SBA Delivering Success: Marketing 101

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>> Marketing is one of the most important aspects of business success.
In this chapter of delivering success,
brought to you by the US Small Business Administration,
and the United States Postal Service, you will explore a variety
of marketing techniques used by four successful entrepreneurs.
According to Warren Brown, SBA's Washington DC 2006 small business person of the year
and owner of Cake Love Bakery, community participation provides an opportunity
to showcase your business and for you to get to know your customers.
>> I need my customers to know that we focus on the items that we've chosen to sell
because we believe that we can make those really well.
We believe in them for a lot of reasons, you know.
We are just kind of wedded to them and I want
to make sure my customers are aware of what those items are.
Even before they come to us, so that when they come their expectation can be met.
I hate having to say no to people.
I hate having to say no as a business owner to a customer,
because you know, that's a downer.
Turns everything off.
Gets everything off to a wrong start.
So if they can know what we do by a successfully marketed image
and information flow, then I think everyone can have a happy and positive experience.
But if its misguided or misdirected then I need to,
I need to tweak what I am saying, you know.
Because I have got some elements of control to make sure
that my customer base knows what's going on.
For me the most important thing with our customers is
to satisfy them and to serve them well.
And to help them understand what products that we sell.
I am asked and invited to speak at community events all the time.
Whether its schools or graduations, special events on behalf
of different charitable organizations.
And I do that, you know.
And I do that because it is important for me to tip
or dissipate my community on a personal level.
It helps me feel involved.
From a business standpoint it is good for our exposure.
But also to show people that Cake Love cares.
Cake Love is involved with people that are around us.
So I, I really enjoy being a participant in the community,
and for me the community is one, it means that there are no walls.
You know there is no division between where I operate my business
and some other part of town.
We all should think like that, I think.
>> Kija Kim of Harvard Design and Mapping in Cambridge, Massachusetts was recognized
by SBA as the 2006 Massachusetts small business person of the year.
Listen as Kija shares how to keep existing clients happy
and how to attract new business.
>> Our philosophy in marketing in HDM always been serving the existing clients the best.
Getting our new business from existing customers ten times easier getting a new
business from new customers.
But that's not the way you can grow the business.
So you always have to be innovative and you have to think ahead,
at what other opportunities are out there.
We have done conferences and the trade shows and that's very important.
At the trade show not only we have demo of the product we also have a brochures ready.
And when people come and look at the demo and pick
up the brochures we usually gather their business card or their sign
in sheets and those types of things.
Sometimes we do the drawings to give some kind of prize
and then that's how we get the real narrow down list
of customers, of possible customers.
But at the same time we get the attendee list.
That is one of the most productive things.
We send out all the attendants we send out direct mails
and then we get some of the customers.
And also those short listed customers who stop by at the booth,
we follow up with a phone call.
Make sure, you know, we serve all of them.
And that's how we constantly follow up those clients and we make arrangement to meet them
or they come to our company to see the full demonstrations of the product
and that's how our marketing, new marketing process begins.
My famous saying says, opportunity comes to prepared mind.
When opportunity comes, you can grab it.
But if you are not prepared the opportunities come and go
and you never see that opportunity.
>> Now we will focus on Barbara Michael
who has incorporated her lifestyle into her business plan.
With guidance from SBA's resource partner SCORE,
counselors to America's small business.
Hear how she gets buzz going by getting out there and making her presence felt.
>> Today we will be practicing a yoga routine designed for golfers.
I am a golfer and so having golf as part of my work is one
of the things I always had on a plan, all my life.
I found a connection in Saint Louis, through networking to set up a possible plan to work
with some of the local golf pros to through the Gateway PGA.
What I did was, once I had a connection for the market of golf in Saint Louis, I did,
I made a connection with the director at that time.
We sat down and talked about the possibilities
and I became their fitness education sponsor.
And what I did for them was provide yearly fitness education.
I write a monthly newsletter for them that goes on their website.
And then I work, I allow the golf pros to come to some of my fitness classes,
and some of them are open to them and their spouses at no charge
and then there are particular plans that they come in and do and work with me.
And those are paid for.
Optimal Lifestyles is a company that is somewhat virtual.
I travel to various facilities, and locations and that helps in a lot of areas.
It meets the client's needs because it saves them time and it is good for me because I get
out in the public and I am able to market and network while I am out there.
What I find myself doing is being at any party or any event pertaining
to golf that I can be available for.
I also work with the American Heart Association.
I am part of their golf classic committee.
So any way I can get my name out there.
I do think that as an entrepreneur you need to get back to the community and so I do
that through the American Heart Association in Saint Louis.
But I also work with the Country Club.
I attend luncheons for women.
I attend luncheons for any golf outing
and so that I can network in those types of situations.
And in addition to that I go to the golf association.
The Gateway PGA they have two meetings a year.
I always make sure I am present there.
If anyone sees me there, they have a chance to talk to me.
I go to the community events for the Heart Association.
People know me there and they ask you what you do and then it fits right
into let them know I am in fitness.
And then people that have been to my classes will pass my name along to others.
So there is numerous ways to get your name out there.
When I meet someone who is interested in my services,
what I like to do first is make a personal contact by phone.
Follow up with them.
Talk to them a little bit about what I do.
Send them some information in the mail, of course.
And then really try to say when would you like to set up an appointment to sit
down and talk about your fitness.
So the close is getting them to come to a meeting.
I do have a database of clients for Optimal Lifestyles.
What's important when you are starting your own business from the very beginning is
that any time you kind of come in contact with somebody, enter them in your database.
Name, address, phone number and email.
And that way you will start and be able to label them
in what niche they are for your business.
And I use those names to do some marketing to them by mail.
So I would use them for of course, to stay in touch with clients,
and then during the holiday time to send out holiday cards.
I also, there is a banquet once a year for the golf pros in the Saint Louis area,
and those have won awards I send out a congratulations note to them.
Then I have a golf fitness flyer that I would be sending out to people as needed
and when the classes are coming up.
This way I can stay in touch with people and it's a good way to get
to stay, to touch base with them.
So it takes a little time and process.
But being out there in the front, is the way to get your name out there.
>> SBA 2006 South Dakota small business person of the year,
Greg Breukelman has grown his business through branding and targeted marketing.
He is the co-owner of BKG.
An advertising and marketing firm in Sioux Falls, and speaks from personal experience
about the importance of consistent branding and messaging
as a key to small business success.
>> To really develop your brand and make your brand as valuable as you can
and make it something that people actually desire, need to manage everything
from how the phone is answered, to what is the office smell like.
And oh, by the way hopefully your TV commercial, or your advertising
or your direct mail that you send out looks good too and ties into every other experience
that someone has with your company.
And so for a company to grow, all those touch points need to be consistent.
They need to be memorable, they need to be positive for that consumer who has a lot
of choices today and really isn't looking for you, isn't looking for your message.
To make that the market place desire your brand and your product.
Direct mail is an extremely viable option.
The great thing about direct mail is that you can be very targeted
and very focused in your message.
And that's really what direct mail gives you.
Because with the systems that are in place today, you can identify you know, well,
first of all you identify who your targeting with the systems
in place today you can really identify ways to reach people directly through direct mail.
But what we try to work with clients
on is not just make sure we are hitting the right people but we are hitting them
in the right way with the right message and using you know, our creativity to do that.
Just sending out a post card or flyer that wasn't specifically designed
for direct mail can be a waste of money.
Whenever direct mail is used, its extremely important that that message, and the look
and the feel and the design and the personnel, the everything else is consistent
with the other messages that are being spoken out there.
Whether that's advertising, print ads or television commercials.
Whatever it may be, its again important and all those things are consistent.
Now we may say it in a slightly different way because someone's reading it from the mail
versus watching on television screen.
But again it needs to...
We don't want to confuse the public.
They need to understand that this comes from the same company.
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>> For more information from SBA on marketing, click on the provided links
and for business tips log on to the United States Postal Service at USPS.com/smallbiz