Video:Small Business Marketing Tips

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Transcript:Small Business Marketing Tips

You are the publicist for your company. No one can sell your product like you can. You just have to be yourself, believe in yourself, believe in your product. If I can do it, you can do it. Hello - I'm Kimberly Reiner of Momma Reiner's Fudge here for About.com.

My label says Momma Reiner's Fudge is created in a little kitchen on a little street in a little village by the sea. I'm very lucky that my business started naturally. I started making fudge when I was a little girl with my mother, and packaged it up to give as gifts for the holidays. Once I had children of my own, the instinct to make fudge kicked in. I pull up two chairs next to the stove and my two boys stand on either side of me and they stir the pot and of course they fight over who's going to lick the spoon. We'd drive up to our neighbors, they'd get out of the car, ring the doorbell - "ding dong!" Leave the fudge on the doorstep, get back in the car and we'd drive away. Who doesn't like a box of fudge. One day someone asked me if they could sell my fudge in their store, and it received a tremendous response. It gave me confidence to continue, and to build slowly, one step at a time.

Getting Into Media Marketing

Someone came in to buy a birthday gift for a food editor at the LA Times - lo and behold, Momma Reiner's Fudge ended up in the LA Times. We got a great response from the LA Times, and it gave me the idea to send samples to some other publications, and after that, Momma Reiner's Fudge just exploded. Momma Reiner's Fudge was featured on the blog, Daily Candy. And the Momma Reiner's Fudge was featured on the O List, Oprah's favorite things in Oprah magazine. From that, I made an appearance on the Martha Stewart Show - it was a great opportunity for me to teach other people how to make fudge for the holidays. And I had a great time. After that Momma Reiner's Fudge was featured as snack-of-the-day on the Rachel Ray Show. The door opened, and I decided to walk through it.

Marketing to Your Network

I do in-store demonstrations and conduct direct marketing, whenever I can. Target your audience, know who your customer is. You should absolutely have a customer sign-up form on your website and keep a list of your customers so that you can continue to communicate with them about news and information about your company. A PR person is not necessary for a small business. I think many businesses think if you don't have a PR person, you're never going to launch. Build up your reputation in your own backyard and then spread out little by little by little. Once you get your community behind you, you have the confidence to keep growing.

Internet Marketing

Then, I would do as much marketing as possible on the world wide web - it is the best way to reach potential customers. There are wonderful sites in the food industry and in every industry where you could start blogging, social networking, where people can immediately log on and learn more about your business, your dream, your ideas, your direction, what you have to offer, and where you intend to go.

The best piece of advice I can give to a new business owner is to believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, and if you don't believe in your idea and your product, no one else is going to believe in you. Your enthusiasm is catchy and makes other people want to get on board. Momma Reiner's Fudge started from an old fashioned recipe. I would like to collect other sugar recipes from across the country and then create a community of sugar-lovers, for other people who appreciate old fashion recipes. I call that the sugar connection. Anything is possible, dreams do come true.

Thanks for watching - to learn more, visit us on the Web at About.com.