SitePoint Tribune

Introduction

I'm thrilled to be a guest author for this issue of the Tribune, which will focus on how to market your business on a budget.

Being self-employed for a long time, I know that one of the most powerful traits business owners share is passion. Most of us started our businesses because, as well as being good at it, we truly love what we do. There may be no better reason to start a business! 

Of course, passion is no guarantee that your venture is easy to manage, market, and grow, unfortunately. In fact, many entrepreneurs struggle with the sales and marketing part of business ownership. It can be increasingly challenging when you have an unclear sense of how to spend a limited budget to gain the biggest impact from your marketing activities. 

That's why this issue will outline how you can apply "skinny marketing" techniques, and includes some specific activities you may want to consider.  

Then, we'll look at a SitePoint Forum member's recent call for feedback on his plan for attracting customers. He aims to visit local companies in order to find clients for his new business.  

And we'll wrap up with my recommendation of a great (and easy) way to find new opportunities for promoting your business. 

Enjoy!

Alyssa Gregory
tribune@sitepoint.com

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Summary

• Introduction
• Preparing for the Skinny
• Skinny Marketing: Low Cost, Big Bang!
• From the Forums: Is the cold call trawl the right path for me?
• Tips and Tricks
• Latest Tutorials
• Hot Discussions
• New Blogs

Preparing for the Skinny 

We all want to spend as little as necessary on marketing. This is regardless of whether your business is thriving, or if you're just beginning to see an upturn in the economy reflected in your bottom line. Many times we think that in order to achieve a big return, we need to invest big, but this is simply false.

Shortly, I'll explain how you can maximize your marketing dollars effectively. Before jumping in and starting your budget marketing campaign though, there are some tasks you need to do first. You may already have these covered, but there's no harm in a refresher.

1. Know your business: Take time to prepare a business plan, unique selling proposition, SWOT analysis, and competitor analysis. 
2. Identify your target audience: As well as pinpointing who you're targeting, make sure you are zeroing in on a narrow, identifiable focus.  
3. Create a budget: Work out a marketing budget that reflects what you're willing to spend -- regardless of how minimal it is -- on a monthly basis.  
4. Develop a marketing strategy: Prepare a strategy that uses the data gained from the above tasks to support your business/marketing goals and activities.  

Now that you have all the planning out of the way, are you ready to start working? You can take action immediately by working on some of the skinny marketing activities listed below, integrating them into your marketing strategy.

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Skinny Marketing: Low Cost, Big Bang!

Skinny marketing (or budget marketing) is a set of activities that, when taken as a whole, give your business the strongest marketing impact for the least amount of investment. The idea is that a targeted marketing campaign that's well-planned and executed can be relatively quick and inexpensive.  

My favorite skinny marketing activities revolve around the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Assuming you're doing great work and have happy clients willing to share their experiences, you can easily use word of mouth to promote yourself by: 

• asking for testimonials from your clients to use on your web site and physical marketing materials
• giving your existing clients an incentive to refer new business your way
• attending industry meetings and conferences that your existing clients attend so they can introduce you to new prospects

Aside from word of mouth, there are many ways to implement skinny marketing. Here are a few more of my preferred low-cost (or free) suggestions: 

• Invest time on 2 to 3 social media outlets, establishing and forming relationships
• Write press releases and submit them to online distribution services
• Volunteer for a local charity or organization
• Put in some time publicly supporting colleagues in the virtual world
• Start a business blog and commit to it
• Write articles, reports, or other free information that's useful to your client and/or colleagues
• Attend live networking events, including conferences, trade shows, tweetups, and informal gatherings

You'll notice that most of these activities rarely result in instant success -- very few marketing activities actually do. In general, these tasks take time and commitment to bring about a change for your business. That's one crucial factor of skinny marketing -- it's a marathon, rather than a sprint. The more time you dedicate to your skinny marketing campaign, and the more committed you are to your chosen activities, the more successful you'll be over time.

From the Forums

Is the cold call trawl the right path for me?

On the SitePoint Forums, joemazz, a new web design business owner says, "My plan is to go out into the field, walk into these businesses, smile, introduce myself, talk about web design, and hopefully land some contracts. Is this basically the best way to go about this?" 

Although live cold calls can be time-consuming and exhausting, there's tremendous value to be gained from initiating personal contact when marketing and promoting your business. And I applaud joemazz for taking his marketing offline, which is more and more unusual in today's online business world. 

There can be a number of limitations with this method, however. These include where you live, the type of businesses you're targeting, how you present yourself, the time of day/level of busyness, and so on. 

One way to maximize your in-person marketing is to precede it with an introduction, either with a personalized letter or a phone call. This allows you to give the business owner a heads-up and unpressured time to consider what you have to offer, which may make them more receptive when you're face-to-face.  

You may also have increased success if you follow your live visit with another call, mailing, or email to touch base. Most people need three, four, or more "touches" in order to develop the trust they need to make a decision in your favor; being moderately persistent may help you accomplish this. 

As the forum thread went on to explain, joemazz had some success with his face-to-face approach, although I suspect he'll move onto other methods in the future as his business continues to grow. This reiterates the fact that marketing is about trial and error in finding what works best for you ... and about having the determination needed to see those activities through.  

Congrats on the quick success, joemazz! 

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Tips and Tricks

Have you heard of HARO? Help a Reporter Out is a publicity-lead mailing list created by Peter Shankman. Once you sign up, you'll receive daily emails listing the sources journalists and various media outlets are looking for to support their stories. The requests cover just about every industry and professional, and all you need to do is respond directly when you find an appropriate opportunity. It's a great way to gain attention, generate targeted exposure, identify yourself as an expert, and promote your business ... for free! 

That's all from me for now -- hope you enjoy this week's Tribune.

Alyssa Gregory
tribune@sitepoint.com
Guest Writer, SitePoint Tribune

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