Small Business Marketing

Why are you in this business?
What needs does your business meet for you and your clients?
How is your business different from the competition?
What are your Marketing Goals? ex "I want 50 new clients this year"
What specific groups or types of businesses/people are you targeting?
What services do you provide? ex "The only certified Reiki Master in Port Orchard"
What is your philosophy? ex. "Your needs are our solutions"
What do you specialize in? When targeting markets, make each group think you "specialize" in just what they need. A person in a pedestrian accident is more likely to search for a specialized "pedestrian accident attorney" than to get a generalized "Accident Attorney" even if they specialize in that as well. The ads for different types of cases should be targeted. "We fight for pedestrians," and "Construction Accident Specialists" can both come from the same company.
Where are you located? ex. "We bring your solutions to you!", "Conveniently Located Downtown"

Demographics: Find out who you are selling to. Did you know that more women rent self storage than men? And yet most storage websites are very masculine. Find statistics for your area and find out who you want to sell to. What are the specifics about who you are targeting? Age? Weight? Income? Location? Education? Interests? Pet Owners? Male, Female? Kids? ECT. This could continue...

Even if your ad campaign is solid, if it is targeting the wrong people or interests, it will provide slim results at best. You may be the best at what you do, but if people don't know that- It's Worthless. Where do your clients work? What social events do they attend? What magazines or newspapers are they interested in? Where do the shop? Obviously it would be inappropriate to follow potential clients around. You learn these things based on educated guesses.
EXAMPLE
You are a ballet teacher in Seattle
Your goal is to increase the size of your beginners classes by 50%
Most ballet beginners are young girls between ages 4-8 (ex.statistics)
There are 3 Public Schools Nearby and 1 Private Girls School
The parents of the public schools income is __________
The parents of the private schools income is __________
The parents of the students frequently shop at the local Market
The Market has a community events paper targeted towards parents in that area
You put an ad in the local community events paper
The majority of the private school parents belong to a community events group
The community events group has an open membership policy
You join the community events group and network with the parents

Small businesses are fighting with the "big boys" and you have to approach people in a different way than they do. If you offer the exact same services or even less services than large corporations, why do people want to choose you for their services? Do you offer longer hours? Are you more personable? You have to make people feel confident YOU are better than the competition. First, find out about who your competing with. Where are they located? What are their prices? Hours? Services? What does their website look like? Brochures? You have to shop the competition and find out what you already offer that is different/better or what they are lacking that you can offer people. You have to know what you are up against and learn what types of people would benefit more from your services or what groups they don't cater to. You must offer something different or better. Technological Advances would be stagnant if it wasn't for everyone working hard to offer better products than their competitors.

Lets start with gaining trust. Why can people trust you?
Have you written books? Did you go to a well known school? Do you have testimonials? Are you part of organizations that keep business responsible for their policies? Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Congress, Organizations related to your business, ect.

People like businesses who care. It also gives people incentive and a reason to trust your company. Give 10% of profits to a local charity or Hold a charity event. This not only shows you are willing to give back but it also gives you an open door for publicity. Let the local papers and news stations know about the event and how important it is for them to get the word out there.

Sponsor athletic events or an athlete if you have the funds.

Sponsor a radio program if you can't afford a commercial or give the radio station gift certificates for free to give out on air.

Get your name out there any way you can. Promotional products that you give away for free are helpful- don't have the money to give them away? Get Earth Friendly promotional products with your company logo on it as an incentive for people to buy.

Cross Promotion- Partner up with supporting businesses (Realtor/Broker, Massage Therapist/Chiropractor, Laundromat/Apartments, ect) Make sure you are stocked up on flyers, brochures and business cards so that you always have information for anyone you meet on hand.

"$20 FREE for referring a client"
"FREE GIFT For Visiting"
"FREE Consultation"
"10% OFF Services"
"Buy 1 Get 1 FREE"
"FREE Makeover"

Whatever your service may be, make people feel like they are getting a deal!

Teaching workshops, speaking at conferences, holding retreats, and offering public consulting will create a confident client base that believes in your expertise and it gets your name out there! Make sure to always continue your education: Read books, research, get feedback. If you are going to act like an expert, make sure you actually are. Don't let anyone show you up, but if someone has complimentary consulting skills that doesn't interfere with your client base then get a booth with them at fairs or expos. This also cuts the cost in half!

Word of Mouth is #1! People who don't have contacts or friends will not be successful in this field of marketing. Do you belong to a Church? Community Group? Are you part of a Book Club? Movie Group? Community Center? Don't EVER feel ashamed, embarrassed or uncomfortable about telling people about what you do. Even if you are not good at "selling yourself" you can at least hand out your business card. Look confident, smile and people will recognize your confidence in yourself and your services. I have talked to people who didn't want to "inconvenience" me by telling me more about their business and what they offer. They would ask me if I wanted to know more like it would be a burden on me. Little did they know I was mystery shopping them. If you get rejected, don't take it personally. People can also be inpatient or they might have something else on their mind.
Don't be obnoxious. BE ENTHUSIASTIC.

If you are creative and know how to incorporate a "CLEAN" Look in everything you do, than build yourself a website. www.Homestead.com is the easiest and most affordable site I have found. They offer templates, but also have a 100% Customizable website builder that I highly recommend! Look at your competitors websites and get an idea of what would make you stand out.

Three Websites I have done on Homestead in order from newest to oldest:

www.NorthwestStorages.com
www.EastValleyStorage.com
www.BurlingtonBestStorage.com

When buying a URL- Please don't make this mistake:
www.Best-Lawyers.net

If www.BestLawyers.net is already taken, people will automatically go to their website because they will instinctively forget to put the dash between the words or .net instead of the usual .com
You just sent your business elsewhere.

www.BestLawyers.com is what a professional URL looks like.

Go to Godaddy.com and play with the url's until you find a .com (if you aren't non-profit) that is easy, readable and doesn't have dashes.

Once you have found a url, buy all the url's that are simular so that competitors who have a larger budget don't steal your glory.

EXAMPLE

www.NorthwestStorages.com
www.NorthwestStorage.com
www.NWStorages.com
www.NWStorage.com
www.NorthwestStorages.net
www.NorthwestStorage.net

If your main Site was www.NWStorages.com, just forward your other urls to that one and mask them. If you need to know how to do this, call whoever has your domain name parked (EX GoDaddy) and ask them how to forward to your hosting site (EX Homestead.com)

Sites To List On:

www.DexKnows.com
www.Yellowpages.com

Find Free Directories Related to Your Business To List On

Submit your website to Yahoo Google & MSN (There are numerous search engines though)

CLASSIFIEDS:

Yes, You can List in Your Local Classifieds- but if it costs money, save your cash by listing with www.Craigslist.org This is the most trafficked classifieds site on the internet.

Whenever posting online, use HTML to spice up your listing.

DON'T KNOW HTML?? You don't have to!!

www.SpiderwebLogic.com/html-tag-generator.aspx

Post photos on www.PhotoBucket.com and use their automatically generated HTML to put your ads or pictures online.

ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING:

www.Myspace.com
www.Facebook.com
www.Twitter.com

There are so many social networking sites.

www.Myspace.com is preferred though because they have customizable profiles, easy urls and consumers don't have to have an account to view your page. It is also picked up quickly in the search engines.

www.Facebook.com is great if you have a good group of friends and colleagues.

www.Twitter.com only allows short posts, but a wide variety of people will subscribe to you just for the heck of it so its an easier way to get people to listen to you if you don't have many friends.

GOOGLE ADWORDS & YAHOO ADVERTISING

Get your name at the top of the searches by pay per click ads that show when targeted by consumer keywords. This is the affordable alternative for the small business owner. Fortunately, if you do enough marketing you will work your way to the top organically. (Where you don't have to pay) You can play with lots of different ads and adjust your budget whenever you need to.

MYSPACE PAY PER CLICK

This has been the MOST REWARDING avenue for my business. I noticed that funny ads do better than others and people respond more because they see a VISUAL, rather than on the search engines where they only show text. This is also a better option for LOW BUDGET MARKETING. There tends to be more competition for Google and Yahoo Spots than Myspace. Also, make sure that if your business is localized to "localize" it on myspace because the ads are triggered by location, age, interests, ect and you don't want a New York Myspacer getting your Florida's Pet Shop Ad.

REVIEWS

Testimonials online are called "Reviews." Ask your clients or even friends who have used your services to review you on www.Yellowpages.com, www.Insiderpages.com. ect It is so important that customers give good testimony. I know that when I am shopping for a business, I ALWAYS compare competitors and look for online reviews. It is the only way consumers get a true sense of what they will experience.

CREATE A VIDEO

Youtube.com is watched like television, It is a FREE way to show your services. Be funny, interesting or offer a video that gives advice to consumers. The more views your video gets, the more it works its way to the top of youtube and yahoo/google searches. Post your videos to your website, this gives people another reason to visit your site. (Gets you up on the organic searches)

BLOG

Get a blog, post it on your website, this will generate keywords that will refer people to you.

Paper can be expensive, I suggest E-mailing Newsletters, they don't get lost in the mail or stuck in the "bills" or "to be read sometime" pile. It is also better for the environment. There are great programs that offer this service: www.icontact.com www.constantcontact.com , among many others. Find what works best for you and make sure you are not just "Spamming" because then it will end up in their spam inbox. Be personable, helpful, offer articles, links and then also let them know about the monthly special or referral program..

Having a simple publisher program to create ads on is all you really need. You can get corel draw and other complicated programs, but if you are not savvy when it comes to graphic design- pay a graphics artist OR find pictures online of google image search and save anything that isn't trademarked/copy written and save it on your computer. This will save you thousands of dollars from buying Marketing CDs that every competitor already has. (It looks tacky to market pictures that the public has seen a hundred times) Take your own pictures if you can, that makes it more personable and no one has them but you!

Post Flyers locally everywhere you can, it never hurts to ask. If you are a faithful customer to a store, they may gladly help you out. If you are holding a charity event or sponsoring a team, even more businesses will respond positively. You can post for FREE at local coffee shops, grocery stores, community centers and other small businesses.

Whatever your business, if you are directly interating with clients or customers know this: You cannot sell your services or product until you first sell YOU! That's right, people will spend their money on people who they feel comfortable with. Make eye contact, be polite, informative and knowledgable. Shower everyday and make sure your attire is appropriate for your line of work. People will respond differently to the same person in different outfits. I know this from personal experience! When I dress down in my jeans and t-shirt, people take me less seriously. I notice that I network better when I dress my best because people respond positively to someone who takes special care in their appearance.

Where ever you are posting your ads, look in that magazine/ newspaper, ect and search through all the ads. Act like a consumer, what ads pop out at you? What ads catch you attention but then lose your interest? What ads catch your attention and keep your interest? Then go back and search for the ads you missed. Learn from that and note why they didn't attract your attention. Learn from other peoples mistakes! This will save you money. I could write a book on this subject alone. Create several ads and e-mail them to your friends, ask them which ones they like better. Tell them you will NOT be offended if they don't like any of them at all. Ask them why they did or did not like them. If your friends all give you really "nice" responses, ex "oh, that's nice," "ya, I like it," and they can't give you good reasons why then go to www.answers.yahoo.com and ask them which ones they like better and why (you will have to upload them to a site like photobucket.com and have the urls for them to see. Do the same thing with your website. If you are new at building websites, (even if you are not) ask the answers.yahoo.com people which one they like best (build 2), these people are BRUTALLY HONEST. If you cannot handle honesty, back away from marketing and pay someone else to do it.

Your business website is NOT FOR YOU.
Your ads are NOT FOR YOU.
Your decorations are NOT FOR YOU

If you like your decorations, website and ads and SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE, then thats WONDERFUL!! If you notice that a great deal of others don't share your taste then you have to decide whether or not you are alright with your business just being a "hobby" rather than a "service."