Power of Three in Marketing

I was asked an interesting question during one of my coaching sessions:

As a small business owner, if you were to focus on only three marketing activities over the next six months, what would they be?

That made me stop and think for a bit. Putting the gears in motion and applying the power of threes, I realized that this question and its answer would help other small business owners focus on what is important for them to be found. My recommendation for three marketing activities include:

#1 Building a first-class Web presence to develop your expert reputation

Today’s small business needs to have a solid presence on the Internet to help build your expert reputation. Building a first-class presence includes:

• Building a website and blog on WordPress
• Creating compelling profiles on Google, Facebook and LinkedIn
• Establishing local business listings on Google, Yahoo, Bing and Best of the Web
• Launching a Facebook Business Page
• Setting up a Twitter account with a custom, branded background
• Syndicating your content out to relevant sites

In order for this to all work, all the gears need to be moving in unison in order for all the pieces to create one unified image.

Read more on Power of Three in Marketing…

Traditional vs. New Media Channels

Is One More Successful than the Other?

I consistently get asked by small business owners if they should be doing social media marketing to help them grow their business. Before I answer their question, I usually ask them if they understand who their ideal client is and where they hang out. Of course I get that “doe in the headlights” look followed by “no but I should be doing social media marketing”.

If you assume you need a Facebook Business Page because you’ve “heard” that you should have one to market your business, you need to step back and understand some marketing fundamentals so that you make the right choices for your business.

For a business to develop a quality marketing communications plan, you need to understand:

• The goal of your campaign (i.e. brand awareness, leads, sales);
• Your target market;
• The message you want to send them;
• The communication channel (the media) that makes the most sense for your particular target audience.

Successful marketing happens when you achieve your goal by sending the right message and reaching the right market using the their communication channel (medium) of choice. Picking the right communication channel for your message will contribute significantly to the success of your message reaching your market and therefore, it is important to understand the various communication channels available. Read more on Traditional vs. New Media Channels…

If I Can’t Find You Online, Do You Exist?

Eight down and one to go in the year end marketing review series to help small business owners get ready for a wonderful new year.

Before we plan our marketing activities for the new year, we have one more review  – do you and your business exist online? As a small business owner, how you are perceived when people search and find your information will determine whether they contact you about your products and services. So as hard as it may be to know the truth, we must understand whether:

1. We have an online presence or not;
2. Our online presence consistently projects how we want to be perceived.

Do You Exist?

This may be the easier issue to deal with as you get to start with a clean slate and do it right from the beginning. Make developing your online presence and marketing your business online the major part of your marketing plan this year. If you’re not sure how to go about developing your online presence, it may just be worth it to hire someone to help you make choices. Make sure this person has strong marketing experience in both online and traditional marketing and understands the challenges of small business owners. Make sure this person will guide you through the entire process, from brand and message development through implementation. Read more on If I Can’t Find You Online, Do You Exist?…

Personal Brand or Online Reputation

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.

Read more on Personal Brand or Online Reputation…

Social Media Jungle – Event Wrapup

Spent today at Jeff Pulver‘s Social Media Jungle, Boston (Waltham actually) and enjoyed the day immensely. Here are my notes from the sessions. There was a lot of good content provided and I will list the one-liners I jotted down that were thought provoking or valuable to note.

Read more on Social Media Jungle – Event Wrapup…

Stay on Course for Marketing Success

I’m getting a lot of queries from my clients in the form of “What do you think of this?” where “this” is a proposal from a niche marketing company for them to buy a plethora of services from PPC Advertising to social media marketing services.

Read more on Stay on Course for Marketing Success…

Small Business Marketing on the Internet

Getting found on the Internet is one of the most cost effective mechanisms for finding new business, yet many business owners don’t have the time to figure it all out or the budget to hire someone to do it for them. Using the Internet to market your business has its complexities like all marketing strategies, but understanding the basics can go a long way towards having new customers find you when they are in need of your services.

Read more on Small Business Marketing on the Internet…

Benefits of Social Media

I have immersed myself in social media over the past several months to learn the tools and understand how they can be used to effectively market your business. I thought I’d share the benefits that I have experienced using these tools.

Read more on Benefits of Social Media…