Unless you have an unlimited supply of time and money,
youve probably recognized very early on the importance of
identifying an effective marketing strategy. Everyone is
looking for the perfect marketing plan, the one that will
be easy to implement and attract droves of customers to
your business.
There are various strategies that have become popular in
marketing an Internet business. Some of the more common
ones are:
….writing articles
….public speaking
….conducting workshops or teleclasses
….paying for ad on websites, ezines, or via print media
….reciprocal links or ads with other websites and newsletters
….free items such as newsletters, reports, and assessments
If youre a small business, especially a solopreneur, the
best marketing strategy is the one you like the most. The
perfect marketing technique for you is the one most aligned
with your skills and abilities. It should be based on your
strengths and the things you like to do most. If you like
to write, write articles. If speaking is your forte,
conduct workshops or teleclasses.
This approach may sound simplistic, but sometimes the most
obvious solution is the one most often overlooked.
Concentrating your marketing efforts only on the things you
like will give you 2 advantages:
1. You will be extremely effective. Success is inevitable
when you concentrate on the things you do well and play up
your strengths.
2. You will be consistent. If you are doing something you
enjoy (and are good at) you will be far more likely to
stick to it. If you hate writing, forcing yourself to do
an article every week will quickly feel like torture and
theres a chance you will only do it sporadically. A
hit-or-miss marketing strategy isnt much better than none
at all.
So use your strengths to create a solid marketing strategy.
For the things that you dont do well (or dont like)
considering forming partnerships with other solopreneurs to
take advantage of each others skills.
Myrtis Smith is the founder of Premeditated Life. At
Premeditated Life we have one focus – Your Career. As a
career coach I offer a variety of services designed to
improve your professional skills, support you in your
career goals and transitions, and empower your job search.
For a FREE Career Assessment contact us at
coaching@premeditatedlife.com
“Bridging the Gap”: Don’t Forget Your Core Customers!Donna Schwartz Mills
The big news in the business sector last month was the resignation of Millard Drexler as CEO of The Gap. The once highflying retail chain has hit hard times, losing money in the last four quarters and slipping disastrously close to bankruptcy.
Retail fashion is a notoriously fickle business, with yesterday’s hot trends marked down today like so many Pokemon toys. But for years, the Gap had been impervious to fashion ups and downs by being the favorite supplier of the favorite clothes of the Baby Boomers: Denim jeans, khaki trousers and basic shirts.
But as the Boomers hit middle age, the Gap made the decision to go after the youth market. Gone were the comfortable fit jeans its customers loved, replaced by hip huggers and belly shirts that could not be worn by someone carrying 20 years of cellulite. And that was the beginning of their troubles.
As the owner of a home business, I found this puzzling. After all, the Gap had always identified the youth market as its own and was just carrying out the course it set for itself back in 1969, when it was a single store in San Francisco. But as their young customers grew, so did the chain, resulting in a clientele that stayed loyal for 30 years. By shifting gears to appeal to *today’s* teenagers, they alienated millions of loyal customers who moved on to discounters like Target (which manages to evoke an image of “cheap chic”) and newer outlets like J.Jill and Chicco, which proudly display relax-fit clothes that are stylish, comfortable and hide a multitude of middle-aged sins.
In the meantime, the young people Gap so desperately courted could not get over their image of the chain as a place frequented by their parents. These kids flock to their own trendy stores like Hot Topic, and had little interest in what the Gap had to offer. It was a “lose-lose” all the way around.
The lesson for home business owners is a reminder that it’s never safe to *assume* you know what your customers want. Research is an essential tool in your business, no matter what its size, and it doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. Those of you doing business online have access to several methods, including some tools you may already have but are not using for this purpose.
Marketer Karon Thackston of http://www.KTAMarketing.com is a big believer in research and providing her customers with information they can use to make good marketing decisions. And like the rest of us, she loves finding quick, easy and inexpensive ways to gather that information. Karon recently discovered that her website’s free search engine gave her a window into what her customers were looking for at her site. The engine she uses gives her access to reports on the most popular search terms. By checking these reports on a monthly basis, she can fine tune the content of her site, make advertising decisions, and create new products to fill their particular needs. Read the rest of Karon’s article here:
http://www.family-content.com/articles/data/20020409193535.shtml
At my website, http://ParentPreneurClub.com , I have other tools I use to assess my visitors’ interests and needs. One is our weblog, which offers detailed reports on which pages are the most popular and how long visitors view them.
Another is our library of 100 free eBooks. By logging the ones which are downloaded the most often, I’ve gleaned a wealth of information on the interests of my visitors.
Up until I started tracking, I assumed that our business offerings would be the most popular with my audience of work at home parents (mostly moms). However, *the* most popular eBook in the Library has nothing to do with making money or running a home business: It’s called “Healthy Living for a Busy Family” and it’s been downloaded about three times as often as my most popular business eBook. Those stats led me to add more family and lifestyle topics to the library, as well as a couple of new cooking pages — because managing a household and raising healthy kids is as much a concern for my visitors as making a solid profit.
Finally, nothing is as good as actually *asking* your customers what they want. Surveys are an extremely useful tool and several companies offer versions you can place on your website for free. The one we’ve used is located here:
http://webpoll.sparklit.com/
Millard Drexler — whose vision helped make the Gap the nation’s number one apparel retailer — is staying on with the company until a replacement is found. In the meantime, the Gap’s new old strategy of selling basics (jeans, khakis and white shirts) combined with an ad campaign that includes Boomer icon Dennis Hopper, appears to be working. It’s just too bad these guys didn’t ask their customers what they wanted before changing their course. Let’s hope we home business folk don’t make the same mistake!
Donna Schwartz Mills writes about the specific needs of work at home parents at her website, http://www.ParentPreneurClub.com “For Parents Who Want Choices, Not Office Politics.” Tools, free tips and support to help grow your home based business while raising a family. For more articles li
ke this one, visit Donna’s other site, http://www.Family-Content.com