Small Business UnMarketing

Using Social Media In Your Small Business Marketing

When I first began blogging back in 2005, that was the only way I reached out to my online clients. Everything I had to say or share was included in my blog posts. Many people left comments, but that way our only online connection. In 2006 I began writing articles, but that was still a one-sided conversation.

MySpace was my first foray into the world of social networking, and the experience left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Who were these people? All kinds of characters wanted to connect with me there. I believe I only made one business connection during the two years I had a presence on MySpace.

Fast forward to the fall of 2007, almost a year ago now. Facebook and Twitter had a clean look and feel and social networking for your business was reborn.

Chris Brogan has a must read post over on his blog. He includes both public relations and marketing in his list of 50 ways you can use social media to improve your marketing. I am using about 20 of these ideas and have already seen a boost in my business, both online and off. Let me know which ideas you will be implementing in your business.

Starbucks Coffee Throughout The World

I listened to an interview with Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks Coffee. He is a humble man, and claims not to be the smartest or most talented person he knows. What business does he consider himself to be in? The people business. The most important thing to Schultz is to build asense of community within each of his stores, and have that passed on to the customers.

What about your business? Are you in the people business, too? No matter what product or service you provide, making and keeping relationships will bring you success. With my internet business, I am constantly building and molding my relationships with other people, whether they are my mentees, clients, or other entrepreneurs.

One thing that touches me from hearing Howard Schultz' story is how he was deeply affected by how he grew up during the 1950's and 1960's. When his father was injured at work in 1960, there was no health insurance or worker's compensation program in place in the United States. The family knew they were finished financially when his father could no longer work. Because of this, Schultz opened his stores and provided profit sharing and medical coverage to all employees, even if they only worked part-time.

Success leaves clues, and this man's story has plenty of them.

Word Of Mouth Marketing - Allowing Other People To Promote You And Your Business

Long ago, word of mouth was the only way anyone found out what was going on. If you lived in a small village, either someone in your village knew the answer to your problem or someone in a nearby village might know. If no one knew, and someone figured it out late on, people from villages far and wide would travel to your village to get the answers they needed. This was pure word of mouth.

David Balter has written a brilliant and thought-provoking new book, The Word of Mouth Manual - Volume II, that explores this phenomenon and more. You can download a copy of his book by visiting this link. Do it quickly while his generous offer is still available.

Baltar's book goes on to explain how we can all use word of mouth in our marketing campaigns. It can be a very powerful process if studied carefully, and this book is the best place to start. Go ahead, tell everyone you know about it; word of mouth on the internet is similar to viral marketing.

Attending Live Events Can Be Good For Your Business

Living in the Los Angeles area gives me easier access to live internet marketing and other events than if I lived elsewhere. Recently, however, I began to travel across the country to events such as Big Seminar, held in Atlanta. I am now convinced that you must look for the conferences where the people you need to reach will be speaking or attending.

When you are there in person it makes a greater impact. You can speak directly to someone you have wanted to connect with, even if it is only for a few minutes. This can be extremely valuable  to you, both in terms of opportunity and taking action. A recent contact I made at a conference last month has already brought me greater results than I could ever have dreamed, and we only spoke for about fifteen minutes.

Determine who could help you reach the next level in your business and then go online to see when and where that person will be speaking at a live event. Arrange to go as far in advance as possible so you will save on the cost of the event and your travel expenses. If you are interested in attending the next Big Seminar in October, be sure to subscribe to this blog. I will be rebating 50% of my  commission back to people who sign up through me.

We Are All In The Marketing Business

When someone asks you what you do, or what your niche is online, remember that we're all in the marketing business. You should market your business AT LEAST 60% of the time. Many entrepreneurs get caught up with product creation and development, along with administrative chores, and leave marketing until last. By doing that they end up with great products and services, an organized office with impeccable  financial reports, but not enough clients to stay in business.

So, think about your business in an entirely different way. Plan how you will market in new and creative ways, and spend smaller amounts of time on paperwork and product creation or development. As long as you have people who are interested in purchasing what you have to offer, your small business will thrive.

Marketing yourself and your business is a full-time job

I was asked recently about my marketing plan. I said that I believed we were marketing ourselves and our business at all times. If you think about this you will probably agree with this analysis of the marketing process.

What does marketing mean to you? When you give out your business card or talk to someone new, isn't that marketing? My definition of marketing is 'marketing is what you do when you are passionate about your work and want to share it with the world'. You can tell when people do not love what they do. You can talk to them for hours and they will never mention anything even remotely related to their business. They are doing a different kind of marketing - marketing for their competitors. Who would you prefer cleaning your teeth, changing your faucets, or writing your insurance policy - the person who really does not like what they do or the person who can't wait to do what they do?

What do you do?

Almost daily I am asked by someone "What do you do?" In the past I would go into a story about what I used to do, why I wanted to make a change, and what I was trying to do now. I had lost them in the first 15 seconds. Several years later I learned about my "elevator pitch".

This is when you tell someone what your unique selling proposition or USP is. These days, my USP is "I teach people how to write, market and sell an ebook to increase their visibility, credibility and profitability on the internet."

I recommend that you practice your USP daily. Say it out loud so that it sounds natural and rolls off your tongue. Visit organizations like Rotary and your local Chamber of Commerce and practice telling others what you do. Your business will improve when you are more clear on this point.

Marketing in 2008

This year you may want to party like it's 1999, but do not market like it is any other year but 2008. I was reading the 10 Marketing Resolutions over at Church of the Customer and I am focusing on #3 - Build A Niche and #5 - Creat a Social Network - for my clients.

Ben McConnell does a great job of making us think about what we want for ourselves and our businesses in the future. My clients tend to dislike technology and want to be all things to all people. I will show them how building a niche will bring them more of the right clients for them and how social networks are not just for teens. Most of my people are doing what they love - #10 and are also extremely ethical - #9, so those are not issues to be dealt with.

Marketing lessons learned from "A Christmas Story"

The small theatre in my town did a version of the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story" this weekend. I wanted to see what a live stage production of this story would be like so I went to see it Saturday night.

Young Ralphie was a marketer at heart! He wanted an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle for Christmas and he used some pretty creative marketing skills to get it.

He started out by "seeding" a conversation with his parents to bring up the idea of him having such a thing at his young age. Then he proceeded to deliver a postcard campaign to his parents over the course of the next couple of weeks. He didn't have a budget for postage so he simply cut off stamps from mail already delivered and then glued it on to the postcards and stuck them in the family mailbox. When his teacher asked the class to write a persuasive essay for their final writing project befor the holidays, Ralphie wrote about - you guessed it - why he should have this BB gun for a present.

Also, he never gave

Prospecting Versus Positioning

The old paradigm of marketing told us that we had to constantly prospect for new customers. It was interruption marketing at its best, with salespeople calling and knocking on our doors to sell us things we did not want.

Prospecting is out; positioning is in. By positioning yourself to "show" rather than "tell" people what products and services you have to offer, you put them in the driver's seat when it comes to making the call to do business with you. When your potential client does contact you they are much more likely to do business with you. This makes you stand out in the crowd and be the logical person to do business with in your field. Think about it - do you want to do what everyone else is still doing that we know doesn't work, or do you want to be different and be remembered as the one who got things done?