Masterminding + Marketing = Success

When I started the mastermind group earlier this year, my intentions were:

1. Offer a venue for brainstorming for small business owners
2. Grow quickly and close the group
3. Build relationships and learn from others

I have accomplished my original intention. Since January of this year we are meeting twice a month and have consistently done so.

The group has not grown as quickly as I had planned or expected. Perhaps my expectations were a little unrealistic but I had always heard and thought there were many business owners out there who were lonely at the top and would appreciate the opportunity to join a group as such. Whatever the reasons, we are still in the growing stage.

My third intention has definitely met my expectations. I have three attending regularly at this time and I thoroughly enjoy the time we spend together as a group. I learn from each as they share their experiences, and as a facilitator, I gladly share information and resources that I believe are beneficial to all.

Marketing for Success

Today our meeting was focused on marketing their businesses. I researched and gathered materials for everyone to share effective methods to market online and offline, locally and nationally. One of the most important details shared today was consistency reaped rewards.

One of the members shared how she sent out direct mail letters weekly. She said it is amazing how many calls she will get six months later telling her they saved her information in case they needed her services.

I cannot stress enough the value of masterminding and brainstorming with others of like-mindedness. The other members have already made a plan to start initiating direct-mail letters in their businesses. The rewards are not just in learning but in applying what you learn.

Thinking Inside the Box Creatively

In the blog, Hard Knox Life, Dave shares with his readers a story of a Japanese company that was thinking inside the box. To read it for yourself, visit Lessons of the Square Watermelon.

Have a Marketing Dilemna? Turn it into a positive thing.

It is articles or ideas such as this that makes me know why Seth Godin is who he is. I recently ran across an entry in his blog titled The Bad Table and thought it was worth sharing with my readers. It is a great concept on how to turn a negative into a positive.

I hope you take the opportunity to read it.

Carole

Start Planning your Market Strategy Now

How many of us are either doing our "Stunt of the week" or "of the month" without a plan in place? You thought of a great idea and so now you are initiating it. Have you thought about how much more successful you would be if you actually planned different strategies throughout the weeks or months?

Just as when you are firing a weapon, you are much more effective when sending out multiple rounds then just one. I'm not saying that one round will not hit the target, but if you are to send out multiple messages you are more than likely to hit more targets. Take one day, sit down, and put your thoughts in writing to come up with an effective plan for your weeks, months, and year ahead.

Last evening I gave a presentation to a group of small business owners on marketing preparedness and guidelines to start the plan. Below is a recap of some of what was shared.

1. Narrow Your Market Focus--Examine who your best customers are and what it is about them that is unique. In most cases, 80% of your business comes from these customers. Identify who they are and strive to reach more. When the other 20% call, refer them to someone else.
2. Know Your Business (positioning)--What is it that your customers want? Figure out what that is and do it better than anyone else. One of the best ways to find this out is to do a customer satisfaction survey. Your customers will let you know why they buy from you.
3. Share the Message--What do your customers get from what you sell? What is the benefit of your product/service/etc.? Write down what the benefits of doing business with you and create ways to share them in every conversation you have about your business.
4. Presentation--Now that you have determined who your target market is, know why they buy from you, and the benefits of your business, create all your marketing materials around this. Everything about your business from website, brochures, business cards, etc., need to share this information.
5. Create section-plans in each areas of your marketing--Determine how you want to spread your message and break it down into smaller plans. Examples are: internet marketing plan, networking plan, promotional events, and the list goes on.
6. Get a calendar and set dates for completion. If you do all this planning and no follow through you have just wasted a large amount of time.

Start today to plan your marketing year. Be sure to keep track of what works best and start planning for the next year in the fall of this year. If you consistently roll out different areas of your marketing, you will reap rewards with a steady flow of customers as long as your message is clear and accurate and is portrayed correctly in your materials.

Small business owners are doers, but one thing I suggest is to hire a professional if you are not a marketing person. The expertise they offer will help you to reap greater rewards.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Key Marketing Methods for 2008

I am busy working on other projects that take top priority but wanted to continue actively blogging and sharing with my readers, so I found this great article with good content to perhaps motivate you to do something new or different for 2008.

I hope you enjoy the article.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.


Key Marketing Methods for 2008
Copyright © 2007 Sam Law and Julian Stone

Isn't online marketing by definition, expensive? Not necessarily. Online businesses are coming to the realization that in an organic environment like the Internet, organic marketing is required; paying for traditional or static marketing only gets you so far before it becomes ineffective. The consumer now controls your marketing.

What is wrong with the old methods?

Old marketing methods are failing because users are beginning to wise up (Rise Up) against the old brute force advertising that tries to win users over through sheer volume, using abrasive web-page banners, unrelated Adwords displayed on the page, or repeated newsletters (most being restricted by anti-spam laws).

The old methods no longer work effectively for two key reasons. One is the fact that they are a "flash in the pan", directing users to websites only so long as you continue to pay for the campaign, the second reason is consumers are now at the stage where they either ignore them or go out of their way to block them (with plug-in based browser or email filtering).

Let's quickly run through some of the "traditional" ways to market on the web, and their failings.

Paid Campaigns - (These only work while active) Paid campaigns may lure people to your site, but they are regularly not your target market and after arriving they promptly leave (High "bounce" rate).

Banner Ads - People hate banner ads. Most of the ads on the Internet are loathed because they aren't relevant. Seeing a banner for a better insurance rate when on a gaming site is a massive disconnect for the audience and a significant portion of banner ads are plain abrasive to users. Filling one third of your page with banner ads will not increase the likelihood anyone will care.

Adwords - Adwords (PPC, Pay Per Click) have the same problem as banner ads, though to a lesser extent. Adwords work by displaying "sponsored results," in search engine results. Adword results are separated from normal search results so not many people select them and the unknown quality in the users eye causes distrust (how do I know that a sponsored result is better than an organic result). Competition is fierce, with prices spiraling upwards, and returns staying constant. For more information see our article about Google marketing pitfalls.

Newsletters - One word: Spam. Because of the spam epidemic, users are becoming ever more wary signing up to receive mail from any online source. Legislation and the ever increasing ability of spam filters mean a continually shrinking audience (Restricting the ability to send newsletters, and filtering them before they reach your audience).

The "Old World" marketing relied on one or two large marketing sources to drive traffic with big budgets and marketing firms. You have to get people to create the "news" then you pay other people to distribute the "news", so you are pulling people into your "store" to show them what you have (whether they want it or not).


New methods for marketing

These days having other create and distribute your content for you is in vogue, this can mean syndicating your articles for other users to repost, paying users to review or rate your services, guiding users directly on forums or having users sign up to receive exclusive information. In every case, the handiwork of distribution is left to others.

Lets quickly run through some of the new "web 2.0" ways to market on the web, and the reason you should try them:

Blogs - Blogs are a goldmine to both the reader and the writer. Blogging is less time consuming and considerably cheaper than traditional marketing. Blogs give you the ability to convey your personal thoughts on happenings in your industry and your personal and corporate life, letting you really connect with your audience. Another positive is the viral marketing component where you are referenced through various social media websites, search engines and other blogs, increasing both your credibility and searchability, making it easier for consumers to find and trust you.

Forums - Forums give you an insight into what people are talking about, letting you get directly into the heads of potential customers. An easy way to find an appropriate forum is by asking existing customers what forums they frequent. Join in conversations, threads, contribute to the community and become a trusted member, then you can give your professional advice and mention what you do for a living. You should approach this as a way to get insight into what people are talking about, with the side-effect of possibly generating leads. If you approach this as direct marketing the community will quickly tell and either ban you, or develop a healthy disdain of you.

Articles - Articles are a great way to show you are connected to the issues in your industry and the wider world around you. You can either submit your articles through a syndication service, or post it on your blog, even better is a combination of the two: Choose a topic you enjoy talking about and write an article (like this one!) with your personal opinion or some helpful advice. If it is well-written and educates readers, you will already have an edge on your competition.

The theme of the new marketing methods is tailoring your content to the audience. The intent is to create something reader want to read. Marketing is not about trickery or insincerity, it's about communicating your ideas with honesty and authenticity. If it is worthwhile to your users, then they will happily talk about the content and spread it around, you have to communicate authentically with your customers and it simply doesn't happen using "traditional" online marketing.

A word of caution: if you try any of the above methods but approach them traditionally (as a direct marketing channel) then not only will you annoy a great deal of users, you can also damage your company image. Again I stress the above point, make the content something people want to read, not just marketing material.


Old marketing methods that are now approached differently

Benjamin Franklin said insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." This is increasingly true for some of the more traditional forms of online marketing. It's not so much what people are doing, but more a case of how they are being done.

Let's take a look at how we should be approaching some of the old marketing methods today.

Press Releases - Before we start, I'm sorry to tell you, but unless you are in the 5% of the market that people pay attention to, no-one reads your press releases - at least no potential customers do. A high percentage of companies marketing on the web use traditional methods of delivery, either in print or on a section of their website. Consider changing your press release to positively present your company then send it through a syndication service for papers and online news sources to pick up and republish.

Search Engines - Previously you had to specifically tailor your site to search engine specifications to ensure you had a high pagerank and were located at the top of search results. To put it simply, the important factor was how your site was presented to the user. These days although page display has an impact, it is far more important to have the right content on the site. Search engines now care more about content. Structure your pages logically and efficiently with appropriate content for each page, and be sure to link to those pages wherever possible, especially if you are engaging in blog or forum marketing.

Mailing Lists and Newsletters - With new anti-spam laws coming into effect, coupled with users increasingly annoyed at anything email based, mailing lists and newsletters are becoming far less effective. Ensure all the users on your mailing lists and newsletters have agreed to receive them. You don't need to re-ask permission from your existing list, but be sure to let users op-out, and put an optional op-in form link in your communications.

Old-world communication can still be effective but you need to ensure it is not your only approach.


The Conclusion?

Reevaluation is the key to a healthy online presence. You need to be constantly measuring and reevaluating your marketing methods to ensure you are not wasting money, and can take advantage of effective new methods.


About The Author:

Sam Law and Julian Stone - Project, Task & Time Management specialists for: ProActiveSoftware.com, ProWorkflow.com & Julian101.com

Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

Marketing Your Small Business

Marketing Your Small Business
By David Mason

Small business marketing may be the most important part inowning and maintaining a successful small business. A good portion of the marketing effort is determining the needs of your target market and then explaining that you provide solutions to meet those needs. Contrary to popular belief, it is a lot more than posting a sign or handing out flyers. Though many of the philosophies and tactics may be similar, small business marketing is an entirely different discipline than marketing of large companies. Successful marketing is not just a tactic or strategy; it is an entire process and you are sure to fail if you are not enthusiastic about your small business.

Done properly, marketing can and will attract all the clients your small business can handle. But I would suggest you get to a place where you work only with clients who value what you haveto offer. If you commit to following simple small business marketing systems, strategies and ideas you can significantly increase what you charge for your services. Unfortunately though, most small business promotions focus only on how great their products and services are. But you need to stay focused on what products and services your ideal clients want and need.

Here’s another big no-no to avoid. Instead of marketing only when you need money or cash flow, commit to marketing your products and services all of the time. It is very important to consistently market your products and services because as I have been saying for years, success is based on persistency and consistency, not magic.

Planning is also a key ingredient to the success of any small business. Developing a small business marketing plan will be one of the most crucial elements to your success. By creating your marketing plan you will eliminate the panic and need for an instant solution to financial problems because you can avoid many of the ups and downs that result from the all to common stop and start marketing. Your plan does not have to be set in stone, it can evolve as you and your business grow. The important thing is your dedication to consistency with your marketing.

The lack of persistency and consistency will lead to an unused marketing plan. This in turn will lead to spits and starts in your cash flow. Successful entrepreneurs who have a small business marketing plan make more money in less time. When you start to think of who your ideal client is and what products and services they want or need, and then combine that with your marketing tools and techniques, an effective marketing plan is not far behind.

As you are probably starting to see small business marketing is an entire process, a synergy of the individual tactics and strategies. That's right, small business marketing is a system where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Another common misconception is that small business marketing is just common sense. Nothing could be further from the truth. An understanding of how small business marketing is conducted is essential for you if success is your goal. You do want results and success don’t you?

It’s all about determining the needs of your target market and then providing solutions to meet those needs. So many people believe that marketing their small business is all about running advertisements, but it isn’t. If you are serious about your success in business, then make understanding marketing an on-going priority.

The ultimate result of small business marketing is to attract more new customers and persuade existing customers to purchase your products or services in higher quantities and more frequently. The successful can attribute their success to having a strategic plan and following it consistently. When you create a marketing plan you will be able to compete at a higher level. Your odds of winning the game significantly improve when you take the time to create a plan.
To your success!

About the Author: David Mason is President of Mason Performance Development Inc., and author of Marketing Your Small Businessfor Big Profits. Visit http://www.yourbigprofits.com/ and sign-up for The Performance Development News, a weekly ezinewith free marketing tips.

24 hour Marketing Plan--Part 2

I have given you enough time to complete the first few steps of the plan, now here is the remainder of the steps:

(Step 5) HOURS 9 to 18: Planning the Action
This is the heart of your game plan.
For each goal you've outlined, create a strategy; complete with your key messages and steps that will help you accomplish the goal. The good news: You have many tools at your disposal.
Consider the best vehicles for your message.

You may decide to use direct marketing programs, including postcards, sales letters, fliers; or public relations elements such as publicity, events, speaking engagements, sponsorships and NATURALLY NETWORKING (the number 1 way to grow your sales).

Online promotional opportunities are more abundant than ever, so consider designing a Web site or uploading information into a news group or special interest forum.

Write out each strategy, and beneath it, list key messages and tactics. Here's a sample:
Strategy: Position myself as the market leader in home inspections in my community.
Key messages: Homer Wright Home Inspections is a reputable, trust-worthy name in home inspections.
Tactics:
¨ Approach local community colleges about teaching a home-buying class.
¨ Propose a feature story to a local paper about "10 Things to Look for When Buying a Home," with me as the expert to be quoted.
¨ Create a brochure entitled "Secrets of Buying a Home." Offer it free to people that call.
¨ Issue a press release about the free brochure to local media.
¨ Send informational brochures to real estate agents and mortgage brokers who refer homebuyers to home inspectors.

For each step you plan, keep asking yourself, "Why should I do this?"
Don't decide to do big, splashy promotions if you really can't afford them. Smaller, more frequent communications are much more effective if your budget is limited.


(Step 6)HOURS 18-21: Develop Your Budget
Marketing expenses should be given priority, especially in times of slow cash flow. After all, how are you going to attract more business during the slow times if you don't tell customers about your business?

ACTION: Take a realistic look at how much money you have to spend on marketing. While you shouldn't overextend yourself, it's critical that you allot adequate funds to reach your markets. If you find that you don't have the budget to tackle all your markets, try to reach them one by one, in order of priority.

ACTION: For each of your tactics, break down each expense and outline the estimated cost of each. For example, a brochure includes writing, photography, graphic design, film, printing and delivery. From there, you can beef up or pare down your plan, depending on your financial situation.

(Step 7) HOURS 21-23: Set Your Time Frames
ACTION: Now that you've broken down the steps involved in each activity, allot a segment of time and a deadline to each.

Again, make sure you're not overextending yourself, or you may get burned out. It's better to start with smaller, more consistent efforts than an overly ambitious program you'll have to discard a few months later.

HOURS 23+: Go For It!
What you now hold in your hands is probably the most effective "to do" list you'll ever write.

You have prepared a document that can help you reach your market segments from a position of knowledge and expertise instead of from shoot-from-the-hip hunches.

Don't put your marketing plan on a shelf and forget about it.

It should be a living document that grows and changes over time. As your business reaps the benefits of your initial strategies, you may want to increase the scope of your marketing. If you find something is not working, change it.

Consistency and continuity, delivered with a dash of creativity, give you the formula for successful marketing.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

The 24-Hour Marketing Plan--Part 1

Putting together a marketing plan strikes fear into even the most stalwart of people.

If you are one of those people who have your plan "upstairs," please read the following on creating a comprehensive marketing plan.

It will walk you through the process step-by-step, from taking stock of your current situation, to timing your projects. You’ll learn how to define your target market, map out your objectives, and create a realistic budget for promotion.

I won't lie to you, a marketing plan is real legwork, but this straightforward process will provide you with a great road map.

(Step 1) HOUR 1: Take Stock
Before you map out where you want to go, you need to find out where you are now.

Where have you been successful?
Where have you NOT been successful?
What do you do well?
Who are your competitors?
What do you have that they don’t?
How do your customers see you?
Why do the use you?
What are the BENEFITS they receive?

ACTION: Being as objective as possible, write four or five paragraphs that summarize your business, including your philosophy, strengths and weaknesses.
Don't worry if it's not neatly organized -- it's more important just to get everything down on paper.

(Step 2) HOURS 2 to 3: Set Your Goals
Now that you have a sense of where you are, you can decide where you want to go.
Ask yourself what you're trying to accomplish.
Increase number of customers?
Do you want to increase sales?
Increase profits?
Establish a niche?
Enter a new market where you may not have much experience?

ACTION: Outline each of your goals, and be specific. While you should be optimistic, use a healthy dose of realism to keep you grounded.
Remember, the best marketing plan in the world is not likely to increase sales 80 percent next year, barring special circumstances such as an outstanding new product introduction or the sudden disappearance of your competition.
While it's fine to have multiple goals, be sure to prioritize them so you can create a realistic plan to achieve them.

(Step 3) HOUR 3 to 4: Pick Your Target(s)
Who are your target audiences?
How large are they?
Are there segments?
Where is your target market?

If you say "everyone," you need to rethink your answer.

Even the largest companies don't market blindly to every individual or company. They break their audiences down into distinct profiles, or niche markets, and create messages and vehicles designed to reach each segment.

ACTION: Define your niche markets as clearly and specifically as possible.
If you're reaching out to businesses, describe which type, including the industry, revenue level, location and other important characteristics.
If you identify several market segments, rank them in order of priority.

(Step 4) HOURS 4 to 9: Research You Target(s)
Now that you've outlined where you are and where you want to go, it's time to determine the best way to get there.
Nothing will get you where you want to go faster than research. Information about your target audiences is available from a variety of resources, many of them free.
ACTION: Take some time to find out about the demographics (physical characteristics) and psychographics (psychological characteristics) of your target markets.

Demographics outline such factors as age, geographic location and income level. Psychographics offer insight into trends, buying habits, market segments and the like.
Trade associations and publications are often great places to start your research, especially if you're reaching out to businesses. Use your own and your target industries' trade resources for market information. Many associations have Web sites, and many publications are also available on the Net. For information about consumer audiences in your region, try your state or county's department of economic development.
Once you've gathered this information, write a detailed profile of your audience segments. Include all the demographic and psycho-graphic information you've gathered.


Tomorrow I will share the rest of the article. Just so you are aware, this information was supplied to me by a network I belong and I am not the author, just the presenter to my readers. I hope the information shared is a benefit to you.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

A Perfect Ending to a Contract

I have come to the end of a contract with one of my clients. We have spent the last three months focusing on creating marketing material and activities to bring full circle the artwork, book writing, and speaking engagements of the business. Each piece of the business feeds off of each other but in the beginning there was not a clear view of how to successfully promote this.

We met frequently and also spent time on the telephone. A media package was created that was successful in getting an article in the newspaper and also finished off this week with a couple of bookings of speaking engagements for the business in the future.

To me it is the greatest pleasure to see the goals reached at the end of our commitment together. This does not always happen because some efforts takes months to see the outcome of the initiatives, but in this case, we saw it at the very end of our contract.

It should be every businesses goal to achieve the customers' goals. No matter if you are a retail store or a business coach, the goal in business is to create an experience for the customer so when they leave they are singing praises. Customer service at its best.

Even if the client and I had finished our contract without a booking, we still would have accomplished our goals and the client was satisfied. The client realized that it would take time to reap the benefits from the fruits of our labor. The material created to promote the business was the goal. The booking of an engagement was the benefit.

Make it your goal to create an experience your customer/client will not forget. Can you imagine the testimonies you receive when goals are met? I have received my testimony in writing and plan on putting it on my website soon!

Go out and create a pleasing customer experience!

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Strategy Before Tactics

Here is an article that goes along with my opinions on the marketing process. The author also has a blog that I subscribed to that is full of marketing information to help give you strategies and ideas to help you be successful in marketing your business.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Strategy Before Tactics
The title of today's article captures the single greatest small business marketing mistake I encounter - and I encounter it every single day.

Small business owners often fall prey to the marketing whim of the week, chasing every new way to do direct mail or draw web site visitors they encounter, because they have no real marketing strategy to help them drive marketing decisions. If I could change anything about the way small business owners view marketing - that would be it.

Without a strategy firmly in place to use as a filter for where the business is headed, it's far to difficult to really analyze whether any particular tactic or marketing initiative makes sense for a business or not.

By strategy I mean your marketing reason for being, the position you want to hold in the mind of your customer and, no, "I want to exchange money for something with anyone we can," is not a strategy, it's a disaster plan. Far too many people think "we want to sell lots of stuff to lots of people" is a strategy.

The world doesn't really need another accountant, electrician, real estate agent, or small business of most any kind, so if that's what you are, then you better get a way to stand out that's based on a sound strategy. The world, or at least a market segment, will always need the accountant, electrician or real estate agent that does business in new and different ways, ways that matter to a specific market.

To develop an effective marketing strategy you must spend some energy determining two crucial factors: who makes an ideal client for your firm and how your firm is indeed different than everyone else that claims to be in your same business.

If is, in fact, quite possible that there are entire subsets of what you might call a target market that are not at all a fit for your business. You've got to get very clear, and often narrow, about the characteristics of a client your firm is best suited to serve. If you have clients already, the best place to look to identify your ideal clients is the subset of clients that is most profitable and has a tendency to refer business to you. These folks likely love what you do, are emotionally attached enough to tell friends, and value the relationship they have to your company. If you can come up with a crystal clear image of what these folks look like, part of your marketing strategy should focus on finding more of these and saying no to the rest

The second half of your marketing strategy involves discovering your firm's best chance to stand out and differentiate. You may already do something that truly is unique and need only communicate it as your strategy. Or, you may need to find one something that you can do famously, such as dominating a narrow niche market or packaging your services like no one else in your industry dreamed of doing.

Once you create a powerful strategy for your business all of focus can turn to creating and implementing tactics that can bring your strategy to life.

---

John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com .

Five Marketing Strategies for Business Growth

Many small businesses today have an idea and start a business with high hopes and a dream. Once they have started their business they take advice of friends and business acquaintances and start the conventional marketing process that was suggested. They join the Chamber of Commerce, a BNI group, search out other networking groups, find venues with the ability to meet others; these are common suggestions.

Many do not consider the internet options available to promote their business. The internet has added a whole new arena of promotional activities available to business. Here is a list of venues to promote your business online:

1. Start a Blog—Assuming you have a website, a blog helps to draw traffic and also gives you a venue to add credibility to yourself if you are offering content about topics that you business serves.
2. Search the internet for local websites to add your business listing—There are a variety of options available locally, and the majority free, that helps to bring traffic to your website. Search for your local city websites to view what is offered. The latest I have come across is Merchant Circle. This website allows free listings and is updated frequently to add benefits for their listers.
3. Network online, as well as, offline—Become familiar with the Web 2.0 world and join social networking groups online. There is LinkedIn, Ecademy, Xing, and others. No matter what type of network you join, online or offline, become active. Activity online is in the form of answering or asking questions in forums. Activity helps you to build recognition and credibility.
4. Write articles and submit to online resources—Write articles of quality and benefit to your customers. It easily helps you to become an authority in your business and draws traffic to your website. A good resource for submitting articles is Ezinearticles.com.
5. Press Release to promote your business—Hire someone to write a press release about your business. Submit and share updated information about your business to the local newspapers. You can submit this online and offline to various media outlets in your area.


Opportunities exist abundantly for businesses today to market their products and services. Thinking outside of the box to come up with creative ways to market your business and build recognition is a long term, never-ending project. When success is met with one idea, it is on to the next. Be creative, write effectively, and speak energetically about your business. Success is around the corner if you consistently share your message online and offline.

Until the next time,

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

7 Costly Small Business Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

I am struggling the past few days with writers block. In part I believe it is due to disorganization on my part which in turn causes me to think in several directions instead of staying focused. But this is my problem and I do not want to let my readers down by not continuing on with articles of value and content. So today I gladly share with you an article I found that speaks about a topic I enjoy, marketing. I hope this article will help you to avoid mistakes in your initiatives. Thanks to Robert, a subscriber of my newsletter, as well as a writer of quality content that I am pleased to share.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

7 Costly Small Business Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Everybody makes mistakes and entrepreneurs are no exception. But for an entrepreneur with a limited budget, committing mistakes too often can be very costly. It is an open secret in the business world that most of the mistakes that can be committed in business have been committed; so why not just learn from them, saving you the agony of committing them yourself.
With that said, here are 7 costly small business marketing mistakes every entrepreneur must avoid:

1. An Incongruent Marketing Message
To effectively sell your product or service, your customer has to "get" the marketing message. A customer-centric marketing message educates your prospects and persuades them to become customers. Too many small businesses make the mistake of focusing their message on the product or company, instead of how the prospect would benefit by purchasing their product. Prepare the right marketing message with some of these in mind:

• Identify the prospect's problem.
• Explain to the prospect why the problem should be solved immediately and explain why your product or service is the right solution to their problems.
• List the benefits your prospects would enjoy upon purchasing your product and provide an unconditional guarantee to allay any fears they may have.

2. "Spray-and-Pray" Marketing Instead Of Precision Marketing
The days of marketing as a zero-sum game are over. You must demand accountability from your marketing efforts, expecting tangible results in the form of a healthy ROI (return on investment). Differentiate your marketing messages and target them to meet the specific needs and wants of your prospects and customers.

Many small businesses are guilty of the dreaded "spray-and-pray" marketing ideology, which inevitably drains their resources to the point where it very often leads to their demise.

Do not commit this same mistake, but instead practice precision marketing, where every aspect of your marketing and advertising efforts are measured and tracked for maximum returns.

3. Failing To Realize Marketing Is About Value Creation
To create a sustainable small business, you have to market something of value to the prospect and customer. Marketing is your business and creating value for your customers should permeate through all your marketing efforts. Strive to always over-deliver because customers love to receive more than they expect and the easiest way to do so is to develop a thorough understanding of their wants and desires.

4. Selling Instead Of Educating
You must have heard about the age-old principle that "people love to buy but hate being sold to." It is a principle that will continue to hold true for ages to come, but unfortunately, many small businesses still fail to adhere to it. The fastest way to get rid of a prospect is to try forcing a sale out of him or her.

Education-based marketing, however, is a powerful marketing strategy to overcome this problem of being sold to. This strategy makes use of giving away valuable information, educating your prospect about the benefits of owning your product or using your service, offered to them as free reports, video cassettes, CDs, or DVDs in exchange for their contact information.

It is a strategy that builds trust with the prospects resulting in a much higher closing ratio. So, forget about throwing a sales pitch and try educating your prospects instead for a higher conversion rate.

5. Failing To Test
The biggest mistake any entrepreneur can make with their business is the failure to test every possible variable most important to their customers. This applies to both online and offline marketing efforts.

I can understand if small businesses faced more difficulty with market testing because of limited budgets years ago, but the Internet has done away with this excuse. It has become so cheap to conduct price tests and sales copy tests and identify what campaigns, keywords, and metrics give you the best ROI online that not testing any of these has become a cardinal sin.

6. Not Following Up With Prospects Or Customers
Small businesses spend a great sum of money acquiring customers, which makes it all the more difficult to understand why many of them don't follow up with their customers, or even their prospects after the "front end" sale.

It has been well documented that true riches are to be found in the backend sales and the reason for this is simple. If a customer or prospect raises his or her hand to do business with you, it means an element of trust has been established and a business relationship is ready to be formed. They are more then likely to buy from you repeatedly if you make it a point to capture their contact information and develop a follow-up system for communicating with them frequently.

7. Selling To The Wrong Target Market
Never assume that your product or service will appeal to a general audience because this assumption has profoundly resulted in many small businesses shutting up shop. Large businesses are guilty of this too, but you can save yourself from committing such a rash mistake by asking yourself these two questions:

• Who are your customers, or who is your target market?
• Who will use your service, or who will buy your product?

Answer these questions with absolutely clarity and segment these markets by demographics and psychographics to zero in on your ideal customer. The time spent doing this correctly will add nicely to your bottom line.

Just remember that to succeed, you must be prepared to fail, so don't fear the eventual mistake but learn from it.

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Robert Moment is an innovative small business coach , speaker and author. Robert specializes in teaching entrepreneurs how to start a small business that profits and grow. Visit http://www.howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com/ and sign-up for the FREE Small Business Coaching 7 day e-course.

Ten Different Ways to Use Video For Your Business

I am considering having a video business card made to promote on my website and also via my emails. I also am considering adding video to my website to encourage visitors to visit all the pages of the website by describing the content. The article below gives different ideas for use of video. Have you been creative in utilizing video for your own business promotion? If so, please share with the readers and myself.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Ten Different Ways To Use Video For Your Business
By Paul Lyke

No medium is so versatile and interchangeable as video. With a single one time investment into the video production, you can have many different uses and delivery methods. See how a one time video investment pays for itself over and over again, with just these ten ways.

1. TV Commercials. Statistics show that 93% of all people in an area still watch some sort of network programming. Plus with accurate demographic statistics, many businesses owe their huge successes to running effective TV spots.

2. Web Video. Putting the same commercial spot or promotional video on your site is becoming quite popular, as it's easier for visitors to watch a video compared to sifting through mounds of tiny text.

3. Promotional DVD. These are great to offer your prospective customers to help them learn about your products or services, and will prove to them why they need to choose you over your competitors.

4. Business Card CDROMs. These are discs that are the size of business cards and usually have your actual business card printed on the front side of it. So everytime you pass out a business card to your contacts, they are presented with the opportunity to watch your promotional video, instead of just reading your motto on your business card.

5. Kiosks. Depending on the type of business you have, an interactive kiosk will give your current or prospective customers the opportunity to access only the information they need.

6. Virtual Salesmen. When selling products in a retail environment, a video will capture the shopper's attention and inform them about the benefits of products that normally may be difficult to understand by just looking at the box.

7. Trade Show Videos. Similar to the kiosk, a video display at trade shows will be more intriguing than a traditional banner display, and make your booth less intimidating than having salesmen waiting to pounce on them.

8. Product Catalog. If you have a customer by one of your products, then they should receive a DVD catalog of all your OTHER products for cross selling demonstrations.

9. Direct Mail. When sending out brochures, pamplets, or folders of company information, be sure to include a DVD or business card DVD as well. Again, people will always do what is easiest…and watching a video beats reading through pages and pages of information.

10. Podcasts / PDAs. Compress your video down to a podcast or pda format, and distribute online.

About the Author: Paul Lyke is the Managing Director of MidSouth Visual, Inc., a Nashville video production agency.

Source: www.isnare.com

USP--Unique Selling Proposition

Identifying Your Unique Selling Proposition.

Your USP. Also called Unique Selling Position or Unique Selling Point.

If you’ve done your homework well and have chosen a specific target market – you might have nailed an untapped group of people and you’ll be in the enviable position of not having any competition.

But for the rest of us – even if we have narrowed our target market down well, we’ll still have others who are attempting to reach and serve the same group of people.

Some tight markets are incredibly competitive. Standing out from the crowd is hard work.

Every small business with any competition at all needs to identify or develop their Unique Selling Point.

This means, when a potential client lines you up with the half dozen or so possible competitors – why will they want to pick you?

Question: How is what you offer different from what your competitor offers?

 Are you cheaper?
 Are you faster?
 Have you been doing it longer?
 Do you have more training?
 Do you have a bigger staff?
 Can you offer around the clock support?
 Do you work with a spirit of excellence?
 Are you more modern or traditional?
 Do you have more choices?
 Are you more earth friendly?
 Do you offer them a shared perspective?

There are probably a lot of different things that make you unique – but you have to identify the areas that will best resonate with your target market.

It would be a great idea to make a list of what you feel gives you a unique approach to your business and ask for some feedback from others who have a grasp on your target market. (A business coach would be great.)

Whoever you ask for feedback, have them tell you if any of the items on your list make them think ‘so what?’ (Perhaps you think it makes you special but nobody else really cares.)

Ask them if knowing any of these things about you inspires additional trust or makes them feel drawn to you in a special way.

If you bounce these ideas with a few different people you can narrow it down and start to develop your own USP – then you’ll be on your way to communicating it to your market and working it into your overall business brand.

Steps To Identify Your Target Market

Answer a few questions… but I warn you not to answer them too quickly. This takes a lot of thought and consideration to do correctly.

Question: Who would like to buy what you have to offer?

Do not just say ‘Women’. That is a gender identification, not a target market. All women are not alike. They have a wide variety of lifestyles, values and interests.

Do not just say ‘Golfers’. That identifies a group of people who partake of a sporting activity but it’s not a target market. Among golfers there are huge differences. Are you targeting the ever so often golfer with a cheap tips video or are you targeting the lifestyle golfer who travels regularly to play in competitions.

Be very specific. ‘Start up Fundraiser Coaching Professionals”

Question: Why is she interested in what you have to sell?

Don’t say ‘She will like it because she is a Mom’ because there are no products that ‘all moms’ are interested in. (Unless it’s an Artificial Intelligence Housekeeper and I think even then you’d get a few naysayers.)

Be very specific. ‘Start up Fundraiser Coaching Professionals” will want to secure this product because it contains the tricks and skill builders they need to attract their first clients.’

Question: What stage of life is she in?

 Young & Single
 Young & Married
 Young Motherhood
 Middle Motherhood
 Late Motherhood
 Empty Nest
 Older & Single
 Older & Married

These stages of life are important factors in identifying a target market. How you choose to communicate with your potential clients, you will need to take this information into consideration.

What motivates a young married woman isn’t going to motivate an empty nester.

For example, if you want to reach young singles you’ll probably want to use graphics and promotional materials that look trendy and highly relative or popular to modern day media.

On the other hand, to reach older married people you will choose a more traditional style and convey a stability that will resonate with older consumers.

Question: How much money does she have to spend?

 Frugal
 Average
 Upper Middle Class
 Wealthy

Financial income brackets are one of the most important issues in choosing and communicating with your target market.

The financially strapped client will be attracted to messages that imply that they’re getting a great value or saving money. Wealthy clients will be more interested in hearing that your product is made of the best ingredients and created for distinctive tastes.

Some individuals will only be interested in products that clearly demonstrate that they’re cheaper than everything else. They’re so driven by their tight budget or their personal commitment to frugality that they’ll choose one product over another on price point alone.

And in the other extreme, there are consumers who will purposefully choose the most expensive service provider on principle. Maybe even just to be able to say that they hired the priciest ‘most exclusive’ provider – or perhaps because they believe that the higher cost surely means that they’ll get the best quality. (Which may or may not always be the case!)

For some, impressions are everything.

Can you see how it would be literally impossible to create one sales message that rings true with all markets?

If you’re having trouble thinking of a niche to target, let’s dig deeper.

Question: What core needs are effected by your product or service?

 Family, Relationships and Love
 Spiritual Life
 Creative Expression
 Recognition, Success and Pride
 Provision and Finances
 Health and Safety

If you are particularly motivated by any of these areas, this could give you a greater clue as to which niche to move in.

If you want to be a coach and ‘creativity’ is a buzz point for you, you can become a Creativity Coach. Or if Family & Friendships are really important to you, perhaps you would be a great ‘Relationship Coach’.

If your spiritual life is paramount, perhaps you’d build your business around the tenants of your faith and communicate this in a way that attracts others of similar beliefs.

Maybe you’re addicted to success tips and motivational tools. You could become the first ‘Success Driven VA’ and promise your clients a regular dose of motivation with every task completed. You’ll attract others who consider themselves very driven in the same way.

The rest of the story tomorrow. Until then. . .

Carole DeJarnatt

What is a Target Market?

What Does Target Market Mean Exactly?

For the small business owner, target market is the term used to describe the group of consumers being targeted to purchase their products or utilize their services.

Another word that may be substituted would be to call this group your ‘niche’.
How about an Example?

That sounds good to me.

Let’s consider a Virtual Assistant.

Virtual Assistants are the Administrative Assistants, Secretaries and Receptionists of yesterday. They bring the everyday support services needed by a variety of business owners and professionals to the internet, making it easy for anyone to maintain a well staffed office – even if technically they don’t have one.

The Virtual Assistant industry has literally exploded. The demand for quality virtual support is still growing and it’s not terribly hard for a new VA to introduce their business with some basic networking and have a few clients to start with.

However, the market is mature enough at this point that to truly thrive as a VA, you have to do something to set yourself apart. (We’ll talk about this more later when we discuss the Unique Selling Proposition.)

One way to help gain momentum and grow your business is to focus on a specific niche or target market.

Rather than saying that you are a VA for anyone – you introduce yourself as the Coaches VA or the Podcasters VA or the Real Estate Professionals VA, etc. By identifying clearly with a specific target market, you let them know that you feel you are uniquely suited to meet their needs and this will help you to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

But I Don’t Want To Risk Excluding Potential Clients.

This is a common fear.

Yes, by declaring a niche – you are excluding the wider general market. But really, that’s just fine. If you try to position yourself to appeal to everybody – you won’t specifically appeal to anybody.

Does that make sense?

Let’s give another example.

Say that I am a Health and Weight Loss Coach and I am hunting for a VA to help me manage my business and free up some of my time. It’s really important to me that my VA make my life easier and that she will be comfortable with my topic matter and be able to discuss things intelligently.

I cruise around the web and I find hundreds of Virtual Assistant websites and directories. I read many testimonials and compare prices.

Then – I stumble into a VA website that says this:

“I specialize in supporting Health and Wellness Professionals.’

My eyes widen and I get excited. I can’t wait to talk to you and see if you are indeed going to be a great fit for me.

If that VA had been afraid of excluding the rest of the web – she would have missed out on connecting specifically with me.

And truthfully, the majority of service providers DO fail to make a specific connection with a target market.

Because they fear missing out on even one client, they create a website and promotional materials designed to cover every base and meet every need. They work so hard at being all things to all people and they end up being nothing to nobody.

Determine today to identify your target market. It will help you to have a clearer vision for the success of your business.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

In Search of the Finish Line?

One the most common mistakes a new entrepreneur makes is to launch off into business without knowing who their target market is. They may have a great idea, a great set of skills, all of the tools and plenty of time and money – yet a few months later they are struggling to make ends meet and cannot figure out why.

How can you seemingly do everything right and still fail?

Imagine that you are in a foot race. You line up with all of the other runners and when the gun goes off you run like the wind!

You pace yourself well. You breathe right. You use great technique and maintain proper form. Anybody watching would say ‘there is a natural runner!’.

You run your heart out – doing incredibly well and feeling positive you will surely win the race.

Time passes and you realize you no longer see any of the other runners. You feel a thrill because surely that means you are so far out in front you do not have competition anymore.
More time passes… and more. And you wonder where the finish line is. And finally it occurs to you that maybe – just maybe you missed it.

Alright… so that is a silly story.

But you get the idea right? Unless you run for a certain goal – you will not know when you have met it!

That is what it’s like when you get up in the morning and try to run a business without any idea about who you are aiming to serve.

This is why knowing your Target Market is so important.

For the Lurkers and Readers, Give me some input

Another work-week is a few hours away and I am thinking about a topic I would like to write and think about. This week I am going to focus on Target Marketing.

Marketing for a living gives you an outlet for creativity. I think that is why I enjoy effectively researching and working on various techniques to increase business. The outcome of the finished product is to share your message and increase business.

Before I started my coaching business I was an avid scrapbooker. I taught at a local scrapbook store, was published in a few magazines, and had an online bio with a personal gallery and submitted to it frequently. I was obsessed to say the least.

Marketing is somewhat like scrapbooking. You bring together what you are trying to share with others, create a design that tells the story, and bring it all together for the pleasure of yourself and others.

Well that was then and this is now. Now I am obsessed with being the best business coach/advisor possible for those who need and utilize my services. To effectively share my services I have to create my own unique selling point and know my target market. This week I will share and give ideas on what I believe is effective marketing tactics.

For the lurkers and readers, give me some feedback on marketing techniques that have been successful. Any specific areas of marketing you are struggling with; viral, direct, guerilla tactics, or more? I will do my best to find information of value and interest to you. Let me hear from you.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Defining Your Target Market

This week I have been writing about marketing your business. One step needs to be taken before you can effectively market your business and that is identifying your ideal client. Below is an article that gives ideas and suggestions on helping you to determine who your target market is.

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.

Defining Your Target Market - An Essential Business Growth Strategy

Who is your Target Market? Do you know? Does it matter? Many people jump into business without thinking about where they will get their customers. Certain companies - restaurants and movie theaters, for example - have wide demographics. At some point, everyone will eat out or see a movie. But most of the rest of us need to determine which segment of the population can best benefit from our services.

If you're just starting out, you may not have a clear picture of your Target Market. You just want business - any business. But if you specialize " find your niche," as they say, you're more apt to develop a marketing strategy able to reach your ideal client and bring him to your door.

But who is she? Think of it like putting an advertisement in the personals. You're seeking your perfect match - the one you look forward to growing old with. For days, you wrestle with just the right words to describe yourself and the one you hope to meet. Finally, you have it just the way you want it. You send it off to the paper and days later you're inundated with calls.

Finding your ideal client works much the same way. Before you ever sat down to write your profile, you deliberated. You catalogued your qualities and those you sough in a mate. When defining your Target Market you should adopt a similar process.

So what are the criteria? Here's a list of ways to identify your Target Market from, Get Clients Now!, by C.J. Hayden:

1. Who needs your service the most?
2. Who is able to pay what you need to charge?
3. Who is likely to give you large orders or repeat business?
4. Whose problems and goals do you care about?
5. Who would be the most fun and satisfying to work with?
6. Where do you already have contacts?
7. Who would be the easiest clients to get?

Once you have an idea of whom you want to pursue, many of the other pieces will fall into place. Knowing your Target Market (or ideal client) will help you produce the kind of promotional materials that will always hit their intended objective.


About the author:
Shawn and her husband, Andy, operate QuickSilver CopyWriters.
They specialize in direct-response marketing, ghostwriting and newsletter creation. Shawn also writes fiction under the pen name, Shawn Kay Sidwell. Be sure to visit their site at:
http://www.blogger.com/www.quicksilvercopywriters.com and sign up for their newsletter, The Corporate Muse.

Seven Keep In Touch Marketing Techniques

I am one of those people who believe if you stay in contact with people, it is easier for them to remember you when they need assistance. On a consistent basis, I try to figure out ways to stay in contact with acquaintances and business people I have met but do not see on a frequent basis. I try several methods and some work better than others but here is my list of effective "Keep in Touch" marketing techniques:

1. Newsletters--I send mine quarterly but am getting ready to change that format to monthly.


2. Invite to events--I frequently will invite someone I think may have an interest in an event I am attending. Two purposes, one to stay in touch, and two to get to know the person better.


3. Tracking personal information--If I find out when someone's birthday, anniversary, important date to them, I post it on my calendar for a reminder to send them a card in the future. People love personal touches.


4. Notecards--I send a personal note after meeting someone at events. I have read before that this is common practice, but I have yet to receive a card from anyone as yet.


5. Blogs--Inform people you have a blog by sharing it on your email signature, business cards, newsletters; anything you send out.


6. Contact Management programs--Programs such as Constant Contact, Aweber, and several others, will manage and help you to communicate effectively with your audience. These are accomplished with a subscription basis so you would need to build your list before this would become effective.


7. Review of purchase--Follow up with a client after you have finished working together to ensure they are satisfied with the outcome. Another way to stay in contact and it lets the customer know you care.

If you have more that you have tried, share it with the reading audience. Give us some testimonials. I am always looking for new ways to "reach out and touch someone".

Carole DeJarnatt
Alliance Advisors, Inc.