Small Business Blog

It’s not an uncommon situation for B2B service providers: you spend hours consulting with your prospective customer, get that prospect to put his inked pen to the contract, and then it all goes south. Seemingly, at the very moment your prospect will retain your services, his phone rings. On the other end of the line is a slick salesperson who promises the world and plants the seed of doubt. Next thing you know, your prospect is on the fence between the rosy world of dreams and the real world, where your business operates.

The world of Web marketing seems, at times, like auto repair or psychotherapy: the customer is at the mercy of the service provider. When the service provider says you need a new timing belt or six months of biweekly sessions, you may not have the know-how to doubt the diagnosis or the recommendation. In Web marketing, sales people routinely diagnosis your problem as poor search visibility and recommend expensive and unnecessary solutions to get you “to the top of Google.” (continue reading…)

A report by Econsultancy and Online Marketing Summit attempts to understand how companies are quantifying the value of social media. Admittedly, we did not buy the report, but we did read the 24-page “free sample.” Two statistics jump out:

• 61 percent of companies have tinkered with social media, without jumping in, full board, to a social media strategy
• 13 percent of companies are not doing anything at all

Do these numbers imply that the social media landscape is less competitive than, say, your local phone book or local search results? To answer that question, we’d have to know similar usage data on those other forms of media. One thing’s for sure, the popularity of social media is growing. Facebook traffic, for example, is exploding to the point where this site is the second most popular on the Web. And this means social media is poised to get more competitive over time.

Understanding this, do you think there’s a closing window of opportunity for your small business to secure a position in social media before Twitter, Facebook and others become bogged down with endless clutter, the way search engine results are currently? Could be. Remember when businesses first started launching Web sites? Those who got in early swooped up the domain names and ushered in fundamental changes to entire industries (travel and banking sectors come to mind). It was a lot easier to establish first-page ranking when you weren’t competing with the whole world, right? Those who came on to the Web scene later in the game have struggled to build and maintain visibility under generic key phrases. Could the same thing happen with social media (or has it already)? (continue reading…)

All marketing activities, including free tactics, come at a cost.

This cost may be measured in terms of money, time or even missed opportunities. That’s why it’s so important that you understand who your most profitable customers are, and focus your energy on finding and keeping them.

To do this, you’ll first need to define your ideal customer profile. This will help you focus your efforts like a laser, enabling you to get the best ROI for your lead generation efforts. (continue reading…)

While there are many resources available on how to write a marketing plan, few of them offer practical, straightforward instructions. Some are too complex and off-putting, and others are simply too vague to be useful. Most small business owners and strategists are too short on time to decode lengthy explanations or figure out how to apply boilerplate formulas to their situations. What follows here is a step-by-step plan that will help you organize your ideas and information in the shortest amount of time possible. The information provided is designed specifically for small, emerging businesses and owners who are new to marketing plan development.

The caveat is this: the more effort you put into to analyzing the information that creates your marketing plan, the more useful it will be to you. Consider your plan a work-in-process, and be open to making adjustments as new information about your competitive situation becomes available. (continue reading…)

What information should be included in my plan?  The table of contents for a complete marketing plan should look something like this: (continue reading…)

Simply put, a mission statement is a short paragraph that identifies your company and its purpose. The paragraph generally references the company’s location, products and services, customers, core strengths, and desired public image. Each of these concepts will be covered in detail throughout your marketing plan.

Tips

• Take a stab at your mission statement now, and then revisit it when you’re finished with the marketing plan.
• Many businesses have mission statements posted on their Web sites; if you are unfamiliar with the mission statement concept, visit the sites of well known, public companies and read how their missions are phrased.
• Avoid narrowing the focus too much, as your mission should allow for future growth and expansion.
• Word the statement to impress the people or organizations that buy your products or services.

What you need:

√Your company profile. You have probably written one for your Web site, or for inclusion in a trade association directory.

Questions to ask:

• Why did you start your company?
• Who are your customers and what would you like them to know about you?
• What image would you like to portray?
• What are your company’s strengths?
• What products and services do you offer? What needs do they serve?

The Example

KidsWorld was established in 2005 to provide families and their children a safe, user-friendly Internet community where kids can research, learn, and interact, without fear of coming across inappropriate content or malicious spyware. Designed by parents for kids, KidsWorld is Internet the way it should be: fun, wholesome, and informative.

Your final product descriptions should be thorough and detailed, covering both physical descriptions and selling points for each product. Include only your existing offerings; future product plans will be included in the Objectives section of the plan.

What you need:

√ Product brochures, catalogs, previously written descriptions, product releases, product specifications, sales materials, etc.  (continue reading…)

Your target market is the consumer group most likely to buy your product. This group is usually defined in terms of demographics: age range, gender, geographical location, marital status, etc. It can also be defined in terms of a lifestyle: if you sell karate uniforms (gis), your customers may be kids, teens, adults, etc., but the commonality is their interest in martial arts.

In some cases, the consumer who pays for your product won’t be the same person who uses it. As an example, private tutoring or infant toys are purchased by adults, but used by children. If your product falls into this category, define both the purchaser and the user. This will prompt you to analyze whether you need to market to the purchaser, the user, or both. Toys, for example, are often marketed very effectively to kids, which prompts those kids to ask (or beg) their parents to buy the item of choice. These marketing strategy decisions should ultimately be supported by your consumer research.

Tip

Be as specific as possible about what defines your customer, using demographic and lifestyle descriptors. Narrowing your focus now will help you implement more effective marketing programs later.

What you need:

√ A thorough understanding of your product and the need it serves

√ All consumer research data that supports the marketability of your product

Questions to ask:

• How can I define the consumer group that is most likely to have the problem that my product addresses? How are these consumers similar?
• How might they be different?
• What personal characteristics would prompt someone to buy my product?
• Is the person who pays for my product the same person who actually uses my product?
• On what scale will my company distribute the product: locally, regionally, nationally, or globally?
• Will our distribution system limit our potential customer base?

The Example

KidsWorld users will be English-speaking children between the ages of 9 and 14 who have Internet access at home. KidsWorld purchasers will be financially stable parents who: 1) consider the Internet to be largely adult-oriented and 2) take an active role in their children’s education.

If you have done consumer research and/or product testing, this section of your marketing plan should outline your research findings and how they support your product concept. As well, you should also summarize questions raised by your research and issues you weren’t able to address through research. Describe your methods of research in detail, so that you and the readers of your marketing plan can adequately assess the validity of the conclusions. (continue reading…)