Fortune_Hunter - 2:17 am on May 14, 2008 (gmt 0)

I won't do cold calling. I think I would rather smash my thumb with a hammer :0 Ok, maybe not that far, but close. I also don't happen to think it is very effective. Most people catch the cold calls in their voice hell and never return the call anyway.

I have found networking, some direct mail, and volunteering for organizations/causes to be my most lucrative forms of marketing. Networking is a biggie. I use a group called BNI (Business Networkers International) and a few local chambers and/or organizations. That seems to provide a fairly steady source of leads and the conversations from introduction to signing on the dotted line move much faster if the lead came from a referral.

Volunteering has been a mixed bag. Sometimes it hits well and produces a few good clients sometimes it uses a ton of time and I get nothing other than the good feeling of helping a cause out.

Direct mail has been my worse producing marketing, but still produces a few leads here and there and reaches out in bigger numbers and area than I can typically cover with networking so I keep doing it.