Simple Steps forGrowing Your Business

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Marketing Your Business

Harry MillerSCORE St. Paul

harry.miller@scorevolunteer.org

Topics We’ll Cover During This Workshop:

• Marketing Basics

• Marketing Execution

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

• Target customers• Product or service mix• Competitive Assessment• Distribution Channels• Pricing• Brand Messaging• Marketing Strategy• Budget

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

Market Research – understand your target market– Size– Income level (consumer)– Sales (business)– Purchasing habits– Demographics– Purchasing channels– Geographic location

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

Market Data Sources

• Simply Analytics (Market Research – JJ Hill Library)• IBIS World (Industry Research – JJ Hill Library)• Reference USA (Competitor & market – local library)• US Census data (https://www.census.gov/)• American FactFinder (http://factfinder.census.gov)• National Bureau of Economic Research (www.nber.org)• Hoover’s (www.hoovers.com)• ThomasNet (www.thomasnet.com)• Trade associations

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

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Identify Your Marketing Goals: Activity

Market Data Sources This grid can be used once you’ve done some market research. If you can, fill in the first column.

Can anyone already describe a target market of theirs?

Identify Your Marketing Goals: Activity

Self AssessmentHow would you describe your business focus, product offering, features & benefits and unique differential advantage?

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

How Are You Pricing?• Competitor assessment• Average accepted pricing• Value based pricing• Cost based pricing

Check out: https://www.pricinginnovations.comfor a useful approach to evaluating andstructuring your pricing models.

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

Competitive Analysis

Analyze your competitors to get a clear sense of where you have competitive advantage or disadvantage.

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

Understanding Market Share

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Market Share:TAM / Your

Sales

Portion of the Market That

Your Business “Owns”

• Measured by dollars, units or percentage• Monitor market share regularly • Adjust marketing strategy accordingly

Identify Your Marketing Goals

Distribution Channels

What’s your distribution strategy – is it optimized?

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Identify Your Marketing Goals

Is Your Brand Clear?Branding is the core of your marketing strategy. Branding is the image, logo and market positioning of your company, product or service.

3 steps to brand creation:1. Understand your target market2. Identify your unique selling proposition3. Communicate brand consistently

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Identify Your Marketing Goals: Branding

Brand Messaging

Describe your product/service, points of differentiation and ideal customer – then put them together to create your Brand Message

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Identify Your Marketing Goals: Branding

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Your Marketing Options

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Evaluating Your Business

Return on Investment

Always assess your ROI for your marketing budget

• Set measurable goals

• Measure results

• Adjust marketing plan accordingly

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Your Marketing Options

What’s Right for You?

When evaluating the following options, ask:• Will this help achieve my goals?• Will this reach my target

customer(s)?• Does this fit my budget? • What resources do I need to

implement?

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Your Marketing Options

Marketing Mix:

• Online: website, newsletter, emails, mobile, rating and review sites

• Social Media: social networks, geo location sites, group deal sites

• Advertising: radio, TV, newspaper, magazine, direct mail, yellow pages, online

• Public Relations (PR): print, radio, TV, online• Collateral: business cards, tri-folds, stationary, flyers

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Your Marketing Options

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Your Marketing Options

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Online Marketing

Website

Benefits of a Business Website

• Builds awareness• Helps customers find you• Builds credibility• Drives sales• Customer service• Additional sales channel• National/global reach• E-commerce

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Online Marketing

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Developing an Effective Website

Online Marketing

Principles of Web Design

• User-focused• Simple to navigate• Direct users to take action• Consistent with your marketing message

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See Workshop: Anatomy of a Website

Online Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines

• Create quality content• Use targeted keywords• Measure results

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See workshop: Intro to Google AdWordsFor a primer on SEO: The Beginners Guide to SEO

Online Marketing

Web Analytics can measure:• Number of visitors • Number of page impressions• Average visit length• Most popular site entry pages• Where users come from (sites or search engine phrases)• Number of inquiries, leads or sales generated• Conversion rates• Total sales volume online• Average purchase per online customerUse analytics to determine if your site is achieving your goals

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Online Marketing

E-mail Marketing – ways to get e-mail addresses:• Opt in• Sign up in-store• Offer incentives• Barter or buy lists• Privacy policyE-mail examples:• Newsletter (monthly, weekly, daily)• Sales or specials: Weekly or as needed• Announcements• Event invitations

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Online Marketing

Mobile marketing is multi-channel online marketing technique focused at reaching a specific audience on their smartphones, tablets, or any other related devices through websites, E mail, SMS and MMS, social media or mobile applications.

• 48% of users start their mobile internet sessions on a search engine.• 56% of B2B buyers frequently use smartphones to access vendors’

content.

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For a primer on mobile marketing see: Marketo; What is Mobile Marketing

Online Marketing

Mobile Marketing Methods

• Is your web site mobile-friendly? Check at mobiReady• Mobile banner advertising: Banner space on a site that is

mobile-device-ready• Mobile local search: Having your business pop up when

someone is looking for a local business; Google My Business• Mobile apps: Creating a mobile application to promote your

business

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For more information on mobile apps see TechTarget WhatIs.com Mobile App

Online Marketing

Rating and Review Sites

A review site is a website on which reviews can be posted about people, businesses, products, or services. Feature customer reviews and ratings of businesses. Top 10 business review sites:

• Amazon • Yelp• TripAdvisor • Yellowpages• Better Business Bureau • Manta• Foursquare • Angie's List

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For more info: Understanding How Rating and Review Sites Work

Online Marketing

Getting Started with Ratings and Reviews

Claim your listing and optimize it with:• Photos• Description of business• Maps/directions• Coupons/special offers• Tracking/analytics

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Online Marketing

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Monitor Accounts• Google alerts• Paid tracking services• Manually visit sites

Respond to Negative Reviews• Reputation management

Convert Users to Buyers• Put reviews on your site

Learning Tool• Use analytics• Learn from reviews

Maximize Ratings and Reviews

Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing: Activity

Social Media Overview • Review the Social Media Overview

handout

• Discuss which sites you currently use (or are thinking about using) and why.

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Social Media Marketing

Social Media Resources

Start with each site’s free social media analytics tools Other tools include:

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Manage Your Twitter Activity

• Cotweet.com• SocialOompth.com• Tweedeck.com

Manage Multiple Social Media

Accounts

• Hootsuite.com• NutshellMail.com• SproutSocial.cm

Keep Up With Social Media News and

Trends

• Mashable.com

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Time Commitment

• Time requirements

• Management of updates

• Frequent changes required

• Learning curve for effective use

• Deciding what is appropriate for the media

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Event Marketing

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Event Marketing

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Set goals

Plan event

Promotions at events

Invite partners/sponsors

Publicize/

market

Collect customer

data

Thank attendees

Follow up

Steps to Hosting an Event

Event Marketing

Sponsoring an Event

• Good promotional tool for businesses with local customers• Options include sports teams, charity events, schools, races, fairs• Investigate event organizer

To consider:• What will you give?• What will you get?

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Public Relations

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Public Relations

Understanding Public Relations

Public relations is a means of generating attention from the media that can be as effective as advertising in building awareness of your business.

What are some topics related to your business that you could write a press release for?

Who would you target and why?

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Public Relations

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Standard Format

• Headline• Date• Summary• Body• About/Boilerplate• Contact

Target to Each News/Media Outlet

• Relevant Topics• Timely• Interesting

Resource

• Newswire’s PR Toolkit

(http://toolkit.prnewswire.com)

Writing a Press Release

Public Relations

Press Release Distribution

Target publications, reporters and bloggers:• E-mail release• Link to your website• Follow up

Free press release distribution services:• FreePressRelease.com• PR.com• PRLog.org

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Creating “Raving Fans”

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Creating “Raving Fans”

Why Customer Retention Matters

• As your business grows, retaining existing customers is key to success

• It costs 5 times more to find a new customer than it does to keep one*

• Loyal customers can refer other customers to your business*Source: Gallup

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Creating “Raving Fans”

Customer Loyalty Programs

Keep customers coming back with loyalty programs that can include:

• Loyalty cards• Geolocation websites• Discounts and special offers• Events • Giveaways

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Creating “Raving Fans”

Customer ServiceCustomer service is key to repeat business. Are the following aspects of your business meeting customers’ expectations?

• Physical location• Website• Phone• Your staff• Questions, problems, answers• Customer feedback• Post-sale follow up• Secret shopper

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Next Steps

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Next Steps

• Complete the Target Market Data Worksheet

• Create a marketing plan for the next 12 months that reflects your new marketing goals and explains how you will achieve them

• Visit https://stpaul.score.org/ for more information about other SCORE resources

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Thank you!

We’ll see you next week!

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