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Small Business University

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Join us for a 3 hour, 100% pure content presentation:

The More-New-Customers, Make-More-Money Small Business Marketing Seminar

SmallBusinessU.org Presents:

Andrew Mazer who started his own wholesale company at age 21 in 1986 and still going strong today. Discovered the secrets to attracting customers online in 2000 and now he helps other business owners unlock the power of the web to get more customers so they can make more money.

Brad Tornberg who has 20+ years experience helping small & medium-size businesses identify and solve problems by analyzing and honing processes & marketing. Applying management principles and technology, flat businesses become profitable and profitable ones become prosperous.

This is NOT a sales pitch. This is 100% quality content to help you make better Marketing & Management Decisions so you can get more customers and make more money.

A SmallBusinessU.org Presentation

When: 8:30am – Noon Monday, December 9, 2013

Where: Crown Plaza Hotel Conference Room, 2349 Rt. 70 W. Cherry Hill, NJ 08002

Buffet Breakfast will be served.

Register Now: Call 1-866-799-2825

Online at: http://smallbusinessu.org

Only 51 seats available: Registration Deadline is November 29th

Developing A Total On Line Presence

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Developing a “Total Online Presence” –Why your business needs this to survive
By Brad Tornberg, E3 Consulting Partners, LLC.

It seems like developing a Total online presence is like eating Elephant – where do you start? For a startup it makes sense to first develop a strategy that defines your differentiation – your unique advantage and you ideal client. Once you have this then you can begin the process of tactical marketing to get your message across.

The most important thing you can do is to try to get people to know you. Like you, trust you, try what you’re offering, buy what you’re selling and then repeat the process and refer you to others. This is the new paradigm in today’s sales cycle or what John Jantsch calls the Seven Steps to Small Business Marketing Success.

The issues I typically hear are how much time and how much money will this take and I don’t have a lot of either. So the advice is always the same –do something, do it now and do it often. Keep a calendar and stick to it! Remember that small victories are still victories.
Simple tools such as Mailchimp and Unbounce will allow any level user to create a landing pages and create an email campaign that can collect names that opt in from the call to action generated. This content can be reused in ads for Facebook and Linked in and other sites. Simply create the landing page, go to bitly.com to create a shortcut link to your email and now you can create an email and put the link in the email to create a call to action. Remember the call to action needs ot be compelling (something for free – a free book, whitepaper, site visit, consultation, etc.) This is how they get to try out your special service or product – the try portion of the cycle.

Blogs are easy and free. WordPress makes it very simple to sign up and create a blog. The blog is crucial because the search engines reward content and if it’s original and pertinent you will rise naturally in the search engines. The blog is something that can be opted into with your above campaign and gives people a place to land to learn more about you and your business products and services. Blogging is something that needs to happen on a calendar like other marketing activities. You don’t have to be a writer. Use Google alerts and other listening tools to monitor or listen for certain key words and each day you will receive a summary of those pertinent articles or posts. You can repost, retweet or even comment on subjects that are in your sweet spot which makes you relevant and the search engines reward relevance by providing visibility in the rankings so you will be found by those who are looking for you.

My next post will be other tactical ideas to use in helping develop a total on line presence. Feel free to send me your thoughts and Ideas!

6 Steps to build an effective Sales and Marketing Business Presentation

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By Brad Tornberg

To me the answer is pretty easy and doesn’t require a lot of crazy creativity. What I find to be the most effective is simple, straight forward and to the point. The presentation in front of a potential prospect should address the following points:

1)      Give me your background. How do I know you can do the job or provide the answer to my business need? Why should I trust you? The history of your world isn’t important to me unless the areas highlighted have specific application to my needs.

2)      What is it you do and why should I use you? Too many times it isn’t clear what you bring to the table and what makes you different. I get you have an excellent product and a service but isn’t that an expectation? What is your core differentiator? What makes you different? Tell it to me in 60 seconds. Then 30. Then 15 and finally 7 seconds. That’s your core message – use it.

3)      How do you do it? Tell me your process and what the experience will be like. It should be something that is unique and separates you from your competitors.

4)      Give me examples of what the solution will look like at the end of our engagement. The deliverable – so many people ignore this. What are you getting for the money? What is the value of doing business together and what does it look like?

5)      What have others who are similar to me experienced and who else is doing this? Testimonials and Case Studies build trust and seeing that others have had the same need and received a positive outcome is important.

6)      How do we move forward from here knowing this solution fits my needs? So many times the presentation is spot on and then it stops and asks questions or comments? Here is the close. Here is the chance to gain the right to move forward by asking the question. You earned it now ask it!

Address these 6 steps in any sales or business marketing presentation and do it in the least amount of slides as possible because people don’t want to see your PowerPoint! They want to see if they like you and want to do business with YOU!


The 4 M’s of Social Media

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Success in Social Media is having a well-defined tactical plan of attack but rarely can you succeed based on this alone. Strategy is the tip of the sword and without it your tactics will probably fail. With that being said there are four important areas you should focus on when implementing any social media tactical campaign.

First – What is your Message? What is the purpose of the message? What is the reader supposed to do once they see your message? Is it simple and easy to understand? Does it take a long time to figure out what to do once the reader decides they want to act on it? Does it further your current marketing or sales cycle? What part of the overall cycle does this message address and satisfy? It needs to be clear and concise and to the point. It needs to cause an emotional response that gets the reader to perform an action. What is the response you are looking for from the message?

Second – What are the mediums you intend to use to convey the message? Social Media Geography is growing larger every day with new places and spaces to claim your real estate. My advice is to be careful here. Choose wisely. Realistically you can’t dedicate too many resources when starting out. You can always expand to other sites and places once the Monetize (# 4) portion is in place and giving you the expected return. Stick with the basics and those that may be specific to the types of customers you serve. The idea is to use the same message and spread it out across multiple mediums for maximum exposure and hopefully inbound capture and conversion. People will buy when they are ready to buy and having them know, like and trust you is how they try, buy, repeat and refer you. This is the goal of marketing and the hourglass philosophy of John Jantsch and Duct Tape Marketing.

Third – The importance of measurement. Measure everything. Social media is another tactic and should be measured and analyzed constantly. Use tools and analytics available from your vendors and providers or services like web trends, Google analytics. Etc. (some are pay others are free). Split your message and test it and don’t forget that just because its social media you shouldn’t ignore traditional marketing methods that have been successful since marketing became a discipline.

Fourth – Monetize. What is your definition of how it monetizes? For some it may be the sale for others it may be a goal like contributions or a certain level of social awareness. At the end of the day how does the message eventually convert to a sale? If not does it increase transaction velocity (quicker sales close cycle) or improve your social following and reputation? The definition of the sale has also changed with social media. It can now be defined as any transaction that creates a ripple economic effect for the institution involved in the message.


Some great tips and ideas to think about as you roll out your marketing plans for 2012

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By Brad Tornberg

Do you ever ask your customers how they would best like to be contacted by you? How frequently? Have you ever asked what types of information can you provide to them that gives value to your relationship? Offer them an incentive to respond to a survey for a free prize and you may show your customers you respect the value of their tie and promise not to bother them with information that is not relevant. The customer now dictates the relationship and when they are ready to buy. If you provide too much information and marketing at too high of a frequency they will shut down. If you don’t give them enough they will not “know” you which will never lead to like and trust and eventually try and buy which is what marketing is all about.

Do you send text messages to your customers? People value the email but the text message can be very powerful as well, appear personalized and will usually evoke a response. Ask them a question and see if they respond, they will. Ask them to tell you their greatest concern when using your product or service or how can you improve your product or service – you may be surprised but you will get responses and valuable feedback that should help you refocus your  marketing initiatives and messages. Offer them a 10% discount when they do respond or a thank you for responding. Younger generations are using the phone and use email less and less. They are a mobile culture and work better within a mobile framework.

How many times do you Google your competition? Do you look to see where they are weak? Is there any internet geography they are missing from (no YouTube Videos but heavy presence in Facebook) where you can fill the void and create content that fills that void?

Do you attend many network events? How is that working for you? Have you ever thought of creating an event that centers on you and the types of people you want to do business with? It’s a great idea. You are the host. Everyone talks to the host. Give and you shall receive. Being known as a “Connector” is a sure sign of networking success and part of the Duct Tape Marketing System of people getting to know, like and trust you. If you have it in your place of business people get to know you and your operation. Donate the proceeds to charity and also gain the reputation of Philanthropy.

Do you give referrals? Everyone talks about it but it really is the least used tactic to gain warm referrals and easier to convert business. Why is it so hard to reward employees who can actively seek these? They become an extension of your sales force. Create contests – the winner of the most referrals gets a trip to Hawaii. It may be the best money you ever spent and cost a lot less than commissions would. Contest get everyone involved and it becomes fun yet at the same time look at how it’s helping the pipeline!

When was the last time you asked a satisfied customer for a testimonial? If you did where is it now – hanging on your wall? It serves a much better purpose if it’s emailed to your clients and prospects – look what people are saying about us! or even posted on your website. Video testimony is powerful and generates more unique content for your company. Content is king – the more you have the more the search engines like it and move you higher in the organic rankings.

Finally your marketing message – is it focused? Is it clear? Does it communicate your strategy? What makes you different from your competitors? Does your ideal client see it and does it resonate with them? The fact is simple is still best. One message across multiple mediums is how the social media space is leveraged and should be used as any good set of tools should be.


Innovation in Customer Service – The Next Frontier

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Innovation in Customer Service is the next frontier. Yes products evolve and get easier to use, more efficient and streamlined but what do they do to make the customer experience better?

People will use anything that makes life more efficient and are willing to pay for ease, convenience and offerings that cater to their needs, work to fit their lifestyle or circumstances and looks and feels like a personalized experience.

Some hotels for example now let you check in and out on a 24 hour rolling basis making it an innovation that directly impacts the customer experience. If the customer can change their buying patterns to make things easier for themselves then any service offering like this will be successful.

A supermarket chain allows you to call ahead with your list so that when you arrive your order is ready and you can just pick up the items you forgot saving you the long time you spend in the supermarket but still allow for the experience of shopping. They also provide home delivery which is an old model but felt that many of their customers still like the shopping experience to be able to select key items such as fruit, meats and other personal choice items. They are growing at an amazing rate because they offer services that bring innovation to the customer experience and meet multiple needs depending on their customer’s circumstances.

In the mobile world now that the platforms are becoming more widespread and used as everyday tools (iPhones, Droids, Tablets) the success of the appliance will be judged going forward not just based upon the applications that are utilized on the device and for what purpose. The device themselves will gain or lose market share depending on the ergonomic likes and dislikes (style, size, color, ease of use, availability of applications, etc.). However the devices that can bring consistent innovation to the customer experience by changing the way the consumer behaves will rise to the top. Users of these devices will see the utility as something that improves customer service and is a must for their lifestyle.

The monetization of Customer Innovation can be quite large. It will come from repetitive use and mass adoption from consumers which originates from social media acceptance and approval. After all how they bring innovation to the customer experience is always a great story to tell!


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