Be Unique

On of the most important activities you can do for your small business is to create a unique marketing strategy and plan. I don’t mean coming up with something stupid or crazy, I mean something unique and yeah… maybe just a little outrageous.

Think about it… now days advertisers are trying to “out do” each other. The super bowl came on the other day and each commercial was basically “conceived” to “out do” the other commercials. And in my opinion all of the advertisers must have read the same exact book on marketing. And I’m sorry to say, sometimes that book doesn't work! I mean you may remember the commercial and maybe even the product but did it make you want to go out and purchase it?

That’s the 3 million and sometimes much more (the average cost for a 30 second ad to run in the super bowl) question!

I can tell you what does work…. Having a little kreativity, a little personality and putting forth a lot of effort to make yourself so different from your competition that it will help you make sure that there is no real competition!
Just think about it for a minute…

1. What crazy stunts could you do to get free PR? What type of challenge could you post to the public i.e. give me 30 days and we will change your life, your business, your appearance, etc, etc. Things like this will attract customers and draw attention to yourself and your business and guess what… the media will love you!

2. What's your stadium pitch? Imagine this... you have been given the chance to do a 60 second presentation to 50,000 people in a stadium. Just as you walk out to start the presentation... they announce that people don't have to stay if they don't want. What would you say in that 15 seconds that would make them want to stay?

What could you say in 60 seconds to convince them that your company is the only alternative and they'd be crazy not to build a relationship with you? Think about it and find a smaller crowd that you can pull this on. You never know when you’ll have your chance to “shine”.

3. Think about the lifetime value of your clients. When they are first introduced to you, they are buying into a relationship with you... they were NOT buying your service or product. So it’s important that you continue to nurture that relationship.

My question is are you? If you treat them right and make them feel like family... your clients will come back... buy more... and buy more often. In today's cold impersonal business world, be the one that treats them like family. So believe it or not, this would actually be considered “unique and outrageous” because most business owners don’t do it.

4. Find some new ways to build a recurring payment plan around your business. If you have a one-time purchase of your product... what could you offer to your clients to have them come back more often? Perhaps you could offer them a tune-up, or a re-design once several times a year?

In other words, rather than waiting for them to come in offer them a reminder service and a monthly enticement to come back to you. Perhaps you have a service or product that you can offer that will allow you to bill them monthly, quarterly vs. just yearly. Up to 50% (sometimes more) of your clients will take this option and in the end what would it add to your bottom line?

5. Create joint ventures with other related businesses... anyone that deals with the same target market that you do. Explain to them that you will send them extra business if they give your clients an incentive to buy (coupons, discounts, bonuses etc.).

You can create a booklet that you will give out to your clients with all these discounts. For every discount coupon they use - that supplier is to pay you x dollars for the new client you brought them. This is a great strategy for small business owners to connect with other client markets.

6. Send out a monthly email newsletter with some tips, some humor, and some specials of for the month. On the days when it is going to rain - send out an urgent bulletin - rainy day special! Offer them a deal to come down, brave the rain and get a deal on lunch.

7. Make doing business with you more exclusive. Make it on a referral-only basis. Some professionals I know will not do business with you unless one of their present clients has recommended you... and even then you need to pass the approval process. Depending on the type of business you have, this can produce a stream of consistent clientele and you’ll probably be a much happier business owner.

8. Take away the risk of working with you…. make it so that your clients come out so far ahead by dealing with you, they would be foolish not to. In the end, even if they decide that your service or product is not for them, they still come out of the deal with the a refund and many bonuses that they never had before dealing with you. The less risk they must take and the longer the guarantee... the fewer number of returns and complaints - it's a fact!

Be sure to test all of your kreative ideas, no matter how crazy they may sound. It’s important that you at least try them out. Find out which one's work. Then optimize how effective they are. Test all variations of that idea and find out which variation works best.

In trying to come up with a strategy and plan for marketing your business, be sure to think kreatively, be kreative, and make sure people notice you are different and there’s no doubt you’ll be very profitable.

To Your Health, Wealth & Happiness!

Pam Lawhorne

Pam Lawhorne is a serial entrepreneur, small business expert and creative marketing consultant, who provides advice, guidance, and encouragement to aspiring CEO's around the nation in her popular seminars and publications. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer of Empower U, Incorporated, a training and consulting firm that specializes in interactive workshops, seminars and coaching programs.

Ms. Lawhorne is the author of “From Minimum Wage To Getting Paid! - How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur With No Money, Education Or Experience!" and she is also a syndicated columnist who writes articles on empowerment, entrepreneurship, personal development, creative marketing and real estate investing. Her articles appear nationally in newspapers, magazines, and on numerous business websites and on-line publications. For additional information please visit her website: www.PamLawhorne.com.

The above article is copyright 2003-2008 by Pam Lawhorne. Permission to repost is freely granted so long as the text is not altered in any way, and the copyright and links are included.

Are You In Need Of Some Kreative Marketing?

Have you ever found yourself in need of a great promotional idea or marketing plan? Have you spent your entire day just twit-ling your thumbs hoping something would come to you? Or perhaps you sat staring at your computer thinking that the words would somehow “magically” come to you.

When this happens, that’s when it’s time to pull out your kreative thinking folder! If you don’t have a kreative thinking folder then you need to start one.

What is a kreative thinking folder? Well, next time you see an article or advertisement that catches your attention, for any reason, you want to file it in where… you guessed it! Your kreative thinking folder!

Why did it catch your attention? Read it, study it and try to figure out why it pulled you in. If it made you take notice then the chances are it would make someone else take notice too. Your kreative marketing folder may include books, letters, ads, print outs from a web sites and even an email.

The items you save in this folder do not have to be related only to your industry. Heck, they don’t even have to be for products or services similar to yours! Those things are unimportant. What is important is that they are great examples that you can use for inspiration to get your kreative thinking going when you hit a brick wall. Just consider it stimulation for your brain.

So the next time you’re stuck, pull out your kreative thinking folder and review the items you have. And when putting your marketing piece together check out how the different piece you like have been put together then begin creating yours. Remember, take the points you like and then develop your own piece. You don’t want to copy someone else’s work word for word or picture for picture.

When putting together your marketing always remember to think about how you want your clients to feel when they see your piece and the benefits that your product or service will provide to them. Use bits and pieces of ideas from several of your inspiration pieces to create something that will be uniquely yours.

It may be months before you’ll ever need to use the items in your kreative thinking folder. Maybe even years. But having the information in a file can save you stress, money and aggravation when the time comes to put together a kreative marketing campaign.

To Your Health, Wealth & Happiness!

Pam Lawhorne

Pam Lawhorne is a serial entrepreneur, small business expert and creative marketing consultant, who provides advice, guidance, and encouragement to aspiring CEO's around the nation in her popular seminars and publications. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer of Empower U, Incorporated, a training and consulting firm that specializes in interactive workshops, seminars and coaching programs.

Ms. Lawhorne is the author of “From Minimum Wage To Getting Paid! - How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur With No Money, Education Or Experience!" and she is also a syndicated columnist who writes articles on empowerment, entrepreneurship, personal development, creative marketing and real estate investing. Her articles appear nationally in newspapers, magazines, and on numerous business websites and on-line publications. For additional information please visit her website: www.PamLawhorne.com.

The above article is copyright 2003-2008 by Pam Lawhorne. Permission to repost is freely granted so long as the text is not altered in any way, and the copyright and links are included.

Marketing Your Business Online

If you’re not already marketing your business online, then it’s time to start! Although there are a few exceptions, just about every business can benefit from online marketing. There are just so many advantages to this type of marketing that I’m not really sure where to begin. I’ll just start by jumping right in…

Let me start by first saying that it’s extremely affordable to market your business online, I guess that’s the main benefit. Other advantages to marketing your business online include the ability to reach a large target audience, the ability to reach potential customers all over the world and the ability to customize the marketing for different sectors of the target audience.

The affordability of internet marketing is one of many reasons why many individuals and small business owners are turning to the internet for advertising. And when you consider how many potential customers you can reach with your marketing campaign, the cost of advertising online is incredibly cheap!

You can also choose quite a few methods of online advertising that do not have any direct costs (other than your time). For example, you may choose to market your business online by participating in industry forums and posting links to your website whenever it is appropriate to do so. In this case the cost of creating and maintaining the website is insignificant in comparison to the number of potential clients you could reach through those links and the online marketing. Additionally, the costs associated with posting links to your website are incidental. I guess you technically could consider the cost of having access to the internet as part of the cost but most likely you already have internet access and if that’s the case no real additional cost are incurred.

Reaching a large target audience is another very worthwhile reason for marketing your business online. You may have spent a great deal of time and energy doing market research and determine who your target audience is. You may have also spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the best way to reach this audience. This is a very sound marketing principle but as it applies to marketing on local television, radio and print media it only allows you to reach a limited audience. However, when you take your marketing to the “world wide web” you automatically increase your potential target audience drastically because you now have the ability to reach members of your target audience in areas outside of your local media area.

This ability to reach out and get customers around the world is yet another major advantage to marketing your business online. Regardless of where you live and operate your business, you have the ability to reach those who have an interest in the products you sell or the services you provide no matter where they live. This makes it possible for you to do business with customers pretty much anywhere!

And if you have a product or business that’s online you’ve got an automated business. That’s another great thing about the internet, it never shuts down! Its available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days in the year. So even when you’re sleeping your product or business can still keep producing income for you.

And guess what? There are tons of people who actually prefer shopping for their products and services online because doing so in person may be difficult. This is especially true for individuals who work long hours or those who work unusual hours. Their working conditions make it difficult for them to do business during regular business hours. And if you have an online presence, to them you are much more convenient to work with because unlike stores and calling centers, your website never closes. This convenience gives potential customers the ability to view products and services, compare them to those offered by competitors, and make their purchase at any hour on any day.

If you’re a business owner whose reading this article and you do not already have a strong online presence, then you need to immediately start learning more about the world of internet marketing. This is so important because if your competitors are marketing online, you may find they are gaining a steady advantage and are becoming more appealing to your potential customers. Before too many of your potential customers become loyal customers of the competition isn’t it time to start figuring out how you can market your business online so you can keep up with them?

To Your Health, Wealth & Happiness!

Pam Lawhorne

Pam Lawhorne is a serial entrepreneur, small business expert and creative marketing consultant, who provides advice, guidance, and encouragement to aspiring CEO's around the nation in her popular seminars and publications. She is the Chief Empowerment Officer of Empower U, Incorporated, a training and consulting firm that specializes in interactive workshops, seminars and coaching programs.

Ms. Lawhorne is the author of “From Minimum Wage To Getting Paid! - How To Become A Successful Entrepreneur With No Money, Education Or Experience!" and she is also a syndicated columnist who writes articles on empowerment, entrepreneurship, personal development, creative marketing and real estate investing. Her articles appear nationally in newspapers, magazines, and on numerous business websites and on-line publications. For additional information please visit her website: www.PamLawhorne.com.

The above article is copyright 2003-2008 by Pam Lawhorne. Permission to repost is freely granted so long as the text is not altered in any way, and the copyright and links are included.