Answered: Your Most Burning Small Business Marketing Questions – June 2014

No matter how many years (or days) you’ve been at this marketing game, the questions keep coming up.

In many ways, it’s a constantly shifting and evolving landscape.

In others, it’s the same as it ever was.

We’re wrapping up this week by taking our best shot at your best questions.

Q: LinkedIn: What makes a LinkedIn profile great?

A:  A great LinkedIn profile resembles a good salesperson, gets an appointment
(attention), goes out there and makes a case for your business, offers proof
that you can provide a solution, shares facts and makes a very specific offer or
defines the next steps.

Q: Marketing: What are the most effective ways for a small business to start marketing with little or no budget?

A: Great question and I have an answer for you. I have compiled all the best marketing tools and tips for startups in one post:  The No Budget Marketing Toolbox: For Startups and Those About to Start

Q: What is the best way to get your blog out there and known?

A:  The best way to get seen and heard by the right people is to distribute your educational content to social media channels where your ideal audience is playing, seeking and looking for information. Then I would go deeper by posting in niche groups and niche sites.

None of this works until you know who your audience is and where their attention is.

Read More:  Top 5 Content Delivery Platforms For Getting Your Offering Seen, Heard and Out There into The World

Q: Marketing: Are marketers bad people?

A:  Great question and here’s my full take on it  The Difference Between Marketing and Manipulation

Or you can read it here. It’s short: Marketing – is getting someone to purchase something that later on they’re glad they bought it because it improved their life or work.

Manipulation – is getting someone to purchase something that later on they regret buying because they don’t need it or want it or it doesn’t improve their life or work.

Q: Is becoming an insurance agent a good way to learn how to sell in entrepreneurship?

A:  In my opinion any sales opportunity will help you out. No one is an “expert” at the beginning.  We all just start where we are and get in the game.  But it’s by being in the game that we refine and develop skills, information and relationships that ultimately make us “experts.”

Jump in!

Here’s something to remember: Ultimately we are all paid because we are selling something.  Whether you are a teacher, pastor, librarian, receptionist or computer programmer, you are “selling” what you do.  That’s the only way to expect compensation.  Selling in its purest form is simply sharing enthusiasm.  If you see a great movie and tell 20 friends – you are selling.  If you go to a wonderful restaurant and then spread the word – you are selling.  We all get paid for sharing our enthusiasm.  What you need is to find something you are so passionate about that you want everyone else around you to experience the same benefits you are enjoying.

Learn more:  10 Ways to Improve Your Selling … Right Now (And in 2014)

Q: What is best for a new startup at the time of launch: explainer video or eBook?

A:   The Point of View eBook.  Every business should have a well-developed core story that’s documented in the form of a white paper or eBook. This content must dive deeply into  what makes a firm different, what the secret sauce is, how the company approaches customer service, and why the firm does what it does. This is the primer for a company’s educational content push.

Here’s mine as an example:  7 Steps to Small Business Marketing Success

Q: Marketing: What is the best way to make a short term marketing plan for small company provide IT solutions to other companies?

A:   Well, you’re in luck. I have written about this topic before  “ Marketing Planning: The Ten Essential Areas to Focus On “

I don’t know about you, but anytime I search the internet for marketing advice or tips and try to figure out how to do something myself, I get information overload. My attention is everywhere and my productivity goes way down.

So, earlier this year, I put together something, I’m calling  “ Marketing Planning: The Ten Essential Areas to Focus On ” , which saves you time and allows you to maximize your energy and attention as you move forward in your marketing. I’d like to go ahead and share it with you today.