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Networking That Works

May 12, 2008 1 Comment

Everyone knows that networking is one of the best ways to build relationships that can benefit your business. But it’s most effective when it strategically leverages your time and money.

Studies show that people usually have to meet you 6-8 times before they really know who you are and understand what you do enough to share it with others. In the meantime, they are assessing your character and competence, according to Lynne Waymon and Anne Baber in their book, Make Your Contacts Count. So how do you show them yours?

  • Choosy networkers choose…Narrow your memberships to groups that are truly useful to your goals – and go to their events regularly.
  • Bring good things to life…Take an active role in the group. It doesn’t even have to be anything related to your work — people automatically assume if you do a good job with one thing, you’ll do a good job with another.

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Is Your Business Card Underperforming?

February 29, 2008 Leave a Comment

Your business card is a reflection of you and probably the most common marketing “piece” you’ll distribute–so why do so many business owners treat their cards as an afterthought? Here are the top 6 business card mistakes I see:

1. Leaving the back of the card blank. Here’s the perfect opportunity to expand a little on what you can do for the reader. Take advantage of it! Use a tagline or bullet pointed examples of what you do–better yet have a call to action here. My next iteration will have a sentence or two telling people to go to my web site for my new free report (right now it’s a tagline).

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Interactive Trends cont’d

February 25, 2008 Leave a Comment

Here are the remaining trends I found relevant to small businesses from the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association the other day…

  1. Online video really is here to stay. It’s also developed its own business model for advertising. 141 million Americans watched 10 billion online videos in December 2007. The average viewer watched more than 3 hours of online videos that month–up 34% since the beginning of the year. And previous research shows that we’re not just talking teenagers here. So even if you don’t do your own video, it may pay to see what’s going on in your industry over at YouTube.
  2. 2008 will be the year of Google backlash. A new search war is brewing–Microsoft isn’t the only big player looking at buying Yahoo. So if you’re only doing Google AdWords, it may be time to look into Yahoo click advertising so you can benefit from any spikes in Yahoo traffic as this war plays out.
  3. Companies are disaggregating their marketing expenses. For those of us in the marketing arena, speaker Howard Greenstein predicts that companies will expect one-stop-marketing shops to hire niche sub-contractors or will start spreading their marketing dollars among smaller, specialty firms in the year ahead.

After the presentation, I asked the speaker Howard Greenstein what he thought would be the best interactive tactic for very small businesses and he said blogging. And I agree, done correctly, it can very be effective in promoting the business. And with the advent of audio and video blogs, it’s even easier for all the non-writers. But when it comes down to it, the most effective tactic for you will be whatever you will enjoy most–because then you’ll do it regularly.

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Interactive Marketing Trends for 2008

February 25, 2008 2 Comments

You could spend a lot of time and money running round to networking events for business owners. I’ve seen people do this and then collapse in exhaustion after a couple months complaining that networking just doesn’t work.  That’s why I advocate strategic networking.  Studies show it often takes 7-8 contacts with someone before they consider doing business with you.  So its better to pick a couple  groups full of your ideal clients or key referral sources and getting really involved. This works for online networks/forums/communities too.  But you don’t want to become too insulated, so it’s also important to broaden your horizons by attending an outside event once a month or so.  To get a different perspective, new information, etc.

So I ventured out to the Triangle Interactive Marketing Association’s meeting this week on the top trends for 2008.  Here are the trends I found notable for small businesses:

  1. Conversational marketing (blogging, user forums, podcasts, feedback options, social networks) takes off as a practice now that mega brands like GM are on board.  For small businesses that are trying to look big, it’s time to find something that works for you in this arena.

As for the power of this new media, it was interesting to hear that the Dell Hell  debacle (essentially a guy who started quite a media phenomenon when he bought a new Dell and in-home service contract in July 2005–the computer was a lemon and in-home service wasn’t possible. He started blogging about it and became a lightning rod for a whole lot of unhappy Dell customers.) has materially affected Dell’s stock price and continues to despite progress even the Dell Hell guy is impressed by.

Stay tuned for the other three trends I found relevant to small businesses.

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