Instant Marketing Ideas to Boost Sales in Your Small Business

By on May 23, 2013 in Branding & Marketing, Q & A Interview, SmallBizChat

SMALL BIZ CHAT LOGO 20121 300x123 Instant Marketing Ideas to Boost Sales in Your Small BusinessEvery week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9 pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @dnewman.  David Newman is the author of “DO IT! Marketing: 77 Instant-Action Ideas to Boost Sales, Maximize Profits and Crush Your Competition” (AMACOM, 2013).

David works with executives and entrepreneurs who want to position themselves as thought-leaders and generate more leads, better prospects and bigger sales.  His background overlaps three key areas. First, David has worked inside organizations as the client; he has also worked as a speaker and consultant for Fortune 500 companies; and finally, he’s helped over 300 speakers, authors, executives and entrepreneurs raise their game and deliver their highest value.  For more info, visit doitmarketing.com

SmallBizLady: What advice are you giving businesses today that is drastically different from five years ago? 

David Newman: Five years ago, social media was literally in its infancy. Facebook was only open to college students, there was no Twitter, LinkedIn was mostly for senior execs, recruiters and jobseekers, and blogging was mostly done by techies, authors and consultants, or self-absorbed teenagers. So the major shift in thought leadership marketing is not only to write articles and white papers and ebooks (good advice 5 years ago and GREAT advice today) but to also get deeply involved in the one or two social media channels that resonate the most with your buyers, customers and clients.

SmallBizLady: With so much marketing noise out there, how can businesses make themselves heard? How can they rise above the noise? 

David Newman: Great question – and the answer you’d get from most marketing and branding people is… BRANDING. That’s NOT my answer. Sadly, when it comes to small business marketing, “branding” tends to be a lot of BS, smoke and mirrors. The REAL essence of what you need to stand out from the crowd is CLARITY. Clarity of your message, clarity of your positioning – what you do and who you do it for best. Clarity around the promise you’re making to people who do business with you. Clarity around the experience they’ll get when working with your company. The reason I’m so big on clarity as your distinguishing factor is because clarity on YOUR part greatly increases confidence on your buyer’s part. And confident buyers BUY – doubtful or confused buyers do not.

SmallBizLady: What are some sales no-no’s that you see small business owners make? 

David Newman: There is a handful – and most of these fall into the old school “sales training” approaches that are still out there to a much greater degree than you might expect. So… manipulative sales techniques, lying to prospects (“I have your business card on my desk and…”), product- or service-centered messaging vs. prospect-centered messaging, selling features and benefits rather than focusing on outcomes and results, old school cold calling (what I call “dumb calling”), untargeted batch and blast email or direct mail (aka paper spam), and most other sloppy, thoughtless outbound marketing tactics have passed their expiration date like an old bucket of yogurt. Don’t do it. This is good news for most of my seminar audiences and coaching clients for two reasons – 1) They hate doing it AND 2) Their prospects hate getting it. So there IS a better way. In four words, the new sales mantra needs to be: 1. Offer value 2. Invite engagement.

SmallBizLady: With so many marketing options out there, how do you suggest business owners prioritize or focus their efforts? 

David Newman: The only kind of marketing you’ll end up doing – and doing well – is marketing that you personally find Easy, Effortless and Enjoyable (EEE). Because the bottom line is that you have to wake up every day ready to market your business – rain or shine, happy or sad, feel like it or not. Under those conditions, if you don’t find those marketing tasks that you’ve chosen for yourself to be easy, effortless, and enjoyable – guess what? You won’t do them! And no matter how great the strategy, no matter how brilliant your tactical plan, at the end of the day, only ACTION creates results. So you have to hand-select a small number of marketing tactics that you’re willing to lean into and commit to doing on a daily and weekly basis, month after month, and year after year. Marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

SmallBizLady: What are three things people can do right now to get a boost in their marketing efforts? 

David Newman: Here are three tests to apply to your marketing:

1.  The black marker test: Put one of your ads (or web pages, brochures, or promo pieces) and one of your competitor’s side-by-side. Now black out both names. Could your piece be mistaken for some other company’s piece? Could you just cut out the competitor’s name and stick it on your piece and people just might not know the difference? If so, you have a piece of blah-blah-blah marketing. Fix it – and you win!

2.  The “So what” test: Take a look at each of your marketing statements in your ads, brochures, and on your website. For each point, can you come up with a compelling value-based answer to the question, “So what?” Make sure to use prospect language and not marketing-speak or gobbledy-gook techno-jargon!

3.  The “Prove it” test: Prospects assume all marketers are liars. Do you prove any of your claims? How? Testimonials, third-party proof, verifiable facts? Again, add these to your marketing mix – and you win!

And a fourth one: Total self-promo here –but true: Buy my book today and you’ll get a MAJOR marketing boost: http://bit.ly/doitbonus

SmallBizLady: Tell us about your book.

David Newman: The book is “Do It! Marketing: 77 Instant-Action Ideas to Boost Sales, Maximize Profits and Crush Your Competition.” The thing that makes the book unique is that it’s a SALES-focused marketing book. So many marketing books focus on marketing for the sake of marketing. I’ve collected hundreds of ideas, strategies, tools, tactics, and scripts that will help you do marketing specifically to drive sales. More sales. Better sales. Bigger sales. That’s the result of any strong marketing program. The other thing that I’m really excited about is the dozen or so “DO IT! Success Strategy Sidebars” throughout the book, with contributions from outside experts like you, Melinda – folks whom I love and respect and who do great work in the realm of marketing, sales, social media, and business development. The book is part action handbook, part field guide, part marketing manual, with a big dose of kick-in-the-butt do-this-now tactics. Even though the subtitle says “77 ideas” there are about 200 ideas in the book if you look at each section and count all the specific action items, templates, tools and scripts under each one. Sorry to say – truth in advertising is dead!

SmallBizLady: Why should people buy the book today even though the book won’t be out till June? 

David Newman: Two main reasons:

1. If you pre-order the book today, you will get over $747 in business-building bonuses RIGHT NOW and LATER, you’ll also get a terrific book jam-packed with savvy marketing, sales and business development strategies, tactics and tools. (You’ll be among the first to take delivery of the book the moment it is released – on or about June 5.) To check out the pre-order bonuses you’ll get immediately when you buy today, visit http://bit.ly/doitbonus.

2. For all the folks who pre-order today, you will also be invited to a series of special teleseminars, you’ll get pre-order only bonus ebooks such as the Do It! Marketing Manifesto I’m creating for 800-CEO-READ, and some other pre-order only gifts and bonuses. Like you, Melinda, I’m incredibly generous with folks who are fabulous enough to support my work in small business marketing and like you, I tend to OVER-deliver like crazy. So pre-order the book today at http://bit.ly/doitbook and then pop over to http://bit.ly/doitbonus to claim all your goodies.

Thank you in advance — and Melinda, thank YOU for the opportunity to share your wisdom as featured in the book!

SmallBizLady: In the book, you emphasize choosing a target audience and a specific niche. Why is that important?

David Newman: Whenever I work with clients or speak to groups, we ALWAYS start with identifying specifically WHO you are marketing to. I call this your “Buyer Persona” We use 7 key questions to flesh out the traits of your highest-probability prospects that you should spend most of your time targeting and connecting with. You need to understand what makes them tick – what are their characteristics, traits, attitudes, and values? What’s important to them? What headaches/ heartaches do they have when it comes to the problems that you solve? You’ve got to speak prospect language about prospect problems. Until you do that, NO marketing strategy will work.

SmallBizLady: You talk in the book about “Thought Leadership Marketing” – what is that and why is it important?

David Newman: Thought leadership marketing is a combination of speaking, publishing and social media – it’s your secret weapon! Why? Because experts win on value – generalists die on price. Thought leadership PROVES your expertise. No matter what you’re selling, you’re selling EXPERTISE first. Experts win trust – and trust earns sales. The book is full of templates and tools for speaking, publishing and social media success. It’s fill-in-the-blank easy.

SmallBizLady: What’s the first step business owners should take to find “hot button” issues they can use in their marketing?

David Newman: The first step? Research. Preparation. Industry, regional, business, and company news is now at everyone’s fingertips. Look for verbatim quotes, videos, interviews to capture as much as you can from representatives of your target audience. Search Google, YouTube and LinkedIn. Scan industry and association message boards. Then go directly to the source – your real live customers and prospects. One of the best ways to approach prospects is with Interviews, Surveys, Research, Data gathering. It positions you and your company as an expert resource and it gives you valuable data you should be getting anyway!

SmallBizLady: Is there an online way that small business owners can become thought leaders?

David Newman: We’re doing it now! Any time you share your face, voice, expertise, you are building thought leadership. Whether you choose blogging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, Skype, Slideshare, or iTunes. The more valuable advice, insights and recommendations you give away free, the more buyers you attract. Experts also FLOP – Feature and Leverage Other People. I blogged about this here: http://bit.ly/bizflop

SmallBizLady: Given everything in your book, what are the top three strategies you suggest small business owners focus on?

David Newman: 1. Figure out the audience you want to serve the most because they are your peeps, your tribe, and your natural followers.

2. Then figure out what they are passionate to learn, to do, or to become.

3. Finally, start talking about, sharing, and connecting them with resources that solve those urgent, pervasive, expensive problems, headaches and heartaches.

Do that publicly via speaking, publishing, networking – both online and offline – and the floodgates will open for you. There’s a 4th strategy, of course – buy the book today and get your $747 in bonuses: http://bit.ly/doitbonus

If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9 pm ET; follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter. Here’s how to participate in : http://bit.ly/S797e

For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.

Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is America’s #1 small business expert. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. She writes a weekly column on social media for The New York Times. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com. Melinda is also the bestselling author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works and the ebook: How To Become A Social Media Ninja; 101 Ways to Dominate Your Competition Online.

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10 Things You Will Forget to Check Before Launching Your Online Store

By on May 21, 2013 in Guest Articles, Technology

ID 100154306 300x150 10 Things You Will Forget to Check Before Launching Your Online StoreGuest Article

The day has come. You have spent hundreds of hours designing, configuring and even coding your professional, highly functional online store. Firstly congratulations and do yourself a favor and pat yourself on the back, this is a real accomplishment. At this stage you probably can’t wait to introduce your masterpiece to everyone you possibly can, but hold back and go through the list below of the 10 things you probably forgot to check before releasing your baby into the world.

1. Contact forms and emails

Now that you are ready to sell products online with cash exchanging “hands” it is critical for your long term success that you provide quick and easy ways for your customers to contact you. The most common way is through a contact form or email address which is displayed on the site.

Before you launch your site, make sure that your contact forms are working and directing the messages to the correct email addresses. Send yourself a few test messages and emails to verify that the forms are working and your dedicated sales and support email addresses are working.

2. Favicon

Forgetting to include a favicon on your site is most definitely the least important item in this list but one of the most common things which are forgotten by website owners.

Your favicon is part of your branding and helps visitors that have multiple tabs open to easily find your site. Return visitors will get familiar with the icon and associate it with the general way you do business. Take the 3 minutes it takes to upload a favicon to your site.

3. Stock Levels

Most ecommerce platforms allow you to set the stock amount for your products. Make sure before you launch your store that these numbers are accurate so that products don’t disappear because they are “out of stock” which will cost you dearly.

4. Basic SEO

Once your store is live, Google and other search engines will sooner or later come across it and crawl your entire site. You want the search engines to crawl your site so they can index your pages. If your pages do not contain the basic SEO tags (Title and Description) and your images do not contain alt tags then you will be doing yourself an injustice.

Search engines still account for a large percentage of traffic and it is critical for driving traffic that your pages are optimized for the search engines.

Make sure you include unique Title and Description tags to all your pages and that all your images have alt tags.

5. Phone numbers

If you have decided to provide visitors with a direct phone number to your business, then make sure that the number is working and if necessary, redirected to whoever is responsible for taking the calls. Make sure you include the international dialing code so overseas based customers and visitors can dial you successfully.

6. Extensions/Modules

If you are using any extensions or modules for added functionality, then make sure you test each one to see that the expected functionality is experienced from a visitor’s perspective. If you experience any issues, you may have to post a question on the forum thread related to the extension/module and wait for an answer. This can be very frustrating, but it is important to launch your store when everything is ready, especially important aspects of the user experience.

7. All your links

Don’t you hate clicking on a link which takes you to a page that doesn’t exist? Believe me, your visitors will hate it just as much. Make sure you go through your entire site with a fine tooth comb and check every link, both internal and external. Don’t forget to check your social share buttons to make sure they are linking to the correct social profiles and all the other links in your footer.

8. Google Analytics

Being able to analyze a wide range of statistics about your visitors is critical for making correct marketing and product related decisions. The best free tool available to online store owners is Google Analytics.

Make sure you open a free account and implement the Google Analytics javascript code on all of your pages.

Google’s real-time view is very handy to test if Google is tracking your site. After you implement the code on all your pages, visit your site and wait to see if you appear in the real-time stats in Google Analytics.

9. Social and sharing buttons

Leveraging social networks and our innate desire to communicate and share is a very powerful way to not only grow the amount of traffic you get to your store, but also to convert visitors to fans and grow your own online following.

Don’t forget to implement large share and social buttons throughout your site to drive referral traffic.

The standard location is in the footer but the header is usually a better location because it gets more exposure.  Provide share buttons near each of your products so visitors that like your products can share them with their friends and family.

10. Payments

After months of hard work getting the store ready it is almost time to launch. The final check that most people forget is testing your payment options.

Visit your site as a visitor and make test purchases using the different payment options you are providing. Make sure that each payment goes through successfully and that all confirmation emails are sent. If there are any problems then make sure to talk to your payment providers (Paypal, Neteller etc) and your credit card company.

Preventing interested buyers from making payments is the most detrimental thing you can do to your business.

I would love to grow this list, so if you have any other things which do not appear in this list then please let me know in the comments section below.

Justin Butlion 300x300 10 Things You Will Forget to Check Before Launching Your Online StoreAbout the Author: Justin Butlion is the Content and Social Marketing Manager of Yotpo. Justin loves to blog about e-commerce, online marketing, web development, and entrepreneurship.

“Digital World In Data Center Room” courtesy of watcharakun / www.freedigitalphotos.net

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8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small Business

By on May 20, 2013 in Grow Your Business, How to Start

As a small business owner, the deck is stacked against you. Most businesses fail after the first five years, and even if you do hang in there, the chances of you becoming the next Facebook are really not very likely. 95 percent of all small businesses in the world never gross over 1 million in revenue, nor do many of them revolutionize their industry, net a profit, or change the way people do something. But even in the face of all of that, now is still a great time to start a business. The world is still waiting on a better mousetrap. Technology has made it so much easier to do business and run your company from anywhere. The challenge is that your competition can do it too, and the competition, in many cases, is global and not local. Getting your new start-up off to a great start is essential to building a profitable and sustainable small business.

There are lots of places to get good information on running a successful business. Many entrepreneurs have come through the struggle of building their businesses, and many are happy to prepare you for your entrepreneurial journey. I have gathered the 8 best start–up resources to help you to launch your small business.

SCORE 300x108 8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small BusinessSCORE is a nonprofit organization that provides expert business counseling to small business owners. SCORE’s Web site provides on-line counseling, and offers great e-mail newsletters. What I like best about their newsletter program is, it allows you to select which level of information that you want. From operations, to financing and expansion plans SCORE has a vast database of experts to assist your small business.
youre the boss 300x83 8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small BusinessYou’re The Boss Blog, New York Times offers an insider’s perspective on small-business ownership. It gives business owners a place where they can compare notes, ask questions, get advice, and learn from one another’s mistakes. By the way, I write for this publication as a regular contributor on social media and small business, but I read this blog long before I started writing for it.
huffington post small business 300x24 8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small BusinessHuffington Post Small Business America includes blogs, news, and community conversations about Small Business in America. A great example of the quality content on this site is the article by Faisal Hoque Growing a Small Business with 5 Essential Principles http://huff.to/17JdrFv
msnbizonmain 300x100 8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small BusinessBusiness on Main is an online destination for small-business leaders and entrepreneurs who are looking for information to take their companies to the next level. I especially like their engaging original videos, featuring business stories that will inform and inspire you on the path to success
Small Business Trends 8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small BusinessFounded in 2003, Small Business Trends is an award-winning online publication for small business owners, entrepreneurs and the people who interact with them. It is one of the most popular independent small business publications on the web.
8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small Business Inc. is a great magazine and an even better website. They say they offer everything you need to start and grow your small business now.
Entrepreneur 8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small BusinessEntrepreneur Magazine provides business ideas and trends on start-up, finance, marketing and franchising tools and tips and they have a great website, too. You can also read about the latest news, expert advice, and growth strategies for small business owners.
theselfemployed 8 Best Resources to Grow Your Small BusinessThe Self Employed is a website created by Steve Strauss, small business columnist for USA Today and bestselling author of the Small Business Bible.  It provides lots of great advice for solopreneurs in particular, on start-up, finding clients, insurance and tax issues.

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