The #1 rule of online marketing is content is king. Your website, social media, SEO or other internet marketing campaign can’t succeed without “fresh, unique, frequently updated” content. But what exactly does that mean?

What Is Content Marketing?

In the last few years, various names have sprung up for producing great content that is more “editorial” than “sales pitch” in nature. Previously, it was called “informational marketing” or “education-based marketing.” Now, the name has shifted to more catchier terms like “content marketing” or “inbound marketing.”

The fundamental principle behind content marketing is that people don’t want to read your sales pitch. They don’t want to sit through your commercials, read your ads, or be interrupted by your “Buy from me!” messages.

Value is subjective, but if your marketing messages are self-promotional and scream at prospects to pay attention to you, your prospects will judge them as having no value and filter them out. People only pay attention to what is important to them.

With content marketing, you recognize that people only care about “What’s in it for me?” so the best way to get people interested in you is to offer them editorial information that addresses their current aspirations and problems.

What Is Great Content?

Great content adds value to your prospects’ life in some way. That might be telling them how to do something, appealing to their emotions, passions or beliefs, entertaining them, or offering another point of view.

The rule of thumb is that if your readers consider it worthwhile, then it’s good content. Depending on your audience, good content is:

• humor and entertainment
• practical, useful free information on a topic
• opinions, commentaries, and reviews
• products for sale
• forums, chat rooms, and communities
• breaking news
• free tools and software

Good content:

1. demonstrates your expertise
2. provides a free sample of your services
3. provides a snapshot of your personality

Of course, you’re not limited to just one of those categories, nor must you try to incorporate them all into your site.

Why Is Content Marketing Important?

The NY Times estimates that people are exposed to 5000 marketing messages each day. To cope, we filter out what isn’t relevant. Content marketing strives for relevancy, so it isn’t filtered out. Here are 6 reasons why content marketing is essential to any marketing campaign.

1. Engage readers – Content marketing adds value to people’s lives by offering interesting, useful information that helps them solve a problem, achieve a goal or make a purchasing decision.
   
   
2. Tangible body of work – When selling services, it can be difficult to explain all the value you provide. By producing articles, books, audio, video, seminars and other educational materials, you share what you know in an accessible way.
   
   
3. Position yourself as a thought leader – While people want to do business with those they know, like and trust, they also want competency. When you position yourself as a thought leader, you demonstrate your expertise and have others vouch for your credibility.
   
   
4. Drive sales without hard selling – People like to buy but they hate to be sold. Content marketing offers them information to help them make purchasing decisions without sleazy, high-pressure sales techniques designed to manipulate their emotions.
   
   
5. Build an authority website – Search engines want to rank sites they perceive as “the best” for any given topic, so they look for websites considered “authorities” in their fields. An authority site has lots of useful content and plenty of other websites linking to it.
   
   
6. Evergreen content – A good content strategy involves creating content that doesn’t have an “expire by” date. You create the content once and can use it for years to come.

What Does Content Marketing Include?

With content marketing, it helps to think of yourself as a publisher. Just as magazines have editorial calendars planning what topics they will address in upcoming issues, you should have an editorial calendar for your website, blog, newsletter, podcast, or speaking series.

Content marketing can include anything you publish. That might take the form of:

• Writing: blogs, articles, white papers, ebooks, guest posts
• Audio: podcasts, teleseminars
• Video: Youtube, recorded presentations, webinars
• Graphics: photos, infographics

If you are just getting started with content marketing, writing is probably the easiest. Consider what types of content your target market wants and start writing articles about those topics.

Where Do You Get All Of This Content?

The biggest obstacle to content marketing is producing content on a regular basis. Where do you get good content? Here are a few ways to generate content from your website:

• Write it yourself. If your business is based on selling a service, your best bet is to write the content yourself. This accomplishes three things:
  1. The biggest obstacle you must overcome is demonstrating that you are a trustworthy, likable person who can do what you say you can. When you write articles, tip sheets, and guides, you offer people a way to put some of your advice into practice now.
  2. When people do what you tell them and realize that it works, they start to trust you.
  3. With repeated exposure, you become a trusted adviser, so that whenever they have a similar problem, they come to you – and there’s a good chance that next time, they’ll pay for help.
• Hire a writer. If you can’t write it yourself, hiring a writer to write exclusive content for your site is the next best thing. Again, I stress that having unique content is important. If people can go some other place to find the exact same articles, there’s a good chance they will.
  
  
• Accept guest posts. If you already have a large readership, you can ask people to submit articles to your site in exchange for a blurb about them and a link back to their website. You probably won’t want to publish everything that is sent to you, so in this case, you’ll need to create article submission guidelines for what you will and won’t publish. Make sure you only publish unique, high-quality articles.
  
  
• Interview an expert. Interviews are an easy way to generate content without doing much research. You can either conduct one in person or create an email with a couple of questions and send it out to known experts in your industry. Then, publish the transcript to your website.
  
  
• Pull content from your readers. If you have a discussion forum or comments section on your blog, you can take the best pieces of advice and put them together into a quick article. You can also ask readers to submit questions that you or some of your readers answer on your website.

How Does Content Marketing Differ From Advertising or PR?

Content marketing differs from advertising because you own your publication, so you don’t have to buy media exposure. Your content is editorial in nature, not a blatant sales pitch, so it attracts readers looking for information. Advertising usually interrupts prospects and asks them to pay attention to you. Content marketing pulls in readers looking for specific information.

That said, content marketing isn’t straight-up, unbiased journalism either. With a PR campaign, a journalist writes about you, so you have no control over the finished piece. With content marketing, you control every aspect of the editorial process from topic selection, to production, to publication.

Does Content Marketing Replace Traditional Advertising or PR?

No, it is a tool that should be used together with traditional advertising and publicity campaigns to build awareness of your services. Your content is only useful if people know about it, so you still need a promotional strategy.

It is far easier to promote educational content people consider “valuable” than material that is obviously a sales pitch for your company. If you create great content, people will want to link to it, share it, and tell their friends. So you use advertising and PR to generate awareness of your content.

You might ask why you need to add this “middle layer” to your marketing.

Getting people’s attention is extremely difficult – and convincing them to buy from you when they don’t know, like or trust you is virtually impossible.

Content marketing helps you to build your case – that you are different from other companies, that you know what you are doing, and that you have specific expertise that can benefit them. It does this by appealing to your prospects’ self-interest and giving them valuable information they want to read.

As people consume more of your content and get to know you, they will be more open to learning about your services.

Content marketing is not an instant solution to all your marketing woes. Rather, it is designed gradually walk consumers through their buying process so they feel comfortable buying from you.

The post 7 Frequently Asked Questions About Content Marketing appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

Building streams of leads from multiple marketing channels can help you explode your small business profits. Too many business owners stick with one or two lead generation techniques, and only experience limited success.

Lead generation is a numbers game, so the more leads you can bring into your sales funnel, the more likely you will be to close more business. Here are 23 offline lead generation ideas you might consider using.

Direct Mail

1. Send mailings – Sending mailings to targeted lists can be extremely cost-effective. Use the principles of direct-response advertising by including an attention-grabbing headline, attractive offer, and call to action. Always use your recipient’s name and personalize the mailing as much as you can. If you purchase a mailing list, test small batches rigorously before spending a lot to mail to everyone. The wrong message to a poor, unresponsive list can translate into a lot of wasted money.
   
   
2. Send personal letters – Personal letters work well for introducing yourself to business executives, as a cover letter for your marketing materials or special report, or as a “thank you” for products and services recently purchased. Personalized letters work better than standard mass mailings. If you introduce yourself, include a paragraph about your recipient’s business and how you’ve helped companies like theirs. If you send a thank you note, mention what they bought and offer tips for how they can use their product or service better. Always hand sign the note.
   
   
3. Give out brochures – If you sell high-end services, your prospects may expect a brochure. The best brochures focus on prospects’ problems and are designed to sell, not brag about your company. Use a persuasive headline, copy that walks prospects through key questions they have in their buying process, and a call to action that prompts them to take the next step. Your design (the high-quality paper, nice graphics and full-color printing) should be the finishing touch, not your selling point. Your words, not your design, will make or break the piece.
   
   
4. Add an invoice stuffer – If you send paper invoices to clients, add a second sheet that announces an upcoming sale, upsells a product or service, or offers a coupon or special discount. These act like free advertising because you will still be paying for postage to mail the invoice.
   
   
5. Send a postcard – Postcards offer a number of advantages over mailings and letters. They are cheaper to produce, cost less to mail and don’t need to be opened. They can be great follow ups to send after sales letters or as part of a sequence to show off your portfolio.

Content Marketing

6. Write a special report – People are skeptical of advertising copy, but are intrigued by editorial content promising valuable information. Create a free report that provides straight-forward information on how to solve a problem or achieve a goal. Then, give it away for free. Keep in mind, although it’s free, people still expect value, so don’t use this as a blatant sales tool. You can include details about yourself, your company and your services at the back, but make sure the main information delivers what the title promises.
   
   
7. Deliver a workshop – Offer a training seminar to show people how to do something. Your workshop can range from 60-minutes to full day training, depending on your purpose. Consider charging an attendee fee or sell a home study course to recoup some of your costs. Outline your talk and practice for the greatest impact.
   
   
8. Record an audio sales pitch – Radio and TV commercials can be expensive, but you can easily make your own 2-5 minute audio recordings. Advertise a toll-free number and record a voice mail with your sales pitch. People can then call and listen at their leisure. Use a compelling script that prompts callers to take further action for the best results.
   
   
9. Start a newsletter – Your in-house mailing list is your most valuable asset. Keep in touch with prospects, clients, referral partners and journalists by publishing a monthly hard copy newsletter (or more regularly if sending via email). Include incentives, insider information, and interesting tidbits your target audience may find fun or helpful. Consider offering ways to get clients interacting, such as with photo or tip submissions, stories, or contests.
   
   
10. Publish a book – A great way to position yourself as an expert is to write a book. It’s not as challenging as it sounds if you break down the process into smaller steps. A book may have 10-20 chapters. And each chapter is comprised of 5-10 articles, that make up maybe 2-3 pages each. If you can write a few 2 page articles, you can put together a book. Having your own book can position you as an expert, land you publicity, and perhaps even help you make some residual income. Services like Amazon’s Createspace make it easy for anyone to self-publish and sell online cheaply.

Networking

11. Use both sides of business cards – Include your normal business information on one side and on the back, advertise your free special report, your social media accounts or make a special offer. Then, give our your cards to anyone who will take one. These should be your primary networking tool, so make sure they stand out.
    
    
12. Give to get – Recognize that every contact you make is a potential link to new business. While most people don’t want to sit through a sales pitch on your latest business opportunity, they do care about what you can do for them, so always be giving. Be lively, engaging, and consider what you can do to help them solve their problem. Don’t ask for anything in return. Don’t talk about yourself, what you do, or your products and services much (unless they ask). Rather, seek to genuinely help. The worst you can do here is brighten someone’s day and spread some good will.
    
    
13. Meet your community centers of influence – In any community, there are early adopters and community leaders who seemingly know everyone and seek to connect others. If you over-deliver to these people and do your best to take care of them, they will take care of you, often by becoming a great referral source.
    
    
14. Gift baskets create strong impressions – Whenever you want to express your appreciation but a small thank you gift card doesn’t seem personal enough, send a gift basket. Fill them with smaller items, and you can create the perception of quantity, without spending a fortune. Or search online for the perfect themed gift basket to purchase.
    
    
15. Encourage word-of-mouth marketing – Influence who is talking about you by giving people a great story to tell. People love to talk about how they got a great deal, had a positive experience, or made a smart decision, so do what you can to create experiences that get people talking.
    
    
16. Build strategic alliances – What other businesses in your area serve a similar target market to yours but don’t directly compete with you? Consider partnering with one or several complementary businesses. Your alliance can be as simple as having the other company write an endorsement letter for you, cross promoting each other’s services, or working more closely together to offer more complete services (e.g. a designer working with a printer).
    
    
17. Look for newsletter contribution opportunities – Many local businesses who publish a newsletter may accept contributions from others. Look for companies that don’t directly compete with you but share similar client profiles. Then, pitch topics their readers may find valuable.

Community Outreach

18. Start or contribute to a fund raiser – Is there a local cause you are passionate about? How can you pitch in to market your business and improve your community at the same time? Try connecting with charities that match your key business demographic. Then, you can either hold a fund drive, volunteer your time, or donate a percentage of sales. Let people (and the press) know what this cause means to you and why you support it.
    
    
19. Sponsor a community event – Get involved with your local community by sponsoring a local 5K race, a public play, a community project or a sports event. Make sure the event’s key demographics match your target audience, then start building your reputation as a community supporter.
    
    
20. Offer services pro-bono – While this option isn’t for everyone, it can be great for people just getting started and looking to build their portfolio. When working pro-bono, set expectations up-front about what you will and won’t do for free. The most successful projects will be those with a small scope and shorter time frame – get the quick win.

Publicity

21. Send press releases – Get to know the reporters who cover your local business beat. Then, pitch them a story. Journalists want real news, not advertising hype, so give them an angle. Why should they cover you? How does your business help or impact the local community? Can you comment on a current event or give another side of the story?
    
    
22. Be an interview source – Get the local media (and local bloggers) to interview you. Pitch an angle, offer sample questions, and practice your talking points. After the interview, promote it! Send copies to prospects and clients, add it to your marketing kit, mention it in your newsletter, and use it in your online promotions.
    
    
23. Distribute press articles – If the press does write about you, request copies to distribute with your marketing materials. Use attributed quotes from the article in your newsletter. This is a fantastic third-party endorsement so milk it for all it’s worth.

Building a profitable business means always being on the lookout for ways to get people into your sales funnel.

Have I missed any? If you have additional ways to market your business offline, please add them in the comments.

The post 23 Offline Lead Generation Ideas For Your Small Business appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

What is marketing and why is it important? Isn’t it just a matter of advertising and promoting your products and services, and then convincing someone to buy them?

Many people have very negative attitudes towards marketing and selling, but at their heart:

• Selling is the process of exchanging of goods and services for money.
• Marketing involves bringing together interested prospects with valuable goods and services so a sale can be made.

Without marketing, prospects don’t know your products and services exist. They don’t know if they may want, need or could benefit from them. And if prospects don’t know who you are, what you do, or why and how you can help them, no money will be exchanged.

What Is Marketing? A Definition

Fundamentally, there is nothing manipulative or deceiving about marketing and selling. They are simply components of the overall process of

• Cost-effectively attracting enough prospects who want and can pay for your services
• By educating prospects about the benefits of what you do and how that can help them achieve their objectives or solve their problems
• With the goal of helping prospects feel confident enough in your solutions to exchange their money for your goods and services

For any business to be successful, it needs sales. If you don’t have enough paying customers and clients to cover your operating expenses, you won’t be in business very long.

Marketing’s #1 objective is to convert someone who wants and can pay for your products and services into a profitable, loyal, repeat client who can refer business.

Ethical marketing does not involve:

• chasing after people in hopes of getting them to listen to your sales pitch
• trying to convince someone who doesn’t want or need your service to hire you
• manipulating someone with high-pressure sales tactics so they do what you want them to do

If you do any of these, you will not meet your objective of turning people into loyal, profitable, repeat clients who happily refer business to you.

People buy from those they know, like and trust. You can fool someone once, but if you break their trust, they won’t buy from you again.

Why Should You Learn Marketing?

Marketing is a skill that anyone can learn. You may not feel you are good at it now, but you can be with a little practice.

Why would you want to devote your time to learning marketing?

Because the most important skill any business can have is to know how to cost-effectively attract and keep profitable clients. If you don’t know or understand how to do this, your business will always struggle.

Profitability comes from developing a large stable of repeat clients who benefit from and advocate for your products and services. Writing new business from first time buyers is always good – but you will make more money when you keep happy clients returning to you regularly.

An Ethical Step-By-Step Marketing Process

To understand marketing, you have to understand a few things, including:

• Who is most likely to want or need your products and services?
• What key problem in your prospect’s life does your product or service solve?
• How might your prospects go about buying products and services like yours?
• What are their expectations about what your product or service can do for them?
• What would make them choose one product or service provider over another?

For your overall marketing process to successfully attract clients, it must help your prospects answer every question they may have about their problem and how your solutions will solve that problem. It must build a compelling, persuasive case for why they should choose you – and what they can expect if they do.

No one marketing piece will do all of that. Instead, marketing involves creating a collection of educational and informative pieces that all work together to answer your prospects’ key questions at each stage of their buying process.

Below, are the seven steps required to create a complete marketing system that will attract the right types of prospects, educate them about the benefits of working with you, and ultimately, motivate them to hire you.

Step #1: Choose a Target Market

Most people skip over this step. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They *know* it. And yet, they don’t *do* it.

The biggest hurdle you face in marketing is that people don’t trust you. They don’t care who you are, that you’ve been in business X years, or that you offer a wide range of services.

When you try to market to *anyone who will listen,* you sound like a slick salesman who just wants their paycheck. They think – “Maybe this guy is too good to be true. He hasn’t given me many details, but he is laying it on thick. Can he really do what he says? My gut is telling me to watch out.”

Your prospects aren’t stupid. Your products and services are one of virtually infinite options they could choose – including doing it themselves or doing nothing. Your competitors are a click away. Someone, somewhere is offering a lower price, more value, faster service, better quality, and any other competitive advantage you can think of.

People will buy from you because they know, like and trust you. They believe you’ve successfully solved similar problems that others just like them have had, and your solution makes sense to them. You understand their problems and goals. You have outlined a process to help them get the results they want. And you will continue to be there for them if they have questions.

By narrowing your focus and choosing a target market, you tailor your entire marketing process to a specific group of people with specific problems and needs. You can then work on answering their key questions, “What can you do for me?” and “Why should I trust you?”

Step #2: Explain Why You Are Different

The biggest question running through your prospect’s mind when he or she is considering hiring you is – “Why should I choose you over all the other options out there? What makes you different or special?”

If your prospects can’t find a meaningful differentiator between you and your competitors, they will choose the lowest price.

“Great service” and “affordable prices” are not differentiators. They are expectations. Differentiators can be:

• How you package your services
• The specific processes you use
• Your specialty in a niche market
• The benefits you provide: increased revenues, decreased operational expenses, faster sales cycles, quicker bill collections, lower labor costs, improved productivity

Focus on the outcomes you provide, especially the results you’ve gotten for clients, and how that can impact specific issues your prospects are having. If you can, be specific and include metrics or statistics to make the numbers seem more credible.

Step #3: Package Your Services

Design is not everything in marketing, but a great design creates a powerful first impression. People love Apple because of its sleek design, easy-to-use interface, and attention to detail.

Your marketing materials should be consistent in your logo design, uniform color scheme and typography, and specific images you use throughout your marketing materials to tie everything together.

At the basic level, packaging your services involves creating a business identity with your logo, business cards, and stationary. As you expand your marketing materials and create your marketing kit (see next step), it will include your brochures, information sheets, fliers, and other marketing materials.

Packaging can also go beyond visual design to include how you name your services, such as whether you can productize them rather than charging hourly, and if you can offer different levels like Silver, Gold and Platinum.

Your prospects are overwhelmed by choices, so by packaging your services, you clarify and simplify your offer, making it easier to understand.

Step #4: Create A Marketing Kit

Most businesses create business cards, a brochure and website. They might also have a few fliers, direct mail pieces, or handouts. But they often use these materials in a piecemeal rather than systematic approach.

The key to marketing is to create a collection of marketing materials that each serve a particular function. Each piece should enhance and complement your other pieces, and together, your marketing materials should make a complete and compelling case for your products and services.

Each of your prospects will require a particular amount of information from you. Some just need the quick overview. Others will want to read everything. It’s best to create everything upfront, and let prospects choose what they want to read.

At the heart of your educational marketing materials is your marketing kit. This could be a presentation folder stuffed with literature or a high-end brochure. How you present it ties into your packaging and is mostly a matter of preference. Regardless, your marketing kit should include three types of documents:

1. How We Work Together – Include sections like:
   • Your ideal client profile
   • An overview of the key problem you solve and how you solve it
   • A list of reasons why clients should choose you
   • Your product/service list
   • Your process for working together
   • Frequently asked questions
   • Your company profile and story
2. Results We’ve Achieved – Include sections like:
   • Client case studies
   • Testimonials
   • Your client list
   • Portfolio samples
3. Supplemental Materials – Include additional credibility boosters like:
   • Tip sheets and checklists
   • Special reports related to your prospect’s problems
   • Reprints of published articles or news mentions
   • How To Hire A [your type of business]

This kit isn’t a cold prospecting tool, and will probably be too expensive to mail to just anyone. Rather, give your marketing kit to those prospects that request more information about your services.

If someone calls your office to request a free report (see next step), send that along with your kit. If you want to introduce your services to a potential business partner, write a personal introduction letter and include your kit. If you have a sales consultation with a prospect, use the marketing kit as a leave behind.

Use your marketing kit for people you consider “prospects” in the buying process – not for “strangers” or “suspects.”

Step #5: Develop Your Lead Generation System

While your marketing kit is designed to educate “prospects” about your products and services, you still need additional marketing materials to reach those people who aren’t yet “prospects.”

Your lead generation materials are for those people considered “strangers” and “suspects” in the consumer buying process. They are people who are aware they have a problem and are gathering information about how to solve it, but don’t know anything about you, your company or your solutions.

Your lead generation system is comprised of two key parts:

1. Content Marketing – Content marketing (aka inbound marketing, education-based marketing, informational marketing) involves creating educational content that helps your prospect solve a problem or achieve a goal. When prospects are at the information gathering stage of their buying cycle, they don’t care about you. They care about solving their specific problem. Therefore, any material that may address that problem is likely to capture their attention. If you offer a “How To” guide or a “10 Mistakes People Make When [Trying To Solve Their Problem]” special report, you may peak their curiosity and compel them to contact you to request their copy.
   
   
2. Promotion – Promotion is anything you do to spread the word about your content. It can include advertising, referral marketing, public relations or online marketing. The key is to use a two-step marketing approach, where you promote your educational content, not your services. Once people contact you and provide their contact information, you can follow up (see next step) with more educational material until they are ready to buy.

The goal of content marketing is to create quality information that pulls people towards your products and services. You give information, helping prospects make informed purchasing decisions, and build credibility as they consume more of your materials. It provides a low-risk way for people to learn about the value you provide and get to know you on their own time, in their own way, without worrying about you delivering a sales pitch or pressuring them into committing.

Step #6: Automate Your Follow Up

The most cost-effective marketing systems rely on automation to deliver quality marketing materials over time. You create your marketing kit once, then send it at specific times. You create your informational guides and special reports once, then promote them. You create your ads once and use them as long as they generate responses.

Your follow up process can also be automated. Let’s say someone wants your content marketing freebie (your special report, guide, tip sheet, recorded audio or video presentation, etc.) They can get a copy by entering their name and email address into your website lead capture form.

That lead capture form is linked to your email service provider (like Aweber) so once someone fills out the form, it triggers an email that tells your new subscriber how to get the requested information. Then, you have a few more “autoresponders” set up so your prospect will now receive additional emails over the next few days, weeks or months.

With each email, you can offer them the chance to learn more, take action, contact you with questions, sign up for your webinar, or take advantage of special pricing. Each email should be educational and include an offer they might be interested in. Any offer they respond to moves them a step closer to becoming your customer or client.

And if they get tired of your messages? They can easily unsubscribe. No harm. No foul. No rejection.

Step #7: Close The Sale

When you offer services, in all likelihood, people won’t be willing to buy from you until they chat with you one-on-one. Sometimes, holding a webinar or in-person seminar is enough for people to evaluate you, approach you, and begin the sales talk. Other times, they will request a phone or in-person consultation to discuss whether you can help them.

How you respond in this setting will make or break your efforts. All the great marketing in the world can not make up for poor sales communication. The good news is you can improve your sales skills with practice – and much of your conversation can be scripted.

When I say “scripted,” I don’t mean reading sales copy word-for-word. What I mean is – all of your sales meetings will probably follow the same structure. You will listen to your prospect describe their problem, discuss potential solutions, answer questions, address any objections, and eventually ask for the sale.

You can create a basic outline of how you want the meeting to progress, with a list of pointed questions to ask. You can have answers ready the most questions and objections you receive. And after you do a few of these and realize the same issues come up, you can observe which answers you give get the best results.

If people are talking with you, they want to know if you can help them. They want to find a potential solution. But it’s up to you to assure them that this is the right solution for them.

As you can see, the overall marketing process has a lot of moving parts and pieces to it. It’s easy to mess up your entire system by getting one component wrong. The good news is when you look at it as a complete system, you can dissect problems and fine tune tactics until you figure out what works.

The post What is Marketing? Hint: It’s More Than Just Advertising and Selling! appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

Marketing is the process of cost-effectively attracting prospects and profitably converting them into loyal, repeat clients who refer business.

In other words, the purpose of your marketing should be to find those ideal clients who want or need what you offer and can pay for your services – and showing them why they should hire you by making a complete, compelling case for you and your business.

You won’t attract qualified leads by chasing after prospects and trying to convince them to listen to your sales pitch. Rather, you attract qualified leads by developing a series of marketing materials that move them along a logical path from complete stranger to client advocate.

Stages of the Consumer Buying Process

How people interact with you and your business depends on where they are in their buying process. Generally, there are six stages someone might be in:

People at each stage of the buying process require different types of marketing materials. If you try to close the deal too fast, prospects will become defensive. Consider what each person wants at each of these stages and what types of marketing materials you can design to appeal to them.

The Buying Process: How Consumers Make Buying Decisions

When you are thinking about how you can market to each type of person in your sales funnel, put yourself in their shoes. When someone is considering making a purchasing decision, they usually go through five stages:

• Awareness – First, they must realize they have a problem that they might need to solve. Until they become consciously aware that they want to achieve a goal or solve a problem, they will filter or ignore any relevant information. At this point, people are usually in the stranger or suspect stage.
  
  
• Information Search – Once they become aware, they start gathering information to help them decide what they need to do to solve their problem or achieve their goal, how much it might cost, what solutions are available, can they do it themselves, how big of a deal is it, and so forth. This often corresponds to the suspect and prospect stages of the consumer buying process and is the best place to reach prospects because your educational marketing materials can influence how they evaluate and make purchasing decisions.
  
  
• Evaluate Options – As people gather information, they analyze what they’ve collected or learned. What is the big picture? What are their options? What is best for them? Do they need to hire someone to help them or can they fix it themselves? How much will it cost – and is the problem big enough for them to justify the cost? Do they really want to fix the problem or is it just a minor annoyance? Do they have the time and resources to devote to this task right now? It’s usually at this stage when people start talking to companies. Here, people can be in the suspect or prospect stages. If you didn’t reach prospects at the information gathering stage, entering the game now can be more challenging because your suspects/prospects have already gathered plenty of information and have been influenced by your competitors, the media, their family and friends, and other information sources. They will often have preconceived notions and expectations that may or may not be accurate.
  
  
• Make Purchasing Decision – If they decide to move forward – that their problem is big enough for them to solve, they need help solving it, and they have the resources set aside to fix the problem now – consumers now pick a solution. These people begin in the prospect stage and become a client or first-time buyer.
  
  
• Re-Evaluation – Finally, once they’ve bought or hired a company, consumers will continue to re-evaluate their purchase. Was this a good decision? Is the company meeting their expectations and communicating with them appropriately? Here, clients and first time buyers evaluate if they like you enough to become repeat buyers, while repeat buyers evaluate if they like you enough to become advocates.

By understanding where prospects are in their buying process, you can tailor your marketing message so that it’s relevant to their key concerns and frustrations.

The post The Buying Process: How To Move Prospects Through Your Sales Funnel appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

Businesses are created to help someone do something. Usually, that something involves achieving a goal or solving a pain or problem.

Who has that particular goal or problem you can help with? That is the best way to choose a target market.

Why Pick a Target Market?

To succeed in business, you can’t be all things to all people. It’s just as important to define who you don’t want to work with – as who you do.

While it might be difficult to say “no,” consider this.

Certain types of clients will value what you do above and beyond other clients. Those clients place a premium on the added value you provide and the long-term relationship you build.

They are looking for a partner to grow their business or enhance their personal life – not simply a vendor who will quietly complete the task with minimal interaction.

I’m sure you’ve worked with unprofitable clients. Perhaps you’ve also had the misfortune of working with “bad” clients – those who didn’t pay on time (or ever), requested unreasonable amounts of your time, nitpicked, or were never happy.

On the other hand, there were those delightful to work with, who provided interesting project work, who sought your input, trusted your expertise, and paid on time without question. They also may have referred business to you.

Having more of the latter type of client and less of the former is not only good business – but good for your sanity.

How To Choose a Target Market in 5 Steps

When you pick a target market, you become laser-focused on reaching only the people who would be a good client for your business. When you get your target audience right, you will find you can work less hours for higher fees because they value the work you do enough to pay a premium for it. Here are 5 steps for choosing a profitable target market.

Step 1: Narrow Your Options

When you try to target “anyone who might need my service,” you are essentially talking to no one.

If you don’t have a clue who wants and can pay for your services, where would you find them? How would you identify them if you were talking to them? Your marketing is unfocused and your “strategy” involves “hoping and praying” someone will see your ad, message or website and call you. This is a colossal waste of money. Instead, consider:

1. Who are your current ideal clients? If you have clients, this task involves analyzing your current client base to determine who your most profitable clients are. Which hire you for repeat business? Which refer business? Which do you love working with? Once you’ve identified a few, chat with them about:
   • why did they hired you?
   • what you did that others didn’t?
   • what you could do to serve them better?
   • what problems they face in their industry that don’t have solutions?
   • what is their most pressing problem?
2. Who do you want to work with? When you provide services, what you offer will, on some level, be based on your individual preferences, strengths, talents and experience. Be honest about:
   • what type of work do you want to do?
   • what problems do you solve particularly well?
   • who do you like working with?
3. Talk with prospects – If you don’t have a current client base, talk with prospects or people in your network who you’d consider working with. These can be informal lunches where you pick their brain or you can offer pro-bono service like a free consulting session or initial project work. Look for common problems that come up.
   • What problems do they face?
   • What language do they use to describe their problem?
   • How skilled are you at providing a solution to that problem?

Step 2: Segment Your Market

Once you have an idea for the types of prospects you would like to work with and which potential problems you can solve, narrow it down further by looking for common characteristics. Market segmentation involves breaking a large pool of people down into smaller, similar groups. You can do this by:

1. Demographics – These are the basic facts about your prospect such as their age, gender, education, income, job type, and marital status. How a 22-year-old fresh out of college and looking for an entry level job looks at the world is different from a newly retired 65-year-old business executive.
   
   
2. Psychographics – Psychographics are more about the character, personality or worldview of the individual. For instance, are they optimistic or pessimistic? Do they take control over their life or are they a victim? Are they open- or closed-minded? Where does their sense of self-esteem come from?
   
   
3. Goals/Needs/Frustrations – Which groups of people share similar goals or frustrations? Which urgently want to take action to achieve that goal or solve that problem in the near future? Look for the common characteristics of those who want a solution and are willing to pay.

Step 3: Learn About Problems and Unmet Needs

A profitable business uncovers a market’s unmet needs and offers a solution. What do your prospects search for? Online research can be a fast, easy and free way to uncover problems and unmet needs quickly. Here are a few places to look.

1. Browse forums – Google “[your industry] + forum” to find places online where your prospects may gather to talk. What common issues arise? How do they describe these issues? What do they want most? You may be able to find this out by reading through forum threads, but also consider registering and joining the conversation to learn more.
   
   
2. Visit Q&A sites – Quora.com and Yahoo! Answers are two platforms where users ask any and every question they can think of. Browsing these websites can give you considerable insight into how your prospects think. I highly recommend signing up for Quora and starting to participate.
   
   
3. Find related books – Check out the book selection for your industry on Amazon.com. You should be able to preview the table of contents plus a sample of most books. If you have a Kindle and are willing to spend a few extra bucks, buy the Kindle edition and browse the “Popular Highlights” in each book to see what others have highlighted. Read reviews to determine what readers both liked and disliked about the book.
   
   
4. Read industry blogs – What are the most popular blogs in your industry? What topics do they regularly cover? What do commenters say?

Once you’ve compiled a list of key problems, start talking with prospects and clients one-on-one, asking them about these issues you’ve uncovered.

Step 4: How Can You Find Your Target Market?

One key purpose of identifying a target audience is to make it easier to find them. If you have no clue where to find them, your market is too broad.

1. What media do they consume? Every key industry has publications, websites, mailing lists centered around the key issues, opportunities and trends your prospects are facing. How can you get in front of them – either with advertising or editorial content? Can you write an article? Be interviewed? Speak?
   
   
2. How do competitors reach prospects? Keep a file with all your competitors’ advertising, brochures, key website content, articles, white papers, and other content for reference.
   
   
3. How do prospects make buying decisions? Who makes the decision? When are they likely to make it? What triggers a prospect’s decision to look for solutions? Do they experience a key life cycle or business change? Look for media that targets these specific people or buying triggers.

Step 5: Describe Your Target Market

Once you’ve uncovered the key problems your target market faces, write up a brief paragraph that describes your ideal clients in terms that are easy to communicate. An ideal client is that “one” perfect client. If you know someone that fits that description, think of this person as you do this exercise.

Set aside 20 minutes to answer these four questions. Then, get yourself a timer. For each question below, allot 5 minutes and just write whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t have to be in complete sentences, just get the gist down in bullet point format. Don’t think about it. Don’t edit yourself. Don’t read back over what you wrote. Just write as fast as you can until the timer goes off.

• How would you describe your ideal client?
• What is the key goal your client wants to achieve or key problem to solve?
• What pain points, worries, or objections does your ideal client have?
• Why are you the best person to offer?

When you are finished, you should have a good idea of what types of clients you want to attract. While you may never work with someone who fits this description exactly, it will help you visualize and clarify those people you want to do business with.

The post How To Choose A Profitable Target Market appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.

Does it matter how long your business plan is? If you are writing a formal plan to present to investors or business partners, a standard plan runs 20-40 pages.

But – if you create a business plan for internal use, it can – and should – be much shorter.

Let’s be frank. Page counts and word counts are not a good way to measure the quality of your plan. It should be as long as it needs to be to cover everything. If that’s one page of bullet points, so be it.

Focus on Quality Not Length

Instead of worrying about how long your plan should be, worry about:

• Is it useful? In other words, will the intended reader benefit from its contents? If that’s you, do you know what your next steps are, when you have to complete them, and what resources are required to move things forward?
  
  
• Is it readable? Have you formatted the document so you can easily find content? Did you use pictures, bullets, and headlines instead of long paragraphs of text?
  
  
• Is it clear? Can you skim through the key points and grasp the message?

Your plan will only be useful if it’s focused on action steps and practical application.

What Does Your Reader Want To Know?

The purpose of your business plan will depend on your situation and intended reader.

If you are writing for an external audience, your plan will be longer because you will need to clearly explain your company’s background and market.

You may also need to include detailed research and realistic financial projections, especially if you plan to sell the business or subject your plan to legal scrutiny.

If you write for yourself, you already know much of that information, so keep it simple.

How To Cope With Uncertainty

Your business plan is not a long-winded exercise in impressing your readers with your extensive knowledge about your business, market place or competitors. It’s purpose is to clearly communicate where your business is right now and where you foresee it to be based on concrete actions you plan to take.

That said, there will be an element of uncertainty with any plan you create. You may wonder how to forecast sales data that currently doesn’t exist without pulling numbers out of thin air. Instead of including everything you know and hoping your reader will pick out the details he’s most interested in, focus on what is most relevant to your business case.

1. Start with what you know What data do you have? Do you have a current client base? Website traffic? People in your network likely to do business with you? What are you offering? How much does it cost? How many of those will you sell each week? Each month?
   
   
2. Accept your numbers will be off You have to start somewhere, but just because you can make the numbers work in Excel doesn’t mean that’s how they will play out in real life. Be prepared to revise your projections weekly at first, then monthly.
   
   
3. Fail quickly and learn from it – Few things in life are instant successes – including most things you will try in your business. For each project you take on, give yourself a benchmark goal and a time frame to achieve it. If you don’t come close to hitting that goal within the allotted time, it may be more beneficial to allocate your resources elsewhere. All the planning in the world can’t salvage an unworkable idea, so give it a try, see what happens, and if it doesn’t work, alter your course.

All new start ups are risky by nature. You will face uncertainty. The best business plans address what could go wrong along with how they might handle those situations – but don’t go overboard with a lengthy diatribe. Keep it simple, actionable, and start executing.

The post How Long Should a Business Plan Be? appeared first on Morningstar Marketing Coach.