7 Costly Small Business Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Everybody makes mistakes and entrepreneurs are no
exception. But for an entrepreneur with a limited budget,
committing mistakes too often can be very costly. It is an
open secret in the business world that most of the mistakes
that can be committed in business have been committed; so
why not just learn from them, saving you the agony of
committing them yourself.

With that said, here are 7 costly small business marketing
mistakes every entrepreneur must avoid:

1. An Incongruent Marketing Message

To effectively sell your product or service, your customer
has to "get" the marketing message. A customer-centric
marketing message educates your prospects and persuades
them to become customers. Too many small businesses make
the mistake of focusing their message on the product or
company, instead of how the prospect would benefit by
purchasing their product. Prepare the right marketing
message with some of these in mind:

• Identify the prospect's problem.

• Explain to the prospect why the problem should be solved
immediately and explain why your product or service is the
right solution to their problems.

• List the benefits your prospects would enjoy upon
purchasing your product and provide an unconditional
guarantee to allay any fears they may have.

2. "Spray-and-Pray" Marketing Instead Of Precision Marketing

The days of marketing as a zero-sum game are over. You
must demand accountability from your marketing efforts,
expecting tangible results in the form of a healthy ROI
(return on investment). Differentiate your marketing
messages and target them to meet the specific needs and
wants of your prospects and customers.

Many small businesses are guilty of the dreaded
"spray-and-pray" marketing ideology, which inevitably
drains their resources to the point where it very often
leads to their demise.

Do not commit this same mistake, but instead practice
precision marketing, where every aspect of your marketing
and advertising efforts are measured and tracked for
maximum returns.

3. Failing To Realize Marketing Is About Value Creation

To create a sustainable small business, you have to market
something of value to the prospect and customer. Marketing
is your business and creating value for your customers
should permeate through all your marketing efforts. Strive
to always over-deliver because customers love to receive
more than they expect and the easiest way to do so is to
develop a thorough understanding of their wants and desires.

4. Selling Instead Of Educating

You must have heard about the age-old principle that
"people love to buy but hate being sold to." It is a
principle that will continue to hold true for ages to come,
but unfortunately, many small businesses still fail to
adhere to it. The fastest way to get rid of a prospect is
to try forcing a sale out of him or her.

Education-based marketing, however, is a powerful marketing
strategy to overcome this problem of being sold to. This
strategy makes use of giving away valuable information,
educating your prospect about the benefits of owning your
product or using your service, offered to them as free
reports, video cassettes, CDs, or DVDs in exchange for
their contact information.

It is a strategy that builds trust with the prospects
resulting in a much higher closing ratio. So, forget about
throwing a sales pitch and try educating your prospects
instead for a higher conversion rate.

5. Failing To Test

The biggest mistake any entrepreneur can make with their
business is the failure to test every possible variable
most important to their customers. This applies to both
online and offline marketing efforts.

I can understand if small businesses faced more difficulty
with market testing because of limited budgets years ago,
but the Internet has done away with this excuse. It has
become so cheap to conduct price tests and sales copy tests
and identify what campaigns, keywords, and metrics give you
the best ROI online that not testing any of these has
become a cardinal sin.

6. Not Following Up With Prospects Or Customers

Small businesses spend a great sum of money acquiring
customers, which makes it all the more difficult to
understand why many of them don't follow up with their
customers, or even their prospects after the "front end"
sale.

It has been well documented that true riches are to be
found in the backend sales and the reason for this is
simple. If a customer or prospect raises his or her hand
to do business with you, it means an element of trust has
been established and a business relationship is ready to be
formed. They are more then likely to buy from you
repeatedly if you make it a point to capture their contact
information and develop a follow-up system for
communicating with them frequently.

7. Selling To The Wrong Target Market

Never assume that your product or service will appeal to a
general audience because this assumption has profoundly
resulted in many small businesses shutting up shop. Large
businesses are guilty of this too, but you can save
yourself from committing such a rash mistake by asking
yourself these two questions:

• Who are your customers, or who is your target market?

• Who will use your service, or who will buy your product?

Answer these questions with absolutely clarity and segment
these markets by demographics and psychographics to zero in
on your ideal customer. The time spent doing this
correctly will add nicely to your bottom line.

Just remember that to succeed, you must be prepared to
fail, so don't fear the eventual mistake but learn from it.

----------------------------------------------------
Robert Moment is an innovative small business coach ,
speaker and author. Robert specializes in teaching
entrepreneurs how to start a small business that profits
and grow. Visit http://www.howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com
and sign-up for the FREE Small Busines Coaching 7 day
e-course.

DJ equipment - from stores or from the web?

Most new DJs know they need advice. They know they don't
know what they need to buy to get a great sound at an
affordable price!

Some people are outgoing enough to be able to hang around
successful DJs, or even approach them specifically, and ask
for advice.

If that's you: great! Do it. You have nothing to lose and
LOTS to gain from such an approach.

Earl Nightingale said "Everything in the world we want to
do or get done, we must do with and through people".

But not everyone is brave enough to take that step. Anyway,
there's a practical issue. What if the DJs you have access
to are playing very different music, in very different
sorts of locations, to very different types of audience
than you intend to?

How would you know the advice you were getting applied to
YOUR situation, and YOUR preferences?

Maybe most of us don't articulate things quite that
explicitly, but in fact that's exactly the reasoning that
drives lots of new DJs to their nearest physical store.

Now I'm not going to knock the stores!

I've bought equipment from them in the past, and many
people who work in them have great integrity.

But, compared to the internet retailers, their cost base is
high and (because some DJ gear is large and expensive) only
the most successful physical stores can offer a truly wide
selection of equipment.

And that could be your downfall.

Chris Anderson called this "the tyranny of locality" in his
book The Long Tail. "..retailers will carry only content
that can generate sufficient demand to earn its keep.
However, each can pull from only a limited local
population." This means that only products that achieve a
certain degree of popularity – mass-market appeal – can
make it into most physical stores.

And I don't know about you, but I have views about how I
want my performances to sound – and I want to be memorable
in part for the way my gear transmits the music.

Mass market limitations on the equipment I use would have
held me back.

Now, web retailing has taken off the way it has – I mean,
look at Amazon now! – because of the innate power of "the
long tail" phenomenon.

You know the idea even if you haven't read the book: one of
the examples he focuses on is one you (as a music lover)
will probably know really well – the Rhapsody music service.

The numbers are probably even more extreme now than they
were when he wrote the book, but in my edition, he says
that whereas Wal-Mart carries 4,500 CD titles, Rhapsody
carried 1.5 million tracks. That's Rhapsody's long tail…

You don't need me to go on in order to get the point, do
you?

The web retailers – you can find some great ones listed in
the book at www.djequipmentsecrets.com – can provide a
breadth of range that few physical outlets can match.

It doesn't really matter to them if they only sell a
particular turntable once a year. Does that matter to a
physical store? You bet it does! That's space they're
paying rent, heat, lighting and staff time on to keep
displaying something that isn't making them money in return.

It's cheap and easy for the web retailers to provide great
customer advice too.

And their costs are low, so their prices are competitive.

Of course, you need to know what to buy, and which items
work together effectively.

Which is where insider knowledge becomes so important, and
can cut years off your learning curve.

I can only say what worked for me in my career, but as soon
as I gained the knowledge to buy sensibly, I switched to
sourcing gear from the web retailers. I've saved hundreds
if not thousands of dollars, and been able to exercise much
more powerful choices than if I'd had to shop locally.

----------------------------------------------------
Carlton Brown
http://www.djequipmentsecrets.com

Are Your Words Failing to Help You Accomplish 20 Times More Improvements?

According to Hollywood legends, Mr. Cecil B. DeMille spared
no expense to part the Red Sea for his epic production of
The Ten Commandments. Actors, engineers, horses, and
assorted other animals were everywhere. The dust, heat, and
noise were ferocious. Finally, everyone was ready to go and
DeMille called out, "Roll the cameras" and "Action." After
he finished shooting the scene, DeMille called to a
cameraman on a high cliff to check on how that part of the
filming had gone. The cameraman reportedly yelled back,
"Ready when you are, C.B.!"

If the story were true, DeMille should have checked to see
if the camera was rolling before shouting "Action."

You should do the same. Check first to see if your message
is received and correctly understood before going into
action. Ask people what they heard and what they plan to
do, and keep repeating the message in different ways to
reinforce your point.

Seeing and Doing Is Believing

In the 1980s a top U.S. producer of roofing materials
decided to improve its operations. Since it was
prohibitively expensive to ship such materials to the
United States from Asia, the division president often
visited noncompeting plants there to get ideas.

On one trip to Japan, the president discovered something
unexpected. While using the same equipment that his company
employed, the Japanese manufacturer was able to operate a
production line with 8 employees rather than the 30 that
the U.S. manufacturer used. The president returned elated
by the opportunity to reduce his costs. But when he told
his manufacturing chief what he planned to do, the man
said, "Baloney!"

So the president took the manufacturing chief to Japan. The
man immediately grasped the point, turned to his boss and
said, "You're right!" The two came back and told the
company's plant managers to make the change. The plant
managers said, "No, no, you don't understand what you saw.
What you describe is impossible."

Back to Japan again went the president and the
manufacturing chief, along with the plant managers. Soon,
the plant managers were floored. They said, "You know, you
are right! But the guys at the plants won't believe it.
Let's make a videotape to show the shift supervisors."

The documentary was made, and the shift supervisors watched
it. "Nonsense," they said. "It cannot possibly be true. You
missed something when you made the video."

The division president said, "We'll go to Japan one more
time. But on this trip, I'm going to ask the Japanese to
let us operate one of their factory lines for two weeks.
We'll man the operating line jobs and see what happens."
Back to Japan they went. Everyone, including the
supervisors, worked on the line for two weeks. Then, and
only then, was the division president able to make the
change to eight-person lines. In this case, seeing and
doing created belief. No amount of talk could make the
message credible.

No News Is Not Good News

Some managers are ingenious at conveying a message. Others
make no attempt to pass on important ideas and information.
While employees do not react well to poorly conveyed
messages, they are usually angered by feeling that
management doesn't care enough to even try. Lack of
communication is viewed as disrespect.

Other executives try to take the high road and end up at a
dead end. These jovial people are so eager to be liked that
they try to build relationships by avoiding conflict.
Critical problems go unaddressed and organizational results
suffer. Employees learn not to trust these glad-handers who
put jobs at risk by keeping problems from being discussed.

STALL ERASERS

Overcoming Hostility and Establishing Relationships

Sometimes hostility and competitiveness induce a
communications stall, such as during a negotiation
involving people who don't know and trust each other.
Changing the ground rules can help. Focus first on getting
acquainted, and everyone soon has a sense of what
perspective each person brings to the situation. Each
person then listens with respect, and progress follows.
With a positive atmosphere for communications,
organizations work better.

STALLBUSTERS

The most successful managers describe how they cannot
communicate too much, too often, or in too many ways. Focus
on ways to communicate easily, effectively, and
efficiently, and you'll soon discover 2,000 percent
solutions (ways to accomplish 20 times more with the same
time, effort, and resources) bursting out all over.

Build on Success

Using sources such as employee surveys and individual
feedback you have received, select a few examples where
communications have worked better than usual. Then ask
these questions:

• Why were these particular communications more effective?

• How can these lessons be applied to other communications?

• How can the same results be achieved more easily and
effectively?

• What was missing from the problematic communications?

Focus on Effectiveness: Results Are Where the Rubber Meets
the Road

Look more broadly for successful communication models by
asking questions such as the following:

• Who is or was the most effective communicator you have
ever heard?

• Why was she or he effective?

• What aspects of that effectiveness can you capture for
your organization's communications?

Communications Tips

Here is a list of items to consider as key elements for
effective communications:

• Reduce how many different messages you try to get across.

• Simplify the messages.

• Provide powerful experiences along with the messages
(like the trip to Japan described in this chapter).

• Establish many more regular channels and patterns of
communications.

• Get more feedback on how well the message is being
understood.

• Increase the frequency of repeating communications.

• Compress the frequency into shorter periods of time.

• Vary the delivery by using different formats.

• Add indications of the message's significance to
underscore your point (yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater
in the presence of fire and smoke will quickly empty the
room).

• Change the leaders' behavior so that their deeds match
their words.

• Adjust rewards and feedback to emphasize the message.

• Have more people spread the message (ideally everyone in
the organization spends some time communicating - both
talking and listening - to everyone else to reinforce
the message).

• Arrange for those who are most credible and influential
to repeat the messages in their own words to those who
respect them the most.

Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. You can find free tips for accomplishing
20 times more by registering at:
=========> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Three Brand Identity Myths That Will Bring Your Business Down

"Brand identity" is the combination of consistent visual
elements that are used in your marketing materials. A basic
brand identity kit consists of a logo, business card,
letterhead, and envelope. It can be extended to include a
Web site, brochure, folder, flyer, or any other
professionally designed pieces.

Having a brand identity is extremely important to your
business's success. However, many business owners have
misconceptions about brand identities that can damage their
businesses.

My cousin/coworker/friend can design my brand identity

There are some very significant areas of your business that
should be left to the professionals. First of all, while
your cousin may have been "great in art class," this does
not mean that she has the knowledge and expertise required
to create great graphic designs. Designing a logo, business
card, or Web site is much different than painting a picture
or making a collage. You must make a brand logo scalable,
meaningful, and symbolic.

Second, having a professional designer on your business
marketing team ensures that your projects will be a top
priority. I have many potential clients who start their
designs with a friend or relative and are then "put on the
back burner," leaving their project to drag on for months.
After much frustration, they hire a professional and are
amazed at how quickly things are completed.

Finally, would you trust a friend to do something really
important for your business? Would you ask her to do
something that requires unique skills, like making a client
presentation for you or giving a speech? Probably not,
unless she is a sales professional or a professional
speaker. Would you trust a friend who is "good with math"
to do your corporate taxes? If you wouldn't trust an
amateur with an important business function, then why would
you trust an amateur with your brand identity, the key to
your marketing success?

Designing a custom brand identity is too expensive

It's true that having your marketing materials designed is
an expensive proposition. But it may be even more expensive
if you do not have a high-quality, custom brand identity
professionally designed. There are many effects that will
harm your business, including the possibility that your
clients will not respect you or take you seriously, among
others.

A strong brand identity quickly pays for itself. For most
businesses, if just two or three new clients call you over
the course of your lifespan because of the equity that your
brand identity creates, your logo and brand identity design
package would be paid for. When you have a top-notch brand
identity, new customers will contact you because they
remember your logo, have held on to your business card, or
are impressed by your brochure. And it's likely that many
more clients than the required few will contact you and
your business will grow and flourish from the (relatively)
small initial investment in the brand identity.

Consider also that a brand identity is a sustainable
expense. Once you have had a timeless logo and set of
marketing materials designed, you can use them for years to
come. And, once you have a strong logo, creating
consistent, targeted marketing pieces and programs is an
easy addition to your existing system.

I do not need a brand identity

If you are a professional in business, you need a brand
identity. You wouldn't consider being in business without
other important business essentials-your own computer,
perhaps, or a business name or bank account. A brand
identity is another of these basic business essentials.
It's the central requirement for marketing and promoting
your business.

There is nothing that looks less professional than not
having a professional brand identity. If you do not
establish a clean, high-quality, and consistent look and
feel to your materials, you will have a much more difficult
time gaining the trust of potential clients-and signing
them on to use your services. All of the Fortune 500
companies have a logo, and for a good reason: it makes them
look more professional. If you want to be perceived as
offering a high-caliber service, you have to look polished
and "put together."

----------------------------------------------------
Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big
visibility for small businesses. As the owner of elf
design, Erin is passionate about helping her clients stand
out in front of their competition and attract more clients.
Her "Define Your Difference Branding Workbook" will help
you with your brand definition - the most important step in
the brand identity design process.
http://www.elf-design.com/products-define.html

VoIP PBX Telephone Systems & The Advantages

VoIP PBX or IP PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch
Exchange) is a telephony system that makes use of IP data
networks to facilitate telecommunication. The immediate
advantage of VoIP PBX is that enterprises using it need not
have to replace their existing phones or phone numbers to
accommodate the new VoIP facility. It is a robust
technology that works in tandem with the existing
communication infrastructures. In other words, the VoIP
technology can use the existing PSTN lines via the VoIP
gateway, and there is no much of additional infrastructure
involved in its entire installation.

How does a VoIP PBX work?

The basic architecture of an IP PBX system consists of an
IP PBX server, one or more SIP phones or VoIP phones, and a
VoIP gateway, as mentioned already, to connect to the
existing PSTN lines (optional though). The IP PBX server
functions quite similar to a proxy server. The SIP or VoIP
phones, which can be either hardware phones or soft phones,
has to register with the IP PBX server, and when they wish
to make a call to another phone – a VoIP or SIP phone –
actually a request is send to the IP PBX server to
establish the connection. The IP PBX server will have a
directory of all users/phones and their respective SIP
addresses, and using this info, it could connect an
internal call or route an external call via a VoIP service
provider or a VoIP gateway, whichever is applicable. The
process is just quick and simple.

So, what are the advantages of VoIP PBX over conventional
PBX systems?

The most important plus of VoIP PBX is that it is many
times easier to install and configure than a traditional
phone system. Any one who knows the basics of computer and
networking can install the IP PBX in a PC and maintain it
reasonably well. Also, since it is all software, there is
no complex wiring involved anywhere. If somebody wants to
connect a hardware phone to an IP PBX system, he/she can
directly plug it into a standard network port (soft phones
can be installed directly into the PC). This must be read
in the backdrop of the fact that in the case of proprietary
phones, only a trained technician could handle its
installation, configuration, wiring, and overall
maintenance.

Another big advantage of IP PBX is its low cost of
operation. Since the calls make use of IP networks, even
long distance international calls are many times cheaper.
If the call is made between the phone systems that links
the branches of enterprises, it is absolutely free of cost.
Further, since IP PBX is built on an open SIP standard,
users can use any SIP software/hardware phone with
virtually any SIP based PSTN Gateway, IP PBX or VoIP
provider. There is no question of a vendor lock-in in any
circumstance.

Yet another positive with IP PBX is that it could easily
handle any number of additional phone connections and
extensions without disturbing the efficiency of the
network. This is in deep contrast to the conventional phone
systems, which might require additional hardware modules to
accommodate the newer connections and extensions.

Finally, with VoIP PBX, it facilitates hot desking and
roaming, provides easy usability, and better manageability
via the IP PBX Windows client. With proprietary phones, in
order to implement the latter feature, it might require
expensive hardware components.

----------------------------------------------------
Lee Smith writes about VoIP PBX Telephone Systems
http://www.networklondon.co.uk/communications/voip.html

Unified Messaging - Critical In Today's Technical Age

Unified Messaging, abbreviated as UM, is nothing but the
integration of different communication modes used by us -
such as the email, voice mail, and fax - into a combined
communication experience, such as a mail in-box and/or
alert service, which then can be accessed from a variety of
devices such as the PC, fixed network phone, or mobile
phone.

The advantage with unified messaging is that with this
technique, you have more control over the communication
methods you may be using, since now you can make use of a
single source for message delivery, repository,
notification, and access, thus cutting down the time factor
involved in the whole process.

UM is especially useful for companies that want to be in
touch all the time, and do not want to waste any time with
sending/receiving/accessing info.

Now, let's see the different UM capabilities in detail. The
UM capabilities are single delivery, single repository,
single access, and single notification.

1. Single delivery means one could send messages to a
person, an end user, by addressing to a single alias.
2. Single repository refers to one storage location for
access/retrieval and integration like text-to-speech,
speech-to-text etc.
3. Single access stands for making use of a single
addressing scheme that permits customers to access stored
messages through simple mailbox commands.
4. Single notification means utilizing SMS or similar
techniques to notify the user about incoming
messages/missed messages and/or communication attempts made.

However, there is still a bigger advantage that unified
messaging delivers. This is the technology's ability to
integrate flawlessly with other applications. For example,
using appropriate technologies, a UM system could sense an
incoming mail, decipher the receiver, find out his/her
position (location based services), and send a SMS
notification to him/her about a waiting mail in the inbox.
The receiver, on the other hand, will have the facility to
decide if the email is an urgent one and needs to be read
immediately or if it is something to which you can reply
later. With UM, end users can also choose to promptly read
the mail via text-to-speech conversion or SMS if needed.

Unified messaging, along with location systems and call
management, could enhance the existing communication
capabilities of individuals/enterprises in a way that has
not been witnessed before. For example, the UM system could
prompt a caller to speak the message he/she might want to
convey to a particular end-user, and the system then sends
the message in the form of an SMS to the customer after
assessing his/her current position and status. The receiver
can now choose to attend the call directly or leave the job
to the system itself.

The entire process is not only robust and prompt, but also
saves time, the one important factor on which every 21st
century management models are based.

----------------------------------------------------
Lee Smith writes about Unified Messaging Systems
http://www.networklondon.co.uk/communications/index.html