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| 3 Tips To Jumpstart Your Referral Engine |
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If you are like most small business owners I speak with, one of their primary sources of leads is word-of-mouth and referrals. After studying the main differences in those businesses that excel at word-of-mouth, I have come up with some conclusions that will more than likely help you business as well. Here are three (3) tips to Jumpstart your referral engine: Tip # 1 – Expect Referrals – If you do such an insanely good job for your clients, why wouldn’t you expect them to refer you? I am shocked how little business owners ask for a referral. If you start expecting referrals as a component of doing business with you, I think you will be surprised with the results. A little “law of attraction” never hurts. Tip # 2 – Create A Referral System – I think one problem we all run into is that we don’t integrate referrals into our overall marketing and sales process. This includes making statements like, “My job is to make you so excited about the job I did, that you will refer 3 others that need my product or service”. Or, you may have an ongoing internal marketing campaign highlighting recent work you did, then ask if they know of any others that might need your assistance as well. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive. Your clients are busy. Many times it takes a gentle nudge to remind them you exist and how you can assist others. Tip # 3 – Give First! – One powerful referral tactic is to focus on being the “connector”. If you aren’t part of an existing networking group, start your own database of those you can refer business. When you find a prospect or client that needs another businesses product or service give a referral. By taking the first step and referring business, you will build good will and reciprocity when the opportunity arrives to refer you business. You can also use this technique if you desire a relationship with a potential partner. Seek out opportunities for THEM, then open the conversation talking about how you can help them with their efforts FIRST. Then, start building the relationship to feed your referral engine. Have a great weekend! Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
| Less Marketing = More Leads (really?) |
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As Americans we like to subscribe to the theory of bigger is better, but that isn’t always true when it comes to marketing. Especially today, in the age of Social Media and total transparency. You can’t just hit a button and SPAM someone with 50 Tweets, or 10 emails in a week and expect the leads and sales to roll in. It just doesn’t work that way. I see this time and time again. The tools are so efficient, that is is almost TOO EASY to post the comment, send the email, blast the Tweets, and business owners forget about the best interest of their prospect. They only think of their own need, before putting their prospects and their needs first. Where less is actually more… What if, you actually gave your best stuff away. All your secrets, pulled out all the stops and just gave it away. This is often referred to as moving the “Free Line”. Basically to say that when marketing to your ideal client, you should be giving them the best content you have. Help them solve their biggest and hairiest problem. Maybe it through an email, your blog, or maybe you crank a quick video out. But help them solve their biggest problem related to your product or service, or your industry. Wait a second, that’s my “secret sauce” you say… I know, it seems counterintuive but that’s hwo you build trust. You want your ideal client to say Holy Cow, if they are GIVING this kind of content away, I wonder what it would be like to be a client. And that’s where you build your authority and position yourself as an expert. So, back to less marketing… Don’t stop marketing, but make sure every interaction, post, and piece of content is the best stuff you have. Do a quick inventory of all the marketing you do and make sure it solves a problem. One key warning sign is if all of your marketing talks about YOU and not your prospect. Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
| Does Your Marketing Suck? |
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I have heard this many times from friends and other small business owners. “My Marketing sucks but…”. But what? The problem I have with that statement is that I have a firm belief we are all marketing businesses at the core. Regardless of what you sell, or service you deliver. You could be an accountant, technician, or caterer…Doesn’t matter in my book, we are all marketing businesses. So what happens when you declare and then dismiss that your marketing sucks? In my book, you are making a very bold statement to yourself and your employees that you don’t take the growth of your business seriously. You may have a desire to grow your business, but your actions aren’t congruent with your marketing efforts. When I hear this statement, what I now hear is that the business owner doesn’t have time. That they are too busy. There are so many tactics that they don’t know where to start. They start one tactic after another without a strategy behind their efforts. This has never been more true with Internet marketing, Social Media, and all the other bright and shiny marketing tactics available to us. If you are stuck, and maybe even paralyzed in the “marketing sucks” mode, here are three (3) tips that might just get you out of it. 1) Find The Path – Take 30 minutes and write down all of the paths your current customers took to find you. This will do two things. One, it will help you identify those efforts that don’t suck and are working now. Two, it will help you focus on the 20% of your effort that is getting you 80% of your results. If you are a new business, this might not take you very long but it is still worth the exercise. 2) Create A Simple One Month Plan – While I do recommend you create a complete marketing plan, one good way to jump start your efforts is a simple one month plan. Chart out one thing you can do consistently in the next month to market your business. An example is make a habit to write in your blog and promote it once a week. Start getting some momentum and build on it. You will be surprised how fast this can build and kick you out of the “my marketing sucks” mode. Remember, what you focus on expands… 3) Create Habits – Make marketing a habit. Build on the success in your first month, and make it a habit in your marketing system. Focus on adding one habit at a time. In one year, you will have a system. Many of the smaller tactics when done consistently will surprise you. One blog post, one sales letter, one newsletter at a time. Break it into small manageable pieces, and you will see results. Us Entrepreneurs have a tough time sometimes with the marathon. Remember that the only way to eat an Elephant is one piece at a time… Have a successful week! ~Matt |
| Marketing To Your Irrational Prospect |
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Hahahahaha…That’s pretty funny. That’s laughable isn’t it. Everything you purchase is certainly based on the logical need. The totally rational decision about need vs. want. The well thought out, well executed purchase. Yeah right. Me neither. There’s always an irrational element to our decision as a consumer. Whether you are marketing to B2C or B2B, this is pretty much universal and human nature. The truth is we like to THINK that we are these totally rational and logical buyers that think through every purchase with exacting detail. The truth is that our irrational and emotional brain calls the shots, then our logical left brain kicks in to ONLY THEN explain the logic and justify the purchase. So what does that mean to you as the small business owner and marketer of your product or service? Everything… I want you to go through your current marketing and sales messages. Are you speaking to the emotional and irrational brain? Or, are you speaking to the logical brain? Your marketing message needs to address the wants, needs, desires, hurts, frustration, and pain that you are solving for your prospect. Then leverage the emotions attached to those needs, and make a solid case logically how your product or service addresses those. Here’s an example: If you are in the market for drill, what are you in the market for? The fastest, best looking, and most powerful drill out there? Nope! You are in the market to create a hole. Sounds simple I know, but many marketers and business owners forget about the desired outcome. Marketing Tip: Sit down and look at your marketing materials and write down or highlight how many times the word “I” appears in your marketing and replace it with “You”. You will notice a difference right away. Then start defining the real reasons prospects need your product, and create a message that addresses the need not the logic… Remember, we aren’t all that rational after all. Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
| Before You SWOT… |
 SMOT Analysis Marketing If you aren’t familiar with a SWOT analysis, let me give you high level explanation. It it basically an exercise to identify your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. If you look at the image I have provided, you can see that they are built in quadrants to help you isolate areas that are internal assets or external assets and/or threats to your business. How the heck does this relate to your marketing strategy? In my opinion, there are few things you should consider before you dive deep into the SWOT analysis. If you have a better understanding of these things, you will be in a solid position to gather the data for the SWOT analysis and it will be more relevant. Let’s get started… 1) Who’s Your Target or Ideal Client? – Wouldn’t it make it alot easier to find your threats, strengths, and weaknesses if you knew your target or ideal client? I think so…I like to use an exercise to dive deep into who my target or ideal client is. Take 30 minutes and really get clear on who it is you are marketing to. How old are they? What are their pain points? What does their day look like? Give them a name if you can, and make them real. Now that we are clear on who we are targeting.. 2) Market Research – Sit down and identify all your potential competitors that are targeting your ideal client specifically. As you find competitors that are targeting your exact client identify them as threats. More specifically, how are they a threat. We are basically preparing our data for the SWOT to tie all this togther later. 3) Identify Your Assets – Now that we understand our competitors and our target market you need to take inventory. Take 15-30 minutes and write down all the assets that you have that you would consider strengths in targeting your ideal client. Consider all of those things that are shortfalls in your assets to target your ideal client. When I say assets, I am talking about things like credibility, testimonials, messaging, newsletter lists, partnershipts, etc..Basically anything that will help you reach your target market effectively. Now you are ready to SWOT… I find that doing just this small amount of pre-SWOT information gathering gets me clear on who I am trying to reach. Gaps in my message or approach. And a very clear picture as to who else is competing for the minds of my prospect. Now… Get to work
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| Do You Really Know What Business You Are In? |
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Of course you do. You are a technician, professional service provider, or maybe a retailer right? BZZZZZZ…Wrong Answer! You are in the marketing business. The reality is that we are all in the same business. Our job is to get prospects and suspects to know, like, and trust us. Regardless of what service we provide, or product we sell we are all in this together. Without that, you don’t have a business. Often, small business owners ask me if I provide marketing coaching to their specific type of business. My answer, “Yes, I provide coaching to your business because you and I are in the same business”. If you are familiar with Pareto’s law (or otherwise known as the 80/20 rule) you understand that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort, your clients, you name it… Here’s the problem… Many businesses forget that they are a marketing business so they go on spending 80% of their time DOING their thing and not marketing their business. No strategy, no plan, no time spent investing in marketing knowledge, diving into tactics without a strategy, and approaching each event as a one shot pony PR event. The result… Lack of leads, lack of revenue, and never truly achieving their dreams with their small business. It all starts with realizing you are running a marketing business. Sure your target, niche and message is different but the fundamentals are the same. If you really want to reach your goals in 2010, stop right now and think about how that one simple shift in mindset from doing your THING to building a marketing company will explode your growth this year. Remember, what you focus on will expand. Go Target, Attack, and Profit!
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(Jeopardy music playing in the background)| Quick Tip: Adding Facebook To Your Website |
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One way you can tie your existing website to your Social networks is to add the Facebook fan box to your website or blog. This widget is very easy to add to your site and is the beginning on linking your social media strategy together in layers. By “stacking” each social media on to of the other, you end up creating a very powerful social media system that will help you build relationships with your prospects. Enjoy the video, and let me know if you have any questions on how to implement this quick tip.
Facebook Fan Box from John Jantsch on Vimeo. ~Matt 
Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing Lessons, Marketing Tip, Social Media, Uncategorized | 
Tags: Add Facebook Fan Box, Facebook fan box | No Comments »
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