facebook marketing is. You could take a look at something like Sprout Social as a paid service or simply check out your Lout score to see if your efforts seem to be moving the needle.

Try posting to Facebook at different times during the day. If you have a habit of posting at the same time every day, you may not know if there are better times to get engagement. Every target audience is different, and what works for one time-wise might not work for another. Try posting at multiple times during the day to see when your audience is the most active.

If updates are not relevant to your business, do not share them. Take care when posting about current events so as not to bore or offend any followers. If you need to discuss controversial subjects, save it for your personal page.

Make sure that you don't allow your page to become a ghost town. If you don't have anything to post, go to your page and reply to come of your users' comments. This will give people the idea that you actually care about then as individuals and their loyalty is important to you.

Look for opportunities to become a leader. Facebook can help you build your authority online in your niche. MB 712 irons for sale Try to find ways to answer questions or make insightful comments in your niche area. You will earn respect and admiration, which will in turn earn you more followers!

Leave the comment feature turned on to be sure that people can leave posts on your page. Although keeping inappropriate comments off your page is important, you need to leave comments on to show users you care about what they think.

As you now know, Facebook marketing can be extremely advantages in helping your business grow. It won't be easy, and there is a lot of work involved, but if you use the information given earlier, there is no reason why it can't work for you. Implement the tips mentioned and take your business to a whole new level.

As marketers...

We wear two hats.

We put on our creative hats when we are in the product development stage, when devising a marketing campaign, and when we are getting our messaging just right for the ideal customer.

But we actually wear our scientific hat throughout the whole process especially in the testing and tracking phase.

That's right...

I'm going to help you bring out your inner scientist by walking you through the scientific method and comparing it to the marketing process.

Shall we begin?

The Scientific Marketing Method

1. Ask questions

How will you customize your marketing campaign in order to drive traffic to a website? What exactly are you doing here? What is the purpose of your site?

2. Do background research

Identify your target market, look at what your competition is doing, and analyze your own online presence.

3. Form a hypothesis

Based on the background research you just did, how do you expect your marketing campaign will perform once it's set in place.

4. Test hypothesis

Here, you will launch your marketing campaign while gathering data from the performance that you will in turn analyze.

5. Analyze the data

What work, and what didn't work in the marketing campaign? How did your hypothesis stack up against the actual results. You'll find all the info you need in the extensive data you gathered.

6. Communicate your results.

Organize your information and make a conclusion out of your results. Can you reproduce or improve the results? Could another individual duplicate these results?

Just as the actual scientific method is crucial to proper experimentation, so to is the scientific marketing method important when starting a marketing plan or constructing a campaign.

These are the type of things that should be going through your mind without conscious effort. Otherwise you'll do things at random and if by some stroke of luck you produce good results, you'll never know how to replicate it.

And replication is key. If someone else can not use your exact method, and come away with the same (or at least similar results), then it could mean that something is wrong with your technique. Although, marketing at times can be pliable in nature, it's still best to test again.

Wear your scientist hat early and often especially when your testing and tracking different techniques.

When you're dealing with dollars, this is extremely important. Never throw money to the wind unless you know where it's going.

Or...

Unless you throw it my way;)

If you found this post valuable, feel free to leave your thoughts below in the comments. Also visit my blog located in the resource box below.

Corey Henry is an internet marketing virtuoso who specializes in helping would-be marketers find their white hot centers and explode in their respective market places. If you want to discover more spectacular articles such as this one...

Visit his blog at: http://www.new-market-secrets.com

If, in 2009, the amount of Internet users in United States of America was 227,719,000, now it has astoundingly elevated to 488,005,400. Given the following consumer population accessible on-line, it's not at all surprising that many companies are beginning to realize the huge possible of Internet advertising in doubling their sales and enhancing their profit margin.

With more and more companies getting into the web marketing bandwagon, the harder it is to establish a strong on-line presence. If you want to usually be ahead of one's competitors, you have to make certain your Internet advertising strategy includes inventive and innovative strategies which will make your business stand out from the rest. One excellent Internet marketing method you are able to make use of is on-line video marketing. Just so you know, on-line video marketing is really a extremely efficient technique for attracting prospective customers to go to your website and look for much more pieces of information about the products or services you are selling. Compared to other Web advertising strategies, online video marketing has consistently ranked the highest when it comes to attracting online consumers to visit your website. If you wish to improve your brand awareness and boost purchase intent, then you certainly have to consist of on-line video marketing on your Web advertising plans. When done and implemented correctly, online video advertising can improve your sales by 50%.

Although other Web marketing methods can undoubtedly be effective in bringing much more customers to your site, nothing beats the ability of video marketing to actively engage consumers. With an informative video, you right away establish credibility therefore generating it simpler for consumers to trust you. Though informative articles can always do the trick, nothing beats human-to-human contact. A person speaking through an online video is a lot much more effective in disseminating info than any other Web advertising means.

There are many ways on how you are able to use on-line video marketing to additional increase your online presence. Though some businesses use on-line videos to demonstrate their products and services, it is much better if you use this tool to teach and impart knowledge to people. For example, online tutorials are very popular. If you can somehow produce a easy tutorial about whatever products or services you are providing and proceed to explain how individuals can benefit from your provides, then surely your business will probably be a hit online. Apart from online video tutorials, you can also present your client testimonials through on-line videos. Needless to say, a customer voicing out his satisfaction with regards to your services is a lot more efficient than a written testimonial; just make certain the video is well documented and has clear audio.

No one desires to watch an unprofessional blurry video. Make certain that prior to you post and share any on-line videos about your business, you first consult having a internet video production specialist if the video is clear enough to encourage consumers to visit your web site. If, following evaluating the content of your video also as its technicalities, he approves, then by all means post your video online and observe how it increases your site visitors and sales.

Direct mail can change your entire life and business philosophy. That may sound like hype, but it's not: that's exactly happened to me and my wife. When we first started our business, we built $300.00 -- that's right, just three hundred dollars -- into income of about $16,000.00 a month in less than a year. We were doing well just by running space ads in national magazines and pyramiding the proceeds to buy more ads to attract new customers -- just as a lot of other small business people are still doing. But once we started working with our mentor, experienced direct marketer Russ Von Belcher, we stopped focusing solely on chasing after new customers and started to mine the money available in reselling to existing customers by appealing to them through direct mail.

Within nine months, we were making about $25,000.00 a week using the direct mail methods Russ taught us. I know direct mail marketing works, because I'm one of its many success stories.

We used to hire Russ to come to our home in Kansas and work with us over the weekend. At that time, Russ charged us $2,500 for a weekend of his time and expertise. He's an absolute master when it comes to making money with direct mail, and I was privileged to watch the master to work. We'd pick him up at the airport on a Friday night and, starting very early Saturday morning, we'd sit around the dining room table and talk about all kinds of products and services our customers might be interested in, as well as new promotions. Russ would get excited about something that we were talking about, and he'd start writing on one of the many legal pads we had waiting for him there.

Meanwhile, Eileen and I would sit back in awe, watching him writing fast and furious, as quickly as he could; and when he'd stop, we'd talk more, drink some more coffee, and eat some good food. Then he'd be at it again. He was taking all the ideas we were expressing, and translating them onto his legal pads as he wrote the sales letters. When he left on Sunday, we'd stop by the typist's house and drop off all those pads to have them typed out and saved to a floppy disk. Then I'd tweak the copy he wrote, send the resulting sales letters out to our customers, and start raking in the profits.

Somewhere along the line I said to myself, "I want to learn how to do this." It took me eight years to learn it to my satisfaction -- and I'm still learning. It's a fascinating, lifelong process.

Direct mail marketing sounds simple, but doing it well is not. Sure, it's just a matter of taking ideas for new, related products and services, writing simple sales letters communicating those ideas, putting them into envelopes, and sending them to your best customers -- people who have already bought something from you before. That's as simple as it can be. But most businesses aren't doing that. They're doing what Eileen and I did before we met Russ: constantly chasing new customers, not doing enough to sell additional products to their existing customers.

Once we started using direct mail to sell to existing customers, Russ helped us learn how to use direct mail to create sales letters for new customers -- those who were interested in the kinds of things we were selling, but had never done business with us before. That's when the millions came pouring in. You get an incredible feeling when you put together your first direct mail package and the orders start arriving. It's exciting, addictive, and profitable. So: let's take a look at the main advantages of direct mail marketing, and why you should make it a part of your business.

Advantage #1: Direct mail works. It's like a recipe: Follow the instructions, and you'll get the results you desire. Forget that so many other people aren't using it. Don't be restricted by the fact that may it not have worked for you before. You didn't know then what you'll know by the time you finish reading this article.

Advantage #2: It works for everyone, including small businesses. In your local marketplace, you probably won't have much direct mail competition, if any. You'll have a chance to run right past your competitors and become the dominant business in your field. Even if you run a regional or national business, the chances are good that none of your competitors are doing what you can do with direct mail.

Advantage #3: Direct mail is targeted marketing. You can pick and choose people who've bought services and products similar to yours in the past. Most other forms of advertising don't allow this. Those methods waste most of your advertising on people who aren't interested in what you offer, spraying your message out to people from all walks of life, just a tiny fraction of whom are your best prospects. Direct mail makes it easy for you to choose only the people you want to reach -- and then to reach them in a personal way. You're actually sending a letter to someone, communicating via a printed letter, one-on-one. Always act as though you have something special to say to one special person. That's what makes direct mail so personable.

Advantage #4: Almost no one knows these secrets. If they know anything about direct mail, it's usually very basic; they understand it involves mailing things to prospects, usually postcards. They may have tried it, and found it didn't work for them. Again, that's because they're doing it wrong. They don't understand the industry or the methods -- not even the basics, let alone its intricacies. As shipping magnate Aristotle Cassis once said, "The secret to business is to know something nobody else knows." That's true of direct mail. If you can learn to understand direct mail marketing at a basic level, and you're willing to focus your efforts on it, the rest can come later. It takes a lifetime to master, but you can earn while you learn.

Advantage #5: Direct mail gives you an unbeatable lead, almost an unfair advantage, over other marketers. It's a stealthy way to promote your offers to your marketplace, because your competitors may have no idea what you're doing. The only way they'll learn is if someone tells them, or if they get on your mailing list somehow.

Advantage #6: Direct mail marketing is scalable, whether up or down. With an initial test, when you're just getting started with an offer, you'll want to keep the volume low. If the market responds, you crank the dial up, mailing out more pieces. If it doesn't, you try another offer. Whether or not you scale up and down may also depend on the marketplace you're in. If the whole Internet is your marketplace and you have millions of potential customers, then even a small return may make it worth cranking up the volume. If you're in a small local economy, with thousands or tens of thousands of potential customers at most, you'll require a greater response. Always check your numbers and always test, and you can continue to grow your business.

If you don't think you can handle all that work yourself, hire more employees. This is especially true if you're a one-man band, because your ability to grow is limited by your ability to perform. Let other people do some of the work; act as the brain behind it, the person who directs and facilitates it. This method can work whether you mow lawns for a living, own a small mechanic shop, or you're an electrician and think you don't need to advertise because you have all the business you can handle right now. Build a team you pay to do most of the actual work. Don't limit yourself by thinking small.

Advantage #7: You can segment your customer list, so certain offers go out only to specific groups of customers. Your very best customers -- the people who spend the most money with you -- will get offers the rest of your customers don't; so even within your customer base, there's stealth selling going on. Your other lists won't even see an offer unless it's a hit with your best customers, whereupon you carefully introduce it to everyone you think might buy it.

Advantage #8: You can make grand offers with a much better chance of success than most advertising methods. One of my personal heroes is P.T. Barnum, one of the founders of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey circus. He was an incredible entrepreneur, involved in all kinds of businesses. Many good biographies have been written on the man, and it's worth it to study his life -- because he understood marketing at a deep level, which helped him become one of the world's richest men in his day.

Barnum once said, "Most business people are trying to catch a whale using a minnow as bait." They throw together small direct mail flyers or postcards that aren't connected to any kind of strategy. Those campaigns fail to produce, so they give up and declare that direct mail doesn't work. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Direct mail beats the pants off all other kinds of marketing and advertising methods. You'll see one of the reasons for that with our next advantage:

Advantage #9: Done correctly, direct mail marketing does a complete job of selling. It's like a salesperson in an envelope -- one who never gets sick, never complains, never wants a raise, and works 24 hours a day. If done correctly, it's disruptive -- which is precisely what you want it to be. I was involved in the business for years before I really understood the full impact of the word. Direct mail has to be disruptive in order to catch people's attention. Yes, people still sort their mail over a trash sometimes, not paying close attention to all the direct mail they're getting; but it's still far more disruptive than any other method, except for a live salesperson.

Think about how easy it is to delete your e-mail; you don't even have to read it. Direct mail is far more disruptive than email; it gets in the way and drives in that little wedge that's necessary in order to get the right people to pay attention. It seems like everybody's in love with whatever's new, and direct mail is old-fashioned -- so most people ignore it. Yes, it's old news, but it works better than all those fancy innovations.

Advantage #10: Direct mail can make you big money. My company has generated over $150 million in gross direct mail revenue in 24 years, and my wife and I are the most average people you'll ever meet; you'd never pick us out of a lineup of successful people. Yet direct mail marketing has been responsible for almost all of the millions of dollars that have come pouring into our little company. Our headquarters are in Grosse, Kansas. If you didn't know it was an hour north of Wichita, you wouldn't be able to find it on a map. You probably still wouldn't find it.

Now, we love Kansas and are passionate about our state, but we also recognize it for what it is. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and we like it that way. But although we're in a town of just a few hundred people, we're generating millions of dollars with direct mail. That should inspire you. This is something that really can make you a lot of money.

If there's a single business tip that will profit you more than any other, it's this: you have to sell more things to more people more often for more profit with every transaction. Everything else is details. But such details! You have to figure out all the ways and means, strategies and methods; and you have to get it all right. But it's still just selling more to more people more often for more profit per transaction. Direct mail marketing is the ultimate way to do that. You're in full control of every aspect of the process.

Yes, there's a learning curve. You have to be willing to both learn and practice. Try to make it fun and exciting; but even if you don't feel that way about it, just keep your eyes on the prize. You can earn incredible amounts of money while you're learning, and even more when you've mastered direct mail. There's simply no better way to use that little formula of selling more stuff to more people more often for more profit every time than direct mail.

Check the other articles I'll be posting in the next few days and months, where I'll provide secrets on everything from the best direct mail marketing methods to copywriting tips. I think you'll soon realize that this really is the best way to go forward for most businesses. So dig in deep and really use these methods I'll teach you here -- and you'll end up light years ahead of the competition.

In addition to his other articles posted on this website, you can get 1,000 pages of Mr. Prophesiers' greatest marketing and success secrets absolutely free by going to http://www.6159FreeSecrets.com.

Having a sound Internet marketing plan will take you places, and you need to realize that there are many unknown variables that you'll only discover as you progress. It only seems to be sensible that some direction and clarity of purpose is in order for any business. Each step along the way will be the right step, and that is thanks to your clear plan. There is often no getting around some speed bumps along the way, but things can be a lot simpler. The article below talks about three useful tips to help you strengthen your Internet marketing plan.

If you are not even sure of where you are heading with your business, then that has to be cleared up prior to making a plan. So, just stop doing everything until you figure out what it is you want from life - find your goals. As you know, there are enough challenges out there, and you do not need to make things unnecessarily difficult for you. So, learning what your real goals and aspirations are is an integral aspect of this entire process. It is normal for people to evolve in different ways which is a good reason to validate your own goals from time to time.

No matter how small your web business is, you must begin brand marketing as early as possible. Give your prospects something that will help you carve out a better brand. Remember that when you are branding, one o the things you are doing is relationship marketing. When you are branding your self, you are really marketing your self which means it goes in the plan. Branding helps with your audience and how they perceive and connect with you.

Include your website in your internet marketing plan. It's a part of your overall online marketing strategy. So ensure that your website has all of the essential items. Put your subscription box in a place that is very prominent. See to it that your site's not lacking in any way. You can only do this with a working plan. Also, jot down what type of software is needed. This lets your plan and stay on track.

Creating your internet marketing plan is vital if you want to have a business that really succeeds.

But even though new strategies keep coming up every now and then, the core tactics remain the same. Your Internet marketing plan helps you master these very basics that are required to build a strong foundation. People who operate with increased levels of organization and purpose tend to do better in business. Those who are smart will do this and make it the best they can because they know it will help them.

Marketing through social media can be done by anyone who knows the basic working of social networks. But are sure you are doing it the right way? You should learn from your mistakes, but it is even smarter to learn from others€™ mistakes. To ensure that the campaigns or promotional activities that you are conducting through social media are a success, it would be wise to keep these things in mind.

Set your goals

Engaging in social media is a free activity. That does€™t mean that you should just start using it as a marketing gimmick. There is no investment in any business that is free. Maybe it does not require monetary involvement, but you will be dedicating time and effort on it. To not let these investments go for a waste, know what your goals are before taking up this challenge. Whether you are using social media as a tool to promote new products or to engage your audience, you should have your goals worked out to gain from it.

Focus on content

The content that you provide is what will reflect your business. If you do not provide quality content, your reputation in the industry will automatically decline. It is necessary to highlight your objectives and focus on information that your audience is looking out for.

You should not share the same post on all your social networking accounts. Every website has its own set of readers who are looking out for information as per the trend. If you share the tweet you posted on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Four Square, what is the point of a person following you on all of them? They might as well as follow you on only one site.

Know your target audience

There is no better campaign than the one that goes viral on the web. For this, you need to focus on quality contacts. The thousand followers on your Twitter account do not matter if they are not spreading the word. You need to focus on followers who can influence their contacts. Your customers have the ability to take over the task of marketing from you. That is why it important to target the right set of audience.

You should not go about shooting mass-mailers to thousands of people without even knowing if they are interested or not. Make the option to subscribe and unsubscribe an effortless feat. You can never be sure if the e-mails even reached all the addresses, and there is always the possibility of getting spanned. This can get you blacklisted by many servers and you will end up straight in the junk folder.

Success of your campaign

The best part about social media campaigns is that you can keep a track of its effectiveness. If you are not utilizing this benefit, you are the only one on the losing end. With tools like Google Laplander, you can find out the number of visitors on your page, prospective leads and the overall success of the campaign.

Importance of communication

It is extremely important to engage your audience with the content that you are providing. Every time they post a comment, respond to them. It does€™t matter whether it is positive or negative. You have to know what is good or bad about your product or service so that you can make them even better. This is the best medium through which you can maintain a good relation with the market. They are the ones who will determine your reputation.

A lot of you have started online campaigns and gave up because you Dina€™t see the results. Social media marketing takes time to show its effectiveness. No matter what, it is important to keep your networks updated. That is the only way you will see results.

Online marketing is exciting, challenging and make your career in the internet business and yet many people who depend on internet marketing do not have a full take hold of of the fundamentals involved in online marketing. Actually, a lot of internet entrepreneurs waste a lot of time, energy and money because you do not fully understand internet marketing. Do not let this lack of understanding can undermine your income potential. Farmhand Hussein in Soulfully has over eight years of marketable hands on internet marketing & web product development knowledge and his specialties include Web Site Implementation, SEN- PPC (Paid Search), Search Engine Optimization, E-mail & Social media marketing. Farmhand Hussein has in intensity e-commerce and internet brand information with experience in elevated volume transactions and multi channel websites. Marketing is actually rather easy. Marketing is communication about a thought, product, service or company.
Farmhand Hussein Soulfully is an excited, self motivated personality, who strives to accomplish and deliver the very best, enthusiastic to pursue a profession in the energetic field of Information Technology and within working surroundings that will in attendance innovative challenges and a scope for progression. Farmhand Hussein - Soulfully have Skills Pro, Ahrefs.com, Linked, Search metrics, Link Assistant, Google Analytics, Google, Majestic SEO, SEO Google AdWords, SEO Power Suite, Microsoft Ad Center and Webmaster Tools.
Farmhand Hussein has social media skills like Facebook Advertising, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Interest etc. He has web development skills like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Blogger.com etc. He has good idea in programming language, her programming skills are C#.NET, PHP, Java, HTML & Lisp Programming, MS SQL Server & MySQL Databases and Oracle. For you to superior appreciate internet marketing and its contact with your online business you must know the answers to these questions. Marketing is broader than simple advertising or promotion that includes market research to find out what the customers are actually demanding and then just set out in order to meet their needs with the product, price and allocation method. Marketing includes market do research, deciding on products and prices, advertising and promotion, distribution and sale.
Online Marketing also covers all the behavior involved in moving goods and services from the basis to the end user including making customers conscious of products and services, attracting original customers to a product or service, keeping accessible customers interested in manufactured goods or service, and building and maintaining a client base for a product or service. Internet marketing includes these same tricks but also pulls in a variety of internet tools including web sites, email, magazines, banner advertising, blogging search engine optimization, RSS, text links, affiliates, auto responders, and other applications ecommerce.
The range of Internet marketing expenses is huge. There are a number of promotional and marketing initiatives that can cost nothing or just pennies a day while other advertising efforts can cost thousands of dollars a day. It is significant to think about your goals - both long term and short term - as well as how much each potential consumer is worth full for you. This will help you determine a budget that works for your internet marketing campaign.

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by us. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content. The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content may not always be identified.

• Have you analyzed the total market for your product or service? Do you know which features of your product or service will appeal to different market segments?
• In forming your marketing message, have you described how your product or service will benefit your clients?
• Have you prepared a pricing schedule? What kinds of discounts do you offer, and to whom do you offer them?
• Have you prepared a sales forecast?
• Which media will you use in your marketing campaign?
• Do your marketing materials mention any optional accessories or added services that consumers might want to purchase?
• If you offer a product, have you prepared clear operating-and-assembly instructions if required? What kind of warranty do you provide? What type of customer service or support do you offer after the sale?
• Do you have product liability insurance?
• Is your packaging likely to appeal to your target market?
• If your product is one you can patent, have you done so?
• How will you distribute your product?

1. Have a clearance party. If you need to clear out leftovers from holiday time, make an event out of it. Maybe give customers who turn up first pick of your new merchandise, too.
2. Take a poll. Now is a great time to involve customers -- letting them help shape your plans for 2012. Give limited-time coupons to participants and up your winter traffic. Then, when you give customers exactly what they asked for, they'll flock back.
3. Trim expenses. This lull is a great time to revisit all those niggling little costs that bug you, but you never have time to address. Get new, competitive bids on your phone service, insurance, copying, shipping, accounting and any other outsourced, independent services. Remember, spending less grows your net income just as much as selling more does.
4. Network. Take advantage of the downtime to get to those networking events you've been meaning to attend. Or maybe start a new mastermind group of local business owners and play host. 
5. Buy closeouts. Be on the lookout for stores that are closing down after the holidays, and see what you can snap up at bargain prices. You can also attend merchandise auctions, or hit closeout websites online. In this economy, there should be tons of activity for the next couple of months, as retail losers ditch their leftovers. Remember, the secret of many big retail chains' profits is end-caps full of $1 items they bought for a penny.
6. Look for opportunities. Are new retail spaces opening up near you? January is a time when desperate landlords make deals to keep stores occupied. If competitors are going bust or scaling back, it might be time to market more aggressively to capture market share.
7. Learn. Take a class, attend a conference, or connect with a mentor. Read more widely to understand trends in your industry. Make sure you're keeping up with the technology you need for success -- if you're boggled by how to make your website more mobile-friendly or how to create an app, now's the time to solve it. Increasing your knowledge and skills now will lay the groundwork for success in 2012, no matter what the economy does.