Coffee Break Chat

Marketing, marketing, marketing

It’s all well and good to have a great service or product to sell, but if nobody knows about it, your idea is going to die on the vine. That’s why any successful business owner has to market with a vengeance—or hire someone who will do it for you. The Business.gov website has compiled an excellent online list of marketing articles and resources, including how to conduct market research and how to comply with advertising laws.

Key tip: Learn as much as possible about your potential customers.

On-line businesses can look for ways to cut costs

Some old and new entrepreneurs are deciding to do business completely online.  This 2009 article from the Arizona Small Business Development Center pinpoints some ways that those who sell online can cut their own costs and be more efficient. One recommendation for those thinking of going totally online is to learn how to design and build websites to avoid the cost of hiring web designers or developers. Other tips are to not buy in bulk, but to use a “drop shipper” to use when orders are to be fulfilled. Check the full article here.

A checklist of sorts to plan not to fail in your small business

This article gives quite a succinct view of the elements that go into making any business a success.  It may serve as a handy checklist as you think about starting a business or as you undertake a review of what you are already doing. The basic premise is that success in a small business takes more than just a good idea or service to offer—you need a solid plan, adequate resources, good management skills and perseverance.  How to Avoid Small Business Failure: Avoid the Pitfalls and Become a Successful Entrepreneur lists these key ingredients to avoid failure. Some of them may seem obvious, but it’s always good to brush up and reassess.  Click through to the full article for the full scoop:

·        Know the business in depth

·        Prepare a business plan (See NHSBDC resources for doing this.)

·        Manage financial resources

·        Understand financial statements

·        Learn to manage people effectively

·        Set the business apart from the competition

·        Maintain a positive attitude

What types of things do you do every day to ensure success? Send us your tips and tricks here, by clicking onto "comments" just below.

Nearly half of businesses are using social media

According to this article from  Business.gov, 45 percent of small businesses surveyed report they are now using social media to market their business.  Social media includes any of the many online, interactive tools such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and customized online communities.  While skepticism still exists about whether social media shows a return on investment, business owners are feeling they need to be involved online in some way. 

The article suggests three ways to make social media pay off for your business, either in building your reputation or actually building your bottom line:

1)      social media for brand building

2)      social media as a lead generation tool

3)      monitoring social media and return on investment

See the full article for more details.

Are you using social media to market your business? Write us here with your comments.

 

Study looks at factors that cultivate an entrepreneurial spirit

What are the factors that cultivate and support entrepreneurship?

A new study from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, "Making of a Successful Entrepreneur," tries to outline what types of things actually influence the success or failure of a start-up business.

The full study, in PDF format, is here.

The study surveyed 549 company founders of successful businesses in high-growth industries including aerospace, defense, computing, electronics and health care.

According to a summary, 98 percent of these founders ranked prior work experience as an important success factor. In addition, learning from both successes (88 percent) and failures (78 percent) also played a key role in respondents' current successes. Forty percent cited lessons learned from failures as extremely important -- the second-highest "extremely important" rating.

"Entrepreneurs tell us their ranks remain small because others fear the risk and time required to start a venture," Vivek Wadhwa, leader of the research team, said in a statement. "But the current economy has given us an opportunity: We could harness the energy of the many workers who are now unemployed, teach them how to be entrepreneurs and provide them with seed financing for their ventures. These workers have nothing to lose, and the economy has a lot to gain."

Risk, said the study, is the biggest factor that holds people back from starting a business of their own.

Other factors include the time and effort of starting a new business, the difficulty raising capital (most in the survey say they used their own money--primarily savings), and family pressures to keep a steady, traditional job.

Some of the other factors cited by those whose businesses have been a success include the importance of faith and God, hard work, perseverance/determination, timing, spouse forbearance and support, optimism, naivety, and willingness to risk everything.

 

Part II: Should your small business enter into mobile marketing?

In Part 1, we looked at the growing importance of marketing to mobile phones. Today, we'll look at how much of a player Google is likely to be in this effort.

Google is ubiquitous -- anywhere you look online, there it is ... with search, email, maps and a whole host of services that continues to grow. The latest addition to its stable -- AdMob -- is the application that is most important to mobile marketing. Other mobile advertising services come from AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo, but what’s significant about Google is that many of its applications are free or low cost. Google bought AdMob in early November for $750 million.

 In a statement, Google said the acquisition "will enhance Google's existing expertise and technology in mobile advertising, while also giving advertisers and publishers more choice in this growing new area."

For small business owners, AdMob will help them target advertising to particular mobile markets: ads in text messages, for example; ads that come up as a result of a search on a mobile phone; ads specifically created for web display on a cell phone; and ads on a particular phone application, such as maps or games. Estimates are that mobile ad spending will reach $416 million by the end of the year, which is about .4 percent of all ad spending. But the trend is growing and for small business owners, it's one to watch to see if it makes sense for your marketing mix. For a complete report on Google’s acquisition, see this story in InformationWeek.

Part I: Should your small business enter into mobile marketing?

[This is the first in a two-part series on mobile marketing. Catch Part II on Friday, November 27, here at Coffee Break Chat.]
Still email marketing? That's sooooo yesterday.Business is going mobile these days, just like their customers.  Cell phones are actually becoming hand-held computers—moreso everyday--with access to email and the Internet. People are using their phones to communicate by texting and accessing their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Businesses need to be in this mobile space as well.

Mobile Marketing Trends (see slideshow here) shows the following:

• More than 95 percent of new phones sold today have web browsers and over 70 million U.S. consumers use them regularly;
• Annual SMS (texts) sent in 2008 amount to 1.01 trillion;
• In September, Applerecorded 2 billion iPhone app downloads.

Here are some basic recommendations on how to capture some of this market, courtesy of small business blogger Wayne Liew:

• List your business with some of the popular applications, such as Google Maps;
• Create a presence on social mediasites, such as Facebook and Twitter;
• If your business has a web site, make it usable and attractive for the mobile users. Not all web sites built for a desktop computer or laptop translate well to a cell phone;
• Learn about SMS marketing but beware ... just like email you can be tagged as a spammer;
• If you sell a product online, create a platform that is also suitable for mobile phones.

Webcast offers ideas for business on the go

A recent webcast through Small Business Trends offers some ideas on how to use mobile phone applications to make your business more efficient.

The premise is this: You lose business when you're not efficient and you can become more efficient while you're on the go by using certain applications on your mobile phone.

The webcast is available for viewing here. Please note that it does require registration.

Topics covered include:

• how to save money using mobile apps, including where and how you get the biggest cost savings;
• how you and your staff can operate out of the office, yet still bring in sales and serve customers;
• case study examples of how other small businesses on a budget are implementing mobile and online apps;
• tips and resources you can use today.

Presenters included Mary Shapero, Intuit products manager, Vivek Thomas, president of Maximimizer, and Taylor Mingos, CEO of Shoeboxed.com.

Talk radio. Maybe it’s time for your small business to broadcast

If you’re running a small business, no doubt you consider yourself an expert in your field. Why not share your expertise, and perhaps stir up some new business for yourself, by broadcasting? It’s easy to do with today’s online software and social media sharing options.  One way to do it is to use BlogTalkRadio, a free, online network that allows you to host your own show and file it under that program’s archives, or use it on your own website or blog.  Potential radio hosts such as yourself can create a free, live, call-in talk show using an ordinary phone. After the live broadcast, the shows are archived and are able to be downloaded to any computer or MP3 player. Read more in this article from Entrepreneur Magazine.

Does your business need an online newsroom?

If your business is at a stage of development where you’ve had a few mentions in the newspaper or on television, you probably need to capitalize on that media exposure by making sure visitors to your company website can see those mentions again.  This is accomplished through having an online “media room”—a section of your website where you’ve posted links to your media mentions.  It lends a bit of credibility to your business when others write about you.  You’re not just tooting your own horn—someone else (the media) has noticed your business and found it worthy of mention.  Here’s a link to Ragan Communications, an organization that advises companies on communications of all kinds, with a video explaining why and how you might set up an online media room at your website.