If you’re like most folks who own a small business, you enjoy solving problems. Part of the reason you enjoy solving problems is because you’re good at it.

In fact, if you have your own business, it’s likely that you develop solutions that are often better than what others in your profession are offering.

You may also think that the value added by offering superior solutions is so obvious to prospects that they will be eager to hire you.

Another reason, you probably enjoy solving problems is that it makes you look good. You solve a problem that is causing the other person a good deal of grief and you’re a hero. You feel valued and appreciated.

So it’s understandable that opportunity to solve a prospect’s problem is, to many business owners, what catnip is to cats—irresistible.

Tempting as it may be, however, you’ve got to stop jumping in and solving problems—at least until the time is right to do so.

A Personal Story

Not too long ago, I was talking with a wiser, more experienced colleague about a meeting I had with a prospective client. I was very proud of myself because I had shared several clever solutions to the prospect’s marketing problems.

But instead of praising my brilliance and insight as I expected, my colleague said, “You’ve got to stop solving their problems.”

This took me completely by surprise. Didn’t my creative, savvy ideas add value? My colleague went on to explain where I went wrong and what to do instead.

Where we err is that we tend to jump in too soon with our solutions. We forget that taking a relationship from prospect to customer is a process and that we need to respect this process while at the same time, managing it.

So when is it right and appropriate to offer solutions? Here are some guidelines.

Three Keys to When it’s Right to Offer Solutions

1. Ask questions until the answers become clear.

The most successful sales people ask lots of good questions. And they keep asking questions until they’re about 80% certain they know what they can do to help the customer succeed.

At a minimum, you need to know: what’s the problem (source and symptoms), what will it take to solve the problem, what you can do to solve the problem and what other resources will be needed, what are the results desired by your prospect, how will you know you’ve achieved those results, and what is the value to the organization of attaining those results.

It is only after you and your prospect have answered those questions together that you are ready to offer a solution.

Tip: If there is a solution you think would be perfect for the customer, try framing it as a question. For example, “Have you tried doing XYZ?” or “Are you familiar with XYZ?”

2. Within 1 – 2 complimentary consultations.

When it comes to sales and marketing, the number one issue small business owners raise is the amount of time they spend meeting with prospects.

On the one hand, they don’t want to come across like some of the more aggressive sales professionals who seem to eye prospective customers like pieces of meat and if it doesn’t look like a sale is going to happen, they move on.

But without standards, you risk turning meetings into informal visits where you share all sorts of valuable information that the other person appreciates but not enough to become a customer.

My rule of thumb is two complementary meetings: A 20-minute phone conversation to make sure there’s a good fit and a longer, in-person meeting to ask questions, surface issues, and so on.

I don’t mean to imply that this is a hard and fast rule. But as a business owner, your time and attention are the most precious assets you have. Be very conscious of the way you are spending those assets. The point is to meet until you have answered the questions mentioned in point #1.

3. When the customer is ready to invite you to make an offer.

My teacher, Mark Silver, says that there is a point in the process, at which the client is ready to consider you as a business partner. The key word here is “consider.” They aren’t ready to sign on the dotted line or write a check but they see themselves doing business with you in some capacity.

This point comes when you and the client come to an agreement on the problem, the desired results, and the value of the results. And when you are 80% clear on what you think it will take to help the customer attain the results they desire.

It is at this point when you ask a questions like, “How do you see us working together…?” and then allow the customer to let you know how they want to proceed. It only at this point that you can now begin suggesting solutions verbally and/or in the form of a proposal.

Bottom Line

There’s a time and place for launching into problem-solving mode but that time and place isn’t at the beginning of your relationship with a prospective customer.

Take time at the beginning to listen, witness, and clarify. Only when you’re certain that you really grok what your customer is needing is it time to suggest solutions and those suggestions should be framed as a business proposal rather than an avalanche of advice.

Last week someone in a business discussion forum posted this question:

“Help! No One is Responding to My Offer”

The person posting, let’s call her Susan, went on to say that she loves her work and gets great results for her clients. She’s excited about a new service she’s promoting, yet no one was responding to her emailed offer.

Now Susan is no slouch when it comes to marketing. She sold classified advertising for a big city newspaper, she’s been to lots of marketing and sales classes, and has a stack of marketing-related books on her desk.

The emailed offers she’s sending reflect her best efforts. And yet, something isn’t working.

When this happens Susan’s self-confidence as a business owner falters. She wonders if she’s somehow missing some essential talent needed to run a successful business.

I know I’ve felt this way when my promotions are unsuccessful. Perhaps you can relate?

So What the Heck is Going On!?

There are any number of reasons offers fall flat. One reason that gets overlooked by most marketing experts (including me until recently) is this:

We fail to acknowledge our customer’s need to belong.

(Note: I want to acknowledge my teacher and mentor, Mark Silver, of www.heartofbusiness.com on whose work this article is based.)

The Need to Belong is a Powerful Human Motivator

Thousands of years ago, human survival depended on membership to a
tribe. In a tribe, our ancestors had a better chance of getting food, shelter, and protection. To be cast out of a tribe was more often than not a death sentence.

Today belonging to a tribe is no longer about physical survival—at least not in an obvious way. Yet it remains a powerful influence on what we do; on what your customers do.

In fact, your customer’s need to belong is so important that it actually trumps their need for your solution and their ability to pay.

How the Need to Belong Affects Whether Your Customer Buys

When your customer sees or hears your marketing message–whether it’s on the home page of your website, an email you sent, or a post card you mailed, his or her decision to take the next step is proceeded by three “micro–decisions.”

In order to take the next step (for example, click the “Buy” button) your customer must answer yes to all three questions in this order:

1. “Can I fully be myself and feel fully accepted if I work with
   this company?” (Do I Belong?)
2. “How much do I want really this?”
3. “Can I afford it?”

Your customer must answer “yes” to all three questions in order of importance to act on your call to action. If, at any point, they answer “no” you’ve lost them:

• They’ll go on to another website
• They’ll delete your email
• They’ll throw out your post card

This is why addressing the need to belong is so important.

It also may seem a little mysterious to you as a business owner. Perhaps you’re thinking, “all this makes sense to me but how exactly do I help my customers feel like they belong on the home page of my website?”

How to Create a Sense of Belong in Your Marketing

No, you don’t need to start your marketing message off with “Hey I love you. Here comes a great big hug just for you!” Even Barney the dinosaur doesn’t say that at the very beginning of the show.

Plus you’d probably creep people out a little.

Here are four ways to reassure prospects “yes, you’re at the right place to get the help you need,” so that they can take the next step.

Step 1. Begin your marketing message with who you help and the problem you help them with.

For example, “technical consultants who are tired of struggling to get their next contract.”

Step 2. Expand on the problem by addressing issues such as:

• how the problem shows up in regular everyday life
• emotions they may be feeling
• solutions they’ve already tried that didn’t work
• why those solutions often don’t work

If it feels tricky for you to address emotions in writing, try addressing these points as you would if you were in a conversation with a trusted colleague.

When I began writing the way I speak, I found it became a lot easier to write about customer problems in a way that was natural and empathetic but still within the boundaries of the business relationship.

If you’re still feeling stuck, re-read the first few paragraphs of this article to get a sense of how I introduced the problem and expanded on it.

Step 3. Introduce your solution only after you’ve addressed your customer’s experience with the problem.

Once you’ve covered the problem and your customer’s experience with
it (in steps 1 and 2) you’ve told your customer in effect:

“I understand your problem and know how awful it feels to struggle
with this problem. You’re not alone.”

You can demonstrate your expertise and talk about your solution.
Again, in this article, I first talked about the problem in detail.
I then transitioned to “here’s what can cause this problem” and
“here are steps you can take to take care of this problem.”

Step 4. So now that you’ve discussed the problem, the customer’s experience of the problem, and your solution, you can add your call to action.

At this point folks fitting your ideal customer profile will be feeling seen, heard, and accepted enough to be ready to learn more about how you can help and what it will take in terms of time, money, etc.

This is where you can add a call of action like, “Click here for more details and to register for my xyz program.”

Bottom Line

There’s an old adage that “People don’t care about what you know until they know you care.” In this case, it is so true.

Your marketing needs to first address your customer’s to belong before you say a word about value-added and cost. Otherwise, your customer will move on to another vendor who makes them feel better understood.

Recently, I worked with a local community group to develop marketing that would help them grow their membership. The organization I worked with is new and focuses on creating opportunities for business, non-profit, and government work together to achieve common goals.

At our first meeting, I asked the group, “What is it we want to accomplish?” Some of the answers that came back were:

“Redo the brochure”

“Fix the website so it’s easier to sign up for events”

“Do a documentary on member success stories”

And so on.

Sound familiar?

When you put the words “marketing” and “accomplishments” (or “goals” or “objectives”) together, what we usually think of are specific activities such as what to do with the website, or what events to offer, or getting a classier look for the company’s promotional materials.

That’s what the work group participants were talking about:  the specific activities they thought would help the organization increase membership.

These activities certainly sound good and worthwhile. Having an appealing website is great. So is a brochure with strong copy and a great logo.

Here’s the problem: All of us have limitations when it comes to time, money, and energy. Having lots of money helps but ultimately, you can’t implement every cool marketing idea that strikes your fancy.

So how do you choose? How do you make sure that every marketing activity will contribute to getting your business to where you want it to be? How do you make sure that each action you take contributes to your marketing effectiveness?

To answer these questions, let’s take a closer look at marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics and how they work together.

Objectives versus Strategies versus Tactics

Marketing Objectives

Marketing Objectives are what you ultimately want your marketing to do for your business. In other words, what role does marketing play in the success of your business?

Marketing objectives often describe:

• the number of customers you want
• sources of revenue and the percent each contributes to total revenue
• market share

Example: The organization I worked with had two objectives:

1. to add at least six new member over the next five months
2. 200+ attendees for the upcoming Fall Conference

Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy describes how you will use your money, time, people, and other resources to achieve your objectives.

Some of the issues addressed by marketing strategy are:

• What markets do we want to be in?
• How will we reach our audiences?
• What products and services will we offer?
• How do we want to stand out in the minds of our customers?

Example: An issue that came up again and again for the community group was “it’s difficult to describe what makes us different without sounding New Agey.”

They had been trying but they just couldn’t say it in ten words or less. On the other hand, everyone agreed “when the organization is right for someone, they almost always sign up after attending one of our events.”

That is, experience with the group is one of their best marketing tools.

From a strategic standpoint, this meant:

1. Don’t spend time and money on approaches that require strong copy-writing to be effective.  Thus they decided to put on hold any major changes to the website and to the brochure.
2. Time and resources should be focused on encouraging prospective members to attend live events.

To encourage prospects to attend, the group asked current members to invite people in their networks who were likely to appreciate what the organization had to offer—essentially, they chose a word-of-mouth marketing strategy to grow the membership.

Marketing Tactics

Marketing Tactics are the specific activities you do to fulfill your strategy.

Example: Once they decided to focus on word of mouth marketing (as opposed to changing the website or redoing the brochure) the group needed to come up with activities members could do.

They created a simple “outreach” card which listed:

• membership benefits
• where to go for event information
• contact information
• and a coupon that gave a $10 discount to first time visitors

Next they distributed cards with an emphasis on getting cards to members who tended to be “connectors” (people who had broad, diverse contact networks and who were enthusiastic proponents of group).

When All Three Elements Work Together – Magic!

As a result of the marketing strategy and tactics they used, at least three prospective members attended each event (they counted coupons to account for prospective members).

This led to adding seven new members before the end of the year.

And because more people were attending monthly lunches and hearing about the upcoming conference, the organization had their best ever Fall Conference attendance: 275 participants!

Finding a Balance

The Chinese general and philosopher, Sun Tzu said, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

To get results from your marketing, you need to employ strategies and tactics.

Companies that tend to get bogged in “analysis paralysis” are those that have good strategy ideas but fall short when it comes to executing tactics.

Companies that overly emphasize tactics tend to “spray and pray” by implementing random marketing activities that don’t support and reinforce one another.

Without appropriate balance between strategies and tactics, you are likely to be wasting your marketing dollars.

Go for What Works

It’s more important to set marketing objectives and strategies that you’ll use than it is to create ones that are profound and/or impressive.

If your marketing objectives and strategy are three sentences written on a legal pad, fine.

The sign of sound marketing objectives and strategies are:

• they support your goals for developing your business, and
• you take action to put your strategy into practice.

Fancy words and profound ideas are optional.

Bottom Line

When you set marketing objectives and create a strategy to meet those objectives, it’s easy to decide which marketing actions (or tactics) are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Copyright © Pearson Education – All Rights Reserved

Dick has  a toy plane. Dick sees Jane.

“Jane, see my new toy plane! Let’s go and play.”

“No, Dick, says Jane, “I am worried. I am worried because no one goes to my website. Only five people went to my website today: Father, Mother, Sally, Grandfather, and Spot.”

“Don’t worry Jane,” said Dick, “I will tell you about numbers. We can have fun with numbers. Come and see. Come and see how we can have fun with numbers!”

Feeling Like Jane?

I sure have.

When I first began publishing an ezine in 2005 I started with a humble list of about 75 subscribers.

And when you have 75 subscribers, losing even one person stings.

When someone unsubscribed, I would panic. I would freak out. I would be certain that it was The End!!

And then one of my articles would show up in a popular blog and 20 people would subscribe. Then I’d think, “Ah, I’ve made it.”

But the next month my ezine would go out and ten subscribers were gone because the email addresses were no longer valid.

And so forth and so on. I’d gain subscribers and lose subscribers.

When I gained subscribers I’d feel great. When I lost subscribers, I’d feel awful. This wasn’t fun.

An Important Concept: the Trendline

Fortunately, I paid attention in Finance 101 and I remembered something.

During a discussion on investing in the stock marketing, our teacher showed us a graph of average stock prices for a 80-year time period: from 1920 through 2000.

What was interesting was that although there were a lot of ups and downs–sometimes very large changes (the Great Depression for example), over time the trend was upwards.

The point our instructor wanted to make was this: from day to day even year to year the differences in stock prices can make you a nervous wreck. However, bad the economy is during a given period, the evidence suggests that stocks remain a good long-term investment.

The same thinking extends to how you think about the numbers you use to measure how your business is doing.

What’s the Trend?

When I looked at my ezine subscribers over a one year period here’s what I noticed:

• Although the number of subscribers might change every week sometimes up and sometimes down, on the whole, I was gaining more subscribers than I was losing.
• And this is important. It meant overall, the trend for getting new subscribers was going up.

Strategies for Reclaiming Your Sanity Around Statistics

I’m hoping after reading this article you’ll get some perspective (and relief) around the short-term changes you observe in important numbers like website visits, number of people who click on offer links, ezine subscribers, new customers, and so on.

Here are four strategies for putting your statistics into perspective:

Strategy #1.  Pick 2-5 Key Measurements and Stick with Them

It takes time for a trend to develop. If you watch ezine subscribers for a few days and then begin watching website visits, you’ll never really give yourself a chance to watch trends develop over time.

Pick no more than 5 statistics that measure something important to the health of your business and stick with those statistics for at least four months.

I personally have been tracking the following since 2005:

• Website visits
• Ezine subscribers
• Number of times people clicked on a offer link
• Number of clients
• Gross revenue

Notice I don’t include my Google page rank, Twitter followers, or Facebook friends. Why? Because my business is still on the small side and many of my business comes through personal referrals.

Strategy #2.  Look at Trends Not Day to Day Changes

I promise you that the quickest route to misery is to fret over day to day changes.

If your website host provides graphs, look at a simple graph of visits (or subscribers, etc.) on the vertical axis and time of the horizontal axis.

If the graph doesn’t offer a trend line, let your eyes fit a line between the dots and get a general sense of the direction.

If you want to get more complicated you can export the data to a spreadsheet program like Excel and compute statistics and create charts. But you don’t have.

You just need a general sense of direction.

Strategy #3. Remember Effective Actions Proceed an Upward Trend

One thing that really helps me on off-days is remembering that I am consistently and persistently taking actions that I know will:

• get the word out about me and my business
• add real value to clients and prospects
• communicate the types of businesses I help and the problems I help customers solve

When you create useful, relevant content and programs on a consistent basis and have systems that support

• getting your information in front of clients and prospects
• keeping in touch regularly over time
• and following up with those who act on your offers

You are going to support upward trends. You can’t not get upward trends.

Key #4. Don’t Forget Your Heart

The last key and perhaps the most important is to make sure your heart is fully engaged in your marketing decisions and actions.

No matter how clever a specific idea may sound, if you’re doing it because it’s a good idea or because some guru-type says you should, the results you get won’t justify the effort you put in.

If you’re heart isn’t into an activity, you won’t be able to sustain the level of energy needed to really benefit.

Bottom Line

Jane is happy now.

“Dick, thank you for showing me how to look at numbers. Now I see my numbers go up when I look at them over time. Thank you for showing me how fun numbers are.”

“Good Jane,” says Dick, “I am glad you are happy now. I am glad you see how numbers are fun. Do you want to play with my plane now?”

“Yes Dick” said Jane, “I am ready to play with you. Let’s go and play now!”

The End.

This morning I was working with a client who is feeling some frustration around defining the niche for their business.

• It started as “small business coaching”…
• got a little more specific as “small ‘green’ business coaching”…
• took a 180% turn to non-profit organization coaching…
• and turn another 180-degrees back to “small business coaching

“Why is picking a niche so hard?” my client wanted to know.

Choosing a Niche for Your Business Can Be Really Hard

My client isn’t alone. In fact she has excellent company: like me.

Yes, even marketing “experts” like yours truly can struggle with saying who they help.

In my case, selecting a niche has been an 8-year process and in all honesty I still squirm a little when I have to tell people who I work with.

For a long time I told people I was a “small business marketing coach.” More often then not this would get a response like “So what is it that you do?”

And I’d babble on and on about developing marketing messages and setting up marketing systems and revenue streams and so on.

If the other person was polite they’d try to figure out whether what I was talking about would be helpful to them in some way. If the other person was impolite, they were already getting a drink at the bar.

Being a marketing person you’d think I’d know better. You’d  think I would know that the first step for effective marketing is to choose a niche.

But I just couldn’t do it even as I told my clients that’s what they needed to do.

What Enabled Me to Finally Step Forward

A couple years ago, I was attending a business seminar to learn about how to put the pieces in place needed to create a sustainably profitable business.

We were doing a role play in which we were have a challenging conversation with another person. The idea was to use what we had learned about ourselves and our business as a foundation to deal with difficult situations.

My dreaded situation was when someone would ask “So what is it exactly that you do?” And my partner looked me in the eye and asked me “So Judy, what exactly is it that you do.”

I paused for a second and listened to my heart and blurted out, “I love you and your business so that your customers can know about you and love you too.”

Inelegant, not your typical 60-second elevator pitch but my partner smiled at me and said, “Wow, I really felt that. I wouldn’t hesitate to hire you.”

That was when things went “Ker-chunk” for me and for prospective clients.

Because the truth of the matter is, for me, marketing is about love. More specifically, marketing is about communicating what you love to do and how you love to help people because when your ideal customers feel that sincerity in their hearts — it’s easy to say “yes.”

Customers saying, “yes” is the Ker-ching.

Keys for Getting to Ker-chunk

#1. Manage the Risk

One thing we forget is that no one is carving your niche definition in stone. There’s no rule saying Thou shalt not change thy niche.

You can change your niche.

But I’m going to qualify this by saying, you must make some kind of commitment around how long you’ll work in your niche. A commitment of six months to a year.

Again, not carved in stone. But it’s a long enough time to know whether it feels like the right place for your business.

#2. Make Sure Your Heart Has a Say in Selecting Your Niche

For all of us, myself included, we tend to approach business decisions very logically. There are programs and spreadsheets where you can put in the pros and cons and get a recommendation for what to do.

I’m going to suggest you use your reasoning abilities as one source of information and let your heart make the final vote.

Why? Because I have made many, many business decisions in my career. When I based my decision purely on rational factors and my heart was waving a red flag that read, “Something about this doesn’t feel right” I nearly always regretted my decision.

Listen to your heart and your intuition. Take a break if you need to and quiet your thoughts. And then ask your heart, “is this true to my highest intentions?”

Then listen and be willing to be surprised.

#3. Your Niche Definition Has to Be Specific Enough for Customers to Know You’re Talking to Them

Another thing that makes business owners nervous is around specificity: how specific does their definition need to be?

It feels like every qualifier you add: age, gender, attitudes, and so on is yet another obstacle to finding customers.

My teacher, Mark Silver, has a great way to address this. He says, “your definition only needs to be specific enough so that your ideal customers recognize themselves when you tell people who you work with.

I love Mark’s definition of who he works with: “small business owners who want to make a difference and need to make a profit.”

It’s simple and yet anyone who is an ideal customer for Mark immediately feels like he’s talking to them.

Bottom Line

Being specific is scary because it means taking a stand for what you do. And when you take a stand, sometimes people push back; they don’t like your decision for whatever reason.

But when you do articulate who you help and do so in a heart-felt way you allow customers to connect from a place of trust. You create a space for their hearts to settle into and to receive your support. Kerchunk!

And when the “kerchunk” happens, prospective customers can open up and say, “Hey, I’m feeling like you can really help me with this problem. I’d like to hire you.”

Kerching!

So often a business owner will say to me that they “hate” marketing.

If you “hate” marketing or even feel a sense of uneasiness when you contemplate marketing for your business, this article is dedicated to you.

Why Business Owners H8 Marketing

Once you get past the “nameless dread” business owners feel about marketing, some interesting issues surface:

1. Marketing Just Isn’t Their “Thing”
2. They’re Not Really Sure What They Should Be Doing
3. They Wonder Whether Their Large Investment of Time, Effort, and Money Will Really Pay Off

If you hate marketing because it just isn’t your thing, I’m not going to try talking you out of that. I believe we’re best off playing to our strengths.

However, you’ll need to find and pay someone else to do your marketing. If you can’t or won’t outsource marketing, seriously consider whether you want to own a business.

If you hate marketing because you’re not really sure what you should be doing, rejoice because there’s a lot of good support for learning and practicing marketing skills: books, classes, and coaches.

If you hate marketing because it feels so darn vague and risky…ah…read on. There are things you can do to reduce that uncertainty and get more comfortable with risk as a natural component of the marketing process.

Risk is Inherent in Marketing

Prior to starting my business I spent over ten years working for large consumer products companies. I worked in the research department and my job was to study customers so the people who were planning and producing products would maximize the chances that customers would buy.

Note I said “maximize the chances” rather than “make buying a sure thing.”

Because even giant companies spending millions using customer research in their marketing decisions will never tell you marketing is a sure thing.

It’s like the batting averages in baseball. No one, not the greatest hitter of all time ever hits every pitch. Hitting one ball out of three is considered spectacular. Hitting one ball out of four is average.

This is very important to keep in mind: that in all your marketing efforts, you will rarely, if ever, get great results the first time you attempt to market your offer.

More often, you’ll begin seeing real results on your 3rd or 4th go.

You can, however, improve your chances to succeed faster.

How to Improve Your Odds

The good news is, in fact, there are many, simple, inexpensive ways to improve your marketing and improve your chances of people responding.

#1 Numbers Matter

The more impersonal your marketing approach the the larger the number of people who need to see your offer. For email offers having 1% of your list purchase is normal.

If you are enrolling for a ten-person class and you have 200 people on your mailing list, you need to use other, more personal methods to fill your class.

Lesson: to improve the odds of internet marketing success, build your list.

#2 Make Improvement Your Objective; Not Perfection

Please oh please don’t wait until your offer is perfect. If you’ve checked for typos, made certain that details are correct and the links work, get your offer out to people.

Lesson: It’s not about hitting the first ball, or even the second ball, it’s about showing up, seeing how people respond, and tweaking.

#3 Find Out What Worked and Didn’t Work

Ask some of the people who received your offer:

• Did they even see the offer to begin with
• Did they know what the offer was for?
• Were they interested in your offer?
• Did they open and read your email
• Did they click on the link?
• Did they go to the place where they could get more information, sign up, etc.

And at each point, ask “how come” with the sincere intention to find out what didn’t work.

The sincere intention bit is very important. If you’re talking to someone who fits your “ideal customer” you don’t want them to gloss over what didn’t work. Tell them you want their input so you can be of service and help them and businesses like them.

And remember to thank them for their help.

Lesson: Ask for honest input, don’t defend or explain, and listen carefully.

#4. Use the Suggestions that Make Sense

You don’t need to use every suggestion that crosses your path.

As the owner of your business, it’s important that you make sure each nugget of advice makes sense for your budget and communication style. And that your heart says “yes.”

If it doesn’t make sense; if your heart doesn’t go along, you won’t fully own the actions you take to improve your marketing and you won’t get the results you want.

Lesson: make sure your intuition and heart are fully engaged before you act on a suggestion.

Bottom Line

If you’re a small business owner and find yourself avoiding marketing because it seems like tons of work with no guaranteed results, take heart.

Although uncertainty is inherent in marketing because we can’t perfectly predict how people will respond there are things you can do to improve the odds of getting good results.

It also helps to remember that you’re in the same boat as every other business owner. Regardless of what you might hear, it’s near impossible to hit every promotion “out of the park” every time.

The successful marketers know it’s about putting your offer out there and improving your offer based on feedback; sometimes two or three times.

Nancy is a small business owner who helps nonprofit groups create fund raising events that can double even triple their average donation.

Until recently, Nancy has gotten her business primarily through in-person meetings: attending networking events, taking people out for coffee, and giving presentations.

In-person is great for getting local business but Nancy wants to serve a national customer base. So she hired someone to design a Web site and using E-mails and postcards to market her services.

She’s been using E-mails and postcards for the last ten months and the results have been dismal.

“I haven’t gotten a single new client,” she told me.

So I took a look at the E-mails she was sending out and I immediately saw the problem.

Enthusiasm Can Turn People Off

Nancy loves her work and really wants her clients to succeed. It’s hard to spend time with her and not get excited about what she’s doing.

Her enthusiasm works to her advantage when she meets people in person.

It seems logical then that enthusiasm would work in all her other marketing.

Wrong.

Establishing Trust is the First Step

There’s a saying, “People want to know you care, before they care about what you know.”

As human beings, we have a natural desire to belong and feel valued. It’s the reason why people hate to be sold to…we don’t feel understood or valued for who we are.

When you meet someone in person, it’s a lot easier to build trust because you can communicate that you care in many ways:  in your tone of voice, in the way you look at others, in your gestures.

For people like Nancy, building trust occurs almost immediately during in person meetings because she communicates that she cares both in what she says and what she doesn’t say.

But when communicating in less personal ways—using E-mail, postcards, and other types of written media, you have only words to work with.

Which means you must take an extra step and deliberately demonstrate
empathy before you enthusiastically share why your products and
services are so wonderful.

Establishing Trust Means Starting with the Negative

So how do you show you care when you use E-mail, Web pages, and other mediums that limit your ability to express yourself?

You start with the problem or pain your customer is likely experiencing.

When you do this you are saying, in effect to your audience:

“I understand you have this problem that you’re struggling to solve.”

“I, too, have struggled with it”

“Through my experience, education, research, etc., I have come up with a solution to solve the problem.”

“My solution will work for you too.”

Once you say these things, you are free to bubble away about your wonderful solution.

Example: Establishing Trust First

So let’s go back to Nancy.

Instead of immediately starting her E-mails off with how she helps her clients double their fund raising results she begins with demonstrating empathy and understanding.

Before:

“Non-profits, let me show you how to double, even triple your donations.”

After:

“Non-profits, are you struggling to compete for funding in today’s difficult economy?”

Can you feel the difference?

Nancy’s E-mail then went on to describe her own struggles with fundraising and how she developed her solution.

When Nancy began using this approach, her prospect inquiries immediately increased and she’s now in the process of turning some of the prospects into clients.

But she first needed to demonstrate she understood and cared before they were willing to make the call.

Bottom Line

The less personal the communication, the more important it becomes to first establish trust with your prospects.

For E-mails, blog posts, Web pages, etc.:

1. Start with the Negative: demonstrate you understand their problem and how they are struggling to find a solution.
2. End with the Positive: share why your solution is better and will work.

You’re probably familiar with the phrase “it’s a drop in the bucket.”

The phrase is usually used in reference to a large task or which the resources available to complete the task seem completely inadequate. For example:

“My small business marketing budget of $5,000 is a drop in the bucket when I think about the tens of thousands that my competitors are spending on marketing and promotions.”

As a small business owner, perhaps you’ve wondered how in the world you can possibly get the attention and interest of your target customers with your limited time and budget.

Remember that drops add up

What’s important to remember is this: drops in a bucket count. They add up. If water keeps dripping steadily into the bucket, in time bucket will become full—even to the point of overflowing.

The way marketing works is very similar to water dripping into a bucket. When you are working with limited time and
money, you can and should use this to your advantage.

Think about your marketing like this…

Every time someone sees something that makes them think of your company or your brand, it’s like a drop in the bucket. In advertising language, these drops are called “impressions.”

The cool thing about impressions is that when prospective customers get enough positive impressions of your business, they:

1. Remember your name and the name of your business
2. See you as someone who can provide something they value
3. See you as someone they can trust to deliver what you promise.

Sales don’t happen until people recognize who you are, what you do, how you can help, and that you will deliver as promised.

How many impressions does it take so that your prospects have the confidence to turn over their hard-earned cash for your products and services?

Although the number varies, the general rule of thumb is seven. Seven impressions spread over a period of time.

That may seem like a lot if you are thinking you need to call someone seven times or send them seven separate letters or take them out for lunch seven times.

Letters, meals out, and phone calls are all good ways to connect with prospective customers. But small things will work as well.

We’re talking drops of water: big enough to make a positive impression but small enough so that you can make the most of your opportunities to connect with prospects.

Three strategies for making a strong, positive impression

Here are three ways to leave a small but compelling impression that will bring prospects to you.

1. Put your company name, phone number, email address, website url, logo, and tagline on EVERYTHING.

And, if you have some type of low commitment introductory offer such as a free article, a recorded message, or complementary samples, include that too.

For example:

Recently, I got a call from someone who was looking for marketing help and found out about me because she got my card from her building manager. This baffled me because I didn’t know the building manager. How did she get my card?

Then I remembered: I had lost a notebook after a meeting in the building she managed and asked the her to call me if the notebook turned up. I gave her my business card so she had my contact information and we talked very briefly about what I did because she liked my company name and logo. The woman who called me was talking with the building manager about needing some marketing help when the building manager remembered me and gave her my card. Does

this happen often? No. But it wouldn’t happen at all if I didn’t put my logo, business name, tagline, and contact information on everything that the public might see.

2. Find ways to add value along with your impression

Free articles, tips, podcasts, and other information products are one way you can do this.

I especially like it when business owners get creative around how they can add value.

For example, a realtor who was new to my neighborhood introduced herself by going door-to-door and giving each person she spoke with a potted petunia along with her business card. This was so much nicer not to mention more memorable than the ugly magnets and boring stock newsletters that so many realtors use to market themselves.

Another tool I like is the double-sided business card because you can put your contact information on one side and some useful tips or ideas on the other side.

Important: Value is what is relevant and useful to your customer. If you’ve ever gone to a conference or trade show, you know about “swag” the pins, pens, T-shirts, and key chains that vendors give out. Most of the stuff in the swag bag gets thrown out the minute attendees return to the office. Don’t add to your prospect’s real or virtual swag bag. Make sure that what you give away has real value in the eyes of your customer.

3. Give a demonstration or offer a sample

Most prospects need to feel that you can really deliver what you claim before they’ll feel safe enough to do business with you. This is why giving prospects the opportunity to try before they buy is such a powerful way to make an impression. For example:

One of the parents at my son’s daycare center owns a store that sells handmade, organic body care products such as lip balms, moisturizers, bath products, etc. During the Christmas season, each family found a free lip balm sample along with a postcard with store information in their child’s mail pocket.

Offering free introductory classes and presentations are common practice among many of the coaches and consultants I know. This can be a great way to demonstrate the value of services which are by nature intangible. But, you need to be very sure that your class or presentation is truly interesting and useful to your prospects.

Bottom Line

You don’t need to spend millions of dollars on advertising, fancy promotions, and big events to get your prospect’s attention and interest. Seven or more well-executed impressions delivered over a period of weeks or months will enable you to build the visibility and credibility needed to create profitable customer relationships.

The best to you and your business,

Judy Murdoch

P.S., Do you know a business (maybe your own) that has developed a strong customer base using these tactics? Share your story here.

I often have conversations with clients that go something like this:

Me: You have a good, clear definition of who you help and how you help them and a good offer. Time to start getting your message in front of prospective customers.

Client: Great! OK! So I’m going to start sending a monthly ezine.

Me: Good idea.

Client: OK, so now what do I do?

Me: Well, do you have a list of email addresses? Do you have some kind of service to manage your list and handle address changes and that sort of thing?

Client: Huh?

In order to have effective marketing you need to have certain systems and elements in place that will support that marketing. I call these systems and elements Marketing Assets.

More About Marketing Assets

The term, assets, is used most commonly in business accounting and refers to economic resources owned by a business which can be converted into cash (although cash, too, is an asset).

Assets are valuable because they enable the business to do things to make money.

If you own a pizza restaurant, some of your assets include:

• car or van so you can make deliveries
• Equipment like ovens, mixers, and refrigerators
• if you own the building, the building and land are assets

Assets can also be intangible. For example, if you have a secret sauce recipe that makes your pizzas that best in town, that can be considered an asset. Patents and trademarks are another type of intangible asset.

What all assets of this type have in common is this:

they add the business’ capacity for serving customers and making money.

Marketing Assets are a specifc type of business asset: a Marketing Asset is something (information, a process, property) that enables your marketing to get better results (more people clicking through, more referrals, more inquiries).

Example: Using an Ezine for Marketing

An ezine is a very common type of marketing activity used by small business owners. If you enjoy writing, sending an ezine out at least once a month is a great way to add value with a helpful article along with promoting your latest offers.

So what assets do you need to have in place so that your ezine marketing gets results? Here are assets I recommend:

• Email addresses of people who are interested in getting your ezine.
• A service that manages the email addresses: adds new subscribers, verifies their contact information, allows subscribers to change or discontinue their subscription
• A service that allows you to send your ezine to subscribers (most services that manage email addresses manage message broadcasts too)
• Content that you will use in your articles — either content you write yourself or content written by someone else
• A website where email subscribers visit to learn more about you, your business, and programs you’re promoting.

When I first began writing an ezine, I used Microsoft Outlook to maintain email addresses and mail the ezine. It was fine when I was sending emails to ten or so people.

Once my list exceeded ten addresses, it literally took hours to mail my ezine because I had to make sure the addresses were up to date, remove or edit addresses, check for duplicates, etc. etc.

It was a ton of work and I eventually moved everything to aweber which is an email broadcast and list management service. Aweber also asks everyone who subscribes to verify their subscription (double opt-in) which insures only people who really want my ezine are getting it.

More Marketing Assets

Following are the marketing assets you need for other common small business marketing activities.

• List of email addresses (preferably double-opt in)
• An ezine or newsletter
• Subscription with email and broadcast management service
• Contact information of blogs, websites, or print publications who will publish your articles
• Blog you own
• Website you own
• Profile you can use to set up social network accounts (note you don’t have to have a profile ready to go but it sure beats having to fill out those profiles over and over and over again)
• Domain names you own
• Shopping cart
• Business cards
• Brochures, flyers, postcards, etc.
• Presentations
• Class or presentation Handouts
• Assessments
• Recording system
• Contact information such as telephone numbers and mailing addresses
• Strategic alliances with their own email lists

What’s absolutely critical is to remember this:

You don’t need every single marketing asset listed. You only need the ones required for the marketing activity you’ve chosen for your business.

Steps to Identifying Marketing Assets You Need

1. Choose a marketing activity

For example, Dave is a travel agent and he is going to do presentations at local schools on family friendly vacation spots. He wants to get some new clients out of the people attending as well as some referrals

2. Think through what you will need to make that activity effective

Dave thinks through the steps involved in giving his presentations:

“Let’s see, I’ll need a list of local schools and maybe I should include private schools and pre-schools, too. And it would be nice to have the name and number of the person with whom I’ll make arrangements.

“When I talk to them, they may want to know why they’d want to bring me in so it would be helpful to have a simple script to organize my thoughts.

“If they like my idea, they may want some things so they can publicize my presentation. So a bio would be helpful and some flyers that they can post on bulletin boards and give out to families would be good, too.

“On the day I present, I definitely want to bring handouts I can give to families with an outline of my talk along with how to contact me. And I’d love to be able to keep in touch with the people who attend so I’d like to have some kind of offer–maybe I’ll give them a half-sheet flyer which with instructions on how to subscribe to my monthly ezine.”

3. Run your list by a knowledgeable colleague or ask for input from a discussion group. You may even want to pay an expert for an hour of their time in exchange for helping your finalize your list.

4. Ask for recommendations about services to use. There are tons of providers for email list management, website hosting, domain name registration, you name it.

These services are important because when they don’t work it reflects badly on your public image. I encourage you to ask other business owners to recommend who they’ve had good experiences with.

Final Points

As you read this you may be feeling “sheesh, this is a ton of work!” And there is definitely effort involved in thinking through and setting up assets so your marketing gets results.

But here are a few things that will make the work easier:

1.  Setting up marketing assets is something you typically do once and then you reap the benefits for months even years. For example, you only have to set up the forms for an email list once. After that the list management service handles everything.

2. Marketing assets make you a far more attractive strategic ally when it comes to cross-promotions and affiliate opportunities.

Remember at the beginning of this article I said assets are economic resources that improve your ability to earn more money?

A business with an established weekly ezine and a double opt-in list is a potentially valuable strategic ally for other businesses offering complementary products and services.

The most potent marketing strategy for any small business owner is not a great website, or lots of Facebook friends, or a killer networking plan.

The marketing strategy that will get you faster and farther than anything else put together is developing strategic alliances with other businesses so you can promote each others products and services.

Strategic alliances are powerful because:

• you are exposing each other to your networks
• you are endorsing another business’ product or service which enhances or complements your own

And how do you find strategic partners? Well, you decide the qualities of an ideal strategic partner for your business; you begin to identify those businesses; and you get in tough to suggest a partnership.

Problems with Proposing Strategic Alliance

I was inspired to write this week’s article because I’ve received several strategic alliance requests recently that were really, really off-target.

And I thought it might be helpful to share with you what I consider an effective way to propose a strategic alliance with another business.

To illustrate effective and ineffective approaches to strategic alliance proposals I’m going to use those heroes of doctor’s office waiting rooms: Goofus and Gallant.

If you didn’t spend much time in doctor’s waiting rooms during the 60′s and 70′s here’s a quick explanation: Goofus and Gallant was a feature in Highlights: a children’s magazine which offered entertaining and educational information for school-aged kids.

Goofus and Gallant was a comic with two boys–Goofus was a jerk: inconsiderate and selfish. Gallant was, well, gallant: considerate and polite.

Strategic Alliance Proposal: Goofus-Style

When Goofus writes to a prospective strategic ally, his is interested in one thing and one thing only: what he, Goofus, will gain.

It’s all about Goofus.

Things Goofus does when he writes his proposal to make sure there’s no question who the proposal is all about:

• Goofus doesn’t know much about the company he’s sending his proposal except the bare minimal to make contact. He doesn’t look at the company’s website, know what the company’s products and services are, or who the company services.
• Goofus’ proposal is all about his accomplishments and work experiences. He assumes that the recipient will be able to figure out which qualities and accomplishments are relevant and which are not.
• Goofus uses the shotgun approach. He gets as many prospective business contacts as he can and mass mails the same email to every contact. Goofus figures if he emails enough businesses, one or two will want to work with him.
• Goofus sees business as a zero sum game. If someone else gets a customer, it’s a customer Goofus didn’t get. There can be only one winner and Goofus wants to make sure its him.

Now, confession time, I’m guilty of sending Goofus-style proposals. Why? Mostly because I didn’t know how to write something more effective.

Fortunately, I’ve learned how to write a proposal that actually connects with prospective allies.

Read on for the Gallant-style proposal.

Strategic Alliance Proposal Gallant-style

To sum up Gallant’s approach, Gallant assumes that the business owner he’s approaching first needs to be able to trust that Gallant wants a win-win partnership before they’ll take the next step.

Here is what Gallant does to make sure his proposal clearly communicates that he wants everyone to benefit.

• Gallant takes the time to learn about the business he’s approaching. He knows who the key people are in the business, he knows what the business’ products and services are, he’s visited their website and perhaps he’s even read a few articles written by the business owner.
• From checking out the business, Gallant understands the complementary opportunities from a strategic alliance.
• Gallant’s proposal speaks clearly and specifically to how a joint venture will benefit his prospective strategic partner. For example, he can give examples of why his readers will appreciate and respond to an article written by this prospective partner.
• Gallant uses a shotgun approach to identifying and getting in touch with strategic partners. He has thought through what qualities an ideal strategic partner has and knows how to find those partners. This is why he can approach these companies in such a personal way.

Why Companies Don’t Use the Gallant-Style Approach

The biggest objection is “it takes too much time.” And the Gallant-style approach for sure takes longer than the Goofus-style approach.

No argument from me.

But if you look at the time spent from the perspective of which hours produce the best results in terms of attracting profitable strategic partnerships, Gallant-proposals are a lot more effective.

Burning Bridges versus Opening Doors

Plus, a “no” to a Goofus proposal is usually a “no and don’t come back.” Goofus proposals result in slammed doors and burned bridges.

Gallant proposals that don’t result in a “yes” or a “let’s talk more” usually result in a “let’s talk in six months” or “it doesn’t fit what we need but here’s someone who could use what you offer.”

Bottom Line

If you approach other businesses to ask about strategic partnership opportunities and you’re not much response, you may be sending Goofus-style proposals.

Gallant-style proposals require extra time and effort to personalize and speak to specific win-win benefits, but every hour you spend putting effort into a Gallant-style proposal is easily worth the effort of sending 100 Goofus proposals.

Not to mention the doors that open when the company you’re approaching feels truly seen, heard, and appreciated.