3 Do-It-Yourself Marketing Tools to Brand You–the hottest new thing
A friend of mine is thinking of starting her own insurance business, but she can’t leave her full time job until she’s tested the waters and determines if she has what it takes or if there is enough demand for her offering. We talked about the kind of marketing practices she could dabble in that wouldn’t risk her allegiance to her current employer but still create a level of awareness for her future practice. My advice to anyone looking to start their own business, while continuing to work full time, is to start by branding yourself as an expert in your field. Since resources are probably tight at this stage, having a complete website up and running may be a challenge.
Here are 3 easy, do-it-yourself marketing tools to help you put your toes in the water of entrepreneurship and brand you–the hottest new thing.
1) Start a Blog- Create an account on WordPress or TypePad and make yourself an expert in your field. You know all of those common questions new clients ask that you repeat over and over, start writing about them now. Offer the inside list of tips to evaluating services or guides on how to get started. In my friend’s case, I suggested she write tips on when to buy life insurance and how much is enough coverage? Then, to make the most of this blog page, add an opt-in form on this page that integrates with an email marketing list. Ask friends and family to check out your blog, post a link on their Facebook page and help you spread the word about your new inside tips. All of this new traffic to your blog page will help you build a list of potential clients for the future. A great opt-in email marketing list that includes social influencers will help you find your own clients when you are ready to quit that full-time job.
2) Start an Email Newsletter- create an email marketing account with a company like VerticalResponse (disclosure- I happen to work there). They offer tons of templates to help you create a professional look and feel, tons of online tutorials and demos to teach you how to create great looking email. Then use your new email tools to reach your list of subscribers and send them a weekly or monthly communication that drives return traffic back to your blog page. For example, after you’ve added a new post on 5 Common Mistakes People Make when Buying Insurance, send an email newsletter out and include the first 2 mistakes in your email and provide a link to view the complete list on your blog. But also include a few other helpful links, articles you like, or more information about how to get in touch with you about their insurance needs. Don’t forget to ask subscribers to leave comments on the blog post, it will give you more ideas for future topics, a sense of how your tips are being received, and future email campaign ideas.
3) Leverage your Social Networking sites- From LinkedIn, to Facebook, and don’t forget Twitter. Reconnect with old classmates, neighbors, and colleagues. Let them know when you complete a new blog post, ask for feedback and keep them in the loop when you decide to make the switch to full time start up. Again, you are warming up some relationships and when you are ready to go out on your own they will be right there to support your new business venture and consider you for their own needs!
The best thing about all of these options are they are low cost, trackable, and require minimal web skills to get started. They may take a little practice in the beginning, but with all of the tips here on StartupNation, you’ll be a pro in no time.
May 5th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Regarding LinkedIn, in addition to networking opportunities you can also post a business profile. This in combination with customer recommendations can a very powerful marketing tool.
Aside from marketing, you can also use it as a free customer relationship management (CRM) tool, which any new business will probably find useful. Here is an instructional simulation on using it as a CRM - http://minutebio.com/LI/PowerTips.htm
Jeff
May 6th, 2009 at 3:59 am
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May 6th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
These were some really helpful suggestions. I especially like the idea of using an email newsletter as a “start-up” marketing strategy. It’s a great way to get people interested and keep them informed. I’ve also found that another great marketing strategy for when you’re just starting off is printing professional business cards and flyers. It’s a great way to get the word out about what you are doing. I’ve been pretty impressed to find that there are even companies (http://www.digitallizard.com/online-printing.php) that will do same day service for printing.
May 7th, 2009 at 11:06 am
All of this is important and takes time (especially the social sites), so it’s important to prioritize your tasks according to the greatest payoff and ROI. As a small start up, my time is scarce and in time it all gets accomplished. Just be careful where you spend your time, and try to do things that have the highest return. Example: Twitter. You can spend hours in Twitter and get absolutely NO value-added business return. It’s all fun and innovative, but where can you measure the return?
May 8th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Once you are in business, the entire business is build around three key activities.
1) A steady flow of prospective clients (lead generation process)
2) An way to turn a prospect into a buyer (sales process)
3) An ability to deliver what you promised (e.g., a product or service)
That is the essence of pretty much any business.
The tricky part is if you’re not YET in business. What do you do then?
Ideally, you try to get as much of those three steps underway as possible BEFORE you jump ship.
According to the SBA, 80% of the businesses that last beyond 10 years were business whose owner used to work in that field as an employee previously. So 80% of the plumbing business that last 10 years, were started by an owner who used to be a plumber for another company.
So in this respect, step #3 of delivering what you promise is usually the least risky–especially if you stay within your current area of expertise.
The far more vital steps are steps #1 and #2 - a steady flow of prospects, and an ability to convert prospects into buyers.
When you’re sort of moonlighting, the safest place to start is to work on a slightly modified version of Step #1 - generating lead flow. Only in this case, you generate “audience” flow instead of lead flow — the difference is in the case of audience flow you don’t try to sell them anything just yet.
If you can build up a sizeable audience, before you jump ship, and assuming you’re competent at what you do, then you massively reduce the risk of starting a new business.
While blogs and email newsletter are certainly inexpensive and easy ways to build an audience, there are other methods too.
The gold standard for setting yourself up as an expert is to write and publish a book. This certainly would not be in conflict with any existing job, yet builds your personal brand and profile in your marketplace. A book = instant credibility.
I’ve written and published four, and it really opens doors. I’ve been a guest lecturer at the Harvard Business School and been featured on the Fox Business Network, MSNBC, MarketWatch, The Wall Street Journal, Inc Magazine, & SmartMoney Magazine.
Without a book, none of that would have ever happened. Frankly, if you compare the day before I published my first book vs. the day after, my own skills did not change one bit. But after my book was published, my perceived credibility shot through the roof.
Another method to “build an audience” is to be an active public speaker. Give speeches to local business groups or at national events. You can use the speeches as an opportunity to get people to subscribe to your blog or join your email newsletter. You can also use the organization that hosts your speak in your bio.
This makes it easier to build an audience/get lead flow (i.e., step #1), and actually makes the sales process (i.e., step #2) a whole lot easier. When you’re a credible expert, prospects are much more likely to believe what you say. Again, a lot of this can be done while you’re on someone else’s payroll.
Finally, I agree with Anna Miller’s comment about being careful with social media. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can very easily lose dozens of hours a week and get no benefit in return.
You have to grasp what each social media tool is useful for (e.g., lead flow or it’s cousin audience flow), converting prospects to buyers, or product/service delivery.
If you can’t figure out how each tool fits into one of those three areas it means one of two things: a) it’s not useful in your business, or b) you don’t know the tool well enough for it to be useful in your business. In either case, it probably means you shouldn’t be using it.
May 26th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
[...] StartupNation Blog Blog Archive 3 Do It Yourself Marketing Posted by root 22 hours ago (http://www.startupnation.com) May 5 2009 here are 3 easy do it yourself marketing tools to help you put your but after my book was published my perceived credibility shot through the roof finally i agree with anna miller comment about being careful with social media startupnation blog Discuss | Bury | News | startupnation blog blog archive 3 do it yourself marketing [...]
June 12th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Great post on the beginning steps to take an offline business online! Thanks for sharing!