Tag: marketing

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Sales & Marketing

Great Low-Cost PR Tactics

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Public relations can be an effective way to generate awareness and name recognition for your business. PR is also considered to be a low-cost alternative to other marketing tactics such as traditional advertising and media buying. Your PR strategy should begin with the following key elements:
1. Build your target list: Compile an accurate database of key media contacts.
2. Develop your hook: Tell a compelling story.
3. Follow up: Cultivate relationships with the media and stay in touch.
Following are five steps to help you get good PR:
1. Turbo-charge your press releases
Your news releases should be newsworthy, targeted to the appropriate contact and, above all, engaging. Break through the clutter by enclosing something unique or creative (related to your business) with your release.
2. Maximize email marketing
Email marketing software has made it easier than ever to send out professional newsletters and press releases. User-friendly templates let you customize, target and track your email releases. It’s a low-cost way to stay top-of-mind with the media. Constant Contact offers low-cost do-it-yourself email marketing solutions, as do Bronto and Benchmark Email.
3. Make the media’s job easier
Tailor your pitch to the appropriate writer or reporter. If you’re not sure who to send your release to, call the newspaper, magazine, TV or radio station first and ask. Respect their time and deadlines. Have a press kit ready if the media ask for more info, but don’t flood them with sales materials. Give them what they need, when they need it, and you’ll increase your chances for positive press coverage.
4. Develop relationships with press contacts
Network with the media at industry events. Make an effort to get to know local reporters and leverage those relationships. Establish yourself as a resource to reporters and editors. Need to find reporters or editors? Burrells,Luce Media Contacts database lists 300,000 contacts at 60,000 media outlets (fees vary). Or use Google News to search for news articles with the name of your company, your competitors or your industry, as a way to build a list of names of reporters.
5. Start a blog
Establishing a company blog is low-cost way to position your business as a leader and an expert in your field. You can then direct the media to your blog and include the URL in your press releases and emails. Blogger and WordPress are free, easy-to-use blog publishing tool that can have you up and blogging in minutes. An alternate, low-cost blog publishing site is TypePad.
If you work to become a reliable and trusted source to the media – and if you provide them with real news – they will put you and your business in a positive light.
LouBortonePhoto.jpgLou Bortone is an award-winning writer and video producer with over 20 years experience in marketing, branding and promotion. As an online video expert, Lou helps entrepreneurs create video for the web at www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com. In addition, Lou works as a freelance writer and professional ghostwriter, with a ghostwriting site at www.GhostwriteForYou.com and a blog at www.GhostwriteGuru.com.

Categories
Entrepreneurs

10 Essential Tips for Starting Entrepreneurs

Ignore these at your peril!

  1. Do What You LOVE:If you’ve chosen your business because you read that this niche was the next hot one, or because your favorite uncle (or your best friend) thinks you’d be well-suited for this business, you may as well pack up now and save yourself some time and money. If you don’t love what you do, it will show…potential customers will know it and will go elsewhere. Is it possible to be successful anyway? Sure — but it won’t be easy and it won’t be fun…and isn’t that why you want to be in business for yourself anyway?Instead, choose what you love. You’ll know what that is when you find yourself being incredibly productive, forgetting the time passing by, and not being able to wait to get up in the morning to do more! At Solo-E we call that being juiced…but whether you call it being in the flow, or the zone, or whatever, FIND IT!
  2. WRITE DOWN Your Business Plan: As a small or solo business owner, you still need a business plan. Even if you aren’t getting a loan! Would you invest thousands of dollars of your own money buying stock in a company that didn’t have a written prospectus? (I hope not!) Then why would you spend thousands of dollars AND hours of your precious time on a business that doesn’t have a written plan?Write your plan, get it critiqued by professionals, and most important, BE READY TO CHANGE IT. This may seem counterintuitive…why bother writing it down if it’s just going to change? Because writing it down makes it more clear…and helps you get to the next stage of learning and planning and revising. It’s critical–67% of businesses that failed had no written business plan. Want to play the odds?
  3. Multiply Your Expected Startup Costs by Two–or Maybe Three: When I started my business, an honors MBA grad with 15 years of solid business experience behind me, I figured I was smart enough to estimate my startup costs accurately. I knew all the things I needed and made conservative estimates and I was still WRONG! That’s right, I was still off by a factor of almost three. Don’t make this mistake! One of the biggest reasons small businesses fail is because of lack of capital. Give yourself the best possible start by saving or acquiring sufficient startup funds NOW. Before you start! 
  4. Make Your Market Niche as Small as Possible: Again, this is counterintuitive–shouldn’t you try to appeal to as many people as possible? The paradox is that the more you try to appeal to EVERYONE, the less you will appeal to ANYONE. Let’s say you are selling your house…would you rather list it with the agent who operates in 14 counties, sells both commercial and residential real estate, and sells everything from cottages to estates? Or would you pick the agent who specializes in your community, selling only houses in a well-defined price range that she knows extremely well? Ruthlessly define your niche, make it as small as possible, and stay true to it. You’ll thank me later! 
  5. Do Marketing Your Way:The temptation is to choose all the marketing methods that the competition uses. To stay with tried-and-true marketing channels. To place advertisements that you know nothing about creating, or make cold calls that give you heartburn. Why? Because (all together now) “that’s how it’s always been done.”It’s difficult to stand out among your competitors when you are doing the same kind of marketing! So instead, look to your strengths. What do you like to do? What are you good at? Then choose three marketing methods that play to those strengths. If you need ideas, check out

    136 Ways to Market Your Solo Business. 

  6. Remember the Most Important Ingredient in Your Business–YOU:Business-owner: know thyself. Spend some time learning about who you are and how you are unique. Then let that uniqueness shine through in your marketing, in how you run your business, in everything you do. Don’t hide your quirks–celebrate them!Customers go to small and solo businesses primarily because they are looking for a personalized experience. They want a relationship with you as the owner of your business. If you try to come off as who you think they want, they’ll smell right through that and not come back. Be who you are, and trust that who YOU are is going to be attractive to the right people.
  7. Build Your Business by Building Relationships:Being a small or solo business owner isn’t about sitting in the corner alone. Actually it can be–and that isolation is what drives many out of business and back into a “job”. Build relationships to survive! Start with your colleagues–others you know who are at the same stage of business as you, or are farther along and willing to mentor you. Next, build relationships with potential customers. Ask them what they want! Then create products and services based on their input and come back and show them what you have done. Get feedback, tweak, and maybe make your first sale. Stay in touch with your customers even after they leave you.

    Last but not least, build relationships with your competitors. You might be able to do this right at the beginning, simply by asking them for their advice. Surprisingly, many ARE willing to share their secrets if you just ask. Later on, build cross-referral relationships, co-marketing alliances, and other relationships that are win-win for you, your competitors, and your customers.

  8. Don’t Accept a Customer Just For the Money:This is probably the hardest advice for new business owners to apply. Especially when there is a job, a project, a potential client, just outside your niche, that could keep your business solvent for the next six months. Don’t do it! Taking on a client outside your niche inevitably results in frustration for you, dissatisfaction on the part of the client, and in the end, usually costs you more than you make. Ask any successful business owner and they’ll tell you this is true! 
  9. Don’t Do Everything Yourself:It’s so tempting to fall into the self-deception that “it’s cheaper for me to do it myself.” IT”S NOT! If you aren’t good at something, for instance bookkeeping, it will probably take you 2-3 times as long–time you could be spending doing things that are essential for you to be doing personally, like writing your business plan or deciding your marketing strategy. Put sufficient capital into your business upfront so you CAN hire help right from the start. Your business will get off to a quicker start because you aren’t distracted by time-consuming tasks that drain your energy. 
  10. Assemble Your Support Team: Start with the people who will help you do the things you aren’t good at. Some examples: bookkeeper, marketing writer, web designer. Then add the people who give you professional business advice: a lawyer, an accounta
    nt, a business coach. Finally, include the people who support you personally: your family, friends, and colleagues.    Don’t forget to be part of other’s support teams, too. Share your expertise at Solo-E, start a networking group where business owners support each other, share a referral with a colleague. Solo Entrepreneurs supporting other Solo Entrepreneurs is what will make us all successful!
Categories
Sales & Marketing

Your Ideal Client – A Key Concept for Solo Business Marketing

How to identify who is – and more importantly, who isn’t!

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure
is trying to please everybody.” — Bill Cosby

Have you ever had clients that were more trouble than they were worth? Maybe they were always late to pay, or didn’t do what they said they’d do. Maybe you just had a personality clash, or they expected more than you were able to offer. Whatever the situation, chances are you had an inkling when you first met that client…a tiny voice that you didn’t listen to, that was probably overshadowed by the bigger voice that said, “Hey, it’s business; I’ll take it!”

Drawing The Line
Learn to say no to those clients, before they start draining your energy! The key to being able to do this is to understand Your Ideal Client. Once you know how to recognize who is ideal and who is not, you can practice turning down business from the latter. If you have trouble saying no, you’ll need to learn this critical business skill, and what to do to get rid of problem clients you already have; see the resources at the bottom of this article. If you have a coach, ask them to help you complete the Ideal Client exercise, or to role-play those “saying no” conversations.

How to Discover YOUR Ideal Client
There are many ways to approach the Ideal Client/Customer Profile. You can sit down and imagine the best, most wonderful client you could have–whether that is an abstract entity, a celebrity (what writer wouldn’t want Oprah as a customer, for example), or a specific demographic profile. If your customers are more likely to be companies, you could look at your current client list, and pick the company that gives you the most business, the most joy, the least heartburn.

The Ideal Client Profile
Whoever you pick, start a profile matrix with two columns: “My Ideal Client Is:” on the left; “My Ideal Client is Not:”, on the right. In the column on the left, list all the characteristics of that type of person or company. Use the questions below as prompts to get you thinking about all the different aspects of each client.

Then, either think of the opposite of all those aspects, or pick the “client from hell” and fill in corresponding traits in the right-hand column. Be really honest with this exercise! If you’d rather only have clients who make over $500,000, put that down! Your clients who don’t fit your Ideal characteristics, whether you write them down or not, will eventually know it. May as well get that over with early!

Prompts: Consider these aspects of your Ideal Customer or Client:

  • What career or business are they in?
  • What demographics do they fit? (age, sex, race, religion, income, marital status, etc.)
  • What do they think is important in business? In life?
  • What do they like most about you and your business, products and services?
  • What is the nature of their relationship with you? (transactional, long-time customer, acquaintance, friend, refers others to you, etc.)
  • How do they do business with you? (by phone, in person, on the Web; quick transactions, takes time to negotiate; pays early, on-time, at 30 days; etc.)
  • What personality characteristics do they have?
  • What do you get from them (besides payment)?

Now What?
Compare your current client list to the two columns in The Ideal Client Profile. How many have the characteristics of your Ideal Client? If the answer is “not many,” you may need to work on firing some of your clients! Check out some resources below on how to do this.

Next, post your Ideal Client Profile somewhere you will see it often. Every time a new potential client comes along, start looking for those Ideal characteristics…and beware the non-ideal! If that little voice starts to tell you something might be wrong, check in with the non-ideal list–and be ready with some ways to turn away non-ideal clients. Offer them other options–refer them to someone else who is a better fit, and make two people happier!

Ideal Clients–For Life
There are many ways to leverage the work you have just done with the Ideal Client Profile. Here are some ideas:

  • Audit your marketing materials. Do your business cards, brochures, ads and website appeal to your Ideal Client? Are you sending the right message, to the right potential clients? Hone your materials, and start seeing better-qualified potential clients walk in the door.
  • Consider your marketing channels. Based on your Ideal Client profile, where would you expect to find these clients? Is that where your marketing efforts are focused? If not, figure out a way to get in front of them!
  • Review your contracts, policies, terms and conditions. Are they set up to be friendly to your Ideal Clients? Do they give you clear avenues for dealing with non-ideal clients? If not, update them, and you might see non-ideal clients take care of themselves.

Start attracting your Ideal Clients today!

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Differentiation: Smart Marketing Strategies for the Solo Entrepreneur

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Using Your (small) Size as a Competitive Advantage

Are you ever frustrated or hesitant when you talk to prospective customers because you can’t readily explain why they should come to you rather than go to your competitors? Sure, you might have your 30-second elevator speech, but then they ask you that dreaded question, “So what makes you different?” Then, all those self-doubts creep in, and you just aren’t sure what to say. Differentiation can boost confidence–yours in yourself and that prospective customer’s confidence in you!

Dif-fer-en-ti-ate v. tr. To perceive or show the difference in or between; discriminate.

In business terms, to differentiate means to create a benefit that customers perceive as being of greater value to them than what they can get elsewhere. It’s not enough for you to be different–a potential customer has to take note of the difference and must feel that the difference somehow fits their need better. (Other words that mean virtually the same thing: Competitive Advantage; Unique Selling Proposition; or Value Proposition.)
As you are building your business, you can use differentiation to attract more customers. Once you have momentum, differentiation allows you to charge a higher price because you are delivering more value to your customers. Make a point to evaluate and adjust your differentiation methods at least annually.
The various methods of differentiating your businesses fall into four general categories:

Price Differentiation
Focus Differentiation
Product/Service Differentiation
Customer Service Differentiation

Price Differentiation
Differentiating on price is probably the most common and easily understood method. HOWEVER, for Solo Entrepreneurs, caution is in order. On the one hand, potential customers might expect a lower price from you than from your larger competition because they perceive you as having less overhead, etc. On the other hand, cheaper prices can evoke perceptions of lower quality, a less-stable business, etc. And if you compete on price against competitors with deeper pockets, you can price yourself right into bankruptcy. Be creative with this differentiator by competing on something other than straight price. For example, you might offer:

  • More value–offer more products or services for the same price.
  • Freebies –accessories, companion products, free upgrades, and coupons for future purchases.
  • Free shipping, etc.–convenience sells, especially when it is free!
  • Discounts–includes offering regular sales, coupons, etc. (see cautions above)

Focus Differentiation
For Solo Entrepreneurs, this is the most important method of differentiation, and in many ways, the easiest. Why? Because as a Solo Entrepreneur, you simply can’t be everything to everybody, so you must pick a specific way to focus your business. Once you have done that, you have an automatic advantage over larger companies because you can become more of an expert in that one field –and you can build close relationships with key customers that will be hard to duplicate. For example, you might differentiate yourself through:

  • Location–take advantage your closeness to prospective customers.
  • Customer specialization–be very specific about what characteristics your customers will have – for example, racing bicycle enthusiasts or companies with a spiritual conscience.
  • Customer relationships–know customers really well, form partnerships with them, and get them to speak for you!
  • Affinity relationships–associate your product/service with a well-known person or organization.
  • One-stop shopping–offer everything your target market needs, in your area of expertise.
  • Wide selection (within your niche) – although this one may seem to be the opposite of focus–the key is to be very specific in one dimension and very broad in another.

Product/Service Offering Differentiation
How much you are able to differentiate your product or service offering will vary based on what type of business you are in. For instance, if you are in a highly regulated business, your options may be limited. Explore a totally new market or type of product or service, however, and the possibilities abound. The key to successful differentiation in this category, again, is to know your customers, really, really well. Talk to them often, and you will know what they need most and be able to offer it, long before your competitors know what is happening. For example, your product or service could stand out in one of these ways:

  • Quality–create a product or service that is exceptional in one or more ways.
  • Lasts longer
  • Better features
  • Easier to use
  • Safer
  • New/First–be the first one to offer something in your location/field.
  • Features/Options–offer lots of choices, unusual combinations, or solve a problem for a customer in a way no one else does.
  • Customization–as a Solo Entrepreneur, you may be able to more easily handle special orders than big, mass-market competitors.

Customer Service Differentiation
Have you noticed how customer service seems to be out of vogue these days? This situation makes excellent customer service a great opportunity for differentiation and another natural advantage for Solo Entrepreneurs that already know what’s important to their customers. Build your reputation on making customers feel really good about doing business with you. Works great with referral marketing, too. Examples:

  • Deliver Fast–next day, or one-hour–make it faster than customers think possible.
  • Unique channel–offer a service over the phone or Internet instead of in person or in their office rather than yours.
  • Service-delight customers!–it may seem expensive to offer exceptional service–but it pays off in word-of-mouth advertising.
  • Before/during/after-sales support–provide technical or other support to customers using your product. You might use joint ventures to provide that support–but customers will perceive it as being from you!
  • Guarantee/warranty–offer 100% money-back, or free replacement parts.
  • YOU–offer yourself, your unique blend of talents and skills, to attract customers. Make sure they get access to you, too!

Keys to Successful Differentiation:

  • Know your customers, really, really well.
  • Pick a blend of differentiation methods that, in the eyes of your customers, truly sets you apart.
  • Talk about your differentiation in terms of customer benefits.
  • Tell everyone about what differentiates you–often.
  • Keep your differentiation fresh by listening for changing customer needs.