WDTalk

Marketing is critically important - to jump-start any new business. Broad access to cutting edge technology has made it increasingly possible for start-ups to compete with established brick and mortar establishments.

Understanding your market - What niche do your competitors own? Would you fare better competing for that niche or creating your own? What will make you remember-able in your prospects eyes? What value could you add to entice them to go with your firm or organization?

Constantly refine your strategy - Once you’ve settled on your initial marketing strategy, tracking and measuring its success is essential. You can’t grow your business on a marginally successful strategy. Marketing strategies need to be refined, to eliminate what doesn’t work from what shows promise.

New businesses are created every day – that could use your products or service - Every new business has to procure products and services somewhere, and if not from you, certainly from your competitor. If you’re not reaching out to every newly registered business in your local community, you’re missing out on a huge sector of the market. And it’s so easy to find them. Every new business in the U.S. has to register with their respective Secretary of State. These registrations are farmed by local chambers of commerce and directory services. I’ve seen lists that sell for as low as fourteen cents per contact. In many cases, one new client from that list could pay for an entire campaign.

Once you’ve established your niche - tweak your approach and close techniques, identify what works and repeat that over and over and over and over. Persistence is key.

Is your in-house IT department prepared – for brown outs, black outs, personnel shortages, ISP issues, internal and external sabotage, equipment failures, new regulations (email retention) and a whole host of other issues?

Recently, an Internet forum with – thousands of members was hacked, and in the process the criminals deleted their backups, stole email and credit card information, then disseminated it across the Internet. Could this happen to your in-house network? Hackers are constantly on the prowl looking for openings to exploit internal networks as well. Is yours protected?

How would you as an owner know if your IT department was prepared? Do you have disaster recovery and business continuity plans in place? Are they routinely reviewed and updated? Do you strategize with your IT personnel, or do they basically run the show? If they said you needed to be PCI DSS compliant, would you know what they were talking about?

Managing IT for multiple departments requires some give and take - Is your IT department empowered to make smart decisions? Not all IT geeks are business savvy, so my question to you would be, “Do your departments talk to each other?” HR certainly has unique requirements, as do Sales, Customer Support and Admin. Do they operate in a vacuum or together as a cohesive unit? An appropriate amount of give and take between departments increases awareness of your business’s core focus and mission.

I read a lot – of articles everyday. Some strike home harder than others. I read something this afternoon that took me back to the ’80′s and my fist formal sales training in Chicago. It reminded me that you can’t be everywhere at the same time, but you do have to be on your prospects mind, in some manner, when they’re ready to buy. How that happens is what separates average sales reps from sales champions.

Prospects more often buy – from a sales rep or company they know, like and trust. Even though it seems that everyone buys on price alone, many successful reps and businesses sell on value, offering business class solutions that fill a void, resolve issues or provide a growth opportunity.

I’ve heard that sales is simply a numbers game – spread the word, maximize appointments, make the appropriate number of proposals, then statistically expect a resulting number of closed deals. If only it were that easy. There is a psychology to sales. Certainly, getting yourself out there is important. Keeping yourself out there is so much more important. By that, I mean when the time comes for that prospect to pull the trigger, will you be in their sights? If they’ve opt’d in to your monthly email broadcast or have a scratch pad with your picture and contact info on it sitting on their desk, would that help put you on their short list? Being in the right place at the right time should not be an accident. It should be a strategic component in your overall plan to augment your sales efforts.

Drive business with social networking

Social networks are essentially online communities. Their success has translated into business opportunites, and have rapidly become a vital ingredient in diverse marketing strategies. So what are some of the reasons businesses have taken this plunge?

Increased Customer Loyalty: Loyalty and sales increase tenfold (as churn nose dives) if you consistently share quality knowledge base information in a format your clients can relate to. It allows for dynamic colaboration with prospects and clients beyond the scope of your corporate website.

Additional Revenue Streams: Social networking sites can be monetized in a variety of fashions, e.g., micropayments or partnerships, but social networks tend to be more content focused, diverting drift from the distraction of ads.

Branding Opportunities: Design your network to be customer-facing and customer-centric, thus expanding opportunities to promote your goods and services.

Enhance Customer Support: Are you looking to raise the bar from satisfied customers to ‘Raving Fans’ – clients who will advocate your products and services in the industry? Social networks are a great support resource. Raving fans invite their friends, share their stories and promote your business for you. Peer-to-peer recommendations on social media platforms are worth their weight in gold.

Certainly it’s the long term goal of every business to - minimize customer churn. The expense to sign on new clients way exceeds the cost to retain and resell existing clients. Every interaction with your clients, from warehouse, sales and service, to the accounting department shares a responsibility to exceed your clients expectations, by going that extra one percent – everytime.

Fix the Client and Not Your Product or Service. When I was employed as a technician by Varityper, our titles were tech rep 1, tech rep 2 and so on. That was changed to Customer Engineer. When you troubleshoot a client’s problem, you’re not fixing their typesetter, printer, broadband connection, website or whatever your business provides – you’re fixing the client. And in doing so – you need to give at least the perception of value.

Providing Value - Can this be done on the fly? Sure, but not with great results. Good customer support reps go through extensive training for the sole purpose of maximizing the client’s perception of their business. They offer benefits and solutions. This pays off in reduced advertising cost, minimized churn, customer loyalty and “branding.”

Are you rememberable? Are you rememberable in your clients eyes? Do you ‘own’ your business niche? Or are your customers simply satisfied clients? A certain level of support is expected from every vendor. On your customer surveys, do you ask the question, “Have we exceeded your expectations?”

Set yourself apart from the masses - Customer support encompasses so much more than simply responding to a service ticket, fixing the issue and closing it out without explanation. I see so many entrepreneurs asking how to develop a niche that sets them apart from the masses. Of course, the offer is KING, but great customer support keeps you on your throne.

Optimizing your firm or organization’s social media strategies - ties directly in to your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy. I think most entrepreneurs recognize the acronym SEO, but few have ever seen or heard the term SMO (Social Media Optimization). Earlier today, I stumbled across an article written by Angie Schottmuller, entitled “How to Apply Social Media Optimization to Your Blog in 33 Steps.”

Social media and peer-to-peer recommendations - are HUGE, which makes Angie’s guide a MUST read.

Angie is an interactive Jedi who specializes in - defining digital media road maps for multi-channel strategy. She’s been running successful online marketing campaigns since 1998 for small and large B2B and B2C companies including Johnson Controls, Imation, and Taylor Corporation. In 2001 she founded Interactive Artisan, a strategic consultancy that specializes in leveraging emerging technologies to improve user engagement, optimize conversion, and continually enhance the customer experience. Her projects range from global intranets and e-commerce sites to social media integration and mobile marketing with QR codes. She recently defined the new online marketing university curriculum for The Art Institutes and often speaks at schools and conferences about cutting edge new media principles. She has a BBA in management information systems from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and currently resides in the Twin Cities, MN.

Lots of affiliate marketing offers can appear tempting - but beware, while sounding like incredible offers, many are simply very slick marketing pieces with ZERO substance.

First up, offers that promise $$$$$ of dollars in return for very little work – well, good luck with them. If you work hard for your money, recognize these offers for what they are, and that’s pie in the sky. Don’t go there without a parachute.

Next, many of these offers serve up validation - in the form of earnings statements. I recall one such video where the presenter went on and on how he was broke and had to move in with his parents, then was miraculously introduced to some secret society guy at a poker game who turned his world upside down. Seems this (insider) took him under his wings and shared with him how to make boat loads of money online. He even offered earnings statements to validate the entire scenario – BUT smart prospects noticed the timeline on the statements didn’t match when he said he moved in with his parents, negating everything he said.

Just last week, a member on a popular web hosting forum recommended a video - from an affiliate marketer selling bongs. He had reportedly made over $250,000 selling these things – even offering an earnings statement as proof. But wait, seems the site he referenced had only been online for nine days!

If you want straight scoop on affiliate marketing - I recommend frequenting ABestWeb, Affiliates4U or AssociatePrograms. Do your homework before impulsively buying into what could be a money pit. A simple Google search works wonders.