One of my clients is an art gallery that holds opening receptions every six weeks. The receptions are only two-hours long, and the gallery is located a half-hour away from a large portion of its customer base.

We found that people were not willing to drive an hour both ways for a 2-hour event, so we partnered with the restaurant next door.

Now, when the gallery holds an art opening, the restaurant (which usually closes at 4pm), stays open until 10pm, serves a limited-selection dinner menu, including beer and wine, and hires a band or a DJ to provide music and dancing.

The restaurant promotes the art show all month, the gallery includes the restaurant in its PR, and the customers have an event destination for the evening that is worth driving an hour for.

Win-Win-Win. Triple benefit.

When you hear the term Strategic Partnerships you may think of mounds of legal paperwork, contracts and detailed agreements. While some partnerships may indeed require this, depending on the size of your company and complexity of your agreement, please note that I’m referring more to a business alliance than a legal partnership.

In my mind, the best marketing methods are not only effective, but simple as well. Therefore, let’s examine a few simple partnership strategies that will double up your marketing muscle while benefiting your business, your partners’ business, and your combined customer base.

One of the main reasons for partnering is to save money or reduce expenses. A common example of this is seen in the hair salon business. One stylist opens her own shop and rents out the stations to other stylists, colorists, and mani-pedi specialists. This keeps the overhead manageable for the owner, offers a simple and low-commitment situation for the renters, and creates a one-stop beauty destination for the customer.

The partners can also save money by pooling their resources to market the whole shop as opposed to being responsible for individually marketing themselves (which they may choose to do as well).

Another good reason for partnering is to diversify your offering. There’s a technology company in town that shares its space with an office supply store. In this case, the two complimentary businesses can share their expertise and resources with a wider customer base than if they each maintained two separate storefronts. According to the owner of the tech company, a large percentage of walk-ins to the office supply store have become clients of his, and vice-versa.

Diversifying your offering through partnerships is also popular with web designers, marketers, media producers and business consultants like myself. If I determined that a prospect needed to implement a new e-commerce website with a blog, a social media presence including YouTube video channel, plus email marketing and PR services, I would be quite stressed if I thought I had to design and implement all of that myself.

Instead, I would tap my strategic partnership network of web designers, writers and video producers to help create the deliverables for my client. The caveat here is that the client’s budget needs to be proportionate to the cost of the team. If it’s not, we scale down the deliverables and focus on the most effective solution to meet the client’s objective.

There’s a local glass company that gets its shipments from Oregon. My friend went in to get a large piece of plexiglass, and they were out of stock. Each shipment from Oregon requires a minimum order amount, and the glass company hasn’t been selling enough plexi to justify a full order.

What if the glass company partnered with several other window companies, frame shops, or hardware stores in Northern California, combined their orders to meet the minimum and guaranteed each store carried stock? Sure, this requires extra work, but it makes more sense to me than sending customers away empty-handed.

Referral programs are another form of partnerships. I know a massage therapist who offers her clients discounts on their bodywork if they refer people who come in for a paid massage. There’s a real estate agent who has been making sales all winter long, despite the sluggish market. Every time she sells a house, she gives gifts and rewards to everyone who was involved in the sale.

People love to save money and they love to make money. Anytime you can help someone do this–as the massage therapist and real estate agent are doing–they will be happy to spread positive word-of-mouth on your behalf, effectively becoming your marketing ally.

As you can see, strategic business partnerships can exist in many forms. They can be between you and your colleagues, your customers, your suppliers, even your competition.

And, in most cases, the partnership’s sum is greater that its individual parts. So, get creative and think about who you can partner with in order to deliver savings, profits and value to everyone involved.

What types of partnership strategies have worked for your business?

***
Mt. Shasta, California – Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

More Tips for Success...

You’ve probably heard the age-old maxim, ‘You get what you pay for.’ While there will always be exceptions to every rule, the reason this phrase has become ingrained in our lexicon to the point of becoming a cliché is because it contains more than a modicum of truth.

In fact, the last three web-design projects I’ve secured have been re-builds of the company’s initial site, which were built by friends, amateurs, and former employees respectively.

Each site ended up being ineffective to the viewer, inaccessible to the owner, and downright hideous to boot. But, hey, at least they were cheap!

While I do understand the allure of a small price tag, basing your purchasing decisions on price alone is a short-sighted strategy. Sure, it appears to be good for your company’s bottom line, but the low price option should be considered a temporary solution because that’s usually what it will end up being.

I’m not suggesting that small business owners spend money they don’t have, rely on credit cards, or become indebted to bankers so they can invest in marketing solutions. But I am suggesting they resist the seduction of Low Price and always consider the long-term investment over the quick fix.

Here are some thoughts on how to do so:

1) Plan Ahead – Many of the business owners I deal with are driven by a passion for their topic of expertise, which is excellent. However, if your passion compels you to set up shop before you determine a solid, consistent, long-term plan on how to get customers through the door, you’ll end up spending more time scrambling for business than running a business.

2) Start With Your Message – The secret to an effective marketing strategy is using the right tools to reach the right audience with the right message. All three elements must be in place, and it starts with a meaningful message. Know how your offering is unique, know who will benefit most from it, and know how they will benefit. Articulate that information with a crisp, concise benefit statement and you’re off to the races.

3) Allot Marketing Budget – There are certain fixed costs to running a business and marketing should be one of them. However, based on my experience with clients, this is not a common viewpoint. If you plan on taking a vacation, you allot a vacation budget. If you want to send the kids to college, you start a college fund. If you plan on running a successful business, you dedicate a certain percentage of your revenue to your marketing initiatives.

4) Easy Does It – You don’t have to invest in every solution at once. Look for the most accessible ones to start with, such as social media strategies, online review sites and business listings, networking, building your email list, creating a referral program, and generating positive word-of-mouth with an affordable strategy I like to call, “Be Awesome Marketing.” You achieve this by–you guessed it–being awesome.

5) Think Cost-Effective, Not Cheap – You goal should be to get the most value for your investment, not just the lowest price. When you feel ready to invest in a big ticket item such as a website or an ad campaign, shop around a bit and compare the level of value each vendor is offering for the price. And be relatively certain (there’s always a little risk involved) that the big ticket item you’re considering is going to be the most appropriate tool to reach your audience.

In our WalMart society, we have become obsessed with getting the cheapest price. In some cases, opting for the cheap or free option may indeed offer a perfect temporary solution. However, don’t be surprised if this solution ends up costing more money in the long run when the original investment falters, fails or proves otherwise insufficient.

This is true whether you’re talking about marketing solutions, furniture, garden tools or any of the gimcrack garbage available for a pittance at the nearest big-box retailer. Remember, nobody likes a cheapskate, not even your business.

***
Mt. Shasta, California – Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

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Famous American landscape photographer, Ansel Adams once said, “The secret to a good photograph is knowing where to stand.” Obviously, Mr. Adams understood the importance of positioning.

The same is true of small business: You need to be clear on where you want your company to stand in the minds of your audience. Otherwise, you will waste time and money sending random marketing messages that fail to properly position your offering in the minds of an ambiguous audience.

When launching a business, many entrepreneurs are so eager to share their offering with the world, they skip over some of the early research and planning necessary in the formative stages (I’ve been guilty of this myself).

Instead of taking a slow, methodical, strategic ‘Ready, Aim, Fire!’ approach, they opt for a ‘Ready, Fire! Aim’ approach that results in careening around like a pinball as opposed to darting towards a targeted bullseye.

A positioning statement identifies your target audience, your product or service and its category, the primary benefit, and your main point-of-difference in relation to your competition. The positioning statement is not for public consumption, rather it’s an inter-organizational battle cry that creates a foundation for the branding and marketing messaging you create for your company.

First, let’s take a closer look at each of the included elements, then we’ll examine the formula that helps pull all the elements together into a concise positioning statement:

Target Audience – Who are you trying to reach with your marketing? If you say, “everyone,” you have not given this essential question enough thought. Think about what segment of the population will derive the most benefit from your offering, and start there.

Consider their demographics (gender, age, location, marital status, occupation, etc.), their psychographics (goals, desires, fears, objectives, etc.) and create between 1-3 Ideal Buyer Personas that will help you to think of your audience as real individuals, rather than a faceless crowd of consumers.

Company, Product or Service – Determine whether you are positioning your company as a whole, or positioning a new product or service you are bringing to market. For most small businesses, it makes sense to focus on one position statement for the company, whereas larger companies who regularly bring new products to market, may wish to create new positioning statements for each new product.

Category – Try to get as detailed as you can with this. It may feel natural to simply list the broad category that your business fits into, but make an effort to dig down and flesh out a more descriptive representation of where your company or product falls in the marketplace.

For Example: rather than ‘Health and Fitness,’ consider all aspects of your offering and work them into your category, such as “Premium fitness and wellness centers offering personal trainers, physical therapy, chiropractic, group fitness classes and full gym and spa amenities for a full-spectrum health experience.” Doing this will help you to carve a narrower niche, further differentiating your business from your competitors.

Key Customer Benefit – Often times, the most difficult part of positioning (and marketing in general) is determining the most meaningful benefit that your customers derive from your offering. Usually, there are several reasons why people buy from you, and your job is to figure out what those are–in order of priority–so you can pinpoint the most effective benefit to speak to in your messaging. Once you do this, your job of marketing becomes a lot easier.

A Helpful Guide: In my previous blog post about the Value of Competition, I list 10 questions to ask your customers to determine how they perceive your brand. You can hypothesize all day on how people benefit from your offering, but there’s nothing like direct feedback from your customers to provide true insight.

Your Competitive Alternative – In other words, your competition. Who are the companies that offer your customer an alternative to buying from you? In order to know how your company is different, you need to know something about your competition. Sometimes, competition exists in places you don’t consider.

For example: A movie rental store is competing against other movie rental shops, but their also competing against cable TV, Netflix, and the Red Box rental kiosks at the grocery store. When you consider this, you can see why it’s essential to provide a true point of difference and meaningful customer benefits to a clearly defined audience. Otherwise, your customer will perceive you as “just another option” instead of “the First, Best or Only option.”

The Positioning Statement Formula

Once you’ve considered all the above elements, place the findings of your research into the correlating parenthesis of the following formula:

To (Target Audience), (Your Company, Product or Service) is the only (Category) that (Key Customer Benefit), unlike (Your Competitive Alternative).

Remember, the positioning statement is for internal use, not for public consumption. Leave out the biz-speak and corporate jargon, and use simple language that everyone in your organization can understand and repeat. You can use the template above as many times as needed, meaning you may have a main positioning statement for your company and separate, unique statements for any new product, service or market segment that you wish to introduce.

Let the statement be your guide as you zero in on your audience, choose the best marketing vehicles to reach them and craft a meaningful marketing message that speaks to the benefits of your offering while differentiating you from your competition.

This can be a challenging exercise, but it will behoove you and your company to make the effort. Crafting an accurate positioning statement will make it easier to create successful marketing messages for your company that are consistently on point and, better yet, effective.

To Your Success!

***
Mt. Shasta, California – Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

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While driving through a quiet suburb of Minneapolis a few years back, I saw a funky little independent coffee house called Joe’s Coffee Shack on the street corner of an intersection.

Directly across the street, on the opposite corner, was a Starbucks. Of course, this is a common sight in large, urban areas where there’s a coffee shop on every block, but this was a small retail pocket in a sleepy backstreet neighborhood.

I remember thinking how upset Joe must have been when the Big Green Behemoth moved in on his turf. Then I realized that there are “Starbucks people” and there are “shop-local, anti-corporate, support-the-little-guy people.” Besides, with so many coffee drinkers, I’m pretty certain both stores had their fare share of business.

Competition is often thought of as a bad thing, but it is actually a good thing. When other businesses are offering products and services that are similar to yours, it indicates that there is a large enough market to support your business concept. If nobody else is offering what you’re offering, you are either a supreme innovator who’s way ahead of the curve, or an unfortunate dreamer who might realize the hard way that there is no demand for your supply.

However, competition is only beneficial if it motivates you to differentiate your offering in a way that sets you apart from the pack. If you allow competitors to crop up around your business and you fail to define and articulate your company’s unique value, your brand will be reduced to a commodity. When shopping for commodities, people base their purchasing decisions on price, location and convenience, which are all terrible areas in which to compete.

Remember, perception is reality. Your objective is to create the perception that there is no other product or service on the market quite like yours. In order to maintain your competitive edge, you must regularly study your competition in an effort to answer the following questions:

• What are they doing right? Wrong?
• What is selling best?
• What price range is working?
• Is your customer base exactly the same, or is there even more of a niche that you can hone in on?
• What are they not doing that you could be taking advantage of?

The better you know your competition, the better you can identify the one thing that makes you truly different. When you know what it is that sets you apart from the rest, it will be more obvious to your customers as well. Make it easy on them; don’t make them guess. Be clear on why they should be doing business with YOU and not someone else and craft your marketing message to speak to your point of difference.

A fitness center in my area hired me to help clarify their brand. Not only did I ask the management the questions below, but we also created a questionnaire to hand out at all four of their facilities. The members were happy to offer their feedback, and it was extremely helpful to hear direct insight from the exact people whose opinions matter most: The paying customers!

Answering these questions as they apply to your business will illuminate your areas of focus as you build a memorable brand that stands out in a crowded marketplace.

1. What are the three greatest strengths of our brand?
2. Where is there room for improvement?
3. What are the three greatest strengths of our competitors?
4. How is our offering different than our competitors’?
5. How do we express that difference in words, images and actions?
6. What value do we bring to our audience?
7. How does our offering improve people’s lives?
8. What emotions are attached to our offering?
9. What makes customers buy from us the first time?
10. What keeps them coming back?

Think about Joe from my opening story for a moment. While he faced a monumental challenge, his task in the situation was clear: Joe’s Coffee Shack needed to offer a coffee experience that was completely different than the Starbucks experience.

Judging by the tiki-bar vibe of the grass-thatched awning covering a patio full of mismatched furniture, I’d say Joe was on the right track. With a little effort and imagination, I believe your company can take its position on that track as well.

What competitive struggles has your company faced? How did you handle it?

***
Mt. Shasta, California – Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

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Whenever something reaches the point of ubiquity, a backlash is sure to ensue. Lately, I’ve noticed this happening with Quick Response (QR) codes – those boxy graphic symbols marketers have been placing on anything and everything in order to create deeper brand engagement with their smartphone-toting audience.

The more articles and blog posts I read on the subject, the more disgruntled voices of frustration I hear railing against this new technology. However, upon further investigation, I’ve realized that it’s not the QR code itself that people find maddening, rather the useless way that unsavvy marketers are employing them.

The offenses range from simply sending people to a company website (gee, thanks), creating a non-user-friendly experience (fill out these 18 text fields to join our mailing list!) to putting them on billboards (Drive Now, Scan Later!). Any way you scan it, marketers seem to be going QR-crazy.

While many companies are using this technology in creative and innovative ways, there are others that could benefit from some QR-code clarity, tips and Best Practice ideas.

To shed a little light on the QR craze, I spoke with Arthur Cronos, author of Marketing Online, Clear and Simple: How Any Local Business Can Harness the Internet to Create More Income. (Replies have been edited for clarity).

Arthur, many companies don’t realize that QR codes necessitate having mobile websites, so let me ask you, how important is it to have a mobile web site when implementing QR codes in your marketing?

“It’s essential. Unfortunately, normal sites display very poorly on smartphones, so [it’s best to] add a mobile site.

People don’t walk down the street carrying their desktop computer, however, every smartphone can become a scanner to visit the web through a QR code. As of right now, almost half of all the people in the world access the internet via smartphones instead of normal desktop or laptop computers. Why would you ignore half the market?”

[Ed. Note: According to the International Data Corporation, by 2015, more people in the U.S. will access the web through mobile devices than through PCs.]

If you don’t have a mobile site, can you still provide mobile-friendly content on your regular website?

“I don’t know of any sensible way to do this.

Because it’s so easy to get a mobile website for your business it makes more sense to simply set up a site that works. Then program your regular site to send them to the mobile site automatically when they arrive riding on a cell phone.”

Do all QR Codes require downloading a special app or reader in order to work on smartphones?

“To the best of my knowledge, yes, but it’s no problem. Just like getting the eBay app, or a Twitter app, it’s free and takes about a minute.”

What are some of the benefits of implementing QR codes into your marketing materials?

“QR codes are a recent evolution, similar to barcodes except that QR codes hold more information, and they’re very forgiving about how they’re oriented when you are scanning them. This makes them more useful than barcodes for the purposes of a marketer, or any small business.

Using a QR code is effectively the same thing as putting a link on your website, except that it’s a link you can place in the physical universe.

So just as your website can have a link to a free report, then so can a postcard you send have a “link” (a QR code) printed so that the person reading the postcard can immediately access that same free report.

Effectively, QR codes can add the Web to any object in the physical universe!”

[Ed. Note: The rules of creating Value and Engagment are important to keep in mind here. Don’t just send people to your site; try to provide deeper, exclusive content, savings or offers to people who engage your brand via your QR codes.]

What common mistakes do you see people making when trying to implement QR codes in their marketing?

“The most common mistake with QR codes is the same mistake made with websites. Business people often advertise their website without giving the potential customer a reason to go there.

Compare these two business cards, each with a web link:

John Jones
John’s Hamburger Stand
www.johnshamburgers.com

VS.

John Jones
John’s Hamburger Stand
Get the best burger in town … FREE ON US!
visit www.johnshamburgers.com/free-burger-offer

When using a QR code, do the smart thing: give them a reason to go to your website, and send them to the exact page that delivers on your promise.”

What 3 Best Practice Tips would you suggest for business owners who want to implement QR codes?

“1) Choose your best offer to get people to visit you, or sign up with your mailing list.

2) Set up a mobile site, since people most often visit with smart phones and normal sites are unreadable or impossible to navigate on a phone.

3) Get a QR code that points directly to the page on your mobile site that delivers on the promise you made.”

Where can business owners create custom QR codes of their own?

“A number of QR code generators are available on the web, so a search for ‘qr generator’ will find those sites. Some are better than others, so be sure to test the QR code with your smart phone before implementing.”

Any key points you would like to add?

“Yes. In many cases, it is very wise to use a ‘redirect’ when setting up your QR codes. That is where you set up one address that will redirect the visitor to another address.

If you were, for example, a real estate agent, and you were making signs that said, ‘Scan this code to see a video of the interior,’ you wouldn’t want to reprint that sign with a new code every time you had a new house to sell. Instead you’d simply reprogram the ‘redirect’ that’s encoded in the QR code to point to the new video they can watch on their smart phone, while standing outside the house for sale.

Or, suppose I want a QR code that takes people to my Amazon page to buy my book. Instead of coding my QR code to send them direct to Amazon, I’ll code it to send them to the redirect. Down the road, Amazon could change the address where it shows my book, or I might come out with a new edition, which has a different address on Amazon.

If all my QR codes are out there in the physical universe, I can’t change them. But I can change the redirect to point to the new Amazon address, so my QR codes will work year after year, even if the Amazon page address changes.

Any web professional should be able to help you with dozens of ways to employ QR codes in online-offline promotional campaigns that deliver a double-whammy to your advertising investment by turbo charging your promotions, tempting your customers, and boosting your income. That’s a good thing, right?”

Arthur Cronos runs CopyDragon Webwriting and Marketing Design. To get Arthur’s free e-course, “How to Sell Online” offering a 17-lesson email course focusing on the simple steps any local business can use to combine internet methods with physical methods, visit this page of his website, and scan the QR code you see there.

***
Mt. Shasta, California – Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

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It’s official, Pinterest is currently ‘Having a Moment.’

I first heard about Pinterest back in May of 2011, when I was interviewing Anika Burke, owner of Anika Burke’s Eclectic Boutique, about her social media marketing strategy.

Seven months later the blogosphere exploded with post after post about this hot new social photo site. As is the case with many new tech tools, there was the implication that all businesses should be flocking to Pinterest.

While it makes sense to me for a fashion boutique to be on Pinterest, I’m always dubious when anything is heralded as a “one size fits all” solution. Therefore, I wanted to investigate Pinterest further to see whether it made sense for other business categories to be using it as well, and how it might benefit its users.

In addition to my research, I spoke with Burke again to see how her Pinterest activity has progressed, and she offered some enlightening insights that all marketers should here. But first…

Quick Stats

In its own words, Pinterest is an “online pinboard to organize and share things you love.”

The online equivalent of a swipe file or inspiration board, this invitation-only social image bookmarking site allows users to create “boards” on which to “pin” items of interest. Users can Follow other users, Like, Share and Comment on content, as well as Repin other people’s content to their own boards.

Pinterest launched in March 2010, and by June 2011 had a respectable 275,000 visitors. Then, just past the site’s year-and-a-half mark, traffic skyrocketed by 4,000% with 11 million visits during the week ending December 17, 2011.

According to competitive intelligence website Hitwise, over 10% of these visitors were baby boomers and young adults who are heavy web users and who spend time on house and garden, sports and fitness, and family-oriented websites.

Strengths

When asked what she thought Pinterest’s greatest strength was, Anika Burke replied: “I feel Pinterest’s greatest strength is that it does not feel like a huge ad. It feels like a place to go and escape. You have all the fun of looking without the pressure to buy.”

Some of the other strong points of this platform include the following:

SEO Power – All the posted images contain backlinks to their original site, which is great for search engine optimization if, that is, the links are leading back to YOUR site. Otherwise, you’re sending visitors off to explore other sites, which means you are…

Providing Value – Pinning photos that link to helpful sites providing recipes, how-to instructions, or educational resources is a great way to provide value to your audience, which should be a primary objective for any business using social media.

Thought Leadership – Sharing ideas, opinions, news and trends that relate to your industry can build your credibility and establish your brand as a go-to source of expertise.

Build Relationships – Connecting with your audience on any platform is a good way to share common interests, which helps to forge stronger bonds and humanize your business.

Weaknesses

Search – According to Karlie Justus at SocialMediaB2B.com, the Search capabilities are “lagging”, so it’s important to use proper keyword tagging, categorizing and organization in order to improve your chances of being found.

Level of Connection – Many of the comments on peoples ‘pins’ are of the “Yum,” “Cool,” or “I want that!” variety, which make a 140-character tweet seem downright epic by comparison. While eliciting engagement from followers is a good thing, I question the level of connection you are making with someone who posts “I’m hungry” on a picture of your Bacon Cheesy Bread.

Social Media Overload – Let’s face it, you’re probably still trying to get the hang of Google+, and now you’re supposed to bond with your customers over photographic inspiration boards? There are only so many hours in a day, and business owners must be selective when choosing their tools.

Takeaways

Suggesting that every business should be using Pinterest is like saying that every individual should take up scrapbooking as a hobby. Pinterest is dominated by images featuring home décor, crafts, fashion, and food, which are all categories that lend themselves well to strong visuals. If your business falls into these or similar categories, then it may be a good fit.

If your business is in a different, less visual category, you could still do something interesting providing you think outside the box. As with any marketing tool, social media or otherwise, the best reason to use something is because your audience can be found there. Be sure to ask around and see if your customers have expressed an interest in Pinterest.

However, I recommend heeding the words of Burke, who says, “People do not come to Pinterest to be marketed to, they just want to find cool stuff and have fun. I don’t follow brands on Pinterest, I am more interested in finding the amazing random finds. I think of my Pinterest as my ‘Dream Book,’ a place that I put my ideas, inspirations and wants.”

Yes, this is the opinion of one Pinterest user but it’s guaranteed there are many more users who feel the same way. Just like with any social platform, there is a best practice etiquette to adhere if you don’t want to come off as a pushy, self-promotional salesperson who’s crashing the Pin party.

Action Steps

1) Visit the Pinterest website and take a look at what’s happening there. You can browse people’s boards and pins, but you need an invitation to create an account and get in on the action (see #3).

2) Check out this list from The Next Web of 10 Cool Pinterest Accounts You Should Be Following.

3) “Request An Invite” with the big red button on the Home page if you want to dig deeper. Please Note: as of this writing, there is allegedly a one-month waiting list for invitations.

4) Create a strategy. As with any social media endeavor, if you decide to get involved, you need to make a plan as to how you will use it to build your brand. This is an area where Burke admits she has fallen short: “I know with Pinterest exploding that we need to have a laid-out game plan, but for now we are still just having fun with it.”

5) Have Fun! After all, if it ain’t fun, why bother?

Are you using Pinterest for your business? Please chime in with your thoughts in the Comments section.

***

Mt. Shasta, California – Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

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On Wednesday, December 7, 2011, I delivered a speaking presentation to the Women In Business Network. Since I’m a marketing man who wants to demonstrate the power of marketing, I set out to build maximum buzz for the event.

When all was said and done, the event drew a full-capacity crowd, received no less than eight mentions in the press, earned me two immediate new clients, several hot prospects, and a dozen new names on the mailing list. Not to mention, it spread the Nikolas Allen/BAM! brand to a whole new section of our business community.

The best part is, I didn’t spend a dime on advertising, only a small investment of time and effort. In order to give you some ideas of how to build maximum marketing buzz for your business, I decided to detail the steps I used to market this successful event.

BEFORE THE EVENT
I knew the Women In Business Network featured guest speakers at their monthly meetings, so I contacted them in early October with a speaking proposal. They accepted my proposal and scheduled me to speak at their December meeting, which gave me over two months to promote the event.

My contact told me that the monthly meetings usually draw between 15-20 members. My goal was to double that number and aim for 40 attendees. Did I reach my goal? Read on…

Step 1: Utilize the Power of Video
My first marketing step was to round up my WIB contact, Kelly Samuelson, and shoot a promotional video of us talking about the event. While we were creating the video, we also took a couple promotional stills (photographs) to submit along with all the PR materials.

I posted the promo video in several places:

• The BAM! Website

• The Women In Business Website

• My Personal Facebook Page

• The WIB Facebook Page

• A Facebook Event Page that I created to promote the meeting

Step 2: Write Press Release
In order to get the attention of the press, I had to write a compelling “story” about the event that would pique the interest of the public. I wrote up a press release, and edited it into two versions: A long version for the paper and the website/blog posts, and a short version for the Calendar-style listings and email promotions I would employ. Of course, I included the promotional photo with every submission.

Step 3: Submit, Submit, Submit
I made a list of the local media outlets I could hit with the promotion.

My list included the following:

• Mt. Shasta Herald – Newspaper

• Mt. Shasta Herald – Calendar of Events

• MS Mag Email List – Subscription-based Community-Wide Email List

• Mt. Shasta Connect – Online Community Calendar

• JEDI Email List – Jefferson Economic Development Institute sent to their list.

• BAM! Mailing List – Included in my monthly Enewsletter

• Plus, the BAM! and WIB Websites and Facebook pages mentioned above

All of the above outlets ran the promotion, and in the case of the Mt. Shasta Herald (weekly) newspaper, they mentioned it three weeks in a row leading up to the event, in both the Area News section (see article above) and the Calendar of Events section. Plus, they ran a full follow-up article online and in print after the event.

As the event drew nearer and the marketing machine was in motion, I also used word-of-mouth, and Twitter to promote the event. As for Twitter, it most likely did not directly affect the attendance (like the other platforms did), but it earned me some new #WomenInBusiness followers and helped promote my community activity and thought leadership.

Step 4: Practice Makes…Pretty Darn Good
All the buzz in the world is worthless if I get up in front of a crowd and bomb. Therefore, once I had the final edit of my speech, I ran through it continually.  On the bus, on the street, in my living room, in the shower, whenever I had an extra 20 minutes, I was working the speech.

I even went to the venue two days before the event and videotaped myself giving a speech to the empty room. This helped a couple things: It got me comfortable with the room, and it allowed me to watch and see what I needed to improve or change.

DURING THE EVENT
The multi-channel marketing strategy worked! We drew a full-house, standing-room only crowd of close to 50 female business leaders (3 men even managed to sneak in under the radar – which kinda goes against that whole “Women” in business thing). Remember, getting people to the event is half the battle. The other half is making sure you deliver on your promise once they are there.

Step 5: Know Your Objectives
Speaking engagements are excellent marketing platforms because you are able to reach a large segment of your target audience at once. However, it must be clear that your primary goal is to provide valuable, applicable information to your audience. Your secondary goal is to rustle up some new clients! Therefore, you need to have a lead-capture system in place to grow your list of contacts and hot prospects.

I placed a BAM! Mailing List Signup Sheet at the front desk, plus business cards and postcards for people to take. I also placed a small box for people to leave their business cards in if they didn’t want to take the time to fill out the mailing list.

Step 6: Be Awesome!
As I mingled with attendees before my presentation, I heard several comments like, “whoever promoted this did a great job!” Other people said they, “heard about this event all over the place,” and I even got some light-hearted teasing from a business owner who said, “you better live up to the hype!”

After the presentation, there was positive feedback, rave reviews, an increased mailing list, several hot prospects, and two immediate new clients, which indicates that things went pretty awesome indeed.

Step 7: Capture Your Media
In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to forget about capturing the event with various forms of media, but for promotional purposes, it’s essential to do so. My philosophy is, “Shoot first, ask questions later.” That means you record your EVERY event with either audio, photography, video, or all of the above, then figure out how you’re going to use the content later. Some options could be podcasts, training programs, photos and videos for your website, social media channels, and follow-up press releases and other promotional vehicles.

Step 8: Work The Room
I like to network and mingle before the event, so I can connect with people who will make up the audience. It’s always nice to have familiar, friendly faces out in the crowd and, if you can work the names, stories or comments of people you know into your speech, it adds a  personal touch. It’s also essential to mingle after the event, because that’s when the hot prospects emerge. Be sure you’re ready to engage them, determine their needs and desires, and schedule an appropriate time to follow up with them.

AFTER THE EVENT
The work is not over just because your event is. Now is the time to maximize the longevity of your message, act on your new contacts and implement your new media.

Step 9: Follow Up
If members of the press were there, contact them to express gratitude for their presence, and offer to answer any questions or clarify any points (The article below, by Skye Kinkade of the Mt. Shasta Herald, ran online the day after my presentation. A longer article with quotes from audience members – and a slightly less awesome headline – ran in the print version a few days later.)

If the press wasn’t there, write and submit a follow-up press release, including images from your event (See Step 7). If you spoke with any new prospects, follow up to see how you can help them with their needs (i.e move them into the sales cycle). As for your new mailing list contacts, start sending them valuable content on a regular basis with your email marketing program.

Step 10: Keep Your Message Alive on the Web
I immediately posted the photo I took of the crowd on Facebook and Twitter and got tons of engagement from people commenting, offering feedback and testimonials and tagging themselves and their friends. I posted the four-minute “highlight” video (see above) on Facebook, the BAM! Website and You Tube Channel, and submitted a written recap of my speech to the Women In Business Website.

Whew! Okay, maybe it takes more than a “small” investment of time and effort that I mentioned earlier, but the truth is, too many small businesses simply send out a press release and call it a day. Then they wonder why their promotions aren’t successful. It takes more effort than that to build a maximum marketing buzz for your small business, but it IS very possible to achieve.

In fact, I heard a comment recently confirming that all my efforts have not been in vain. It was from my mom, no less, who said, “Nikolas, I’m getting sick and tired of seeing you in the paper every week.”

To which I replied, “Maximum marketing mission accomplished!”

***
Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting, where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

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I recently gave a speaking presentation to the Women In Business Network in Mt. Shasta, California. I spoke about the importance of branding and shared three principles that small business owners can use to create stronger emotional connections with their audience.

Here is a brief recap of some of the key points from my speech.

“Emotional Marketing: Building Small Business Brands That Matter.”

 
Studies have proven that humans make decisions based on emotions, then use their rational mind to justify decisions. In the battle of the heart vs. the mind, the heart often wins, therefore, in order to earn the attention of your audience, you need to hook them emotionally.

When you talk about building small business brands that matter, that means you make a consistent effort to create an emotional engagement at every touchpoint consumers experience related to your company.

The following three principles are easy, yet powerful ways to help you do just that.

Video recap of “Emotional Marketing” presentation by Nikolas Allen

Principle 1) Infuse your company with your own unique personality.

All great companies reflect the passion of their leader. There is nobody who is You-er than YOU! Your passion for your topic is palpable and it’s contagious, and people respond to authenticity.

Too many small business owners settle for weak, shallow, unremarkable, cookie-cutter advertising that doesn’t differentiate, doesn’t intrigue, doesn’t excite.

Instead, aim to infuse your company and your marketing with your own unique personality, and let your remarkable, passionate, brave, strong, intelligent attributes shine.

Principle 2) Appeal to the values of your target audience

Having a strong set of personal values is important, and it’s even more important to know what your target audience values. Ideally, there will be common values shared between you and them, which is a solid building block for any relationship.

There’s a great saying that I try to remember at all times, “Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

If you care about your audience, you make the effort to find out what’s important to them, and you appeal to those values. That’s going to attract people of like minds, and it may repel or alienate the rest. But that’s okay, because you’re not trying to appeal to everyone.

Appealing to the values of your target audience ensures that you are attracting the most appropriate customers for your business.

Principle 3) Speak the Language of Results

One of the easiest, most effective ways to improve your marketing message is by articulating the end results customers derive from your offering, YET it’s the most common violation I see with small business advertising.

So many entrepreneurs are marketing the “WHAT” of their business: What they sell, what their product is, what their service is – instead of marketing the “WHY?” As in, why should consumers care?

Your marketing materials need to paint a beautiful picture of how much better your customer’s lives are going to be after purchasing your offering. This is similar to touting the benefits of your product or service, but in our hyper-connected, instant-gratification society, consumers want more than benefits, they want results – and they want ‘em now!

So go beyond the “Stuff” of your business, and speak the language of results. I promise you, this language is music to the ears of your audience.

By implementing these three principles you will create marketing messages that bypass the logic center of the brain, and plant themselves firmly in the soft, squishy landscape of the heart, which is where relationships blossom between consumers and the small business brands that matter to them.

***
Photo by Nikolas Allen. Video shot by Brenda Woods, edited by Nikolas Allen.

Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting, where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

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While working with clients over the past couple months, at least three of them have made the bold proclamation that, “Newspaper advertising doesn’t work for us.”

These business owners may have made legitimate efforts and discovered that their ideal audience truly can’t be reached via that medium. However, there could also be other factors at play that hampered the effectiveness of their advertisements.

Perhaps their messages simply weren’t compelling enough, maybe their ads lacked a clear call to action, or it’s possible that they just weren’t consistent enough with their print buys.

In this case, the particulars don’t really matter. If a small business owner has made up her mind about something not working, it’s far more prudent to explore other options rather than trying to sway her opinion.

Finding the right marketing mix requires testing different vehicles to determine which ones work and which ones don’t, so you know where you should be investing time and money. You may have a poor experience with more than one medium, but that shouldn’t sour you on the overall marketing process.

And it is a process! If you are inconsistently dabbling with various messages sprinkled through various media, the chances of your efforts being successful are pretty slim. However, if you are sending a strong, consistent message to a clearly defined audience using a strategic mix of marketing vehicles, your efforts WILL yield results.

Lest you find yourself wondering what options are available, I have compiled a list that will get you started in the right direction. The objective is to pick and choose the ones that feel feasible and relevant to your business, and try them out.

Realizing the sheer volume of available options can be overwhelming, but you’re not trying to incorporate all of them. Instead, pick a quantity that feels right and start there. In addition to the first group of “Essentials” below, I suggest testing between 3-6 on the low side, 8-10 on the high side, and 12 or more if you’ve got the resources.

Remember, depending on the medium, it can take up to 12 impressions for your prospects to even notice your marketing. So try to give it 3 to 6 months before declaring something a success or a failure.

Essentials:

1. Company Logo
2. Signage
3. Business Card
4. Letterhead
5. Envelopes
6. Website
7. Email signatures
8. On-Hold Messages
9. Word of Mouth

Content Marketing:

10. E-newsletter
11. Blog
12. Podcasts
13. Articles
14. E-Books
15. Books
16. Video
17. Tip Sheets
18. Sales Sheets/Info Sheets
19. Portfolio
20. Bio/Resume

Event Marketing:

21. Speaking Engagements
22. Workshops
23. Open Houses
24. Trade Shows
25. Business Expos
26. Educational Seminars
27. Daily Deals
28. Flash Sales
29. Pop-Up Locations
30. Contests

Traditional Marketing:

31. Postcards
32. Brochures
33. Direct Mail
34. Cold/Warm Calling
35. Newsletters
36. Coupon Books
37. Yellow Pages Ads
38. Local Magazine Ads
39. Radio Ads
40. Posters
41. Sales Letters
42. Promotional Items

New Media Marketing:

43. Google Maps
44. Google AdWords
45. Facebook Ads
46. Facebook Pages
47. Twitter
48. Promoted Tweets
49. LinkedIn
50. YouTube Channel
51. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
52. Mobile Advertising
53. Text Marketing
54. QR Codes
55. Email Blasts
56. Online Directories
57. Online Review Sites

Public Relations:

58. Media Pitches (Bloggers, Television, Radio)
59. Press Releases
60. Thank You Gifts/Cards
61. Customer Appreciation
62. Loyalty Programs
63. Free Consultations

Partnership Marketing:

64. Networking Groups
65. Business Associations
66. Chambers of Commerce
67. Referral Programs
68. Strategic Alliances
69. Sponsorships

As you can see, there are far more marketing options available than you could possibly utilize for your small business. Some are essential, some are recommended, and others are optional. Many are free, some require a minor investment, and others require a large, dedicated budget.

While many of them may be worth considering, it’s best to pick a manageable number of options to focus your efforts on while you determine which vehicles will prove most effective for your company.

Then, if you find that some are not working for you, as my clients did with their newspaper ads, try something else. After several months of consistent advertising, you will have a good idea of which vehicles are most effective for your business. Once you have determined that, continue to use what works and drop the rest.

Which marketing vehicles would you add to this list?

***

Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen, runs BAM! Small Biz Consulting, where he helps small business owners attract more loyal customers and grow their business through creative branding and marketing strategies.

If you’re ready to step in the ring with BAM!, contact Nikolas Allen for your FREE 30-Minute Needs Assessment. Phone: (530) 859-5454 • Email: bamsbc@gmail.com

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Mt. Shasta, CA, November 7, 2011 – Women In Business Network welcomes Heavyweight Marketing Champion, Nikolas Allen of BAM! Small Biz Consulting, to speak at their December 7th members meeting at the Best Western Tree House Inn located in Mt. Shasta.

Nikolas Allen will present, Emotional Marketing – Building Small Business Brands That Matter, which he hopes will inspire entrepreneurs to dig deeper and create meaningful marketing messages that connect with consumers emotionally, rather than just intellectually.

“Studies have shown that consumers make buying decisions based on emotions,” says Allen, “then use rationale to justify their decisions. Therefore, marketers must bypass the logical mind of their audience and aim straight for their hearts.”

Allen promises to impart valuable, actionable insights entrepreneurs can apply to improve the effectiveness of their marketing.

WIB member Stephanie Hoffman, Business Consultant with Small Business Development Center, says “Nikolas Allen’s presentation style is outstanding because he combines wit, intelligence, and creativity with real-world ideas and applications for the serious entrepreneur.”

The meeting takes place on Wednesday, December 7, 8:30am to 10:00am at Best Western Tree House Inn located at 111 Morgan Way in Mt. Shasta. Non-members are invited to attend their first meeting for free, with no obligation to join, providing they are female entrepreneurs, business owners or managers.

What:
Women In Business Network Members Meeting

When:
Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 8:30am – 10:00am

Where:
Best Western Tree House Inn
111 Morgan Way
Mt. Shasta, Ca 96067

Featuring:
Keynote Presentation by Nikolas Allen,
“Emotional Marketing–Building
Small Business Brands That Matter”

Why:
To help small business owners create deeper, more meaningful marketing messages
and connect with their audience on an emotional level.

* * * * * *

To learn how you can get involved in the Women In Business Network, visit wibnetwork.net.

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