Small Business Marketing Tips and Ideas

Are you fully leveraging the power of the Internet with your marketing efforts?

It's kind of amazing, but I still meet lots of small business owners who don't think the Internet is crucial for their success. "I'm just a small local business. I don't think the Internet is necessarily the right place for me to focus my marketing efforts." I'm still hearing this sentiment from many a small business owner.

Hey, I was one of those people for almost a year with my own business. And I've set my stall out as a small business marketing guy.

Listen, whether you're trying to get people's attention from half-way around the world or just half-way around the block, you need to consider the power of the Internet. More and more people are turning to the Internet before (or in lieu of ever) turning to the yellow pages. That's true even when they're looking for things in their own town.

It's a place where people go to begin gathering information to make a decision. It's the place where people prefer to start when someone has made a referral or recommendation. It's the place people would generally prefer to go after they've met you at a networking event and were interested enough to know more.

The Internet is not going away. In fact, the trends show us that it's becoming a more and more integral part of the communication media we depend on. Anybody notice how interested the cable companies, phone companies, and cell phone service companies have become in putting out products and services that work with the Internet?

Are you fully leveraging the power of the Internet with your marketing efforts yet? Do you have a web site? Email newsletter? Blog? Podcast? Vlog?

Does the mere mention of all these terms intimidate and overwhelm you? Don't let it.

You don't have to do all of these things at once. Make 2006 the year that you begin leveraging the Internet to grow your small business.

I'm just getting ready to start another Tele-Course journey with John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame. His next three-session tele-course called "Harness the Internet" begins on January 11, 2006.

Join us as John takes us through Website Traffic From Around the World and Around the Block (1/11), Blogging for Traffic and Business (1/18), and Email, Ezines and Other Online Marketing Automation Tools (1/25).

The power of the Internet is something you simply can't ignore if you really want to take your business to great new heights. I invite you to go check this tele-course out right now and get yourself enrolled.

January 7, 2006 08:53 - Marketing Techniqes For Encouraging People To Give You Their Email Address

One of the great online marketing mistakes people make is not having any strategies to capture prospects' name and email address.

A primary goal for any small business web site should be to capture your prospect's contact information so you can stay in touch. Consider that a large percentage of your visitors don't have a need for what you're offering at the exact time they visit your site. That doesn't mean they might not be interested or might not develop a need three to six (or more) months down the road. But what are the chances they're going to remember you if you haven't stayed in touch?

John Jantsch recently launched his Duct Tape Marketing Forum. While clearly still in it infancy, this forum will no doubt become a place where small business owners and professionals go to give and get marketing advice. The Duct Tape Marketing Forum is a place where you can go to ask marketing questions, find marketing resources, and share your marketing tips and successes.

I bring this up because a great string of topic posts and replies sprung up on "Strategies For Encouraging People To Give Their Email Address". Some absolutely wonderful thoughts and ideas are shared on the forum.

If you're not trying to capture contact information from your web site visitors, you really are making one of the big online marketing mistakes. Go on over to the Duct Tape Marketing Forum right now and take a look at all the ideas being shared. Look under the Marketing Tips section for the discussion thread.

By the way, did you know that regularly participating in discussion forums and commenting to blog post are also great ways to get more email sign-ups? When you're an active participant and people like what you have to say, a percentage of them will go and check out your web site (associated with your profile). If they get to your web site, like what they see, and there is a compelling enough reason - they will often give you their email address.

Of course all of that assumes that you have a web site and something to offer your visitors. You do have a web site don't you? If you're not leveraging the Internet yet, join us for a three part Tele-Course called "Harness The Internet."

January 9, 2006 09:31 - Where Do The Marketing Ideas Come From?

I stress the importance of writing to all of my small business marketing clients.

Everything in marketing starts with writing. You write a marketing plan. You write marketing materials. You write copy for your web site. You write sales letters, thank you notes, and proposals or engagement letters. It all starts with writing.

Writing is so important that I believe it is one of those marketing activities that small business owners should commit to daily. What you know is valuable. So every business owner should seriously consider regularly writing in the form of tip sheets, articles, special reports, ezines, newsletters, and blogs.

An amazing thing happens when you regularly write in these forums. You will gain tremendous clarity about what you do and the value that your service provides to your clients. And even more amazing, your marketing results automatically increase.

I've had clients and prospects ask me, "Where do all the marketing ideas come from?"

The answer is simple. It comes from a continual focus on your clients and prospects. What is it that they want and need?

• Think about the problems, issues and challenges that they're searching for solutions to overcome.


• Think about the outcomes and results that they would really love to have from a service like yours.
• Think about the typical challenges, barriers and obstacles for clients to work with someone in your industry.


• Think about changes and trends within the industry.

Do you see how all of these are things your clients and prospects might be searching for information about? You should commit to be the one who provides them reliable, useful information.

You can do it - just start slow. Brainstorm a list of potential topics that you could write some one page tip sheets on. Commit to writing and sending out a tip sheet every other week or at least once per month.

You're going to find that the more you write, the better your results and the more focused and clear you're going to become.

January 14, 2006 14:04 - Generating Leads and Clients through the Internet

Getting found on the Internet so prospects can check out your business is one of the biggest reasons for having a web site.

A web site is one of the most powerful multi-purpose marketing tools ever created. It can work like a marketing brochure, like a sales letter, like advertising, like a free marketing information kit, or even like a marketing and sales person delivering your perfect message 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

It really doesn't matter if you'd like to reach prospects from around the world or just down the street, your web site can play a vital role. But if your target prospects don't find your site, the tool isn't working for your small business. This fact has created an entire industry commonly known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For the small business owner, this whole topic can be confusing and quickly lead to overwhelm - don't let it.

Even if all you're trying to do is get the most business you can within a ten mile radius, your business can benefit from increasing your chances of getting found on the internet.

The two most important factors in ranking well with the search engines is having high-quality, keyword rich content and getting links back to your site. While there are a lot of little things that add up to getting ranked high, these are the two most important. A word of caution - taking advantage of knowing these are the two most important factors will still take some real work on your part.

Keyword rich content means having copy on your site that's organized around the terms (information) that your target market is searching for. You will never be penalized for writing great content that provides real, useful information that your visitors can benefit from. But in doing so, you must also remember that you need some other visitors to your site to take notice - the little spider programs that the search engines send to determine what your site is about.

Getting quality inbound links back to your web site is the other important factor in getting ranked well with the search engines. Submitting your site to online directories, writing and submitting articles to online article directories, submitting press releases regularly, and participating in relevant online forums are all valid ways to create links back to your site.

Forget about all the search engine placement scams out there. Focus on developing high-quality, keyword focused content and then begin working on getting quality links back to your web site. There is certainly more than this to get your site ranked at the top of search engines, but this is where you should start. Eventually through an integrated on-line and off-line promotion strategy you can get what you are looking for - found on the Internet by your target market.

January 20, 2006 09:09 - A Simple System For Business Development Focus

Are you focused on business development every day of the week?

Here's a simple, but powerful and effective system shared in a power lunch I attended this week. While not necessarily a new concept, this simple little system can be immediately implemented to give you focus and accountability for business development every day.

The presenter in the power lunch gives credit to Jeffrey J. Fox and his book "How To Become A Rainmaker."

Here's basically how the system works. There are four steps to making a sale.

Step 1 is getting a lead, a referral, or an introduction to a decision maker.

Step 2 is getting an appointment to meet the decision maker.

Step 3 is meeting with the decision maker face-to-face.

Step 4 is getting commitment to close (activity) or to an action that directly leads to a close (action).

Now depending on the nature of your particular business, you might adjust the steps to more closely fit your needs, but I hope you get the point.

For every time you complete a step 1, you assign yourself one point. For every time you complete step 2 your assign two points. Likewise, assign three points for step 3 and four points for step 4.

Keep track of your points and work every day to get a total of at least four points in any combination of steps. The key is to use the system daily and don't wait until Friday each week to try and get twenty points.

That's all there is to it. The system is so easy to implement because you could log points on a pad of paper, on a white board, or in a spreadsheet. There's really no need to get more complicated than that with the tracking. I personally prefer the white board because then it's right there in front of you to keep you motivated every day.

Commit to the system for twenty days and then decide if you think it should become an integral part of your business development arsenal.

I predict that what you'll find is this simple, but powerful system will give you a level of business development focus and accountability you didn't even realize was lacking from your business.

January 23, 2006 11:13 - Business Networking Do's and Don'ts

A couple of recent networking events and more scheduled in the coming weeks reminds me of some networking do's and don'ts.

There is no doubt that networking is one of the top small business marketing tools. Are you getting the most from your efforts? Networking know-how is vitally important to your small business marketing success.

Maybe you've heard it said that 90% of success is just showing up. But if you've been networking and not getting the results you want, I'm sure you'd agree there's a little more to it than that.

Here's some networking do's and don'ts in case "just showing up" isn't getting you the results you hope for:

Do - think proactively ahead of time what you want and need from people. The clearer you are on what you want and need, the more likely you are to get it.

Don't - be needy or pushy in looking for the things you want and need. Too much focus on your own results tends to make you needy. Most people will avoid others that come across as needy.

Do - Have the courage and desire to establish new connections. Find a way to get really good at small talk and be willing to initiate conversations with people you don't know.

Don't - stand around waiting for other people to approach you. The more confident and courageous you are in starting the conversations, the more others will appreciate you making the effort. Also, don't spend all your time surrounding yourself in the comfort of people you already know. Be willing to make new connections.

Do - show up with your business cards and be willing to exchange them when you make a good connection. Get some agreement with the other person as to how you plan to follow up with them. Also, make sure that your business cards are up to date. Saying things like, "I'm trying to use up my current stock of business cards before I get new ones made up..." does not send a positive message about you.

Don't - show up without business cards. But also, don't show up with business cards and start passing them out like candy. I have a special file for people that push a business card in my hand and then keep moving around the room passing out tons of cards like they're running for office. That special file is called the trash can because even if I need what they're selling I won't buy it from them. If you don't spend some time to build some relationship it's likely the same could be happening to your business cards.

Do - think of yourself as a valuable information resource and look to be useful to others as you seek information. Zig Ziglar says, "If you help enough other people get what they want in life, you'll get everything you want." This is a good rule for all your small business marketing. Be willing to give first and you will get.

Don't - go around talking about yourself too much or too soon. Also, just because you are clear and what you want and need, don't ask for too much too soon. Again, the "needy" and "pushy" red flags will go off in the other person's head and you'll end up losing out on achieving your networking goals.

I'm sure you can think of other networking do's and don'ts from your own experiences. Periodically it's a good idea to review them so you can be sure you're maximizing your networking efforts for small business marketing success.

Care to share any other networking do's and don'ts? Just click the comments link below.