Invest In My Idea

After looking the lists over, the attorney exclaimed, “Wrong! You have to think bigger if you’re going to make it in your own business.” He explained that number one on their list should be “Everyone I know.” Whereas most of the students had lists comprised mainly of friends and associates, the successful lawyer showed them that tapping everyone they knew was but one of at least ten different sources they would need if they wanted to generate business. Advertising would be another. Networking would be another.

This is a good exercise for anyone starting or running a business, and you should do it now. Make a list of ten sources of business. If you are going to make your business a success, you will need to be creative and come up with many different ways to generate sales. Marketing must play a major role in that plan.

 

The Need for a Marketing Plan

 

The lawyer’s tale above is illustrative because it indicates just how few people really have a comprehensive, methodical, well-thought-out plan for generating sales. And make no mistake about it, whether you are opening a dentist’s office, a real estate agency, or a bakery, you will be in sales. How are you going to generate those sales? In which media sources will you advertise and which marketing options will you utilize?

A marketing plan will tell you. A marketing plan is nothing more than your plan of action for bringing in business. It need not be long or complicated, it simply needs to be a blueprint that you believe will work for you and to which you are committed.

Your assignment for the rest of this chapter is to look at the various marketing tools available to you, decide on a few that make sense for you and your business, and commit those to paper, along with any advertising strategies you have decided on. Committing to a marketing and advertising plan of action will keep you focused and on target.

 

Marketing Tools

 

There are many different methods that you can use to promote your business as part of your overall marketing plan. Following are many different options from which to choose. Pick a few that seem to match your style and business and add those to your plan.

 

1.   Who are you trying to attract?
2. . What are their needs?
3.   What is it you want to sell them?
4.   What do you offer that the competition does not?
5.   What are the goals of the campaign?
6.   How long will it last?
7.   Who will be in charge?
8.   What is the budget for the campaign?
9.   Which marketing and advertising options can you use?
10.   How will you be able to measure success?

Correspondence. Any marketing campaign begins with your letterhead, stationery, business cards, etc. These seemingly insignificant things are actually quite important because they represent you to the outside world. If your letterhead is professional, then you are seen as professional. Use highquality paper. Include all information, including email and fax numbers. All correspondence must be coordinated. Your fax cover sheet should mirror the letterhead which should mirror your business card.

Newsletters. Physical and virtual newsletters are a great way to share information with both potential and actual clients. Aside from positioning you as an expert, they are inexpensive to create and allow you to contact people without looking like a salesperson.

Tap into the magic words. The two greatest words ever invented for business are FREE! and SALE! People love to get something for less, almost as much as they love to get something for nothing. If you utilize these two words in your promotion, marketing, and advertising materials, people are sure to notice you.

Contests. A contest can generate interest and free publicity for your business. By giving away your goods or services, you simultaneously present your self as an expert in this area while drawing people to your business because they love free stuff.

Spencer’s dad owned a discount carpet store, the kind of place where everything was always on sale. Spencer spent many hours with his dad at the store. One day when he was about six and just learning how to read, Spencer said proudly to his mom, “Look mom, I can read! SALE spells . . . carpet!”

 Signs.

 A big, bold sign in the right location can be a very effective way to bring in new business. Retail businesses swear by good signage. A number of different factors need to be considered when choosing a sign:

• From what distance do you want the sign to be seen?
• Do you want it to be seen at night?
• What kind of weather will it be exposed to?
• How much can you afford to spend? Shop around.
• Can you legally put up the sign you desire? Check the zoning ordinances in your area. If your proposed sign is illegal, you will first need to get a variance from the city.

Telemarketing. You can buy some very specific lists and hire inexpensive telemarketers, even students, to sell your product or services over the phone. Telemarketing can also be used to let current customers know of a sale or other promotion.

Direct mail. Like telemarketers, direct mail merchants can also generate some very specific lists, which you can use to send potential customers a flyer or other info. Direct mail is also a great way to stay in touch with current and former customers and is less impersonal than telemarketing. Here are some tips for making direct mail effective:

• Define your audience. The more specifically you can define who your potential customer is, the more successful your direct mail campaign will be.
• Grab their attention. You have about five seconds to generate interest. Use headlines and highlight benefits, benefits, benefits!
• Use a conversational tone.
• Deliver credibility. Include customer testimonials.
• Provide a strong incentive for the recipient to act.
• Include a guarantee.
• Using a selfaddressed reply card can increase your response rate.
• Use postscripts (P.S.). Postscripts almost always get read, and provide an excellent place to make an offer.
• Follow up. Often, several letters are needed to clinch the sale or generate a telephone response.
• Don’t expect miracles. A good direct mail campaign generates about a 5 percent response. That means that 95 percent of your mailing will be useless.

Commissioned salespeople. Another way to increase business is by having comissioned salespeople sell your wares to different retail stores. The obvious advantage here is that you don’t have to pay the salesperson anything until he or she gets a sale and, even then, payment will come from the proceeds of the sale.

Brochures. When you go into a car showroom to look at a new car, what do you leave with? A brochure. The reason is that a brochure enables a potential customer to practically take your product with them and review it at home.

Magnets. All refrigerators are covered with pictures and magnets these days. If you want people to see the name of your business several times a day, give away free refrigerator magnets. This idea works especially well for neighborhood services and restaurants.

Web sites. Even if you are not planning an ecommerce business, having a promotional Web site can be a great marketing tool. You can put your site address on all of your stationery, so people can check your site out later.

Aside from your own Web site, consider the possibility of expanding your business by selling your wares on eBay or other online malls. I once did a bankruptcy for an antiques dealer. Two years later, I ran into him at the airport. He told me he was on his twiceyearly trip to Europe. Apparently, after the bankruptcy, he began to sell his antiques on eBay and his business just took off. eBay works.

■ Business Web Sites

 

Anthony Hill started AH Web Design with his cousin Rick Roelen in 2001 <www.ahwebdesign.com>. The company specializes in creating Web sites for small businesses. Although they have been offered the chance to create bigger ecommerce sites, Hill and Roelen turned these companies away, preferring instead to concentrate on their target market—small businesses.

According to Hill, the small business market makes a lot of sense because it is where both the need and the demand for their services are highest. Hill believes that every small business needs to have a Web presence for several reasons:

• It is an affordable and easy way for people to learn about your business and contact you.
• Business cards offer too little information. A Web site allows you to provide much more information, while also allowing you to put your best face forward.
• Even if you don’t sell goods on the site, putting your Web address in your advertising can increase sales by promoting your business.

Hill says that the best small business Web sites are “clean and simple.” Unlike many big ecommerce sites, Hill believes that a small business Web site should be simple, offer plenty of information, and get right to the point. The cost for a simple site starts around $500 and goes up from there. “Every business needs one,” says the master Webmaster.

Don’t discount the eBay phenomenon. The site has over 42 million loyal customers and 500 million page views a month; eBay is set to gross more than $30 billion in sales by 2005.

eBay is also useful as a great place to test market your pricing strategy without making a costly mistake. Will that couch sell for $399? Find out on eBay. Will those shoes fly out the door at $9.95? Selling them on eBay first will help you find out.

 

Testimonials

 

Satisfied customers can be your best sales tools as they lend credibility to your business.

 

Excellence

 

It costs five times more to create a new client than to retain an existing one. Studies show that each satisfied customer will spread the good word about your business to at least one other person, while an unhappy customer will likely complain to many more than that. Doing great work and offering superior customer service can go a long way toward creating continuing revenue.

 

Networking

 

Networking begins with your friends and family. Make sure that they know how much you value new business and appreciate referrals. But don’t stop there. Join a networking group. For instance, chambers of commerce sponsor networking events where you can meet and mingle with other business owners, who are, in fact, potential customers. Le Tip International is another great group that usually meets weekly and creates a lot of business opportunities for its members. Networking is particularly critical in local service businesses. For certain types of specialized professional consulting fields, such as attorneys or accounting, networking can make a huge difference.

 

Publicity and Public Relations

 

Another important aspect of marketing is the ability to get good press for your company. A newspaper article or television news story about your business is like a free commercial and an endorsement all in one. Even better: You can copy the article or make tapes of the story and use them later in other promotions.

Newspaper editors and television producers have to come up with stories to fill their pages and airwaves—day after day, week after week—and it is not always easy to fill all that space. Therefore, your business, along with your ability to publicize it properly and work cooperatively with the media, can become one of the stories if you do it right.

So just how do you get the press to pay attention to your business? Begin by reading the paper or watching your local news closely and noticing which reporters do stories about small businesses. Then you need to think of a “hook” or angle for the story. Local boy makes good is but one example. If you sponsor a charity event, invent something new, lead your community, or open a new store in a needy neighborhood, the press might just become interested in your story. Come up with a hook.

There are two ways to get a media outlet to pay attention to you: sending out a press release or sending out a press kit. A press release is a one or twopage article that explains the who, what, where, when, and how of your “news.” If an editor or producer agrees that the contents of the press release are indeed newsworthy, they will either assign a reporter to interview you about the story, or possibly just print the press release outright in the paper.

A typical press release may read something like the following.

 

For Immediate Release

 

 

Local Real Estate Agent Wins Prestigious Award

 

Sam Spurgeon, a local real estate agent specializing in investment property sales, joined Western Realty’s President Club last week after selling his 100th duplex.

The President Club is a recognition awarded to only the top 5 percent of Western Realty’s sales force. “Sam is an outstanding real estate agent who has been an upandcomer for some time. We are lucky to have him,” said Western Realty’s president, Sally Edwards. “With the boom in recent real estate prices and the recent decline in the stock market, buying investment property makes sense right now for the average investor,” says Spurgeon.

Spurgeon grew up in the Land Park area, went to Land Park High, and graduated from USC in 1995. He now lives in West Hills.

For more information, contact Sam Spurgeon at: 7777777777

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it www.SamsNo1.com

An editor who sees this press release may run most of it in the paper or assign a reporter to cover Sam and the changes in the local real estate market.

If you want your press release to get this sort of attention, follow these tips:

• Find out the name of the reporter who covers the area to which your release relates and fax your release to that specific person. Do not fax it to “newsroom” or “editor.”
• Create a catchy headline, but avoid hyperbole.
• Be newsworthy. Why would a reader want to read your story? Have an angle that works and fulfills a need.
• Don’t sell.
• Keep it short. Your press release should be no more than 500 words.

Besides press releases sent to the right editor, you might also be able to grab some press attention by sending out a press kit. A press kit is a collection of information about you and your business. It could contain a press release, previous stories about you, background information about your business, frequently asked questions, a resume, or almost anything else you think would pique an editor’s interest. The purpose of a press kit is to inspire enough interest in you and your business that media types want to know more.

Press kits are relatively inexpensive ways to get you noticed; they can cost anywhere from a couple of hundred to several thousand dollars to produce. Of course, getting noticed does not guarantee you will get a story, but it is a great start. But just what separates a good press kit from a lousy one? Here are a few tips:

• Focus on substance, not flash. A fancy press kit won’t fool anybody if you’re all hat and no cattle. Journalists see hundreds of press kits a year. You can make yours stand out by calling attention to your substance, instead of relying on a gimmick.
• Tell a story. Newspapers are in the storytelling business. News people report stories and their audience remembers stories.
• Less is more. Focus on the story, the product or service, or the event you want to highlight.
• Offer testimonials. A few good testimonials lend credibility to your press kit.