Tag: book marketing

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What Type of Marketing Fits Your Business?

Guest  Article: In Marketing, One Size Does Not Fit All

by C.J. Hayden, MCC

Online at www.getclientsnow.com/not-one-size.htm

 Imagine that you went shopping for a new shirt, and the salesperson presented you with a garment three sizes too big, saying, “This is one of our most popular colors.” Or showed you a shirt in a child’s size, telling you, “This style is new this season.” You’d probably think the salesperson was crazy, right? And you certainly wouldn’t trust his or her judgment about what shirt might be right for you.                                                           

Imagine that you went shopping for a new shirt, and the salesperson presented you with a garment three sizes too big, saying, “This is one of our most popular colors.” Or showed you a shirt in a child’s size, telling you, “This style is new this season.” You’d probably think the salesperson was crazy, right? And you certainly wouldn’t trust his or her judgment about what shirt might be right for you.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing goes on with marketing all the time. Without asking you a single question about your situation, an acquaintance describes the latest marketing idea they heard about, and urges you to try it. Or a workshop leader who knows nothing about your business explains the best way to market your services and recommends you adopt it. Or a consultant advises you to use a specific marketing approach with almost no understanding of your business.

It can be tempting to follow recommendations like these. After all, these folks sound so sure of themselves, and perhaps you feel on shaky ground where marketing is concerned. Maybe you should just take the advice of people who seem to know more. Or maybe not.

Maybe marketing needs to fit you every bit as much as a shirt does. If it’s too big or too small, casual when you need something businesslike, or designed for a party when you’re planning a workout, it won’t do you any good.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing goes on with marketing all the time. Without asking you a single question about your situation, an acquaintance describes the latest marketing idea they heard about, and urges you to try it. Or a workshop leader who knows nothing about your business explains the best way to market your services and recommends you adopt it. Or a consultant advises you to use a specific marketing approach with almost no understanding of your business.

It can be tempting to follow recommendations like these. After all, these folks sound so sure of themselves, and perhaps you feel on shaky ground where marketing is concerned. Maybe you should just take the advice of people who seem to know more. Or maybe not.

Maybe marketing needs to fit you every bit as much as a shirt does. If it’s too big or too small, casual when you need something businesslike, or designed for a party when you’re planning a workout, it won’t do you any good.

Lets’ Take a Closer Look:

Here are four different types of “size” to help you measure the fit of your marketing.

  1. Marketing a professional service is not the same as marketing a product.Products are tangible; you can see them, touch them, maybe even taste them before you buy. Services are intangible. You can’t experience them until they are demonstrated. Because a service is intangible, until it is performed for you, you have no idea how it will turn out, whether you will like it, or whether it will work for your problem, situation, or opportunity.Therefore, when clients purchase a service for the first time, they must rely on their judgment about the person delivering it. They must trust you. Trust is built through positive experiences over time, by referrals and recommendations from reliable sources, and credibility-boosters like speaking, writing, or media stories.Marketing your services with any approach that doesn’t build trust (or may even harm it), is a bad fit. Examples are mile-long sales pages that offer multiple bonuses if you buy today, subscribing prospects to an email list without explicit permission, or ads offering low prices, deep discounts, or coupons. These are tactics that sell products; that’s why you see them so often. But that doesn’t mean you should copy them.
  2. Small business marketing is different than big business marketing.Big businesses have marketing departments and sales departments with different functions. They have full-time staff dedicated to marketing and sales. They have substantial marketing budgets, and they can afford to invest in name recognition.You, however, as a small business owner, must manage both marketing and sales, and that’s only part of your job. If you’re a solo business, you have to actually perform all the work of sales and marketing, too, except for those portions you might be able to contract out. Your budget doesn’t allow for marketing approaches that only result in name recognition; you need your marketing to turn into closed sales.Bad fits for a small business include promotion and advertising just to “get your name out there,” selling strategies that require making dozens of phone calls per day to pay off, and maintaining multiple websites and social networking profiles to increase your online visibility.

    To find approaches with a better fit, the key is to be realistic. What can you actually execute well with the time and money you have available? Successful small business owners often rely on low-cost, low-tech strategies like personal networking to build their contacts and referrals, public speaking, or pursuing high-value clients by researching contacts or leads and contacting them directly.

  3. One-to-one marketing doesn’t use the same tactics as one-to-many marketing.How many clients do you need to have a successful year? Three, or three hundred? The answer makes a world of difference to the sort of marketing that fits your business best.When your business consists of a handful of large, ongoing contracts, one-to-one marketing is a perfect fit. Your marketing plan might include no more than attending or presenting at professional meetings, following up consistently with a small group of prospects, and lunch with colleagues.But if your business is made up of many small sales to a large number of people, one-to-many marketing is called for. You’ll need approaches that allow you to become known to a substantial audience, such as authoring an ezine or blog, public speaking, or active social networking.
  4. B2B marketing isn’t the same as B2C marketing, and SB2SB marketing is its own category.B2B stands for business to business, B2C means business to consumer, and SB2SB is small business to small business, a lesser known classification, but a rapidly growing group.Depending on which of these three labels fits your target market best, you might focus your social media marketing efforts on LinkedIn (best for B2B) or Facebook (best for B2C or SB2SB). You might include cold calling in your marketing plan (B2B or SB2SB) or leave it alone (B2C). You might do best by giving presentations to corporate audiences (B2B or B2C), or to small business networks (SB2SB).

Clearly, knowing where you fit among these different marketing “sizes” is essential to choosing the right marketing approaches. Are you a small business marketing B2B services one-to-one? A small business marketing B2C services one-to-many? Or perhaps you need a custom size.

If you truly want your marketing to fit your business, you’d better know your measurements. And, when someone tries to tell you how to market, they’d better know your measurements, too.

 

Copyright © 2011, C.J. Hayden

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients Now!™ Thousands of business owners and independent professionals have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of “Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You’ll Ever Need” at www.getclientsnow.com.

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Bloggers Devote Time to Market, too

I ran into another person interested in blogging who also writes and wants to get more exposure. His name is Ron Lazenby and he creates Western short stories. He has two titles out now. Our families have lived in Lucerne Valley for over 30 years. We know a lot of people but not enough for his book to make great sales. We talked about the value of connecting to others on the Internet but beyond that he was a bit confused.

You see he wants more sales and to share his love of writing Westerns like me but he’s not sure how it all works. We talked about the growing trend in blogging. Sure, he can go to book fairs and events where he’ll get some exposure. It’s what many authors do. After I explained what blogging was, his eyes lit up. I think I have a new convert!

Here’s how it can work for you.

You have a product… let’s say a book… that you hope will sell. No one has heard of your book so it sits in a box. Printing houses, who help self-publishing authors like Ron, don’t really get excited about his book title. He’ll have to do some marketing. Marketing?  That’s all of the steps it takes before you make a sale.

Ron can pay for someone to sell his books or he can promote them on his web site. Once on his web site, he can create a blog to talk about his love of Western subjects, how he created his book, the processes of having it printed, and places he’s planning to be … more events. He loves that part, he says. He can blog anytime, anywhere, and not worry about traveling to his next book fair. Of course, book fairs and book signings are the best way to meet face-to-face buyers. Ron knows that. But they don’t happen every day.

Now he’s learning that blogging is not just writing a quick post. He’s learning that to generate more interest and exposure he needs a broader network of other bloggers who will help him get the word out. His comments and posts go out in an ever-widening circle, and those who contact him through comments and links back to his web site, help strengthen the network.

I bet Ron’s blogging on the network right now. Or, maybe, balancing a bunch of books on the way to a fair.

If you would like to learn more about designing a blog page, using blogging to generate more sale, or the best practices to keep the network growing go to www.HighDesertBlogging.com then go to the top of the page and click on “High Desert Blogging Network.”

Rusty LaGrange