free (or almost free) ways to shamelessly promote your business
DESCRIPTION
In this presentation, Ellen Didier, president of Red Sage Communications, Inc., recommends marketing and communicating best practices to a group of small business professionals at the Women's Business Center of North Alabama in July, 2011.TRANSCRIPT
Free (or almost free) waysto Shamelessly Promote
your Business
What We’ll Cover Today:1. What to do before you start shamelessly
promoting
2. How to do the traditional basics
3. How to build business using your existing customer database
4. How to use social media
5. How to leverage your website
1. What to do before you start shamelessly promoting
Know your goals.
Sample goals Expand into a new market Grow your customer base Promote a new service
Think about your brand. What is your value statement? Why should potential customers buy from
you? What makes your company different? S.W.O.T. Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats Your marketing has to convey your brand
through how it looks and reads
Identify who you are targeting What types of customers are most
profitable? What types of customers are easiest to
get? What are other target groups you haven’t
approached yet? Think about how you can reach each type
of customer and what you want to say
Write your key messages for each target group
People don’t read Bullet lists, not paragraphs Include differentiators Come up with an elevator pitch These messages need to be integrated
everywhere you shamelessly promote yourself.
2. How to do the traditional basics
Create a professional handout People don’t read – stick to your short
statements
Rack cards are nice
Build your own with VistaPrint.com templates
Include testimonials
Hundreds of designs by industry
Very low cost
Send out Press Releases Search “How to write a press release”
online
Has to be newsworthy – launch new products, announce events, new staff, new account, big project
A few times per year, if you are lucky
Networking Don’t heavy sell Be interested, ask questions then watch for
openings to share info about yourself and your business
Don’t worry about how many people you talk to, just make sure they are good conversations
Work the room, don’t stay with one group
Networking Try to identify the people who seem to know
everyone and get introduced so you can get to know them
Get involved in your customers’ trade associations
If you have a guest list beforehand, research and target contacts
Try to identify potential customers for follow up
Speaking Engagements Become an expert in your field
Pay attention to what topics people are talking about at seminars or tradeshows
Participate in associations and suggest speaking topics that would benefit them (and you)
It has to be educational – not a sales pitch
3. Work Your Customer Database
Your customers are important It can cost 5 to 7 times more money to acquire a
new customer than to retain an existing customer
A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%
Customer profitability tends to increase over the life of a retained customer
How to make your customers feel special
Quarterly phone calls
Welcome notes, thank you notes, holiday cards
Purchase level recognition with gifts
Customer of the quarter gift cards
Set up quarterly calls in SalesForce.com
Referral Programs Define how referrals must be made in order to
effectively track them Only give reward if a referral actually purchases Decide what is appropriate gift level – will you
give something small for every referral or do they get their name put in a hat for a larger gift on a quarterly basis
Referrals are the best way to grow a service business – ask for Testimonials!
E-newsletters Only send to existing customers and
contacts, not purchased lists
Monthly or quarterly or as things happen
Educational or big news
Drive traffic to your website
Trackable
4. Use Social Media
What’s the Big Deal? 500 Million People Use Facebook
Average Facebook Users Have 130 Friends
190 Million People Use Twitter
100 Million People Use Linked In
Social Media Basics It’s all about sharing.
Think conversations; not sales pitches.
Listen.
Think before you type.
Have fun!
Widely used Leverage your existing
personal social network Has great tools for
businesses Don’t use as a sales pitch –
keep it friendly and informal
It’s made for business. Opens your networking circle. Helps others find you. Identifies shared contacts for
getting introductions to prospects.
Has niche groups for sharing and learning.
Testimonials
Put on print materials, tshirts, business cards, anything in print
People take a picture of it with their smart phone
The code is linked to a specific online company resource and takes them there
QR Codes
QR Codes can be used for: Taking you to a website Displaying some text SMS (text messaging) Email messaging Taking you to a Google maps location Taking you to a PayPal Buy Now Link Taking you to a Facebook page… …or even taking you to a YouTube Video.
Where to Get QR Codes Do a google search on “where to get QR
Codes” myQR.com – codes for maps, URLs,
Vcards Free to get the codes
Be creative in how you use them
Put one on your business card and link to a vcard so people can save your contact info to their phone
Put on direct mail to send to landing page or product page
Put on tourism materials as part of walking tour and link to different videos highlighting different places
5. Leverage your website
Put search words and phrases in your content
Make a list of 10-20 search phrases Use these (and variations) throughout
site, combine with location Put in page headers too Bullet lists, not paragraphs
Create a Google Maps Listing
Create a Google Maps Listing Go to Google and search for your town, state
and industry. Example: Decatur, AL web design
Does this have Google Map listings at the top?
Are you listed? If not: Create a Google Account Create a Google Map Listing for your organization Select up to 5 categories for your listing
See if there are free industry directory sites and create a listing
Search for “your industry” huntsville al (ex. Attorney huntsville al)
Look through the search results on pages 1-3 for any site results that look like directories
Go to these sites and look for a link to create a free listing
Blogging is great for SEO Short articles – very personal,
conversational – your thoughts on your business, your industry, your life
Cross link with all other social media and feed into your website
According to emarketer, 53.5% of internet users read blogs
Best Low Cost Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Search engine optimization (SEO) Social media and blogs Permission-based email newsletters Press releases Business cards and marketing materials
No website? Look at “build your own” Web Sites
GoDaddy.com, NetworkSolutions.com, 3dcart.com, Homestead.com, Officite.com
Benefit: low cost and can include applications like photo galleries
Drawback : depends on your time and writing skills, cookie-cutter design
Look for Industry Specific CMS Sites
Search for “(your industry) websites” in Google (ex. “church websites”)
Examples:• ChurchSites.com
• SchoolSites.com
• AdvancedAccess.com (real estate)
Make your site Mobile friendly
Mobile shopping stats 13.1 million consumers access retail content via mobile
phones with 8.2 million of those visiting mobile commerce websites (comScore, 2011)
58% of mobile shoppers are age 18-34 and 34% of mobile shoppers make $100,000 or more a year (comScore, 2011)
74 million consumers in the United States already shop from their mobile devices (inMobi Study, 2011)
Making your sitemobile friendly
Best option - build a separate mobile website that can detect access by mobile phones
Avoid flash, large photos and complex layouts
Features typically include Optimized for 5,000+ phones Google Maps & Analytics QR code marketing Social media integration Coupons Request reservation Tell a friend button – automated text message
Review1. Plan your approach
2. Don’t forget the traditional basics
3. Work your customer database
4. Use social media
5. Leverage your website
