Small Business Marketing Tips and Ideas

Most small business marketing materials are really bad! They don't provide any real information and make no case for anyone to inquire further let alone buy your services.

Are poor quality marketing materials limiting your opportunities? If yours don't provide enough information and make a compelling case for someone to take action, then the answer is yes.

So many small business owners happily create poorly thought out, poorly designed, and poorly written marketing materials. They typically don't give enough information. And what they do offer is all about who you are and what you do. Nobody cares about that. They're trying to solve their own problems, issues, and challenges and want to know what you can do for them.

It's such a common small business marketing mistake - simply copying what everyone else is doing. You fill up you marketing pieces with terse bullet points and next-to-worthless statements like "We're committed to ensuring the highest quality and building strong business relationships."

It's marketing dribble and it simply doesn't work.

"People don't want to read a lot of copy on a web site. I don't want to make them scroll. A few bullet points are better."

It's a load of bull. But, I hear that from small business owners again and again. People don't think in bullet points. They think in complete thoughts. When someone comes to a web site, they are searching for information. If you're making them complete the thoughts or making them figure out why your emphasis on ensuring "the highest quality" is relevant to them, you'll lose most of your visitors.

If you write conversationally and your material is relevant to your audience, they will read it. There's a difference between writing clearly and articulately versus simply keeping it short.

Stop copying the poor marketing materials everyone else is using and create some materials that actually inform and educate your audience on what you can do for them.

November 7, 2005 10:52 - Action-Oriented Marketing

Do you make your marketing action-oriented?

So many small business owners and professional service providers believe that the purpose of marketing is to 'get your name out there.'

That's a huge waste of time, energy and money. When you're a small business and every penny counts you want your marketing to result in a steady supply of good leads. Getting your name out there or creating brand awareness is a welcome by-product, but it shouldn't be the main focus of your marketing efforts.

This is an important distinction because most small business marketing efforts are focusing on the later, and therefore, are not action-oriented.

Making your marketing action-oriented doesn't mean creating tools (e.g., an ad, flyer, brochure, post card, etc.) that get the sale. Sorry, it doesn't usually work that way. Marketing and selling typically involves a multi-step process because people still buy from those they know, like and trust.

Making your marketing action-oriented means getting those who might have an interest in what you offer to reveal themselves to you by taking action to find out more. The first step is attracting those who have a genuine interest in what you have to offer. Then you follow up with those interested to provide them with more details, information, and education about what you can do for them. As someone continues to show interest you can then make special offers to help them become a client.

So as you're creating any marketing piece, start by being clear what specific action you want a prospect to take when they see your marketing piece. This is called your most desired response.

Make it crystal clear what the one simple action is that you want someone to immediately take when they receive your message. Merely trying to promote a product or service in your marketing piece will get you very little action and rarely any good quality leads that you can begin converting into a client.

What action do you want them to take immediately?

• contact you for a catalog or brochure to learn more

• send in a reply card to receive your free information pack

• go to your web site to learn more and download a copy of your free report

• sign up for your free presentation

If you get a prospect to take immediate action, you can let your follow-up systems kick in and you're one step closer to converting a client.

November 11, 2005 08:17 - Put A Little You In Your Marketing

One of the great advantages that small businesses have is that by their very nature they are more personal.

What clients experience in working with a small business tends to be more genuine and authentic? Today's tip is pretty simple - Leverage that fact and put a little more you in your marketing.

Lots of small businesses are finding out that one of the best things they can do for their marketing and sales is to start getting a little more "personal" with their audience. Let them know a little bit more about what makes you the way you are. How did you get into doing what you do? What are the things about you that shape your thinking?

Putting more you in your marketing helps to give your company a face and actually builds the know, like, and trust factor with your audience. People love a great story and relate to them much easier than a bunch of marketing speak that's clearly just trying to get them to buy. I just participated in one of John Jantsh's (Duct Tape Marketing) Ultimate Marketing System teleclasses this week. He believes every small business should include their story (a marketing story) as part of their marketing kit of materials. I think he's right.

So how do you put a little more you in your marketing?

Put a picture on your web site, ezine, blog, networking follow-up thank you notes, etc. It lets people see the human being behind your small business.

Reserve a little space in your newsletter or ezine for a personal section to tell readers a little bit about what's going on with you and your life. I just met with a financial advisor this week that has put together a little web site about his dogs. Who wouldn't want to take time out of a newsletter about financial news to read about what his dogs are up to and then go visit the web site to take a look? I guarantee if he follows my simple suggestion then his response rates will increase.

Scrap the resume or bio on the "About Us" page of your marketing kit and web site. Give us a story to let us know who you are, why you do what you do, how you got into it, what interest or even fascinates you about your work, some of the things that you're most proud of, etc. People love a story and it will absolutely help people feel more like they know you and can trust you.

These are just a few ideas. Put a little more you in your marketing and make the most of one of the great advantages small businesses have.

November 14, 2005 10:12 - Maximize Your Marketing Time

How much time do you spend actively marketing your business?

Is it more than just a couple of hours per week?

How much time should you spend actively marketing your business? Many small business owners and service providers don't know what their answer to this question should be? They're not really sure how much time they should be spending on marketing. But, a majority of the service providers I ask say they're only spending a couple of hours per week.

In working with clients one-on-one and through my Growth Marketing Power Groups, I challenge them that they should be dedicating 20 to 25% of their time each and every week to purposeful marketing activity. For some, that number just seems impossible. They're busy enough as it is and can't imagine carving out that much time from their crowded schedules.

So where exactly do you spend your time? Have you ever tracked and analyzed your time to see how productively you're spending it?

Consider this. Small business owners and professional service providers typically spend their time in one of three general categories...

• Income Producing Activities


• Marketing Activities


• Other Activities

I'm sure you'd agree that you want to spend most of your time in "income producing activities." But, the reality of the situation is that most service providers spend a majority of their time (up to 70 or 80%) in "other activities." Some of that is justified because everyone has a certain amount of administrative duties to take care of. Unfortunately, a majority of the other category is simply wasted time.

That's bad news because if you're spending over 50 to 70% of your time in other activities and only a couple of hours per week actively marketing, how do you ever expect to generate more income producing time? It's a vicious cycle, buy many small business owners find themselves caught in it.

In order to maximize your marketing time, you need to schedule it like you would your best client. Then be sure you keep the appointment times each and every week. If you're working a 40 to 50 hour week, that means you should be scheduling eight to ten hours for purposeful marketing activity every week.

Imagine how much further along your business could be if you focused eight hours per week on marketing. You could...

• Improve your Attention Getting 30-Second Introduction


• Map out and develop supporting materials for your networking strategy


• Develop that core issue article to give away to prospects and referral sources


• Establish powerful centers of influence and joint venture relationships


• Brainstorm new referral strategies and map out follow up processes


• Etc., etc., etc.

In just a few short months, you'll be a more purposeful marketer and I'd predict you'll have shifted from "other activities" to more "income producing activities." Get you calendar and schedule some time right now!

November 18, 2005 08:52 - A Duct Tape Marketing Approach

KPD Marketing has been selected as a beta licensee for the Duct Tape Marketing Coach Training System.

I'm very proud to announce that I am one of only 10 entrepreneurs nationwide selected to participate in the beta launch of the Duct Tape Marketing licensing and certification program.

"The selection process was quite involved," says John Jantsch, award-winning small business expert and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing system. "To ensure the program's success, I limited the scope of the initial offering to business owners who excel in their particular industries but who want to expand their own marketing efforts and share their newfound expertise with others."

KPD Marketing receives exclusive rights to implement the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system and distribute the Duct Tape Marketing family of small business marketing products. The Duct Tape Marketing system is available for licensing to select small business marketing coaches. For an annual fee, licensees will receive training and a complete system to generate clients.

* * *

To say that I’m honored to be chosen as one of these initial licensees is a bit of an understatement. I realize that the competition for these first 10 spots was fierce, so I’m thrilled to be a licensee. This arrangement will definitely allow me to expand and enhance the small business marketing service offerings to my clients.

Look for more information very soon on both my KPD Marketing web site at http://www.abcdgrowth.com and on my Proven Marketing Solutions.com web site.

The Duct Tape Marketing system and the principles that John Jantsch bring to small business marketing fit so nicely with what I'm about and what results I want to bring to my clients.

November 21, 2005 09:31 - Can You Market Effectively Without Purpose and Vision?

I went to lunch with a friend the other day to ask him about his company's marketing journey.

You see, I knew that he and his partner had hired a marketing coach a couple of years back. I wanted to find out what their experience was like and where they had challenges and successes along the way.

This particular company is very typical of the small, service-based businesses that I focus on in my own marketing practice. They would tell you that they're a couple of accountants who are really good at what they do and enjoy the clients they work with. They would also tell you that they weren't marketing people who knew how to attract a steady stream of new business.

I asked my friend if there was a particular point in time or event that finally triggered their marketing breakthrough. I wanted to understand what they learned through their own trial and error. I wanted to see if there was something specific that helped them finally crack the code on marketing.

At first he thought the answer was when they finally narrowed down their target market. They finally defined a niche that was a very good fit for them, made sense to them, and helped them stay laser beam focused. We agreed that this was a huge breakthrough. It's often easy to say, but usually very hard for small businesses to narrow their target market. This was a step that was clearly paying dividends for my friend's small business.

But, it wasn't really the answer for what helped them make their marketing breakthrough. After a little further discussion we discovered that the practice never made any marketing headway until they defined and clarified their Purpose and Vision.

Without a clearly defined Purpose and Vision, the business owners could never really articulate what they were and what they were trying to get done. A little more discussion with his partner confirmed it for us. Without clarifying their purpose and vision, the business was very reactive.

None of the marketing strategies or tactics that their marketing coach was helping them implement proved to be productive. The reality was they were reactively taking whatever business they could get through the door.

Clarifying their Purpose and Vision created the marketing breakthrough. Purpose and vision tell you and everyone else what it is you're out to cause and where you want to go and what impact you want to make with the business. Doing this gave my friend and his partner focus and direction that didn't exist before. It made narrowing their target market and all these other marketing strategies and tactics make sense.

I started to think about all of my own client relationships. Some time back I had decided to build articulating purpose and vision into my ABCD Growth Marketing Model. It was a piece that seemed to be missing from successful marketing relationships and now my lunch discussion appears to have confirmed it for me.

What do you think? Can you effectively market your business without Purpose and Vision?

November 28, 2005 09:46 - A Systematic Approach To Continuous Lead Generation

Lead generation is the lifeblood of any small business. Without leads you don't get new business. Without new business you go away. It's as simple as that.

Being the best at what you do counts for very little if you don't know how to consistently generate new leads. Think about it... even the best in your field will go broke if they can't generate a consistent supply of leads that they can convert into new business.

The key to your success is having a lead generation system.

Do you take a systematic approach to generate a constant supply of leads for your small business? Or are you guilty of trying marketing campaign after marketing campaign looking for the one that will finally deliver the clients?

About a month ago, I gave you my definition of Marketing - the active use of strategies and tactics to generate a consistent supply of high-quality leads for your business.

You see I believe small business marketing is a system. And as long as we're defining terms, a "system" refers to an organized or established procedure. So therefore, your marketing system is an organized or established procedure for using strategies and tactics that generate a consistent supply of high-quality leads.

Unfortunately, many small business owners don't approach marketing this way. Instead, they're switching back and forth from one marketing idea to the next looking for the one that will finally deliver the "mother lode" of new clients.

The "Flavor of the Month" might be a great idea when you own an ice cream shop, but it's a terrible approach to small business marketing. So many small business owners are creating marketing campaigns that usually don't have anything to do with the previous campaign and won't have anything to do with the next campaign. This scatter-gun approach simply doesn't work.

My friend and marketing mentor John Jantsch is getting ready to conduct the next course in his Ultimate Small Business Marketing System. The topic for this three, one-hour tele-session course is Opening the Lead Generation Flood Gates. Complete with workbooks, worksheet forms, and an audio recording of each tele-session, John will give you an approach for creating your very own lead generation system.

Get more details here. I'll be on the calls participating, learning and adding my input and insights. If you're not systematic in your marketing yet, check it out for yourself.