I just left a meeting with a new client, I’ve got my water, my laptop and I’m… tired! Ha! I’ve got the Twitter hashtags and handles up on the wall. Now I’m ready to go! Week 8, marketing for the solopenuer.
TWEET: It is HOT at @BizWorksCenter tonight!!! Andrea from Minnie Events is serving up some spicy antipasto! #BWStartSmart
Tonight, Tanner Collins began the session reviewing the slides needed for presenting the Pitch Deck in a couple of weeks. I’ve started working on my slides, but I have LOT of work ahead of me. To get the list of suggested slides, CLICK HERE.
First up…
Howard Deskin
The first rule of marketing: “The consumer is in charge!”
When you are marketing your own business, ask yourself these questions:
- What is your product or service?
- Will anyone buy your product or service? (Is there a need or want for it?)
- Always think ahead… what’s your next product?
- Think about where do people shop and market there. i.e. the internet, facebook, malls….
- Once you get customers, learn how to keep them.
TWEET: “Find a niche market and start there!” @hdeskin #BWStartSmart
Once you’ve established a marketing budget, plan, etc: examine it to make sure it is working:
- Measure your results – keep your numbers (not just for P&L, but marketing)
- Look for someone in your industry with more visibility, followers and experience than you and – connect!
- Set yourself up to be found by someone who can help you.
TIP: To more successfully reach customers or clients, use videos in SM! (social media)
You need a budget for marketing!
- It’s an investment
- Make an investment – fixed percent of your revenue
Mark Sheridan (I think THIS is the correct Mark Sharidan) lists these important characteristics to marketing:
- Cost
- Problems/symptoms
- Versus/compare
- Review
- best
TWEET: “Whatever people ask you on the phone, is what they will be searching on Google.” @hdeskin #BWStartSmart
- What are my customer’s questions?
- What are the best answers to your question?
In closing, Mr. Deskin suggested looking into these three aspects of marketing: effectiveness ratings for B2B tactics, best B2B tactics and creating a customer retention plan.
Then, the last slide he shared was his contact info and the LINK to his newsletter. However, he was wanting to not go over time and said, “If you want my newsletter, here is the address” and changed the slide. Someone said, “You took that off fast… do you want us to go there?” HA You probably had to be there, but it was pretty funny.
Needles to say, Mr. Deskin’s presentation of his own business overview, about marketing at Impression Marketing and his other business Fresh Assist was informative and entertaining. Participants were thrown a box of his product if they answered questions and all of us got a fee sample before he left. If you’d like to see more of his videos for Fresh Assist, HERE is the link to his YouTube channel.
BREAK TIME
Tanner challenged us to apply many of the suggestions and advice Mr. Deskin gave to our businesses. And after watching promotion videos of the Fresh Assist product, we talked about what we remembered from the video and way. How you present information, visually and verbally is ESSENTIAL to good marketing!
TIP: Think, “What would I say if I pitched my business to my best client?”
Now, I’ve got pictures. Got food. Got coke. Got more pictures! Time to eat – hot stuff!
SAMUEL LITTLE
TWEET: “With marketing, you don’t know how big it is until you’ve done it.” @slgdwebdev #BWStartSmart @BizWorksCenter
Beginning his career in design, Mr. Little gravitated toward web design. He said, “The internet used to change every six months, every three months, every month… now it is changing every minute. Despite that, anything you want to do on the internet, you can do. You just need to do and figure it out.”
GOOGLE RANKING
- Google analytics (from the company Erchant)
- Be specific
- Length of time – domain name
BUSINESS WEBSITE
- Have a website – you don’t own Facebook
- Domain/hosting/content – ranking
- Marketing hub
TIP: Don’t use a free Facebook page instead of a website.
- If FB goes away and you don’t have it…
- You own your website.
DOMAIN NAMES
- Key words
- Forwarding domain names don’t help analytics
- GoDaddy
- HostGater
HOSTING A WEBSITE
- GoDaddy
- BlueHost
- Go with a major – not a reseller, you don’t know who it actually belongs to originally
- Through Sam – crashed website, emails, renewals (prevent cancelations)
- Shouldn’t cost a lot (maybe for server fee)
BUILDING A WEBSITE
- WordPress* (customizable, but more advanced)
- Build your own: Wix, GoDaddy, SquareSpace, Web.com, Weebly (can be upgraded to WordPress)
- WP is like a PC, it can get hacked or plugins can cause problems – protect your site
- GoDaddy – web developer
- Start with marketing
- Plan what you need: features/function of each page, (wire frame – new website) page sketch (or proof from InDesign), number of pages, brand developed, calendar, PayPal, Facebook, blogging, Google map (if a store you want people to visit)
MOBILE WEBSITE
- Make sure (especially if you are just building a website) that it is mobile.
- Makes the website responding to the size of the device it’s being used on.
TWEET: #BWStartSmart Great session about marketing with @hdeskin and @slgdwebdev @slgd! @BizWorksCenter @ChesterfieldBiz
Personally, tonight was more difficult to take notes to share with you: experts in the industry I adore, experts I look up to… but, in the end, it was nice to know that not very much was a surprise to me! I’m on the right track! You can CLICK HERE to see the services I offer. Anyway, I hope I covered the basics for you.
Darla
AKA, “The Imbedded Mogul”
@imbeddedmogul
@darladhancock
@socialmarketllc
#BWStartSmart
@BizWorksCenter
The Social Market LLC 