Free Marketing Advice For Your Toughest Business Challenges

Maxwell is back with some more information, so I think we can put together some ideas for you to use. From what we can understand (feel free to submit another blurb to correct us), you have a MLM (multi-level marketing) program and a bunch of people under you who are struggling to recruit more people because they don't have the same skills as you do. That is, if there were 10 of you or 100, you'd be doing fine. Of course, we haven't developed a way to clone people here at Focus Fields yet, so we'll need something different.

You say that there really is no selling involved, but there obviously has to be some sort of pitch involved to get people to sign up. Knowing the particulars of the MLM scheme might help spark some ideas about how to better target people and figure out what types of pitches and tactics they would respond to (feel free to give us that info). All right, having said all of that, here's some thoughts.

Since you seem to have no trouble selling this concept (since you've recruited a number of people already), but you can't be everywhere at once IN PERSON, why not figure out a way for you to be there virtually all the time. This can be done by either creating an (interactive if possible) DVD of you pitching the scheme just like you would do live. I say interactive because ideally, I'd like to see chapters in the DVD that address the most common objections that people have. The person then showing the DVD can simply use it address anything that someone comes up with without having to do it themselves. You've just sold the concept without being there. Second, you can be available "live" as part of a web stream from anywhere in the world to anywhere else. That is, set up a virtual meeting (pick any software program or hosting service out there), get a camera on your end and one on the other end and essentially all your people do is set up appointments for you all over the world. Finally, take the same content on the DVD and post it all on a single site for people to view. Then, those people working with you simply have to drive traffic to the site (something they might be more comfortable doing). Note: if you need help with this part, we'll need some more details about the MLM program specifically.

Obviously, make sure your people have the same information that you have. I've seen many salespeople fail simply because marketing teams did not effectively transfer their knowledge to others. This is easily fixed and we can help if needed.

First, I know the number of characters allowed in the blurbs you can write is pretty small, so I hate asking for more information, but it might be helpful here to understand the program a bit more. We'll take a crack at this, but if we're way off, just submit another blurb. By the way, their rule, not mine.

Here's our understanding of the issue. There is some seminar (maybe a financial something or other, for example). Then someone attends these seminars by way of some type of referral (not sure what the "appointment" part is), $50 gets donated to a youth program. This needs to be done across 5 states bascially yesterday.

Some specific questions..what's the seminar as this would help inform us about who your target group is? Second, who do you work for?The company putting on the seminar or the youth program. It probably doesn't matter on a strategic level, but may on a tactics level.

Some thoughts using the youth program tie in (knowing what type of youth program would be helpful as well). I would go immediately to the parents/family of the youth as a primary target (of course, this won't work depending on the youth program). The parents would respond immediately to the additional incentive for the program and you should have easy access (especially if you work for the program) to a list of these people. I would contact them through very simple direct mail (or email) or, even better, live at some events for this youth program. Direct mail is not something we generally recommend, but you have such a simple, targeted and qualified list that it just makes sense.

Coming from the opposite direction, you can go directly to targets for these seminars. Let's say its a financial program for Baby Boomers. Go directly to them using the $50 to charity as a benefit. Basically, you can do a fundraiser where you give people two choices: donate cash or come to a seminar. Either way you did your good deed. Tell us who the targets are and we'll give you some specific ideas how to reach them.

An additional idea is to see if you can get a big name in whatever the seminar category is to give an opening talk or sign books at a few of the seminars. Depending on who it is, they may be willing to do it free or at a reduced rate based on the donation to the youth program (especially if you guarantee a minimum). This will drive attendance in any promotion that you do for the seminars.

In summary, give us more to work with and will give you some more. Thanks,JMR

We faced this same this when we formed our company as well. We specialize in small businesses (less than $50MM in revenue) only and only deal with marketing strategy (brand positioning, customer segmentation, product messaging, brand development, etc.) We outsource other projects like logo development. In addition, we'll work on corporate identity, for example, and only do the part that includes the strategy behind what type of identity the company should have to appeal to customers and differentiate the brand....the creative work all goes external. So, we stay focused on small businesses, and their unique challenges, and only work on our specialty, marketing strategy. We lose a lot of business from really big companies and that's all right because we (a) don't like working with them (b) small business issues are more interesting and (c) we can try more innovative ideas that would never work in a big company. We get chosen by small businesses because they know all of the above...that's where we make our living.

I think you can focus more than DM, which is of course a niche in it's own right. This is something we do all all the time for companies and is our specialty: figuring out the market niche for a product or service. We even came up with a process, that you can try on your own, to guide companies through this decision making. If you Google "Perfect Positioning Process" the first 2 links will point to information that will tell you more about our process and link you back to our site for more details.

Good luck fellow niche marketer,
JMR for Focus Fields.

First off, based on the information you provided here, email sounds like a much better vehicle for your promotion compared to direct mail. Why bother trying it again when you found a tactic that works better (i.e., email)? A 10% response to something like this is pretty damn good. Depending on how many of these 10% were converted into additional sales, it is really good.

I agree with one of the above posts who say that the cookies wouldn't do much for me. My question is simpler: What does a cookie have to do with a printer? Sure, it's a really nice touch, but doesn't connect you to anything in the customers' minds.

I appreciate that you have what you think are humorous mailings. I'm not questioning if they are funny or not, but be sure that they are actually funny. There's nothing worse promotionally than something that a company THINKS is funny, but actually isn't. Light-hearted is one thing, but it's hard to really do "funny" well.

My thoughts are to consider something more powerful than your current mailing (not that I've seen it) and the cookies. If you are a printer, than you need to dazzle people with your printing skills. If you aren't sending out the best brochure in the world as a printer, you're in trouble. While a catalogue from a printer might not be chock full of interesting content, that doesn't have to be the case. Follow this link to download what I think is the best catalogue in the market for any industry right now: http://www.veer.com/download/pdf/veer200611.pdf

This is a stock photo company. Stock photos, what can you possibly show in a catalogue? Well, these are literally pieces of art with brilliant design. If I got a catalogue like this from a printer, I'd know that they knew what they were doing. Your catalogue should have (instead of stock photos) examples of your work or better still humerous (here you can be funny again) stories about anything as long as they can be used to highlight the quality of your work. Make your mailing something people want to save. Imagine that. I have every Veer catalogue they've ever sent me to this day.

Consider something that really highlights your skills. Feel free to contact us via the information in our profile if you want to discuss in more detail or need some more ideas.

Good luck,
JMR for Focus Fields.

Thanks for your comment on our concept.

We have a few questions that might make our response even more targeted, but we'll throw some ideas out there to get started. If you want to address any of these questions to get (we hope) an even better response from us, feel free to submit another blurb or send us an email at jmr[at]focusfields.com.

First the questions..who are your main targets for this deal? You mention residential, but who in particular? Current broadband users, older folks, younger crowds, folks who want to connect anywhere (WiFi), etc. Targeting one of these groups a time might give you some better options on how best to reach them. Second, is there some distinguishing characteristic about your deal versus what is already out there? If so, that would again give some ideas on what tactics might work the best to reach your target group.

In the meantime, creating an online viral campaign is not easy, especially if you are going to do it in an ethical way (as you should) Let's think of some simple things that you can provide that this target group would be interested in seeing or doing.

First,while not an online viral concept,what about sponsoring or placing WiFi (for free) in areas that don't yet have them. You can partner with restaurants or clubs or whatever. In fact,the more unique a place you pick, the better, just make sure someone might use WiFi there(what about a church...maybe not, but you get the idea). When someone hooks in, you get a pop up as the sponsor of this free WiFi and they could even be directed to your site for your pitch (make it good). Further, but more expensive..free WiFi for an entire neighborhood for a week. Again you're the sponser. Pick a neighborhood filled with your targets and who you feel might be the best fit for the deal. Then, tell everyone in the neighborhood about it (act now..for a limited time only).

Next are things like a WiFi scavenger hunt. Offer a prize for anyone who can find their way, by hooking into different WiFi hotspots throughout the city. Each spot would have a clue to the next (and your ad). Make the prize something good (find a sponsor) and the quest should take people to unique places..tell the media about it. (Make sure you get permission from the owners of the hotspots, but they should want to do this, as they'll get exposure also). Add in a way to email others about the quest to really give this some viral nature. Combining online and off might work really well. Thoughts?

Maxwell, you mention "see next blurb" in your message, but there wasn't one. Can you send us some more info in another blurb. There's enough to get us started here, but some more insight would help.

Thanks!

The big benefit of a hypermarket is, of course, the range of products offered. It might be fun at the grand opening to highlight this fact. Basic idea: display a huge variation of products and link them all together in a creative way. For example: Broccoli leads to a shovel (to plant it), which leads to a hose, which leads to bottled water, which leads to rust remover, and so on. You can then have people fill in the blank about what comes next (win a prize...no real wrong answers). You can also do this as a price guessing game. Since the products will be so different, it'll be a challenge for folks. Get a good host and have them reveal one product after another, each being completely different from the last, so much so that people find it amusing. First, it's a candy bar and next it's an electric cord. The contrast between the two, if done right, will really entertain people.

JMR for Focus Fields

I don't know what the products are so this is something of a guess (can you give us a hint?) on what you might do.

If there are new standards, they were obviously created for a reason. Perhaps products made to the old standard failed more often or sooner or caught on fire. Who knows? It doesn't matter. What your promotion needs to be is about the standards not us versus them? What are the new standards and why do they exist? Do they prevent more houses from falling over in a hurricane? Prevent drinking water from becoming contaminated? Etc. Whatever it is, you explain the standard to customers AND, more importantly, why they are important. This leads right into the consequences of using products that do not meet the new standards (as in...this could happen to you ).

Your NEXT call is about how your product, low and behold, meets the new standards and HOW it does. That is, what part of the standard made you upgrade your product (e.g., a new required material, a different length of something). Highlight it. If possible, let the customer touch it, examine it, and see the before and after. Finally, dollarize the cost of not using a product that meets the standards. You should have by now sold the customer on the fact that the new standard is critical and that they have to use products that meet the new standard (exclusively). Show them how your product, which meets the standard, can SAVE them money (even if it is more expensive) because it prevents the issue that caused the standard to be created in the first place (this would be much easier if I knew what the products were). "Our product which meets X standard could save you $150k in potential damages." Don't do it the other way, as in "Our product, which meets the standard, will MAKE you $150k in new profits." For whatever reason, people put more value in saving dollars and preventing loss than making or earn the same amount. Just go with it.

If you want some more specific advice about the product, but can't share it here because of confidentiality or something, you can contact us directly through the information found in our profile page.

Regards,
JMR for Focus Fields.

I'll take on your first challenge about promoting your service to contact soldiers and their families. Have you ever gotten an email from someone who has a Hotmail account? It says right at the bottom something like: "Sign up for a Hotmail account" or "Do you have a Hotmail account?" No matter how your contact works, you need to include this type of marketing. Either the civilians on this end will know people (their friends on the base maybe) who will benefit from the service or the soldiers will know other soldiers who can use the help. Make it simple (like Hotmail) for them to get hooked up with you. To encourage them spreading your message, offer some incentive...like a free call when you get someone to sign up for your service or the like.

Number 2, the CPR courses...expand the market. Your competition has the EXISTING market covered. There is no way in the world they have every opportunity covered. Figure out ANY place where groups of people get together and approach them about your service. Churches, businesses, schools, wherever....if they don't have a CPR course already, you're in. Go through the Yellow Pages and open to a random page. Ask yourself if this company or ones like it might need your service. You may find some areas you never thought of.

Number 3: emergency plans...a couple of ideas. Hook up with a local or national lecturer who might give talks on emergecny preparedness and its importance, but doesn't implement the actual plans. That's where you come in. The best option is to offer a BASIC preparedness course for free. Yes, free and a lot of them. Then invite a large crowd of the general public. At this forum, find your next set of customers by selling why preparedness is important and why yours is the company to choose to partner with.

JMR for Focus Fields

Bird flu?!? Yikes. Let's hope there's not a big need for this product for that reason.

I have a million (all right, that's a bit high, but I'm a marketer) ideas, but need a bit more information. Tell us a bit more about this product. Is it made from real eggs or just part (like eggbeaters)? Is it perishable? Who do you think would be your primary customer? What's your primary sales outlet?

Based on these, I think we can come up with some promotions to get you off the ground. However, you are going to need some basic branding before doing this including a strong brand name and visual elements...one thing at a time though.

Can you answer the above questions?

In the meantime, here's one...if these are not perishable, you need to position these in the baking aisle. Put them right next to all the cake mixes. You need to do some testing to figure out how much of your product equals one egg and if these mixes come out the same (taste as good) when you use your product versus real eggs. If so, perfect! Your packaging would focus on combining your product with cake mixes. The overall goal is for everyone who uses these mixes to have at least one package of your product in their home. This way, they can always bake something on short notice and never have to worry about having real eggs. Think of how many millions of these packages are sold each year and what it would be if you could get tied to just a small percentage of these.

What do you think?

First: read "Buzzmarketing"

I'm assuming a bit from your message that your budget is basically about zero for these activities and certainly mass media is out of the question.

I don't know a great deal about all the players in this market, but I might assume you have a "knock off" name that isn't strongly differentiated from your competitor, that might be your best place to start. People may simply not realize that there are two very distinct companies here and what you can offer.

As far as getting the new name out there or the old one for that matter, do what you do best...market research. Get people to do a survey about anything controversial. Get a big sample to answer a question that is hot in the news or upcoming. Release the results with a bit about your company to a PR wire service and every news agency you can find. The more legitimate and newsworthy the topic, the more likely you are to be picked up. When the results of the survey are reprinted by anyone else (or mentioned on TV if you are exceptionally lucky), they will have to give you a mention for credit.

You can also do this type of survey with any email list of current customers. Come up with an interesting, provocative survey and send it out to all of your opt-in customers. Give them the ability to pass it onto anyone they want. Ensure that their is a link back to your site with a tag like "Conduct your own viral survey" just like Hotmail does with every single email that goes out. Gather up the results and send them back out to everyone who answered...with another survey with the same instructions. The goal here? Get everyone in the world to fill out one of your surveys. Big goal, but you have a big challenge.

The cost for all of this...next to nothing.

Ugh. This sounds like a major problem. Increasing awareness of brand is a tough proposition in the food sector simply because it is so crowded.

It sounds like your boss is looking to stand out and be known as something different even though you are the same as your competitors in almost every way in your customers' eyes. All of the advertising in the world isn't going to help this. Also, simply changing a logo isn't going to help either. You need a different identity for your brand all together unless there is some really strong reason not to do this. If you begin fresh, you will capture more attention than advertising you undifferentiated brand. In the long run, this is the better investment.

If this is completely off the table, then you need to refocus on the differentiating points of your brand as your pitch and not the brand itself. Let's face it, the food sector is pretty boring...nothing new really happens, the margins are lousy, and it is very crowded. So, the question you have to ask is if anyone care about what you want to do? If not, you need a different audience. Who are you trying to affect by advertising your logo? The store buyers or end users? You would do very different things with each one. Repositioning your brand, if you are unwilling to change it graphically, may be your only option. Refocus your position to get some more space to be able talk with your customers.

If any of this isn't clear, send me a message.

JMR

First...a try at the creative:

All you want, all you need

Unleash your expectations

The origin of tea

The evolution of refreshment

Arouse (also a good name, for the record)

Tea's distant, delicious cousin

Distance yourself from the ordinary

Now (not that you asked), some commentary on strategy and branding:

Since this herb is unique to Africa, you might be tempted to include "Africa" in the name, I wouldn't. It's not for the reason some people might think, which might be because of the fear about controversial "political" connections to the name. I think this is fine. I worry specifically because of Africa, which I don't think is really associated with anything positive on a rational or emotional level. I think you can include any place name in your brand name or tagline. Any controversy you create will create stronger links to your brand. You don't want to appeal to everyone, you want to appeal to a select group who are fiercely loyal to your brand. Take Benneton for example...odd, polarizing politics, but a very strong brand. Place names also do work, as one of the best selling bottled waters is Fiji. You get some nice emotional links there, but not with Africa. (and, yes, Fiji is "political" as it is a giant waste of the earth's resources to ship water halfway around the world to areas that already have nice clean water).

Good luck. Send me a message if you want to talk one on one.

Since it's a small town, it ought to be easy to talk with the local paper. Ask if you can write an article about some aspect of Medicare (or someone qualified from your company) or ask if they would be interested in profiling some unique service (you have to define this) that your home offers and that people should know about. Remember, you need to get them a story. This should increase the awareness of your home and help with referrals.

Second, recall that your audience is not really the seniors themselves, but probably their families. Find the biggest local employers in your area and offer to sponser an eldercare seminar to discuss issues about how to deal with taking care of an aging parent.

Have an open house with similar content as above about eldercare. Give people something worth coming out for (free food always does it, as well as a certificate for $X off your next purchase at somewhere...you can partner with "somewhere" so this costs you nothing). Just make sure it is linked to eldercare (Think: needs...a pharmacy maybe).

Speaking of pharmacies, how about a display booth ran by someone from your home at the biggest pharmacy in your area, you will hit the right target in this case.

Finally, if you want to really hit doctors, approach them like pharma sales reps do. Make some calls on local doctors and try to get some time with them to tell them about your home (geriatric specialists would be great). If this doesn't work, offer to take them out for dinner to discuss your home (or bring lunch there). Awareness is what you are looking for. Ask to leave brochures for your home in every office you visit. Highlight how great your home is so the office knows that they are adding something of value for their patients.

Forget about referrals in the old fashioned sense, just worry about getting patients. Does it really matter where they come from? Getting X amount this month or else is kind of dogmatic. Advertising and brand building is a long-term process. Tell your boss exactly what you are planning and when you expect some results.

Send me a message if you need more help.

Regards,
JMR

First, for me, Networkersville sounds a bit like a place for people who work on networks (computer networks) may get together. That's what I thought right off. It doesn't sound like this is what it is actually for though, which may be a problem if other potential customers get the same impression.

Unfortunately, I can't say that you have a great name. I would challenge you to list all of the networking companies just in DC and see what you come up with for names. I am willing to bet anything that you will come up with at least 3 others that sound pretty similar to your name, specifically that includes the word "network" in the name. It's just not going to be a differentiated name no matter what you do with it.

We recently began working with a recruiting firm that had "recruiter" in their name. They were almost entirely Internet based, so anyone with an online presence were potential competitors. We found in just a cursory search 20 other firms that had "recruiter" embedded in the name. Do you think they stood out?

I'm afraid you may find yourself in the same position, especially as a new entry into the market. As for the entrepreneur expansion, if you had a more suggestive and less literal name, you can simply do it without much stress. Since your name is so literal, you're at an impasse. For the record again, I don't like Entrepreneur 27 either for the same reasons that I'm not fond of Networkersville.

A tagline would be a simple addition after you have the right name. I would highly recommend working on developing a more suggestive name for your company that would allow you to stand out more in the market (think: Yahoo, Virgin, Amazon). These aren't easy to come up with, but it is worth the effort. There is a disciplined approach that should be applied to a naming exercise, so unless you have experience, I wouldn't recommend tackling it on your own. You can view more about this process on our website (see our profile) to see what is involved.

If you are ready for something different, how about this for an idea? I know the goal is to get as many people as possible into your club right away. This is good for a quick splash, but is not sustainable. You have to build up the anticipation and the exclusive nature of the club to make it interesting to others. Here's the idea: give out memberships. They would be free, buy only an exclusive circle of people would have them (start with friends and friends of friends or investors). Each member can "sponsor" a certain number of people a month to join. Before joining, the sponsored person can visit the club and bring one other person. If the person spends enough that night, give them a free membership or collect the information of every invited sponsored person and randomly give out memberships to people.

Once word gets around that this is an exclusive members only club, people will go wild for an invite and your current members will love you because you just dramatically increased their popularity because the only way to get in is to know one of the members. This will cause a nice buzz if you make it somewhat of a secret and encourage only your members to "advertise" according to whatever guidelines you set up.

You can also get about 100 members and have them bring a certain number of people to an opening. At the opening, randomly pick out your next members and tell them they can only come back next time if they bring 10 potential new members. If they come back next time without anyone, they don't get in. If someone comes who's not a member or with one, they don't get in either. People will seek out and find the members in no time, so new members should have no trouble finding interested future members.

What do you think? Let me know if you want some more details.

JMR

Toni, thanks for your post and we hope to come up with a winner for you. However, I'm going to have to ask you for some more information.

Toni's post gives us a good opportunity to talk a bit more about branding and creative. The people who seem to come up with the best branding and creative are also those who seem to do the best insight work with their customer and also deeply understand the brand they are working with. Without these two pieces, you are left with what amounts to a guess. Sure the tagline or name or images may be outstanding, but do they do anything for your customer? That's the ultimate test. For our company, before we get into any serious creative development, we like to ensure that we all understand the brand. By "we all" I mean us and you. Do you really know what your brand stands for and what it should stand for? Many companies out there really don't. We've designed our Brand Blueprint process to better understand and define a brand before any creative work is done. If you want to read more about this, please follow the link in the module below that describes our company's services. You'll get a good picture of what is involved in this process. Do you have this for your brand? If you're interested in seeing a what a completed Brand Blueprint looks like, feel free to send us an email and we'll send you a copy (jmr[at]focusfields.com).

Tony, can you get us some more information? First and most important, what's the brand name? Tell us a bit about what your brand stands for or what its character is like. Do you want the tagline to be more rationale (We cost less than the other guy) or more emotional (We free up your money so it can be invested in your dreams...[corny, we know, but it makes the point])? Please submit another blurb telling us more about your company. Thinking of all the consulting firms out there in this space, what makes you special? Your tagline should communicate this. You may not have enough space in a blurb to include this, but if you send us an email (jmr[at]focusfields.com), we'll post it here and give you a response.

Thanks,
JMR for Focus Fields

Oze, thanks for being the first to break the ice on our lens. We hope that we can help. We too have tried the freelance boards (too many people willing to work almost for free) and AdWords (tough to get targeted enough when you are selling a service). I'd be interested in hearing more about this email campaign, but there may be some better and cheaper ways to get going.

So, here are those free ideas:

1. To establish a good foundation of business focus tightly on one type of ecommerce. Let's say its online music sales. From this point, you can do directly to where these people may be online instead of casting a net for anyone who might need the development services you offer.So, for this example, I'd like to see you showing up targeting sites where iPod lovers might hang out or sites where true audiophiles may be. These people are likely to also be the ones who do (or would like to) run the online music sales sights. Focus on a particular segment of ecommerce and the places to look for customers will become more obvious.

2. Existing customers..if you're not getting refereces and referrals from every one of them, you've missed an opportunity.Entrepreneurs who run their own sites (and need your services) tend to have friends who of the same personality.

3. Give some to get some..offer a course either in person locally or via the web on the step involved in setting up your own ecommerce based business. If you can handle all the content (stuff like the legalities of incorporating your company, etc)partner with someone in your similar position(ie, looking for new customers). Advertise this free seminar. What we have seen when our customers have done this is that people walk away overwhelmed by all that needs to be done and they look for help right away.You're right there when they need it.Make the content valuable.It shouldn't be a sales pitch.

4. Expand the market..does every business that needs an ecommerce site have one? Maybe.Figure out businesses that have never thought of the value of having an ecommerce based site and go right to them. You'll be the first one at the door showing them why. Truly think differently here...doctors offices (yes or no?), churches, daycare centers, lawyers, etc. Think about service companies that don't realize yet that they are actually SELLING something. You don't need a "Shopping Cart" filled with stuff for it to be ecommerce.

We hope this helps and welcome your feedback, just write us another blurb and let us know.