We need to start using some new improved superlatives in our marketing copy. “Great!” you say. Yes, that’s the one. Great really grates on me. Great is so overused that it may as well be blank space. Great carries all the impact of a cotton puff.

Now, there was a time when great really meant something. Take Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, conqueror of lands, founder of cities for example. Now, he is great. Somehow I just can’t see Product XX’s great online resources changing the political and demographic history of three continents.

Or maybe Ramesses II, Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty, known as the Great. Can you imagine the great new flavor of Processed Food XXX ruling unchallenged for 66 years, causing the building of cities and monumental sculptures that survive for 3,500 years? Or inspiring poetry such as P.B. Shelley’s Ozymandias “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”?

OK. Actually, I CAN look on Processed Food XXX and despair. But Processed Food XXX great?!?! Not a chance.

The Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s east coast is truly Great. The reef system is thousands of kilometers long, and hosts a diversity of corals and sea life unmatched on the globe. Somehow it just seems insulting to compare it to the great customer (dis)service system of Company XXXX.

So let’s stop claiming every new and old product or service is great. After all, when every thing is great, nothing is great.

There are plenty of under-utilized superlatives available. Pick up a thesaurus or a dictionary and take a look. Click over to Thesaurus.reference.com, Merriam-Webster.com’s Thesaurus or any of the other online thesauri and peruse some of the

august, capital, chief, commanding, dignified, distinguished, eminent, exalted, excellent, famed, famous, fine, glorious, grand, heroic, high-minded, highly regarded, honorable, idealistic, illustrious, impressive, leading, lofty, magnanimous, main, major, noble, notable, noted, noteworthy, outstanding, paramount, primary, principal, prominent, puissant, regal, remarkable, renowned, royal, stately, sublime, superior, superlative, talented, able, absolute, aces, adept, admirable, adroit, awesome, bad*, best, brutal, cold*, complete, consummate, crack*, downright, dynamite, egregious, exceptional, expert, fab, fantastic, fine, first-class*, first-rate, good, heavy*, hellacious, marvelous, masterly, number one, out of sight, out of this world, out-and-out, perfect, positive, proficient, super-duper, surpassing, terrific, total, tough, transcendent, tremendous, unmitigated, unqualified, utter, wonderful, abundant, ample, big, big league, bulky, bull, colossal, considerable, decided, enormous, excessive, extended, extensive, extravagant, extreme, fat, gigantic, grievous, high, huge, humongous, husky, immense, inordinate, jumbo, lengthy, long, major league, mammoth, mondo, numerous, oversize, prodigious, prolonged, pronounced, protracted, strong, stupendous, terrible, titanic, towering, tremendous, vast, voluminous,

alternatives to great. It is time to spice up and enliven our marketing language.

Steve Lange
Palo Alto Software

There’s no question that marketing is changing. Advertising is dying and getting reborn all over the place, and word-of-mouth is leveraged by technology tools. The problem is how, how much, how fast and how does it affect your business? It’s a new world, with a changed landscape.

For idea leadership in this realm, look to Seth Godin: his books and his blog. He’s redefining advertising as “shouting.” And he looks to a new kind of marketing built on being remarkable, in a very literal sense of the word: remarkable, as in something that people will talk about. And for practical how-to leadership, I recommend John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing founder, redefining marketing as getting people to know, like and trust you.

And for actually working rapidly changing marketing assumptions into your own business plan, frankly, it’s hard these days. It’s complicated because the landscape is built on sand mines; it crumbles fast.

I recommend you use a methodology somewhat akin to following the money for the financial portions of your plan. But for the marketing portions, you follow the attention. You could call that eyeballs (a popular web term), or mindshare, if you prefer.

Start with attention. Ask yourself what makes people aware of a need, a problem or a want that you solve. You could call that an itch, because need is misleading: People buy a lot of goods and services they don’t really need. So you want to understand what gives people the itch that leads to you when they scratch it. And then you understand how to scratch the itch: Where do they look for solutions? Is it habit, the shop next door? Do they look in some repository in their mind or memory, like some ad they’ve got stored in the back of their mind? Or do they open a web page and do a Google or some other search?

I read about an IBM study called The end of advertising as we know it on Michael Glass’ Fuel Lines advertising blog. This is very interesting stuff. He quotes the IBM study:

Imagine an advertising world where … spending on interactive, one-to-one advertising formats surpasses traditional, one-to-many advertising vehicles, and a significant share of ad space is sold through auctions and exchanges. Advertisers know who viewed and acted on an ad and pay based on real impact rather than estimated “impressions.” Consumers self-select which ads they watch and share preferred ads with peers. User-generated advertising is as prevalent (and appealing) as agency-created spots.

And Glass adds his own commentary, from his advertising professional’s point of view.

There is no question that the future of advertising will look radically different from its past. The push for control of attention, creativity, measurements and inventory will reshape the advertising value chain and shift the balance of power.

And what can you do about it? Follow the attention. Follow the eyeballs.

Ready for a pop quiz?

Answer the following questions with a True or False and then check your answer below.

1. Your ad needs to be large to generate a good response.
2. Use a lot of “white” space because people will not read crammed copy.
3. Ads with black text on a light background get a better response than white text on a black or coloured background.
4. The best section for your ad is always where your market is seeking this type of product or service (e.g. travel section for holiday packages).
5. Long copy is better than short copy.
6. Watch what the big guys are doing and follow their techniques

Answers to Advertising IQ

Your ad needs to be large to generate a good response.
False. Some small ads dramatically out pull the big ones. Many of the most successful ads in history were quite modest in size.

Use a lot of “white” space because people will not read crammed copy.
False. Some very effective ads are packed with so much information that they look pretty awful – yet they make the telephone ring and they sell a lot of products and services.

Ads with black text on a light background get a better response than white text on a black or coloured background.
True. Ads in reverse print, when tested against traditional layout, generate significantly less interest (and fewer calls).

The best section for your ad is always where your market is seeking this type of product or service (e.g. travel section for holiday packages).
False. Some of the highest quality leads you can generate are from people who are not actively looking for your kind of service or product. While it is good to have some ads in a relevant section, sometimes it can also get lost in the clutter!

Long copy is better than short copy.
True. People who are not interested in what you have to offer will be bored, but those who are interested will read every single word, even if it is long copy (unless it is boring copy).

Watch what the big guys are doing and follow their techniques.
False. Large companies have different objectives and quite often expect different results from their advertising than do small businesses. Small businesses must generate leads and should be using creative approaches and 2-step advertising techniques.

Cidnee Stephen is the owner of Strategies for Success – a marketing company that focuses on the needs of budget-minded small businesses and professional services. She has helped hundreds of small businesses get out of their peak and valley ruts to finally achieve that next vital level of success. Cidnee is also a sought-after speaker, writer and blogger on marketing topics that affect small businesses and B2B service based operations.

If you would like to build a system to reach those goals quicker, check out Cindee’s Speak for Leads & Expertise Program.

Article by Carolyn Higgins

Pick up a newspaper, magazine or advertising circular and look at the ads. What do you see?  A whole bunch of the same thing: a list of services; a company name; a tagline; a pretty graphic; and maybe an offer.

Most businesses think of advertising in one of two ways: 1) Put your company name in front of enough people enough times so they’ll remember you when it’s time to buy. … or 2) Put an “amazing” offer out there and people will be compelled to respond (whether they’ve made the decision to buy or not).

The first scenario is called ”top of mind” advertising and unless you have a multi-million dollar marketing budget it’s very difficult to buy top of mind brand awareness. In the second example advertising sales people want their advertisers to see results (because results sell more advertising), so  they recommend you put an offer  in your ad:  Get 10% off service, $5.00 of a product, buy one get one free, etc.  And sure, that works - sometimes.

Let’s Analyze the “Compelling Offer” Approach:

Does putting an amazing offer in front of people influence them to buy even if they don’t have an immediate or compelling want or need? Does an amazing offer force someone to buy if they don’t have a budget? No, it doesn’t.  So your ad gets completely ignored and you don’t get any response. (Ok to be fair – best case scenario – someone may clip it, stick it to the fridge where it will hang for a month or two before it ends up in a drawer or in the trash).

How an Ad Gets Seen….or Not.

Consider this scenario:   I’m looking at an ad in the free local magazine that comes in the mail every month; it’s an ad for a $75 carpet, tile or grout cleaning.  Well, my tile and grout happen to be pretty clean- well clean enough for me right now. So I’m not interested in spending $75 to get it cleaned, even if it is a great deal. I ignore the ad and move on.

Now let’s think about this… I am a tile owner. At some point in my life I may need tile cleaning services. However, did I notice the name of the business offering the deal? NO. Do I know how they are different from every other steam cleaning company out there? NO. Has this ad given me a reason to remember them when I am ready to get my tile and grout clean? NO. Has this ad engaged me in any way? NO.

Old School Advertising Doesn’t Work!

And what’s the traditional reaction when advertising doesn’t work?    Ask any advertising rep and they’ll tell you - you need to advertise MORE (i.e.: spend MORE money), so that when your prospect is ready to buy  they will see or remember your ad and call you. But how much are you willing to spend to make a sale?

So let’s say you spend $175 / month on the ad and it takes me 6 months to decide I need to clean my tile. Let’s say I happen to choose you because I remembered seeing your ad in the magazine for the past six months and because your offer is better than the other guy who is doing it for $100. You’ve just paid $1050 to get my $75 sale. Sure, you may up-sell me, I may become a regular customer and my life time value may be in the thousands – but those are big “ifs”. Think about that:  you are spending hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars hoping to reach a prospect at exactly the right time in their buying process. Doesn’t that seem like a pretty large gamble to you? No wonder businesses think advertising doesn’t work!

A New Way to Advertise.

What if, instead of advertising with the hope of making your phone ring off the hook and breaking sales records immediately, you take a different approach! What if you try something Duct Tape Marketing calls the “2 Step Approach to Advertising”?   What if, instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on print ads trying to find that needle in a haystack – that rare person who is ready to buy what you are offering the second they see your ad – you find potential prospects and get their permission to market to them on a more consistent basis and with more targeted offers while spending less money?

Here’s How 2 Step Advertising Works:

Create an ad offering a free report:  “5 Easy Things You Can do to Keep Your Tile and Grout Clean”. Or better yet, “How to Remove Tile and Grout Stains Yourself”. OK,  I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking this is crazy and it’s going to cost you business –right?  Well, you’re wrong. It won’t cost you business; in fact this approach will accomplish three things. It will:

1. Get people to your website where they can learn more about you.
2. Attract people who actually own tile and who will give you permission to market to them on a regular basis.
3. Prove that you care more about helping people than making a sale (prospects love that).

The goal of marketing is to get people who have a need to KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST you so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you. Offering helpful and useful information helps build your KNOW, LIKE and TRUST factors and yes, increases sales.

The goal of 2 Step Advertising is to get prospects to your site and get their permission to engage them by collecting their email addresses. Once you have their permission you can email surveys, newsletters, tips and offers geared specifically to their needs on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for about a penny an email.

Think about how powerful that is: You get to communicate with a prospect who has given you permission to market to them for one tiny penny! That’s HUGE!

Your New Advertising Strategy

How many more responses do you think you can get when you stop selling in your advertising and start offering helpful information? People hate to be sold. And that’s what traditional advertising is all about. What if you can get 10 new people on your email list from each ad? What if 1 of those people eventually buys from you at full price – or close to it? What is the cost of that one customer compared to the one you got by practicing traditional advertising?  I guarantee that if you implement this approach as part of your marketing strategy you will get results and begin to see your business grow.

Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

Article by Carolyn Higgins

If I were to ask 100 people to define “Marketing” I’d probably get 100 different answers. The problem is “Marketing” has become a nice little euphemism for dirty words like “advertising”, “sales”, and “direct mail”.

I’ve also noticed that all a sudden everyone is a Marketer: I met a guy the other day who makes signs – he introduced himself as a “Marketer”. Then I met a woman who sells online ads, she also identified as a “Marketer”. Everywhere I go I run into people who at first- glance do what I do, but when I dig a little deeper I learn they’re really selling some marketing tool; not actually engaging in the bigger picture – or the process and planning of Marketing.

I’ve been able to forgive sellers of marketing tools for calling themselves Marketers – I mean, everyone is doing it. But then I read an article by the CEO of a very well-known company that is a provider of Marketing tools (they call themselves “Marketers” too). In his article he addressed the question, “Isn’t Marketing and Advertising the same thing?” His response was, “Well, not really. Let me explain the differences. Advertising includes: commercials, billboards, radio, and newspapers. Marketing includes: emails, letters, postcards, and fax.” WHAT??? (Ok, in all fairness, he wrote Marketing “includes” not marketing “is”, but still, he used this example to answer the question, “how are Marketing and Advertising different?”, which leads me to believe that’s the basis on which he differentiates them.)

OK – clearly there is a lot of confusion out there. Marketing and Advertising are NOT the same. Advertising is NOT Marketing. Post cards are NOT Marketing. Signs are NOT Marketing. Emails are NOT Marketing. These are tools used in the process of Marketing. They are NOT, in of themselves “Marketing”.

So then, what is Marketing?

Wikipedia - Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in goods or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development.[1] It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.[1]

American Marketing Association (AMA) – Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Notice that neither of these definitions includes the words “email”, “advertising”, or “post cards”? That’s because those things are merely the tools used to create customer interest, engage them and get them to want to buy from us. Take a look at the AMA definition, they state that Marketing is more than the activity of marketing (i.e.: emailing) – it is the set of institutions and the processes for generating interest.

I want you to be aware. We all know we need Marketing, but be smart; learn what that really means and don’t just trust any salesperson who calls themselves a marketer and walks into your shop selling the marketing idea of the week. Marketing is a process – it’s not a one-time deal. Buying an ad or a sign or an email campaign without an overall strategy or plan is simply a waste of time and money. Educate yourself – take the time to learn and invest in your business wisely.

Bottom line: Marketing is strategy. It’s an all-encompassing, planning, scheduling, studying, figuring-stuff-out, researching, testing, and practicing strategy. And I don’t mean a strategy for getting a 20% response rate on an email campaign, 100 coupons from a print ad, or 20 referrals from your referral group. Marketing is bigger than that – much bigger. And when done right it will give you bigger results than you’ve ever imagined!

Carolyn Higgins is the President and founder of Fortune Marketing Company. Her personal mission is to help small businesses stop wasting money on advertising and promotions that don’t deliver and help you implement an effective marketing system that will bring you more customers – consistently.

For more information about Carolyn Higgins and Fortune Marketing Company please visit http://www.FortuneMarketingCompany.com.
Email chiggins@fortunemarketingcompany.com or call us at 707.718.4489.

As the year moves forward, many businesses and entrepreneurs continue to tweak marketing plans and budgets for the months ahead. When it comes to setting up your public relations/media exposure plan, WHEN you launch your campaign can be just as important as what and how you launch.

In the last 16 years of generating media exposure for our clients, my research shows that 41% of the media interest and exposure we generate in a year happens in the second quarter – that’s almost double the amount of any other quarter of the year:

• 1st  quarter = 18%
• 2nd quarter = 41%
• 3rd quarter =  21%
• 4th quarter  = 20%

So what does that mean? If you are planning to implement a  PR/media exposure campaign for your business or product in the coming weeks – congratulations. Your timing is ideal.

Frankly, you can get great media exposure at any time of the year given the right pitch and tending in the media market. But what many people don’t realize is that the Spring and early Summer months are when many of the media outlets look to run features on unique products and services: home & garden products; kitchen & food gadgets; auto accessories & car care; pet care and accessories; outdoor recreation products; travel products, and more.

Like all of us, many media people take vacations during the summer, so they like to be able to put together several product features in the second quarter that can run at any time while they are on vacation in the weeks and months ahead. But they won’t run them if they don’t know about your unique product or service. And that’s why making timely, quality media pitches now can be so mutually beneficial for you and your media contacts.

Also, believe it or not, the latter part of the second quarter is when many of the larger magazines and syndicated TV shows start planning what they call their “Holiday Book” – yes, they start working on their holiday gift guides that early. In fact, some of the bigger magazines are all but finished with their holiday book by August. (I realize that July and August aren’t in the second quarter – my point is that the early birds who get their releases and pitches in by May and June stand a better chance of being featured than those who wait until months later.)

Potential media exposure opportunities are directly dependent upon how quickly and efficiently you or your publicist/PR agency can help the media secure the placement. Media relations are crucial. Your job is to make the job of the reporter/editor/producer as easy and as effortless as possible – which will lead to quicker and more numerous placements for you.

What we are trying to do is continuously plant seeds in the editorial minds of media outlets over the next several weeks and months. Given the right tending, the seeds you plant now will indeed germinate, and you’ll benefit from great media exposure well into the next quarters of the year.

One thing I realized during my 9-5 career is that the things you don’t say can oftentimes be way more powerful than the things you do say. I remember telling my boss, the VP of Sales, a story about a how another VP of Sales in a past job took a huge account that I had landed away from me and transferred it to a senior rep because he felt I couldn’t handle it. I told this story as a way to prove that I was capable of bringing in big accounts. But as I told it, I realized that what I was really doing by telling the story was instilling doubt in his mind of my abilities to effectively manage a large account. If another person in his position had made that call, then maybe there was some validity to it.

I vividly remember sitting there after having spilled the beans, immediately regretting it; realizing that although I was trying to make myself look capable it really did quite the opposite… It was a valuable lesson and I learned to be a lot more mindful about what I say – and don’t say! And that is a skill that is definitely useful in developing marketing communications….

Now cut to yesterday…. I stole a couple of lazy hours on a Saturday afternoon to watch some mindless TV. And on comes a Nutella commercial. I rarely watch commercials these days, but as a marketer when I do, I pay attention. In this particular Nutella commercialI noticed how they positioned the product as a fun, easy, and healthy choice. I didn’t quite buy the “healthy” claim so I went to my laptop to look up their ingredients. Guess what??? No so healthy…! But it got me thinking again about Marketing and Advertising and clever big corporations are with their messaging – like politicians, they are great at focusing on the good and ignoring the “bad”. So I thought I’d point out what Nutella did in their commercials to help small business owners know what to say – and NOT say!

Here are some lines from their commercial that I thought were interesting uses of marketing messaging. I also included lessons that all small businesses can learn from them.

“Serve it on whole wheat toast or even whole wheat waffles.” – I love this line. Without saying the product is healthy, it leads you to believe it’s healthy simply by associating it with something that is healthy! Using this strategy, you can slap 20 tablespoons of sugar on whole wheat bread and voila! It’s healthy! Lesson: In your business, what can you associate your product or service with to make it more appealing to consumers?

“My kids love it and I feel good about serving it.” - Translation: I don’t have to force my kids to eat healthy stuff they hate- yet, it’s healthy enough that I don’t have to feel guilty about feeding them junk. Lesson: What emotional affect does your product or service have on consumers and how can you make them feel good about using it?

“Nutella is made with Simple, Quality ingredients; like hazelnuts, skim milk and a hint of cocoa” –How can you go wrong with nuts and skim milk and just a ‘hint’ of cocoa??? Sounds so nutritious and wholesome and good, doesn’t it? What they don’t say is that the first ingredient is sugar and the second is palm oil (which is proven to increase bad cholesterol). Lesson: How are you showcasing your best qualities (and down-playing your not-so-great qualities)?

“No artificial colors or preservatives” – What they don’t tell you is there are artificial flavors, but because they say “no artificial colors or preservatives” you forget to ask about artificial “anything” and assume it’s “artificial”/junk free! Lesson: As small business owners we sometimes feel the need to apologize for the little things we don’t do- or the services we don’t provide… but instead of apologizing for what you don’t offer, focus on what you DO – and more often than not, people won’t even notice what you don’t do!

I’m not writing this to pick on Nutella or to tell you shouldn’t smother it all over your whole wheat toast for breakfast. I wrote it to use a real world example of how an effective marketing strategy and careful marketing messaging can transform your product or service. Happy Marketing !

(And one more thing, can you really call it a Hazelnut spread if hazelnuts are only the THIRD ingredient? Wouldn’t it be a sugar spread?” – I guess it’s all about packaging!)

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!! Leave your comments here.

By the way, if you liked this post, I’d really appreciate your Retweet!!! Thank you.

I opened up the bright blue Val-Pack envelope this morning like I sometimes do, more out of a marketer’s curiosity than anything else.  I don’t use coupons; it’s too much of a hassle for me to save a few bucks.  But I do leaf through the coupons just to see who’s advertising, what they’re advertising, and if can find anything in there to blog about. Just kidding. That’s just and added bonus today!

So as I’m perusing endless pizza and car wash coupons  I noticed a huge difference in how the bigger companies advertised compared to the small local companies.

Holy cow – this is exactly what I am always ranting and raving about and here it is in print. In full color even!  Eureka, I’ve struck marketing consultant gold!

But before I get into analyzing the coupons, let’s see if you can spot the difference.  I’ll give you 60 seconds… Ready? GO…

OK, time’s up. What did you come up with???

Give up?

I can best sum it up in one word: VALUE.

Did you notice that the local companies automatically assumed that all we care about is PRICE? And the bigger national companies spoke to our need, want, or pain??? Do you see that?

Petrillo’s says: “Professional Automotive Repair – For Less.”  Translation: We say we’re professional but we don’t expect you to pay us like professionals. We expect you to pay us less than you’d pay a professional…

Lucky Cleaners says : “Stop paying too much for dry cleaning… We’re the Finest Quality Cleaners in Town!”  Translation:  We are the finest quality cleaners in town, but we don’t expect you to pay us like we are.. you can pay us less than you pay the other, not-so-fine, not-so-quality cleaners.

Now in the real world, aren’t “quality” and “cheap” mutually exclusive? Really. Be honest. Think like a consumer not a business owner.  Can you really get quality and cheap?  Not usually. That’s why we buy name brands instead of generic and why we choose Starbucks coffee over McDonald’s, and Safeway over Food4Less.

Cheap to me says it’ll taste bad or it’ll break in a day. Quality says, it’s better, it’ll last a while.  So how can a company be “quality” and cheap?  It can’t.

Now compare that messaging to what the national companies say:

Sports Authority: “Got what you need for Spring? Find all the gear you want here…”  Translation: We know what you need and we know you’re willing to pay for it.  But because this is Valpak and you expect it, we’ll give you 20% off. But nowhere does it say, “Shop us because we’re cheap” – And anyone who has shopped there knows that even with 20% off, it’s far from cheap.

Anderson Windows: “Why deflate your home’s value with cheap, ugly windows?”   Translation: You don’t want your home to look ugly do you? So then why would you buy cheap windows?  We charge more – but we know you’ll pay it because you want to protect the value of your home and you don’t want ugly windows.

Lesson: 

The bigger companies understand VALUE.  They understand that when they communicate to potential customers in their words, on their terms, and with products and services they really need they don’t have to be the cheapest to get their business.

The reason I do what I do is because I’ve worked with huge multinational corporations and I’ve worked with small companies and I wanted to take the tools and practices that the huge companies use and teach small businesses how to stop wasting money chasing bad marketing.  This example makes that point perfectly.

Doing the groundwork is crucial. Studying your customers, your competition, and your market are fundamentals.  Knowing your target market and why they buy what they buy is critical. Figuring out how you’re different from your competition is essential. And learning how to communicate these things effectively is mandatory. Or you will always have to fall back on price.  Who wants to compete on price? Who wants to be CHEAP?  Wouldn’t you rather charge what you’re really worth and be known as the Quality company?

What does your advertising say about your company? Tell us!

There are so many different methods for advertising, from traditional print methods such as with direct mail booklets, online advertising such as Google Adwords, TV commercials, radio ads, and much more. One method of advertising that should never be overlooked for certain small businesses is that of location-based advertising. This method is still a form of advertising that is commonly used. In fact, when used right, location-based advertising can result in a dramatically improved return on investment of your marketing budget.

Location-based advertising involves targeting a specific geographic area for your advertising efforts. For example, you may want to target a specific neighborhood or a business district because this is in the immediate vicinity for your business. Therefore, anything from postcards to flyers to even Facebook ads targeted to users in your local area can be used to reach your local audience.

When Is Location-Based Advertising Best?

Location-based advertising is more effective in specific scenarios, such as for local restaurants and stores that are only located in specific areas, not so much chain stores. The exception might be targeting a specific event in a region that you know is ideal for your products and services.

For example, a local boutique would likely benefit from location-based advertising. It would make no sense to advertise to people in areas aside of the location of the boutique, especially if they do not have the option to buy items online. In this example, the boutique would need to use methods such as mailing postcards to local addresses or handing out flyers at the local farmer’s market to target people local to their store.

Does Location-Based Advertising Tie In with Digital Advertising?

While location-based advertising is considered more of a traditional method of advertising, it actually does tie in with digital advertising as well. With an increasing number of people browsing the Internet with their smartphones, small businesses can take advantage of the opportunity to advertise to these people based on their specific location.

But smartphones aren’t the only way to reach these people. Data is collected as soon as someone starts surfing the web and there are many different ways to take advantage of this information. From email campaigns to targeted ads on Facebook, there are many options for getting your ads in front of people specifically in a certain geographical location.

What about Traditional Location-Based Advertising?

Traditional advertising – such as postcard printing, billboards, or radio – are obvious candidates for location-based advertising. These marketing channels are ideal for very specific geographic regions simply because the more advertising you do, the more it costs. In other words, if you were able to focus a postcard printing campaign on a specific set of neighborhoods rather than an entire town, you are going to significantly cut your costs while improving your response rate. If you want to target a religious audience, you can place ads on your local spiritual radio station only. Or you can target a wider local audience by placing a billboard ad close to the highway exit your business is located.

Location-based advertising is for businesses of all sizes. But for small businesses with a tight budget, careful analysis of the regions in which you want to advertise can significantly improve your return on investment of marketing dollars spent. If your customers are mostly location-based, then targeting your advertising specifically to this location is your best way as a small business to get big results with a low marketing cost.

Customers find businesses in all sorts of ways, and you never know what ad or flier is going to draw them in. There is a great story that I’ve told many times about how a small bit of marketing led to me moving to Amherst, NY for an international outreach position at the headquarters of an educational non-profit. The lesson of the story illustrates how even the smallest advertising can have an amazing effect on your business, sometimes in ways you never could have imagined.

The gist of the story is that I went to go see a documentary. On my way out of the theater, I stopped at an information table that had free movie posters. I thought, “Sweet—free poster!” I didn’t know it at the time, but Center for Inquiry had put on a special event at the opening of the movie and the staff had left a stack of leftover promotional materials. On the bottom was an address label with their logo, address, and website. I was very surprised to see that they had a branch in Grand Rapids. I had no idea they existed in my area, but thanks to that label, I was suddenly aware of how to find them. And ‘find them’ is exactly what I did.

I went home and browsed the website, emailed to express my interest in volunteering, and mentioned that I was looking for an internship. Through a series of events and interviews, I was brought on as an intern, became president of the local student group at my university, then stayed as a branch volunteer after graduation, and finally applied and was hired for a position at the headquarters. Though I’m back in Michigan now, I still work with CFI, five years later.

All of this was because the assistant director took some time with a few volunteers to print and stick address labels.

What does this mean for your business? Just like sticking a label on some free material, you need to put your information out in as many places as is practical for you. You never know where your email will be forwarded, who will see your business card, what customer will mention your name, and so on. Once a customer has your name, can they find you?

Here are some free and low-cost ways to make sure people can find your business:

1) Social media:

Facebook pages show up in searches, and searching for a business or organization through Facebook is something I frequently do. I was looking for a restaurant the other day and wanted to know their hours, address, and what’s on their menu. A quick search revealed they didn’t have a website, but they did have a Facebook page which showed up in the top three entries of my Google search. On the page, they included their location, hours, and menu. Having a website is still important, but this is an example of a free way that you can make your information easy to find for customers.

2) Get listed:

Google is still the king of web searches. Love them or hate them, you need to be there. Google Places for Business is a way to get listed in Google for free. Make sure your customers have accurate information for where you’re located and when you’re open, if nothing else. Get more info about that here.

3) Your email signature:

I was out visiting local small businesses that I work with at Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women and I had forgotten to jot down the address of one of the startups. I figured I could just use my phone to Google the name of the business and find their website and address. They didn’t have a website. Then I thought I’d search in Facebook and find their Facebook page. They didn’t have a Facebook page. Finally, I logged into my email and sought the address that I was sure would be listed in their email signature. Was it there? No. Luckily, I scrolled through an old email thread with others and found the address. Are you hiding from people who are trying to find you? Putting your info in some of these places that may seem small can have a big effect. You never know how people are going to find you, so do everything you can to put your information out there!

Ask some customers how they heard of you. Ask your friends to take a minute to search for your business and see if it comes up. Google the name of your business, and search the category of your business with your location. See if you come up for something like “Grand Rapids antiques store.” If you’re not showing up, take these suggestions to heart and start looking into Search Engine Optimization. Don’t be afraid of the term—it just means finding ways to get your business connected to more places and using strategic keywords so that you show up in searches. You can’t afford to hide from your customers, and you never know what seemingly minor marketing is going to change the future of your business.

This article is part two of a seven-part series on online lead generation. The information used in this series is the result of many conversations with a mentor of mine, Andrew Pawlak, who is an industry authority and CEO of leadPops, a cutting-edge landing page solution. Click here for part one.

What I mean by “going for the jugular”

This is a rather aggressive phrase given the nature of the article and undoubtedly stirs up images of National Geographic safari documentaries with lions and wildebeests. Those vivid images are a stretch, but aren’t far from how quickly asking for personal information without preliminary questions or building trust from a prospect can kill the chance of them becoming a lead.

As a generalization, let’s assume that most landing pages are seeking to acquire some kind of information from you in order to qualify you as a lead. This information will vary by industry but will usually consist of one or all of the following:

• First/last name
• Email
• Phone number
• Home Address
• Name of work place
• Work phone number
• Salary
• Social security number
• And more

Many web surfers have become comfortable providing personal information online. They won’t even bat an eye when offering their name or email address via a strangers website. Other individuals have a problem with this concept and won’t provide you with any information. However, it is safe to say that when asking for more personal information (i.e. home address, salary, social security number, etc.) most people will be very, very reluctant unless they trust whomever is responsible for the landing page.

Examples of going for the jugular

As stated above, each industry is different and some fall victim to going for the jugular lead generation practices more than others. With the below examples, think to yourself whether or not you would actually fill out these lead generation forms:

Example #1: A subtle attack (the claw scratch)

In the example, you will notice the landing page is asking for first name, last name, zip, email and phone. Most of this information wouldn’t be considered too personal, but asking for zip and phone will most likely make people a bit more weary to fill out the form.

Example #2: A slightly more aggressive attack (the non-deadly bite)

This example is a bit more aggressive than the previous one because it asks for type of policy, policy amount, first name, last name, address and two different types of phone number. The policy information being asked for makes this form much more personal to those who are considering filling it out.

Example #3: An aggressive attack (the kill)

This is a full-fledged attack on the landing page visitor. In order to get the life quote being offered they have to enter a ton of personal information. Most notably, height, weight, date of birth, gender and nicotine use.

How to overcome going for the jugular

As I pointed out earlier, each industry is unique and requires different information to qualify a lead so there is no set formula. However, there are two main solutions that can help you avoid going for the jugular:

Solution #1: Building trust

Trust is one of the most important factors when trying to convert a website visitor into a lead. So much so that another leading authority in landing pages, Tim Ash, claims that adding trust symbols to your landing page can increase conversions by anywhere from 20-40 percent. Trust can be built in a number of ways:

• Testimonials from satisfied individuals who used your service (and assumingly filled out the form on your landing page)
• Badges of membership and security labels
• Privacy policy stating that you won’t use their information for anything other than what is being intended when filling out the form
• Logos from larger companies you have worked with or who use your product/service
• Video of yourself or about your company that shows legitimacy

Solution #2: The preliminary details

In each example above, you will notice that the forms ask for all of the required information at once. A website visitor is directed to your landing page, knows very little about you (AKA doesn’t trust you) and then is asked to provide personal information. This will naturally make people reluctant to fill out the form. However, there are two ways you can attempt to avoid going for the jugular aside from the trust symbols:

Qualifying upon arrival

This can be difficult at times for some people with limited resources, but if you are able to monitor and dictate how the traffic is going to your landing page it will enable you to ask a fewer number of personal questions. For example, you are offering free mortgage consultations and are running pay-per-click ads on Google Adwords. The ads are being triggered when someone searches for “Adjustable-rate mortgage”. When someone clicks that ad they are being directed to a specific page where they are presented with a form. This form doesn’t need to ask for a bunch of personal information to qualify them because you can already assume the type of mortgage loan they are looking for is an adjustable rate mortgage.

Asking preliminary questions

This is more technical, but if you have an in-house or a reliable developer you can easily make the form on your landing page have multiple steps that are triggered based on a series of preliminary questions. For example, you have a landing page that is offering home loan quotes. Instead of overwhelming your potential lead with personal questions right off the bat, you ease into it with questions like, what type of loan are you looking for? or what type of home do you own? Then from there, the next step in the form could be something like what is your zip code? You are basically holding their hand, building there trust one question at a time while walking them down your lead generation pipeline.

As mentioned previously, there is no defined rule on what is the right type of information to ask a potential lead. It depends entirely on your industry and personal preference. I always recommend doing A/B testing if you have the resources to determine what will work best. But as a rule of thumb, less personal information is always better. The goal is to do the best job qualifying a lead on the fewest number of questions of personal questions possible. The reason being, eliminating one unnecessary field from your lead capture form can increase conversions by 50 percent (this will be discussed in its own post in the coming weeks).

In the next post, Landing Page Flaw #3: Fill In The Blanks, I will be looking at the difference between using fill in the blanks on your landing page forms vs. other methods available.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you’re a small business owner or an entrepreneur with a product that you’re ready to push. But just for a moment, I want you to step into your consumer shoes—how do they feel?

They—like you—probably hate squirming through commercials after a cliffhanger scene in their favorite TV show. I bet neither you nor they can remember an ad from the Sunday paper. And I doubt your consumers—or you—like the 30-second advertisements that stand between them and the YouTube video they’re trying to show a friend.

The bottom line is, traditional advertising methods are losing their grasp on modern consumers. Those methods have grown stale in the world of interactive technology and rapid communication, and what’s worse is that they tend to bore people rather than motivate them to jump off the couch and purchase a product. On top of that, those outdated methods are expensive—few startups and small businesses can afford to promote themselves and their product with commercials and big print ads, and the easy alternatives—flyers, booths and press releases—can only go so far.

The Answer is Experiential Marketing

So, how are companies confronting this challenge? Two words: experiential marketing. It’s a powerful, “in-your-face” marketing technique that puts the product in the hands of the consumer and, more importantly, gets them excited about it. Technological advances have cultivated an increasingly interactive world, and experiential marketing capitalizes on our growing desire to participate rather than observe. In a society where user interaction is paramount, experiential marketing is a rising star in the advertising industry.

An experiential marketing campaign is going to be just as fun for you to create as it will be for consumers to experience it! Experiential marketing is ideal for companies who want to do any of the following:

• Cultivate brand awareness
• Inspire excitement and emotional connection
• Create loyal fans of your product or brand
• Showcase your product’s positive qualities
• Motivate purchases

Examples of Successful Experiential Marketing Campaigns

Experiential marketing takes a number of different forms, but essentially it’s done any time a consumer is brought into contact with a product or brand. Here are some examples, both simple and grandiose:

• Coca-Cola’s Hug Machine: A vending machine created by Coca-Cola and placed at the National University of Singapore that dispensed free cans of Coke when consumers gave it a hug. How cool is that?
• Charmin’s NYC Restrooms: Charmin installed 20 restrooms in NYC with six different types of Charmin toilet paper for guests to try. Restroom visitors were invited to vote on their favorite tissue and take pictures with Charmin bears. This campaign attracted around 400,000 participants and an overwhelming amount of media attention!
• Corpão Brazilian Bootcamp’s Party in Central Park:  To launch her business, Corpão Brazilian Bootcamp founder Chardét Durbin partnered with Brazilian coconut water brand VitaCoco and a Brazilian music group and threw a huge “flash fitness” party in Central Park in New York.
• Hallspot’s “#hallspotgoesgreek” Giveaway: College social networking startup Hallspot hosted a targeted sign-up competition at the University of Oregon campus. The Greek house with the most pre-registered users at the end of the weeklong competition received $1,000 to give to the charity of its choice.
• Desigual’s Undie Party: The first 100 people to show up to Desigual’s flagship store received a free new outfit. The catch? They had to show up wearing only their underwear.

My point is this: if the billboards and print ads haven’t been doing their job, you might want to give experiential marketing a try. As long as you’re up for some creative brainstorming, this marketing strategy will increase awareness and breathe new life into your brand and product.

[ Image via AOL Travel ]

Wherever you are in the world, you’d have to have been hiding pretty well to escape all the news of economic gloom and doom. Markets are taking a rollercoaster ride as people speculate what will happen in both Europe and America, while the growth in the Far East that was supposed to be helping has so far not materialized.

This could not have been timed much worse if you are running a small business, with the peak time for many companies, Christmas, fast approaching. Many are  scratching their heads, wondering whether to invest in marketing and promotions or hold on to their cash and brace themselves for what might happen in the future.

So what promotional activities can you undertake in the lead up to the holiday season whilst keeping an eye on the dark clouds that are gathering on the horizon? The key is value for the money, so let’s take a look at where your efforts should lie.

PR
Newspaper and magazine advertising has been perceived as a dying art for some time, but newspaper and media exposure can still be an important way of getting your name known. There is one problem with this however — cost.

Using a simple bit of PR and getting it seen by the right people can be one way in which to appear in publications without paying the high costs demanded by their advertising departments. Use a bit of imagination and come up with something newsworthy that your company can be involved in. For example, do something for charity or to help the local community to get some local press coverage.

Another tactic is to distribute questionnaires and quizzes to your customers  to find lots of interesting ideas on which to base your press release. UK company called Engraved Gift Ideas did this, found out that This one questionnaire led to a press release that captured valuable national press coverage in newspapers and on radio. Best of all, it cost next to nothing!

Online
The days of ignoring online marketing are well and truly gone, and many businesses could not survive without the money brought in by traffic to their website. Using Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising can be quite expensive, but it shouldn’t cost you the earth to do some basic optimization on your site so that you appear higher in Google’s organic rankings.

Don’t be intimidated by the technical side of thing. If you’re running your site by yourself, now might be the time to invest in a little training to help you make the most of your online presence. Then, with a  few little tweaks, you could make a big difference to your online visibility. Take the time to research Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and see how you can drive new traffic to your site.

Promotional Gifts
Building and maintaining relationships with clients is an important part of running a business and with the festive season coming up, now is a good time to look at sending promotional gifts.

The days of giving holiday gifts to everyone in your database are long gone, but using promotional gifts to maintain relationships with your best clients can be an effective way of keeping their custom.

The headlines might make for gloomy reading but a little investment in the right places now could help you ride out the rough times that are to come. With the holiday season on the horizon, the opportunity is there to insulate yourself against the worst of the downturn. While it may seem a little scary to invest money now, the quality of how you spend on promotion ,rather than the quantity, will help to put you in the best possible position should the worst case scenarios come true.

As any marketing strategist will tell you, understanding your target shopper is the best way to achieve success. Many factors can play a role in determining the outcome of your campaign. In a robust economy, simple tricks such as placing desired items at an entrance of a store can lure a potential shopper in. Once the shopper comes into the store, they will begin to look around and thus create sales that otherwise might not have happened. When an economy is lagging, a successful marketing campaign can be much more difficult to achieve, because even though you have an item of interest, the shopper is not prepared to spend anything other than what they initially intended.

McDonald’s Monopoly Campaign

One of the most successful coupon campaigns in recent history was carried out by fast food establishment McDonald’s. They found a way to get customers to spend more just for a chance at the big prize. McDonald’s discovered that by offering games pieces on their large and super-sized value meals they could sell double what they would without it. This strategy has proven to be successful for years. What no one paid attention to was the fact that they had to purchase a meal in order to get them, and not just a meal, a large meal. So instead of selling $4.00 to $5.00 worth of food per person they were selling $7-8 per person.

Famous Retail Rewards

Supermarkets aren’t far behind, though. Many supermarkets now give points on the total amount of items sold. These points can add up fast. For example, some supermarkets have points that go toward gas discounts. With the uncertainty in gas prices, offering points towards discounts on gas is brilliant. Not only does the consumer save big on gas but the supermarket has now achieved customer loyalty in a customer’s bid to save money. This promotion takes the worry out of the consumer shopping around for pricing at various stores, ultimately boosting the supermarket’s sales.

Blockbuster’s Failure

When Netflix hit the market, people were drawn in by the capability of renting a movie with no late fees. Blockbuster, in order to put itself back in with the new competition, decided to launch a similar campaign in which they also advertised no late fees. The intention was to draw people back to the video store chain in an effort to compete with Netflix. It backfired on the chain, big time. Instead of keeping a movie or video for the usual day or two, people began collecting them and storing them as though they owned the movies. To complicate the matter even further, Netflix was offering monthly rentals at a nominal fee with no late fees. Where Netflix outshined Blockbuster is that, despite the monthly fee, the company was smart enough to limit the amount of movies a person could have at once. You could receive new movies only when the old ones were returned.

Discount Sales Causes Restaurant’s Demise

Groupon is a great site for people to save money – usually 50% or more – on activities such as dining out in their area. While many businesses use the discount site as a way of drawing in customers, when these couponing adventures are mismanaged, it can spell disaster for the business. This is true for Drew’s Eatery, located in Chicago. Drew’s Eatery closed because of poorly managed discount offers, despite the owner’s experience in the business world. What people do not realize is that Groupon takes half of what the consumer’s pay, leaving only one quarter of the price to the business itself. In the case of Drew’s Eatery, it simply was not enough to cover the costs of the food they sold, and several deals later, the owner closed the doors.

A lot of preparation and research goes into promoting a campaign, and unfortunately there are no guarantees that any one campaign will be successful. Luck and marketing strategies play a big factor in determining how successful – or disastrous – a coupon campaign really is.

Reference

Building a memorable brand is more important than ever.  In this climate of unlimited choices,  your brand has to be cohesive, memorable and differentiated to captivate consumers and eventually capture mind share.

Branding isn’t simply a visual identity, and a lot of start-ups go wrong by undervaluing the importance of branding initiatives. Think of branding as a vehicle for communicating your value to the world, engaging consumers on an emotional level, and creating a sense of ownership for your customers and fans.  A strong brand paints a picture of your core values, your personality, points of difference and clearly communicates to the consumer why they should choose you over competitors. Here are 5 branding assets you absolutely should not launch without.

1. A Memorable Name

Good brand names are rarely arbitrary.  They are carefully curated ambassadors of your brand personality that convey your brand’s position, tone, and values.  Names can be proper names (based on the founders if you like), descriptive names, imagistic, alphanumeric, playful, invented etc. Whatever you deem appropriate to get the tone and personality of your brand across is fair game.

Once you’ve identified a few names, evaluate them based on ease of spelling, sound, appearance, appropriateness and relevancy to the target market, and level of distinction.  Once you’ve settled on a name you love, do a trademark search before you spend time and energy on a logo design.  It might also be a good idea to test the name with your target market to make sure it resonates in a positive way!

2. A Strong Logo

When it comes to identity design, brands need to “go big, or go home.”  Logos need to be instantly recognizable, memorable, and cue the product/service you are offering. Color is increasingly important in logo design. In fact, color has been found to increase brand awareness by as much as 80%. Because of the nature of human brain, we recognize color long before we can decipher words, and we often associate certain colors with particular brands. Opt for highly recognizable shapes, unique and customized typefaces, and an ownable color palette, as they all help to increase brand recall.

After you’ve designed your logo, remember to test it.  Look at your logo in the company of other brands it will be surrounded by.  Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is it appropriate for the category so consumers can relate it to a product or service?  Yet does it stand out enough to be memorable?
• Does it read well in print, on package and online?
• Does it work in both black and white and color?
• Is it appropriate for the consumers, cultures, and subcultures that will be receiving it?
• Does it convey the brand personality?
• It is cueing the emotional response you are hoping for?

3. Meaningful Marketing Collateral

Alexander Hamilton said, “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” Brands need to own their positions and exhibit personality and emotion in order for consumers to make real and meaningful connections with them.  Arguably the greatest brands of the last century such as Coca-Cola, Apple, and Nike all have human qualities to them.  The emotions of their brands are palpable at every level.  We love them, we bring them into our homes and we make them a part of our everyday lives because they stand for the same things we do.

4.  An Optimized Website

Anybody can create a website — the Internet is full of sites where you can do it for free.  It is somewhat harder though, to create a website optimized for good user experience.  Your website should be a showcase for your brand personality, with rich and valuable content that will make consumers want to stay on your site and share it with their friends.  It’s a mistake to create a website just for the sake of having one.  It can be a truly invaluable tool for telling your brand story, proving your credibility and engaging with consumers in real time.  It is also the best place to gauge perceptions of your brands and products. Good sites balance design and functionality.

5.  A Well-Rounded Promotional Strategy

Social media is becoming a sort of “gold rush” with businesses attempting to lay claim to as much mind share as possible.  Interestingly, in a recent IBM study, 70% of executives thought their businesses would be perceived as “out of touch” if they did not engage in social media.  However, the same study also concluded that most people use social networks to interact with friends and families, not necessarily brands.

The point is, social media might not be a gold mine for your particular business.  A well-rounded promotional strategy will prove more fruitful in the long term, as you are engaging consumers through various mediums, and through a multidimensional approach.  Before you get caught up in promotional buzzwords, identify who your consumers are and where they dwell.  It’s not just a “presence” that will capture attention and be a driver to purchase. Brands need to convey real and tangible benefits across the board for consumers even to think about engaging with them.

-photo by flickr user bigcityal/Creative Commons

Stop and think about all the material you produce to support your small business: ads, catalogs, stationary, envelopes, mailing labels, business cards, reply cards, websites, socials media pages and blogs…  Your company name and logo appears on an extensive range of supplementary marketing collateral.

But how memorable is it?

Retention has long been a challenge in establishing a solid (and profitable) brand persona. When comparing words to images, images win hands-down for their ability to promote visual memory – the act of sticking in the mind of the intended viewer. In fact, it’s been reported that over 40 percent of people have an easier time remembering what they see as opposed to what they read or hear.

This reality means your logo is basically the cornerstone of your brand. Whether you created one yourself using a free logo maker or had a professional design it for you, you still need to ask yourself the question – how well is yours working for you? Does it:

Communicate your message. In addition to featuring the primary benefits of your product or service, a well thought-out logo can contain many understated meanings, effectively communicating a message about how you conduct business through its combination of words, images and colors.

Differentiate you from competitors. If you’re in a competitive industry (and who isn’t?), your logo serves as a quick and decisive way to separate you from the noise of your competitors and elevate you within your niche. In doing so, you also demonstrate that you’re committed to your line of business with a logo that symbolizes a professional image and stability.

Foster a lasting, favorable impression. Though people may forget your name, they’ll have a much harder time forgetting the images associated with it. For example, if you live in Southern California it’s practically impossible to see a red arrow without thinking about In-N-Out Burger. In the same way, you can cultivate positive recollection by associating your brand with strong, easily-remembered symbols.

Meet expectations. If you’re in a creative industry, a professional logo is a prerequisite. And it’s quickly becoming the same for everyone else. When people shop for goods and services, the first place they look these days is Google. Google leads them to your website, where they (hopefully) find a strong combination of marketing copy and images. Now can you image having those things without a logo? As mentioned above, logos are the foundation of any branding initiative, a central aspect around which the rest of your materials fall into place.

Foster customer loyalty. A quality logo initiates loyalty from your clients and employees, providing something for them to rally around. More importantly, it also provides a means to show off their association with your product or service to friends and family – a practice heavily employed through social media like Facebook and Twitter. This association, and resulting positive word of mouth, establishes an experience (akin to the one people have with music or movies) and quickly differentiates you from competitors. Therefore, try to create a logo people will freely incorporate into their lives and, with any luck, pass on to others.

photo by flickr user bazstyle | Creative Commons

As of September 23, 2013, American businesses can advertise that they are raising money, and it won’t be considered a crime.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is lifting an 80-year-ban on the practice, freeing up privately-owned businesses across the country to openly seek investment funding. Previously, businesses seeking to raise capital were required to either pitch their plans exclusively to so-called accredited investors—individuals with at least $1 million in net worth (excluding their primary residence) or $200,000 in annual income—or offer a regulated security (such as stocks or corporate bonds). Regulated securities are off the table for small businesses and start-ups, and the chance to pitch to a pre-screened room full of accredited investors is only for management teams that are part of high-power business networks. Under the new legislation, businesses can skip the pre-screening process: A business can advertise that it’s raising capital whenever and however it wants—on a website, in a newspaper, on a billboard, on a hat—and wait to be contacted by accredited investors interested in the opportunity.

The change is a part of the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups Act (or JOBS Act), which was passed by Congress largely in response to the tight credit market that has persisted in the United States since the 2008 recession. The hope is that small businesses and startups that don’t have access to bank financing or investment networks will be able to cast a wider net in their search for cash, and have a greater chance at securing the funding they need.

Currently only “emerging growth companies” (companies with annual gross revenues of less than $1 billion) can benefit from the ban lift, and those companies can only accept up to $1 million in investment funding annually, and only from accredited investors. However, another revision to the law lessening the restrictions defining “accredited investor” is expected to pass Congress soon.

Taking the time to design and build a website that reflects your company’s values is vital if you’re looking to bring to market a new product or service; but if people don’t know about your site then that investment is effectively wasted. Here are the steps you need to take to ensure you clock up hits from day one.

Pre-launch planning

This covers pretty much everything from selecting the right domain name, to design and content; it’s one of the most vital parts of the process.

With so many domains already registered, you’re likely to have to compromise when it comes to buying one. Ideally, you want something short, easy to remember and on the .com extension.

If you haven’t settled on a name for your business you have more room to maneuver and you can evaluate a selection of domain names, pick one and then use that as the basis for your brand.

In terms of design, it’s always best to involve a professional. Whether you bring one on board or look for a freelancer is up to you, but unless you’re qualified to tackle web design on your own it’s a big mistake.

That said, you’ll still have plenty of input – it’s your business and you know it best and understand the targets on which it will have to deliver. At this stage you’ll also need to plan out the sort of content you want on the site, from product descriptions to blogs and social media integration.

Although you’ll want your website to look as attractive as possible, you need to ensure it’s easy to update otherwise you’ll have to head back to the designer every time you want to tweak a picture or price point.

It’s also a good idea to have a placeholder website up before you launch. Not only will this give somewhere to seek out basic information about your site, they’ll also be able to link to it, which will benefit the full site when it goes live.

Outreach

While all this is going on, you should already be making contact with people who might be interested in your product. They could be potential buyers or journalists who cover your company’s niche – the most important thing is that they have influence.

Tracking down people who are not only interested in what you do but also have a significant audience, has never been easier. Tools such as Buzzstream can be used to find bloggers you can contact, while Followerwonk (below) can identify people with social media influence.

Once you’ve identified the key influencers operating in your niche, you need to get them interested. The best way to do this is by treating it as any other sales pitch and focus on the benefits you can offer them.

If you’re bringing an innovative product to market which solves a certain problem, find influencers it can help and give them one for free. If you’re developing an online service, invite them to a private beta.

Not only will you get great feedback about what works and what could be improved, you’ll also have some advocates ready to evangelize your site when it launches.

SEO your PR

Outreach is a great way of generating buzz for your company, but old-fashioned press releases are still a crucial part of the mix. However, you need to make sure they’re tweaked for a digital age.

The very least you should be doing is including links back to your site as this means websites who reproduce the release verbatim will end up linking to you.

However, you can take things further and include complimentary information on your site which is referenced in your release. For example, if you’ve conducted a study include the headline stats in your release and then have a visualization on your website. Websites will quote the stats and link to the graphic, boosting your search engine optimization efforts.

It’s also a good idea to set up Google alerts (above) for your brand as that way you can monitor the coverage you generate and contact authors for a link if they haven’t already done so.

Don’t forget – the tactics used to generate buzz around a website pre-launch can be used even after it has launched to attract even more attention and grow your customer base further.

This is an overview of online lead generation and will serve as the introduction to a seven-part series about online lead generation. The information used in this series is the result of many conversations with a mentor of mine, Andrew Pawlak, who is an industry authority and CEO of leadPops, a cutting edge landing page solution.

I’m a firm believer that everyone should do sales, including cold calling, at some point of their career. Before the days of the Internet, cold calling and going door-to-door was a common practice for lead generation. Nowadays, not so much. The paradigm has shifted completely. Sure, many companies still pound the pavement in the traditional sense and it works out very well for them. Others strictly hang in the clouds of the internet while relying on their website and other forms of advertising to generate online leads for them. There is no right or wrong (debatable) way to go about lead generation. It really depends on your product offering, customer, etc.

When discussing lead generation, there are four parts to consider as a general overview: the purpose, the medium, the message, and the gathering. Below is a further explanation of each part:

Start with a purpose

When you are sitting around with colleagues and decide to launch an online lead generation campaign, there must be a purpose or you wouldn’t be in this situation. What are you looking to accomplish? Are you simply looking to build brand awareness which will hopefully funnel leads into your company’s pipeline? Let’s call these marketing leads. Or, are you looking to gather contact information on the spot so you have a prospect to call/email shortly after? I’ll refer to these as sales leads. Once you define the purpose, it’s time to think about the next step.

Determine the best medium

When delivering your message, it is essential to define the best medium to use to tap your potential customer on the head. With online lead generation, you have a plethora of options at your disposal. You can choose to use banner advertisements on another website, paid advertisements on Google (the ads highlighted in yellow on the top and right hand side of search results), social media (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.), or another medium you find fitting. The key is to select a medium that is relevant to where your potential customers reside, gather, and spend a significant amount of time. This becomes a hotbed to reach your potential customers and serves as the outermost part of your online lead generation funnel (also known as a sales funnel). If you aren’t sure what I mean by an online lead generation funnel, check out the article 5 Steps to Create your Sales Funnel by Scott Taback to help explain this concept further.

Perfect your message

Given the short period of time you have the attention of your potential customer, your message is mission critical. The language of your message depends entirely on the individuals you are prospecting. Put yourself in their shoes: do they wear construction boots, dress shoes or high heels? Are they single mothers, working-class white males, etc? Dig deep into the details of your potential customers so you can gain a better understanding of who they are. Then you are more capable of crafting a message that hits closer to home and taps into their emotion. If you weren’t aware, consumers make decisions based on emotion rather than logic. Numerous studies show it is programmed in the cingulate cortex which is the part of the brain that handles analytical and emotional responses. If the message is spot on, the emotion is triggered If they trust in the validity of your offering, they should be ready for the next part.

Gather the data

This is it. The moment of truth. Where all of the hard work, convincing and effort you put into funneling a prospective customer is put to the test. At this point, they have made it to your landing page so you are halfway to the victory. Will you win or will you lose? It’s a delicate process when deciding on how much information to gather. As a rule of thumb remember this: always ask for the minimum amount of information to properly qualify that individual as a lead. If that doesn’t make sense, think about this, studies show that by eliminating one unnecessary field from your lead capture form, you increase conversions by 50%. That is a huge increase! Although each industry will require different information to qualify a prospect, you should always remember that statistic in the back of your mind. Once you commit to the number of questions you are going to use and the types of questions you are going to ask, see how the how your efforts perform. At this point, you can analyze the results and make adjustments moving forward to help you increase the number of qualified leads you obtain through your efforts.

These four-parts serve as a broad overview and are a great starting point when approaching online lead generation for your business. As with all business decisions, you need to act with the end goal in mind as was discussed in part one. Then put the pieces in place to help you achieve that goal. To help you with this and to reach optimal results with your online efforts, I am going to be discussing seven flaws that exist in online lead generation. Each flaw will be discussed in its own weekly post and I’ll highlight both good and bad examples, ways to improve, and some case studies to help paint a clearer picture so you get the most out of your online lead generation efforts. Below you will find the seven flaws that will be discussed:

1. A Weak Call-to-Action
2. Going for the Jugular (Aka, asking for personal details too early)
3. Fill in the Blanks
4. Wrong number of Questions
5. Scrolling
6. Hidden Forms
7. Too Much Information

I hope you enjoyed and tune in next week for the first flaw, a weak call-to-action. Special thanks to again to Andrew Pawlak. Please leave your comments and thoughts below. I love interaction!

This story is part of Bplans’ “How I Did It” series—true stories of real businesses getting started, solving problems and finding success. Read the previous story here.

Dave at Next Day Flyers:

“I started my printing company, Next Day Flyers, in 1998 out of my home. I had had some success selling discounted postcards and business cards, but I was never able to build up much momentum. I decided to tweak the messaging I used in an advertisement that went into a trade magazine. My tweak was to specify the defined turnaround time of 5–7 days, which was significantly faster than other companies, which back then were averaging 2 weeks.

“A couple calls came in during the morning the trade magazine hit the hands of the readers. When I got off of one call I had four new voice mails. I called one of the customers back and had a 10 minute call. Afterwards I checked my voicemail again and had 83 voicemails. Eighty-three new calls came in during a 10 minute span. From there I knew had to bring people on board and get some office space. Fortunately the forward momentum continued. Now we have 150 employees and nationwide printing facilities in Los Angeles, CA and Saddle Brook, NJ.”

David Handmaker is the founder and CEO of the online printing company, Next Day Flyers, specializing in printing flyers, postcards, business cards and brochures for small to medium sized businesses.

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