Your Virtual Business Card
In a previous post, I explained the virtues of the lowly business card. Every business needs an ample supply of cards to give to customers, potential customers, friends, acquaintances and anyone else you run into. You simply cannot hand out too many business cards.
You also need a virtual business card, too. “What!?!”, you say. Yes, you also need a business card for the virtual world. I’m not talking about your website, this is in addition to it.
People are spending more time online than ever before and its not likely to change. Search habits are getting more refined. With social networks on the rise, your name is likely to be Googled more than you think.
Here’s a screen shot of my virtual business card, click it to go to the url (a new page will open).
Notice how clean, simple and direct the message is: who I am, what I do and how to contact me. This single page website appears in the top 10 rankings of Google when my name is searched for.
The title bar says it all: “David Tinney’s virtual business card”. This page gets a lot of the traffic that’s looking for David Tinney.
Domains are relatively inexpensive now. You should own your name and take advantage of a virtual business card.
Marketing with Yellow Pages
When times get tough, your marketing dollars need to be spent more wisely because you’re competing for fewer customers who are tighter with their wallets. Rather than cutting marketing from your budget, a mistake many business owners make, cut the fat from your marketing budget So its leaner but more effective.
A Yellow Page ad can be a very effective marketing tool for your business. Certain kinds of businesses benefit more than others from this type of marketing. If your business is only occasionally used by the public, such as a plumber, electrician, travel agent, attorney, bail bondsman, printer, auto mechanic, contractor, dentist, etc., your yellow page ad will be more effective than a business that is frequented very often by the public. I mean how often do you call your local grocery store for something? Not very often. But when the toilet is backed up and running over, you need a plumber and you need one RIGHT NOW! And where do you go? That’s right, the yellow pages.
Not long ago, I returned home from the office and I noticed a large yellow book lying in the driveway of my neighbor. I stopped, got out of my car for a closer look. I could’nt believe my eyes! The book was a Yellow Page directory that was being distributed in our residential area.
A few thousand businesses in the area had spent hard earned profits on Yellow Page advertisements for what? To be tossed on the driveway of potential users in February. How many books do you suppose were destroyed by inclement weather before the homeowner could retrieve it from their driveway?
How much value do you think the homeowners placed on those directories if the publisher placed no more value than to have them tossed on the driveway? Probably not very much.
You know what that means? If your ad was in that Yellow Page directory, your hard earned dollars was lying on a cold, wet driveway in February. Now how effective were those marketing dollars spent? That’s right, not very well.
When choosing which Yellow Page directories to market your business in, there are five in my area, you should also consider not just the cost but also how the publisher delivers the finished directory. Do they use the postal system to deliver them to residential areas or are they tossed in the driveways and yards?
Whether times are hard or not, your marketing dollars must be spent in the most effective manner. Don’t waste your money with a marketing company that places very little value on what you spend with them.
Marketing is Like Grilling Steaks
I have two real passions in my life, marketing my businesses and grilling steaks on the patio.
You might be wondering how these two passions intersect. Actually there are a lot of similarities between the two.
To grill great steaks, there are three basic things you need: Good meat, a good fire and patience. If you have these three basic ingredients down pat, you can be known as the grill-meister on your block.
I have two sources for the steaks I grill. There’s a meat market in town that has superior meat to what the local Walmart offers. I often purchase my steaks at this little hole-in-the-wall meat market.
The second source is once a year, I purchase a half beef from an area rancher. He raises his own beef and takes great pride in feeding them just the right amount so when butchered, the meat is tender and tasty. If you don’t have good meat to start with, the fire and patience won’t improve your medicore meat.
In my humble opinion, most amateurs cook their steaks over too hot a fire. We like our steak meduim to rare and they’re cooked over a low fire. For those of us who like our meat pink, a hot fire increases the risk of over-cooking the steak. Once over-cooked, you can’t go back.
The last ingredient in great steaks is patience. Don’t rush the meat, let it cook slow and it’ll turn out right. Using this system almost guarantees great steak 100% of the time.
Likewise, marketing your business successfully consists of basic ingredients: a marketing plan, marketing tools and patience.
Like good meat, you have to start with a marketing plan. Hint: a marketing plan is not two paragraphs in your business plan! You need a marketing strategy and how you’re going to execute it. That’s a practical explanation what a marketing plan is.
Your marketing plan defines what marketing tools you’re going to use, when you’re going to use them and how you’re going to implement them to your greatest advantage. Now let me ask you, do you have a working marketing plan?
Secondly, your marketing tools are just like the fire you grill your steaks over, not too hot, not too cool, but just right.
Jay Conrad Levinson’s book, Guerrilla Marketing listed over 100 potential marketing tools. Some tools work for just about any kind of business, others don’t. Others are seasonal, unusual, traditional or even quirky. But it’s up to you to pick what marketing tools will work for your kind of business and put them to use.
My dad used to tell me when I was a kid that a hammer hanging on the shelf in the tool shed wouldn’t build a barn.
Patience is a virtue. Is that in the Good Book? It seems like everything in life that’s worthwhile requires patience. Just like when I’m grilling steaks, I don’t get in a rush or impatient. I know if I have great meat and the right fire, in the process of time, I’m going to have some great steaks.
It’s the same with marketing your business. You need patience. Marketing works and usually it takes a little while for it to show results. Be patient, don’t quit too soon, your efforts will soon pay dividends.
Undervalued Marketing Tool, pt 2
Not long ago I sat next to this guy on an airplane to New York. We had started our conversation before the plane took off and it quickly turned to business.
Have you noticed that guys, even strangers, like to talk about what interests them? I’m going to write about that soon. Back to the story, though.
He told me he was a rep for a major manufacturing firm. I quietly listened to him answer the questions I was asking. In answer to my question about the stock market, he said,
“There are many undervalued stocks out there. I’m picking some of them up right now and in the next 10 years, I’ll make a killing.”
I’ve really thought about the term “undervalued’ he used and how it applies to the business card. Because I believe it is the most undervalued marketing tool available to us.
Think about this for a moment. How much time did you give to the design and message of your business card? If you’re like most, you didn’t.
It’s even possible you had a graphics artist or the print shop design your card. Here’s something I’ve learned over the years: most graphic people, as good as they are, know little about marketing.
Here is the silver bullet information that’ll make your business card killer. It needs only these three things:
who you are…
what you do…
how to contact you…
And just as important, it should be designed in such a way when a person looks at your card, they can read and understand your 3 point message in 7 seconds or less.
Here’s why your business card is undervalued. From my personal and informal surveys, the majority of people hold on to business cards that are given to them. A SBA survey I read years ago also backs up my findings.
Once your cards are given out, the majority of them stay in circulation for a long time. Maybe they do lie in a desk drawer, but the day comes when the holder pulls it out and looks at it.
I think the secret is to have as many cards you can out there, just waiting for the right time to be remembered or used to refer someone else to you.
How much value do you put on that?
7 Darn Good Reasons Your Small Business Needs A Website
Every business needs a website, I don’t care how small or menial your business is. I’m even talking about the shade tree mechanic down the street, who repairs cars under the tree in his back yard. Here are 7 darn good reasons I think you business must have a website.
1. Available 24/7. This is obvious but extremely beneficial. Studies have found that a majority of people search the internet for information to help make their purchasing decisions, even if they’re going to use a brick and mortar business. This makes your business available after closing hours and information that couldn’t be delivered over your answering machine.
2. Accessible locally as well as global. Many times when small businesses are thinking about their websites, their intent is to increase their sales territory via the web. This was true for me in the mid 90’s when I put my first web site up for my travel agency. But don’t forget about the local business. Customers in your area are searching for products and services, too. The search engines try to deliver search results based on the IP address of the searcher when they can. This means that local businesses will be displayed first in the results.
3. Flexibility with speed. A website is much easier and less expensive to change and modify specials, products and services your business offers as compared to printed brochures and catalogs. And, it can be done almost instantly. Try changing a newspaper ad or listing in a phone book once its been printed, its impossible.
4. Improved image. Come on, this is the 21st century, the internet is here to stay and you don’t have a website? Your small business website lets everyone know you’re present and accounted for in the 21st century business community.
5. Increase sales and services. An online catalogue for niche products are simple and inexpensive to set up. You can even use a drop shipper and not carry any extra inventory!
6. Instant gratification. Unfortunately, our society has digressed to this base level. Ever hear that commercial on TV by JG Edwards? “It’s my money and I want it now!” People who are looking for information are that way, too. They’re searching and they want it now. Your website can offer information about the products and services you offer when your customers are looking for it. Not when you get an extra minute or after they’ve been on hold for 15 minutes.
7. Levels the playing field. A website helps your small business compete with the Big Boys. Sure, they’ve got a big, fancy and expensive website but that’s not what people are looking for. They want your website to be functional, easy to navigate and with the information they’re looking for. And that’s not hard or expensive to do.
A website isn’t the silver bullet answer for all your marketing needs but it is a powerful tool you can use that will help grow your business.
