The Ultimate Marketing Toolkit

Ads That Attract Customers. Blogs That Create Buzz. Web Sites That Wow.

Paula Peters

• Publisher: Adams Media
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781593374976
• eBook ISBN: 9781440514111
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Marketing
• Index: Business

From e-mail to YouTube, Facebook to webvertisingùthe tools of marketing have never changed so quickly. Now marketing professionals can ensure their business has the best marketing plan, supported by the most cutting-edge techniques. This book gives marketers what they need to make their businesses thrive. In simple, nontechnical language, Paula Peters shows professionals how to use marketing tools like:

• Blogs and blogging
• Pay-per-click advertising
• Search engine optimization
• E-mail offers
• E-newsletters

Filled with samples and resource lists, this book is the only book a marketing professional will ever need.

CHAPTER 1
THE THIRTY-SECOND
SOUND BITE

Before you ever spend a dime on your marketing, spend the next ten minutes developing a good thirty-second sound bite for your business. Why? Because you will use it more than any other tool in your marketing toolkit—and it’s one tool that is totally 100 percent free.

WHAT IS IT?

A thirty-second sound bite is a short introduction of you and your business that can be accomplished in thirty seconds or less. It answers the question that people always ask at parties: “So . . . what do you do?” It is your chance to show them your stuff.

Think of your thirty-second sound bite as a TV commercial, delivered by you. Someone has asked you for more information about your business, and you want to provide it as concisely as possible. You never know—he or she could be a potential customer.

This is especially important for new business owners. I have encountered many new business owners who miss out on opportunities with potential customers because they cannot quickly describe their core business concept in thirty seconds or less. Sometimes their message is so unclear that I still don’t get it, even after I ask questions! This is a particularly difficult problem for those of us with technology, computer, and manufacturing businesses. Sometimes it is challenging to explain to the average person just what we do—but that is exactly what we must do if we want to spread the word about our business and find potential leads through our networking efforts.

I once went to a chamber of commerce networking event with a friend of mine who owned a physical therapy business. After he finished talking to a nice woman who owned a sign shop, he moved on, and I introduced myself to her. After a few minutes of talking and giving each other our thirty-second sound bites, she mentioned that she was looking for a physical therapist to help her correct a running injury.

“A physical therapist?” I said. “Did you realize that the guy you were just talking to was a physical therapist?”

She looked stunned for a moment, then said, “You know, we talked for five minutes about his business, but I never really figured out what he did!”

Clearly, that was a missed opportunity for my friend that could have been avoided by a well-thought-out thirty-second sound bite.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT THIRTY-SECOND
SOUND BITE?

A great thirty-second sound bite will explain your business concept clearly and concisely in less than thirty seconds. When people hear it, they will know immediately whether they need your products or services—or not. That’s because a good thirty-second sound bite always includes four things:

1. The name of your business

2. Your main product or service

3. The customer group that uses your product or service

4. One benefit to those customers of using your product or service

Once you get these four things down, your new potential customers should have no trouble understanding what you do and how you can help them.

Jim Sherwin runs a business designing gardens for homeowners in a Kansas City suburb. His business is called Tulips ’N Tomatoes. (Please note that all names of businesses, locations, and business owners have been changed in this book. This protects the personal marketing information that I receive from my customers, colleagues, and class participants.)

When I met Jim, he gave me this excellent thirty-second sound bite:

“Hi, my name is Jim Sherwin, and I own Tulips ’N Tomatoes. We design flower and vegetable gardens for people who love to have fresh-cut flowers and fresh vegetables in their homes but are too busy to care for their gardens. We design the garden, plant the seedlings, and come back once a month to make sure it’s growing properly until harvest.”

Doesn’t that sound appealing? And if you are a busy parent holding down a job in suburban Kansas City, but still want to enjoy the fresh taste of a summer garden, then you see immediately that Tulips ’N Tomatoes is the help you need. Jim’s thirty-second sound bite gives us a great visual image of the big, ripe tomatoes just waiting to be eaten!

Notice that what Jim is not doing is a “hard sell.” He is not imposing himself on the listener or pressuring the listener to buy anything. Don’t confuse a thirty-second sound bite with a sales pitch. They are two different things. In this case, Jim is simply sharing a story about what he does for a living. But it’s a carefully thought-out story that can solicit new business from new customers. I like to call it a “soft sell.”

With some careful wording, even the most complicated business can fit into a thirty-second sound bite.

WRITE YOUR OWN

Now that you’ve read an example, you are ready to write your very own thirty-second sound bite. Don’t worry—this will not be hard. Just take out a blank piece of paper and a pen or open a new word processing document, take a deep breath, and begin.

Describe Your Product or Service

To start, write a short note that describes your main product or service. That’s it. It doesn’t need to be fancy, and it doesn’t even need to be a complete sentence.

Cindy Blair provides general legal mediation services to her customers. Her business is Blair Mediation Services, LLC. The description that she writes looks like this:

Legal mediation services.

That’s it. As I said, nothing fancy. Now, you do the same thing.

Pick a Target Customer

Next, write down a description of your target customer. Who is the main person or type of business that you sell to? If you are a new business or just dreaming of being in business, use your imagination. Whom do you want to sell to?

TIP!

Having an accurate understanding of your target customer is one of the keys to successful marketing. The more specifically you can describe your target customer, whether it is a person or a business—including income level, location, hobbies, buying habits—the more solid your marketing toolkit will be.

The more specific you are in identifying your target customer, the better your thirty-second sound bite will be. Your customers could be thirty-five-year-old moms who own dogs and live in city lofts; CFOs of small manufacturing firms with $1 million in annual revenue and sixty employees; or teenage boys who attend public schools, play football, and use skateboards on the weekends. Whomever you are selling to, list them here. Cindy writes:

Married couples who are actively seeking divorce.

Remember, choose only one target customer at this point. If you have more than one, pick your most important target customer group or individual. You want this thirty-second spiel to be as focused as possible.

Choose a Customer Benefit

Now, think about the benefits of your product or service for your target customer. Why does that person want to buy from you?

You probably already have an idea in mind. Maybe your product saves time or money. Maybe it makes life easier. Whatever makes your business special for your target customer is what you’ll want to include as your benefit.

In Cindy’s case, the customer benefit looks like this:

Save money by using a mediator to process your divorce, instead of using an expensive lawyer.

Now we’ve got a solid service, a target customer, and a good benefit. We are ready to put together the thirty-second sound bite.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

To create your thirty-second sound bite, string your three pieces together into one or two cohesive sentences. The pieces are already in the right order, so you’ve already done most of the work.

For example, Cindy’s completed thirty-second sound bite comes out like this:

“Hi, my name is Cindy Blair, and I own Blair Mediation Services, LLC. We do legal mediation services for married couples who are actively seeking divorce. Our services give our customers the chance to save money by using a mediator to process their divorce or separation, instead of using an expensive lawyer.”

Voilà! Instant thirty-second sound bite, ready to use.

The Simpler, the Better

The simpler your thirty-second sound bite is, the better. That means that there should be no fifty-cent words in your thirty-second sound bite. Nor should there be any technical words, jargon, or industry slang. Just use simple, straightforward language, short words, and short sentences. Simpler words give your listening audience a better picture of what you do.

One final caveat: it must truly be thirty seconds or less. There’s only one way to be sure of this—time yourself. Pull out a watch, read your statement aloud, and check your total time. Make sure it is under thirty seconds long. Remember, this is like a TV commercial for your business, and most TV commercials are thirty seconds or less. Anything longer and most people’s eyes glaze over from boredom.

WHAT IF YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE?

Even if you already have a thirty-second sound bite that you’ve been using for years, consider revising it to make it clearer. Time it, and test it out on a few people. Just because you have had it around for a long time does not mean that it is working for you.

ADVERTISE YOURSELF

The more you use your thirty-second sound bite, the more powerful it will become as a marketing tool. So study it, memorize it, and use it wherever you go. Any time you meet a new businessperson, neighbor, vendor, friend, acquaintance, church member—use it.

These are some of the most common places where you can use your sound bite:

• Networking events

• Social events

• Trade shows

• Association meetings

• Meetings with new customers

Use it everywhere that you meet new people. And don’t forget—sometimes even your extended personal network of family members, business contacts, customers, and friends can forget exactly what you do for a living, especially if you haven’t seen them in a while. Your thirty-second sound bite can remind them, as well.

Staff Should Use It, Too

This brings us to an important point about your staff: Remember they advertise the business to their friends, contacts, and families every day, too—and these groups of people can be a great source of potential le...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• CONTENTS
• FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION
• INTRODUCTION: OPEN UP YOUR TOOLKIT
• CHAPTER 1: THE THIRTY-SECOND SOUND BITE
• CHAPTER 2: THE UNIQUE LOGO
• CHAPTER 3: THE TAG LINE
• CHAPTER 4: THE BUSSINES CARD
• CHAPTER 5: THE LETERHEAD
• CHAPTER 6: THE WEBSITE
• CHAPTER 7: THE PAY-PER-CLICK AD
• CHAPTER 8: THE BLOG
• CHAPTER 9: THE ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK
• CHAPTER 10: THE E-MAIL OFFER
• CHAPTER 11: THE FOLLOW-UP E-MAIL
• CHAPTER 12: THE BIO
• CHAPTER 13: THE BROCHURE
• CHAPTER 14: THE INTRODUCTORY LETTER
• CHAPTER 15: THE NEWS LETTER
• CHAPTER 16: THE POSTCARD
• CHAPTER 17: THE PRINT AD
• CHAPTER 18: THE PRESS RELEASE
• CHAPTER 19: WHEN TO HIRE A PROFESIONAL
• APPENDIX: SAMPLES
• PERMISSIONS AND CREDITS