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10 Striking Points the Venture Capitalists want you to Present in your Pitch

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You have a great idea, you just launched a company, or you are already in the beta phase with 100 plus customers. It’s time to look for funding to expand and test out wider greener horizons. Getting your pitch ready to reach out to the VCs or angel investors is your first step to get noticed or be recommended.

Here are 10 Striking Points that you must pitch to the Venture Capitalists.

  • You have few minutes to make the pitch but it is in the first few seconds – the first 20-40 seconds that we must be clear on what you are talking about. Don’t take too long to get to the point – get to the point straight away. Clearly articulate your value proposition. What’s unique about it?
  • Be upfront about the process – who you are and what you are doing. Are you credible to do what you do, what are your and your team members’ qualifications that wow us or indicate instantly that yes we can trust you with the project and product.
  • What’s the market size you are aiming for and what’s your market strategy? Do you understand your audience or customers well? We want to hear this clearly stated.
  • How would you or do you monetize? What’s your revenue strategy? How do you foresee your profitability in the coming years?
  • What makes your product better than others? What’s the competition and how do you measure your product or service to that?
  • Do you have any customers? Are they excited about your product? Are they talking about it? What does it mean to them? Any stories? – tell us in brief.
  • Is your idea scalable? Give a quick example. We’re looking for companies that can scale fast.
  • How much money do you need? Where all will you apply that money and in what’s the momentum projection?
  • Don’t make up any stories, be honest. We’re going to find out the truth straight away when we question you after your pitch.
  • Be confident while presenting, come out well rehearsed and articulate. It’s your chance to make an impression on someone who would invest in you, the presentation must come across well to impress.

 

Thanks to VCs – Arif Janmohamed, Vivek Mehra and Santiago Subotovsky for sharing these tips at the Pitchfest at TIE, Silicon Valley.

 

Related good read:

How To Lose An Investor Before You Finish Speaking – Women2.0

 

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3 Ways to use Social Media Campaigns that help Franchise Owners reach out to Customers

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Since most franchise owners are used to mail and phone advertising it is not easy for them to adapt to the social media marketing campaigns for their business. With little time at hand these tips can come in handy if you are a busy franchise owner and want to grab the attention of millions who are on social media and can directly impact your revenue bottom line.

Chances are that your corporate office might have training programs to get you up to speed on managing your own social media campaigns but in case you run a franchise which has been planning on adding this training but not quite made it there then begin with Twitter and Facebook presence. Log in to Twitter.com and Facebook.com and add your local franchise account – note it must be different from the main franchise name in case you are a part of a larger chain of franchise. Also it is a good idea to check with your corporate policy of there are some set guidelines on social media campaigns.

Also since we all know how busy managing a franchise can get, it is a good idea to set apart a budget to hire an external service / agency who can oversee your social media campaigns. There are quite a few around, Google search might help here.

Here’s a fair enough motivator statement from an article on Smartblog on Restaurants titled: Franchise Spotlight: How KFC measures its social media ROI which strengthens the reason for franchise owners to consider social media strategies to increase revenue and attract new customers:

Ogilvy released study findings that consumers who were exposed exclusively to social media ads for KFC were seven times more likely to spend more than the average consumer.

And here’s how you can implement some marketing campaigns in this direction:

  • Deal of the Week – keep the customers posted with a deal of the week through these social media channels. Run the deals a few times a day daily to ensure most customers can access this information since log in time are different for all.
  • Run small contests with incentives to increase your fan base. For example, you have a new dish get the picture online and ask your followers to name this dish, the one who’s more creative or apt gets a… (your choice on what you can offer!).
  • Green branding advertising – If you are environmentally conscious and would like to spread the word to the world on how your franchise is adapting sustainable practices and reducing the carbon footprints then social media information sharing on your actions (and using QR codes to lead customers to your info online) are quick and easy ways to receive kudos. Customer loyalty increases and your brand gets credibility. All these easily translate to an increase in revenue over time.

Whatever be your franchise and your networking skills know that social media campaigns are catching on fast and it is about time to grab attention through this effective marketing technique and reach out to the millions of customers who are happily and tirelessly playing around with their Smartphones and would rather not look up to see the billboards. It is a customer preference and not a choice after all.

What’s your franchise and what’s the new strategy that you plan to implement in the social media space?

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What should you know legally to expand your staff?

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To answer this question perhaps the best resource would be entrepreneur.com and I did find a great article which walks you through the process:

When and How to Hire Additional Employees

Some insightful answers were on Twitter’s #wgbiz a chat hosted monthly by Shonali Burke (@Shonali) of Women Grow Business.

Some of the tips gathered from this discussion can be a valuable resource for the small business owners or the solopreneurs who wish to take their business to another level by expanding and hiring employees.

  • To add staff, check with your accountant, hire a payroll company, and use a simple employment agreement.
  • Recommended website for getting advice & templates – SCORE.org
  • When working with an attorney on contracts& forms, ask if they have templates so you don’t pay to develop from scratch.
  • If using ‘networks’ or other than direct hire…get a firm Non-Compete and Non-Disclosure clause in your team agreement

One main point that needs to be driven home is that once you are ready to hire employees for your business you must first check YOUR own license and legal paperwork to ensure you start on the right foot.

Any other tips or suggestions on this topic? Pls add to the comments.

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Top Founders’ Advice for New Entrepreneurs

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Guest Post by Robert Jordan

Want to know how some of America’s most successful entrepreneurs made it? Here are some jolts of inspiration and shots of courage fornew business owners, gleaned from interviews with 45 of America’s leading company founders.

Too little funding forces discipline.

The upside of having too little funding is that your business can grow organically, and you’ll stay very focused on making a profit and positive cash flow.1

Always have a standby investor.

No matter how much you like each other, and how much time and effort you’ve invested in negotiating and paperwork, large financial partnerships can – and often do – fall apart last minute.2

Create a business plan that’s a selling tool.

Venture capitalists look at hundreds of prospects, so your business plan has to be clear, credible, and able to demonstrate in 10 minutes or less your dedication to solving a crucial problem.3

Be honest in all your dealings.

Running a business is no different than running your life. Founders should be honest in their dealings and in their assessments. Always look at facts, because facts don’t lie.4

Start with what you have.

If you wait for the perfect solution to come along, you’ll never get your business going. Assume that the right tools, the right systems, and the right people will come along to refine it.5

Make your employees shareholders.

When employees have a sense of ownership, it creates a kind of self-enforcement process. Give stock options to everyone at your company — all the way to the janitor. Owners think differently than employees.6

Fail fast.

What doesn’t work, throw away, and what does work, run with it. Knowing what’s going right the class.7

Be willing to tweak your idea.

If you fall too much in love with your idea, you won’t have the capacity to take feedback from other people and from the market. The idea you start with is unlikely to be the exact idea you’re going to win with.8

* * * * *

The above tips have been adapted from Robert Jordan’s new book, “How They Did It”, and these were the minds behind the advice!

1 Viresh Bhatia, InstallShield

2 Jim Dolan, The Dolan Company (DM)

3 Donald C. Harrison, AtriCure (ATCR)

4 Mark Tebbe, Lante Corporation, Answers.com (ANSW)

5 Howard A. Tullman, Certified Collateral Corporation (CCC), Original Research II Kendall College, Experiencia, Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, The Cobalt Group, Tunes.com

6 Dane Miller, Biomet

7 Scott Jones, Boston Technology, Gracenote, ChaCha, Precise Path Robotics

8 Steve Shank, Capella Education (CPLA)

About the Author:

Robert Jordan has been launching and growing companies and helping other entrepreneurs do the same for the past 20 years. He is author of How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America (RedFlash Press, www.HowTheyDidItBook.com), a collection of interviews from 45 leading founders who created $41 billion from scratch. His newest endeavors are RedFlash project implementation team, and interimCEOinterimCFO, a worldwide network of interim, contract, and project executives.

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5 Common Misconceptions About Starting Your Own Business

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This is a guest post by Joseph Gustav.

Starting your own business is extremely appealing for a lot of reasons. Being your own boss, running things the way you want to, and doing something you love are key reasons why people seriously consider making the immense investment in time and money — and taking on the significant risk of failure. This risk can be minimized if you actually know what you’re getting yourself into. Here are 5 common misconceptions of starting your own business with a dose of reality to clear up any confusion.

1. If I have my own business I won’t have to work as much.

That is completely false, especially when getting your idea off the ground — and turning it into profit. Expect longer hours, more tasks, and in all likelihood more headaches than when working under someone else. Even if you have staff, you still have to set them on the right course, deal with payroll, hiring and management, etc., etc.

2. I’ll be able to set my own hours and create my own schedule.

To some extent that is true, but a business’ priorities lie with customers and clients. You, and your business, have to be there for them. And as head of a business, you have to be there for your employees as well, ready to assist at all times in any way necessary to keep your business running well. Running an online-based business allows some more flexibility, and to learn more check out these Great Resources for Online Entrepeneurs.

3. It will be easy to attract investors and customers to my business.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of competition out there for peoples’ dollars, whether those dollars be from investors or customers. You have to sell to both of these groups, and often, there is no such thing as an easy sell. Be prepared for some slow (and low on revenue) times and be prepared for lots of “no”s. To make yourself more attractive to investors and customers, just be prepared: have a polished, well-thought out plan to present to potential investors and have an equally thoughtful and high-quality product available for potential customers and clients.

4. The books will be easy.

Taxes, payroll, and money management can be difficult. There are a lot of numbers to keep track of and (hopefully) a lot of money to be accounted for. Make it easier on yourself, if you have the resources, by getting an accountant and Human Resources personnel.

5. Business owners are rich and someday I will be too.

It’s a nice thought but the reality is that many business owners are just scraping by, hoping to keep their business and personal finances just barely in the black. Sacrifices will be necessary until the business becomes profitable, and unfortunately, many businesses never do. Starting your own business can be an incredibly rewarding and exciting venture, but it takes a lot of hard work and does not always lead to equal rewards.

About the Author:

Joseph Gustav is a guest blogger for Pounding the Pavement, an up-and-coming outlet for career-oriented expression. An ambitious freelancer, Mr. Gustav also contributes articles about online career training for Guide to Career Education.

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Tweezerman’s Lessons on Entrepreneurship – I Failed, to get Ahead

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Nothing happens unless first a dream. – Carl Sandburg

The important part of dreaming is what you do when you wake up. – Dal LaMagna

Raising Eyebrows-A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets it Right is a must-read book on entrepreneurship lessons from Dal LaMagna, popularly known as the founder of Tweezerman. The story takes you on the road to discovery – the lessons you must learn from a failed entrepreneurial venture and how one failure leads to a larger success. The success lies in:

  • perseverance,
  • learning from the failures and
  • acting on the present opportunities

Though these form the basic elements one must learn on the path to entrepreneurship, the book teaches you a lot more! The abstract of the book puts it in perfect words here: “This book offers an unforgettable business and life journey that brings new meaning to the saying “never give up.” If you’ve ever dreamed of following your own path and changing the world along the way, you’ll want to see how a lot of pluck – and a little luck – had one man Raising Eyebrows.”

If you are an entrepreneur or an aspiring one this book should be in your list of “must-read”, especially if you are at the point of giving up on a failed venture or dissatisfied with the success of the present one. Inspired by DL’s personal experience stories you’d definitely want to give it another try once you are done reading Raising Eyebrows. What makes this book a wonderful read is that it never preaches or tells you what to do and how to be successful, it is a story – a journey – of a born-entrepreneur who candidly tells you about his failures and how one failure was a stepping stone to yet another one till he finally found the niche which made him a multi-millionaire.

Dal LaMagna – a self-made millionaire who learned never to give up, who learnt that a failed venture is a brilliant teacher – what we must do is to learn from what went wrong and how can we set it right, or know when to move on to a profitable venture. And once you have a grasp on this essential life-skill on the path to entrepreneurship you get it – there’s no hurdles to your success and the millions you had dreamt of. It is no doubt that entrepreneurship is a long and difficult road, but if you ready to take a risk, fail, learn, persevere, and then turn your problems into opportunities you’ve not only learned to brave the storms but have acquired the skills and abilities to take larger risks, turn around your previous failure lessons to the stepping stones to success and accelerate towards your goals.

There are no failures, only lessons. – Dal LaMagna

I failed, to get ahead. – Dal LaMagna

There is a resilient die-hard drive in the stories that DL has for us in the book, a drive to learn from our failures and move on and then to get your project across the finish line.
An excerpt from one of the chapter on Focus:

“I hadn’t yet created a mission statement for my new business, but I did have a definite vision. I knew I wanted the best tweezers, and the thought of simply being excellent excited me. I could hardly fall asleep alt night and couldn’t wait for the morning to come so I could make it all happen.”

Read more about and from Dal LaMagna at his blog.

In an exclusive interview with Careerbright Dal LaMagna shares his insight on the book and the entrepreneurship lessons.

Welcome DL, thanks for the wonderful insight on lessons on the entrepreneurial road from your life experience, it is one of those few book that I have read in one sitting. Raising Eyebrows was a compulsive page-turner – just to know what happens next since you have failed yet again!


Your entrepreneurial pursuits date back to the 1960s when at a very young age you had real world experience on launching not one but multiple businesses, though rare back then it is a widespread phenomenon these days as many young GEN Y entrepreneurs are sprouting in every town around the world. If you were to offer an entrepreneurship class for the teens and the GEN Y today what are some essentials tips or guidelines you would share with them?

DL: Now it the best time in your life to start a business.  You don’t have a family and expenses to worry about.  You are probably living with your parents.  You can afford it.  What skills do you have?  Recently I spoke at career day at my alma mater Bishop Loughlin.  One of the student told me she was braiding hair and making money.  Another was tutoring other students.  (Read more at Dal LaMagna’s blog)

You are probably a lot more educated about computers and the Internet than your realized compared to us Baby Boomers.   Hire yourself out as a computer geek – $25 an hour is fair.    Help older folks set up their computers, get onto Facebook, browse the web, etc.  Put fliers on cars or in the doors of your neighbors.   Whatever business you start you must be organized, stay focused, and find something you can do with the resources you have or can easily get.

It has been a delight knowing you through your book, which in itself is a delightful reading! What are your next ventures and what excites you to yet another entrepreneurial venture?

DL: What I am doing now is working as a small business responsible capitalist activist.  I am a Trustee and major funder of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute  (BGI).  Also my book is designed to inspire and encourage people to start a business and show them how if I could do it so can they.  Recently I have become a co-managing partner of IceStone a company in which I have a large investment.  IceStone make counter tops out of recycled glass and cement.  It is in the Green Building space.

About Dal LaMagna

Dal LaMagna is the founder of Tweezerman, the socially responsible global beauty tools company, and a major funder and active trustee of the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, which awards MBAs in sustainable business. A partner and a blogger at HuffingtonPost.com, he is also author of the book, Raising Eyebrows: A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets It Right (John Wiley & Sons, www.raisingeyebrows.com).

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Just Throw your Idea around and See it Grow – The 7th Secret to Getting Things Done

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In the last month or so we have had 4 meetings.. intense ones.. ideas exchanged, cross arguments, agreement, Voila! The plan for implementation was well under way in the third week. Our team was excited and things were looking under control but (as you read this word “but” you know something not so good is coming up – you’re right – read on) it only takes a couple of things to go wrong for the tumble to begin! This is how it all began:

  • A couple of core members not available around the event month made us short on resources.
  • Another event which we were collaborating changed dates which now clashed with ours; since that was a larger one and we wanted to support it for a cause we had to plan on moving our event date, that didn’t chime well with some of the core planners and things were on the tumble.
  • The other dates we were looking for were preferable to other organizers also it seems, all the event halls (within our budget) were booked for the next 4 weeks.

The group was in turmoil and the apprehensiveness and anxiety was visible which marred all efforts to proceed confidently.

Let’s pause here and have a look at what it truly takes to see a project to success – the six essential steps:

  1. Planning
  2. Preparation
  3. Team work
  4. Mission and Vision
  5. A specific, practical time-bound goal / goals
  6. Action to – launch, drive and sustain

Sure enough you might have done it all in the past, but with this recent experience I have added one more item to the list – “Throw it around and see it grow”.

We were waiting for a perfect launch of the event, a venue to accommodate all, grand elaborate program, a perfect date which does not clash with other community events, and of course all material work which needed some capital. And none of this was falling in place, the proposed event dates were sort of “taken” by other major events which would take away our targeted crowd and so the venue we wanted was not available. Some of those that were available were way too expensive and since we were tied to a limited budget the other essential key “must haves” was not conducive anymore.

I was kind of guessing it and it happened.. on one evening the events team emailed the core group that they were calling off the event – it was just not doable with limited resources, funds and all the things they wanted to carry on with – the limitations made the event execution unachievable.

It was a letdown for sure since we had put in a few months of efforts in planning and were looking forward to it. My suggestion didn’t go down well with all but it stuck positively to one core member who had previously also showed tremendous leadership skills – the idea was to first shun the notion of being PERFECT. Being perfect is a goal alright but don’t make it the final goal during the event launch – the idea was to throw the idea to the community and see it grow. We didn’t have a plan B – we could make it along the way. It was a risk but with time at our hand I wanted us to go forward with it. And are we glad we did exactly that.

Some highlights on what happened next:

  • The community loved the idea – they forwarded various other venue locations which we had not thought of before and we were able to get a decent deal on a great location. – Money saved, friends made.
  • We were contacted by many who wanted to volunteer for this event and those in future. There were quite a few who were ready to direct related events for the program. – just great, we were now no more short on resources and found some great talent we can use for future as well.
  • We had never called for any sponsorship but there were a few local business groups who saw our Email and offered sponsorships – Who would not love that!

So all in all things began to fall in place by “itself” our intervention was merely to send it out to the world and see how it goes on from there.

If I had waited for the last minute to get everything in place and in perfect order perhaps this event would never had been possible, just letting it grow by word of mouth and volunteer help we were able to pull it through to a success we were so apprehensive of when things began to fall apart. Some of the lessons I take back from this experience:

  • It is so important to have a strong network of think-alikes and also to rinse the idea many times over before it stands out to most in the group.
  • It is not always necessary to have a plan B, at times plan Bs shape out of nowhere or with time as the idea rubs on others and the information exchange deepens.
  • The 7th item to the above list (Throw the idea around and see it grow) works out great when given time for it to grow and evolve, don’t put all your energy in planning, preparation, and dreaming of success, start things moving before they lose their kick. Move from “I Think, I Dream, I Wish” to “I Think, I Plan, I Launch”.
  • Don’t always be on the lookout for leaders, even the majority – the followers have some great ideas which they can share with you – it’s a different matter that they cannot do it themselves but smaller contributions build larger events.
  • There will be people who will drag you or your efforts down, it is most important to steer tactfully away from them and move on where you find support and encouragement.
  • At times, just go with the flow or follow my favorite saying “Go as far as you can see, when you get there – you will see further.”

What do you say? Please share your ideas in comments below.

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I’d rather be Working!

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This post celebrates the passion and love for the work you do.

How do you feel when getting to work is a pleasure you look forward to?
How do you feel when everyday you wake up with a bounce in your step and excitement in your heart to start a new day – working on what you like?
A true satisfying and exciting feeling for sure! Though most of the internet searches would be to get away from what you do at present, there are many many of us who just love doing what we do, maybe because we have found our calling and have figured out how to make the best of the both worlds doing what we want (job/business etc.) and getting what we desire (the money, satisfaction or extra time) or just because doing what we do brings us happiness in all possible way we had imagined work-life to be.

A friend who was in a layoff one and half years back felt extremely dejected when the layoff happened, he had been with the company for 11 years! He was not prepared for it and of course was a rude shock. But knowing him I knew that he would not take it lying down, I was not at all surprised when just after 3 months of his layoff he had launched his own company and had two friends working together on a couple of wireless applications. Today he is satisfied and happy doing what he does, and not only that, he seems excited and driven than ever before. He says, “I had been doing my best at my job, and I liked what I use to do at my previous company, but THIS is completely different! I LOVE doing what I do now and it is so exciting and fulfilling. It is something like suddenly finding wings to fly high and get wherever you want to.. my whole perspective of work has changed, it is not work anymore, it is fun, excitement and love.”

Elisabeth is a health coach at Take Shape for Life and exhibits deep passion and love for her new career. She says, “For 16 years I had an independent bookshop–loved it, but worked 6-7 days a week, 10 hours a day. Because I loved it, I kept it open much longer than I should have. I was proud of not being a bottom line person, but guess where that got me? I’m still not a bottom line person–I could double or triple my income in two months if I wanted to work that hard. I don’t want to work that hard. Now I have almost no overhead (have to actually create overhead–luckily I have clients and other coaches I work with all over the country and can travel, something I love doing), and I’ve built a great business that doesn’t require me to work non-stop, gives me flexible hours, and supports my family comfortably. And when I want a raise, I give myself one (that is, I put in that bit of extra time to make it happen). I guess there comes a point when we stop and look at what our building for the future is doing to the current quality of life we’re living. Once we do that, sometimes we are able to let go of some of the things that take time/effort without a pretty clear payback within a reasonable time frame and put that time and effort into better daily living or into other things that may bring the needed results. All I can say is that my work IS my pleasure, and I’m grateful to have found a great opportunity that allows me to do what’s important to me–while I help other people do the same.”

Well said Elisabeth and I’m sure you’d say “I’d rather be working!”

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

– Kahlil Gibran

What do you love about your work?

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How to Advertise and Promote your Business

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If you are looking for different options to advertise and to promote your business and want to narrow down on the best options for your particular needs, then this article will help you in finding out the different ways to advertise online and how feasible it is to your budget and business needs. Although the article focuses primarily on the internet listings, the traditional personal approach of postcards and mailers should not be written off completely, although we are seeing it as a dying trend – the web has indeed strengthened over the years and will be a highlight for all major advertising for small and mid size businesses this decade.

Local Listings

Getting listed n your local search pages is essential to your advertising strategies; most of the searches that happen on the internet are in search for business listings in close proximity to the customer (searcher). Here are a few ways you can use local listings to advertise your business:

Yellow Pages

According to Wikipedia: A particular Yellow Pages (YP) is a print directory which provides an alphabetical listing of businesses within a specific geographical area (e.g., Greater Chicago), which are segregated under headings for similar types of businesses (e.g., Plumbers). Traditionally these directories have been published by the local phone company, but due to the highly profitable nature of the business there are numerous independent directory publishers. Yellow Pages directories are usually published annually, and distributed for free to all residences and businesses within a given coverage area.

Are yellow pages economical for small business advertising? Although yellow pages advertising is appropriate for all businesses but it may prove expensive depending on the option you chose for the listing and the city where you advertise it. It all depends, you may pay less for a one line ad but the options are numerous, you can use bold, highlighted ad or half page or full page ad and thus increases the cost. It is a good idea to be on the yellow pages but one must poll the customers as to what percentage of your clientele comes through yellow pages. If is not as effective as you would want to be and not the right ROI then perhaps other options might be better for your business advertising.

Yellowpages.com has made the data input and instant access to the internet listings pretty easy and fast and some listings are free as well. So no harm in trying them once and finding out whether they are really worth investing more or time to move on to the ones listed below.

CitySlick.net

Another very interesting online resource for advertising. They feature free listing for one category; you can even add your URL address and add a coupon as well. Impressive, why not try them out?

Local.com

They offer a lucrative free package as well as other incentives for the paid options, check out the comparison here: http://corporate.local.com/advertisewithus/local_businesses_compare.asp

CitySearch.com

Some businesses are doing great with the citysearch listings and personally I feel the restaurants are doing great using citysearch listings, for the others of course, try it by all means, but yet again the price per month is on the higher side as compared to other local listing websites. You must analyze how effective it is to pay the monthly charges they demand and the amount of clicks you get through the ad.

Google Local Business Center

Yes, for sure something of this kind was expected from Google and they did not fall short on expectations. Google’s Local Business Center offers as many coupons as you want to create for your listing, provides a link to your Google analytics account and you can see the clicks and call to action from the advertising straight away. Good service for sure, customization and upgrade options available, worth a try, and since it is free it should be a must on your checklist of advertising.


Online Marketing

Online marketing is a big maze in itself and can be extremely time-consuming and may not prove to be as fruitful as you expect them to be if you do not know which method works out the best for your particular business.

Businesses which benefit tremendously from online marketing are:

  • Website design or website template designing
  • Online branding and web marketing services
  • Real estate agents (offers at new houses on sale etc.)
  • And pretty much any online business that you have be it in the beauty sector or garden supplies, the list goes on

Businesses which might not get as many customers from online marketing as compared to traditional forms of advertising (through personal mailers or yellow pages books) are:

  • House Cleaning services
  • Handyman plumber services
  • Automobile services
  • Haircutting Salons

Now what are the ways to use online marketing, here are some of the popular ones:

Email Marketing

Reaching out to your customers/clients through direct mail is one of the most effective ways of online marketing. You can either “buy” an email list or build on your own to ensure credibility and powerful personal reach to your current and prospective clients. This particular method is very effective for those businesses which sell products or services through the internet, those who sell services like paid webinars and e-books or online courses and also selling affiliate products. You may want to read a precious article titled The Good and Bad of Email Marketing to get a better understanding on Email marketing.

Google AdWords

Thinking of advertising or marketing your business on search engines? Then this method could be one of the best ones to use. The first part of this century is pretty much influenced by Google and its omnipresent technology. According to the Google AdWords website:

With Google AdWords, you can create and run ads for your business, quickly and simply. Run your ads on Google and our advertising network — no matter what your budget, you’ll only pay when people click your ads.

AdWords ads are displayed along with search results when someone searches Google using one of your keywords. Ads appear under ‘Sponsored links’ in the side column of a search page, and may also appear in additional positions above the free search results. That way, you’ll be advertising to an audience that’s already interested in your business.

Look up the website for more details and pricing information.

Social Media

Of course, you will say! The amazing “discovery” of social media in our lives has been as recent as around two years, we are in the beginning stages of this social-media-cloud-burst but already the waves are reaching far and wide. You can leverage the social media in different ways to promote your products, increase credibility or just stay visible in the fierce competition that you see around.

  • Here is a good article to get started with if you want to leverage social media marketing using Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz etc. to advertise your business: 5 Steps to Leverage Social Media for Businesses
  • SCORE along with Sony have a simple concise article titled Demystifying Social Media: Using Its Power to Connect with Customers which might introduce you to the various ways social media is helping out in advertising. Most certainly the maze is still there, you have to figure out what best works for you and how much time you want to invest in such advertising – since most of them are pretty time consuming if you can delegate such tasks to your partners or friends/family it could be an added asset to your overall marketing plan.

How are you advertising and what has been most effective for you? Do spare a few minutes to comment and share!

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The Good and the Bad of Email Marketing

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What marketing strategies do you use to promote your business? If you have not tried email marketing as an option, then this article is definitely for you – to help you understand what E-marketing is about and also to get a list of resources to get going on it.

The Good

One of the major pros of email marketing is that is cheap and effective (cheaper than direct mailing and effective in reducing the time to reach out to thousands in a matter of minutes). There are various email marketing tools and services which you can setup within a matter of hours and get going on your marketing plan – of course the list has to be your effort (or someone else’s if you are willing to pay for it).

The best part about email marketing is that you can reach out to your potential clients anywhere anytime. Your next customer could be the one at Singapore airport who had some time at hand before boarding the next flight, checked his email, saw your recent offer and happily clicked on the secure buy webpage to get your latest offer. Or it would be that person in Bergen, Norway who loved your latest template that you have recently promoted through your newsletter and is downloading it right now and it could be the middle of the night for you. Web marketing is effective in reaching out to thousands and millions in a matter of minutes and has a global coverage for a little cost involved.

Through the email newsletters you can promote your business by:

  • Sending out discounts and coupons for your products or services
  • Keeping your present customers informed about the latest releases of your products or information on upcoming ones
  • Sending out surveys that help improve your products or services or to gauge customer interest in new areas
  • And of course you can earn more income by promoting other’s businesses and products – known as affiliate marketing

The Bad

A major drawback of email marketing and especially if you are buying email lists to advertise your business is you could find yourself in the spammers list. And there goes a lot of credibility. Always give the users a chance to opt out of your email newsletters and listings, without a catch – always.

Another drawback of email marketing could be that you are not reaching out to the customers as effectively, either they are deleting your newsletters or not finding them informative enough or you have bombarded them with too much information too often and they are not interested anymore. However this “bad” factor is up to your marketing skills entirely. Always survey what the customers want and limit your emails to certain times of a week only.

Also when promoting affiliate products just don’t go overboard with promoting whatever comes your way or whoever pays you more, if there are people on your list they are there because they trust you, never betray their trust. The more honest you are with your customers the more money they will bring to you.

Strong ethics and credibility are essential to a sustainable business.

Where to get it?

If you are good at HTML programming and content management (and of course you have the time to create content, manage lists and post on regular intervals), then email marketing could be one of the cheapest advertising and marketing tool. If not then there are some pretty good options available at present which offer great value and support throughout the setup and after, you may want to check a few of these and decide which option works out the best for you. Here is a list of the bigwigs of email marketing:

Topica

Website: http://www.topica.com/
Free: Yes, 14 days
Cost: 0-5,000 Monthly cost $49.95 ((more pricing info on website also the pricing may be updated on the website, the one quoted here is not the final price) Trial

iContact

Website:  http://www.icontact.com/ 
Free Trial: Yes, 15 days
Cost: up to 250 – $9.95, up to 5000 – $47.00 (more pricing info on website also the pricing may be updated on the website, the one quoted here is not the final price)

Constant Contact

Website: http://www.constantcontact.com/ 
Free Trial: Yes, 60 days
Cost:  0-500 – $15.00, 2,501-5000 - $50.00 (more pricing info on website also the pricing may be updated on the website, the one quoted here is not the final price, also always check of there is a  contract or extra initial fees)

Vertical Response

Website:  http://www.verticalresponse.com/ 
Free Trial: Yes, 30 days
Cost: 0-500 – $10.00, 2001-4000 – $46.00 (more pricing info on website also the pricing may be updated on the website, the one quoted here is not the final price, also note there might be some contract or extra initial fees)

AWeber

Website: http://www.aweber.com/ 
Free Trial: First month for $1.00
Cost: 0-500 – $19.00, 2,501-5,000 – $49.00 (more pricing info on website also the pricing may be updated on the website, the one quoted here is not the final price, also note there might be some contract or extra initial fees)

MyEmma

Website: http://myemma.com/ 
Free Trial: hmm, did not see at this time, but there could be …
Cost:  http://myemma.com/pricing.php check the website for details

GroupMail

Website: http://www.group-mail.com/asp/common/default.asp 
Cost: They have custom plans for different user groups, see http://www.group-mail.com/asp/common/purchase.asp

The options do not end here, if you can manage the emails listing and content management yourself you can do all entirely for free or a bare minimum cost, check out these software and see if you can play around with them to come up with a personalized email newsletter for your client base:

PHPLIST

Website: http://www.phplist.com/

phplist is an open-source newsletter manager. phplist is free to download, install and use, and is easy to integrate with any website.

MailChimp

Website: http://www.mailchimp.com/

Free for up to 500 subscribers, you can send up to 3,000 emails per month.

Has email marketing been effective for you? Do share your thoughts and comments.

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