A couple of weeks ago I covered the topic of, how to make the right first impression. In this blog, we learned that we have only 7 seconds to make an impression.

Time is of the essence in business. After the first seven seconds of meeting someone for the first time, and making our first impression, we are often given the opportunity to tell people what we do. It usually comes in the form of a sixty second block, and it is our opportunity to grab the interest of our audience and hope that they like what they hear and want to know more.

We often have these opportunities at networking functions, social gatherings and client meetings. If you had the opportunity to pitch your business to a prospect, would you know what to say?

Creating an “elevator pitch”

Here is an easy six-step process to help you create an ‘elevator pitch’ for your business.

1. Consider your situation and your audience
   Typically, you will either be addressing a group of people, or speaking to someone one-on-one. It is important to tailor your ‘pitch’ to your audience. The way you speak to a group and the things you say will be very different to the way you interact with an individual person.
2. Who you are
   Always be sure to tell people who you are and where you are from.
3. Who you help
   An elevator pitch should always tell your audience who your target market is.
4. What you help them with
   This is the part where you tell people about the problem you solve.
5. How you help them
   The most important part of your elevator pitch is telling your audience the solution that you offer your target market and the results you have achieved. This is the part where you tell your audience about your ‘unique’ point of difference and perhaps a brief success story of how you have helped a client.
6. End with a question to keep the conversation flowing, or remind the group who you are.
   If you are talking to someone one-on-one, try to end with a question to keep the conversation flowing. If you are talking to a group of people, finish with a reminder of who you are.

Example Pitch

Here is an example pitch, for a fictional business:

My name is Nicky and I am from ABC Dry Cleaning. We specialise in cleaning wedding dresses and formal wear. Wedding dresses are a very special item that brides often like to hold on to. However, if a dress is not cleaned and stored correctly it will yellow and be eaten by moths. We offer brides a unique storage solution that guarantees that the dress will stay in perfect condition for 25 years. If you know any brides who want to safely store and preserve their wedding dress, please let them know that ABC Dry Cleaning can help.

Delivering an “elevator pitch”

Here are three tips to remember when delivering your elevator pitch:

1. Be Confident – A confident speaker is easy and enjoyable to listen to.

2. Be Passionate – Show people that you love what you do and that you are dedicated to your job.

3. Be Energetic – Energy is inspiring and contagious. Speaking with energy will show people that you are enthusiastic, and your audience will generally respond with energy and enthusiasm.

Good Luck!

When you buy a ticket in the Lotto, you check to see if you won. When you place a bet on a horse at the races, you check to see if it won. But when you spend money on marketing activities, do you check to see if it worked?

There is a quote by Peter Drucker that says:

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. With quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

One of the most common mistakes I see small businesses make is the choice to not measure their marketing. The choice is usually disguised by an excuse like, ‘I just haven’t had time’, but regardless, it is still a choice. And it is a bad one.

Measuring your marketing helps you:

• Evaluate the performance of your marketing activities,
• Identify the activities that generate you the highest return on investment,
• Make informed decisions about where you spend your marketing budget, and most importantly,
• It helps you stop wasting money on marketing activities that do not generate you any return.

Another excuse I come across regularly is, ‘It can’t be measured’. This is not true. Yes, some marketing activities are more difficult to measure than others, but it can be done.

So, today, I share with you some methods you can use to measure some of the most common forms of marketing:

• Print Ads and Traditional Marketing Channels: Use different 1300 numbers on each ad or medium, or make the ad a voucher that the customer needs to cut out and show you.
• Online Ads: Number of impressions, Click Through Rates.
• Websites: Google Analytics
• SEO: Search Engine Ranking
• Email Marketing: Number of opens, clicks, forwards, tweets, Facebook shares, Click Through Rates.
• Youtube: Number of views.
• Facebook: Number of interactions and impressions.
• Twitter: Number of followers, retweets, and mentions.
• Direct Mail: Special offers that they need to quote when they call you up, or unique phone numbers.
• Networking: Number of referrals or business alliances formed.

If it has been a while since you last measured the performance of your marketing activities, set some time aside and do it this week. If you are unsure how to measure some of your marketing activities, send me an email and I’ll help you out. – nicky@debutmarketing.com.au

Most people set life goals.

Most business people set business goals.

But as a business person, do you set networking goals?

Given that it is the beginning of the year, I felt it was appropriate to broach the topic of Goal Setting, specifically for networking.

Henry Ford once said:

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes of your goal.”

By setting goals, it gives us direction, focus, purpose. Goals prevent us from losing track of what we are doing and why we are doing it. They help us get out of bed in the morning when it is pouring rain and all you want to do is lie in bed listening to the soothing sound of raindrops hitting your rooftop. They help us persevere at the times when we least want to do so.

If you haven’t done so in the past, now is a great time take a brief moment and think about what you want to achieve from networking.

Different people network for different reasons. Some like to collaborate with other like-minded business people, others find networking motivational, some people simply enjoy meeting new people, and let’s not forget one of the most common reasons for networking – building relationships and giving and receiving referrals.

Personally, my networking goal this year is to establish myself as the most trusted and credible marketing consultant known by the groups of people I network with. It is my aim to show these people how passionate and committed I am to helping businesses develop effective marketing activities that will make them more sales.

I have written this goal down and put it on my mirror at home, so that every time I am getting ready to go to a networking function, I read this goal and get motivated and pumped to go to that event. By writing this goal down, it is going to remind me that in order to show these people that I am committed, I must attend these events regularly; in order to show that I am passionate, I must attend these events with energy and enthusiasm; and to show that I am credible and build trust among my peers, I must tell them what I have been up to in my business and how I have been helping others.

So, I encourage you to think hard about your networking goals, and what actions you need to take to achieve them. Write them down, and stick them one your wall or mirror and let it serve as a reminder and motivator as to why you give up your time to go to these networking events. This goal, this motivator, may just help you get exactly what you are looking for.

By the way, if you haven’t set yourself business and marketing goals for 2012 yet, why not do these at the same time?

Have you ever been out with a group of people and had trouble trying to decide on a restaurant that everyone agrees on? We’ve all been there, right?

Over Christmas there were many get together’s and meals eaten out at restaurants with family and friends.

One of the things I noticed was how everyone was driven by different motivations. Some were driven by price, others location, some needed somewhere child-friendly, and some wanted a particular type of cuisine.

Everyone’s motivations were different. Because every person on this planet is different. They have different likes, dislikes and are exposed to different situations.

Today, I pose the question, “Do you understand what your market is driven by?”

Identifying your target market is a very important aspect of running a business and making sales, which most people already know and do. But, understanding your market takes this idea one step further.

Understanding your market begins by recognising that your market takes into account Internal Influences that you control, and External Influences that your market controls.

Internal Influences are the things that give an impression about your business. These are things you do to attract a particular type of client. Your branding, positioning, marketing materials, and business partners are all things that give an impression about your business. These are all things you create and control.

If you spend a lot of time and money creating a professional image through your branding and marketing materials, you are trying to attract people who want to do business with a professional.

If you align yourself with business partners who are leaders in their field and have been around for a long time, you are trying to attract people who want to do business with the market leaders.

If you position yourself as a high-end business or brand whom only the elite can afford, you attract the elite.

External Influences are the values your clients hold, the experiences they’ve had, their driving forces. These are the things that influence them to do business with one person over another.

Perhaps they like to feel like they are the most important person on the earth.

Perhaps they value their time so much so that they are offended when anyone runs late.

Perhaps they value image more than money.

These things are outside of your control. You cannot control their values or experiences or driving forces. But you can try to identify them, which will help you understand how your actions are being perceived by your target market and whether those actions need to be altered to help improve your sales.

To identify the external influences and perceptions of your market, the only way is to ask them. Here are four types of people you can ask.

1. Existing Clients – Ask them what made them choose you, over your competitors.
2. Leads – When you get a new enquiry, you can pre-qualify them and try to understand them, by asking them what you need to do to win their business.
3. Failed Leads, the quotes you did not win. When you follow these leads up and get the bad news, do not be afraid to ask them why they chose to go with another option.
4. Alliances, your business partners and referrers – Go out of your way to understand their motivations.  Ask them why they choose to refer you, and not someone else.

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, perhaps this week is a good time to find out.

Have you ever gone to the shops on a mission to find a gift for a loved one and ended up walking around in circles getting frustrated and returning home empty-handed?

This used to happen to me a lot at Christmas time (which is unusual, since I always go grocery shopping with a list). Being the end of the year, I would have very little spare time to even think about Christmas let alone plan for it, so I would go shopping with the hope that when I got there the perfect items would just jump at me. Needless to say, this hope was rarely ever fulfilled, and more often than not I would find myself frustrated and returning home empty-handed.

Fortunately, I have learned from my mistakes. I now refuse to enter the chaos of the shops at Christmas unless I have a list of all the items I am after; and now my Christmas shopping adventures are quick, easy and painless.

The point? If you don’t know what you want, you are going to have a hard time finding it. This applies to everything – life, sports, business and marketing.

Vince Lombardi, an American football coach, once said,

“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”

Do you know what you want in business? Do you know what you want from your marketing?

The first step to getting what you want, is knowing what you want. Unless you know what you want, you will find yourself on a path to nowhere, working your butt off and constantly wondering why you feel like you are not getting anywhere.

Figuring out what you want is the hard part. Once you know what you want, you can start to plan out the actions you need to take to get there.

So if you haven’t done so yet, spend some time this week writing down your goals for 2012 – what you want to achieve in your business and marketing this year.