In conversations with small business owners, I have realized that my conversation with them takes the following structure.

• Business owner: I want to add viral marketing / social media / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn (pick your favorite platform) to my marketing efforts.
• Me: Of course, great idea but first who are your ideal customers as that will determine which platform may make the most sense?
• Business owner: I just want to add social media to the marketing activities.
• Me: Great, but what are you trying to accomplish so we can determine the type of results you will get?
• Business owner: I’ve heard that social media marketing gets great results for very little money!
• Me: Yes, it can, however, although it may not cost dollars, you do need to budget time to ensure you are consistent with your social media effort.

For the most part, the conversation is usually engaging and the business owner and I discuss the various options. Based on the type of business and the target market, we can determine whether social media is an appropriate strategy now, later or never.

Having this same conversation with different small business owners got me thinking about how many small businesses get distracted by the hype around the next shiny new marketing thing because they were told they should, when in fact they need to understand the marketing fundamentals for their business, determine their strategy, stay on course and measure their results. Look to add new activities when you have the time and resources to do so.

As a small business owner, make sure you know the following 5 things about your business so you can determine the most effective marketing activities.

1. Know what you are trying to accomplish in your business – In other words, set goals. Aiming at a clear target will help you make decisions about what to do, when and where in your marketing efforts and keep moving towards the final outcome you have set.
2. Know your ideal client intimately – Not only do you need to know what they want, you also need to understand how they purchase your product or services. If they would not think of searching the Internet for the solution you provide, then incorporating social media may not be the right marketing activity for your business.
3. Know what makes you different – Understanding what you do best and exploiting it will help you stand out and be noticed, no matter which channel you use to do so.
4. Know what value you offer – Your target audience will have different issues, goals and needs and will be looking for a solution that works for them. If you can’t clearly explain why someone should utilize your solution, it doesn’t matter which media you use. No one will listen.
5. Know how much time and money you have to realistically spend on marketing - There’s plenty of options available. We just need to be selective and spend our precious resources on what will get us the best return on our investment. Once you have decided on the best activities for your business, be disciplined about how you spend your time and money on marketing activities. It’s easy to get enticed by empty promises and activities that don’t pay off for you.

Before you jump onto the next new social media “thing”, be sure you know these 5 pieces of information about your business and are comfortable with the answers. Then you can put a plan together that utilizes all of the marketing channels that are available today in the most effective manner.

How well do you know the answers to these for your business?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

5 Things You Need to Know to Market Your Small Business is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

This is post four in the year end marketing review series to help you get ready for the new year.

Whether you discovered that your ideal client has changed or not, reviewing what makes you different is something you should be doing on a regular basis because you need to be sure that what you think makes you different continues to be true as new competitors enter the market. With so many people offering the same products and services, you must create a long term competitive advantage that keeps you ahead of your competition. Being different gets you noticed, creates value and is easily remembered.

Determining what really sets you apart from others in your field and communicating it effectively is not an easy exercise. As business owners, we think we need to have something complex and difficult in order to be valued by our clients when in reality, it may be something we find easy to do but our clients find amazing. We are taught to believe that things of value have to be hard or complex. Just because these things we do are easy for us does not mean they are easy for others. You need to become consciously aware of this value you provide and use it to your benefit.

Do you:

• Find simpler ways of doing things?
• Serve a niche market better than anyone else?
• Bring a new perspective to challenges that offer unique solutions?
• Package your services in a way that appeals to your ideal client?
• Create systems that help clients learn how to do things more effectively?

The secret to identifying your differentiation is to understand what your ideal client really wants and making sure you deliver it better than anyone else. You need to have a deep understanding of the market and competition and then determine where you can uniquely offer something that the competition does not, packaged in a way that others cannot easily copy.

Just a note: being the lowest price or offering the best service is not a unique differentiating aspect that will get the attention of your ideal client.

What do you do really well that makes you stand out?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

What Makes You Different? is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Whatever you call it, you still need to manage it!

There’s a lot of conversation about the term personal brand. My favorite personal brand is Bono (no surprise here), but Tom Brady, Madonna, J. Lo, Manny Ramirez, Britney Spears and many other celebritites all have personal brands – some good and some not so good at times.

As small business owners in the social media world, it’s not about creating a celebrity-like image but about establishing your reputation and managing how you are perceived by others, especially those who may want to do business with you. Building and nurturing a consistent reputation for what you are good at (your differentiation) is something you should strive for to make finding your ideal client that much much easier.

And as much as some folks don’t like the term personal brand, there is a brand component to your online (and off-line for that matter) reputation that needs to be managed. When creating your online presence, develop your personal brand consistently across all of your social media profiles so that it can work to establish your credibility and authority. Here’s a checklist of things to do to help with your consistency:

Picture

For some reason, some people just don’t want to put their picture in their profile. Social networking is about developing relationships and people want to see a real person and get to know them. If you are trying to develop a relationship that results in brand loyalty for your business, use a good picture that shows your real personality.

The picture does not have to be a professionally taken picture, but it should project your professionalism. Don’t put on a business suit if you’re style is business casual and your typical client relates better to a more laid back style. Remember your brand should be the real you, not something made up because you think that’s what people want to see.

Have several pictures taken so that you can choose the best one. Use it on your blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to increase recognition of your brand across platforms. Sign up for a gravatar so that your picture shows up in comments on other blogs if that feature is supported.

Name

The name or identifier you use should be the same one for all of your social networking websites. If you want to build a professional brand reputation, don’t create something cute. Keep it relative to you and your business. If you have a common name that has most likely been taken, use a combination of your name and business name or add a middle initial if that makes sense for you. Decide before you sign up on something that you think would work across the social media universe and try to keep it consistent so you begin to be recognized.

Profile

Take advantage of LinkedIn‘s business oriented profile format to write a complete profile description using relevant keywords and then copy that description or pieces of it to all the other social networks, tailoring it to the audience. Since LinkedIn is the more business-oriented social network, they provide ample space to fully describe who you are and what you do. Setting one social network as the hub for your personal and professional information prevents you from writing something different for each network you join.

Actions

If you write a blog and update your status regularly, stay true to your discipline and expertise. Focus on how you help people and what’s in it for them. Build relationships, connect people to others that are beneficial to them, answer questions in your area of expertise and did I mention focus? I’m stressing focus because I’ve noticed recently on LinkedIn that there are people who have “best answers” to questions in 50 or more categories that are totally unrelated. Can they really be experts in that many diverse categories? Did they really answer them all or had someone else answer the questions for them (if so, not very transparent)? What is their strength? Who are they marketing to? Being a Jack of all trades and a master at none comes to mind. Pick your targets and focus on your strengths. It will draw people to you who need your expertise.

When you are participating in social media, you are establishing your reputation whether you know it or not. Make it a conscious effort and nurture the personal brand that is truly you.

How well do you manage your online reputation? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below.

U2 photo credit Phil Romans.

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Personal Brand or Online Reputation is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Introducing your business to a prospect can make many small business owners break out in a cold sweat. When they ask the dreaded question, “So what makes you different from the others?”, you hesitate, stutter, or worse, look like the proverbial deer in the headlights. And on top of that, the totally sweaty, pasty look just doesn’t do anything for great first impressions.

Being able to answer that question comfortably with your true differentiating factors clearly stated can boost your confidence and build confidence about your expertise in the person you are speaking with. Differentiation makes your business memorable and credible. You want a prospect to be able to quickly understand what you do and what sets you apart from your competitors.

The secret to creating your differentiation is understanding what your Ideal Client really wants and making sure you deliver it better than anyone else. Don’t be fooled – this exercise is not easy to do. It takes a lot of thought, brainstorming and sometimes some trial and error to see what works.

Take some time to really think about the following and come up with a list of things you do really well. Don’t underestimate anything because something that you do that is so simple may be just the key to your differentiator:

• What do your clients really appreciate about your service?
• Why are long term clients still with you?
• What was one of the nicest things a client ever said about how you conduct business?

The challenge for service businesses is to clearly identify what you do best in a way that is visible to your target. Consultants, accountants, financial planners, coaches, designers, web developers and the like appear to all be the same: they offer the same services for about the same price. Stand out by really understanding what you do best and exploit it. Or come up with something unique that adds value over your competition that you can offer.

• Create offers that are too hard to ignore – Can you package your services to add so much value that people just have to have it?
• Be known as the expert in your discipline - Author articles, books and other information products;
• Offer benefits that are free for you but add value or convenience for your prospects  – Provide access to you via Instant Messaging or Email 24×7.

A note of caution: Try not to differentiate on price. Who really wants to be the cheapest? People flock to buy higher priced products, stay at five star hotels or buy brand names. Why? Because top of the line projects value. You get what you pay for is a statement based in reality. Cheaper can evoke perceptions of lower quality, less breadth of knowledge, or a less stable business environment. Figure out a better way to differentiate.

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

What Makes Your Business Different? is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.