11 Most Effective Ways of Reaching Your Target Audience if you are a small business (SME)

by | Jan 31, 2012 | Blog

As discussed previously, reaching your prospects and customers with your message is today the single greatest ‘cost of doing business’.

If you are a small business, selling to other businesses (B2B) or a professional services firm and even when selling directly to your customers and clients (B2C), then here are our top 11 ways of getting your message to them most cost effectively.

In my past life, when working as a media planner buyer for one of the largest advertising agencies in the country, I quickly realized that when it comes to a media budget – there is never enough money! And I am talking about big national and international brands, with tens of millions of dollars who had to quickly make choices about media channels, geographical markets, length and intensity of their campaigns.

Yet the sad truth is that most small businesses do not plan their promotional budgets with anywhere the same level of professionalism. Even more importantly, the smaller your budget the more creative you have to be with your communication as you don’t have the luxury of being able to drum in your message through the sheer weight of your media budget. And you have to be more vigilant with capturing and analyzing data to understand what works and what doesn’t. 

You will notice that Social Media, the most talked about development in the marketing arena and consumer lifestyle is ‘missing in action’ as a separate point in this list. The reason is simple. Social Media Marketing is so important and so pervasive in attracting customers, that aspects of what is now deemed social media marketing should be present in each of the 11 points below!

1. REFERRALS
  •  Existing customers 
  •  Influencers (who are not customers)
This of course implies that you have both a strategy and an offer / incentive to get these 2 audiences to refer business to you.
The media you use to get the message and offer to them may be made up of one or combination of the following:
  • Face to Face Conversation (Personal Sales)
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Email
  • Telephone
  • Direct Mail
  • Promotional Products
2. NETWORKING
  • Physical – Dedicated Networking Groups, Industry Associations, Expos, etc
  • Virtual (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc)
3. YOUR ONLINE ASSETS (Website, Blog, YouTube Channel, Twitter, Facebook, etc)

4. SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING
  •  Paid Search / Pay Per Click
  • Search Engine Optimization  
6. PR – ONLINE

7. PR – TRADITIONAL

8. DIRECT MAIL & TELEMARKETING

9. NEWSPRINT
  • Trade Press
  • Local Paper
  • Niche Magazines

10. POINT OF SALE & PACKAGING

  • If you are a retailer or supplier then getting this right is paramount
  • Window displays and merchandising in general are still under utilized by most SME’s 

11. OUTDOOR
Strategically placed traditional out of home and ambient media can be very effective. Consider the following for inspiration:

  • Large Traditional Super site Billboards on Freeways purchased at distress rates
  • Gyms, Medical Rooms, Lifts, Cafes, Restrooms, etc anywhere where there is a ‘captive audience’
  • Business Signage (outside and inside your premises)
  • Make sure the medium ‘drives the message’. This means craft your message creatively to address the medium it is in. E.g.: If you have a sticker on the mirrors of all the local hairdressers advertising your Personal Training Services Business then you should be connecting the message and offer to the mirror, or to the experience of getting a haircut, e.g.: “Do you like what you see? Get your Free Fitness Assessment at XYZ Personal Training and get on the road to looking and feeling good – inside and out”
Linked In: It is not how big it is but how you use it!

Linked In: It is not how big it is but how you use it!

by | Dec 13, 2010 | Blog, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Training

october-2013

A fascinating debate recently took place on the pages of Anthill, the summary of which can be described as follows:

  1. Should you aim to get as many connections as possible?
  2. Is Linked In suitable for B2C Marketing or only B2B?

You can find the article and readers responses here:
http://anthillonline.com/so-you-have-300-contacts-on-linkedin-well-im-not-impressed/

Doesn’t the question of how you should connect and with whom all depend on your product or service offering?

Although I see merit in both arguments, I am partial to side with Jen Bishop. Obviously by definition, Linked In is more suitable to B2B, however “all of us” are consumers and now there are 80+ million on there who are a marketer’s dream demographic! Which raises the question of reward v effort and ROI of targeted ads in this medium versus building your personal network…but that’s a whole other debate.

To support Tom’s point, I know of a Marketing Consultant (Self Proclaimed Linked In Guru) who has 17,000+ connections. Although he is undoubtedly a very smart guy who seems to be very successful and have his heart in the right place providing a lot of free education, I do not agree with some of his tactics and “teachings”, in fact I have reported one of his tactics to Linked In as I see them akin to “black hat SEO” …

I digress…the point being he is selling “educational product”, CD’s, Pod/Video Casts, PDF’s etc…The more connections he has the better for his business! In that respect he is doing a great job – satisfying customer demand and making a profit without doing anything wrong!

SO LET”S ALL BE CLEAR ABOUT OBJECTIVES – HORSES FOR COURSES! We should not make sweeping statements but instead spend a little time working on our strategy, value proposition and then worry about evaluating the media channel, it’s advantages and limitations and the process with which you will maintain DIALOGUE in your chosen channel.

Success on Linked In and in fact in all Social Media channels, to be specific VIA NETWORKING & WORD OF MOUTH, NOT ADVERTISING, relies on the principle of leveraging and building your reputation with your existing professional (and personal) connections as well as building new connections that will also hold you in high regard. Now how you will do that is the big challenge and not one of technology but strategy! What will you offer them to make their lives/jobs easy and what do you need to do to attract people to your profile in the first pace?

Many Linked In users damage their reputations because they forget the simple rules of engagement when it comes to interacting with their existing and prospective audience online.

I received two Linked In invitations in as many weeks, from individuals that indicated they were friends and gave no specific reason as to why they wanted to connect with me and used standard “templated” invites. In fact, having searched my electronic databases as well as my “super computer” called the human brain; I could not remember how or where I MAY have met these two people. These two invites were great examples of what not to do on Linked In. This doesn’t mean that these individuals can’t add value to my network or I to theirs. It does mean that I will wait to accept their invitation until such time that they can illustrate the value in connecting with them, and either choose to be more honest or learn how to better use the technology!

My Linked In connection policy is based around either one or both parties being able to POTENTIALLY add value to another. It’s a decision process that most PROFESSIONAL Linked In members should be able to answer in a matter of 30 seconds (in this case deciding whether to connect or not):

  1. Has the person inviting me illustrated a clear reason for doing so?
  2. Is this reason of value to me?
  3. If there was no clear reason stated, they have one last chance. I look at their profile for 20 seconds and decide for myself, read between the lines how connecting with them may benefit either me or them:
    – Are they a potential prospect or referrer for my business?
    – Am I a potential prospect for theirs? Is what they sell so unique (are they a real expert in their field) so as to interest me, even though they may not have given me an initially strong reason to connect.
    – Am I a potential referrer for their business?
  4. Finally, if the answers to most of those are negative, I will not connect with them, as they are likely to fill my inbox and those of my network with useless junk and be a time sucking vampire!

Your CONNECTION policy maybe vastly different, BASED ON YOUR SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES, but the bottom line is you NEED to have one, and the only way to do so is to have a well thought through strategy.

For a Free and No Obligation Discussion about your specific needs contact us today.

Linked In: The Rules Of Engagement for Successfully Building Your Professional Network.

by | Dec 2, 2010 | Blog, LinkedIn

Success on Linked In and in fact in all Social Media channels relies on the principle of leveraging and building your reputation with your existing professional (and personal) connections as well as building new connections that will also hold you in high regard. Yet many Linked In users fail to do this effectively and damage their reputations because they forget the simple rules of engagement when it comes to interacting with their existing and prospective audience online.

This bog entry was prompted by two Linked In invitations in as many weeks, from individuals that indicated they were friends and gave no specific reason as to why they wanted to connect with me and used standard “templated” invites. In fact, having searched my electronic databases as well as my “super computer” called the human brain I could not remember how or where I MAY have met these two people. These two invites were great examples of what not to do on Linked In. This doesn’t mean that these individuals can’t add value to my network or I to theirs. It does mean that I will wait to accept their invitation until such time that they can illustrate the value in connecting with them. I am confident and hopeful they can do so after reading this.

Below are 5 great articles by Linked In “power users” that discuss the strategies of building your professional network on Linked In as well as the specific do’s and don’ts of Linked In Invitations.

I define Power Users as those that use Linked In to develop and grow their network (and consequently personal brand & business) in a strategic manner – they have objectives, systems and processes. They are thought leaders who have a deep understanding of the medium and the technology and use it to their fullest advantage.

Here is my long held view and summary of the below articles:

1. DO NOT write anything that you wouldn’t otherwise say in person, on the telephone or in an email. You wouldn’t call up anyone, regardless of your relationship to him or her and utter the standard Linked In template words “join my network” as your opening remark! Then why do so many people do so in the medium of Linked In?

2. Remember that everyone listens to radio W.I.I.F.M – What’s In It For Me? Have a compelling reason for connecting / sending an invitation (in marketing terms – your offer and call to action) or use one or multiple principles of persuasion. As you read the below you will see that appealing to one’s ego in the form of flattery works as well!

Prevalent attitude to accepting and refusing Linked In invitations as well as some great tips on social media networking etiquette:

The official Linked In view and procedure on “how and who to connect to” can be found here:

Perception is Reality. Make sure perceptions of who you are positive and profitable!

Gene Stark

http://au.linkedin.com/in/genestark