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Small Business Marketing: Are You Fishing In The Right Pond?

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Small Business Marketing: Are You Fishing In The Right Pond? – PRWeb

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Print Small Business Marketing: Are You Fishing In The Right Pond?

Fishing in the right Small Business Marketing Pond

Tips On Targeting The Right Audience

The waters of the Internet can be difficult to navigate if you don’t know where your prospects are congregating. The Internet is full of ponds that cater to specific audiences and oftentimes require unique fishing techniques.


Small business marketers today just have to know which pond to fish – and use the bait that will yield the biggest catch.


While it may be tempting to throw out a big net and hope to drag in your preferred catch, the savviest marketers know that focusing on the correct social channels, connecting to the right audience and leveraging tools such as press release services means they are more likely to attract their ideal prospects through a targeted approach.


So, once you’ve decided to include press releases in your marketing mix, check these three tips to create tastier bait for those prospects hanging out in preferred ponds:


1. Do use anecdotes to flavor your bait. Since the days when people traded stories for food around the fire, humans have been drawn to good storytelling. Tap into this inherent trait by adding anecdotal evidence into your content.

Provide specific customer examplesGive real problem/solution scenariosTie your products into examples of how your industry is making buyers’ lives better

Use anecdotes to communicate otherwise bland statistics and facts. When you connect with memorable stories, audiences are more likely to remember your details, too.


2. Don’t assume everyone knows your angler language. Stray away from overusing jargon. Just because prospects may be somewhat familiar with your industry, doesn’t mean they know all the technical terms that make up your corporate vocabulary.


If you want to use your specific “industry speak” provide audiences with definitions and links to words they may not be familiar with.


Be careful to avoid jargon when describing your products. Your descriptions should be palatable for shoppers just beginning their search as well as those who’ve bought from you in the past.


3. Do set your hook with the right content bait. If you are fishing for cutthroat trout in Yellowstone, you’ve got to use spinner lures that sparkle and attract, rather than leaded fake worms that sink into the bottom of the pond.


The same holds true with your content. The better you understand who makes up your target market, the more effectively you’ll offer content that attracts them to your brand.


You may be sending news releases throughout the digital marketplace to general outlets but have you considered niche websites that appeal to your prospects more specifically?


When you do find those audiences, be sure your message matches their needs, i.e., don’t create content about mountain bikes for a niche site that caters strictly to long distance cyclists.


Ultimately, while the size of the pond may matter in how much bait you use, it won’t do you any good to waste your efforts fishing in the wrong pond.


Do your research beforehand and use press release services to create and distribute targeted content – you’ll reap the reward of a wicker creel basket full of fresh prospects.


Have you found new ways to bait your hook or find the perfect pond? Share with us your best fishing hole secrets!


 



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Small Business Marketing: 3 Tips to Get Started

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So you’ve decided to open a small business or start marketing the one you already have. Congratulations!


Whether you are just forming your ideas or expanding existing promotional efforts to include online channels, you’re about to navigate a journey that has the potential of taking your business to the next level – fast.


Although the techniques and tools for today’s PR and marketing may seem daunting, don’t be intimidated.


1. Create a Roadmap. Before you start almost any project, the preparation you do beforehand will be key to future success. Imagine hopping in the car for a cross-country trip without a GPS or map to guide you to your goal destination.


PR and marketing are the same. When putting together a plan, ask yourself these questions:

How much time am I willing to commit?
A PR and marketing effort can be as big or small as you decide. However, in an Internet landscape where content is king – you likely need to carve out time to create content, and connections online.

2. Go forth, measure and refine. Now that you have a plan, it’s time to take action.


One of the more important elements of any plan is ensuring to coordinate efforts so that you stay on message and can get more bang for your buck.


In addition, it is marketing and PR best practices to test a tactic at least 3 times before determining its effectiveness. Imagine if TV networks only ran one ad for a new sitcom premiering. The likelihood that the audience saw and remembered the concept, premier day/time and what they liked about it is miniscule.


So, marketers combat this issue with frequency.


Make sure your brand is visible in as many places as your target audience is looking including:

Signage outside your building (if you are a brick and mortar)

Before, during and after you launch your marketing plan, measurement is key. In order to define success, you will need to know where you started – i.e. your benchmarks.


As marketing plan components deploy, watch for spikes in traffic on the site from referring sources such as search engines, press release distribution services, ads etc.


After a frequency is established, you can compare tactics and messages to see which is working the best and which need to be refined or removed from the plan.


3. Don’t forget about local. Whether your location is critical to your business or not, making connections locally is still an important part in growing your business.


For example, when you become familiar with the news sources in your area, you can create relationships that make you the go-to-person for insight on your given area of expertise.


For a locally-driven business such as a restaurant, pet store etc., local is going to be a critical part of success as you need people within physical proximity to you to help the business grow.


However, companies that operate out of a city but serve national customers can also benefit from local connections. Don’t discount the affect you can have on referrals and even signing up local clients by attending networking events, sponsoring local charities, etc.


To let people nearby know you are there, try the following:


There is no limit to what you can accomplish with a well thought out and executed PR and marketing plan. Remember to be consistent in all your efforts. Maintain the same language, message and keywords in all tactics regardless of the channel. In no time you will be measuring noticeable returns on your small business marketing efforts.


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Is it time to humanize your PR and marketing efforts?

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Humanize your PR and Marketing


The Internet is an ironic place. With systems built upon social precepts of community, conversation and engagement, you’d think we’d all feel closer to each other but sometimes, virtual contact can’t replace the personal touch.


As a small business, it’s easy to get lost in the social media arena. You may have done a good job with your public relations strategy to establish a presence on the net, but does your brand stand out as one that customers are connected with?


The answer should be a resounding yes, but if it’s not, keep reading.


Look beyond the content you are creating such as press releases, whitepapers, webinars or video and ask yourself, “how am I leveraging that content to connect with my audience?”


In today’s digital marketplace, customer engagement is the name of the game. Consider these 3 opportunities you can use to humanize your PR and marketing efforts:


1. Create a team of marketers to extend your online voice. It’s important to some companies to have a primary spokesperson for the company but today’s digital arena requires more than what one person can typically accomplish in a day. Why not consider leveraging an extended team to help manage your social media presence?


You can create a core group of people to tweet, update Facebook / LinkedIn with questions and answers to topics others are engaging. Make sure you educate the team and keep them abreast of company messaging so that the risk of having inconsistent messages is mitigated.


In testing this approach, you may find that each person has their own voice, personality and helps establish a following of their own. It’s just like the old fishing metaphor – why fish with one pole when you can fish with 3, 4 or 5?


2. Expand your blogging. Create a content calendar that not only includes regular posts on your blog, but also pursues guest posts on other sites relevant to your industry.


With frequent guest posts offering compelling, useful information, you will likely be able to reach a larger audience and attach a voice to the brand in front of more audiences, than the one already reading your company-owned destinations.


3. Pursue community interaction. Find new communities that discuss your industry and become an active member. Your participation can reflect a number of aspects that can compel readers to become better acquainted with you and your company such as:
Expertise in your fieldTips and tricks to solving problems or accomplishing goalsLinks to resourceful industry content, stats etc.


When communicating online or offline it’s important that we remember that with every interaction, the ultimate goal is to be a company (or someone at a company) that they want to connect with. The icing on the cake of ‘likes’, ‘shares’, ‘retweets’, etc., is all bound to follow if you provide consistent and relevant interactions with people.


We all have that one small or local business that we love to support for maybe no other reason than we like the people behind it. Think through what keeps you going back and even referring them to your friends.


Then, create a plan that holds true to those same values, such as: being personable, answering questions or offering a kind word. Simple application of what we practice offline can help you create connections and ultimately brand affinity online.



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