The World Business

Archive for November, 2010

Along with your business plan, your small business marketing plan is one of the most important long-term plans you’ll make for your small business. Some small business owners choose to ignore that advice, instead preferring to fly by the seat of their pants, so to speak, to “wing it.” While some of those small business owners are successful, they’re not nearly as successful as they could be had they laid out a well-defined small business marketing plan. Brandt Stohr advises business owners to create a well laid out marketing plan

Small business marketing strategy step 1: Know your market

The first step Brandt Stohr advises in developing a successful small business marketing strategy is to make sure that you have a really solid handle on your target market. Ask yourself: Who are my customers? Once you’ve identified who they are, ask yourself: What are my customers’ problems? What are their dreams and aspirations? The surest way to answer those questions, of course, is to ask your customers themselves. Even if you can’t afford to hire a small business marketing firm that will conduct focus group tests for you, you can do your own simple survey by hitting the streets and talking to those people you plan to sell to (and make contacts at the same time!). You’d be surprised how powerful that simple task is yet how few businesses do it. Brandt Stohr advises to find a starving market first and then feed it!

Small business marketing strategy step 2: Know yourself

The second step in developing your small business marketing strategy is to get to know yourself (your business), once you’ve gotten to know your customers. Ask yourself: What does my business do? How is my business different than my competitors’? How does my business help solve my customers’ problems or help them achieve their dreams? Brandt Stohr advises answering these questions will help you to define your unique selling proposition – those aspects that set you apart from your competitors.

That unique selling proposition should become your brand – your business’s identity. Your brand is what will pervade all of your marketing materials and what your customers will use to identify you. Brandt Stohr advises his clients on the importance of diligently developing your brand as part of a successful small business marketing strategy can’t be overstated.

Small business marketing strategy step 3: Analyze your competitors’ small business marketing strategies

Once you’ve developed your brand – that unique identity that tells your customers who you are and how you’re different – you can begin thinking about how you’re going to actually market your business. First, look at your competitors’ small business marketing strategies. Are there obvious gaps that you could fill (and thereby stand out among the competition)? For example, if you see that none of your competitors have websites, you could stand out with a small business marketing strategy online.

Wherever you market your business, it must be where your customers are. For example, small business marketing online will be a waste if none of your potential customers use the Internet. Likewise, you may think that writing a monthly column in your local newspaper would be a great way to advertise your services and establish yourself as an expert; but if none of your potential customers read that paper, that small business marketing strategy will fail. Brandt Stohr teaches his clients to get to completely know your clients lifestyles, hobbies, habits, attitudes intimately.

At this point, your small business marketing strategy will not only be defined by where your customers are and what your competitors are doing, but it will also depend on your small business marketing budget. A full-page spread in a national magazine may be the best way to reach your target audience, but if you can’t afford to shell out tens of thousands of dollars, it’s not the small business marketing strategy for you.

Wherever your small business marketing plan takes you, the careful development of your small business marketing strategy – by knowing your market, knowing your business, and analyzing your competitors’ strategies – will be a critical determinant of your long-term business success.

You would have heard so many marketing experts telling everyone to use social media as part of their promotional marketing mix. The Internet is flooded with information on using Facebook, Twitter and other social sites. Numerous articles have been written on how using social media can help promote your brand image and how it can generate web traffic for your main business website.

Keep in mind that that social networking is a marketing tool and it is only effective when used properly to promote your business.

The key question for a business is “How is social media harnessed to generate real revenue and customers?” In today’s digitally connected society your customers regardless of their age, gender or economic status will be active on social networking sites.

Here are some of the latest usage statistics on social media use that will make a business take notice:

68% of small businesses will increase their social networking marketing efforts in the next year
56% of Twitter users say they use the micro blogging site for business or work related purposes
Over 40% of people have become ‘friends’ with or ‘like’ a brand/company on Facebook or MySpace
20% of tweets are about business products
46% of Facebook users say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook
44% of Twitter users have recommended a product
Social media played a major role in holiday shopping – 28% of shoppers say social media has influenced their purchases

On the Facebook site alone:

More than 400 million active users
50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
Average user has 130 friends
People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook
There are over 160 million pages, groups and events that people interact with
Average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events
Average user creates 70 pieces of content each month
Males and females almost equally use social sites (47% vs. 53%)
61% of Facebook users are middle aged or older, with the average age being 37
18- to 24-year-olds don’t dominate any particular social networking site; they’re spread out all over
More than 25 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month

The participation of your business in social networking should be self-evident, however, many businesses will go on to set-up social media sites and make no effort to participate and engage in the groups that their potential customers use.

To be successful in using social networking your business must find out where your potential customers spend time on these sites so that you can engage with them where they prefer and not where you prefer or are comfortable with. Participation and engagement with their social networks will form a platform from which to build relationships with communities of interest. This in turn will provide a new customer acquisition channel using the share and like capabilities of the social networking world. This “sharing” is the equivalent of word of mouth in traditional marketing.

Here are the 7 Business Development Marketing Tips for using Social Media:

1. Go where your customers are and not where you are comfortable

To find your customers on social networking sites consider the following:

Conduct a survey among your customers or potential customers.
Analyse and monitor traffic on social sites to discover how and where customers are sharing information about your business and your competitors.
Review marketing research or statistical information on the usage and demographics of the different social media sites.
2. Engage and interact

Social-media engagement is a conversation and your participation in the social network groups and communities is core to building relationships. Your value as a participant is judged by the value that you provide to the community as a whole. You can achieve this by freely sharing relevant, interesting and useful information

3. Research your competitors’ activities

You need to gather competitive information that can help your efforts. Conduct a competitive analysis of your top five competitors’ use of social media for the following:

The social networking sites that they actively participate
The type of content they publish
The number and type of followers, fans and views
The products, programs or events promoted
4. Release offers and programs that are exclusive to your social networking channels

You must give importance to your social media with exclusive offers for these promotional channels. This will entice potential customers to share with their networks the offer that is not available from other marketing channels.

As an example, provide offer an exclusive offer for your social media channel, such as discount coupon or voucher.

5. Social media participation requires authenticity and transparency

The words “authenticity” and “transparency” are a bit overused today, however, these are cornerstones to be successful with social networking. Be a real human being in your interactions. This is the foundation to build trust and connections with real people on social media groups and networks.

6. Look for value opportunities in selling through social networking

Take the opportunity to leverage social media in selling your products and/or services by offering relevant items that are of value to your followers. Make it easy for them to make the purchase from these social media channels.

7. Always test and refine based on results generated

Social media programs as a marketing channel are not exempt from testing and refining your messages and offers. You must make the effort to test, gather results and analyse how it can be improved before launching the program to the entire channel.

Apply these 7 Marketing Tips for using Social Media to give you the foundation for success building and growing your business using these communication channels.

Patrick Zuluaga has more than 20 years experience in marketing and business development ro

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There are two kinds of entrepreneurs. First, there is the entrepreneur that is commonly associated with the noun; this person is the start-up business expert. They are the ones that take dirt and make a castle out of it. However, there is another type of entrepreneur and he or she comes in the form of a corporate business starter. That means that he or she has an expertise in growing and starting up different sections within a corporation. For any company, having an effective entrepreneurial thinker can prove to be an immense asset.

Despite the platform that these entrepreneurs utilize to make money, they are all similar in personality and nature. Conversely, the process is a little different when it comes to being an entrepreneur in a corporation. The upsides and downsides of starting up a project also vary. Here are a few benefits and setbacks that the corporate entrepreneur sees upon starting up a new division within an established entity:

Pros:

The Corporate Entrepreneur Has More Resources Readily Available 
The thing that many start-ups lack is, of course, money, capital, whatever you want to call it. In the majority of cases, when starting a business within a business, a corporate entrepreneur has a lot more monetary resources available to him or her.

The Corporate Entrepreneur Has A Website Set-up 
For many entrepreneurs, the website is a big expense. Also, many website development companies will tend to take advantage of their clients; they take advantage in a major way. The small start-up clients, not having the time to study other alternatives, become easy prey for those selling unnecessary services such as website hosting, search engine optimization, PPC as well as a slew of other ineffective, costly marketing add-ons.

This is a huge advantage for the corporate entrepreneur as dealing with these individuals can be tiresome and costly with no return on investment in site.

The Corporate Entrepreneur Has Name Recognition 
Anyone, large or small business, will tell you just how important name recognition is in any industry. For the corporate business starter, this is fed to them on a platter that, if utilized correctly, can be an advantage which typically takes others years of hard work to successfully acquire.

The Corporate Entrepreneur Has A Sales Force 
In conjunction with the aforementioned name recognition that will lead to sales right off the bat (a.k.a. a quick ramp-up period), the corporate business starter will have a team of business development professionals to add to their already sitting arsenal. This means all types of outbound business calls going around the clock. Additionally, the more senior sales force will probably have contacts within targeted companies thus shortening the sales cycle for the new initiative. On a third note, the corporate entrepreneur will usually have sales support, a luxury the small start-up cannot afford nor provide for their clients. This is a huge selling point.

Cons:

The Corporate Entrepreneur Typically Has Only So Much Time 
Prior to starting any new business initiative, the company entrepreneur has to present a solid, compelling business plan to the CEO and possibly some other heads of the company. This means that the corporate entrepreneur has to ask for resources that could be put towards business models that are already working, thus persuading a group to have those monetary and personnel resources diverted to their business plan.

When this happens, and money doesn’t come in right away, the investors (business heads of the organization in this case) get jittery. When corporate heads get jittery, money begins to get pulled from the new business initiative. At this phase in the game, the entrepreneur will begin to feel a lot of pressure which could lead to the entire plan blowing up. After this, the employee will probably never get a chance at an endeavor such as this again.

The Corporate Entrepreneur Can Be Quickly Fired 
When an employee steps forward within an organization and heavily pitches a business idea that fails, the CFO is very likely to make a case to get that individual out of the company, quickly. When this happens, the entrepreneur has to find a new job and, upon interviewing explain as to the reasons why he or she could not execute. To say the least, this could be quite embarrassing.

If you’re a student and you need some extra money, there are actually ways on how to make money without sacrificing your time from school or leisure. Instead of taking part time work tutoring other people or taking jobs watching over other people’s kids or pets, you can actually do that by just staying within the comforts of your home. With that, you don’t have to spend extra for transportation fare or just energy moving around. All you need is your computer and an Internet connection and then you’re set.

If you have a knack for selling, then websites like Ebay, Amazon or other similar ones are just the thing for you. Find something from your closet or anywhere that’s still in mint condition and may seem worth a certain price. You can post an ad online and see people bid for it. Many, at present, resort to online shopping rather than going out of their way to malls. It’s a great way to earn money and simultaneously, removing clutter from your home; only this way, you get paid for fixing your room. Isn’t it great?

Another solution is through writing articles. If you’re more of the paper and pen type, then it’s best if you start from there. There are actually websites that offer free blogging service. You can actually use this to earn money. It doesn’t take too much time and you’ll be working at your own work station. If you research on how to make money using blogging, you’ll get tones of money. So, what are you waiting for? Start browsing for resources!