Peter Grandstaff

Web Marketing for Your Small Business

How to Laser Target Your Message to Hook Perfect Customers

In crafting all your marketing materials tune your message to your ideal audience. Whether it’s an ad on Google or a sign out front, you want the ideal prospects to feel like it was written just for them. So, why not write it just for them?

First, you’ll have to figure out who “they” are. For example, let’s say your making a sign to draw college students into your store. Imagine your favorite student customers, or what perfect student customers might be like. Then, narrow it down and imagine a single ideal student customer. Give this ideal a name, an age, and some hobbies. What are they like? What interests them? What gets under their skin? Who do they vote for? Do they have any pets?

Create your own Avatar, as local marketing guru Howie Jacobson calls it. (He took a group of us through this exercise for Google Adwords a few weeks back.) So, you have this three-dimensional idea of your ideal prospect. Now, imagine they’re about to read your sign. What’s going through their head? Maybe they have just walked in your store and are making up their mind. What are they concerned with as they see your sign?

Grab a sheet of paper and write for three minutes. Write their internal “diary” as they are about to look at your new sign. Taking a few minutes to put the words on paper can help you really flesh things out. Think about what brought them in, what they want, and what they don’t want. Then write a short stream of consciousness diary for them.

Now you have your target. Write your sign or other marketing message to appeal directly to your diary author. Use your copy to help them get what they want faster and wash away their worries. If they’re thinking about options when they come in, then give them a handy guide to their choices on your sign. If they’re worried about their purchase holding up, then show off your guarantee. If they have a specific price point in mind, then pump your low sale price. You get the picture.

A little imagination can go a long way, so don’t forget to explore things from the perspective of your ideal prospect. You can make a few avatars to cover the different kinds of ideal prospects you have. You can use this technique for any of your marketing message, from in-store signage to e-mail newsletters.

This post first appeared in my Small Business Email Newsletter

Does your small business have room to grow, horizontally?

Horizon Expansion

The sky's the limit when you expand toward the horizon.

There are two directions to grow your business, vertically and horizontally.  Vertical growth is selling more to your existing market and expanding your share of that market.  Horizontal growth is selling new products or services experiences to your existing market and adapting your offerings to fit new markets.  At least that’s the way I look at it.  An MBA would tell you that horizontal growth is all about acquiring companies in other sectors.  That’s not very useful to most small businesses.

When you start thinking about growing your business horizontally it’s really helpful to properly understand what it is you’re selling.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m sure you have a masterful understanding of your products and the services you offer.  

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Stand Out to Take the Lead – Newsletter 9/2009

The Sun is a Master of Standing Out

I have a question for you this month.

How many marketing messages (commercials, phone calls, junk mail, web ads, everything.) do you think the average American encounters every day? Seriously, stop reading for a second, and take a wild guess.  Once you have your guess, read on for the answer.

Marketing is everywhere.  Can you think of a single website that doesn’t have marketing in it?  They are few and far between.  You can’t drive down the street without seeing some marketing.  Check your mail or pick up the phone, and it’s there.

Our brains have learned that there are many many distractions in our lives that will lead us to parting with money or at least wasting time.  We’re used to it.  So we tune the vast majority of it out.  We are all skilled at ignoring the noise.

Ready for the answer?  First, let me guess what you guessed.  I bet you guessed somewhere between three hundred and a thousand.  The actual number is a bit hard to measure as you might imagine.  According to Bill Glazer (A very successful marketer for those who don’t know the name) the average American encounters 3,191 marketing messages and ads per day.  According to J. Walker Smith of Chapel Hill, NC based Yankelovich, in a 2005 USA Today article, the number is between 3,500 and 5,000.  Today, it’s likely even higher.

So, why did I spend all this time just to get to that number?  Because, I want you to understand just how vital it is for your marketing messages to break through the noise and get noticed.  Before long you’ll be competing with ten thousand other marketing efforts every day.  To really get that, it helps to think about the question before you learn the answer.

You have to stand out from the competition to take the lead.  That goes for websites and search engine marketing in addition to everything else.  When your website uses the same looks, lines and messages as your competitors you stay a part of the background noise.  When your page comes up in search results it has to grab the searcher’s attention to get clicked.  (Being the first result is a great way to get noticed!)  When your pay per click ad shows up it will be right next to other ads.  It has to stand out.

Get the point?

So, how do you stand out?  I say be creative, bold, and real.  Bill Glazer will tell you to be outrageous.  Don’t be afraid to do something different.  Make bold statements.  Never underestimate the importance of an eye-catching headline.  Whatever you do, be real.  We’ve all learned to expect phoniness and misleading statements from marketing.  Stand out by being yourself: honest and human.

One last tip.  Stop copying your competition’s marketing strategies.  The best that can come of that is that you’ll keep pace, a little behind the rest.  The worst case is when they’re copying you too.  You’ll end up with marketing about as effective as a photocopy of a photocopy is pretty.

As usual, if you’d like some help making your business stand out, get in touch with me.  You can hit that reply button right now and get your message straight into my primary in-box.

Know someone who might benefit from this message?  Forward it on!

To the Success of Small Businesses Everywhere,

Peter Grandstaff

PS: Hang Gliding is amazing!  I can’t recommend Kitty Hawk Kites strongly enough.  They also provide a nice example of standing out.  Once you pay for your lesson you get all of it, no matter what.  If you can’t make it, the wind won’t cooperate, or you just chicken out they will give you a ‘wind-check’ to come back and get whatever you missed at no additional charge.  Wind-checks never expire, and they are transferable!  Have you ever heard of such a thing!?

August 09 Newsletter: School is Back, Attract Student Business!

This month, I have some tips for marketing to the local student population and a little news about Google.  First, a quick update: Canine College is continuing to fill it’s board and train program.  If you missed last month’s story about their SEO and Pay-Per-Click campaigns, you can read it on my blog.  I’ll try to tone down the internet marketing and talk about strategies you can put to work today.

School is winding back up, and the local economy is breathing a collective sigh of relief.  Around here many markets are kept above water by the steady influx of cash brought in by all the students.  Just counting the three largest universities here in the Triangle, there are suddenly 70,757 students around.  Hopefully, we’ve seen the worst of this recession, and we’ll see the horizon by the new year.

What can you do right now to help your cash flow?  Promote.
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SEO & PPC Case Study: Success in the Recession – July 2009 Newsletter

As promised, here is the web version of my July e-mail newsletter.  Read on to learn how a small business is making more sales now than before the recession! Thanks to SEO & PPC advertising this dog trainer is selling out his high-end program

I bring news of success in this recession.  Best of all, the methods used are accessible to all of you.  If you’re not up to reading all this, scroll on down and at least check out the pictures.  Then, imagine what this could do for your business.

SEO & PPC Case Study: Canine College of Chapel Hill

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8 Amazing eResources That Are Free For Non-Profits

I recently met with someone at a local community outreach organization about bringing their internet operations up to speed. They were surprised to learn that they were eligible for free web hosting simply because of their IRS 501(c) (3) status. I couldn’t help but imagine that there are plenty of others who would love to know about this.

As I got to thinking about it I realized that there must be other great free for non-profit services out there. I’ve been doing some research and below you’ll find 8 useful eResources that are completely free to qualified non-profits. They include web hosting, marketing, software, and web application solutions.

Some of these are even free for anyone, and can be of great value to businesses, small and large.  I include them because they can be especially valuable to non-profits.  By employing free open source software you can keep your IT budget to a minimum without sacrificing.

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