White Papers for Small Business
Posted by Patrick Woods in General Marketing on
White papers and reports are central to many B2B marketing funnels. Many times, however, small business owners don’t have the expertise or resources for executing a content marketing strategy. This situation is unfortunate as the establishment of oneself as a thought leader is increasingly important for B2B marketers.
A good place to start thinking about using white papers is another one of my blogs, The White Paper Designer, where I offer reflections and tips on designing effective white papers for your B2B marketing processs.
Improve Your Small Business’ Online Advertising
Posted by Patrick Woods in Interactive on
According to this article about online advertising, American consumers spend almost 4 hours a day using online media, accounting for about a third of a typical American’s media usage each day.
In light of this behavior, does your small business marketing plan account for this behavior? Does your small business take advantage of the opportunities the online media provide for connecting with your target audience?
Take a few minutes to read these tips for online advertising and how you make it work for your small business.
Is Your Small Business Using Twitter for Customer Service?
Posted by Patrick Woods in Social Media Marketing on
A solid customer service program may be one of the best marketing investments you can make as a small business owner. Your receptionist is often the first human contact a potential customer has with your company, and you client services team maintains regular contact with your key accounts. These people can make or break major deals for your company, so are you leveraging all the tools available for managing client relationships?
Major companies, including Best Buy, Comcast, and Wells Fargo are using Twitter to address client concerns and rectify customer service issues. For a first-hand account of how this works, check out this article on ATT&T’s use of Twitter for customer service.
While your small business may not have the millions of users these global corporations have, you can still use Twitter to maintain contact with your customers in real time. Twitter is totally scalable, so if only a few hundred of your customers use Twitter, you and your staff can focus on these users. Follow your users; watch their tweets; discover what they’re saying about your brand.
Small Business Pricing Strategy: Adjusting Your Price Points
Posted by Patrick Woods in General Marketing on
photo by D3 San Francisco
As a small business owner, how often do you assess and adjust the price points of your product or service? Do you wait until someone complains about the competition’s lower prices? Or have you just maintained the same prices you set when you first started your small business?
If you’re a Starbuck’s drinker, you may have noticed a recent change in price of most of their menu items. Jay H. Heyman provides some interesting analysis of the adjustment, pointing out that basic coffee shop offerings, like a cup of drip coffee, will likely drop in price (and it has at my local shop), while premium items, like the various versions of the Frappuccino, will see a price increase.
Why? Because consumers expect premium products from Starbuck’s and will (hopefully) be willing to pay the extra few cents. Instant growth of profit margin.
So in light of your small business’ product and service offering, does your pricing strategy fit your customers’ holistic perception of your brand? Are you undercharging because you’re afraid of alienating your customers or clients? Are there other strategic adjustments you can make to increase your profit margin without alienating customers?
Take some time to think strategically about your pricing strategy and your efforts will literally pay off.
The Power of B2B Social Media
Posted by Patrick Woods in Social Media Marketing on
So maybe you’ve heard your niece talking about Facebook or your son watching some horrible video on YouTube, but using these tools to grow your small business? Unheard of, right?
The fact is that businesses who market to other businesses are increasingly using social media as part of their overall marketing strategy. Social media is here to stay, and small business owners who market and sell to other businesses must learn how to integrate social into their business-to-business marketing plans.
This post offers 10 reason B2B companies should engage their target audience using social media.
Intentional Online Advertising
Posted by Patrick Woods in Interactive on
A fatal mistake many small business owners make when trying their hand at online advertising is that they don’t invest in creative designed specifically for that medium. Banner ads are often smaller versions of a print campaign without any regard to the behavior of online audiences.
But would you use a newspaper ad for your outdoor display? Would you air your radio spot as a TV commercial?
Interactive advertising provides a near limitless set of choices for a small business that’s advertising online. This article offers a few examples of how companies are already thinking intentionally about their online advertising campaigns. Small businesses owners would benefit from this kind of approach.
10 Behaviors to Avoid at Networking Events
Posted by Patrick Woods in General Marketing on
Networking events are fertile ground for referrals for your small business, but are you capitalizing on every opportunity? Are you familiar with networking bad behavior that can tarnish your small business’ image and harm your bottom line?
Ivan Misner, one of the nation’s leading authorities on networking, offers 10 Ways to Waste Your Time in a Networking Group on Entrepreneur.com.
4 Free Sources for Researching Potential Clients
Posted by Patrick Woods in Market Research on
One of the biggest challenges for B2b sales and marketing professionals is finding qualified buyers for their products and services. Small businesses don’t often have the resources of larger corporations that have entire departments and software systems dedicated to lead generation and market research.
The good news is that as companies place increasing emphasis on their online presence, small business owners can take advantage of this wealth of information.
Here are 4 places for finding insight into that company you know can use your product or service.
Target company’s website – the company website will give you an idea of the tone of the company. It is young and hip or classic and reserved? Find the bio pages of executives and board members. Which ones are decision makers and influencers you’ll need to target? Where are they from? What’s their background?
LinkedIn – once you get a feel for the key players in the target organization, continue your market research on LinkedIn. Search by person and by company name. Are any of your connections connected to key people at the company? Also, research each individual and gather more information on their previous work experience. They may even list a personal website or blog, giving you more insight into what makes them tick.
White papers, reports, and presentation- many companies will develop original research and reports about their products and their industry. Search their website and on SlideShare to find out what their offering and how they’re doing it.
Annual reports – if your target company is public, have a look at their financial situation to understand how the budget. This will provide you with insight into broad spending and budgeting strategy that will reveal what the company thinks is strategically important.
Measuring Social Media ROI: Two Examples
Posted by Patrick Woods in Social Media Marketing on
A common question I get from small business owners is “How do I know my social media marketing is helping grow my small business?” What they’re really asking is what’s the ROI for this social media thing?
While ROI is the standard for measuring most marketing efforts, pinning down hard numbers can be difficult when dealing with social media marketing.
But don’t loose heart. There is hope! Read more about companies successfully tracking their social media ROI.
Content Marketing Research for Your Small Business
Posted by Patrick Woods in General Marketing on
I’ve written before about the power of content marketing for your small business, but recent research has confirmed that marketers around the country have also witnessed the power of developing original content for marketing purposes.
A central issue is a dwindling trust and reliance on traditional advertising media. Expensive display ads don’t influence the target audience like the used to, so new approaches are necessary.
The great thing about content marketing is that anyone can develop content. The quality of the content is a separate issue, but if you own your own business, you’re probably already an expert in your field.
To get the big-picture of content marketing, read this marketing research.
