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Entrepreneur Marketing – Preaching to the Converted

Tara Jacobsen — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:05:05 +0000

Entrepreneur marketing is hard enough, but no one will really tell you what you are doing wrong. I KNOW, having spent hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours talking to, coaching and teaching entrepreneurs.

Now, just so you know, my kind of entrepreneurs are solopreneurs, small companies and direct sales and network marketing people, not those hard charging, 50 employee, 5 million in sales types (although this still applies to you!!!!)

So what is preaching to the converted and how does it relate to your small business?

First a bit of a back story…I am from Northwestern Pennsylvania and we have A LOT of sayings and colloquialisms. I am not sure why they are so prevalent, but there you have it.

Preaching to the converted or as it sometimes goes, preaching to the choir, means that you already have someone in your house of worship and what you are telling them is something that they are ready, willing and happy to hear. Religion, for the most part, is a volunteer activity and people who are in church (or mosque or temple) have already made at least a small step towards wanting to hear what the preacher is saying.

Compare this to the faithful who go door to door and try to tell random strangers about their faith. The people in these homes MAY be willing to listen, MAY be at a place in their life when they are ready to make a change or MAY just politely say no thank you and close the door.

Compare the effectiveness of these two models, preaching to the choir and randomly accosting people, one by one, hoping that they are going to buy your message.

So how does this work with entrepreneur marketing?

Yesterday I was speaking at a networking event and a really nice perky lady was giving her 30 second speech. She stood up and talked for a couple of seconds about the features of her product, how famous it was and then said, “and a good client for me would be just about anyone! Everyone needs to have “X” to feel better”. She then sat down and I had NO idea who to refer to her. I KNOW, in her perfect world, I would stop my slothful ways, start worrying about my health, quit smoking and embrace her product and company, but there is as much chance of that as there is that I am going to invite door to door religious people in for a cup of tea and 6 hours of discussion.

Imagine instead, she is at a meeting of athletes (or mom’s of athletes) who are focused on providing the best nutrition and help for their bodies. OR a weight loss group who needs to know that while they are losing weight, they also need to make sure that they are not missing nutrients and other important bits for their bodies. THIS is preaching to the converted. THESE people have raised their hands and said they are at least a little interested in a healthier lifestyle that matches her product offering.

Let’s do another one…this is FUN! Another lady at another networking event consistently says she is looking for anyone with skin! Now she gets a chuckle, which you know I like, but I would be surprised if she get many sales leads or referrals. I KNOW, if she says that, she has the opportunity to sell her product to every human walking on the planet, BUT will every human on the planet really be interested in shelling out $69 for some cream that could help them look prettier? Probably not.

Will most men be interested in this? Probably not and she does not have a national audience to target (men and looking younger is an underserved market for anyone out who wants to know, we did A BUNCH of research for a past client and there is a dearth of products made for men, targeted to men in this arena – and NO, men probably won’t buy a product in a pink bottle, no matter how effective it is!)

So now we have narrowed down everyone with skin to female humans, cutting things in half, but wait, there’s more. Some women actually care about their skin (who knew). As you know, I am not all that interested in healthy living and guess what, I am not all that fussy about my skin. I use makeup when I speak, spend LOTS of money on shea butter, hand cream and good smelling lotions, but as for looking younger, not so much for me. I would think that young women, without any visible lines and wrinkles may not be good candidates either.

If I was that lady, I would target women, between the ages of 40 and 70 who wear makeup and lots of jewelry. These are women who are concerned with personal appearance and who probably have some disposable income to spend on creams and potions to make them look younger.

A final, sort of related note about entrepreneur marketing

Okay so we know WHO we are going to sell to, now where are they? When we are starting out, or launching a new product or service, it can seem like a GREAT idea to start nationally, hell, lets go international! Well if you are this far down, you probably know where I am going with this!

A recent client has licenses in both Florida and New York for their services. When we started the planning for their blog and social media services, they wanted to focus on BOTH New York and Florida, but then said that they could actually do it nationwide so that would be even better.

Now trying to rank for just plain “accounting – 543,000,000 competing websites” or “marketing – 2,360,000,000 that’s right 2 BILLION” competing websites makes no sense what-so-ever. We instead decided to focus on a local area with their services and once we get a foothold there, we might move to other areas – OR, they may be so busy servicing their clients that they do not need other locations (remember, we work with entrepreneurs, not people who want to own the next Price Waterhouse Coopers!).

So…has this explained a little better why entrepreneur marketing is all about choosing a niche, dominating that niche and then moving on to the next group, customer demographics or product type? I hope that you try this next time you are out networking or working on a marketing campaign as it can make a HUGE difference in your success!

Entrepreneur Marketing – Branding and Internet Marketing Verbs (Eponyms)

Tara Jacobsen — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:26:10 +0000

Entrepreneur marketing is all about getting your branding out there. Recently there have been a whole rash of new internet marketing eponyms that are actually verbs!

Not to get all grammar-y, but in today’s post we are going to be talking about nouns and verbs. Nouns and verbs (according to Websters Dictionary) are:

Noun: any member of a class of words that typically can be combined with determiners to serve as the subject of a verb, can be interpreted as singular or plural, can be replaced with a pronoun, and refer to an entity, quality, state, action, or concept

Verb: a word that characteristically is the grammatical center of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being, that in various languages is inflected for agreement with the subject, for tense, for voice, for mood, or for aspect, and that typically has rather full descriptive meaning and characterizing quality but is sometimes nearly devoid of these especially when used as an auxiliary or linking verb

Doh, those are some meaty definitions! How about this, a noun is something that IS and verbs are something you DO! (on a side note, it is no wonder that it is so hard to learn English as a second language!)

Branding From The Past

Branding in the past was more passive. The TV industrial complex told us what we should buy and like good little consumers we ran out there and got what they told us to. Here are some of the branding words from the past (all nouns!)

Kleenex – if you had to blow your nose, you reached for a Kleenex, where you were using an actual Kleenex or a Puffs or some other brand
Coke – around the country, coke has been used as a noun for any brown carbonated beverage including when you actually got a Pepsi
Walkman – if you are a little older, you probably had a walkman, which was actually any kind of device that you could listen to music or books on
Band Aid – this one is HUGE! I am not sure I even knew there were other brands of adhesives to put on cuts
Thermos – while there are now hundreds of companies out there making insulated containers, we only call them Thermoses (or would it be Thermi?)

Interesting note, when I was researching this post I found an article from the BrandXpress blog who says these are actually eponyms (a general term used to describe from what or whom something derived its name. Therefore, a proprietary eponym could be considered a brand name which has fallen into general use) – who knew there was a name for this? Also, if you want more lists of brands that are verbs check out Fun With Words – Proprietary Eponyms.

Branding and Internet Marketing Verbs

The thing that I find the most interesting now is that no one person or Madison Avenue marketing company is telling the masses what the branding words are! It is being done by committee, through use rather than by marketers through force of ad dollars.

Here are some of my favorite internet marketing verbs:

To Skype someone – making a call over the internet
Googling someone – looking them up on a search engine to find their background
iChatting – my techy husband says that when they want to talk they iChat each other which is messaging over the internet
Facebooking someone – either looking them up on the facebook or connecting with them on that social media
Pin-able pictures – this is a huge one! the picture for this post was deliberately made “pinable” for my marketing board – having to be worthwhile to share is going to make a huge difference in blogging and graphic design!
It was photoshopped – meaning a picture was manipulated in a graphics program

I am sure that there are a gagillion other new Eponyms verbs for internet marketing, if you know of any I missed, make sure to leave a comment with your favorite!

Direct Sales Versus Network Marketing (MLM)

Tara Jacobsen — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:02:02 +0000

Many of our entrepreneur marketing coaching clients are involved in Direct Sales or MLMs. Because I was not sure I actually knew the difference (okay, I admit, I didn’t know there WAS a difference!), I thought I should get some help from an expert in the industry!

Guest post by Direct Sales Expert – Tina Kraft

There are many articles out there about direct sales versus Network Marketing (sometimes called MLM or multi level marketing). I find it interesting how varying the opinions are on this subject. First off, I have been involved in both so this comes from first hand experience. Having said that, each and every company has a different sales model and compensation plan. Every company has a different percentage of commissions.

Network Marketing Companies

Most Network Marketing Companies have an auto ship for both the customers and the distributors, and to receive your royalties as a distributor it is a minimum monthly autoship to receive your products for “wholesale” – every company is different. Network Marketing is based more on signing people up to be either a customer or distributor and have them on autoship. They are normally consumable products. You make less money on your individual sales and about the same on your downline as in direct sales, but again EVERY company is a little different.

Direct Sales Marketing Companies

Direct Sales is more relationship based and face-to-face sales. Most Direct Sales companies use the party plan module. The commission made by the distributor from their personal sales is usually very good so YOU are more in control of your income. You can also build a downline and have residual income from your downline. Most companies have incentives and bonuses for sales and recruiting and also have incentive trips you can earn for FREE! Being more of a relationship based model, you have repeat customers and hosts for your “parties” or events. This is also why it is dominated by women as we are more relationship based in business.

How To Pick A Company

So what type of company do you want to be a part of? First when picking a company you need to figure out what you are passionate about. Are you passionate about health and wellness, decorating, bling, cosmetics, fashion, coffee? The list goes on and on! Also look at the compensation plan structure, do you want to build a team and become a leader in the company? What type of support will you need?

Direct Sales and Network Marketing are great ways to become an entrepreneur. It DOES take hard work, dedication and time to build your business.

Remember that nothing in life that is worthwhile is easy!! But it is very gratifying!! Make sure you are committed to your venture and don’t become discouraged easily.

Tina M Kraft is an Accountability Coach and has built a multi million dollar team in the Direct Sales Industry. She lives in Denver with her husband of 35 years. Visit her site at tinamkraft.com, Friend Tina on Facebook, Follow her on Twitter or Connect on LinkedIn!

Entrepreneur Marketing | Direct Sales, Network Marketing, MLM

20 Percent Of Marketing Works But Which 20 Percent

Tara Jacobsen — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:03:31 +0000

I have heard that 20 percent of marketing works, but which 20 percent is working is often a really good question! There are no hard and fast rules about how marketing works, but we CAN track the results of that marketing.

In the old days, we knew some good numbers about marketing, send out a mailer and get a 2 percent response rate. Follow it up with a phone call and increase that number to 4 percent. Ah, the good old days!

Recently I sat down with a prospect who was throwing numbers around and he asked me point blank, how many percent of the people who will use our service are going to come from Social Media. I told him in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, I do not know. Understandably, he wanted to be able to quantify any investment he would make in marketing, but guessing and throwing around numbers before we knew more about how it would play out is silly to me.

The way I quantify my success in marketing is how many new prospects are created, how many turn into clients, and how well their retention rate is. Lets break those down:

How Many New Prospects – Marketing is all about getting new opportunities. I have heard all the mystical stories about how millions are made online without ever having to talk with anyone, but most of my clients are in the service industry or small business owners. I have NEVER sold my services without talking with someone or meeting with them at least once. My prices are not inexpensive for small biz owners and I understand completely that they want to know that there is a real human who knows her stuff at the other end of the line. Those new opportunities that marketing creates are part of the activity of getting new clients. You are just trying to get X number of people to show an interest in your product or services.
How Many Turn Into Clients – Even if you have 1,000 leads a day (from my mouth to God’s ear), if you don’t have a followup program to remind them that they are interested, you cannot sell them. To me the beauty of newsletters, twitter and facebook is that you can stay in front of your prospects without SELLING SELLING SELLING. I generally get a new client every time I send an email, BUT those people first got onto my email list through my blog, a speaking event or through social media. Additionally, when you follow up with a phone call from time to time, your conversion rate will climb exponentially.
How Well You Retain Them – Keeping your clients happy with your business starts before the sale. If their expectations of what you are going to do for them are not in line with what you actually produce, you will spend a lot time getting new people into the system and spitting them back out. Not good for your bottom line OR reputation!.

Here is a funny Dilbert that shows this PERFECTLY

Marketing does rely on a good product and consistent message, and just being the one talking the loudest will not win! So which 20 percent of marketing works?

To me the marketing that works best is a consistent message, over time (NOT expecting immediate, glorious results), with a clear product offering. I cannot tell you how many small business owners (1) are not sure of what they are selling or (2) change their offerings as often as they change their clothes. Do not get me wrong, I have launched some products that died an ignominious death, BUT I have never changed my target audience or providing the best, most time-relevant offerings possible.

Are you excited about your business?

Tara Jacobsen — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:30:57 +0000

One question I always ask people is, are you excited about your business? Do you leap out of bed every morning just thrilled to get going on your day? If you are self employed and you are NOT this excited, then you are doing it wrong!

Small Business Entrepreneurs – A Get Rich Slow Kind Of Scheme

We work with many different types of entrepreneurs and small business owners who are working on a get-rich-quick kind of scheme. They jump from idea to idea, thinking the next one is going to be the BIG one that makes them heaps of money. I have never seen this work out, although I am sure you have gotten tons of emails telling you that it is possible for just $997.

One of my favorite bloggers, Remarkablogger, posted a challenge to other bloggers about revealing their secrets to breaking through to the other side of blogging success. I do not really talk about what makes my life easier or harder as an internet (and REAL) marketer, but in hopes it will help someone else, here are a few of my favorite things.

An Entrepreneurial Upbringing – A BIG ONE – One of the reasons I am successful at marketing and speaking to small business owners is that I grew up with that mindset. When I was young we had the “Whalers Walk” behind our house. This was a little gift store that was open whenever someone was home (as I was too young for a driver license, mostly that was me). I would follow shoppers up with my little cash box and sell to them. The next store my parents had was the DandyLion gift shop (my mom was WAY more creative with her naming conventions than I am!) As a child, I got an early exposure to the thrills of opening and running your own business.

Early Internet Interest – Around 1999 I got into a job where I did marketing for an internet company. When I started I had NO idea the difference between Linux and Windows servers, what programming languages where good for websites or even a lick of graphic design. Through trial and LOTS of error, I learned enough about that kind of thing to talk reasonably well with clients and overcame any fear that I had of technology. NOW, do not get me wrong, I am not a techy girl BUT I can talk the talk and not get snowed by fancy sounding techno-speak.

Failing A LOT – This one is HUGE – I mess up a lot. I have rolled out products that no one bought. I have spent good money on copywriting that would not make a starving man buy food. I have developed a “no lose” monthly product that I could not get more than 35 people at a time to sign up for. I have learned that you should not put years of time into something until you KNOW that it will make money. Do it good enough to get out there and then refine it AFTER you know it is something that the market wants.

Naming and pricing things – Oftentimes we know what products we have and what we like to do, duh. Most times we keep that a secret from potential clients by not formally naming it and putting a price on it. I used to do more piecemeal items, which I hate. Once I set up monthly marketing services, my business really took off. I LIKE working with committed people who are determined to make their businesses succeed, not just throw up a website or blog and think it will solve all of their problems.

Learning new things – Last but certainly not least is that I know everything is going to change and that I have to stay on the front lines to keep up. If you told me 5 years ago blogging and making blogs would be paying the bills I would have said you are nuts. Three years ago I did not know anything about social media and today I get paid to speak about it. It makes me sad when I see people stuck in what USED to be. They want everything to go back to how it was when they understood it. Well that is not going to happen. Progress moves forward and we have to keep up the pace. This little excerpt from Micheal’s post says it all!

If you look back to the 70s and early 80s, youâ€™ll find something both interesting and very revealing of human nature happened. The robots came. What I mean is, robotics in manufacturing happened. And everyone knew it was going to happen. People who worked in factories knew it was coming. Those workers had a choice: they could learn something/do something new to take advantage (or at least sidestep) the coming change (like go to to school forâ€¦ oh, I donâ€™t knowâ€¦ robotics), or they could doâ€¦ nothing.

You know what most people did, right? Weird, huh? Like lambs to the slaughter, etc. Those people were responsible for families, too, who were then harmed by this fatalistic refusal to deal with the changing times. Sad.

Hot Small Business Marketing Help

Tara Jacobsen — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:03:34 +0000

Hot Small Business Marketing Help is a mix of the latest posts that we just LOVE, selected resources that we think are hot and a mix of our products and affiliate products that we recommend. This is meant to be an overall resource for small business, entrepreneur and realtor marketers.

General Small Business Tools

Small business owners often have a hard time with basic business focus. These products and services will help you to get a better idea of the basics of your business so that you can succeed at marketing.

Blog post – Small Business Marketing Focus – I have to say that this is the ONE thing that most small business owners miss. From the comments on this post, having a focus is worth SO MUCH more to your business than anything else you can do for marketing efforts.

Small Business Online Help

Blog post – Small Business Internet Marketing Tools – Some of our favorite tools – this is a MUST read for anyone who needs some tips and tricks about internet marketing for Small Biz.

Blog post – Writing Evergreen Blog Posts – Writing evergreen blog posts is not sexy BUT it will make a HUGE difference in how well your website will rank for key terms you need to dominate.

Blog Post – How To Have A Custom Facebook Business Page – Facebook Custom Business Pages are becoming a must-have for small businesses.

Recommended Marketing Videos Resources

I sign up for more training in a month than most of you probably do in a year. I think that learning one new thing a day will make a huge difference in your success. That having been said, I know of a number of totally free marketing resources that you can access anytime you like for FREE!

Free Resource – Gary Vaynerchuk Keynotes – Gary is the author of Crush It and has great content in his keynote speeches that is so worth hearing!

Free Resource – Offervault Recorded Webinars – There is SO much great free information on Mark Roth’s website. It has a free member section that contains webinars on all kinds of internet marketing, NOT just affiliate stuff.

Small Business Marketing That I Pay For or Recommend

It can seem like everything you need is on the internet for free and what kind of schmoe would pay for anything anymore? Well I AM frugal but found out a long time ago that it does pay for information that I don’t know OR for things that will save me time and heartache. These are all things that I use in my business which cost money, but that I think are worth it!

Paid Tool – SEMRush – I had been using another keyword research tool which I liked very much. I got all that info and more for half the price using SEMRush. Worth taking a peek.

Our Products – DIY Small Business Videos – Our membership site has small business marketing videos that are updated monthly. On these videos I tell you the new things that I have learned and which I think can help you grow market share. Check out all of our small business marketing products.

Paid Resource – Constant Contact Email – The reason I use Constant Contact instead of AWeber or another service is ease of use PLUS I did not have to have my list re-confirm the first time uploaded them. My list is NOT super sophisticated and has a hard time understanding why they have to re-up.

Design Resources That I Like

Idea Book by Chuck Green is a GREAT design resource. He has templates and all kinds of design resources.

I will be updating this post when I find new great stuff! If you have something to recommend please leave a comment and I will consider adding it!

Technical Resources

WordPress Site Optimizing Expert Shawn is who I call on when I am having trouble with my (or my clients) blogs. All wordpress blogs experience bugs from time to time and I can tell you that learning to fix them takes a rocket scientist! Shawn is quick and has great pricing. If your blog needs a tune-up check out his roadblock removal package!

Web Directories – this is one of the tools that we use to help grow our clients backlinks.

How To Find Your Small Business Passion

Tara Jacobsen — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 14:34:11 +0000

Finding your passion is all the rage today. You are supposed to get out there and start doing what you are put on this earth to do. Problem is, most people do not know what their small business passion is!

Yesterday I wrote about having a small business and entrepreneur marketing focus and man-o-man was I humbled by the response from my past clients and readers. Hearing that they are making thousands or tens of thousands of dollars more from the advice that I gave them was overwhelming.

So what is the magic that causes this to happen? Is it because I talked to them? Nope. Is it because they magically had the secret to making millions online. Nope. It is because they had a passion for what they wanted to do with their business and then worked really hard to make it happen.

About ten years ago I dubbed myself “Queen of Marketing”. No one bestowed that on me and I have no fancy schmancy college degree in Communication or Marketing. What I do have is a passion for marketing that is all out proportion with how interesting it is to normal human beings. I read about it, watch webinars, teach classes and consult with clients, basically it consumes about 75% of my waking hours. Can you say that about your business?

How To Find Your Small Business Passion Overview

I have read Gary Vanerchuk’s book Crush It and know that you have to have a passion. I have read about half of Joel Comm’s book KaChing and know that you have to have a passion. I have also talked with thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs and realtors and know that most do not have a passion. They like their work well enough OR hate their work but like the income OR just are doing something for right now to get them through.

REALLY? You are spending 40 hours a week or more doing something that makes you go meh. Stop it now!

How to find your passion seems to be somewhat vague and most people have no idea how to go about it, and even less about how to fit it into their business model.

Where To Start

Start by figuring out what you like to do. I do not mean knitting, unless you are a rabid knitter and it consumes your every waking thought. Most people have hobbies and those should not be confused with their business life. Keep those fun and figure out what you like to do work wise. Here are some weird things that I know people like to do:

Accounting tasks – now I am an accounting dud. I hate balancing my books BUT there are people out there who get a thrill from making all those numbers add up. One is my client Joy (of Lakewood Bookkeeping and Accounting fame) who likes to work with small business owners. She enjoys helping them to regularly manage their accounts and grow their business. Another client likes to get in there and find out all of the problems in small and medium sized businesses, straighten them out and get them on an automated track. Same job, two different versions.
Real estate – My pal Cyndee, Clearwater Realtor extraordinaire, is hyper focused on providing great service and information to high end buyers in the Tampa Bay area. She has spent the last two years targeting that group and referring out anything that does not match her high-end criteria. NOW, you may think who does not want to target high end buyers, well many realtors actually would rather work with first time homebuyers OR sellers in distress OR people looking just for waterfront properties. Each person needs to target exactly what their passion is and go after that with gusto.
MLM Business – Two of my friends and clients are in multi-level marketing (or direct sales). They sell such diverse things as passion products and green cleaning supplies. While they LIKE their products they LOVE sales and business building respectively. It would not really matter WHAT they were selling, they are focused on the aspects of their businesses that they have a passion for.

So what is your passion?

If you do not know what your passion is, frustration can overwhelm you. Stupid passion talk.

Stop beating yourself up and start noticing when you are having fun. If you are making phone calls, getting leads and making things happen, maybe doing phone support is your passion (and one that can be VERY lucrative). If you ADORE researching new products online and figuring out what is going to be hot next season, maybe that is your passion.

Yesterday I spoke at a networking group and asked an insurance guy if he had THE MOST INTERESTING insurance information. He said no. Why would I want to read, listen or buy from a guy who did not have the passion for his business to make sure that my home and family are secure.

Here is how you do it…close your eyes (oops that doesn’t work for this venue), well keep your eyes open and think about what one thing you would do business-wise if that is all you could do for the rest of your life. Don’t worry about your industry, concentrate on what tasks you like to do within your business life.

There. You are done! That is your passion and now you can go out and make yourself work that matches that passion. It will probably not start or be lucrative today. You may have to keep your J-O-B for now or keep selling to people who do not thrill you today. BUT if you know what you want to do and take one or two steps towards that everyday, you WILL get there.

Fast Track To Passion Success

Most people should stop at the end of the last paragraph. They will find something they like to do, do a bit each day to move towards that and in a couple of years be comfortable financially or personally, whichever is important to them.

If you do not have a burning desire to build something, grow your influence or make a change in the world, that is fine! Finish here and prosper.

Warning Hard Work Ahead!

Okay, now that we have the “nice” people out of the way, here is the hard core, make it happen soon, get me to the finish line version.

If you want to Crush It with your passion, you are going to have to work hard with a single-minded focus for a while. You need to live, breathe and work your business for a while before she is going kick ass and take down names.

Whenever I hear tremendously successful people say that they would have done it differently if they had the chance today, it makes me NUTS. If they had worked less, spent more time smelling the roses and enjoying life, they would not be where they are today.

Great success takes hard work. If you can not work on your passion at your current work, you are going to have to do it some other time. Do it early in the morning, knock out some at lunch, stay up late, work on the weekends. If you have the luxury of working at your passion now, can you honestly say you are giving it your all every day?

The only way to succeed at this is to find someone who will kick your butt. I am NOT talking about a warm and fuzzy accountability partner who will pat you on the head if you make your calls today. I am talking about someone who will help you to set steep but realistic goals for the next week or two and who you would be HUMILIATED to tell you failed. I have been up at 11 o’clock at night (REALLY late for me) finishing things that I said I would get done so that I would not have to tell my person I just did not do it.

These should be YOUR goals and the the things that will make the most impact on your business in the next week or two. Do those things and then set new goals. Do them when you do not feel like it, do them when your car breaks down or your cat tears up your curtains. Do them when you would rather be fishing or getting your nails done. Life will always try and distract you BUT if you really want to succeed you will soldier on through and “just do it”.

Start today.

Small Business & Entrepreneur Marketing Focus

Tara Jacobsen — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:44:03 +0000

Having a small business marketing focus is the one thing that will increase your chances for success dramatically! The business owners and entrepreneurs who are clear about their products and services will succeed every time over someone with a great idea but no goals.

One of my buddys, Dunedin Realtor Deborah Ward, posted this Brian Tracy quote on Facebook today, “Every great achievement of humankind has been preceded by a long period of hard, concentrated work until the job was done. Your ability to select your most important task, to begin it, and then to concentrate on it single-mindedly until it is complete is the key to high levels of performance and personal productivity.”

Brian Tracy is one of my idols. Whenever I get a bit off track, I make sure to listen to a bit of his no-nonsense, shut up and do it, advice. This advice applies both to day-to-day tasks as well as the overall focus of your business.

What is your product or service?

I cannot believe how many small business owners are not laser focused on what they sell. If they have a shop or storefront, other non-focused items creep in. If they are a services based company, many times they will accept a one off client that will suck the life out of their time and resources.

When I first sit down with a client to do a marketing consult, I ask what their company is selling. Usually I will get a long winded story about what is going on now, what they tried in the past, what failed and some excuses for why they are not more focused right now.

In my business I sell speaking (workshops and paid gigs), information products like my membership site and affiliate products for other people and I also have monthly clients. That is it.

If you cannot state in one sentence EXACTLY what you are selling, stop everything right now and figure that out. You cannot have more than three things because with more, you are not able to focus on anything.

How to implement your marketing focus

Next you need to make sure that you doing something for each of those things every day. Put it in your calendar and check it off when you complete it, every day. Make sure it is either providing a third of your income or a third of your leads.

I KNOW – you are busy working on your work. You do not have time to pay attention to your core goals and income every single day. REALLY? If you are not laser focused on what you should be doing, I can guarantee that at least some of what you are so busy on is not core to your success.

Ignore everything else

If you know exactly what you are selling, you can ignore everything else. When you see a new opportunity, make sure that you ask yourself if it is in line with what you say your business is about. EVEN if it seems like it will just take a couple of minutes away from what you are doing now. EVEN if it seems like it would be a perfect fit for your current customer base. DO NOT DO IT!

Some hard truths

If you feel even a little uncomfortable right now, there is a good chance that you are not as rock solid sure of your company’s goals, products or services. If you think I am stupid and you are never going to read anything I write again, you may like the fun of chasing shiney new things, rather than putting your head down and working towards a goal for at least 6 months at a time.

Even if you never come back here, do me a favor. Write down the three things your business does or sells. Put it up on the bulletin board in front of you and every time you see something new come along, see if it EXACTLY matches on of those three things. If not, just say no!

If you have a small business or entrepreneur marketing focus success story, please share it here with a link to your site!!!

I am having a sale on my $250 marketing consult! For the month of August only, you can get a two hour “meeting” for just $100. I put this out to my newsletter list last month and three small business owners and entrepreneurs are now on track and ready to go! If you would like to find out more, give me a call at 727-415-9165!

Features Versus Benefits Part Deux

Tara Jacobsen — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:14:08 +0000

My features versus benefits post asking whether you are selling the steak or the sizzle is one that pops up quite a bit on my google analytics. It seems like every small business marketer has struggled at one time or another with trying to figure out what is a feature and what is a benefit.

Basically, features are facts about the product or service that you sell. They tend to be VERY important to the person who is the manufacturer or service provider but which are less sexy to someone who is buying it.

Benefits are what it will do for you. How it will affect your life or your profits. Benefits are why late night television infomercials work so well. We get sucked into the idea that by spending a couple of bucks we can learn to sell real estate for millions of dollars or dehydrate all of our groceries so that they will stay fresh for years.

I was sitting around watching TV the other day and a mini infomercial came on for the Mister Steamy, a gizmo that is used in your dryer. As I am always interested in good marketing, I took a peek.

The features were….

It is a round ball
There are about quarter inch nubs sticking off of it
It is yellow
It is used in the dryer

At no time did the pitch man mention any of those things. The entire commercial was devoted to selling the benefits of the product. Now I am a pretty savvy consumer but with these types of benefits I was intrigued….

All my clothes would look new and pressed
My sheets would come out hotel smooth
My shirts would be magically ready to wear
It softens clothes while you dry with no added expense of a dryer sheet
If I needed a shirt in a hurry, I would have it in seconds without an iron

Those are some great benefits for me! Then when they doubled the offer for the same price, I almost bit. NOT because I thought it would work but because I WANTED all those time saving conveniences they said I could have to be true!

Great marketing will not fix a bad product. But if you are a small business owner with a great product or service to sell, please look at your sales sheets or website product page. Do you have features listed that are important to you or have you outlined all of the benefits to your customer?

If necessary, you can have your benefits at the top of the page and the features at the bottom so that once they are “sold” they can check out the details BUT they will never pour over all the specifications for your product until they believe that it can help them in some way!

There are no affiliate links in this post and I am sad to report that while mr steamy has great marketing, a product review site said that the actual functionality is non existant.

Unintended Marketing Consequences Beware Beware

Tara Jacobsen — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:58:44 +0000

Unintended marketing consequences pop up at the most inopportune times! If you are not minding your goals, it is easy to run off the track with something new and shiney that does not do what you thought it did.

I have to say that I hear about all kinds of new marketing ideas every day from blogs I read, email lists, readers who send me ideas and friends who know I like marketing. Some of them are G-R-E-A-T and some have put a really bad mojo on my marketing efforts. That is why I generally test out anything I am going to recommend on my stuff first. At least if I mess my Marketing Artfully or Tara Jacobsen marketing up I can usually fix it!

Recent unintended consequences…:)

MarketingArtfully.com redesign – to all you email readers out there, you may not know that I redid Marketing Artfully’s look and feel. While it is BEAUTIFUL, I have to say that it DID make some time changes necessary. In the past I could knock out a post in about 15 minutes and bang, up it went. Now there is more juggling around with image sizes, categorizing and more. Not a deal breaker but DEFINITELY did not know that would be the result!
Adding everyone to Gist – Now I do not know if www.gist.com is going to take off BUT like all things that pop up I joined in case it does do well (here is my take on Social Networking First Responder Advantages). That having been said, uploading everyone all at once to that one was a major ick factor. It wound up creating the same mess that I have now trying to follow all my real friends online stuff.
Getting more of the kind of clients you DO NOT WANT! My biggest beef with unintended consequences is when you are very successful but have started down the wrong road. This has happened to me a couple times where I built a successful client base but did not like the work I was doing. Argg. Be very careful to plan who you want to work with BEFORE you get started with what kind of marketing to do

If you have any neat bad marketing mojo stories, please feel free to share them here!!!

PS – The title of this post cracks me up, the Beware Beware part comes from the movie Labyrinth and funny rock people say that in a really spooky voice…I am cracking myself up over here this morning!

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