“I’m out on Facebook and Twitter, but it seems like a waste of time.  I don’t get any business from it.”  “I attend networking events, get business cards, but it never leads to any business.  Networking doesn’t seem to really work.”

The above statements are examples of common responses I get from small business owners when I ask about their current marketing plan.  I’ve learned to read between the lines and simply ask better questions.  When I do, I find out the real reason most marketing strategies are not working:  No solid benchmarks and no tracking of results. (Defining Target Marketing also plays a key role, but I will save that for another time.)

How do you know if you are achieving success if you have not actually defined what success looks like?  First question I require all of my clients to ask for every marketing strategy they implement is “What is the end result I want to achieve with this strategy?”  By working with the end in mind (Thank you, Stephen Covey!), you can now move backwards to develop the strategy to reach that goal.  You also have now set yourself up with something to achieve that can be tracked so when you reach the end, the data will drive whether the strategy was a success or did not live up to the expectations.

Let’s walk through a strategy scenario:  You join a local chamber.  You want to get clients within this chamber as part of the Return On Investment (ROI) for your membership.  Your membership is annual, so you will set your benchmarks monthly for a 12-month timeframe.

Step 1:  What is your main menu item and what do you charge?  This is important to understand the basic ROI of your membership.  Let’s say the main item on your menu of products/services is priced at $300.  Your annual chamber membership is $400.  To get the basic ROI from your membership, you will need to sell only two of these to not only break even, but also move into a profit based on your membership cost.

Step 2: Determine how you will engage on a monthly basis using networking as a marketing strategy within the chamber.  Most chambers have an event calendar on their website, so simply go to this calendar to find how often the organization has events for networking.  Set your networking benchmark!  Let’s say you want to attend one event per week.  Then your monthly networking benchmark for the chamber is 4 events.  At the beginning of every month, put the events on your calendar so they are set.  If you want to take your benchmarking one step further, you can also determine how many qualified individuals you want to meet at each event that will turn into a meaningful conversation.  So if you want to meet a minimum of 2 qualified people per event, you can set the benchmark for 8 new contacts per month = 8 meaningful conversations.  A meaningful conversation is one where you are sharing your value for possible sale.  This could be an end user client or a strategic partner.

Step 3:  Track your progress throughout the 12 months of this strategy.  You can use something as basic as an Excel spreadsheet.  Did you hit your 4 events per month?  Did you connect with 8 qualified individuals to set up 8 meaningful conversations per month?  Now track your conversions to sale from these 8 meaningful conversations.  Remember, based on our example you need a minimum of two sales within the chamber over the 12 months to make a profit.  If you are attending 4 events and having 8 meaningful conversations per month, you will have a total of 48 events and 96 conversations just from the chamber.  Can you convert two sales from 96?  By tracking your progress on a consistent basis you will also determine your conversion rate.  Are you getting one sale for every 5 meetings on average?  If so, than you will well exceed your two sale minimum quickly!  Then perhaps it’s time to set a new benchmark.

You can do this.  Stop over analyzing the benchmarking and data tracking process when it comes to your marketing.  Set easy numbers, do the work, and track the results.  Data needs to drive more decisions in your marketing planning so you can determine success based on your activities.  It’s that simple.  Still need some help with this?  I would love to help you.  I live for this stuff.

Welcome to Guest Blogger, Pam Ricker, Ricker & Associates!

What do most business owners anticipate when they start a marketing campaign?  Increased sales, brand recognition, customer exposure to new products or services?  Most owners aren’t thinking about their business financial statements when they create the campaign.  But, they should be!  Why?  What can financial statements tell you about marketing?  The answer is easy – everything.

First off they will tell you how much money you have in your marketing budget – where are your business expenses – what can be adjusted if you want an increased amount to use in marketing.   Stretching too far to market and having the results less than expected could put you into a financially stressful situation.

Then if you want to do a campaign for a sale but don’t know how much you will net on each product sold you may be hurting not helping yourself by increasing your sales.  If you don’t know how much you need to make on each sale to cover costs and you set your prices too low – doing a sales campaign could increase your revenue but decrease your profits.

You also should be aware of what your return on investment (ROI) is for all your overall marketing and by each individual campaign so that you can repeat what works and either change or drop the ones that don’t.  You can measure by specific campaign or by product if you keep accurate data.   So how do you measure?  Your return on investment percentage = Profit –Investment / Investment (result is a percentage).  A common misconception in this formula is to use increased revenues and not increased profits.  As I mentioned earlier you could be increasing your sales but decreasing your profits.

There are a few other numbers to look at in your financials that will tell you if your marketing is effective.  For example, if you are doing a coupon advertisement – track how many people use the coupon.    The number of coupons redeemed over the number distributed would give you your conversion rate for that coupon.   Knowing the total sales that these customers made divided by the number of coupons redeemed will calculate your average sale made.  Since you already have tracked your profit to calculate your Return On Investment (ROI) you now have a very good picture of how effective the coupon advertisement was.

This data is very powerful when it comes to planning the next coupon advertisement – If you increased each area- coupons, conversions and sales by 1% your profits would see a growth of 4%.   But none of this can happen without tracking your numbers and knowing your profits.  Keeping your financials up to date is vital to every area of your business including your marketing campaigns.

Welcome to Guest Blogger, Joe Byrd, Byrd Wellness Concepts and the Business Health & Wellness Advisor on “The Advisors”, a radio program on the Next Stage Business Radio Network!

With healthcare costs on the rise, many businesses are trying to improve employee health through wellness programs.  Employee engagement is the biggest factor in the success or failure of a wellness program, but it is often difficult to get employees engaged.

The fact is your employees want to be healthy.  They want to change and they will change if structure is there to support their health.  How do you engage your employees?  It’s the same concept that your business uses to get customers engaged.  It’s all about marketing.

You have to help your customers understand why they need your product or service.  You have to make sure that your customers are aware of your product or service.  You have to help them understand the value.  You even have to support them to make sure that they are educated on your product or service so they know how to purchase and how to use it properly.

The same principles apply to wellness.  You have to help your employees understand the need for changes in health in order to improve your company’s healthcare costs.  You have to make sure that they are aware of the control they have over their health and the effects on their costs.  You have to support them to make sure that they are educated on health so that they can participate and be successful.

Just like your customers want to use your product or service, your employees want to participate in wellness programs.  Your business is successful because you are filling an important need for your customers.  Your employees have an important need too.  They have a need to be healthy.  By applying the same tactics, you can successfully market your wellness program to your employees and they will buy in.

When employee needs are in line with company needs, it makes sense to make the investment.  Just as you make an investment to keep your clients happy, investing in your employees is a good idea.  Clients continue to be paying customers because they are happy.  Employees continue to be good workers when they are happy and healthy, which also keeps your company moving in the right direction.  In fact, with more energy employees can be more productive.  With better health, they cost your company less while providing even better results.

Marketing to your customers is all about communication and understanding their needs.  As you listen and provide quality, they buy in and everyone is happy.  Marketing wellness to your employees has the same affect.  Wellness is going to keep your good people doing good work and save your company money, which will keep your company on the path to success.

The key is to communicate the message to your employees in order to get them engaged.  When customers are engaged, your business will be successful.  Marketing helps you achieve that success.    You also need employees to be engaged for your business to be successful and internal marketing is the key.

Staying on top of marketing for your business can be a big task.  The process of choosing the right strategies, staying within your marketing budget, implementing each strategy and tracking for return takes you’re time and resources.  Often we get so caught up in the process of the necessary marketing to bring in new customers or clients that we fail to realize the marketing goldmine sitting right in front of us: our employees.

Your employees are your brand ambassadors, even if you haven’t consciously trained them to take on this role.  They are a part of your business and an extension of your day-to-day operations.  So when was the last time you included them in brand and marketing discussions?  Think about it.

Leverage:  One of my favorite words in business is leverage, the ability to do more with less effort.  What would it mean to your business to have all of your employees on the same page in terms of branding and other marketing initiatives?  Now the voice of your business multiplies by the number of employees involved.  This is especially important in today’s environment of sharing and communicating via social channels.  Your employees are going to talk about their work; your business. Engage them by sharing you’re brand message and providing them the opportunity to be your positive voice in business.

Create Buy-In:  The power of creative conversations is when multiple ideas get the chance to rise to the surface.  As a small business, have you ever had a marketing brain storming meeting with your employees?  Allowing all areas of your business to engage in the creative process builds camaraderie, a new list of ideas for implementation and best of all, buy-in.  People are much more apt to engage when they feel they have buy-in.  You have all sorts of creative energy in your business within the staff you employ. Find it, use it and watch some exciting things happen.

Customers Buy Culture:  Whether you realize it or not, your customers are buying not only the products or services you provide, they are also buying your company culture.  In a consumer driven world where customers have become more cautious and hesitant to spend their dollars with companies they no longer trust, creating and implementing a sharing a culture of 360 degree engagement does hit your bottom line.  It’s important for your consumers to know you and your employees promote ethical practices and treat them right.  How your treat and engage your employees is often reflective of how you treat and engage your customers.

Your employees are a creative opportunity that is a cost effective means to often providing better solutions.   Including all areas of your staff in your marketing process can provide rewards internally and externally beyond what you may expect.  As the economic paradigm shifts to a more social and connected world, your employees are your brand ambassadors, whether you consciously realize it or not.  Engage them and bring them into your marketing efforts.  That next big idea that explodes your business may be sitting right in front of you.

Ann Sangpan, Co-Founder & CFO, Check Engine Express recently shared her small business story on the Next Stage Business Radio show “Your Business, Your Story”.  As part of our focus on the power of storytelling in business, here is a written version of Ann’s story.  Enjoy!

When and why did you start your business?  ?  Why did you choose this industry?

Check Engine Express is a full-service auto repair shop. We work on all makes and models, both foreign and domestic (except for Ferrari’s or Lamborghinis).  We do everything from oil changes and brakes to rebuilding an entire engine.

My partner and I started the company in May of 2008 believing that we can change the customer experience when it comes to automotive repair.  Everyone has a horror story about a repair gone wrong.  In most cases, it’s due to unethical practices, or lack of expertise by the shop.  We set out to build an ethical practice with fair prices for the services we deliver, and a model of convenience so the hassle component goes away.  Customer service is our number one concern.

There are several aspects of our business model that make us unique:

• We offer a free pick-up and delivery service to our customers so they don’t need to interrupt their day to bring their car into the shop for repairs or maintenance.  If you live within a 10 mile radius of our shop in Minnetonka (494 & Minnetonka Blvd), we’ll pick up your vehicle from work or home and bring it into our shop, do the necessary work on it, and bring the vehicle back to you.  We don’t charge for the pick-up and delivery, and our prices are VERY competitive.  We have a minimum $150 of service for the pick-up and delivery, and vehicles must be in drivable condition or towing charges may apply.

• We are a non-retail shop.  This is key to our ability to compete.  Our shop is in an industrial space rather than a retail one.  As a result, our rent is a fraction of what our competitors are paying for space.  The savings allows us to provide the pick-up and delivery without charging the customer for that added service.  Customers are always surprised that our prices are so competitive when they are used to paying more for premium service.

Who are your clients?  Who is best served by the product/service you provide?

Busy professionals love our service.  Because we make it so convenient and hassle-free, customers don’t put off needed work on their vehicle because they are too busy.  When a mechanical problem is addresses in a timely manner, customers will often avoid more costly repairs later.

What drives your passion to serve these clients and to the good work you day every day?

We take a consultative approach to help our customers make the best decisions in keeping their vehicle in good working condition.  When we get a vehicle that has several (or many) issues with it, we put together a list of what needs to be repaired along with quotes.  We advise the customer of any issues that impact safety, and will advise the customer to address those issues first.  Then together with the customer, we prioritize what should be done next, what to look for as signs of a condition worsening, and so on so that the customer is educated on the condition of their vehicle.  Our philosophy is not to do as much work as we can when we are working on a vehicle.  We want the customer for life, not just that one sale.  With the economy and tight budgets, customers appreciate being told they can wait another 3 or 6 months before they have to address an issue.

What is one major hurdle (personal or professional) you overcame as you have grown your successful business?

Cash (or lack of) has been our biggest issue.  Business loans are not that easy to get, despite what everyone says, and borrowing money when you have a new business is very expensive. Instead of going that route, my partner and I opted to fund the business entirely on our own with the help of a few credit cards and a small line of credit. The best way for us to overcome not having money is to increase sales exponentially.  We are a cash business with no receivables, so more sales instantly means more cash flow.

Who or what has been a major influence on you as a business owner/business professional?

What is the best piece of advice you ever received from a mentor/someone you respect that still helps you in business today?  My 30 years sales experience in the software industry has been the most helpful experience I could have had to become an entrepreneur. Best advice someone ever gave me:  “Never settle for anything less than what you want.”

Along with that piece of advice, what is another suggestion you would give to a new/up and coming business owner?

Know what you are trying to accomplish.  I see new business owners winging it, for the most part.  I am a big believer in setting goals, tracking progress, measuring success.  If you want to accomplish something big or extraordinary, it doesn’t happen overnight.  There are steps to success.  Know what they are and what obstacles stand in your way.

What is the one thing you cannot live without on a daily basis?  (tool, gadget, person, routine, etc..)

The internet.

Who is your support system?  Who or what keeps you grounded during challenging times?

What do you do to balance your work with your life?  I have a great business partner who is also my significant other.  He manages the operations side of our business.  We have very different personalities and approaches to problems, which makes for some heated debates.  But in the end, we both value the same thing and have the same vision for what we want our company to be.  At this stage of our company life, we don’t have any balance.  Check Engine Express is our only focus right now.

Most successful people in business are also continually learning and growing.  What is a recent book you read, audio your listened to, blog you regularly engage with, speaker you experienced that you can share?

I’ve been fortunate to have worked with software start-up companies for almost 30 years.  I’ve learn a lot about how to be resourceful and to think out of the box when it comes to problem-solving in a relatively small and new environment.  I like reading about new businesses and learning about their new approach to an old problem, or inventing a new industry all together.  The internet is great for that type of research.

What’s next for you and your business?

Any new projects/products/ideas/services/collaborations you are launching in the near future?  We will be expanding our shop by the end of the year, then expanding to additional locations (Maple Grove & Bloomington) after that.

To hear the full radio interview of Ann, check out “Your Business, Your Story” on the Next Stage Business Radio Network.

Welcome to guest writer, Pete Machalek, SagePresence!

As a filmmaker who works with business professionals to help them design and deliver compelling messages, I often surprise my clients by telling them not to worry about their story so much.

“Don’t get me wrong,” I tell them. “There’s a time and place for your story. But it isn’t the most important story you need to tell.”

If their own story isn’t the most important one for them to tell, what is?

The story that comes in handy the most isn’t their own story. It isn’t the story of their company, or the story of their product or their service or any aspect of their offering.

The story they should focus on first is the story of their clients.

When business people tell the story that their clients experience, they communicate the significance and the value of what their business delivers.

When they talk about themselves, it usually comes across as a clumsy, self-serving data-dump.

Let me demonstrate.

First, the clumsy attempt at a story about me and my company:

My partner and I formed SagePresence in 2001 after running an acting workshop for two years, because the actors told us they were getting so much out of it that we shouldn’t just be working with actors, we should be working with everybody. So for the last ten years, we’ve been working with business professionals at every level of all kinds of organizations, helping them communicate more effectively and present themselves with more impact, so that they can network, sell, present and lead better.

(This is a reduction of the sort of thing I used to say years ago, before we got our own process figured out and put into practice. The full-fledged version is way too long to print here, sometimes lasting as long as 90 minutes for some poor networkers who had the misfortune of getting trapped in a conversation with me at the time.)

Now, here’s the more compelling story, the one about my clients:

Business professionals come to SagePresence when they’re feeling challenged to face important audiences. As filmmakers, we give them messages that tell the story their audience wants to hear, and the performance skills to tell those stories with dynamism that captures their audience’s attention. So when our clients head out to face their challenging audiences, they feel ready and able to thoroughly win them over.

Can you see how much more compelling this is?

Here’s what you want to do to come up with a story like this:

• Tell us about your ideal clients. Who are they? What situation are they in when they need you the most?
• Tell us what you actually do for them.
• Then tell us what better situation you lead them to.

That’s about it. Let us hear the difference your business makes for the people it helps. We’ll get a clear picture of who you want to help and how you help them, so that we can identify ourselves or someone we know or someone we meet as a potential client for you.

Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes for you!

Pete Machalek

pete@sagepresence.com

Welcome to our guest blogger, Connie Anderson, Words and Deeds, Inc.!  From book editing to business writing, Connie knows her stuff!  We are proud and honored to have her share some of her wisdom with you! Enjoy!

Do you have a strong passion for what you do? When you talk about your business and tell stories or case studies, do people say: “You should write a book?”

The most interesting aspect of writing “a book” is that people perceive you differently. Now you are an author, an expert, albeit self-proclaimed.  Your status has risen as others have a higher perceived competence of anyone who writes a book—especially if it looks and reads great, and has good content.

Books come in all shapes and sizes.  A health coach created a 24-page 5”x7” book with a striking four-color cover, professional editing and layout. This was his new calling card. It was his words, his passion—and his way of standing out in the crowd.  A few weeks after it was printed, he called, “My first contract already paid for the book!”

A very talented man wrote a 164-page book on marketing, with an attention-grabbing cover, and professional editing and formatting.  The square shape set the book apart from others.  His book successfully promoted his expertise to prospective clients.

The book by a large financial services firm provided strong, clear and easy-to-access info their niche markets needs, and shows how well this firm understands their specific needs.

What could you use a book—as a sales tool, a give-away, or for back-of-the-room sales when you speak?  The ideas are endless.

Have I piqued your interest yet?

Once you see the possibilities for you and your company, it’s important to understand book publishing. If your book is going to be a marketing piece, it will be self-published, so let’s start with the different steps.  The total costs will be determined by number of words/pages. This is where the economics of publishing a book is relevant.

Words/Content: You can write the content yourself because no one knows it better—or hire a ghostwriter.  We can work together to determine content: What do you want them to know, and what do they want/need to know?

Editing: Let the good people on your staff give input and review the work, but hire an outside professional editor. Her insights will make the book better, and her knowledge of grammar and punctuation, word usage, etc. will make you look very smart—and trustworthy!

Proofreading: Proofreading should be done by both people in your company who know your business, and a different editor/proofreader.

Cover design: Hire book cover designer, even if you just want words.  He will design the front and back cover as required by a book printer. He knows colors, type styles, etc. Remember, the cover is your first impression.

Inside formatting: Hire a professional book designer to create a topnotch layout.  The best of words can be received negatively if the inside design looks amateurish.  Bad design can also mean it will not be read.

Printing: Use only printers who have printed other books.  In small quantities (under 800 books) digital printing is the answer.  After the initial run, you can order in small quantities (publish/print on demand) as needed.

The only thing that makes a self-published book look self-published IS if it does!

When writing about your business or passion, often the most difficult thing is finding the time and the most efficient way to get your intellectual property (what they know that others don’t) out of your head and onto paper. If you have ever wanted to write a book, and need to know the different steps and costs in the process, I will be happy to answer your questions, and also guide you to the other professionals.

This is an excerpt in a series of blog posts dedicated to the topic of Content Marketing and small business.

Writing, blogging, recording, taping, speaking…there is a lot of noise happening right now for small business owners and marketing their business in this new age of economics and media.  When talking with small business owners on this topic, the word that comes up time and again is overwhelm.  Sometimes too many options bring about a sense of paralysis.

Before I take on anything new for my business I like to better understand why. Why should I do it?  What’s in it for me?  How will it drive more business to the bottom line?  So let’s start there.  Why should you as a small business owner consider content marketing as a part of your marketing plan?  Let’s start by looking at three reasons content marketing is great for small business.

Years of Expertise

Whether you are in the start-up phase or have been in business for a couple of decades, you bring your own years of service, experience, and passion to your industry and business.  You have more content than you can shake a stick at, but you just haven’t taken that step back to realize your vast level of expertise.  Consumers are cynical.  Consumers are in control.  Consumers want their problems solved.  By sharing the expertise only you and your business can provide through content, the consumer seeking this information will find it, consume it and begin to decide if you are a good fit for them.  If the consumer is in charge, then providing them with your information, solutions, tips and resources is vital in today’s search economy.

The Know, Like and Trust Factor

Take it from Bob Burg, author of “The Go-Giver” and “Go-Givers Sell More”, we want to do business with people we know, like and trust.  You already know this.  Providing content, whether written, spoken or on video, is proactive marketing.  It allows you to build a more personal relationship with your community that provides more insight into how you work, what you solve and if you may be a good fit for them when the time is right.  Though the consumer is cynical, the consumer does also want to work with wonderful people who can help them! Content marketing allows your personality, your brand, your brand experience and your company culture to shine through.

Stories Sell

We all love a great story.  As a small business owner, every single one of your clients or customers is a story.  As humans, we connect to other humans when we can step into their shoes, take on their emotions, and oftentimes simply hear our own story inside of theirs.  The movie industry has been doing this for decades.  We laugh, cry, scream while watching a movie because the story has us connected to the characters on the screen.  Content marketing in it’s simplest form is storytelling.  Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, recently released his book “Tell To Win” breaking down the power of story and how business is made every day through this process. Sometimes we are held back from giving something a try because we over analyze it.  Connect your community to the stories already a part of your business.  They could be super satisfied customers, raving fan clients, employees going above and beyond, or even the story of why you do what you do.  We all love a great story.  You may have dozens, even hundreds to share!

Understanding why you may want to dive into content marketing as a small business owner is where it all begins.  Creating the content, choosing the strategies, developing a consistency for implementation, putting in place various points of leverage and working towards conversion also need to be considered. But it all starts with why.  Still struggling with why?  I’d love to talk you through it.

I have two favorite words in my business vocabulary:  consistency and leverage.  Today it’s all about leverage.

To make the most of out of pretty much any area in your business, you must learn how to use leverage immediately.  You are a business owner.  Your days are filled with the constant battle of the three roles described in Michael Gerber’s book “The E-Myth Revisted”.  If you don’t know these three roles, then stop reading this blog post and get this book.  Then read it.  Then read it again.  And again.  ‘Nuff said.

The only way you will truly begin to grow is to find ways every day, in every way, to leverage your time, your tasks, and your money.  My personal definition of leverage is knowing how to do more with less.  Here’s some tips on how to do this today:

Time

Leveraging your time means you must actually be aware of how you use your time. Self-managing your use of time will provide you the intel needed to know how and when you can leverage it.  With the rising cost of gas prices, leveraging my drive time is key to keeping my expenses down.  If I know at the beginning of the month or week that I am driving across town for a business meeting I will do my darndest to set up another meeting in the same area on the same day.  Leverage of time and resources.  To be able to do this means I know what’s going on in my calendar every day, every week, every month.  Review your calendar every Sunday night.  Know what you are doing and treat your use of time with the importance it deserves.

Tasks

If you want somethin’ done right, you gotta do it yourself.  My guess is you’ve said this yourself a few times.  Here’s the deal.  For a business to grow, you need others to take on the tasks no longer best served by your time.  Outsourcing and hiring the right people is key, but prepping for your hire is even more key.  Systems in your business are the ultimate time and task leverage.  You must get in the habit of documenting processes now while you are creating and implementing them.  Two things happen:  You actually know if your system is working and what may be missing or can be deleted from the process and training in your new staff person on the technical skills are all laid out for you.  Now you can hire to the person vs. the skill.  Systems are the ultimate in time leverage!

Marketing

I’m not going to dive into the topic of how to leverage your money.  I will leave that discussion for the financial experts.  However, your marketing is directly linked to your money.  And I can definitely talk about that.  Do something once and find a way to get it out to your audience in multiple ways.  Do you write articles? Great!  Write one for your monthly newsletter.  Find an association/organization that also reaches your Target Market or an industry of strategic partners that also has a newsletter and become a frequent contributor for them.  Set up an account on www.EzineArticles.com and post your article there.  Build a relationship with a business associate targeting the same market in a different industry and guest write for their newsletter.  Write it once, share it multiple ways.  Leverage.  Of course, to successfully implement this strategy, you will need a system.  Go figure.

Take a step back today.  How can you do more with less?  What is one process you can begin to document?  How can you better control how you use your time this week?  What marketing are you already doing that you can broaden without more effort?  Do it.  Then do it again.  Still need help?  Contact me. And read the E-Myth.

I was having a conversation the other day with a business friend on the ABC sales acronym:  Always Be Closing.  I’m not a big fan of the traditional sales training that came from the industrial age, but I get the concept.  As a marketing professional, I tend to come from a slightly different angle.  Since marketing is the kissing cousin to sales and is absolutely necessary before any sale actually happens, it seems that one must also take on the philosophy of Always Be Marketing instead.  The fact of the matter is, every time you walk out the door, open your mouth, walk in room, post a status, reply to a comment, hand out your business card, you are marketing.  The real question is not “Are you always marketing?”  The real question is “Are you aware that you are always marketing and are you doing it with intention?”

The Business Introduction

The most powerful marketing strategy, in my humble opinion, is networking.  Meeting another person in business and learning about what they do, who they best serve and how you can help them is good networking.  You will make wonderful friends in business that can bring a residual effect back to you in so many ways.  But, inevitably, the question is asked of you, “What do you do?”  Are you prepared to answer this in a succinct, not about you at all, but all about your target market and how you solve their problems kind of way?  Working on your business introduction before you leave the house, heck days before the event, will put you leaps and bounds ahead of the other networkers in the room.  Introducing yourself and the value you bring to your clients is not always easy, yet so few of us take the time to get it right and get it down!  Work on this!  Your business introduction is a big marketing moment!  Put your best self forward.

The Business Card

Next to opening your mouth to share your business introduction, handing over your business card is another big marketing moment.  Take the time to create a card that is consistent with your brand and shares the vital information that makes it easy for me to connect back to you.  Too often I see folks taking the cheap route in this area.  Please remember, in marketing, perception is reality.  Handing over a card that is not professional or one that you have to apologize for as you share it, can actually put you’re marketing efforts a step behind instead of moving them forward.  Use quality paper stock for printing, keep one side matte and with open real estate to write notes, add your social media information, and use a font I can read!  Just a few simple modifications can make a big difference making this marketing moment a strong one!

The Logo

Just as in real estate the saying goes, location, location, location; in marketing it’s all about consistency, consistency, consistency!  Designing the perfect logo to build your brand around is a key component to the marketing process.  Again, the DIY philosophy needs to take a back seat here.  Contract a professional graphic designer who understands branding; the look, the emotions, the context in which your logo will be used.  It’s not just a picture.  The branding process is one that, if treated with the respect it deserves, will create a strong marketing message about your company, what you want others to feel when they see your brand, and is all a part of your unique brand experience.  Once you have this amazing graphic ready to go, be sure to brand all of your marketing consistently!  Website, business cards, social media pages, brochures, promotional items should all look, feel and express the same brand for your business.  It will allow you to stand out from others in your industry and share to the world a message, emotions and an experience that is only connected to you and your business.

These are three basic starting points that will improve your marketing message right away.  Each one of these does take some time to develop.  Don’t rush this.  Marketing is simply communicating.  What does your business introduction communicate about you?  What does your business card communicate about you?  What does your logo communicate about your brand and your business?  Take these tips to heart.  No sale happens unless you have done some marketing.  And not just marketing some of the time.  But taking on the philosophy of ABM.  Always Be Marketing!