Marketing
There have been many books written on the subject of Marketing so don’t think that in a couple of paragraphs I will be able to give you all the information you need to be a successful marketer. I will give you some basic ideas of what marketing is and why it is so important to you. Marketing is everything that has to do with the image or perception of your business from your corporate letterhead to your packaging to the people you advertise and sell your product to. You can see how this subject is so vast that it would take many pages to explain everything.
The most important thing to know is that you need to make sure that your marketing is very congruent. The first thing you need to do is come up with a Unique Selling Point. In your business plan this is the section that you need to explain what makes you different or better than your competition. Let’s say that you are in the construction business and you say that you unique selling point is that you will be the most professional contractor in your market. Everything that you do from the way you dress, your business cards, your invoice and your customer service will reflect on your professional image.
• Branding
Your Branding also known as your Identity is the manner in which your business is perceived. You will need to know your business name, phone number and address for this part of your marketing.
• Choose a name
This is an important part and also a not so important part. The reason is that if you really think about all the successful companies, do you really think their name was a factor of their success. McDonalds, IBM, Coke, Yahoo, MySpace, and one of my favorites Craigslist are all successful businesses and their names are not very important.
There is an exception to this rule and that is when it comes to marketing. Your name should be a reflection of the image that you want to portray. If you are going to be the cheapest furniture store in town, you probably don’t want to call yourself “Fine Custom Furniture”. You might want to make up a name, or especially if you are a one man business and plan to stay relatively small you can call your self “Your Name Construction Company”. The benefit to using your name as your business name is that you can automatically use it and do not need to file a fictitious business name search.
Once you have chosen your business name you will want to register the domain name, or at least one that is close enough to your name.
These are the items you need to have to complete your Identity:
• Logo
• Business Cards
• Letterhead
• Envelopes
• Postcards
• Advertising
There are many different forms of advertising and for every business you will need to figure out what ones work best for you. The worst number in business is one, so remember that you need to have multiple advertising campaigns to get the best results. Make sure that you keep track of your ROI (return on investment). If you are paying out $1,000.00 per month in advertising and the returns $500.00 in income then you should change your advertising.
Remember that there are a lot of businesses out there competing with you for your customers. Everyday the average American consumer watches about four hours of television and is bombarded with 100 commercials. That same consumer hears 35 radio commercials each day, sees over 200 newspaper ads each day, and receives three to 10 direct mail solicitations each day.
• Print – anything printed like in a newspaper or magazine
• Media – Radio ads or Television ads
• Direct mail – you might call it junk mail but it is a very affective way to advertise if done correctly.
• Press Release – free to you if there is something about your business that is newsworthy
• Word of mouth – the best advertising, but it can be very slow. Try to figure out ways to get people talking about your business to everyone
• Internet – You can buy a banner ad on another businesses website or use Search engine optimization witch is very complicated if you don’t know how to program, but there are companies that can help with this.
• Adwords – you can purchase adwords from google or yahoo so that when someone clicks on a link to your website you pay money per click. Be careful with this form of advertising and do your research before jumping in.
• Sales
The word “sell” or “sales” often conjures up bad feelings and the thought of a pushy car salesman. The trouble is that if you do not know how to sell yourself or your product then you might not be able to feed yourself. The truth is that everyone is in sales even if you are an employee. You had to sell yourself with a resume and you have to keep selling yourself as a competent employee. The better you are at sales the less it will be uncomfortable for you, because you will realize that you are providing information about your product so that your potential customer will be able to make an informed decision.
• System – you will want to have a system so that everything is done in the same manner amongst all of your salespeople. Your system will also be directly tied into your company image. Everything you do will have an order in which you do it.
• Sales Materials – brochures, price sheet, testimonials
• Sales Scripts – what your salespeople will say when they call on potential customers
• Sales Presentation – This can take many forms as simple as printed information to a full power point presentation
• Website
These days you really need a website to be in business. Even if you only have a couple of pages on your website and mostly use it for contact information. A website gives potential customers a sense of security about your business and it is a great place to promote what you do. If you are a landscaper then you can put up pictures of some of your best work so that your potential customers will be able to see for themselves how good your service is. You will want to put up some testimonials so that everyone can hear from your satisfied customers.
• Marketing Materials
• Pens
• Magnets
• Brochures
• Etc.