Small Business Success Index

Index Score^*		Grade
SBSI INDEX	75	C
Capital Access	67	D+
Marketing & Innovation	70	C-
Workforce	79	C+
Customer Service	91	A-
Computer Technology	74	C
Compliance	90	A-
*Index score is calculated on a 1-100 scale.

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Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

Public Relations for Small Businesses: Interview with Robb Deigh

August 16th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

Robb Deigh

Robb Deigh is President of RDC Communication, a strategic communication, marketing, and public relations firm located outside of Washington, DC. He worked in journalism and PR at PBS, AOL, Blackboard, Inc., and a large PR agency before venturing out on his own 12 years ago. He’s the author of How Come No One Knows About Us?, as well as numerous articles for trade journals and other publications. In the following interview with Robb, he offers suggestions on how to get a PR program in place, what mistakes to avoid, and how to track the ROI of your PR efforts.

What are the biggest challenges small businesses face when it comes to planning and executing public relations?

Besides the obvious—budget—there are two. First, their language and messages might be all over the place. I take clients through a messaging exercise that helps create a strong, solid set of messages that can then be used on their website and in presentations, print materials, and other communications. If everyone on the team uses the messages, it is a very powerful tool.

The second challenge is knowing how to get attention using traditional and social media. Make a list of stories you can pitch to the media and match those stories to the right publications and appropriate reporters. Knowing how to pitch a story is THE most important PR skill to have. In terms of social media, small businesses need to get their messages and website in order before deciding to start a blog, use Facebook, or even publish an e-newsletter. Make sure that before you say something to the world, you have something to say. If you use Twitter, you know that there is a lot of jibberish out there right alongside useful information.

What are some easy ways for small businesses to get going with PR?

Start out by creating your organizational messages. Get your team together and brainstorm a list of all of your company’s attributes. Use those attributes to build 5-6 great messages that tell prospects, “Here is what we can do for you.” Update your website with those messages, since all of your communication is designed to steer prospects there first. Then, try some press. If budget is tight, build your own small press list. What do you and your audiences read? The reporters at those publications are your targets. Get their email addresses and send them announcements when you have real news. Put yourself in their place and call them with great story ideas about your industry.

What should small businesses avoid doing?

Three things immediately spring to mind:

Don’t assign a non-communications person in your organization the task of doing PR. It will end up taking a back seat to his/her real job. Hire someone with applicable experience and, if needed, get some outside help.
When pitching stories, do not call reporters with non-news.
Don’t blog, use Facebook or Twitter, or publish an e-newsletter unless you have something useful and non-self-promotional to say. Educate your audience and give them the advantage of your expertise.

How can you track the ROI of your public relations efforts? Seeing a mention in the press is great, but figuring out if it’s generating leads is probably not so easy.

Absolutely! A stack of clips with your company’s name in it is definitely not a measure of success. But clips that include at least one of your 5-6 main messages are of immense value. That’s part of your long-term public relations ROI. Make sure that when you do an interview, publish an article, or make a presentation, you use your messages. In time, you will hear them echo back to you in the news media and elsewhere. That’s how you know it is working. Of course, you’ll also know it’s working when your sales increase, because good PR leads to high visibility which leads to higher sales.

Care to share a couple of success stories?

I’ve helped dozens of companies go from being virtually invisible to being strong brands, but I think my biggest PR/media successes over the years have occurred when I have found good story ideas within client organizations and packaged those stories with 2-3 good sources for the right reporters at the right time.

When you have a great story pitch, make an initial phone call and then send details by email. If you are doing it correctly, you really are doing part of the reporter’s job—finding good stories and sources. Make it easy for them to say “yes.” It works the same whether you are pitching your community paper or CNN (although CNN will be harder to reach on the phone!).

Tags: blogs, e-newsletters, Marketing, marketing ROI, public relations, ROI, social media
Posted in Marketing | View Comments

Using Content Curation To Become a Thought Leader

August 11th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

Ever hear of content curation? Neither did I, til I signed up for another fabulous American Marketing Association webinar on that topic last month. Pawan Deshpande, Founder and CEO of HiveFire, and Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, collaborated to present the informative, funny, and very interesting webinar. Here’s what I learned:

Thought leaders share four qualities:

They distill information into key insights
They foresee new directions their industry is taking and set trends based on that information
They are trusted, go-to authorities for information
They look for patterns in trends and news and report on those patterns

Chris Brogan

So, what a thought leader will do is identify a topic they think is worth pursuing. They’ll do research on that topic and produce a report, article, blog, white paper, or whatever. Then they repurpose the content for different uses, distribute it, and start all over again.

The reason it’s so important to become a thought leader in an industry is due to the power of influence. You want to not only influence your prospective clients but, most importantly, have them seek you out, rather than vice versa. Remember, though, that thought leadership is NOT about tooting your own horn. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: no one cares about you, they only care about themselves.

So let’s switch gears a little bit and talk about content. Content marketing evolved as the cost of publishing information nose-dived. Thanks to the internet, free blog software, and numerous social networking platforms, anyone can publish and distribute content for the price of a high-speed internet connection. This, as we well know, has lead to its own complications. There’s just so much out there! And because marketers struggle to get found, they publish tons of stuff and distribute it on as many mediums as possible. So now there’s this vicious cycle going that is expensive, time-consuming, and creating content marketers rather than thought leaders.

Pawan Deshpande

This is where content curation comes into the picture. Rohit Bhargava defined it very nicely: “A content curator finds, groups, organizes, and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific topic online.” Think the Drudge Report, TMZ, the Huffington Post. Because these companies are so good at content curation, they have become thought leaders. We go to them for our information.

To become a thought leader using content curation, you have to first decide if content curation is a good marketing strategy for you. Ask yourself two questions:

Is your brand focused on an issue and do you have an innovative perspective on that issue?
Do your prospects conduct a lot of research on this issue?

If you answered yes, then here’s what you do:

Distill information into key insights
Provide fresh perspective on a topic (or topics) within your industry

As always, easier said than done!

Tags: Branding, content curation, lead generation, Marketing, Thought Leadership
Posted in Branding, Marketing, Thought Leadership, small business | View Comments

How to Win Friends and Influence People

July 30th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

The lessons and advice imparted in Dale Carnegie’s ground breaking 1936 book How to Win Friends and Influence People are as useful today as they were then. Think about the reasons we small business owners spend time and money on marketing, especially social media: We want to connect with current and prospective clients and convince them that they need our product or service. To do that, we need to know exactly how to connect with them, and this is where the book comes in.

The only way on earth to influence the other fellow is to talk about what he wants and show him how to get it. Dale Carnegie

Dale’s book is centered on one simple fact. People want to feel important. It’s just human nature. We like praise and hate criticism. Praise makes us feel important, while criticism makes us feel like losers. And, as Dale also points out in the book, we spend around 95% of our time thinking about ourselves. So, when you want to make someone do something, stop and think how you can make that person want to do it.

If there is any one secret of success, it lays in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as from your own. Henry Ford

My absolute favorite piece of sales advice, which speaks to Mr. Ford’s quote above, is that you need to show people how you can solve their problem, and they will buy from you. We all strive to do this, but do we always do it? Probably not.

The book is broken down into six sections, but I’m only covering the second and third, because I think are the most important. All of the following advice is common sense and highly applicable to most any situation (the final section, in fact, is titled Seven Rules for Making Your Home Life Happier).

Here are Dale Carnegie’s Six Ways To Make People Like You:

Show a genuine interest in people.
Smile! You’ll feel better and so will the person you are talking to.
Remember names. “A person’s name is to him (or her) the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves. After all, we are our own favorite subjects!
Discuss with the person whatever his or her interests are. Teddy Roosevelt use to study his guests’ favorite subjects before they’d visit him at his Oyster Bay estate on Long Island so he could talk knowledgeably about it with them.
Always make the other person feel important. Remember the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”? Make others feel important, appreciated, valued and be sincere when you do!

And here are 12 Ways To Win People To Your Way Of Thinking:

The only way to win an argument is to avoid one. Unless it’s a matter of life or death, let the person think they’re right, even if they’re not.
Show respect for someone else’s opinion. Don’t tell that person they’re wrong for having that opinion, even if you think it’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard.
If you’re wrong, admit it immediately.
Begin your persuasive argument in a friendly, not hostile or defensive, way.
Get the other person saying “yes” rather than “no” by emphasizing the things on which you agree. If you can, emphasize that you and this other person want exactly the same thing and that your only difference is method, not purpose.
Let the other person do most of the talking. (See #4 in the above section!) Don’t pretend you have all the answers. Let the person describe their business and problems to you, because they know these things better than you do.
Let the other person think that the idea is his or hers. Ask for his or her advice or help in solving a matter. Then you can gently steer that person in the direction you want them to go.
Play the devil’s advocate, and try to see things from the other person’s point of view, not just your own. Show that you understand that person, what they need, and what they want.
Be sympathetic to the other person’s ideas and desires. If you want to stop an argument, create goodwill, and make the other person listen attentively, say “I don’t blame you for feeling the way you do. If I were you, I’d feel the same way, too.”
Appeal to noble motives, such as honesty, fairness, and honor. Think about celebrities asking the paparazzi not to take photos of their young children. “Photos of me are fine, but please respect my baby’s privacy—there are too many creeps out there.”
Dramatize your ideas. The best Super Bowl ads do this. You might not like beer, let alone Bud Light, but after watching one of their funny commercials, you’ll certainly remember it.
Throw down a challenge. Everyone wants to show off the fact that they’re better than someone else.

Tags: Business Development, Marketing, sales, small business, social media
Posted in Business Development, Marketing, small business, social media | View Comments

Women in Business: Marketing Strategy For Everyone! Part 2

July 26th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

Because my friend Emily Richards of Drew Consulting, a full-service marketing consulting firm based in Falls Church, VA, had so much to say about marketing strategy and small businesses, I divided my interview with her into two parts. You can read Part 1 here.

Care to share a couple of success stories?

My client’s success is my success. I was brought in last summer to make recommendation on a project in Boston, MA for a residential construction client. The investors were ready to finalize the deal (and it goes without saying my client was as well). After we conducted our market research, the deal didn’t pencil. Our recommendation, while not popular, was to not pursue the deal. They reviewed our research and recommendation and killed the deal. It was a success for us in that while we didn’t provide our client with the information they were hoping to obtain, we contributed to ensuring they maintained a solid portfolio and didn’t compromise on a bad development decision.

Another was a strategy session for a start up client. They brought us in to conduct a session with their employees to ensure that everyone understood the purpose and direction of the company. At the time, the team was only about 10 people. As the session was conducted, you could see individuals making the connection of the business’s passion, their own individual purpose and how the two ‘fit together’. While this certainly didn’t have quantifiable results, the company has continued to grow successfully and is an incredibly close knit organization.

I’m always curious as to how other small business owners market their business. So, how do you market your’s?

Often, I find myself so entrenched in marketing other companies that I neglect the marketing of my own company. Most clients come by way of referral and word of mouth. We have begun branching out in traditional methods of marketing including, eblasts, social media campaigns and direct mail to companies in the area that are identified as growing/expanding companies that could potentially be in need of our services.

If you could give 3 pieces of advice to a small business owner putting together a marketing plan, what would they be?

1) Don’t neglect the exercise

I’ve seen start up businesses and established businesses, alike, fail to place importance on creating a formal business plan and strategy. It is difficult to express your vision and purpose if you haven’t taken the time to sit down and think through high level goals and objectives for your business. In my opinion, it could make or break your entire vision. These goals and objectives are the premise upon which we build strategies.

2) Be flexible (to the change and evolution of your original plan)

I had a client come to me last week and apologize. He wanted to make significant changes to a strategy he previously approved. While I certainly don’t encourage serial modifiers, you must be realistic that the strategy may (and will) change dependent on a myriad of factors within and out your of your control.

3) Be thoughtful (both in current objectives and long term goals)

Don’t haphazardly select strategy initiatives. Just because your largest competitor launched a twitter contest, it doesn’t mean you should (necessarily) go out and implement the same. If you were to replicate their campaign, what outcome would you wish to achieve? If you say ‘just because my competitor has a twitter campaign’ is rarely sufficient to jump in head first without thoughtfully contemplating your desired outcome and overall results.

Tags: Marketing, marketing plan, marketing strategy, small business, social media
Posted in Marketing, small business, social media | View Comments

Using Social Media and e-Mail Campaigns for a one-two marketing punch

July 23rd, 2010 :: Steven Fisher

For the last few years people have been working with social media tools trying to increase customer acquisition and web site click through rates (CTR). Social media is at its very basic a conversation and anyone with an opinion or content can join in that conversation. This is different from e-mail which offers a more personalized and intimate level of contact with your customer.

GetResponse‘s “Email Marketing and Social Media Integration Report” found that the inclusion of social media sharing buttons in email generated click-through rates around 30% higher than email sent with no sharing options. The BizReport.com also says that “a Twitter button proved to be the most effective, increasing click-through rates by 40% but in order to garner the highest rates, around 55%, more than one social media button needed to be incorporated”.

Aweber has some great tips on how to leverage social media and e-mail campaigns together:

Occasionally, you may want to broadcast a brilliant newsletter beyond your list. Follow these steps to tweet your newsletter and show the Twitterverse the value of your emails. Put a sign-up form in the newsletter for new converts.
Post a sign-up form on your Facebook fan page. Your fans’ contacts will see any posts they make about you, and potential fans can also find your fan page via search. If they click over to your page, a sign-up form instantly invites them to join your list.
People who start following you via social media need a reason to subscribe by email, too. Make your web form is clearly visible, and try offering an extra incentive for signing up.
You aren’t the only one who can hype your campaign: your readers can, too.Buttons to share your emails on social networks offer opportunities to promote your message – and give you a chance to go viral.

Entrepreneur.com also has some great tips on making the most of your social media and e-mail marketing mix:

Make the most of the social media and e-mail marketing mix.
E-mail and social media marketing can work together to build on what each does best. Here are five things you need to know so you can make the most of the social media and e-mail marketing mix:

Be where your customers are. You won’t know whether your customers are on social media sites, and which ones in particular, unless you test the waters and look for them. Different people prefer different means of getting their daily info and opinion fix. Millions like the streaming feed of Twitter. Others prefer the posts on Facebook. More professionally oriented people may use LinkedIn. You want to swim in the channels that are frequented by your customers and prospects.

Use your e-mail list to build a social media presence. The big question we get from e-mail marketers is how to get that snowball rolling down the social media mountain. Here’s the good news: The secret is your e-mail list. Use it to jump-start your social media presence by inviting your subscribers to follow you on Twitter and become your fan on Facebook. They will get the ball rolling for you. How do you engage prospects on social media websites? The same way as with e-mail marketing: valuable, relevant, interesting content.

Repurpose content from your newsletter. Content is still king. That applies to social media, too. You don’t need to create brand-new content to engage people on social networking sites. Instead, repurpose snippets of articles you’ve already created (or aggregated) for your e-mail newsletter. Think of these as “microcontent”–one tip, one idea, one article you found interesting. A teaser and a link back to your archived newsletter or blog is all the content you need to get started posting on social media sites.

Invite people back to your website or blog. If your website is your online hub or headquarters, then think of social media sites as your satellites. They allow you to extend your business presence. When you post on social media, be sure to include frequent links back to your website, newsletter archive or blog, where interested people can learn more about your business. Then you can engage potential customerson a deeper level, away from the distractions of the social media world. Just be sure you’re not always selling; social media is better-suited for sharing information and expertise.

Ask for mailing list sign-ups on multiple channels. Use your e-mail list to build a presence on social media sites, then use your presence on the sites to invite even more people to sign up for your mailing list. Put a link to your sign-up form on multiple channels, including your website and Facebook fan page. Tweet about your newsletter articles on Twitter, linking readers back to your newsletter archive, where they can sign up for your mailing list.

Your Email and Social Media Tactics

Have you tried any of these methods with your campaigns? Are you seeing a change in the relationships you have with customers and email newsletter subscribers?

Tags: e-mail marketing, Marketing, social media
Posted in Email marketing, Marketing, small business, social media | View Comments

Women in Business: Marketing Strategy For Everyone! Part 1

July 22nd, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

Emily Richards is the smart, funny, and energetic owner of Drew Consulting, a full-service marketing consulting firm based in Falls Church, VA. We were introduced at a BNI meeting (neither of us belongs) by a mutual business associate last winter. When we finally got together for lunch in May, we had such a good time that I realized I’d found not only a new partner and referral source (and vice versa), but a friend. Nice when that happens.

Because of Emily’s deep experience in marketing, I thought she’d have some useful information on marketing strategy to pass along to all of us small business owners. She had so much to say, I’m dividing this blog post into two. Enjoy!

Why did you decide to go into business for yourself? How long have you been in business?

Owning my own business has always been my dream. I began consulting on a freelance basis while still in corporate America. It was something I enjoyed and decided to pursue full time. I’ve consulted for 4 years.

What areas of marketing strategy do you specialize in/most enjoy?

I specialize in the actual development of marketing strategies; business development strategies (companies either in start up phase or expansion of an existing company); and market research. Typically all of the above mentioned areas go hand in hand. In order to develop new business, a business strategy, marketing strategy and market research are all necessary components. Market Research provides quantifiable data that supports my recommendations for marketing strategies. Marketing strategies are a driver in the success in new business development and ultimately, positive impact to the bottom line. These specialties are also what I enjoy most. It’s a nice perk in small business ownership to align your specialties with what you most enjoy.

What are the biggest marketing challenges your clients face? How do you help them overcome those challenges?

The biggest challenges my clients face are depressed economic conditions and a rapidly changing marketing landscape. While these are cliché challenges, they present obstacles I have to overcome on a daily basis. In a recessive economy, it takes more time and creativity to achieve the same results that came much easier in a thriving economy. My clients don’t necessarily have the allocation in their budget for the additional time and efforts. They spent less and earned more in past years. It’s a difficult concept for them to overcome. Secondly, technology is evolving at lightning speed. There are times when I simply do not have the answer as to the impact of a rising social media or interactive trend. I don’t enjoy not having the answer any more than they do. The positive spin to both of these challenges is the benefits of our global communication. There are many opportunities to create a strategy with grassroots focus at a minimal cost thanks to existing social media platforms.

Proving the ROI of marketing is not always easy. How do you help your clients quantify the effectiveness of their marketing programs?

As I mentioned before, I feel proving the ROI of many marketing efforts today are significantly more difficult to quantify. I am very adamant [with clients] that there be some form of capture method to measure the impact of our efforts. It helps tremendously when there is a database that can capture leads, lead sources and sales. But there are many creative metrics [apart from databases] to capture this information ranging from analyzing Google analytics (to determine if a marketing material with a unique URL generated traffic to a site) to analyzing the click-through of an e-blast to monitoring the number of fans to your facebook (before and after a month long posting campaign). I like to measure leads, number of sales and the lead conversion ratio. It provides us the ability to determine how many targeted leads we need to obtain in order to reach the desired lead conversion rate and ultimately revenue goals.

Read Part 2 here.

Tags: business development strategy, market research, Marketing, marketing ROI, marketing strategy, small business marketing
Posted in Marketing, small business | View Comments

Logos: Yes, You Need One

July 19th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

Logos are a very important, powerful part of a company’s branding. We mostly associate them with large companies:

Nike with their swoosh
NBC with their peacock
Louis Vuitton with their elegant brown interlocked L and V

Some company’s names are also their logos:

IBM’s crisp striped letters
Yahoo’s uneven letters, punctuated with a !
Coca Cola’s red and white script

Even my kids recognize McDonald’s arches, and they’ve never been inside a McDonald’s let alone eaten the food. (Come to think of it, they don’t watch commercial TV either, so I have no idea how they know about McDonald’s.)

Just because you’re a small business owner, it doesn’t mean you don’t need a logo. It’ll become your symbol, your badge, a memorable part of your company’s identity. A good graphic designer will put one together for you when they create your stationery, business card, website, and any other marketing materials you might need.

As your company grows and times and tastes change, your logo will evolve. It should be tied into what you do, though, and not just be some random, pretty picture that has nothing to do with your company or industry (I see this a lot on business cards that people have slapped together themselves).

I get comments on my logo all the time, which incorporates my middle initial “c” into a cog wheel, thus pulling double duty: my logo both imitates the copyright symbol and effectively illustrates that I’m an important part of the marketing process.

Here are other considerations when putting together a logo:

Color. Greens, blues, and other muted colors are relaxing and soothing, while oranges, reds, and yellows are exciting and energizing. Black, white, and gray are timeless. Purple stands out, as most people shy away from it.

Style. Elegant, simple, bold, modern, gothic, Italianate…the choices are endless. If you’re a high-tech start-up, you’d obviously go with something modern. If you are a coffee shop, you can play around a little more, but you’d ultimately want your logo to appeal to your target demographics.

Tag line. A lot of companies include their tagline in their logo. If it’s short and only adds to the logo, go for it.

Tags: Branding, graphic design, logos, Marketing, tag line
Posted in Branding, Marketing, small business | View Comments

How to Strengthen Your Brand

July 16th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

Every year, Interbrand publishes a list of the best global brands (read more about their methodology here.) 2009’s best global brand was Coca Cola. If you have ever doubted the importance of branding, consider this: Coca Cola’s market value is $52.19 billion. Their market + brand value is $121.51 billion.

I’ll let you think about that for a bit.

So now that we’ve established how crucial strong and favorable brand recognition is, let’s step back and define “brand”. It’s how your audience feels about you, your company, your products, and your services, and it includes both tangible and intangible factors.

The best brands share the same attributes.

Distinct
Bold
Address clear needs
Evolve
Connect with the audience and inspire emotion
Indicate the company is the best at something
Eye-catching but simple logos

Think about your company’s brand for a minute. Does it do any of the above? If not, it might be time to focus some attention on strengthening your brand. Here are some new trends to keep in mind while you rework things.

Customer-driven. Make sure your customers are the focus of everything you do and that all decisions are based on their wants and needs.

Sustainability/social responsibility. If you incorporate green practices in your business, include it in your marketing. No green washing, though!

Multi-modal engagement. This just means you need to reach your customers in as many ways as possible, especially via social media, which, of course, you already know.

Private labels. Creating a private label for your products, just as grocery stores and clothing retailers have done, is a great move. The higher the quality, the more sought-out they will be.

Simplification. Focus on your core business and forget about any product or service lines that do not support it.

Emotional connection. This is one of those intangible factors that are so important to have but hard to get. You’ll gain connections via excellent customer service, memorable marketing campaigns, and high quality products and service that deliver above and beyond expectations.

Breaking against “type”. Go against the grain in your industry and do things differently. You’ll definitely stand out.

Concise and plain language. My favorite trend! Forget the industry jargon, the SAT words, and the complicated sentences that leave readers scratching their heads. Your customers speak plain English, just like you do. Write that way.

Tags: brand recognition, Branding, logos, Marketing, small business, social media
Posted in Branding, Marketing, small business | View Comments

10 Cost Effective Ways to Market Your Business, Part 2

July 14th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

In my previous blog post, 10 Cost Effective Ways to Market Your Business, Part 1, I shared 5 tips for marketing that require little more than time. I learned all of this valuable information I’m now sharing with you in a webinar (of the same name) sponsored by the American Marketing Association. In fact, the webinar was so packed with great information that it’s taking me two blog posts to share everything. Without further ado, here are tips 5 through 1.

5. Tap Into the Power of Google

The omniscient, omnipresent Google has some great tools you can use to strengthen your marketing efforts. Look up the hot topics of the day via Google Trends. Is there something being discussed that you can address in your promotions? Use Google Insights to find out what key terms are being searched for the most; apply your findings to your SEO efforts.

4. Database Driven Email Marketing

When I hear the word database, I am almost immediately lulled to sleep. For me, the word “database” means boring (too closely related to, gag, math), but in the case of email marketing, it means clever. Instead of always looking for new customers, tap into the relationship you already have with your existing customers by using your CMS (customer management system) as the basis for a plan to upsell and/or cross sell to them.

3. It’s An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Never underestimate the alluring power of a limited offer. It could be exclusive to select customers, available for a limited time, include a special feature, or a sneak peek at a new product or service a week ahead of the official launch date.

2. Is Your Signature Working For You?

If the signature in your email messages does not include your website address, phone number, title, and links to your blog and social media profiles, go fix it.

And the #1 most cost-effective way to market your business:

Interact with your customers!

Yes, it’s a no-brainer, but are you doing it? Solicit feedback on a continual basis via a virtual suggestion box and short surveys. Build loyalty with contests, promotions, and events and case studies. Co-present a webinar or seminar with a partner or customer. And be sure your company’s phone number is prominently placed on your website! No one can call if you if they can’t find your number!

Tags: CMS, customer loyalty, Email marketing, email signature, Google, Marketing, promotions, seo
Posted in Marketing, small business | View Comments

10 Cost Effective Ways to Market Your Business, Part 1

July 12th, 2010 :: Monika Jansen

As all of us small business owners know, marketing need not be expensive, but it does take some time and effort. About 6 weeks ago, I signed up for yet another great webinar sponsored by the American Marketing Association called 10 Cost Effective Ways to Market Your Business. It was so packed with great information that it’s going to take me two blog posts to write about what was included.

Before I share what I learned, keep in mind this standard rule of thumb when marketing your business: 80% of the information you publish should be valuable content, while 20% can be pure promotion.

10. Tie Your Company’s Promotions Into Daily or Monthly Events

Ever hear of Chase’s Calendar of Events? It is really cool and a very useful tool for marketers. For 42 years, they’ve been publishing a yearly calendar that lists everything from celebrity birthdays to monthly celebrations (think National Black History Month). From the truly obscure (July 1—the day I’m writing this post—is Midyear Day in Thailand) to the historic (the Battle of Gettysburg took place on July1 in 1863), there are several items listed every day of the year that, if you get creative and think ahead, you could base a promotion on.

9. Tap Into Your Network

The companies and people you work with are great sources of information and shouldn’t be ignored. Share leads with partners and solicit feedback from vendors, especially for new products or services. Don’t forget your customers, either. Use feedback from them as the basis for a research study. Publish and share the study with them (and potential customers).

8. Syndicate Your Content

Blog syndication is really underutilized, so tap into it. (Syndication means something is published in more than one place—think advice columns that appear in newspapers nationwide.) First get a Creative Commons license to ensure you retain the copyright of your content when it is re-published. Then look up blogs where the subject you want to write about fits in and that also accept non-original content.

7. Get Yourself Some User-Generated Content

Adding user-generated content to your website takes some organizing but is a relatively easy way to goose inbound marketing. Three ideas: Ask vendors, customers, and partners to guest blog for you. Add a forum to your website; topics could include help/support, news, info, industry gossip, product or service ideas, etc. Put together a blog series written by experts in your field.

6. Don’t Forget Outbound Marketing

Posting on other sites is important, too. Write a review on Amazon.com for a book written about your industry, answer questions related to your field on LinkedIn, post on companies’ Facebook walls, and be sure to share all of the content you are creating on social media sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Continue reading by checking out the next blog post on this topic here.

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