Global Marketing Plus

Do you wonder why you do not get more results from your networking efforts?  Usually it is because you are not making the most of your networking opportunities. 

The three biggest benefits of networking groups are:

1. Finding several business owners in one place
2. Building relationships with people who may use your products or service at some time
3. Some of the other attendees may know several people that could use your products or services.

Lets talk about several things you can do to make networking pay!

1. Prepare before the meeting.  Make sure that you have the materials that you need to help your efforts.  This includes your appearance.  You must look professional.  If you are a mechanic, change clothes before you attend.  Do not come in your greasy coveralls. 

Have the brochures and business cards you need to support your message that day. 

I have also found that those business owners that have a website that supports their message, can improve the results they get from the networking meetings. These days. almost everyone interested in your product or service will ask if you have a website and go there before they make the commitment to buy.

2.  Arrive at meetings and group activities at least fifteen minutes early. If you attend these meetings and arrive on time and leave right after, you are missing the boat.  This is the time when the most networking occurs.  Once the formal program begins, there is usually little time for networking.

3. Attend regularly.  I see many times when business owners attend two or three times and then decide that since they had no results it wasn’t worth their time.  It takes time to develop relationships with other business owners before they feel comfortable use your services or to refer you to their friends.  I have seen business owners that have attended for two or three months or more before receiving their first order or referral from the group.  Then at that point, sometimes the flood gates of business starts flowing in.

I have also seen those who attend long enough to get business.  They then feel they can slack off the meetings and find that their business and referrals from the group stop.

4. Stop waiting for something to happen.  I often hear people complain that they have attended networking meetings but “nothing happened”.  From experience, I have found that they usually attend the event as if they are a guest, waiting for someone to intorduce them.  Instead, you need to approach the event as if you are the host, greeting people yourself.  Walk up to them and strike up the conversation!  They are there for the same reason you are, so if you go up to them smiling and extend your hand, in every situation I have seen, they will smile back and introduce themselves in return. 

5. Introduce yourself with a sixteen-second sizzler.  Have you ever been introduced to someone and, when they told you what they did, you were completely at a loss because you had no idea what he or she was talking about? These conversations end quickly because no one wants to appear foolish and ignorant.  The kiss of death is using overly technical and professional jargon!

Make sure you don’t fall into this trap.  practice introducing yourself in a simple 25 word statement that provokes interest.  Use terms an eighth grader will understand. 

Instead of saying:  “I own LegalTech.  I install third-party vendor systems for vertical markets.”  say something like:  “My company is called LegalTech.  We help lawyers and their staff make friend with computers.”

Your introduction should include your name and company name, the market you serve, and how you benefit your clients.  For example:

• “I’m Ron Coleman with Virtual Secretary.  I provide word-processing for busy business owners.  I specialize in meeting impossible deadlines.”
• “I’m Ron Coleman.  My company is called Fresh Mushrooms.  We provide large, luscious mushrooms to the finest restaurants in town.”
• “I work with people who are tired of dieting.  I’m Ron Coleman and I have a no-diet, no-exercise weight-loss program called the Bonus Plan.”

When you meet someone whose introduction leaves you in the dark, be different than everyone else that will back away.  Ask them, “What does that mean, exactly?”

Tomorrow we will continue our list of things you can do to make networking meetings pay.  Until then, have a profitable day!

It has been said that success is not so much in what you know but in whom you know.  Over the past 35 years in business, I have found this to be true.  Business is about relationships.  Knowing people who believe in you and your work, people who will recommend you, refer to you, and open doors for you can make the difference between a marginal and a stunning success.

This means that you can use your mouth to make the business contacts you need to succeed!  In today’s world, you can contact virtually anyone you need to know through networking.

No matter how large a business becomes, business is still about relationships.  It is done person-to-person with the exception of some online sales.  Through networking, we can use person-to-person contacts to establish relationships that will lead to business.  Through networking, anyone can become well connected.

In my experience with helping small businesses and home based businesses become succesful, networking is the single best way to start and build a small business.

If you do not count the sales I get off my website, most of my sales each year come by way of networking.

Think about it.  Wouldn’t you prefer to do business with someone you know and trust or someone who has come recommended to you by someone you know and trust?  Most of us would.  For this reason the more people you meet, the more likely you are to find people to do business with.

And also remember the phrase “Out of touch, out of mind”.  The more you keep in touch with the people you know, the more likely they will turn into customers and clients, or give you referrals to those who will become customers.

How do you get started in networking?  We will talk about that tomorrow.  So go out and have a profitable day!

If you need business right now, here are five ideas for getting business fast!

1. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.  Identify people who need your skills and make them a special offer so tempting they simply can’t say no.  But be sure you at least cover all of your costs and ask them to serve as a reference for you in the future.  Some money beats no money! 

2. Turn your ex-employer into your client.  Your former employer already knows your capability and has a proven need for it. Often you can negotiate to do on a part-time basis or contractual basis what you had been doing full-time, or you can negotiate a contract to train your replacement.

3. Subcontract or do overload.  Your competitors can be an excellent source of business!  Contact your competitor and see if they have overload work that they are willing to subcontract out to you.  About 20% of my new business comes from my competitors!

4. Work as a temporary in the field in which you will be doing business.  Working as a temporary can not only give you valuable experience for your resume, but can also give you valuable contacts.  It also provides you will a source of immediate income while building your business.

5. Volunteer.  Some work beats no work and work begets more work.  There is nothing worse for your morale than having no work to do.  Volunteer efforts may become paid efforts, and many volunteers turn their experiences into paying contracts or orders.  You can also use it as a source of experience and references that can help getting future business.  In some cases you may even work side-by-side with the very people you need to contact to get business!

If you spend the time and energy now to do the things described in this blog, both in previous posts and future posts, you will soon find you need to spend less of your time on getting business and more time will be spent on doing the work you want to do and getting paid for it.  Eventually your business will become self-sustaining — that is, it will generate all the business you need.  And you will truly be able to say, “I get almost all of my business from referrals.”

Should slow times occur, you will be able to act with confidence to turn the slow times around quickly.

Tomorrow we will go into more detail about networking.  Have a profitable day!

Let me share with you the six methods that have been highly successful for me.

First, let me explain. This is a good question but one that is hard to answer. There is no answer that fits all businesses in all situations!

First of all, I am assuming that by “Free Advertising” you mean free of cost in money. As I mentioned in a previous blog, free or low cost marketing or advertising usually have a high cost in time and other resources. There is a trade off!

There are many variables that could change what marketing methods you use. Are you marketing a product or service? What product or service you are selling? Are you selling business-to-business or business-to-consumer. Are you trying to sell to a local, national or world-wide market? What fits your personality?

Remember also, that what worked last year may not work this year.

Also, who are your potential clients? If you are working with seniors, the Internet, including Blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In, may not be the best way to market to them. Whereas if your target market is in their 20’s, the Internet may be a viable way to contact them.

Another thing I have learned is that one marketing method almost always works better when combined with other marketing methods. For example, almost every method I have tried, either with my businesses or with client’s businesses, can double their effectiveness when combined with a website that is professionally built and looks professional and easy to navigate.

Over the past 13 years that I have been designing and building websites, I have constantly been doing market research, in some cases with focus groups with website visitors, to find out what items on a website help sales and what hurts sales. After this research, I have found that many websites have been built that actually handicap the business!

So, with that said, here are my top six marketing methods I have used over the past few years. I will briefly mention them in this post, but in future posts, I will spend much more time on how to perform each one in more detail.

1. Networking Meetings and Leads Groups. From personal experience, attending networking meetings and leads meetings work very well. I have also found that almost no matter what product or service you sell, you can benefit from networking groups.

My target market is business owners that are trying to increase sales. Most of the people who attend these kind of meetings are business owners trying to build their business. This is a very natural mix.

Your product does not have to be business related. If your target market is seniors that are ready for retirement centers, you will not find your target market at the meetings, but you might find someone who knows someone who has a relative that could use your services.

Most chamber of commerce host these networking meetings and many are free or just the cost of your lunch.

2. Blogging. Blogging must be done on a consistent basis. There have been times when I have been too busy doing other things I thought were more important, only to loose many of my readers and it was very hard to get them back.

I suggest a minimum of blogging once per week. But if you plan to post once a week, you MUST do it every week!

3. Online Directories. Online directories can bring in a lot of business, especially if you can find an industry specific directory.

Even though most directories may cost money, there are free ones out there. Also, those that charge, usually offer a basic listing for free.

4. Social Media such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, and others. These can be very effective. But be sure that you do not openly try to advertise. The reason being is if you are perceived as always “selling”, people will tend to tune you out.

5. Viral marketing. Viral Marketing is an idea that spreads–and an idea that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause.

I have used this since 1974, although before the term “viral marketing” came about I called it “Richocet Marketing“.

This could be a product in which a self-building cycle occurs. Hotmail, for example, or YouTube. The more people use them, the more people see them. The more people see them, the more people use them.

The product or service must be something that excites people enough to tell others about it, who then tell others, and so on. I will use other examples in future blogs.

6. Website and SEO. Even though websites and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are not free, there are some very inexpensive alternatives.

Statistics show that businesses that have an effective website and use it properly have a much higher success with the other four areas, above.

SEO is not paid advertisement or pay-per-click… that is Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SEO is getting your website a natural placement high on the search engines result page, (SERP).

SEO is one of those things you CANNOT search online and learn how to do it for yourself. Search engines are changing constantly and things that may have worked just a few weeks ago may get you banned from the search engines today!

But most small businesses cannot afford to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars every month to get better rankings in the natural listing of the search engines.

That is why I have written SEO Master that does most of the work for a small business and explains in plain terms what must be done to your website to get those higher rankings.

And it only costs the same as a soda drink a day!

Remember, all these methods can take a lot of time, but little money. They also can work better when combined with other methods. In fact, I would suggest you use ALL 5 items above at the same time and cross market them!

Like I mentioned, I will spend time in future blogs to go in more details in each area plus other areas that did not make my top five areas.

The best methods of marketing your business in the beginning will tend to require a lower cash outlay in exchange for a bigger investment of time and energy.  Until your business is a little more mature, you should be willing to spend at least 40% of your time and money on marketing.

When your business is more successful and busy,you should at least maintain 20 to 30% of your time to maintain you sales.  Too many times I have seen businesses get successful and the owner slacks off too much on marketing, thinking he has enough business, only to find his business in trouble in just a few weeks.

The best time to market is when you have enough business!  If you wait until sales slow down, you may have to suffer through a longer slow period while you try to build sales again.

 As your business grows and your more busy with customers, you will probably spend more money and less time in your marketing efforts.

Marketing methods differ as to how fast they produce business.  As a rule, going out to find business has faster results than getting business come to you.  Writing personal letters, calling on the phone or calling on potential customers by going door-to-door or business-to-business will probably be quicker than direct mail or advertising.  They will even better than doing networking!

Next Monday, I will talk about 5 ways you can get business fast. 

Have a profitable Friday and a good weekend!

And is it working?  If they continue to use one or two methods consistently, it is generally a sign  that these methods are working. 

This can save you a lot of time and money.  Instead of experimenting with unproven methods for your industry, look at what both local and national companies are doing.  If you look deeply, you may find that some of their most successful methods are the less expensive ways.

6. Track your marketing efforts.  One big mistake that a business will make in marketing is not tracking their results.  Many times when clients come to me and ask how to save their business, I ask them what marketing methods they are using, how much they are paying for advertising, and which ones are working.  Most know what they are using, some know how much they are paying, but almost none know which ones are working.  Do you know how many people came in from the phone book last month?

Set up some way to track how each new client learned about you.  At least make sure that new customers, phone callers, etc are asked how they learned about you.  Then collect that information.  By the end of the month you should have totals of:

• How many people learned about you from each one of your marketing methods
• How many of those people actually became customers
• How much each new customer bought from you

Using simple math, you can then find out how much it cost you per customer from each marketing mix.  For example, you may find it cost you $100.00 per customer for your newspaper campaign in one paper, $125.00 per customer in another newspaper, $175.00 per customer from yellow pages, and $25.00 per customer from your website.  Where would you want your customers to come from?  Of course it would be more profitable for the $25.00 customer!  Put more of your marketing money there and maybe cut back on the $175.00 cost per customer.

Then you can find out how profitable the customers are and how well your marketing methods are working by using math to find out if the customers are costing you money or making a profit by how much they actually spend.

There are a lot of other things you could learn about the results of your marketing. 

How well are each of your marketing methods working for you?

Tomorrow we will discuss how much time and money should you spend on marketing!  Now go out and have a profitable day!

Putting all your marketing eggs in one basket can be dangerous.  Over the years, I have seen many business owners put all their efforts in one method to market their business only to find that that method didn’t work for them.  By that time they had run out of money and had no way to continue on.  Almost every one of them went out of business!

Allocate what money you have to several methods at the same time to find out which ones produce the best results.

Remember, if money is limited, use your other marketing asset… your time.

4. Select marketing activities that will complement each other.  For example, if you are speaking at a  conference that will be attended by many of your prospective clients, you might want to advertise in the conference program guide.  Send a news release about your appearance to the newsletter of the appropriate trade associations.  Do a mailing to individuals that may be attending the conference that you want to meet.  Hand out materials at the conference and include a special offer good for the week of the conference.  If booths are available at the conference, you might want to rent a booth making it easy for attendees to approach you throughout the conference.

Tomorrow we will look at even more guidelines. 

Be sure to have a profitable day today!

Here are a few guidelines for finding a marketing mix that brings you the most business for the least money.

The measure of a successful marketing campaign is the extent to which it reaches at the lowest possible cost the greatest number of people who can and will buy your product or service. 

1. Choose methods that you will look forward to trying out.  Don’t force yourself to use methods that will be excessively stressful.  You will probably just end up abandoning them. You need to enjoy the tasks involved.  For example:  if you hate speaking to groups of people, don’t put seminars or workshops into your marketing mix.  If you look carefully, there are likely several workable methods which will suit your talents.

2. Choose the marketing methods that will provide you access to the people you want to reach the easiest and the least costly way. Investigate to discover what ways you could use that will most likely reach the people you want to contact with the least amount of effort.  Research and find out what your target market reads.  Where do they gather?  What would likely catch their attention?  Where do they shop?  Which radio stations do they listen to?

For me, I get in front of a lot of my target market by attending networking meetings and leads groups.  Check with your chamber of commerce and see if they sponsor networking meetings.  There are a lot of free or very cheap networking groups and lead groups  around.  You don’t necessarily have to pay hundreds of dollars a year.  On the other hand, many find the leads groups that cost more to be more effective.  If it costs hundreds of dollars a year, a more serious business person will usually be there. 

Also those groups that cost more will usually only allow one member from each industry.  This makes it so that if anyone has a lead in your field, you will be the one to get it.  Cheap or free groups usually allow anyone to attend.  This will mean you may have your competition showing up to the meetings.

Tomorrow we will look at more guidelines.  Until then, have a profitable day.

Successful marketers feel compelled to let people know about what they offer, even if they are shy.  It is this drive that spurs their creativity to find imaginative ways to get the word out.

Without the funds to pay for elaborate marketing efforts, your own compelling sense of passion becomes the essential element that will attract business.  That kind of passion will show through all your spoken and written communication from simply introducing yourself to describing what you do in a classified ad or website. 

That drive will propel you to find the best marketing methods available to you and to create innovative and inexpensive ways to use them.

In 1974, when I bought my first company that was on the verge of bankruptcy, I knew that what I had to offer was better than what my competitors had.  I was very passionate about it.  That created a drive that allowed me to overcome my shyness to build the business by 3,000% in only 3 months!

Why would someone buy from you instead of your competition?  Stand out from the crowd by finding what is unique and let your customers know and how it makes you better.

I mentioned in a previous post about a printing company I bought that was just like all the other printers in the area.  I created a new division of the company called Medi-forms.  This company specialized in printing medical forms for hospitals, doctors and other medical facilities.  When I called a medical related company, just by telling them that that was all we did (even though the parent company printed anything, Medi-form ONLY printed medical related printing), we stood out and was unique from any competition.  How can the other printers compete with that?

Somehow your potential customers and clients have to be able to determine why they should select your product or service over similar products and services.  They most likely will not see that advantages of your services automatically.  You will have to point it out.

To help find your USP (Unique Selling Position), study your competition.  Find out what they provide and how they provide it.  How does this compare with what you do?  Chances are there are some differences.  Within these differences lie the reasons someone should choose you over your competition.

If you find that there are some things your competitor does better than you, see if you can improve those things in your own company.  Or, in some cases, you might want to turn those things into a positive thing.  For example, in one of the companies that I owned, the competition was a lot bigger with a much larger staff that was more experienced and a nice large building.  I made that into a positive for me by pointing out that our overhead was less and thus our prices were less.  I also pointed out that we usually were able to turn around their jobs faster.  I also pointed out that doing business with us was less hassle.

See what you can do about finding those special things you do different for your customers