Archive For: Marketing & Advertising

Add Technology to the Marketing Mix

The Internet is a great tool to master when it comes to marketing a business – not only is it available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but online marketing is relatively easy to do and cost-effective because it allows marketing to many prospects at once.

Successful marketing involves building a relationship with a prospect and turning them into a satisfied customer who will keep coming back to the business and encourage their friends to do the same. Online marketing uses this idea, but the relationship is initially built via the Internet or email.

Social networking websites – including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn – are not just another way for teenagers to talk to their friends, but have already become additional tools businesses use to market themselves. In fact, LinkedIn is aimed at professionals wanting to create a business network. These websites can be used to tell prospects a little bit about you and your business, leading them to your business website to find out more. Invite business contacts and friends to join and then link with your contacts’ networks as well – the potential is unlimited. Sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn groups are best used regularly to build ongoing relationships, but not for sales pitches.

Email newsletters are another ideal online marketing tool for building relationships. They can be used to communicate with past, present and future customers – all that is needed is the contact’s email address and permission to use it. Electronic newsletters can be done from the office using regular email programs or, even better, there are database management programs available that manage the whole process, including distribution, tracking and spam compliance for people who unsubscribe.

For those who love to write, try a blog. Search engines love blogs because the content is constantly updated and so this is a great way of ensuring you and your business feature in search results. Free blogs can be set up at www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.org. Blogs build credibility and expert status because writing about your chosen topic puts you in direct contact with your target market. They also attract leads and begin the relationship-building process because prospects can read what you have to say on the topic. Once in the habit of writing regularly, a selection of blog posts can be combined to produce an e-book that is published on your website or used as an incentive for people joining your business mailing list.

Low-Cost Marketing Tips

It’s every new business owner’s Catch-22: getting word out that you have set up shop, but not having any money to do it. You need customers to create the money to market the business, but to get customers you need to tell them you exist!

Before you do any sort of marketing, you need to work out your strategy by answering the following questions:

• What do you want to achieve through your marketing? For instance, is it to build your brand, attract customers, or tell potential customers you are there?

• Who is your target market? Such as fellow business mums, teenage boys, men aged 25-40 years.

• What is the best marketing method for your business? For example, brochures, website, direct mail or networking.

• What are you going to say? Will your marketing include a special offer, opening specials, or your business tagline?

• What makes you special? Work our your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that makes you stand out from your competitors, such as “We are a networking group for business mums” or “We only sell Fairtrade products”.

Once you know what you want to say, to whom and how, you are ready to get started on the marketing itself.

There are many marketing techniques you can use to build your business profile. Some will just cost your time and others may involve a small outlay, but the results are worth your effort and money.

• Give something away for details – it could be a free pen with every purchase, your monthly newsletter or a free e-book, but make sure you use the opportunity to get their information at the same time. In return for the item ask them to supply their name, email address and phone number so you can add them to your list and market to them in the future (with their permission of course!).

• Think local – find out who your local media is (newspapers, magazines, websites, radio, newsletters, TV stations) and tell them about your business’s grand opening, new product line or new service. Local media always like local stories so make sure you promote the local angle prominently.

• Competitions – give away something of value to your target market and before long you will have a healthy list of interested prospective customers.

• Team up with other businesses – cross-promote each other to build customer lists for both. You can offer a prize from one of the businesses or discount vouchers as an incentive and share the cost.

• Editorials – make a list of your industry magazines, appropriate sections in metro newspapers, radio and TV shows that cover your industry and tell them when something important happens with your business. Remember that while editorials carry a lot of credibility with the public, you are not paying for the media space or time and you have no say over what is included or when.

• Online PR – after sending your press release to the media, upload it on the free PR websites, like Free Press Release and 24-7 Press release, to increase your search ranking.

• Be an expert – use the knowledge you have in your industry to position yourself as an expert by writing for an industry magazine, website or newsletter, speaking at industry events and information sessions or publishing your own blog or e-book.

• Use the Internet – list your business on free industry websites and business directories like Aussie Web, Hot Frog or Linked In. Make sure your listing contains all the key words potential customers are likely to type in to search engines so you come up in searches.

• Network – find out about your industry associations and networking groups, as well as complementary groups, like Business Mums, and become a member. All you need is your business card and a willingness to talk about your business.

• Don’t forget your existing customers – keep in regular contact with your customers through an email newsletter. This is a great way to tell them what is going on in your business and keep you at the top of their minds. A good content mix is an informative article, special offer or giveaway and tips or tricks to help.

• Word of mouth – an often forgotten marketing method, but the one that I think is the most valuable. If someone is happy with your product or service ask them to tell their friends.

All these tips involve some research on your part, but very little (or no) money. They are a great way to get your name out there and get customers clambering for your product or service.

Effectively Marketing a New Product or Service at an Exhibition

Months of preparation has gone into the production of your stand, your staff arrived at the exhibition stand early to make sure everything looked professional and you spoke to what seemed like hundreds of potential customers at the show itself.

So why haven’t you gained any more leads than if you’d hired someone to hand out a leaflet outside the exhibition hall? The answer might be something to do with the way you market your products or services.

There are some key marketing solutions that could make all the difference at your next exhibition and have you walking away with enough leads to keep you going until your next show.

Don’t rely on the organisers to get people to your stand. Your marketing activity surrounding an exhibition should be concentrated on encouraging prospective customers to come and see you at the show so they can look at your product and meet your staff.

Define Your Market

One of the first tasks is to research your target customer base. Go through your database and choose the clients you want to concentrate on. The next step is to determine your key messages and objectives and create an integrated campaign to communicate your key messages.

Target Customers Before the Exhibition

Make them feel special by sending them a personal email inviting them to exhibition. Use this invitation to highlight any special deals you will have at the show as part of your pre-event marketing.

Link Marketing with a Sales Promotion

An effective way to build you client database is to have your stand visitors give you some basic information. As an incentive to fill in the form they can be entered into a draw for a major prize or be given a small branded token. This relatively simple task allows you to attract, qualify and retain customers.

Hold On-stand Activity

This activity could be tailored around the sales promotion, for example your promotion is to give away a car so have the car on the stand and people can see what is on offer. Attendees always respond to a fun activity so try a chocolate wheel that can be spun for a prize, or a game. Brochures can be given to people with their tickets inviting them to take part in your stand activity. Another alternative is to have staff handing out branded gifts, like coloured chocolates, sweets or sample bags.

Effective Stand Design

Keep your stand design simple with a range of graphics, media and new technology to showcase your product or message. Concentrate on one ‘hero’ product/service and focus your marketing around it. Stick to the theme by using toning colours and images and, if you can, have an element positioned above the stand, like a banner or revolving sign. This will draw exhibitors’ attention to your stand as soon as they walk through the door.

Sing from the Same Hymn Sheet

Ensure everyone working on your stand is using the same information. There’s nothing worse than two customers comparing notes over a drink and discovering one got a completely different deal simply because they spoke to a different staff member. Have a marketing plan prepared before the exhibition, including costs and show deals, and give it to everyone working on the stand. Outline the end cost, not just the percentage off or multiple sale discounts, in the plan and your stand marketing material so your staff – and the customer – know exactly how much they will save by buying at the show.

Follow Up Your Prospects

Finally, once you have packed up your stand and your feet have recovered from the exhibition, it is important to follow up on your leads. Contact your potential and existing customers via email, letter, phone or in person and reinforce the exhibition deals to remind them.

The Difference Between Publicity and Advertising

A recent conversation with a fellow business mum about recognising the difference between free publicity and paid advertising made me wonder how easy it really is to tell.

I have worked in writing, public relations and marketing for more than 10 years, so recognising material – particularly in print – which has been paid for has become second nature. However my friend said she found it difficult to spot the difference sometimes.

Here is a guide to media space and time that has been paid for, and that which is free and generated through public relations.

I think I can safely say it is easy to spot most advertising – it comes in breaks in your favourite TV programs, between music on the radio, down the side of a web page or sometimes pops up from the page, and surrounds articles in newspapers and magazines.

Where it becomes hazy is when the information is included in an article or advertorial (an advertisement made to look more legitimate as an editorial piece – these should carry the word “advertorial” and “advertisement” at the top), in a news or current affairs item or when the presenter speaks about a product as they would discuss the news, similar to John Laws’ Cash for Comment affair.

The job of a PR consultant is to generate publicity for their client. Their client isn’t paying for the time or space and the information considered more credible by the public. Examples include an article, news broadcast or TV segment. This media coverage is achieved through many avenues such media liaison, media releases, article marketing, public speaking, case studies and blogging.

Many of the articles you read in the paper, magazines or online and items you heard on the news or radio today would have been generated through public relations. For example after the federal government’s recent increase in the first home buyers’ grant a host a organisations, from real estate agents to banks, sent out press releases commenting on the grant and what it meant for the economy. They were positioning themselves as experts, or contacts the media could use when covering the story.

Whether the information came to the journalist via a media release or they chased it up through contacts, it is still from PR. The biggest difference between getting something published once because the media outlet liked your story, and getting regular coverage, comes from maintaining a good relationship with journalists, producers and editors. Good PR, whether done by you or a consultant you hired, leads to you being the contact the media calls on when they want to know something about your topic.

Advertising is about guaranteeing your message gets out there when you want through payment. It is seen as less credible because the organisation has paid for the space or time. However public relations is about communicating your message to your public, usually via the media. A company or issue receiving media coverage is seen as more credible because the journalist or presenter has endorsed the message.

This article first appeared on Flying Solo. See more by Johanna Baker-Dowdell at http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/p261050105_Joh-Baker-Dowdell.html