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[S593]Small Business Marketing Ideas

by Ely, Ely

Just like having your own free mini-seminars, becoming an in-house speaker is a great way to educate consumers, establish your credibility and help market your products and services.

Take a look at your local Chambers of Commerce. Chambers are always looking for more benefits they can offer to their Chamber members and your educational seminar or workshop is just one more thing that they can add to their list of benefits. Ask them if they would like you to come and speak at one of their events. You could have a talk about the dangers in choosing a professional in your field. We all have scam artists in our own fields. Educate their members about the scams that are out there and how they can spot these scams and save their hard earned money.

You can also look at trade associations. They are similar to Chambers of Commerce but are organizations geared to businesses in one specific industry. You could become the specialist in working with HVAC business owners, or Home Remodeling businesses. I know these two groups do have have their own trade organization. Check around and see what other industries have organizations like this and contact them. Most of the time, they really want to help their members out any way they can and if your talk will help educate their members, they'll be very grateful to have you speak at one of their events.

When it comes to your presentation and what to talk about, there are a few things that you should keep in mind. Here's a checklist to help you get things as organized as possible and make your presentations a hit every time.

Your time frame
Most of the time, there is a standard time frame that each group might have. It's best to make a list of topics you can talk about and figure out which of these topics will fit into specific time frames. Generally, most organizations will want you have a presentation for one of the following time frames: 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes, and 90 minutes.

Most of the time they will only have time for 10-30 minutes depending on the event itself so you don't have to worry about the bigger ones for now.

Outline your presentations so you can set up your presentations to fit in to each of these time frames. Trust me from experience, it's no fun to run out of time and have your great presentation cut off. You want to be able to complete your presentation and have room for a few questions at the end in order to make the best impression on the attendees of the event.

Let's say you are asked to talk for 30 minutes on your topic. You should plan your presentation roughly around the following time frame. 25 talking about your topic and educating the attendees, 3 minutes to answer questions and the final 2 minutes could be a small pitch for your own products or services.

Notice that I didn't say 30 minutes of pitching your products. You need to establish yourself as the expert and build the relationship before you start trying to pitch anyone. Your purpose for speaking at these events is to establish yourself as an expert in your industry and educate the attendees on the best practices in working with someone in your industry. You could also give them a few things that they can do for free even if they don't hire you. This will endear you to them and you will quickly become an established authority to them. Then, when they are ready, they will be much more likely to chose you to hire than someone else that hasn't done anything to build the relationship.

Be sure to also allow time after your presentation so you can meet the members and talk with them one on one. Many times, if you educated and entertained them, they will want to come meet you after you are done with your presentation. Be sure to make time for this as this is where you have one more chance to build the relationship and really make a great impression on them. Answer their questions, thank them for having you and don't be afraid to feel a bit like a celebrity. It can happen and that's ok. Just don't let it go to your head too much. (grin)

Speaking at local organizations is a great way to establish yourself and your company in any market and if you are looking to niche to a specific industry, this can be the most effective way to do this. Just remember, to educate, not pitch or sell to them. Once you have established your credibility to them, they will be much more likely to buy your products and services and your marketing efforts will have paid off much quicker.

That phrase blasted from the 10" cheapo computer speakers that flank my 19" big boy monitor. I don’t use AOL but I set my email client to “belt out" the common phrase to let me know I have a new batch of mail screaming down the pipe.

In that avalanche of mail that poured into my mailbox like a broken-handled faucet, I noticed a pieced of spam (gotta love the spam). This wasn’t’ just an ordinary piece of spam this was a high-tech, glossy piece of spam – an html spam (the ones with fancy pictures on it).

This spam was actually from someone I had met in person and gotten my email address off a piece of email I had sent to her and then put me into her spam database without permission.

This piece of spam was a marketing lesson that I needed to share with you…

The spam was nicely set up with a headline and subheads, but since it was HTML and the headline was an image the image took way too long to load and I was already into the subhead (it was text) before the headline even made its first showing.

The subhead (first thing I read) said, “Are you trying to force round pegs into square holes?" Now we’ve all heard this cliché line before and I’m asking myself what the heck does it mean and what the heck does it mean to me in the context of your business???

Copywriting Tip #1

Don’t use cliché lines in your headlines and sub headlines. We’ve all heard them before which means we don’t take notice and they don’t cause us to think. You need provocative headlines and subheads that engage your reader and make them think about themselves in terms of your business or solution.

This was a question type of headline and question type headlines are a strong headline option – but, you must ask thought provoking, engaging questions. Don’t waste your one opportunity to grab your reader with a worn out, cliché, wet-noodle question. Smash them over the head with something that will engage them and get them wanting to read the next line of copy.

Copywriting Tip #2

The sole purpose of your headline, subhead and photo captions is to get the reader to read your first sentence of copy!! This is the most important step you can get them to take. If they just skim your ad from top to bottom your chances that they take your desired action is drastically reduced.

You must get them to the first line of copy. Your first line of copy should be short and its sole job is to get them to read the next line of copy. The second line of copy’s job is to get the reader to read the next line – and so forth.

Your first two paragraphs of copy should be short and non-threatening and should create a desire for the prospect to keep reading through to the next paragraph.

The copy should create a “slippery-slide" down the copy to the call to action. All along the copy should anticipate and answer any questions the reader would come up with as they read.

This “slippery-slide" copy concept was taught to me by Joe Sugarman. Joe is one of the all time great direct response copywriters of our time. He is the marketing master behind so huge product success stories such as “Blu-Blocker Sunglasses."

Copywriting Tip #3

Have you ever been standing in a line for a ride at Disney World or another busy theme park? Have you ever noticed how the line is all zigzagged? Have you ever wondered why they do that? It’s not to save space it’s to make you feel more comfortable and so you don’t freak out at how long the line is.

Imagine how long the line would look if it were perfectly straight!

The same goes for your copy.

The third copywriting tip I’m going to give you here is to use sub headlines to break up your body copy into manageable sections. This keeps the reader engaged and makes the copy seem easier to read and not as long. These sub headlines can be a summary of a major point in the previous paragraph or in the one to follow. They could also be a curiosity generating line about what’s to come in the copy.

Testing has shown that the content of the subheads are not as important as them being there.

Article Source : Small Business Marketing

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Both Ely & Jimmy Vee are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Ely has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Small Business Marketing and Marketing. Download the free Quickstart Guide "Step by Step: Writing Ads That Actually Work!" by visiting http://www.MaximumProfitsMarketing.com to learn how to write a more effective ad to promote yourself either online or offline. Ely Delaney has been teaching peo. Ely's top article generates over 135000 views. to your Favourites.

Jimmy Vee has sinced written about articles on various topics from About Web Hosting, Web Development and Small Business Marketing. Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller are the authors of “The Ten Tall Tales Of Traditional Advertising That Cost You Tons" and their newest release, “The Small Business Owner’s Guide To The Galaxy: Jim & Travis’s Super-Stellar, Out Of This World, Step-By-Step Guid. Jimmy Vee's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.