Small business marketing articles

 

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5/31/2005
Online Marketing Tools - Link Manger Assistant
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General
Online niche marketing— keilo @ 4:24 am Edit This
This weekend I have been busy updating one of my online marketing sites. My very first online niche marketing site was My Prom Hairstyle purchased from Dr Mani. To be fair, I wasn’t overly impressed with the site as bought. That was OK - I always expected that I would have to customise the site to make it stand out from the crowd.
Instead I have used that site as my sandpit. You know, the place where I try different techniques to see what happens. To date I have tried various adwords campaigns (never spending much money), blog and ping and some links from my other reasonably highly ranked pages.
Now I have decided to shoot for links. Duncan Carver is unique on the internet (in my opinion). He offers his ‘Link Manager Assistant’ software as a free download. Other suppliers provide similar software for up to $197.
Link Manager Assistant is different. While it may be free it is immensely powerful. It will certainly take a while to get to know all its online nich marketing capabilities. For now I have simply added 30 to 40 hair style directory pages. Almost all of thes pages come directly from DMOZ.
When I have a bit more experience with Link Manager Assistant I will write a full review.
Suffice to say that I have added Link Manager Assistant to My Prom Hairstyle. Most of the time has been spent in customising the directory templates so they have the same look and feel as my other pages. This is not for the faint hearted. I am not a computing whiz but I have a pretty good background knowledge. It took quite a lot of time to figure out exactly what I had to do to customize the template.
Take a look. Let me know what you think.
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5/28/2005
First Niche Marketing Web Site Created With Xsitepro
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General
Online niche marketing— keilo @ 7:59 pm Edit This
I have just posted my first web site created with XsitePro. It took a bit longer than the 2 hours claimed by the XsitePro people. In fact it took something more like 3 days.
In that 3 days Ihave
identified a niche,
researched the site content,
learned how to use Xsitepro, wrote the content for the pages,
identified and joined suitable affiliate schemes
chosen and ordered a domain name
transferred that domain to my hosting service (Thirdsphere)
Uploaded the web site files
The actual site building bit was simple. It took a couple of hours to go through Xsitepro’s tutorial - time well spent. It then only took about an hour to build and publish the web site. As always - it’s the preparation that takes the time.
All in all I am pretty happy with the result to date. Still plenty of work to do but why not have a look at Choice Lift Chairs and tell me what you think.
I have spent much of the last week promoting the site through goodle adwords. Only time will tell how well I am doing. I’ll let you know.
If you want to take a look at Xsitepro click here now
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5/22/2005
Niche Marketing and Web Site Building Tools
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General— keilo @ 2:26 am Edit This
21 May 2005
Look anywhere for making money on the internet and you will be inundated with information about niche marketing. Somehow there is some idea that the internet invented niche marketing. The truth is that most small businesses would benefit from identifying and dominating a niche.
If you have spent any time looking at my main site, Business Growth Solutions You’ll know that I am passionate about small businesses using the internet to promote their businesses. So, while I would usually argue for a wider consideration of niche marketing, this time I am going with the crowd. This post is all about internet niche marketing.
One of the great difficulties is knowing the best way to get on line. Web site designers charge large sums for highly variable work (if you find a good one stick with them). One alternative is to build your own web site. Lots of tools claim to help you to do this with no knowledge of the web, html, search engines or any other related topic. Perhaps the only one that really does do this is the one Business Growth Solutions is built with - Site Build it (try the link at the bottom of the page).
Until now.
Recently I bought a copy of XsitePro. It came with a 365 day money back guarantee so I thought I’d give it a try.
In all honesty, I have been blown away. XsitePro is not only easier than SiteBuilIt to use, but it also offers much more flexibility and control.
To start with I have used it to collect a whole bunch of my articles together in one place. Now, I can publish them all on a web site at the touch of a button.
But that’s not the point.
Using XsitePro’s search engine optimisation tools, each and every article is now optimised for the key words it features. I have continued to place these articles with article and ezine directories. I will wait to see the results.
Of course, SiteBuildIt could be used to do this. But to be fair, SiteBuildIt’s block building approach is pretty slow and clunky in comparison to XsitePro.
As confidence increased I decided to have a little experiment with a niche web site myself. You can see the early results here Choice Lift Chairs. Using XSitePro’s built-in templates, a couple of hours research on the internet and a few hours writing the content, and you have a pretty good looking web site in 2 evening’s work.
Click here to view the “7 Reasons Why You Need XSitePro Now!” video
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5/21/2005
Affiliate marketing for small businesses
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General— keilo @ 3:12 am Edit This
Anyone who has visited my main website Business Growth Solutions cannot have failed to realise that I am passionate about the appropriate use of the internet to market small businesses. So much so that I am actively investigating the use of affiliate marketing. You might like to have a look at my latest effort at Choice Lift Chairs.No what do you know about lift chairs you might ask. And the answer a couple of days ago would have been, “not a lot". However, a few hours of research on the web, a bit of personalisation of the results and a few hours with a word processor and presto Choice Lift Chairs. The plan now is to use a variety of traffic generation techniques - including this blog - and see how we get on. I’ll keep you informed.
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5/12/2005
Work SMART and Transform Any Business Into a Go-Getting Power House
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General— keilo @ 2:30 am Edit This
We’ve all heard the phrase: “work smarter not harder". Well, the SMART acronym contains all you need to know to make it a reality.
If there is one key to turning busy, ineffectual organisations into models of streamlined efficiency then this is it. Probably as well known as SWOT, SMART turns weak, aspirational goals, objectives and tasks into concrete deliverables.
More accurately SMART ought to be SMARRRT. There are at least three equally valid definitions for the ‘R’.
OK, the one minute introduction to working smarter:
Specific: Be completely clear on the outcome expected of the goal, objective or task
Measurable: Phrase the statement of what is to be achieved so that the achievement of that outcome can be clearly measured.
Achievable: The idea is to clarify and motivate. There is nothing more demoralising than carefully constructed, but utterly impossible, goals.
Realistic: Given your current situation: is your goal realistic? Relevant: Is this specific task or goal relevant to the overall aims of the company or plan? Resourced: Are the relevant time, people, facilities and equipment available to deliver the desired outcome?
Time bound: Make sure there is a claim time limit on the completion of the activity.
Properly applied, SMARRRT transforms your business.
An example:
I specialise in helping owner-managed businesses grow. One of the first questions I ask is “Just how much do you want your business to grow?” Pretty typically the answer is something like “we’d like a few more customers” or “a lot".
Even at this early stage I start to apply SMARRRT.
What does growth mean to you? More income, more profits, more customers, more staff, bigger premises…. Usually we settle on income and profits.
OK, just how much more profit would you like? What would you be delighted with, what would just make you happy and what is OK but not very exciting? (I use stretch goals in a balanced scorecard type of approach - more on this in another article).
Now we start to get some real thought and progress.
“I’d be happy if we could get 50% more in profits each year".
So far so good. When do you want to achieve this level of increased profit by?
Usual answer is immediately - pretty unrealistic. So maybe we settle on within 12 months.
It’s certainly more specific. “To increase profits by 50% within the next 12 months". And it’s got a time frame.
Is it measurable? For most small companies you would certainly expect them to be able to measure an increase in profits. Tight controls on expenditure may have to be agreed though. Profit can be badly damaged by unplanned expenditure. In general it is much more positive to use precise measures. Instead of a 50% increase it would be better to say “Increase profits from $500,000 per annum to $750,000 within 12 months.
Is it achievable. This is what I do. And I have never seen a business where it isn’t possible to increase profits by at least this much. All that holds businesses back is the lack of commitment and will from the top management. So let’s assume it is achievable - for now.
Realistic? Good products. Poor history of marketing and promotion. Stable market with ongoing demand for the product. Certainly ought to be realistic.
Relevant? This would be a top level goal. As long it genuinely represents a part of the owner’s strategic vision it is relevant by definition.
Resourced? Hmm, this is a difficult one for top level goals. Exactly how much work will be required? How much investment would be needed in terms of marketing or capital investment? How much time will the owner need to put in? Lots of questions which can only be answered as more detailed SMARRRT planning takes place. For now we must take an educated guess. In my experience, if the owner is sufficiently committed the rest of the resources will be found.
Perhaps the most certain aspect of this hypothetical situation is the clear time scale.
A little re-wording of the original goal statement, “In the next 12 months we will grow our profit from the current $500,000 to $750,000,” and we have something that is SMARRRT. Note: All the answers to these questions should be recorded as part of an overall strategy document. For public consumption the statement we have used here is generally sufficient.
Time bound? Within 12 months.
As you can see, the goal is defined in the ‘Specific’ element of SMARRRT. The MARRRT are essentially checks to ensure the goal makes sense for your business given current business context, strategies and constraints.
As you get more sophisticated with your use of SMARRRT you will probably want to start recording not just your goal, but exactly how you will measure progress and achievement, how this goal fits in with your overall organisation, the resourcing implications,…
For now, you will be astonished at how much more you achieve simply by constructing your goals to be SMARRRT.
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Keith Longmire is the owner of JKL Business Growth Solutions. JKL specialises in bringing main stream business improvement and marketing solutions into the reach of smaller businesses.
Copyright 2005 Keith Longmire.
Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends. It may be used in your ezine or newsletter as long as this resource box is included intact.
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5/11/2005
Cross-selling for increased sales, profits and customer satisfaction
Filed under:
General— keilo @ 1:48 am Edit This
Cross-selling - the art of selling for non-salespeople
Cross-selling is the act of selling related products at the time and point of sale. Here’s a couple of examples:
You buy trousers, the salesperson offers you the shirt, tie, cufflinks, shoes…
You buy a computer, the sales person offers you a printer, scanner, software…
When done well cross-selling will dramatically improve your sales, profits and customer satisfaction. Done poorly it will drive customers away in their droves.
The first time I told my wife about this concept she was scathing – “all those *£$% sales people trying to sell you something you don’t want” (She doesn’t really swear – much). We chatted for a while without too much meeting of minds. So I told her a story.
In days gone by you used to be able to walk into a hardware store, walk up to a counter and be greeted by a real person (this is before the days of big supermarkets and anonymous self-service). The conversation might go something like this:
You: 5 litres of white exterior gloss paint please.
Sales: Certainly sir, here you go. The finish from this paint is helped a lot if you use good brushes – how are you fixed for brushes?
You: Well, I haven’t looked for a while – I am really not sure.
Sales: What are you going to paint?
You: 3 doors and a couple of window frames.
Sales: Umm, for window frames you are probably going to need a 1 inch brush for the detail and a 2in brush for the rest of the frame. The 2 inch brush would be good for the doors too if they are not too big. Tell you what, why don’t you take a couple of brushes. If you find you don’t need them you can always bring them back later.
You: Great – good idea.
Sales: You’ll need some white spirit to clean the brushes– do you have any?
You: No – you better give me a bottle.
Sales: What are you planning to do on preparation? We have some pretty good packs that contain wire wool, assorted grade wet and drypaer, and some soft soap. Soft soap is much better for cleaning up old paintwork than detergents as it doesn’t leave any residues.
You: I hadn’t thought about preparation – I’ll take one of those packs as well.
Now that salesperson probably didn’t even think what they were doing was ’selling’. They were simply ‘helping’ a customer.
But look what happened - you have been cross-sold into spending 3 or 4 times the price of a tin of paint. But when you get home you are ready to do the job. And if you don’t need the paint brushes you know you can take them back (but you probably won’t).
In the end my wife agreed that it wasn’t the cross sell itself she found objectionable – it was the way in which it is done.
Good cross-selling provides a service to the customer. It is nothing to do with pressure selling. It is not a tool simply to help salespeople hit their targets. And it has noth whatsoever to do with pushing products that the customer will never use.
And the really good news?
I haven’t yet seen a company that could not benefit from training its staff in the art of cross-selling. Notice I said staff. Cross-selling is not just for sales people.
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Keith Longmire is the owner of JKL Business Growth Solutions. JKL specialises in bringing main stream business improvement and marketing solutions into the reach of smaller businesses.
Copyright 2005 Keith Longmire.
Please feel free to pass this article on to your friends. It may be used in your ezine or newsletter as long as this resource box is included intact.