Small Business Websites - Part 2: Domain Names & Hosting

How to get a website in less than a week for under $100...if you're willing to do it yourself.

In Part 1 we discussed the purpose of your website and encouraged you to create a basic site map for your new website. In this tutorial I will show you how to register a domain name if you don't have one, and then show you how to set up a hosting account. I will also show you what to do if you already have a domain name. Watch the tutorial and post a comment if you have any questions.

To register your domain name: GoDaddy.com
To set up a hosting account, and/or register a domain name here: BlueHost.com (My affiliate link)

If you have any questions, please post them in the comment section below. I am not a website developer. If I can do this, you probably can too. In Part 3, we'll show you how to change the look and add content.

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The ‘Most Normal People’ Rule

I’ve been listening and learning this weekend at the Writer’s League of Texas 2009 Agents and Editors Conference. Aspiring authors are an interesting, eclectic group of people. They’re also small business owners in a sense; owners of their book idea. That makes authors marketers.

There are some pretty cool book ideas being pitched here in Austin. We’ll probably see a few of them on Amazon in the next year or so. There are also many that will make you scratch your head. Begging the question, “Why do they think anyone would read that?” It’s a question you should ask yourself before you pull the trigger on new products or new marketing campaigns. “Why would anyone buy that product or believe that claim.” To help you decide, invoke the Most Normal People Rule, which asks: "Will most normal people like this?"

The Most Normal People Rule has two parts:

1. You are not most normal people – Just because you like an idea and a concept doesn’t mean everyone else will. No matter how enthusiastically you pitch it.
2. Empathy – You must be able to step into your customers’ shoes and understand what they’re thinking, what they’re likely to purchase, and what they’re likely to believe.

In the book, Tuned In, authors Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott say that “Your opinion, although interesting, is irrelevant.” Before you launch a new product or service, or do any marketing, run it by the Most Normal People rule. Better yet, run it by most normal people. Talk to people, but don’t ask them if they like your idea, because most people will say yes. They don’t want to hurt your feelings. Instead get to know your customers. Ask yourself what idea or product would resonate with them.

It’s probably best not to introduce a new idea from the comfort from your office. Get out and talk to customers and potential customers. Put yourself in their shoes and find out what most normal people think.

How do you stay tuned in to most normal people?

For more on tuning in to most normal people, check out these articles:
Tuned In
Forget What You Know, Because You're Cursed
Keeping Customers: The Key to Customer Retention

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Powercast #2: Growing Weary of Social Media

Powercast is the Friday morning marketing briefing for small businesses, broadcast live, Friday mornings on UStream.

What is social media's role in your marketing plan. You can be placing too much emphasis on social media. Spend time on the traditional marketing functions before you jump in to social media.

(If you don't see the video player, click here: Weary of Social Media or see the post on the blog: The Marketing Spot)

In the Briefing:

The effectiveness of social media marketing is still unproven. There are success stories, but is social media marketing more effective than traditional marketing? I'm not sure.

You still need to spend time on the more important traditional marketing functions of branding, the customer's experience, word-of-mouth, and even advertising. Get your house in order before you do social media marketing.

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Podcast: Wasting Time on Social Media

Episode #30 of Power to the Small Business podcast.

The Internet show about small business marketing.

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Are you wasting time on social media? Could be, if you're not spending your time on the right social media tool. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, we discuss the different social media options and the best return on time spent, including;

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Blogging

Guests: Bryan Person, Social Media Evangelist at LiveWorld, and founder of Social Media Breakfast
Length: 28 minutes

(Email subscribers and feed readers - Click here to listen if you don't see the player)
You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #30 (for personal use only)

Press the play button on the player above and get started. Comments, questions? Please share it in the comment section below.

Wasting Time on Social Media Show Notes

Bryan Person - Social Media Evangelist, LiveWorld

You have a finite amount of time to create content. Where is the best place to spend that time?

Choose the social media channel that is best for you based on;

• Your marketing purpose
• Your marketing challenge
• Where your customer will be
• How much time you have to spend on social media
• The strength of each social media tool

Twitter is the lazy man’s social media tool. It’s easy to post 140 characters and amass a lot of followers. It takes more time and thought to maintain a blog.

Blogs may be the most powerful social media marketing tool for small businesses. This is especially true if you customers will go to search engines to search for your type of business.

Blogs give you credibility, authority, and search engines like blogs.

Find Bryan on the web:
Bryan Person's Blog on LiveWorld
BryanPerson's personal blog
The Daily Boo Podcast
Twitter: @BryanPerson

Listen to all of our previous shows:
Power to the Small Business Archive

For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader

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The Big Question About Social Media Marketing

I'm doing a social media marketing workshop this week at the Houston Small Business Development Center and I'm going to pose the big question. It's the question you need to answer before you go spending a bunch of time chasing the pot of gold at the end of the social media rainbow. Here it is:

Will my customer use it?

It matters not that Facebook has more than 307 million users worldwide and 70 million in the U.S.. What matters is whether or not your customers use Facebook. YouTube has 95 million users in the U.S. that watch more than three hours of video per month. So what. Will they watch your video? And how many of those 19 million worldwide Twitter users care about your tweets?

You need to know your customers. Know their interests, likes and dislikes. And for goodness sake, know their online habits.

The most important thing you can do with your marketing resources is spend them wisely. That means using your time and your money where your customers spend their time. Do a little research. Talk to your customers and get to know them before you go wasting your time on a social media program that won't reach anyone.

Do you know where your customers spend their time?

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PowerCast #1: Small Business Websites

A website is a small business necessity, and a pain in the butt. The main problems with small business websites are cost and control. They cost too much to build and when they’re built you have no control over them. So they sit there, perhaps for years, unchanged.

Today is the beginning of a brand new feature on The Marketing Spot, the PowerCast Friday morning marketing briefing. Every Friday morning, I will broadcast live on UStream and then load the briefing here on The Marketing Spot blog. Today the topic is websites.

During the next week, I’m going to demonstrate how you can get your own website, in less than a week for under $100. That’s not a misprint, and it’s not a gimmick. I’m not selling you anything. I’m not making a dime from this. So watch the PowerCast and see the notes below.
Note: I'm working on improving the video quality.

(Email and feed subscribers, if you don’t see the video player, click here: Powercast #1 - Websites)

Summary Notes:

- Websites can be expensive, so many small businesses will hire a friend, family member, or local web dabbler to build them a cheap site. This leads to problems.
- Farming out your website development means loss of control, increased costs, and possibly a website that never gets updated.
- Today's web tools allow you to build your own website inexpensively, and keep control of it in house.
- You can get a real website for under $100 in less than a week. You should only have to pay for website hosting....if you're willing and able to do some of the work yourself.
- I'm going to show you how to do your own website in the next week.

Some reasons to have a website for your business

• Have a web presence so that your business is searchable by the search engines
• Display product information
• Give product demonstrations
• Personalize your business and make customers feel comfortable
• Inspire people to get excited about your product or business
• Give detailed directions
  

Website Sitemap

Think about your new website this weekend.

• Am I willing to do some of the work myself?
• What is the purpose of my website?
• What do I need on my website to fulfill my purpose?

Don't want to do it yourself? Check out our new website building service for small businesses. Get a website in two weeks for $999 at JiffyBat.com

Part 2: Domain names and Hosting
Part 3: Creating Content

For more on small business websites, see these previous articles:
Websites 101 for Small Businesses
Websites: Un-Sexiness Works
Two Easy Tips to Improve Your Website Ranking

For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader.

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Case Study: Advertising a Technology Services Business

J.T. Buice reached out to me on Twitter with this tweet and asked:

@TheMarketingGuy I am starting a Tech Consulting business in Waco. I have $4000 for Advertising. Where in Waco could I get the best bang?

Case Study: Advertising a Tech Business
Business: PMF Technology Services
Location: Waco, Texas USA

The Setup

PMF Technology Services is actually a business within a business. It is part of the Parrish Moody & Fikes accounting firm in Waco. The new business began as an internal IT Dept and started trouble-shooting IT problems for clients, particularly hospitals. J.T Buice is the guy running the operation. The budget turned out to be $3000 rather than $4000.

The Message

Before you decide where to advertise, you should decide what you're going to say. The message is more important than the media. There are a couple of rules, 1) The message needs to be true in that it's what customers will actually experience if they do business with you and 2) the message needs to be one of courtship. What you say needs to communicate that you are looking for a long-term relationship.

When we started, the PMF Technology message was cost savings, and response. A couple of problems here. First, no company thinks about hiring a technology services company unless they have something wrong. So trying to get someone to call you on price would be ineffective.

On the other hand, response would be good because no one thinks of hiring a technology services company unless they have something wrong. Quick response would be a valuable quality. Unfortunately, it wasn't sustainable. If PMF got too busy they would not be able to keep a response-time promise. So we had to look for another message.

We decided on trust and security. JT Buice has worked on projects at the Dept. of Homeland Security and for hospitals. Both of those assignments require a high degree of security and trust. PMF Technology will create a "Trust Certificate" spelling out their confidentiality promise to the client. In addition, PMF will define and spell out a security protocol to assure clients that their network and their data are safe.

The Media

With our message in place, it was time to decide where to advertise. We used The Marketing Spot's Media Spotter Matrix to choose the right medium. We decided on direct mail because our target customer group was very narrow: business owners. In addition, direct mail can be done rather inexpensively if you do it right.

The strategy is to print 3600 over-sized postcards using an online printer for under $350. Hire a local, professional graphics designer to design the postcard for about $200. The mailing list can be purchased from the chamber for $200. We then send the postcards and the mailing list to a local mailing house to be mailed in three separate mailings of 1200 each for approximately $1000 total. Our grand total for the direct mail campaign is approximately $1750. That leaves us a surplus of $1250.

Every direct mail piece should have a call to action. The PMF Technology postcard will direct recipients to a landing page on the website. The landing page will contain video testimonials from current clients touting trust and security. It will also have a video bio of JT Buice talking about his experience, the trust certificate, and their proprietary security protocol. The $1250 surplus can be used to get some help setting up the video pages on the website, or editing the video for Internet.

The Summary

• Before you decide where to advertise, decide what to advertise. Get a good message.
• Use The Marketing Spot's Media Spotter Matrix to decide where to advertise
• Use direct mail to cost-efficiently target a specific demographic
• Use over-sized postcards for their readability and cost efficiency
• Use a mailing service to save time and postage costs

Finally, this is just a campaign for the launch phase of the new business. The goal is to create some awareness and name recognition for PMF Technology Services. J.T understands that he probably won't many phone calls from the postcards. Business usually only hire technology companies when they have a challenge or problem. He will supplement this campaign with traditional business networking events and some social media activity on Twitter.

Previous Case Studies:
Branding a Kitchen Remodeling Business
Branding a Furniture Store
Word of Mouth for a Bar & Grill
How to Get a Logo That Defines Your Business

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You're Wasting Your Time on Facebook and Twitter

Is Facebook and Twitter a waste of time? It is when you would be better off spending that time on other other marketing activities. Twitter and Facebook can be powerful marketing tools, but not for everyone. How do you decide?

If you are a business that people really don't use that often, I don't think you should use social media tools built for networking. For example, I think realtors are wasting their time on Facebook or Twitter if...their purpose is to find new clients. The average American moves every seven years. In between, those people are not looking for realtors. They're not really interested in following a realtor on Twitter or Facebook. I think the same goes furniture stores, carpet stores, and other businesses with an infrequent purchase cycle. These types of businesses should be spending their marketing time on other social media tools. But where?

When customers seek you out only every several years, you need to be ready when they do. You need credibility and authority. You also need to be found on the internet. So the answer is:

Credibility + Authority + Searchability = Blogs

So stop wasting your time marketing to potential customers on Twitter and Facebook and blog your way to new customers. Be there when they are ready to search for you.

But don't delete your Twitter and Facebook accounts. The real power of these platforms is networking. I use my Twitter account to network with other marketers and bloggers around the world. Your Twitter stream can be a great learning and networking resource.

So where are you using your social-media marketing time? How can you be more effective for your type of business?

For more information on social media marketing, see these articles:
Blog Your Way to Credibility and Authority
Social Media: What to do for your business.
What's the Best Business Use of Twitter?

For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader.

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Promoting Your Business: Use the Right Tactics

This is the third in a three-part series on how to promote your business.

Part 1: The Message: How Should I Promote My Business?
Part 2: The Media: The Complete (Thumbnail) Guide to Choosing the Right Media
Part 3: The Tactics (Today)

You might think that mixing new media with traditional media requires two different strategies. That's not necessarily so. Straddling the fence may require a different approach, but the tactics are mostly the same. The main difference is the approach. With new media and social media, communication is personal. When you promote your business online, there is the opportunity for direct and immediate feedback from consumers. So your online approach should be more conversational. Beyond that there are tactics are mostly the same.

Have a plan of action
Before you spend one dollar or one hour on promoting your business, get a plan. Answer this question: What exactly do you want to accomplish? Don't advertise or jump into online promotion as a knee-jerk reaction to declining business. Be specific with your plan: "I want to people to know xxxx." Get your message straight before you start.

Start Strong, Taper Off
Resist the tendency to 'test the water' before jumping in. Starting small will get you poor results. Media reps are especially poor at this. The just want to sell you something, so they pitch you the smallest package they have thinking they will up-sell you later. This is a bad practice.

When you first present a new idea, you need to establish the idea in the marketplace with strong frequency. After you have made an initial impact, you can pull back a little bit. The public will perceive that you are still just as active. In fact if you have started with a heavy push, you can actually take occasional breaks without being forgotten.

For online media, this does not mean connect with 1000 people on Facebook your first day. it means be active when you do create a Facebook page for your business. Post often, engage and reply to friends and followers. If you start a blog, start with a heavy posting schedule and stick with it.

Use Frequency
People are not very good at remembering. If fact, we forget a most of what we've heard within the first hour. So you need to remind people what you're saying. Often. That means when you run advertising, run as frequently as you can afford. One ad, one commercial per week is not going to help. One billboard won't accomplish anything. Don't just post one video to YouTube, post them weekly. Consistent repetition creates durability.

Concentrate! - Don't spray and pray.
Spreading yourself too thin dilutes your message and wastes your time. This is an especially dangerous trap with online social media. You don't need to be on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace and a blog. Pick one or two and be active.

With traditional media, concentrate by narrowing your schedule. Run one daypart instead of two, with the same budget. Run only one TV station instead of two. Buy billboards close to each other.

Only one key idea at a time - no laundry lists!
Don't try to cram everything you can into one message. Ask yourself, what's the most important thing people need to know and say only that. Resist the temptation to add a laundry list of products, your store hours, and the over-used "And we also do..." Give consumers a big idea or a core concept, not a bunch of details they won't remember.

One Key Idea, Told Elaborately
Nope this is not a contradiction of the previous rule. What this means is don't make a generic presentation your idea, don't just recite facts. The best way to be elaborate is to tell stories or connect your message to other ideas or concepts.

Use an emotional hook, but don't use fear.
Emotions arouse attention and make memories more persistent. So use an emotional hook such as happiness, love, nostalgia, but stay away from fear. People may remember you, but they won't feel comfortable with you.

Be visual, even when you're not using a visual medium.
Apologies to radio advertising folks, but it's true: vision dominates all other senses and is more effective at creating memories. Use color, size, motion, and spatial orientation. If you are promoting in a non-visual medium such as radio or podcasts, create visual images by using vivid language and telling stories.

So what are some of your tips and advice? How have you successfully promoted your business? What works best for you?

For more information on promotional tactics, see these articles:
Guerrilla Marketing Ideas
Weekend Marketing Project: Intentional Congruence
Fearless Marketing Tactic: Wear A Black Cocktail Dress

For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader.

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The Complete (Thumbnail) Guide to Choosing the Right Media

This is the second in a three-part series on how to promote your business.

Part 1: The Message: How Should I Promote My Business
Part 2: The Media (Today)
Part 3: The Tactics: Promoting Your Business: Use the Right Tactics

You may have heard that traditional media is dead, don't advertise there any more. That's wrong. You may have heard that social media is a marketing gold mine and that's where you should market your business. That's also wrong. However, there's also some truth to both of those statements. Things are confusing.

Marketing is in a period of great transition from traditional media to new media. Old media is not dead, and new media doesn't always work. The correct strategy is to straddle the fence. You can be successful marketing in both traditional and new media, because the grass is green on both sides. For small businesses, I believe you should use a mixture of both. Because there are so many options, the trick is deciding on the best and most efficient combination for your business.

Which marketing channel you use depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Below, I'm going to give you some general guidelines that will point you in the right direction. But before we get to the sexy choices in traditional advertising and new media, let's cover the basics.

The Basics

Google Business Center Listing - The very first thing you should do to promote your business is claim your local listing in the Google Business Center. Doing so greatly increases your chances of being listed in the local "10-pack," Google's grouped listing of local business results for geographic searches. You can add photos, videos, and a detailed description of your business. Claim your listing here: Google Local Business Center

Signage - Make sure your sign is visible from the street or parking lot. Invest money in a professional sign. Don't hang a banner across the top of the building, it looks cheap and temporary. If possible, include your tagline on the sign.

Traditional Media

Local Television - Great for making an impact. Use local television if you have something important to say, or you want to get noticed. Best use tip: Run in the local programming for cost efficiency. Try to dominate a daypart or program to achieve a high frequency.

Radio - Use when you need to target demographically or reach an active, mobile demographic. Radio is also good for branding, because you can achieve a high frequency by running a heavy schedule. Don't try to reach younger demographics through radio. Best use tip: Start small and tighten up your schedule. Dominate one daypart on one station first. Run high frequency, not just an occasional spot.

Newspaper - Use to achieve credibility and authority, or to run price ads. Best use tip: Make your ad wider and horizontally oriented rather than a long, narrow ad.

Local Cable - Use to reach niche audiences. In smaller markets cable is also good for branding if you can get low rates and buy lots of commercials. Best use tip: Stick with one message and repeat it frequently. However, produce several different spots to keep the message fresh.

Billboards - (known as outdoor in the industry) Use to achieve awareness and name recognition. Also use to give directions from a major thoroughfare. Best use tip: Seven words or less, period.

Direct Mail - A great option for local, small businesses. Use direct mail when you want to target a specific demographic, lifestyle, or geographic area. Best use tip: Use over-sized postcards. They are cheap to print and easy to notice in the mail pile.

New Media / Social Media / Internet

Your Website - You need a website. Customers expect you to have one. They want to learn more about your business from the comfort of their computer without having to directly contact you. Getting a website is now very easy and cheap. Check back to this blog next week, because I will have a step-by-step tutorial to getting a website.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engine Marketing - Should be avoided by most local, small businesses. Use only if you want to drive traffic to your website and get noticed. Don't use PPC to try to sell stuff. You can also use it if your business does a lot of couponing. Best use tip: Link to a specific landing page on your website created for the ad. Don't send visitors to your home page.

Display or Banner Ads on Local Websites - Don't do them...ever.

Online Video - Use to get noticed and create awareness. Get a Flip Video Camera, Setup a YouTube Channel, and start creating videos. It's a great venue for tutorials. Best Use Tip: Make short videos that answer common customer questions. Also, put your TV commercials on your YouTube channel.

Facebook / MySpace / Twitter - Use to give existing and potential customers direct access to you. These popular, open social networks personalize your business. Best use tip - post daily, and post behind-the-scenes information. Be personal.

Blogs - Use to explain stuff. Use blogs to establish credibility and authority. Help people make decisions by making the complex understandable. Best use tip: Take the most common customer questions and turn them into blog posts.

Online Social Communities - You can actually create a social community just for your business using a service like Ning. Create your own community if you have passionate customers who like to talk to each other about your business or your unique product. Best use tip: Require membership for customers to access content on the community. Give it an exclusive, community feel.

Straddle the Fence

You don't have to be exclusively one or the other, traditional media or new media. Play in both yards. Find the media that are best for your purpose and mix and match: billboards + online video, direct mail + blogs, Facebook + local cable. What's your combination?

For more information on where to promote your business:
Social Media: What to do for your business.
How to Buy Advertising on Local Media
What's the Best Business Use of Twitter?

For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader.

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The Basics of Marketing: How Should I Promote My Business?

This is the first in a three-part series.

Part 1: The Message (Today)
Part 2: The Media: The Complete (Thumbnail) Guide to Choosing the Right Media
Part 3: The Tactics: Promoting Your Business: Use the Right Tactics

Before tactics, comes the message. More important than where you promote your business, is what you say about your business. More specifically, how you approach potential customers with your message.

Business owners are on a continuous quest to find the right place to promote. An endless parade of media sales reps are more than happy to tell you that (insert media choice here) gets the best results. Amazing, isn't it? radio, TV, yellow pages, newspaper, billboards, cable, etc. all get great results. Except for you. That's because you're looking in the wrong place. You're looking at the medium when you should be looking at the message.

Getting the Message Right

A common scenario is for a media rep to sell you some advertising and then say, "So what do you want to say?" (This should have been the first question) The answer is your brand promise. You should not advertise or promote your business unless you're doing so to communicate your brand promise. It takes discipline to stick to this rule. Most advertising consists of messages about product, price, service or events. But no promise. That's why most advertising money is wasted.

[Brand Promise: What you promise to deliver above and beyond the product or service you happen to sell.]

You want to do two things with your message: create a brand identity and be remembered. Wait! Isn't promotion about building traffic? Getting butts in the door? Yes, but only over the long-run, not today. Advertising is not cocaine. You don't do it to get an immediate high. For proof, see your local automobile dealers.

Promoting your business is about building a long-term relationship with potential customers. Advertising is courtship. Let's look at some examples of typical messages and what a business should say instead:

Interior Decorating Center
Brand Promise - To find each homeowner's individual decorating personality and decorate a room specifically for that personality.
Typical Promotional Message - In business for 26 years, our decorators have combined experience of 135 years, come in to our store now for $100 off.
The Right Message - You have a unique decorating personality. We discover your individual decorating personality, design a room that fits perfectly to that personality. You get to show off a room that is uniquely designed for you.

Hardware Store
Brand Promise - Accessibility to advice.
Typical Promotional Message - Look at all our items on sale! We've been in business for 25 years. The best people and the best service.
The Right Message - We help you be the handy man. Everyone who walks through our door gets help from one of our hardware advisors on the floor. You won't have to look for them, because they look for you.

Truck Accessories
Brand Promise - You will be excited about your truck.
Typical Promotional Message - Window tinting special! Spray in bed-liners, grill guards all at lower prices than the other guys.
The Right Message - Your truck will look like no other truck in town. You will be so excited when you leave that you will have to show off your truck. Then all hell will break loose when your friends see you driving up.

Communicating the right message to promote your business is tough. It takes long-term vision. The trick is to court your customers into a relationship, not knock them over the head and drag them in to your store. Over time, you build an identity that has value.

Yes, this is the way you should have been advertising and promoting your business for the past five years. If so, you would be in a different place today. But you can start now, and things will look very different in a year. The only question is; Do you have the patience and discipline to stick to your brand promise message?

For more information on how to promote your business, see these articles:
The Ideal Small Business Marketing Plan
Broadcast Advertising Donts and More Donts
Put it out there. Someone will buy it.

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Your Brand Affects Your Location

The reason it's so difficult to please customers is that businesses often start off on the wrong foot. The brand doesn't match the location.

Photo credit: cogdogblog

Most current marketing uses the online-dating-service method of advertising. Like the tall athletic guy who loves to laugh, cook, travel and take long walks in the park, businesses describe themselves unrealistically. "We're a business that is passionate about customer service, treats you like family, and likes to spend time getting to know you." Customers start off the relationship disappointed because they expect one thing based on advertising, but receive something very different.

Access to your brand is more than just physical location, it's also psychological. You cannot start a customer relationship by dashing preconceptions, You are in effect, shutting off psychological access to your business. Therefore you must not only look like your brand, you must also feel like your brand.

Physical shopability is important, but psychological alignment is also necessary.

• Look like you deserve the money on your price tag.
• Look and act like you know what you are doing.
• Follow through on the promises and claims in your advertising.

While real estate and physical location are important, mental access is more important because it cements the relationship. Look like your brand, feel like your brand, give customers psychological access.

For more reading on brand access, see these articles:
Five Things You Should Never Tell Your Customers
Customer Loyalty and the 100% Solution
Keeping Customers: The Key to Customer Retention

For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader.

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The Ideal Small Business Marketing Plan

Experts say you need a business plan. Tim Berry of Bplans.com goes so far as to say

“Marketing your business without having a plan is like shooting a gun without having a target. Not only is it difficult, but it’s also reckless, ineffective and even dangerous.”

The real debate is not whether or not you need a marketing plan, the question is, what goes in your plan? In my exposure to formal marketing plans, There’s too much focus on numbers and goals, and not enough on what really matters. You don’t need forecasts and metrics, you need foundations and initiatives. Here’s what you should include.

Marketing Plan Foundations

These are the building blocks of your plan. The foundations include the promises and concepts that form your business identity. This foundation will guide your decisions. Your key foundation building blocks come from the four essential spots of small business marketing:

Branding

Your Brand Promise – What do you promise your customers above and beyond the product/service you happen to sell?

Your Tagline – I call it your signature. It’s your best brand communication tool. A tagline succinctly tells customers what you’re all about and reminds you of the promise you make.

Customer Experience

Customer Experience Promise – What will the customer get from their direct experience with you?

Customer Experience Theme – How will you tie all the elements of your customer’s experience together. You should have a cohesive theme that delivers a consistent experience.

Customer Experience Map – This key marketing plan tool maps out your customers’ experience.

Conversation

Word of Mouth - Your conversation spark (what you want people to say about you), word of mouth strategy,

Social Media - Social media participation. Which channel will you use and how will you use it?

PR – What are your publicity objectives? What you want in the media and how to get it.

Promotion

Advertisign and Promotion - The message you will use to court customers, your preferred advertising medium, promotional activity calendar.

Marketing Plan Initiatives

The primary reason that marketing plans don’t get used is that they too are long and complicated. Filled with detailed step-by-step systems and instructions. Problems begin when you miss just one well-planned step of the carefully coordinated plan. Eventually, you get too far behind and the plan is no longer practical. At that point it gets filed and rarely used.

Replace intricate step-by-step plans with initiatives. Projects that you want to complete. Again, break these up in to the four essential spots of small business marketing. Here are some examples.

Branding – Get a new logo. Write an ebook that serves as a manifesto for your brand promise.

Customer Experience – Create home instruction manuals that show customers how to use your product when they get home.

Conversation – Create a YouTube channel and post weekly how-to videos.

Promotion – Send out direct-mail postcards to our customer list on the 15th of each month.

Think of your marketing plan as a tool, not a document. This tool holds you responsible for important projects, it reminds you of your foundational building blocks. With your plan in place you can focus on important marketing activities and say no to everything else.

For more on marketing plans, check out these articles:
The Sweet Spot of Small Business Marketing
The Marketing Circle of Life
The New Rules of Marketing in Small Business

For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader

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Houston Social Media Marketing Workshop

This is not a seminar. This is a workshop. This is not about concepts, it's about action. I'm teaming up with the Houston Small Business Development Center for my Social Media Marketing Workshop On June 25th. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and do some real marketing.

During this workshop you will:

• Create a YouTube channel and post your first video.
• Choose the right blogging platform and create a blog for your business.
• Learn how to use Facebook for your business and create the right Facebook account for your business.
• Understand how communities work on the web and set up your own online community.

Date: June 25, 2009
Time: 9:30am - 3:30pm (includes lunch)
Location: Houston Small Business Development Center in Houston, Texas
Price: $99 in advance online

To register and get more information: Social Media Marketing for Small Business

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