Marketing for any business must include:

-      Determining your marketing goals

-      Identifying your key demographic

-      Developing a plan to reach this demographic

-      Implementing this plan

When it comes to marketing for small businesses versus large businesses, the principles are the same. The difference lies in selectivity. Large businesses can afford to spread their marketing initiatives over a variety of mediums, small businesses have to choose the avenues that will be the most beneficial.

Dreamscape has a lot of experience improving the marketing efforts of small businesses. Here are some important aspects for you to consider:

Power of the Internet

It’s very important that all businesses have an online presence. This should start with a well written, attractive, and easily navigable website.  But to further your outreach, consider creating a Facebook page and a Twitter account for your business. Both services are free, and if you use them well, you will see a positive return on your time investment.

Some quick rules of thumb: enter at least one Tweet a day, post somewhere between 1-4 items on your Facebook page a week, and always respond to people that reach out to you on both mediums. Your customers want to be valued, starting and continuing a dialogue online is an easy (and, once again, free) way to show them they are appreciated.

Budget Marketing

Beyond free social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, most other marketing initiatives will cost you money. However, there are some actions you can take to reduce marketing expenses.

Budget-Conscious Marketing Ideas:

-      Piggy-Back

• Have a booth set up at an event, such as a charity walk or run, or partner with another business to send out mutual mailings and increase your customer base.

-      Barter

• Offer some of your products or services for advertising space.

-       Always be “On”

• Take every opportunity to promote your business. When you send out mail, toss in a brochure. At the end of your emails, list your web address and a very brief pitch.

It’s important to remember that any marketing effort, no matter how expensive or cheap, will do you no good if you’re reaching out to the wrong demographic. Always take the time to determine your demographic.

If you do this, chances are your “small business” won’t stay small for very long.

Commercial investment in Internet advertising has grown substantially each year for the past ten years.  As of 2008, Internet advertising is estimated to represent a $21 billion market (The Interactive Advertising Bureau).  Internet advertising can appear in different forms such as banner ads, rich media ads, search engine results pages, email marketing, and social network advertising.  You can even search for your favorite commercials in online video directories and have the searcher redirected to the company’s website, and can even chat with past and potential customers.  Smart marketing firms are investing less in traditional media advertising outlets such as television, radio, and newspaper, and putting more resources toward building an online presence.  Why?  Because Internet advertising gets results!

At Dreamscape Marketing, we collaborate with our clients to build custom Internet advertising solutions that strengthen your business and drive sales.  We walk you through the entire process of developing an online marketing strategy, implementing the strategy, and analyzing its effectiveness.  Internet advertising also has the advantage of being able to provide accurate information about the true return on your investment, unlike most other forms of advertising.  With Internet advertising, you know what you are getting for your investment.  By developing dynamic Internet advertisements and using strategic ad placement, we can help your company achieve real growth in today’s competitive marketplace!

“60% of the time it works, every time.”

-Anchorman

For many, statistical justification are just useless quips that one hears almost everyday. 4 out of 5 dentists, 8 out of 10 mothers, 66.7% of voters. A quick statistic gives a little bit of a punch to any point that is being made, but for most it’s just an empty statement. In that sense, many disregard the famous (infamous?) 80/20 rule [Pareto's Principle for those fans of Italian economists] as a coincidence or an old wives tale, but as far as statistics go, the 80/20 is a good way to determine where to focus the majority of a company’s efforts. Take a look at your company, you can see many situations where the 80/20 rule comes into effect. For marketing, the golden rule is that 80% of your money comes from 20% of your clients, so you should be spending 80% of your time with your most profitable 20%. It’s a good way to re-prioritize, and reorganize efforts to make sure you are working effectively to increase the profitability of your company. Remember, in marketing, it’s about who works the smartest and most efficiently, not the hardest. If you’re getting beat in sales and running your resources thin; re-prioritize and focus on what is getting you the results, the 20%.

I have heard this story a thousand times. Heck, I have even been a part of this story.  What story you ask? Let me set the scenario for you:

Two business owners are having coffee. They have successful businesses that they are ready to expand on to the internet.

“Have you chosen a web developer yet?”

“Web developer? Are you serious? I am having my son build the website. He is on the internet all the time and knows everything about websites and stuff like that.”

“Your son, really? Does he build websites for a living?”

“No. He is still in school. He will build it for free though!”

All too often, I come across this scenario. It is one of the obstacles of being in the web development industry. The internet is unlike any other business medium. It is open to all, information is abundant and there is a SIGNIFICANT learning curve between generations. Toss around some terminology like web development, social media, cascading style sheets and search engine optimization and chances are the average web user will think you are working for the NSA. But don’t call Washington just yet. The casual web user may use the same language as a professional web developer. That doesn’t necessarily mean they can speak it.

Whether it is your son, daughter or nephew’s cousins uncle twice removed, you must gaze a skeptical eye on the services they claim to be able to provide. Let me modify the scenario a bit to explain my point:

• Would you let your son fix your company’s toilet because he watches the DIY Network?
• Would you let your daughter operate on an injured employee because she watches “Grey’s Anatomy”?
• Would you let your neighbor replace your company delivery truck’s engine because they have a subscription to “Car and Driver”?

You may think these scenarios are completely different from building a website but when broken down to the most basic form, they are identical. Each scenario above describes using a person with a casual interest in something performing a job that requires a professional. Web development is no different. In fact, using a professional web developer may be even MORE important (except the doctor example…that would be pretty dangerous).

Take the toilet example. Even if you own a storefront, chances are you might get 10-15 customers that need to “evacuate” daily. If your toilet is broken, you most likely will not lose their business. Your website on the other hand may receive 100-50,000+ visitors a day. If it is broken, or not functioning properly, your customer’s have no access to your business. We have all navigated to a website that was down or slow to load. I am sure you, just like me, closed the website in less than 10 seconds.

The fact is, web development may look easy on paper. There are hundreds of programs that claim to make it simple for anyone to use. My hope is that you will be wary when you evaluate this option. If your business is on the internet, it is part of a huge online marketplace that reaches millions of potential customers. Facing those customers with a virtual storefront that is templated, slow and functions poorly is your COMPETITOR’S best sales tool.

Use a professional! There are numerous professional web development agencies. Most focus on specific customer bases (i.e. small businesses, personal websites, e-Commerce websites etc.) so finding one that meets your needs should not be hard. You can even find a web developer near your business, and often meet with them face to face.

It may not be free, but it will be well worth the investment. A professionally developed website should pay for itself before that leaky toilet breaks down again.

Recent research has shown that the first thirty seconds of a meeting with prospective clients is the best chance to sell them on your products and services. This priceless time is commonly known as your “elevator pitch” and can often make or break a business opportunity.

A prospective client has most likely heard many elevator pitches, and will not be receptive to yours unless it breaks the mold of monotony. Danny Wood, a Sales Expert based out of Northern New Jersey, recently discussed some interesting tactics to differentiate your sales approach from your competitors. He  recommends two useful strategies:

-    “Don’t tell prospects about your company and product services. Instead, share the stories of frustration your previous prospects asked you to solve before they became customers.”
-    “Stop telling them what you can do for them. Show them you understand their problems. People what to know how much you care before they care how much you know.”

Another important aspect of your elevator pitch is a hook question. A hook question offers prospects the chance to “bite” on your sales effort. A good example utilizes the strategies above. After discussing past client frustrations, ask “Have you ever had any difficulties similar to these?” A positive response will successfully bridge the customer’s needs to your business’ services and extend the relationship from sales pitch to follow up meeting.

Thirty seconds could mean sale or sorry. A focus on the prospects needs and problems can turn a pitch into a profit.