My Marketing Mentor

Why you don’t have to have a USP

Most marketers will insist that you must have a USP, a Unique Selling Proposition, if you want to have any chance of making it in this competitive, dog-eat-dog world. If you don’t have something that makes your business different to your competition, you might as well forget it.

As a classically trained marketer I should subscribe to this way of thinking. As someone who has witnessed many businesses thrive without a specific USP though I find it hard to do so.

Have you have spent hours, weeks, months and maybe even years coming up with your USP? Are you still searching for that ‘holy grail’? If you have found a USP which has truly given you that competitive edge and taken your business to a whole new level, that is absolutely great, and there is now no need for you to read on.

If, on the other hand your USP is somewhat vague, fluffy or non-existent, don’t worry. You don’t have to have a USP, and here’s why.

In my experience, just being better at promoting your business than anyone else is much more powerful than having a USP. If your marketing isn’t consistent and strategic then all those people whom you’d like as clients won’t know about you. Even if you have the best USP in the world, if you don’t promote it, it’s also the best kept secret in the world.

The good news is that most of your competition is really bad at promoting themselves. Most small businesses don’t have a strategic plan. Out of those who do, many don’t follow the plan.  

So ask yourself who your dream clients are, what’s important to them and how you can most effectively get them to take notice of you.

If you’re stuck for ideas on how to get them to take notice of you, why not come along to our next workshop?

In the meantime I’d love to know whether you have a USP? Is it working for you?

Why you should enter business awards

This month I'd like to share with you a really fabulous way to promote your business. Apart from taking a bit of your time, it’s completely free and can be incredibly effective.

Entering business awards can seem a bit daunting at first. A lot of small business owners I have worked with over the years have felt quite intimidated at the thought of entering such awards. Often they don’t feel like they really deserve to be recognised for their business efforts, let alone win an award.   

Here are some really good reasons why it is a good idea to enter business awards:
 

• Helps position you as the “expert” in your field
• Gets your name out there
• It’s free
• You’re very likely to meet some really inspiring people
• You might actually win – and that feels great!
• Even if you don’t win, the whole process is most likely to be a fantastic experience

I won a couple of business awards for my previous business in the UK. This lead to a local radio interview, which lead to a TV (BBC) interview, which lead to being asked to speak at one of the biggest SME events in the UK. In short, I received the kind of publicity money can't buy.  

There are plenty of business awards throughout the year (I endeavour to let you know about as many as possible), some of which may be specific to your industry. A little search on good old Google will be a good start to finding out about them.

Are you willing to give it a go? The Telstra Business Awards telstrabusinessawards.com is taking entries until 5pm AEST on Monday 4 April 2011. Good luck!

Learning to Love Sales

If you hate having to sell your business, yourself and/or your or services to a potential client, you're about to be let into a huge secret. The reason you hate selling, is because your Marketing...well sucks.

Before you get angry at me and hit 'unsubscribe', please hear me out.

Most of us unfortunately tend to have quite a negative view of sales. We often associate the word ‘sales’ with someone trying to sell us something we don't want. So the person doing the selling appears pushy and annoying, and that is the absolute last thing we want to do to our prospective clients. We want them to want our services, so we don't have to convince them that what we offer is the best thing since sliced bread. Ideally we want them to have come to that conclusion long before we even have our first direct contact with them. We dream of a steady flow of pre-qualified prospects who have already decided they love what we do. That’s where your Marketing comes in.  

When I started my first business a few years ago in the UK, I spent a lot (far too much) time knocking on doors, and having most of them closed, sometimes slammed in my face. Ouch! I promise it wasn't fun. After a few, very discouraging months of experiencing what it's like to be a failed salesperson, I decided I had to change my tactics.

As embarrassing as it is to admit this, I realised at the time that I had been completely neglecting the one area I was supposed to be an expert in - Marketing! I had a top degree, certificate and several years experience in Marketing, and I still failed to realise the big mistake I was making.

I needed to create demand for my product. I started to spend 90% of my time and efforts on Marketing, and put sales on hold completely for a while. The results, as you may imagine were dramatic. I began to receive inquiries for my product from all over the world, and the only selling I had to do was closing the deal.   

So, if you dread selling, spend more time and get really smart about your Marketing. Make sure that you are targeting the people whom you believe to be your ‘dream clients’ with the correct messaging i.e. the key messages which convince them that you are the perfect supplier for them.

 

Finding new customers

Flying Solo recently conducted a survey to which 1200 micro businesses in Australia responded. For me the most interesting question they asked was 'What has been your biggest challenge in the last 12 months?'. Can you guess what got the most votes?

 

'Finding new customers/clients'

 

Anyone surprised by that? Didn't think so. However, I think that we need to turn this challenge on its head. Our challenge shouldn't be to find new customers. It should be:

 

'Enabling new customers/clients to find us' 

 

That's where the power of good Marketing comes in. If you get it right, you won't have to go out and look for new customers. You will have new customers finding you.  

Some of the critical aspects of marketing you must get right are your branding, your key messages, your target market, your customer service and the medium you use to get your message out to the right people. Too much to cover in one single little blog.

 

However I would like to leave you with a really important question to ask yourself. If you can answer this succinctly and precisely, you've already made a massive step in the right direction.  

 

People contact my business for the service/product I offer, because...

 

Who stole my Marketing Mojo?

For many small businesses, the pressure of coming up with new and innovative marketing ideas can be de-motivating. If you’ve lost your marketing mojo, take these five simple steps to reclaim it.

1. Have a clear vision for your business

It’s sounds obvious, but having a clear vision for your business means every decision you face in your business is easier to make. If part of your vision is to contribute to your community for example, deciding how to respond when the local soccer team approach you for sponsorship should be easy. Or at least easier than it would be without a vision.

Don’t have a clear vision for your business? It’s time to go back to the drawing board.

2. Have a marketing plan

Having a marketing action plan in place is crucial to achieving your goals - in fact, it’s the world’s best marketing tool. I recommend having a plan that covers at least the next six months.

Just because you’ve got a plan doesn’t mean you can’t be flexible. If your local paper calls begging you to write a story about your latest range of services, you’re hardly going to turn them down because it’s not part of your plan. As long as they’re in line with your vision, make the most of unexpected opportunities when they arise – and they will.

3. Actively seek out inspiration

You don’t need to be extraordinarily creative to come up with a good marketing plan, but a little creativity certainly helps. Don’t despair if that’s not your forte, there’s plenty of inspiration out there.

Try kick-starting your creative juices by networking, grabbing an inspiring book or reading relevant magazines, newspapers and blogs. Surround yourself with people who regularly come up with great ideas. Go to places you wouldn’t normally visit and try to experience new things on a regular basis.

4. Keep track

I’m constantly amazed at the number of business-owners that spend considerable amounts of money on marketing without knowing whether it’s working for them. If you’re not doing it already, start measuring your return on investment (ROI) now, ideally at the end of each month.

 

5. Be patient

Most businesses don’t become successful overnight or by accident. The people behind those businesses have almost always worked their socks off and kept going even when times were tough. Almost every successful business-owner I’ve ever spoken to has considered giving up at some point. But then they persisted.

Your marketing efforts may not give you the exact outcome you’re looking for every time, but your persistence is likely to pay off in the long-term. As Zig Ziglar said "Success is not a destination, it's a journey."

What do you do when your marketing get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone? Please share your experiences of how you regain your marketing mojo.

Google Analytics

A few years ago you would have had to cough up several thousands of dollars to access a tool, which gives you detailed statistics about traffic to your website. Thanks to Google, this tool is now available to everyone, for FREE, and it's called Google Analytics (let's call it GA) - http://www.google.com/analytics/

Why do YOU need GA? Chances are you've paid good money for your website. Now it's time to find out how well your investment is working for you. GA can be a little bit confusing and overwhelming at first. Spend a bit of time on it, and it will start to make more sense. A great source for GA help comes in the form of YouTube videos, so if you want to find out more just go to  http://www.youtube.com/user/googleanalytics 

Once you're up and running (usually you'll start to see stats within 24hrs of creating the account) GA will provide you with information on how many visitors your site is getting, your visitor location and the number of new visitor versus old visitors. It will also tell you which key words people are searching for to find you in search engines. You'll receive invaluable insight into how people are interacting with your site, as it gives you information on which page people are landing on, how much time they spend on each and which page they exit from.

 

From a Marketing perspective, all of the above provide priceless insight into which key words to use on your website, which pages may need rewriting, which referrals are working for you etc.  

 

One word of warning. GA can become seriously addictive, especially if you love numbers and statistics. To avoid spending all your time on GA, I recommend scheduling analytics reviews. 

 

Have you been using Google Analytics for a while? What's been your experience?

Sorry, I'm on holiday

When I started my first business 4 years ago, someone told me kiss goodbye to holidays. This really upset me, because I LOVE my holidays (don’t we all), and so I made it my mission to prove that I could run a successful business and still take time off whenever I wanted, within reason. 

As you are reading this I am 15,000km from Sydney and about to get married in Istanbul. As much as I love my work helping fantastic businesses with their Marketing, I don’t want to spend the lead up to my wedding or the honeymoon on a laptop.

So how do I ensure that my business continues to work seamlessly while I’m away? 

My fantastic Virtual Assistant, Debbie from www.deb-e-secretarial.com.au, is taking care of all correspondence, inquiries and bookings for my mentoring sessions while I’m away, and will only contact me in case of emergencies. I wrote and scheduled my newsletter 3 weeks ago to be sent out today through www.aweber.com. Members of My Business Book club have kindly offered to run the meetings in September. My wonderful mentoring clients are happy to have a short break to their mentoring sessions and I’m already looking forward to hearing about their progress.

You may be reading this thinking “yeah it might be alright for you, but there’s no one I trust enough to take care of my business, and I’ll lose all my customers”. Maybe you will lose a customer or two, because no one can represent your business in the same way that you do. All I’m saying is that we all need a break sometimes to recharge our batteries and gain a fresh perspective on things. As someone much wiser than me once said “where there’s a will, there’s a way”, so if you need a break (to get married or otherwise), find a way to take it.

For more tips and hints on how you can enjoy more time away from your business I recommend the following books – “The Invisible Entrepreneur” by local authors Louise Woodbury & William de Ora, and “The 4-hour work week” by Timothy Ferris.

Opera

You’ve heard it a million times before, and you’ll hear it again, starting here and now.
Get to know your customers! 

Understanding your customers will help you have a much more meaningful relationship with them, which in turn will help you market to them more effectively. Rather than tell you why it’s such an important element of your overall Marketing strategy and rant on about it, I’d like to share the story of a local business woman instead.

Over time, and by showing a genuine interest in her customers she found that 80% of them had something in common aside from adoring her jewellery. They all share a love for the opera. Since making this discovery she has been hosting an annual “Night of Opera” in her shop for her most valued customers. They are treated to a live opera performance, champagne, a sneak preview of the latest designs, and most importantly another occasion to wear and show off their beautiful jewellery. No points for guessing what the main topic of conversation is on the night.

What can you do in your business to get to know your customers better? How can you use this knowledge to make your customers feel special, improve your customer loyalty and ultimately your sales?

Tiramisu

Do you ever make phone calls that instantly make you relax and smile…as soon as you start talking you're drawn in by this person’s positive energy? This person is your "Tiramisu". Confused? Italian-speakers won't be. Tiramisu literally translates to "pick-me-up", referring, of course, to the energy boost provided by the high levels of coffee, sugar and liquor. This person is your pick-me-up. They fill you with confidence, make you feel like anything is achievable and generally make you feel great. 

 

Then you’ve got those people who have an incredible knack for being able to zap all your energy with constant negative and draining language. You know the ones I mean, don’t you? The ones that answer, “oh I’ve been better” when you ask them how they’re doing. They’re the ones who are always overworked, who always seem to have issues with other people, aren’t earning enough money, aren’t sleeping well, keep getting sick...etc.

 

Who are you spending your precious time with? Whose influence is affecting your work, your productivity and you ability to be creative with your Marketing?

 

You may think it extreme, but I go as far as to avoid cafes, shops etc where I know I will receive "service with a frown". I'll walk the extra mile and pay the extra $5. It's worth it because it puts me in the right frame of mind to inject endless amounts of positive energy into my business and get things done.

 

Take a minute to list your “Tiramisus”. Now list those around you who zap your energy. Your list may include friends, suppliers, your local barista, and dare I say it...customers. Which are you spending more time with? If it’s not your Tiramisus, then do something about it. You’ll be amazed at the effect it will have on your work.  

 

Dessert is good for you. Enjoy!