Does Your Small Business Marketing Suffer From The Bulldog Effect?

If you're an entrepreneur responsible for your own small business marketing, there's a marketing method you should avoid at all costs, which I've coined the bulldog effect for reasons you will understand shortly. Keep reading to find out if you're guilty of using this technique in your own marketing and learn how to fix it.

After a recent weekend jaunt to San Diego, my husband and I arrived back in Los Angeles tired and hungry, so we walked the small handful of blocks to a local all-night diner to grab a quick bite to eat. And it was there that we were smacked in the face with an example of unusual small business marketing, to say the least.

We live near a shopping district where small businesses cater to everyone from people like my husband and myself to the elderly from the retirement homes nearby. And it was one store catering to this population of older citizens that had us in hysterics when we should have been concentrating on finding some grub.

Your products sell themselves? Think again

You might think a shop selling wheelchairs would have it easy in such a neighborhood -- a huge target audience planted right there, a captive audience if you will. And you'd be right. During the day, you see almost as many disabled elderly individuals out shopping as you do younger/able-bodied people.

So from the sounds of things, maybe small business marketing tactics aren't as important for a shop like this because the products practically sell themselves. Right? Wrong.

Despite the fact that I am not the target audience, I am a marketer and take notice of new marketing approaches so that I can try them out myself and share them with subscribers to my small business marketing newsletter. But that night, my husband and I just wanted a bite to eat.

Some things you can't ignore

As we walked, however, there was no way to miss the latest marketing efforts of the shop in question. This shop, which features very little in the way of shopfront advertising, had put an oversized poster in the window to promote a new model of wheelchair ... complete with a grumpy, overweight bulldog planted right in the middle of it.

Sure, it's lovely that the dog's fanged underbite finally got the recognition it deserved. And of course the wheelchair came across loud and clear as the other "hero," the main focus of the image ... other than the dog sprawled across the seat, smiling that is. (I am also almost certain that a wheelchair wholesaler created this poster and not the store itself.)

And you bet the poster got our attention. However, displayed as prominently as it was, the poster overshadowed any credibility the store might otherwise have had in terms of their expertise in finding less-able people the right wheelchair for their needs. Why? Because apparently, they also help pedigreed pooches do the same.

Of course I say this in jest, but use this as a lesson for your own small business marketing materials. No, I'm not suggesting that you have an image of a bulldog on your homepage or in your catalog -- and if you do and it makes sense, by all means continue to do so.

Rather, take this bulldog story as an analogy to your own marketing and think of ways to make your small business marketing message clearer and more meaningful to your target audience.

Rid your own campaigns of the bulldog effect

Here are some questions to get you thinking about your own small business marketing:

1) Whether we're talking about a simple website, a brochure or even just your business card, are you marketing yourself the way you want to be perceived by your customers?

2) Some use of characters (comic book characters, superheroes, etc.) is effective when used appropriately. Are you using the right type of character to set the tone for your business? Think critically about how others might perceive your campaigns.

3) Trusting your own instincts is dangerous without a reality check. Ask some of your customers what they think of your current marketing. Bear in mind that if they are customers, they are, in fact, buying from you despite any protests they may have with your marketing approach, so take their feedback with a grain of salt.

4) Ask strangers to your business what they think of your current marketing. These should not be people you know or else they will not be as candid.

5) Test everything! Regardless of what approach you take, test one version against the next to see what sells more. Experiment. Mix and match. But measure your results so that you know that your bulldog should be removed. Or not.

In closing, first impressions count, and you need to ensure that the message you're broadcasting to your prospects is the right one. Use this tail -- I mean, tale -- to see if there's anything you can improve in your own small business marketing.

Are you a coach, consultant or other solo service professional who's struggling to grow your business? Small business marketing strategist Jennifer McCay will show you how to attract more clients more easily. Get her FREE audio course and FREE weekly small business marketing lessons at http://AvenueEast.com

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Offline Marketing Vs Online Business Marketing

This article is really to give you an understanding of the offline business marketing world and how it has now transformed to the online business marketing world. Come with me on a short journey from back in history to modern day and into the future.

Offline Business Marketing:

The world of offline business marketing is soon to be become redundant. Since advertising first began, smart business owners were always on the lookout for that something new that was going to give them the edge over their competitors.

In the beginning there was word of mouth advertising. A vendor sold a product or service to a customer who then went out and spread the word to his personal circle of influence. Word of Mouth Advertising in those days had only two possible endings. One, a positive referral was made that resulted in more customers and more sales. Secondly, a negative referral was made and that resulted in less customers and less sales.

Obviously, knowing the importance of their only advertising medium, good vendors looked after their customers especially well and were rewarded in return. As in today's modern business, those that didn't look after their customers suffered the penalty that followed.

Clever vendors then moved on to Poster advertising. Posters were placed strategically around the areas promoting their products and services. Now they had two modes of advertising. Those that didn't look after their customers so well, were now able to exploit the Poster advertising strategy. The better the Poster, the better the results of bringing in customers and making more sales.

And so the world of advertising and marketing began. Now since those days we have had a host of other marketing and advertising strategies come and go. Some lasted longer than others, while some were so brief they blew out with the next gust of wind.

I won't go in to all the mediums that we have seen over the many years. The important thing to note is this, THERE WERE CHANGES. Those that moved with the changes were able to stay ahead of their competitors, those that didn't took so long to pick up the change that they lost fortunes in their business or lost their businesses completely.

Today's world still has a great deal of off line marketing and advertising. Television, radio, newspapers and magazines would have to be the main form of media used. And in the main, successful for those businesses who have the thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars to pour in to their advertising.

Large multinational corporations have had offline marketing campaigns that ran in to the millions of dollars and obviously their return on investment had to remain high for such commitments to continue.

What about the small and medium enterprises? What do they pay in advertising and marketing? What is their return on investment? Well let me tell you, they are the business models that are struggling and close to collapse.

Why? Because they are continually paying for advertising and marketing campaigns that are useless.

Here's an example:

If you are a small or medium business, ring your local newspaper and ask to place an ad in the Classifieds Section. What will you get? You will get a consultant on the other end of the phone who will ask what Category you wished to be placed in, how many lines or lines and columns you wish to include.

You will be asked to read your ad content and they will check the spelling, and how you want it to look. You agree and that's it. Do you get to look and preview your ad? You can look and make one minor change, that's it. You then pay for what you get.

There is no consultation about your marketing strategy, your target market, your product or anything that will help give you an edge over your competitor. The consultants are not marketing specialists, they are telephone specialists who fill in a form.

Your ad comes out in the newspaper and you don't like it. Bad Luck, that's what you get.

Cross that over to "The Yellow Pages" advertisements. Depending on the size of the ad, which also means the amount of money you are going to spend with them, dictates the amount of help you receive. Now understand this, the average consultant in "The Yellow Pages" is not a marketing specialist. They specialize in "selling advertising space".

So the question that begs to be asked is," Why would you go to someone who is not a specialist marketing agent to do your marketing?" That's like asking a dental receptionist to do your filling or an extraction. It doesn't work.

Small and Medium enterprises generally have no idea what they are doing in relation to marketing their business, product and service. They have no idea of how to structure a successful marketing campaign to bring their business more customers. Business owners need to go to a specialist who is an expert in that field, someone who knows what they are doing. Someone who is going to build a marketing strategy that is successful in achieving the objectives set by the business owner.

Traditional advertising through "The Yellow Pages", Newspapers and other print media will soon be of little value. The distribution is localised and viewing is random. Any return on investment is based on luck rather than a measured strategic marketing campaign.

People are sick and tired of advertisements being pushed in front of their faces. It is said that an average of 2000 advertisements are placed in front of us every single day. Ask yourself how many you can remember from yesterday through newspapers, magazines, billboards, t.v, radio etc. The answer, probably half a dozen, maybe if you're good.

So, what is happening to your business ad? Nothing.

Online Business Marketing:

Why? One word, internet. The internet has now changed the world of advertising and marketing forever. The trend towards the internet is moving faster than any other medium in history. The younger age groups, Generation X and Generation Y are using the internet multiple times daily. It is now their chosen form of networking and communicating. We now have phones that communicate on the internet.

Guess what? Now the Baby boomers are getting in on the act as well. Just have a look at Social Networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter. The older generations are now using the internet to communicate with their families around the world. Add Skype and other similar programs that allow F*R*E*E phone and video calls around the world. Any business that is not on the internet now, and not on the internet in the next year or so is seriously in big trouble.

What do you think the modern generation do when they are looking for a product or service? They don't run for the Yellow Pages that's for sure. They run to their computer or laptop and do a Google Search, that's what they do.

What doe this mean for your business? You need to be marketing your business, products and services on the internet.

How do you do this? You need a Website. The Website is your online virtual shop, office or whatever your business front is. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. It is open for business while you are sleeping, on holiday, in your shop or where ever you wish to be. It never closes unless you or your landlord close it down. (Yes, even on the internet we have landlords that you have to pay rent to on a monthly basis)

Your business is open for customers to browse, leave their details for followup, or purchase a product or service. And they do all this without you having to be there, how fantastic is that? That is the power of the internet.

How do people find you? Imagine a highway, any highway. Imagine your Website is a store front on that highway. Now imagine we incorporate strategies that were once the powerhouse strategies of offline marketing. Imagine the Word of Mouth which in internet terms is Social Networking, Poster Marketing which we call Article Marketing, Television Advertising we call Video Marketing, Radio Advertising we call Podcasting.

Just as in your offline marketing, we use all these strategies to drive targetted traffic to your Website. Traffic are potential clients. The difference to offline marketing is that online, only people that are looking for you will find you. That means they WANT what you have. They will get to choose between you and your competitors who they find online. When they choose you, they have already got their credit cards out and sitting in front of them. That prospect is now a customer.

You now have the opportunity to get directly in front of thousands if not tens of thousands of potential customers. To win their business you will first need to be online, and second have a marketing campaign that is successful enough to get you in front of them.

Whether you are a local or international organization, small or medium enterprise or multinational, your marketing campaign will have to incorporate your target market. Your campaign will have to target your distribution and servicing area, so if you only do local stuff that is cool, if you distribute and service internationally then that is cool as well. The internet allows you to advertise globally and locally.

Costs:

How do the costs compare? In our experience an internet campaign could set you back a few thousand dollars to set it up at the start. Most good providers will have a payment plan to suit most people. There are on-going monthly fees anywhere from about $10.00US depending on the sort of campaign package you need.

So let's say it costs you $5000.00US to set up your Website and implement a marketing strategy. Add an average of around just say $100 a month. The monthly fee is equivalent to paying rent for your building and costs associated to that.

Compare those costs to an average Full Page ad in a certain directory which could set you back tens of thousands of dollars per year, add in your newspapers ads which you place weekly, as well as any other limited advertisements. The cost to you is enormous in comparison to an online Website presence.

I hope that you have been able to see the benefits and the obvious need to have an online business presence.

I hope this article has been of value to you. I look forward to being with you on the next article where we will share Marketing Strategies that could save your business literally thousands of dollars. You don't want to miss that.

Here's a tip for you, it doesn't matter what industry you are in, what product or service you provide. Your business is about marketing. If you fail to market your business properly, your business will fail.

Till the next session, take care and prosper.

Sene Iafeta is new to the world of article writing. He has been a business owner/operator of a successful Private Investigation Company. Sene is now a full time internet marketer specializing in helping offline businesses make the transition to an online presence.

http://www.solutionstomarketingonline.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sene_Iafeta

How You Can Boost Your Profits With Business-To-Business Marketing Online

Business to business marketing – Internet style – This is not a new marketing technique. In fact, the design of having two or even more businesses help to endorse one another products and services is a tried and true method that has provided profitable results for most entities involved. Knowledgeable business owners and webmasters recognize the enormous value brought to their company by business-to-business marketing. Marketing online offers another dimension with enormous reach that will allow businesses to continue their networking efforts in the virtual and viral world that the Internet provides.

Lets say for example that a brick and mortar company like a dog grooming business will benefit and gain customers from displaying advertisements at the local veterinarian offices. Dog owners, who trust these veterinarians are more likely to take their pets for a professional grooming to a business recommended by an already trusted establishment, like their local vet. On the other hand, the clients of the dog grooming business will be most likely those who need a veterinarian for their pets, and they will most likely trust the vet suggested by the professional grooming business who already has an reputable relationship with them. The same concept applies to business-to-business marketing; The Internet simply adds a new aspect to this method.

If the local pet grooming business and the veterinarian both have a website it will permit for further business-to-business marketing, Internet style. Since the services provided by the pet grooming business and veterinarian only tangentially overlap, they are not in direct competition with one another, but instead will be able to do business-to-business marketing online in the truest sense of the term.

These businesses could then continue with this business-to-business marketing method with other related businesses. For example the Pet grooming business could establish a relationship with pet magazines, animal shelters and other groups that are not in direct competition with each other.

This form of business-to-business marketing has become commonplace online and savvy webmasters and business owners have been taking advantage of this viral marketing method in many different forms. Website owners will cross promote each other's products, services and business opportunities to each others subscribers lists in an email marketing campaign. Or just place ads on each other's websites.

Finding these business-to-business marketing opportunities are not as hard as you would think. Perhaps you are starting a new website promoting your own type of network marketing opportunity and need a professionally designed website. The design company you hire to design your website could benefit from new people you recruit into your new business. Just as you could benefit from people looking for website design that need a business to promote on their new website.

So now you have your new network marketing website designed and need to add content to it. You then hire a ghost writer, establish a relationship and before you know it they are sending you prospects and you in turn send them back to first the website design company and then to the ghost writer. All of related but non-competing businesses start benefiting from the viral nature of business-to-business marketing online. Next you need your site optimized for the search engines, OK, OK, I'll stop now, but you get the picture right?

These are highly viral and lucrative methods that all involved can benefit from. The next time that you do business with another business remember to look for the business-to-business marketing opportunity.

About the Author:

Jeff Houdyschell provides proven income opportunities, information and ideas helping others find the best work at home jobs. Isn't it time to start your own online business? Visit: http://www.eSmartJob.com

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