Seriously . . . Another Post About Business Plans?

As I’ve said ad nauseam, before I agree to work with a client on marketing strategies, they need to have a business plan in place. And from my experience, 99% of them currently don’t have their business infrastructure put down on paper or it hadn’t been updated in many years.

If you have been following my blog, you may be wondering when am I going to move on from this topic. Before I do, I wanted to share two different experiences my clients had while writing their business plan.

Let’s start with Client #1: She is a life coach, who stepped away from her business for a couple of years and wanted to jump-start it again. Even though she had the practice for several years before her break, there never was a business plan or marketing strategy in place. Initially, she took on the project with excitement and energy. The first few attempts needed to be fine tuned and I returned each copy back to her with questions that would help make her entries more specific.We hit a rough patch when I encouraged her to find the one key thing about her business that made her different from all the other life coaches. It took her several weeks but she came up with a new area of expertise that was quite impressive and set her apart from all of her competition. I got caught up in her enthusiasm.

Then in a puzzling turn of events, she cancelled our work session and didn’t return my call or email. Not taking it personally, I chalked it up to the festivities of the holidays and knew I’d hear from her sooner or later.

When she did call, she explained that while really examining her business, she discovered that she no longer wanted to pursue being a life coach. She had signed up for some classes in a field that she had always wanted to explore and was going to focus on that. 

So in this case, going through the process of writing the business plan brought on an epiphany for my client and lead her in a totally different direction.

Client #2 is an independent publisher who is restructuring his entire operations. While doing a bit of research of his competitors, I discovered products and services that he wasn’t actively promoting to his clients. Some of the items he was offering in his repertoire, but wasn’t seeing them as services to be offered. In addition, he found some new ideas to introduce to his clients.

This is an example of a company being able to expand their business potential by adding and enhancing their products and services by simply going through the process of developing a business plan.

Marketing Tip #32: New Feature on LinkedIn

Have you been wondering about the new “Endorsement” feature that LinkedIn introduced in early October? To get started, go into your LinkedIn profile section and add your “Skills and Expertise”. Next, similar to a Facebook “Like”, you can easily endorse your connections for a skill listed in their profile.You can do that one of two ways: at the top of your profile page, a “short-cut" graphic will appear showing your connections along with a recommended endorsement. Or, you can also go into their profile page and endorse them from their “Skills and Expertise” section. You may also suggest additional skills that may not be listed. Have questions about this new feature or on updating your profile? Feel free to call me 248-787-6623.

Marketing Tip # 31 - Facebook in Search Engines

If you want your Facebook profile to be more visible on search engines, go into “account settings,” choose the “subscribers” section, and click the box saying “subscriber search.” What this does is allows people to find you more easily on search engines so they can subscribe to your posts. 24 more tips from Quinton O’Reilly at http: /www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13232.aspx

Brand to Expand Your Business

If you have been following my blog, you can see that I'm well into my 90-day Marketing Makeover. I have reworked my marketing plan as well as defined my target market and feel confident to move on in the process to review my company branding.

Again, your niche has to be fine-tuned and well-defined before you can brand your company. Marketing Expert, Beverly Cornell-McGlynn, in our 2010 M3 radio interview, asks the question, "If your business brand was a person, what would he/she look like?" http://bit.ly/UXhDKZ

According to www.entrepreneur.com, the definition of “branding” is “the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products.” Sounds simple enough but what does this mean exactly?

A memorable brand starts with your company logo. Do you have a logo that is old and outdated? Does it convey the proper image you want to present to your target market? One of the best investments you can make in your company is to enlist the help of a professional graphics and design company to create your logo and company image.

In a 2010 M3 interview, Linda Kleist, Marketing Director at Identity Graphic Design, points out that your logo can help or hinder the business, as it is the first impression that you project into the world. It comes from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. It is the "it" factor" that sets you apart from your competition.  http://bit.ly/TpExhX

After you have that symbol that reflects your business, the logo and brand will then carryover into your promotional materials such as business cards, brochures, website, blog, social media pages, etc. In our interview, Diane Krueger, the Brand Identity Artist at Contagious: Cure of the Common, goes into more detail. http://bit.ly/V2xXua

Coca Cola, Nike, McDonald's, Craftsman are just a few of the most famous and easily recognized brands. Because they have built powerful brand recognition, when stacked up against their competition, they can charge more for their products and consumers will happily pay that higher price. When your brand is consistent and strong, it brings added value to your company's products and services that raise you above your competition, especially a company that may not have invested in the strategic branding of their company.

Once we have the logo and brand in place, we can move on to getting the word out about our products and services. 

Have You Found Your Niche?

Last  week during the first week of my 90-day Marketing Makeover journey, the focus was on updating my business plan and marketing strategy.  Did you do that for your business as well? Did you find that you had trouble creating your marketing strategy? Or did you notice that the one you had in place isn’t working for you anymore?

If so, the problem is most likely that your target market isn’t clearly defined or your original niche market has changed.  This is crucial, especially when planning your internet marketing strategy to achieve optimal marketing success online.

Perhaps in the beginning you thought that all you needed to do was to build a website and people would automatically be drawn to the site with credit cards in hand to buy your product or service. The hard truth is that in order to reach some level of financial success on the internet, you have to do all you can to get your message in front of your target market and get them to even notice you in order to buy what you are selling.

By definition, “target marketing”, or “niche marketing” as it is also called, is the strategy of identifying your  potential clients by segments, such as age group, geographic area, business industry, etc., and gearing your marketing efforts to one or more key segment.

To refine your niche market, you need to ask yourself a number of questions including:

·     Who is going to buy my product or service?

·     Are my clients limited to a certain industry or demographic? Or can anyone be a potential customer?

·     Does my business appeal to residential or commercial consumers? Or both?

·     Is my business limited to a local geographic area?

·     What is unique about the services or products my company offers?

·     How is my company set apart from my competition?

Once you have clearly defined your specific target audience, you’ll realize a number of benefits.

·     You’ll be able to maximize your marketing budget. You’ll know where you need to focus your efforts to find your niche customers. 

·     You are able to tailor the content of your website specifically to your target market. Using keywords pertinent to your niche, the content can then be optimized for search engines so that your potential customers can easily locate you online.

·     You’ll also, in turn, be able to search for blogs and related sites that are catering to your market.

·     You are able to develop new products or services that focus more directly on the needs of your refined group.

And now that you know who your marketing efforts are directed toward, you will be able to better develop your company brand.

NEXT BLOG POST: Branding Your Company

Marketing Tip #30 - Spell Check Can Be Your Friend

Proofread. Proofread. And proofread again. Lately, I’ve gotten quite a few email blasts that were riddled with typos and grammatical errors. Hey, I’ve been guilty too. Even though I have five proofreaders look over my e-newsletter before I hit “send”, errors do happen. No time to have someone give your missive a once-over? Remember, Spell Check can be your friend, most of the time.  When there are errors, people view you as unprofessional and don’t take your message seriously. Not to mention all the emails and calls you will get pointing out the mistakes. 

Marketing Tip #29 - Keep Eye Contact

When meeting someone in a networking situation, a simple technique that makes you memorable is to keep eye contact. As the other person talks, give them your full attention and nod your head from time-to-time letting them know that you are sincerely interested in the exchange. Don’t be scanning the room looking for the next conquest. There is nothing worse than spending any amount of time talking with someone who is mentally checked out and already on to the next person.