Small Business Marketing Tip: Networking Rule #1

Whenever a small business marketing person meets with another to network, I advise that small business marketing person to ALWAYS come prepared with a leave behind. A leave behind is a relevant marketing tool that's given to another to help them understand better what the small business person's company does.

I should hasten to add that a proper leave-behind is in addition to a business card. A business card is simply a printed form of an introduction ("Hi, I'm Jay Lipe with Emerge Marketing and here's my card").

A leave behind is any information or marketing tool that builds upon the conversation taking place. Some of the most common leave behinds I see used by my small business marketing clients are:
* Brochures
* White papers
* Articles of interest
* Case studies
* Article reprints
* DVD's or CD's containing information about your company

There are probably hundreds of others, but the point remains: As a matter of course always provide a leave-behind at the close of any networking meeting. It helps deepen your guest's understanding of your business, provides them something to store in their files and provides them with an opportunity to pass along something about your company to others. Not to mention it's a nice gesture to leave someone with a "gift".

Like what you read here? I cover a host of practical small business marketing tips like this in my newsletter Marketing Tips & Tools.