Figuring Out How to Market Your Small Business

Whether you are a new business or a well-established mom & pop operation, figuring out how to best market your business can be a challenge. Unless you have training, education or a background in marketing, it can be overwhelming to consider the many choices available to you today. Indeed, with the advent of social media, blogs, E-mail, websites and E-newsletters - to name a few - marketing today is vastly different than it was just 10 years ago.

If you are going to go it alone and do your own marketing, I have a few suggestions you can use to get organized and create a strategy that works for you.

1. Figure out what you are trying to accomplish. One of my favorite sayings is "if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Most businesses want to increase sales, but determine exactly how much sales increase you want. In other words, set a goal or two. Try to stay away from vague objectives like "increase awareness of my business."

2. Figure out who you are talking to. In past blog posts, I've talked about figuring out who your target audience is and gave some tips on how to make that determination. Choose your most profitable segments to target at first. Narrow it to just two or three if you can.

3. Figure out how to reach those people. Where do they live, what do they read, what social media do they use? It's easy to go online and search for media habits of a particular demographic. For example, a Google search for "media habits of teen males" yields more than 1.8 million results.

4. Figure out what they need to hear about your business. Depending on the segment you are targeting, your message could be about an upcoming sale, free delivery or your convenient locations and hours. Think through what your target audience cares about and, based on your experience with your customers, what motivates them to take action.

5. Figure out how much you can spend. This means both time and money. Small businesses have a limited amount of both, so whittle down your messaging to the best two or three and focus on one or two ways to get the message out. That may be E-mail and social media, or an ad in the paper and a radio commercial. It all depends on everything you have already learned above, remembering that some things (like social media) can require a larger investment of time while others (TV commercials) cost more. Knowing what your budget is up front can help you decide how best to invest based on what you believe will yield the most payback.

Finally, I suggest that as you go through this exercise, you put it on paper. I created a brief outline you can use as a guide and you can download it for free here. If you want help developing a marketing plan, please E-mail me.

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.

Share This!

By Kim Deppe
With all of the changes to search engine optimization that have taken place in 2013, it is still abundantly clear that good content is the MVP of SEO. Good content drives more clicks to your website or blog by interested readers, which boosts your SEO. But just writing great content is not enough - you have to share it and encourage others to spread it around the internet. It is true that very few posts or videos really go viral in a big way, but that doesn't mean that you can't take a few steps to increase the number of people who see your website or blog.

First, make sure that you are adding social sharing buttons to your website or posts. Ideally, those should be located in or near the actual article. Make it easy for your readers to share the article with their friends or followers by adding icons or links to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. Don't confuse these with the social media icons that you have on your site to direct readers to your own Facebook or Twitter pages. It is best to move these down to the footer or along the side of the page to distinguish them from social sharing buttons.

Next, promote your posts on your own social media pages. Grab the URL to your new article, copy it, then paste it into your Twitter feed, LinkedIn post or Facebook page. Add a few words that describe what your readers will learn in the article. And, it never hurts to ask your followers to share the post.

Finally, make an effort to read and share the posts of others either in your field or among your friends and followers. Engaging with others is a great way to encourage them to do the same. Reciprocal sharing is common when the content is good and the source is trusted.

Taking these steps will increase the number of people exposed to your blog or website, which in turn can improve your SEO due to increased clicks to the article. Now, please share this post!

About Kim Deppe

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.

Write right! Lose the jargon and communicate more effectively

By Kim Deppe

It may just harken back to our days in high school or college when we had an essay to write and were having a little trouble. Maybe we didn't know enough about the topic or we didn't do the reading, but there we were having to b.s. our way through a test answer or a paper. It's happened to most of us. That's when we start stringing together the largest, four-syllable words we can conjure in hopes of sounding as if we know what we're writing about. Over time, I think we keep writing in that high-fallutin' style when we are doing our resumes, trying to impress a boss, or just feel that we need to throw as much high-tech sounding content as possible into something we are writing. The end result is usually a bunch of convoluted, professorial writing that few people really understand.

Here's an example: I heard an ad on the radio this week for a local physician group. I'm paraphrasing here, but it's pretty close to truth. The copy went something like this: "we provide a full continuum of care with state-of-the-art medical equipment and board-certified specialty physicians who are committed to providing the very best possible quality of care."

Now, I confess here that in my 21 years of healthcare marketing I, too, have written garbage like this. It populated print ads and annual reports and the medical professionals I reported to just loved it. The only problem is that "Joe Sixpack" didn't get most of that. Not because Joe is stupid, but because Joe does not speak "medicine." He speaks colloquial American English. Or, in my case, Southern. Joe probably doesn't care that we have a "full continuum of care" (whatever that means) or that the doctors are board-certified (whatever that means). And one would hope that every practicing physician is providing "the very best possible quality of care." That's a weasel phrase designed to keep them out of court, anyway.

What I really wish the physician group had told me is why I should choose them over someone else. Do they have extended office hours? Do they set aside time for daily walk-in patients? Do they use Twitter to respond to patient questions? You see where I am going with this. In the medical industry, but also in other high-tech fields, it is easy to slip into a lot of jargon when you are writing letters, brochures, or even advertising copy. Everyone thinks it sounds sexier to say bi-modal doppler 4-D imaging (I made that up) than to say "we have the latest diagnostic tools to help us figure out what is wrong with you."

The next time you visit your company web page or read your own brochure, see if you can spot any jargon that should be removed. Pay attention to the reading level, too. Journalists are taught to write at about an 8th grade reading level. Most word processing programs have a tool that will tell you what grade level you are writing at - try to keep it below 10th grade if you can. Keep sentences short. Use jargon sparingly, if at all. Pretend that you are explaining what you do or sell to someone from another planet. By not assuming that they know anything about your business, you can be sure to tell your story in a way they will understand and appreciate.

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to businesses. Visit www.DeppeCommunications.com or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com to schedule a free consultation.

Marketing Your Small Business: TGIF!

By Kim Deppe
It is Friday, and a good time to look back over the week and cherish your accomplishments, figure out where you could have improved, and then set your sights on the week to come. How many of us really do that, though? Do you do it once a month, or once a quarter? How about once a year?

It might seem an odd way to "do marketing" but reflection and thinking are an important part of your marketing efforts. We have fancier marketing jargon for the process - we call it research, analysis and planning - but the truth is that small business owners can just stop and do some thinking and accomplish the same thing. And it does not have to be a long, involved process. In fact, a few minutes each week can help you stay ahead of your marketing and stay on track with your plan.

Here are a few things to think about:

1. Did you get new customers this week (month, quarter)? If so, where did they come from and how did they find you? You may have some people to thank for making referrals. You may need to look at your advertising budget and put more money into things that are working, less money into things that are not working. If you did not get more customers, try to think about why that happened. Look at everything from your sign out front to the design of your website. If you have a store front, make sure your hours are a match to your customers. I cannot tell you how many small businesses I see that close up shop just as all their customers are getting home from work and could do a little shopping or run their errands.

2. How many people visited your website and how does that compare with last week/month/quarter? If you don't have Google Analytics or some other website tracking method, I encourage you to take care of that right away. Google Analytics is free and it will give you great information about traffic to your website. If your traffic is dropping off, consider some pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and make sure your content is fresh, interesting and relevant to your customers. Your website is often the first time a customer encounters your business - make sure it really represents your business well.

3. Did sales improve? If you have e-commerce on your website you can analyze sales quickly and see what products are selling and which are struggling. Use that information to guide you in future promotions and product choices. If you only sell from a physical location, look for trends in traffic flow to the store, days and time of day when things sell, etc.

4. Ask yourself what you did well and what you need to improve upon. This is especially tough for businesses like mine that are a one-person show because it means we have to analyze our own behavior. But an honest appraisal can help you spot little issues before they become big problems. It is also a great way to acknowledge what you did well - when you are your own boss, you need to give yourself a pat on the back once in a while, too!

5. What needs to happen next week/month/quarter? Think about the changes you want to make in your marketing efforts - blog more often, tweet more, start a new PPC campaign, etc. Write them down somewhere and put some deadlines on them. You don't have to have a fancy marketing plan but if you want some guidance on creating a basic plan, there is a free download on my website that will help you. Look for the big red button that says "Free Download."

Happy Friday!

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. With over 25 years corporate executive marketing experience, Kim Deppe brings a unique combination of strategic marketing experience and online marketing know-how to her clients. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.

Ciao Barilla? Social Media Can Damage Your Brand

By Kim Deppe

In a stunning lack of sensitivity, the CEO of Barilla pasta told an Italian interviewer that the company would not feature homosexual couples in its advertising because that didn't fit the company's idea of family. When the CEO's interview was published, the social media world exploded with condemnation and calls for boycotting the brand. The hapless CEO then compounded his problems with a strange "apology" that demeaned women by implying that the only family he pictured is one with the woman in the kitchen doing the cooking. One supposes he means only a heterosexual woman.

And so begins the brand's crisis and probable decline in sales. A few sentences that spread like wildfire across social media by a CEO will have, I predict, a tremendous impact on sales of their pasta in the U.S., if not worldwide. Within hours #boycott barilla was trending on Twitter and it was all over the national news that night.

My point is this: if you think social media is not important to your business, please re-read the first two paragraphs of this post. The Barilla CEO is just the latest casualty in a series of brand-damaging remarks made by company leaders - think Chick-Fil-A, the Boy Scouts, Papa John's Pizza, etc. All of them suffered some damage to their brands after remarks that were picked up across social media and condemned by large numbers of people. In some cases, this damage is short-term and it will be interesting to see if Barilla will face a lasting problem.

If you are not engaging in social media right now, then you should at least be monitoring it. Do you even know if people are out there talking about your company on social media? Your brand is extremely important to the success of your company, so listening to social media is the bare minimum that you should be doing. After all, if you do not manage your brand, I assure you it will be managed for you by someone else!

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. With over 25 years corporate executive marketing experience, Kim Deppe brings a unique combination of strategic marketing experience and online marketing know-how to her clients. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.

Blogging and Article Writing for Marketing

Content is the word of the day in marketing circles, but understanding what to do with your content once you create it can be challenging. Whether it is Email, blogging or submitting articles to other websites, your content is a crucial part of your overall marketing effort.

You need to provide great content to those you email. People hate spam, so be sure you do not give readers the impression you are trying to spam them. People will unsubscribe if they aren't getting valuable information.

Building a blog is a great way to emphasize your credibility and leadership within your industry. The articles that you post on your site should demonstrate positive qualities like honesty, professionalism and good humor. Talking about current trends in your industry will help customers and potential customers see that you are on top of things.

One of the most creative and interesting ways for businesses to attract attention on the Internet is to blog. Blogging is a great way to interact with your website visitors and it is often free to add a blog page. Even without any experience, most people can create a blog and get it off the ground.

After some time writing and gaining experience, you should have a lot of articles. Make an eBook that contains your most popular articles on one topic and give it away or sell it. If the eBook is well written, others will share it and it can generate even more customers for you.

You might want to outsource article writing. If time is an issue or you do not think you are skilled enough to write your own articles, consider hiring writers to generate content. The expense will likely balance out when you have the high quality content that you need to post regularly.

Submit your articles to directories and blog networks too. Blogging is very popular nowadays; if you can work your way into a niche, you can build your website's traffic. Be sure to include a link to your own site with every article so that people can find it easily.

If you are trying to promote a product or service and see that someone famous is using it, try to get a testimonial from them or permission to mention their use of it in your marketing efforts. This is the type of endorsement that can create unlimited demand for this type of item. However, never claim that a celebrity uses your product whenever they actually don't because this can cause all kinds of legal problems.

Prior to marketing an article, it is vital to research the area it is going and see what has already been published. This way, it is easy to identify and customize topics and approaches that will be successful.

Having an exceptional product that already attracts a lot of customers makes article marketing much easier. By doing this you will attract users with ease when you write your articles.

Exercise creativity and uniqueness when writing articles. You want this content to show your personality, so people can learn more about you. Developing your own tone will make your readers feel you are being honest and writing articles based on your own experience.

Try to set up time-bound goals to achieve when you start to write your articles. Not only will this strategy keep you on track, but it will also improve your bottom line. The more articles that you can produce, the higher your view counts will improve.

You should be aware that it is up to you to implement these tips into your article marketing strategy. You need to know what to do to succeed and what to change when things go awry. Remember what you've learned here, and you'll be successful.

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. With over 25 years corporate executive marketing experience, Kim Deppe brings a unique combination of strategic marketing experience and online marketing know-how to her clients. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.

What Do I Do With My Marketing Data?

By Kim Deppe
So, you have done your homework and now you know a little more about your customers. The question is, what do you do with all of that marketing data? Data is only useful to us if we can understand it and put it to use to help our businesses grow. Just knowing that 10% of your customers are blonde doesn't help much - unless you are selling hair color.

 The first thing to do is organize the information. Separate your customers by zip code, for example, so that you can see where your opportunities are. You may want to get a local zip code map and color code each zip code by how many customers come from that area. The color coding is a good way to get a visual guide to customers locations. Some questions to ask:
- do I need another location closer to my customers?
- why are some people close to me not using my business while others come from farther away?
- do my customer locations have anything to do with natural boundaries (rivers or lakes, for example) or roads and bridges? Are these barriers I can address?
- if my customers are clustered in certain areas, are there opportunities for me to target my marketing to those areas and try to get more customers? Remember, birds of a feather flock together!

You can also use geographic data like this to determine what kind of advertising you need to do. Can you do targeted mailings or do you need something broader like print, TV or radio advertising?

Be sure to ask lots of questions about your data. For example, when you look at information about how your customers found out about you, it can tell you whether you need a stronger online presence, better signage, or simply a good customer referral program. Ask the "why" questions - Why are 60% of my customers men? Why are most of my clients under age 40? And then think about whether this is what you intended - is it your target audience? And if not, should it be?

Digging into your data can be an interesting, time consuming, and sometimes lengthy process. But it is worth the time you take to understand what the data is telling you. If analytics isn't your thing, then by all means, find someone in your circle to help you, or hire a professional marketer or analyst to assist.

Lastly, don't make the mistake of doing this just once. Your customer base will be constantly changing and you should be collecting data regularly to keep on top of changes. For example, if you suddenly start seeing teenagers coming into your restaurant, you may want to figure out why - did a new skateboard park open nearby? is there a new school in the area? That will tell you if this is a fad or a permanent situation that you can capitalize on.

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. With over 25 years corporate executive marketing experience, Kim Deppe brings a unique combination of strategic marketing experience and online marketing know-how to her clients. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.