***Scroll down to see the 2015 Marketing Update***
Marketing, marketing, marketing. Yes, you may be used to hearing ‘location, location, location, but if you don’t have a marketing strategy in place, your business will die. The businesses that survive economic downturns are usually the ones that ramp up their marketing when everyone else is running scared.
It doesn’t matter what kind of entrepreneur you are, you must invest in both online and offline marketing to keep the ‘Top of Mind Awareness’, which means you want to be in front of your prospects ALL THE TIME. There are many ways to do this without breaking the bank and you can either do it yourself or hire a marketing assistant. I hire marketing strategists to help me keep Wealth Building CPA in front of my prospects all the time. If I stopped marketing, I would definitely not be able to grow as a business.
I’ve asked some marketing experts to reveal their tips and strategies on how you can implement powerful techniques to keep you on top of your game.
Seven Ways to Stay in front of your Prospects by Yasmin Razaq
Have you ever signed up to a newsletter or membership group to get access to special information that you want and need? Do you get regular social media updates from groups you belong to on Facebook or Linked In? Are you a fan of particular real estate blogs or blogs in your industry?
These are all marketing strategies designed to capture your information and build a relationship with you over time, so eventually you become a customer or client. Marketing is all about relationships. People want to do business with those they know, like and trust and this takes time, but if you are not building these relationships, your competition will snap up your prospects and leave you empty-handed.
Here are some sure-fire ways to stay in front of your prospects at all times:
• Capture their information: Offer something they want and need on your website so you can capture their email or mailing address. This way you can continue to market to them forever. I offer a Free report on my website at businessmarketinggirl.com targeted at small business owners. If I didn’t offer a report, my sign ups would dramatically decrease.
• Use Social Media: You don’t have to join all the networks, but pick one or two and master them. Be consistent and deliver regular, informative tips. The key to success in social media is to get your audience engaged with questions, polls, competitions and events. Be social and enjoy it. Nobody wants boring updates.
• Blog: Google loves blogs because it’s fresh content. Without getting technical, the more you blog, the more you increase your chances of being found when prospects are looking for your service or product. Blog about what your customers care about in your industry and promote your blog posts on social media and Linked in Groups. If you don’t like to write, hire someone else to do it. You can find good, reasonable writers on sites like Guru.com – just make sure you check for good reviews and samples of work first.
• Be an Expert: You already are an expert in your field, so share your knowledge with others and drive traffic to your site. It’s as simple as answering questions in your industry on blogs, forums and chat groups. Once people see you as a good source for information, they will likely follow your links back to your site.
• Network: I don’t mean just any old rubber chicken dinner! Be selective and only attend events where you can connect with other connectors and highly qualified prospects. Once you exchange information, make sure you follow up the next day with an invitation to connect and meet.
• Direct Mail: This seems to have gone out of fashion, perhaps because it’s more expensive than email, but it’s still a perfectly viable way to reach your prospects using postcards and other special offers. Be sure to mail qualified leads only and give them an incredible offer which will drive them back to your site to sign up.
• Be Unique: There is only one YOU. Play to your strengths and stand out from your competition. If you love video, then make short 2 minute videos for youtube. If you want to be ‘famous’, start your own internet radio show for free on blogtalkradio. If you like to be outrageous, then do it tastefully. Just don’t be boring!
Yasmin Razaq helps small business owners make more sales and get more clients through marketing. You can reach her on yasmin@businessmarketinggirl.com
Why Businesses Fail: Marketing Mistakes by Amy Leigh Campbell
Much has been written on business success and failure, and the common threads are the lack of capital, poor timing, distracted leadership, and an inability to keep profits ahead of expenses. But even businesses that are well-funded and well-managed fail to thrive because they ignore fairly basic marketing principles.
There are 3 key elements that most failed campaigns (and in extreme cases, failed businesses) can point to as the root of their demise:
1. Valuing Short-Term Profits over Long-Term Success
We all want to be popular. We want to be liked. So it’s a great feeling when your campaign for a product or service gets a lot of traction. But there’s a reason they call these “loss leaders.”
Loss leaders are campaigns where you spend more time and money generating new customers than line-item revenues for that product. Properly executed, a loss leader LEADS to more revenues from those customers. Yet all too often, businesses fail to move those customers past the entry point.
2. Bad Feedback & White Lies
You’ve seen it a million times. It’s what I like to call “ego-based branding.”
Branding that focuses on the company’s founder is rarely appropriate. Unless the founder IS the product, the brand should be built around the value its products and services deliver to its customers.
This concept extends to all of our marketing choices – from the colors we choose to the language, words and syntax we employ. Too many times it reflects the personality and preferences of the founder and/or the company’s leadership.
Unfortunately, business owners are no different from anyone else when it comes to feedback. We often ask friends and family for their opinion. Since these generally tend to be people who “like” us, their feedback is meant to please us, not to keep us focused on sound marketing strategy.
3. Ignoring The Data
Marketing is, at its core, a call and response scenario. The call to action is sent, and then we gauge its response. The all too common mistake is measuring the response. If you’re in business to make money, the measurement of the response must include the revenue. Social media has exacerbated this tendency to measure the wrong kinds of responses. Facebook likes, Twitter followers, and website hits are good data – but they are a means to an end. That kind of data can tell you how your campaign is being received, and thus allow you to make revisions, but ultimately you have to take a hard look at how many dollars you’ve generated.
You can reach Amy at Amy@TheHTMelle.com
7 Ways to Avoid Mediocre Marketing Results by Glenn Garnes
There are many reasons why small businesses fail to achieve their marketing goals, but none of them are good reasons. With a little planning and focus, small business owners can quickly turn their marketing campaigns into assets instead of a drain on revenue. Below are 7 ways to avoid mediocre marketing results:
• Create a formal marketing plan
• Don’t impulse shop for marketing
• Develop a system for marketing your business
• Measure results (should be included in your system)
• Make adjustments to fix what’s not working
• Stick with it your plan long enough to allow it to work
• Seek opportunities to collaborate with others
These seven simple steps will create a marketing power house instead of simply having you going through the motions of marketing.
About the author:
Glenn Garnes is a retired attorney who has worked with small businesses almost his entire 26 year career. He is a published author and sought after speaker on small business marketing and other topics related to starting and operating a small business. You can reach Glenn at Glenn@glenngarnes.com
***MARKETING UPDATE AS OF 2015***
Excerpt Credit: David Finkel
Track your results so that you reduce wasted marketing dollars (and reinvest them in proven winners.)
Leverage Point #1: Creating growth through better and more consistent lead generation.
Too many service business owners make the mistake of improvising their lead generation and do it haphazardly. When they see a lack of sales they panic and scramble to generate fresh leads. Then they get caught up in managing the business they bring in. Because they can’t count on a consistent lead flow it becomes almost impossible for them to effectively manage their cash flow and growth.
If you are truly serious about building a service business you need a reliable baseline system for consistently generating a steady stream of qualified leads into your business.
Take the example of Client A who built up two very successful businesses (the first a health products company and the other a commercial real estate business. She had just purchased a Middle Stage Level Two mail center with the intention of scaling to multiple locations.
When she took over the business there were no marketing systems in place of any kind. There really wasn’t a business, just a little bit of inventory, a physical location, business fixtures and equipment, and some customers who were in the habit of using the location for shipping and notary services. Client A creates and tests various lead generation activities, and within 6 months she’s found three solid lead generation systems that reliably bring in new business.The net result? Her sales are up over the old owner by over 50{fb849818a88037ce04db040329570cd7308144680204f05386d4fa7bf5ad0081} in just 6 months!
Leverage Point #2: Creating growth through a more effective, more reliable, and more replicable sales process (Lead Conversion)!
Does your business have a systematized and proven lead conversion process that reliably helps your business convert prospects (leads) into paying customers and clients?
Is that system designed so that other people on your team can and DO sell as well as or better than YOU the owner?
It’s imperative that you either know how to do it yourself from your past experience OR if you get coaching from someone who’s done this before!
Again, as noted above, the real goal of all this is predictable sales volume.
One of the biggest challenges for business owners is that their business is either feast or famine. Especially for service businesses. They scramble to find business until they are full. Then they shift their energies over to doing the client work and meeting the demand of all this new business. Then they finish up a lot of this business and realize that they don’t have any new business coming in so they scramble again to find more client work. It’s an ongoing cycle.
It is incredibly difficult and risky to scale your service business staff when you can’t count on a steady flow of business.
You must find a way to systematically bring in a consistent and growing stream of new and repeat business. This is one of the most important secrets to building a service business.
Credit: David Finkel
Here are some recent questions from my blog
QUESTION: Growing our RE business in the US certainly has its growing pains. In structuring our entities, (we function in Florida, Georgia and soon in Texas), we have been informed that, “…your company is a dealer in real estate sales and purchases, not an investor (1031 exchange tax deferral is not allowed for dealers)”. A more detailed discussion will take place with our CPA, but I would like to hear from some others on BP who “deal” in rehabs within an LLC, s-corp or c-corp. How are your 1031 exchanges handled? Is this an entity focused restriction, or an activity focused restriction? I see the reasoning on an individual basis, but how many flips does it take before you are considered a dealer?
ANSWER: It all boils down to intent. If you intent is to buy, fix and flip then you are a dealer and cannot 1031 exchange. If your intent is Buy, hold but then decided to flip, then you can 1031 exchange and there is also a holding period requirement when next you want to sell the replacement property for another one. Most people usually recommend 12-18 months but if you are flipping within a short period of time, then you are a dealer and subject to S.E. tax. You could come up with an entity structure that minimizes not eliminated your Self Employment taxes.
QUESTION: I want to replace my camera and was wondering if a high end camera is something i can expense. i am talking $3k camera. i am a “high end” amateur photographer with good taste in cameras and lenses. Of course i’ll use it to take pictures of the properties, also, wondering what were some of the things that you were able to expense.
ANSWER: You can expense it but only up to the {fb849818a88037ce04db040329570cd7308144680204f05386d4fa7bf5ad0081} that you allocate for business use. As for other deductible business expenses, it has to be necessary and ordinary in your kind of business and have a valid business purpose.
I address many of these issues in my Wealth Building Plan. Make sure you are getting the best tax advice. Let me evaluate your financial and tax situation, then develop a customized tax strategy just for you. Together, we will come up with a strategic plan designed to answer your questions as you build your own customized wealth-building plan. You can get more information at WealthBuildingPlan
