tips and how to for small business marketing

"New Marketing" tactics, How to, Small Biz Social Networking

How to Pitch Social Media: A New Client Presentation Outline for Digital Marketers

Compelled to answer this question on LinkedIn, I thought it would probably be pretty helpful to other too, so if you’re in marketing and you’re pitching social to new clients or up the ladder internally, I hope this outline helps!

Question:

What Social Media points would you cover in “45” minutes delivery to an audience of Business men?

Answer:

Why Social Media (keep this short)
- Demonstrate the dramatic growth of social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
- Demonstrate the growing adoption of social media by companies large & small (Coke, Bank of America, etc.)
- Take advantage of this downloadable (free) social presentation resource from Hubspot with 27 statistics, soundbites, and slides
Why NOT Social Media
- You may have heard that social marketing is cheap or free. I have bad news. While the accounts and many of the tools are cheap or free, marketing via social will cost you time and it may cost you money!
- Introduce “Myths/Realities of social media” – organic growth is actually pretty hard in social (Facebook wants you to pay so likes don’t come easy, Twitter growth comes through engagement, Social accounts actually come with an obligation to pay attention to them, etc.)
Finding Success in Social Media
- Forget about “social media” … it’s not about being social, it’s about generating leads, managing customer relations, providing customer service, generating buzz or a slew of other strategies. It’s the strategy that’s important, not the social channel – “social” is a tool not a strategy.
- Introduce Targeting Ideal Customers
- Introduce Content Development
Case Study
- Provide a simple case study. Consider customer service or channel growth strategies because these tend to show direct correlations between actions and understandable metrics. Examples: Company A uses LinkedIn to reach out to prospects and sees an increase in leads and conversions. Company B solves customer service issues in their channels and customers post testimonial’s thanking them.
- If you don’t have case studies of your own, you might find a partner who can bring this experience or look to Hubspot or other Inbound Marketing folks for published case studies, usually posted to their blog or in a White Paper.
Questions (the most important part):
- Give ample question time. Try to wrap it up in 30 minutes, if you only have 45 minutes or an hour. This way the audience is sure to get what they came for and, probably more importantly, it’ll allow you to demonstrate your expertise and give you the opportunity to offer individual follow up conversations.
- Wrap up questions 5 minutes before your out time to give your closing statement!
Final Thoughts
- -You don’t need a Social Strategy, you need a digital strategy!
- -Jump in, but listen before you start chatting up the channels. Walk, crawl, run.
- -Get help! A Social Strategist can get help walk you through the process, saving saving you time and headache by identifying results driven opportunities for your business online, optimizing your social sites, training you on the tools that will integrate social use into your (or your staff’s) day and help you set measurable benchmark’s so you’ll know if you’re on the right track.
- -Social can help you generate leads, connect you with customers & help you grow your business.
Photo credit http://www.BethKanter.org

Let us know if you found this useful, I’d love to get your feedback, suggestions and tips on presenting social. Given a presentation you love or found one you want to share? Leave a link!

If you’re just sitting down to write one – good luck!

Richard

@richardbouchez

You may also be interested in these InovediaMarketing.com articles:

Richard Bouchez is a certified Inbound Marketing professional specializing in Social Media Marketing & New Media content development. Richard’s web, audio & video work has been honored with Emmy, Promax & CBA awards.

PROMOTE YOUR TWITTER & FACEBOOK!>>>

"New Marketing" tactics, About Us, How to, Small Biz Social Networking, Video & Multimedia, Your Website: Tips & Tricks

How can we help you?

Inovedia Marketing provides the following services, how can we help you?

Social Media Marketing

We provide training, monitoring, blogging & copy writing services which means we can just get you started or manage and build your social networking efforts!

Multimedia Production

Let us create your web videos! We have Emmy award winning talent and the know how to create high quality videos & podcasts on a budget. For bigger projects, our access and established relationships with full service facilities means the sky is the limit!

Web Design & New Media Development

Put the web to work for you! From tweaks to complete redesigns, we’ll transform your website into an engaging resource your ideal customers will frequent! Ask how we can deliver highly target-able audiences to your door through new media product development! We can extend your brand, drive traffic and multiply your reach!

General Creative Services

Copy-writing, design services, online and traditional marketing campaign development, contest creation & management. Ad creation including banner ads, print, radio, television, newspaper and direct mail.

Email: InovediaMarketing at gmail dot com

Twitter: @inovedia

Richard Bouchez is a certified Inbound Marketing professional specializing in Social Media Marketing & New Media content development. Richard’s web, audio & video work has been honored with Emmy, Promax & CBA awards.

"New Marketing" tactics, How to, Small Biz Social Networking

3 Ways to Laser Focus Your Business for Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

Lose focus and customers get the wrong message from your new media marketing!

FOCUS is the number one obstacle you will face in any “new media,” web or social networking project be it company wide tweeting or starting a Facebook fan page. Without focus businesses “forget” to update websites, they post links customers don’t care about and generally send mixed messages. It’s no coincidence focus is also the number one obstacle in any marketing project! Everything your company does involving new media – even the content – is marketing and the possibilities are endless so it’s very easy slip off track.

Find out WHERE and WHAT your customers are doing online.
A quick survey can tell you a lot! You can ask your customers as they walk in the door, hand out a short questionnaire, cold call them or whatever is appropriate for your business! Ask about websites they visit like Facebook or Youtube. Ask them how you could serve them better by being there too!CUSTOMIZE it for your biz! @ourbiz tweets u right white tee for Men or Women. Also available various colors and in long sleeves.
Set guidelines “What Would My Brand do?”
Is your brand loud and fun, like the t-shirt above? Use your brand’s “personality” as a guide for what you should post on Twitter or Facebook. A comedy club might post jokes when a Lexus dealership would not. While B2B might connect with customers via Linkedin.com, everyone should consider starting a “brand” account on Twitter in which you only post business related updates, successes, discussion and events. Facebook is an exceptional place for small business owners to connect with customers as “friends” to exercise your personal brand. Everyone wants to know the owner!
Make a plan. Check it, tweak and repeat.
You never really know what any given moment will bring, so executing a plan might be just be your biggest challenge! Whatever you decide to do, make sure you sit down with the calendar you really rely on and schedule it! Schedule daily or weekly updates for Facebook, plan out the next 3 months worth of recipes for your blog. Keeping the plan simple and making it a priority will improve your chances for success tenfold. Create ways to measure your success so you cannot fail! If you were to create a goal to get your regular customers to be your friends on Facebook by sending them email invites you should check your progress in a month or so. If your efforts are stalled tweak your approach. Consider handing out social media business cards, direct mail or contesting. The point is, keep on eye on your progress and tweak it if it isn’t working.

Need help with your online product, projects or marketing? There are many free programs available for scheduling tweets and Facebook statuses and there are ways to have your social media sites monitored (for free) as well. If you cannot be active on the sites, please seek out other solutions because at the minimum you should be reasonably “accessible.” If you are asked questions or worse, taken to task, you need to be aware and you need to respond!

If you need help, there are a lot of resources “out there” that are very cost effective and you’re welcome to shoot me an email or begin a discussion right here in the comments.

Good luck!

@richardbouchez

click to share this post

GET KILLER CUSTOM TWITTER BACKGROUNDS!

Richard Bouchez is a certified Inbound Marketing professional specializing in Social Media Marketing & New Media content development. Richard’s web, audio & video work has been honored with Emmy, Promax & CBA awards.

How to

What would they write about you?

This morning I ran across a nice article pointing out creative ways small businesses are “unique and different” which prompts me to ask “What would they write about you?”

Let’s finally admit that we’re often too geeky about our product, ads and ideas to see that the differences we’re selling may just be too subtle to be noticed by average Joe Public. Other times we may fall into the trap of putting a lot of effort into selling product differences that, unfortunately, few folks care about. Write down a couple of your products / businesses differentiators and email them out to your colleagues, staff and friends (not your family – let’s not try to sway the vote). See what they have to say. You might just find some new unique and different facets about your own business.

So what would the local paper, a blogger or trade magazine write about your business? If they’re not writing anything… write it for them and send it to them! Well, I’ll save that advice for another day, another post.

Check out Small Hands Big Ideas here to see how some small businesses are actually standing out from the crowd. I ran across it on BackRoadsBusiness.com, which has great marketing information for and about Mom & Pop shops. Photo by Gonzalo Barrientos

-Richard

click to share

*If you’re one of our first 200 followers on Twitter you will be automatically entered to win 500 business cards! 2 chosen at random will win! Just follow @inovedia or click here.

Check out these articles from InovediaMarketing.com

"New Marketing" tactics, How to

Create Amazing Mind Blowing Business Cards NOW!

Lately I’ve had business cards on my mind because I need new ones and

unless it’s your fist job you probably hate ordering them too. They’re boring and they just sit in a placeholder or pocket anyway.

Then it hit me.

When most folks are getting theirs on the cheap, figuring they just need “a business card” to hand out, you NEED to spend extra time and more money! Have brainstorming meetings with staff, friends and/or family, hire a designer and create business cards that are as bold as you want your business to be! Throw out the rules and make an impact! Keep it on brand, but come up with cards that are sure to be remembered and, even more importantly, get cards you are proud to give out! You can engage your customers through your business cards, you don’t have to settle for just informing them!

I know it sounds extreme, but consider this…

Your reflection: There’s a good chance you have a stack of business cards sitting on your desk, counter or next to your cash register for customers to take as they exit. Shouldn’t that stack of paper be an incredible reflection on you & your business? Don’t you want your customers to take them because “they’re cool” actively and hand them out to friends / family? Isn’t that what you were trying to get them to do with your last batch of flyers? Why not your business cards?

An extra $100 goes a long way! Where else in your company expenses can you say that? Business cards are INEXPENSIVE and should be treated with more care and dignity than that last flyer you handed out! A quick Google search for business cards reveals amazing deals and with just a little clicking around you will be amazed by the options you will find!

As simple as a logo: You don’t need to have your information etched into a razor blade to make an impact (although that would be pretty impactful). An unexpected shape, clever design or intriguing theme could strike a memorable chord with your customers! For example, if appropriate, consider recycled paper with the symbol to show you’re engergy & cash conscious.

It’s advertising! How many times have you grabbed another business card on “the way out” of somewhere to remember the place you were just in? Perhaps you recommended a former vender to someone and handed over their business card?

Old Gallagher Irish Tavern business card by currybet.

Check this out, a business card that’s actually useful!

Didn’t you cut that…: billboard campaign? …last round of tv or radio spots? Maybe you passed on updating your sign? If you’re spending less, your face to face time with customers / clients needs to increased! Generally speaking, the lower you’re marketing budget the more of it you should invest in yourself!

Second impressions: When you’re not around and Joe Client pulls your business card out of their pocket, or digs it out of a desk drawer, they may very well be fuzzy on the details of your meeting or even on the fence about calling you. Now days, weeks or even months later they’re remembering you from your crappy boring business card!

Some Tips & Examples

Avoid cheap clip-art: This isn’t about handing out little computer cut-outs with your phone number on the screen if fixing computers is your business. Keep it simple, clever & professional and get direct feedback from 10 people you don’t know if you’re unsure about your design.

Less is more: Unsure if “x” information should be on your card? Then it shouldn’t! Put that on your website!

Get as creative as origami! If you really want to go the extra mile, which you probably should, and you really really really want to wow ’em (I’m talking to you Designers, Consultants, etc.) at the bottom of this post I’ve included a number of links to AMAZING MIND BLOWING BUSINESS CARDS, yes – business cards!

How crazy should I get? I suggest getting a stack of your competitors cards, find the coolest & most impactful ones and kick up another notch!

Email me your business card designs & I’ll post them on the bottom of this article. Here is the front of my new card, I was going for clean & clever, how’d I do? Let me know what you think! Did I live up to my own advice?

Update! Check out this NEW POST! > Amazing SOCIAL MEDIA Business Cards and Concepts! Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Mobile and more!

Finally, here some incredible links to AMAZING MIND BLOWING BUSINESS CARDS, yes – business cards!

Good luck!

-Richard (@richardbouchez)

click to share

Add us to your RSS reader (click here for our feed). Or click here for a tutorial on using RSS.

Click here to connect to me on LinkedIn, using Richard at RABpromo.com as the email address. Please mention InovediaMarketing.com or follow me on twitter by clicking here (@richardbouchez).

Now What!? photo by Sara Frantzman

second biz card phot by by Brian “DoctaBu” Moore

business card with map photo by by currybet

origami business card photo by cmpalmer

"New Marketing" tactics, Video & Multimedia

Great Video Tips for Builders & You

Whether you’re a home builder or not, I highly recommend Three Proven YouTube Strategies for Homebuilders on The Armory Blog by Brendan Miller. He asks the question “Can YouTube be used as a marketing and lead generation tool instead of just a sales tool for builders?” and you should be asking the same for your business, blog, brand, etc.

On his list of suggestions (see article for details):

1) Create a contest

2) Do Something Outrageous With Your Product

3) Be A Thought Leader

Fortunately his advice doesn’t just apply to Youtube and it doesn’t just apply to home builders either. No matter where you’re posting videos whether you’re a real estate agent, restaurant owner or if you’ve started a new business using a Bedazzler you should do more than take notes, take action!

As a side note, it’s worth mentioning that while he searched for “Home Builder” on Youtube to see what surfaced, but you should put serious thought into how you’re customers and potential customers would search for your product and the best way to figure that out is to ask them directly! This is a good use for email lists, LinkedIn contacts, Facebook friends lists, etc. If you need to start building list of your own for networking you may want to start here: Blogs to Facebook, Where Your Biz Should Be and How to Start and for other ideas on creating videos as well as more creative inspiration to market your product or company here’s a more extensive list for your reading list:

Thanks to Dierdre Reid, I crossed this article in her Twitter feed:

deirdrereid: Then upload videos to FB page. RT@brendan_miller 3 Proven YouTube Strategies for Homebuilders http://jijr.com/EFP

TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

-Richard (@richardbouchez)

click to share

Add us to your RSS reader (click here for our feed). Or click here for a tutorial on using RSS.

Click here to connect to me on LinkedIn, using Richard at RABpromo.com as the email address. Please mention InovediaMarketing.com or follow me on twitter by clicking here (@richardbouchez).

"New Marketing" tactics, Video & Multimedia, Your Website: Tips & Tricks

Just “HOW TO” Examples You Can Do Too! (More Than Video)

Every website can benefit from a “How to” demonstration whether its created with video, photographs, an article, a power point presentation or an animation, simple or elaborate. Even the most basic demonstration can make a big difference.

Where should you start? What “how to” should you do?

Ultimately these questions should be answered by your customers, so ask them! Start with a list of your services and related topics your customers may be interested in and be sure to included other random ideas – anything goes! The idea here is to educate, entertain or somehow engage visitors with useful content. You don’t need to go all out with an elaborate video, a couple of photos accompanied by short explanations can work extremely well just ask Ikea!

Here’s an example using a simple list and photo layout and they’ve even included a video at the bottom of the page. “How to Make Cous Cous”

Simple descriptions & photos work well! — Simple descriptions & photos work! click to visit site

If you want to create a video, for your first one, narrow it down to only topics you’re extremely knowledgeable of that can be performed in a quiet, well lit area. Here’s a link to a great example of a video shot very close up, in one take. “How to Tie a Tie”

*Please note, these videos and photos are well lit and shot very close to subject of the video. Instructions should be clear and to the point. Keep in mind that with web video your audience is watching a pretty small screen, they’ll want to see what you’re showing them!

I’m not suggesting you do anything that will cause you to lose business or give away your family secrets, but the chances are that even if you did give away your award winning recipe noone could replicate it anyway! That being said, try to showcase your expertise and give useful information.

As a final suggestion, look for opportunities to link to existing demonstrations. For example: to enhance InovediaMarketing.com as a small business resource we use “Delicious” to bookmark useful “New Marketing” articles. You can learn about using delicious from this very creative video:

Here are some other sites you can peruse for “how to” examples:

-Richard

click to share

Add us to your RSS reader (click here for our feed). Or click here for a tutorial on using RSS.

You may also be interested in these InovediaMarketing.com articles:

How to

Blogs to Facebook, Where Your Biz Should Be and How to Start

Ok, perhaps you have a website… what’s next? You’re certainly aware of blogging, Facebook and other social networking. Perhaps you’re even considering starting a blog, but what should you do with it? The first thing to do is read “If I Started Today” by Chris Brogan. I’m going to describe Chris as a “Crowd-sourcing Leaking Sieve of Social Marketing Tips, Tricks and Information.” With his vast expertise, a common sense approach and his own hindset in mind Chris walks you step by step through the “what’s and how’s” of getting online & marketing your business through blogging, Facebook and Linkedin. Chris includes simple strategies and tools that will set you on the right path and point out other social networks you should venture onto from there.

“If I Started Today” By Chris Brogan

Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll build three different scenarios out, and give you the starting points for what I’d do with social media if I were in these steps.

This really is a remarkable resource as is Chris’ blog at www.chrisbrogan.com. If you found this, or any of our articles useful, Linkedin recommendations are greatly appreciated! To view my Linkedin profile visit: www.Linkedin.com/in/richardbouchez For help marketing your business or to learn more about me click here.

-Richard

You may also be interested in our article: 7 ways Linkedin Will Work for Your Small Business

inno-banner-engaging-sm-biz — advertise with us

"New Marketing" tactics, About Us

Welcome to InovediaMarketing.com

This website is dedicated to my parents, in-laws and other small business owners who rely on talent, drive and ambition to make ends meet in an ever changing economy where big business has the upper hand and they are challenged at every turn.

“My intent is to get you thinking about more creatively engaging your customers and perhaps remove some of the new media marketing mystique. My goal is to get you beyond advertising using conversational marketing.” -Richard Bouchez

Due to its popularity this small business resource is evolving from a series of articles originally (and still) posted on www.RABpromo.com called “Your Business Beyond Email: Basic Multimedia Marketing.” The series includes chapters on Multimedia Marketing for Small Businesses, with chapters to be broken out into individual articles for InovediaMarketing.com such as “”How to” and Demonstrational Video Tips & Tricks, Using Customers as Spokespeople, Choosing a Videographer, Connecting With Customers: Marketing Tips and 6 Random Rules for Owning a Website. These and new articles will be hosted on InovediaMarketing.com resulting in a new, more comprehensive, NEW MARKETING resource for small businesses.

WHY NOW? In a time when the economy is tanking, friends and colleagues who build websites are busier than ever. Makes sense, I guess, as the web offers small businesses (all businesses really) cost effective ways to grow. Unfortunately, what many small business owners don’t see are the endless possibilities beyond the website and how they can use the web to start very profitable conversations. These conversations can build customer loyalty, deliver monetize-able research, entertain or otherwise gain attention (or trust) and even provide alternative revenue streams.

Until recently multimedia campaigns cost tens of thousands of dollars or more, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) was a tool touted by advertising agencies because it took a team to manage and R&D (research and development) was a luxury only big business could afford. Times have changed. Now with a good plan, a little flexibility and some well thought out strategies the web can work for you just as effectively as the previously mentioned tools work for big business.

Now, before we go any further here are a couple quick points I’d like to make for the cynical.

Don’t think of this as “a computer thing” it isn’t… it’s a marketing thing.
Executing these marketing tips and tactics won’t be free, while these services may not cost you money they will cost you time. Consider yourself warned, online services that cost you money can add up real quick! I’ll help you keep it cost effective.
This is not a get famous overnight scheme, it’s a series of potential opportunities that could grow your brand, bring you new customers and bring you new ways to profit. That being said, you could get famous overnight… a few do hit the jackpot and they hit it big.
This is absolutely the time to get online, not too early or too late and it’s more important than ever for those that don’t have obvious e-commerce business. The first product in a market is often the big winner; this can also be true for new media adopters. The second in a market takes market share away from the first and the 3^rd just needs to be there to prove they’re in the game!
This is worth your time.

Richard

You connect with me via Twitter, Delicious, MyPulse.Plaxo, Naymz or you can email me: Richard @ RABpromo dot com. To learn more about me click here. I am currently pursuing speaking engagements, consulting cliental and publishing opportunities.

Tag: tips and how to for small business marketing

Create Amazing Mind Blowing Business Cards NOW!

Cool business card designs | creativebits

70 Amazing Business Cards – Fubiz_

70 NEW amazing business cards – francescomugnai.com

42 Awesome Business Card Designs (With Links to 100s More)

Great Video Tips for Builders & You

Just “HOW TO” Examples You Can Do Too! (More Than Video)