Shark Tank Jump Start Your Business: How to Launch and Grow a Business from Concept to Cash (17 page)

Direct mail:
Although occasionally thought of as old-fashioned, direct mail can still be a productive tool for certain
types of businesses. Direct mail is nothing more than unsolicited advertising sent through the mail. Usually involving items such as flyers, brochures, and postcards, a direct mail campaign often centers around one particular call to action (e.g., “Call now for 3 months of free service”). While in theory this marketing strategy can provide you with one-on-one access to your target audience, you may find it difficult to stay out of the junk mail pile. Price out a direct mail campaign and then decide if it’s worth the effort. You may have more luck with email marketing, which you’ll read about below.

Digital marketing:
Thanks to its low price point and high engagement, many small business owners consider digital marketing to be the most effective and attractive option. Once dominated by banner ads and affiliate programs, today digital marketing features an ever-increasing number of options for the small business owner. You may wish to combine a few of these campaigns in your larger marketing plan:

Social media:
By now the term “social media” has become a standard part of the everyday vernacular, but it wasn’t so long ago that this popular communication tool was still relatively unknown. From Facebook and Twitter to Pinterest and LinkedIn, social media has become one of the most important ways to market a product or service.
With more than 340 million tweets sent each day, and Facebook accounting for one out of every seven minutes spent online, finding a captive audience for your business isn’t hard.
Social media’s greatest strength, however, is also its greatest weakness. With so many companies vying for attention, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. When developing your social media strategy, be sure to find compelling ways to differentiate yourself from the crowd. If you want people to care about your business, you must give them a reason to.

Email marketing:
Think of email marketing as the digital equivalent of direct mail: the use of email to promote and market a product. While this can be a great way to get attention, it relies heavily on your ability to build a database of targeted consumers. If your company sells sirloin steaks, for instance, you won’t have much use for a list of one thousand vegetarians. While you can purchase mailing lists from various companies, it’s better to develop your own list via your website and social channels. It’s always more productive to engage in a conversation with people who actually want to hear from you.

Search engine marketing:
Both powerful and effective in its own way, search engine marketing (SEM) is the process of gaining traffic on or visibility from search engine results pages. This type of marketing is typically split into two distinct areas: search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC). Don’t let all the technical jargon confuse you; if executed well, SEM can provide huge results.

According to industry experts, search engine optimization (SEO) is a “methodology of strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine.
” In other words, it’s a way to increase your visibility on search sites like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! by making specific changes to your website. Outside the potential cost of hiring an SEO expert, this is a free way to acquire more traffic.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is also a form of online marketing designed to direct traffic to a website, but using this model, businesses purchase ads on search engines and pay a certain amount each time the ad is clicked. To see PPC in action, go to Google and type in any search term related to your business. If you’re selling purple hats, for instance, search for
“purple hats.” Do you see all the ads on the sidebar to the right? That’s paid search engine marketing in action. The price for this type of marketing ranges, depending on the popularity of the keywords you wish to be associated with.

Content marketing:
A general term for all marketing formats that involve developing, creating, and distributing content with the goal of engaging consumers, content marketing is one of the most effective ways to build long-term consumer engagement.
Defined by the Content Marketing Institute as “the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling,”
content marketing is popular among organizations of all shapes and sizes with a variety of budgets and objectives. While most people think of this type of marketing as involving strictly written content, it also includes video, audio, and other types of media that engage consumers. For instance, a company blog, YouTube channel, or podcast are all examples of content marketing.

Whether you choose to market your business online or offline, you’ll want to be sure to create milestones along the way to test whether or not your efforts are in fact successful. In a digital marketing campaign those milestones may be directly related to response or click-through rates. For instance, if you advertise on a search engine like Google and your ad gets five clicks for every one hundred times it’s displayed, that would mean you have a 5 percent click-through rate. But is 5 percent a good number? Maybe. There are numerous factors that play a role in evaluating a click-through rate, many of which are specific to your type of business.

More important than click-through, however, is actual engagement. For example, how much are your fans/followers interacting with your social media platforms? Who’s reading your emails? How many people are signing up for your mailing
list or opting in to offers? It’s critical that you understand your industry’s standards for success and closely measure both your digital and traditional marketing campaigns to make sure you meet them.

While it’s likely you’ll end up focusing your efforts on a few different channels, many marketing experts believe that taking a holistic approach to the process is the best way to achieve success. That being said, most small businesses don’t have the budget or time to aggressively market their product or service in such a comprehensive way, at least not at first. So it’s important to focus on creating a plan that works for your business.

The goal of any marketing plan is to gain the attention of new customers and spotlight the business in a compelling, thoughtful, and relevant way. While advertising and promotions can certainly accomplish that, relying solely on these methods can be both cost-prohibitive and inefficient. That’s why every small business should also develop some sort of public relations (PR) strategy.

According to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), public relations is “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.
” Not only can PR often reach more people than traditional advertising, it can lead to a more credible type of awareness, making it a potent weapon for any company.