Thank you for your interest in the 51 free marketing tips. These were inspired by Francine Hardaway and Ed Nusbaum of Stealthmore Partners and Fast Trac. Here are the second 10 (of 51) free marketing tips for small business. These next 10 are sprinkled with foundational items that every business should do but most don’t.
11. Practice the 6 P’s. Be prepared, personal, persistent, patient, passionate and positive. There are certainly many instances of people and businesses becoming famous overnight, but the vast majority of us grind it out over many years, executing a solid plan that steadily gets good, then great results. The long grind can lead to something like the 7 year itch in marriage as the marketer wonders, are we on the right track? Should we try something different? Great question – and keep asking it. Make adjustments, but stick to the plan if it appears that the foundation is solid. Results will come when you stay the course and have the right attitude. People migrate to positivity when it is genuine. Have it and share it!
12. Stay focused. A complementary tip to #11 is to stay focused on the prize. Which is? From the first 10 tips…know your target, deliver value to them, and repeat. And that’s NOT droning on and on with your sales pitch over and over. Seth Godin had a great blog about this recently http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/10/notice-me.html which talks about “being trusted, engaged with, purchased from, discussed, echoed, teaching us and leading”. He is the master – don’t preach, educate.
13. Listen to your instincts, but also check. This can be hard when you’re getting various market, customer, friend, partner and other feedback on what to do. It might be dangerous, too if your instincts aren’t’ too good. I’m going to assume that they are, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this 
Spend quiet time doing what you love to do and sort out the best path. My approach is bicycling or golf – and then testing ideas that come from the gut during or afterwards with friends. If your thoughts can survive the test of another good business mind, you’re on to something. If only the designers of the Pontiac Aztec, New Coke or presidential campaign of John McCain had done their marketing homework – we’d be thinking about them all differently today.
14. Build credibility. Having people talk about the virtues of your service introduces more people to your service and increases the chances that they will buy. Gather up the list of people you know and mark off each one that you feel can and could speak well of you or your service. Ask for a recommendation in Linkedin like shown on my personal Linkedin profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/dougbruhnke or reach out to them for a sincere testimonial. Have them talk specifically about the value you or your company created for them and what it meant for them to use your product or service. Never, ever fake a testimonial. Some very good people have suggested faking testimonials when they didn’t have enough gathered yet. Yikes! People can see right through those: “Y.L. from Tucson said…”. No, no, no! The sincerity and satisfaction of real people will go a long way to build your credibility with target customers. Here’s a good recent blog post on the topic of gathering testimonials: http://www.needmoney.com/2009/10/using-testimonials/
15. Be everywhere. Today it is easy to have you and your company everywhere on the internet. There are sites like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Namyz, ZoomInfo, Fast Company, Merchant Circle et al that allow you to post your business and personal information in most cases for free. Take advantage of it without abusing it. Get in early. I joined Linkedin thanks to a suggestion by Ed Nusbaum of Stealthmode Partners before the primary wave. That was at a time when other early adopters were more open to connecting. That’s going on right now with Twitter. You’re advised to at least ‘lurk’ in Twitter and see what it’s all about. For other sites like Naymz and ZoomInfo that automatically set up a site for you – claim and modify the information to be correct and current. Keep your information broadly out there and consistent – same info, logos etc.
16. Be courteous. With the new wave of social media there is also my warning to be responsible. Twitter and most social media make it totally easy to connect with others, and so being courteous both in the initial connection and on an ongoing basis is critically important. “We could spam, but we choose not to.” seems like a great game plan. Seth Godin again is a great source of information on this. He has always advocated for education versus spamming and has been a consistent leader on this. Get the daily feed of his blog for great ideas. Here’s another good thought on taking the long, high road with your contacts in business and on the web: http://www.e2ecoaching.com/2009/10/27/in-business-life-is-long-and-so-are-peoples-memories/
17. Do things that are unexpected. We thrive on surprise. The Sixth Sense was an pretty boring movie until the big surprise at the end. Huh? Wow – cool – dead people! Now we’re engaged! It’s the Purple Cow – our brains are wired through cognitive dissonance to see the weird stuff and ignore the same old same old. So when Todd Davis of LifeLock shares his social security number, we say WOW. Politically correct or not, critically accepted or not, Bob Parsons of GoDaddy creates a buzz around his being nontraditional. He sticks out, and people (in their target market) notice AND buy. If your target market can tolerate irreverence like that of GoDaddy, go for it. If not, stand out in a more professional way.
18. Don’t do things that are too political. This tip applies to 99% of us. As soon as you air a political opinion, 50% or more of people will disagree with you because they feel differently or they misunderstand what you’re trying to say. File this under one of the many things your Mom taught you NOT to talk about outside the kitchen table – like religion. Politics and religion are almost always immaterial to dealing with a company and yet it can turn someone off in a heartbeat. Ask Whole Foods how the political leanings of the boss hurt them and created the need to do a PR fix. Have you ever had a positive view of someone and then have them spout something off the cuff that you totally disagree with? Don’t be that to others. Stick to the central, ethical beliefs that are shared by 99% of the public and keep your next level of opinions reserved for your best friends over a glass of wine at the kitchen table.
19. Change your phone message. Give people a break who either call you for the first time or might call you often. Keep it short, sweet and current. The worst case of this abuse is a partner who had a long (well over one minute) greeting about his company. Have you seen that commercial ‘too much’? No one wants to hear how great you are in a phone message when you just want to leave a message. On the other hand mention your name and company in your own message. What’s worse than leaving a voice message and hearing no personal message, like ‘thanks for calling 555-1212, please leave a message’ or something similarly unprofessional? And when leaving a message with someone else, don’t drone on and on – keep it short, sweet and simple – limited to the basics of time you called, name and return phone number, repeated in case the phone transmission breaks up. As with everything that is public facing, your marketing needs to be consistently solid and informative without going over the top.
20. Do cross promotion with a partner. It is amazing to me how many people I don’t know. I’m humbled walking through the Phoenix airport – I rarely see someone I know. The good news is that people I know have connections to almost everyone – and that’s a powerful thing in marketing. You have the same thing – and using this effectively is one of the secrets of marketing. Who are your best referral and business partners who share a target market? List them out and take them to coffee – and discuss doing joint promotions. Now you’ll both win because you’re each splitting the cost of the promotion AND you’re each reaching people that you wouldn’t have reached alone. Food companies have been all over this for years – teaming chips with salsa, drinks with snacks, etc. Greater Phoenix SCORE www.scorephoenix.org does this extraordinarily well with local partners who are also going after entrepreneurs and small businesses – like the Chambers, the Phoenix Business Journal, SBDC, SBA, IRS, et al, who all benefit by working together and giving this target what they need – free, nearly free and effective business help. Do joint events, e-mails or direct marketing – it can be both productive and cost-effective.
Next week: #21 – 30 free marketing tips from Growth Nation. Thanks for reading.
By the way, if you’re an entrepreneur looking for support of your business idea, connect up with Francine and her team. Also if you’re in Phoenix, participate in the upcoming Entrepreneurship Conference November 12th http://azentrepreneurship.com/
All the best,
Doug Bruhnke
Growth Nation
Scottsdale, Arizona
About Doug Bruhnke