PLANNING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET AHEAD CAN GIVE YOUR BUSINESS A COMPETITIVE EDGE

According to Microsoft Small Business center, #4 of the list of 7 Biggest Mistakes Of Business Startups is that they are “Clueless about marketing”, either thinking that marketing is an unnecessary expense, or confusing marketing with sales.  Of course you want sales immediately, but the reality is that there is a process to sales that can take some time - the lesson being to make sure you get your message to target consumers before trying to close sales.  

With a well communicated marketing message, you’ll close a higher volume of sales and most of your customers will be coming to you, already having made the decision to buy from you.  It’s your marketing/communication information that gives them reasons to buy from you before they need to make the decision and financial commitment of purchase.

Like every business decision that carries a financial commitment, planning your marketing activities is critical to being satisfied with the results of your investment.  

Even when some of your marketing efforts are not as successful as you had hoped, clear planning lets you approach each activitiy as a TEST.  Know at the start that you’ll measure various factors of success with each campaign and determine through trial & error the best investment in marketing for your business.

So the first question I get most often is “How much money should I invest in marketing, each year?”.  It depends.  It’s different for every business, business owner and market.  For each year of operation, you’ll want to determine a percentage of total business revenue you’ll invest in marketing activities. 

Depending on how ambitious and aggressive you are, a small business owner might want to invest 5%-15% of annual revenue on marketing activities, according to Andrew Patricio (co-founder of BizLaunch), at last week’s FREE Staples seminar “How To Brand, Promote & Advertise Your Business”.  View Upcoming Seminar Schedule Here.

You’ll also want to consider factors that indicate a larger marketing budget may be needed:

• You are Launching a New Business, Product or Service Division: you’ll want to announce and generate awareness of your business as soon as you’re ready to accept customers.
• You have a lot of competition: You need to Develop Your Brand (your new customers used to be your competition’s customers); you’ll want to communicate to potential customers why they want to buy from you, instead.
• You have NO competition: people have been getting along just fine without your product/service in the past; you want to Develop the Market, answering their question “why do I need this now?”  Once you answer that question, they can only purchase it from your business.

 [YOUR] DIRECTOR OF MARKETING BLOG

 RANKS #16 IN FACEBOOK TOP 50 SMALL BUSINESS BLOGS

The [Your] Director of Marketing Blog Network page actually ranks #16 in the Top 50 of facebook small business blogs, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  If you’re clicking through and are a regular facebook user, please be sure to click on and join my [Your] Director of Marketing networked blog on facebook.

Currently, the Top 5 “NetworkedBlogs” in the small business category are:

1. Just For Small Business - Real life “how to” tips for small business owners
2. mirrormirror - Moving from London to Seattle. Bringing up a business and little girl. Trying to live happily ever after. I write about my design inspirations, the trials and tribulations of running my online shop, life in the US, doing up our funny old craftsman house, cooking, knitting and photography
3. The Moutray Chronicles - I created this blog to keep my friends and family updated on events and issues of relevance to Charlotte and me. As this blog has evolved, it has focused heavily on my professional activities, especially in terms of my research on small business and entrepreneurship.
4. Forever Always Events
5. Competeability Trainer and Coach - Brian Panichelle helps small businesses to compete in a big business world.

The NetworkedBlogs application makes integrating your blog and facebook activities a breeze and I’m all for efficiency in my time for the business!  Also, it’s just so easy for people to chat with their friends about your blog (good or bad), when they’re reading it from inside of facebook.

From your readers’ perspective, those who are on facebook might appreciate the ease of receiving your content in a convenient place, facebook.  (where it is almost too convenient for them to chat to their friends about your blog, good or bad)

Want to get your own blog on NetworkedBlogs on facebook?

If, like me, you’re considering the scope of the current economic crisis and what the future might look like, now that we know what we know.  I’m a strong believer in a positive mental attitude, not meaning that everything is parties all the time but that there are valuable lessons to be learned in the process, wherever you are in that process.

The Blog Herald offers their thoughts on how you might be able to use blogging to survive the economy.  I see it as a resource - a great place to learn and think about using blogging to THRIVE in the near future, regardless of economies. 

1. Start a blog - it doesn’t cost much to start up and can be a productive fun way to make a little bit of extra income
2. Online Resume and Visual Presence: “If you are job hunting or want to prove your worth to a company, why not do it with a visual online presence. With a blog and active involvement in social media, you increase your odds of being found if someone searches for you or your specialty.  Create an online reputation for your expertise and skills with your blog. A blog proves job performance, reliability, consistency, and perseverance. It proves you not only can write but communicate your thoughts and ideas. A blog proves you understand that the world is about who you know who knows what you need. It shows you know how to build a community and network. A blog proves you understand how this “online thing” works, which a lot of businesses desperately need.  Consider your blog your online resume. Consider all your online activities, correspondence, and social media microblog posts and communications part of your reputation. Everything online adds to the story of “you” so make sure it represents you well.
3. Start a New Business
4. Social Networking and Support
5. A Blog Depends on You
6. FREE Entertainment

According to Microsoft Small Business Center, being clueless about marketing, or believing sales and marketing are interchangeable, is the 4th most common mistake startups make:

Actually, this app is like the invention of the Microwave was to heating food - it does it, at SUPER SPEED…

I’m surprised how few people have found it and are making use of it, so I’m making it my personal quest to share it with everyone.

It’s actually rediculously simple, and makes sharing web items on Facebook somthing you can do in literally 2 clicks.  Probably about 3 seconds for the entire idea of “oh, my FB friends would get a kick out of this Will Ferrell video” or “My clients will be impressed I shared this important news report with them”.

Even better, you can do it WITHOUT opening up Facebook at all.  No chance of your employees catching you “socializing” on Facebook (if only they knew!).

Click here and within two minutes you’ll be sharing real-time updates and tidbits to your valued clients and friends all day long, without it taking any time at all.

Now that I’m blogging I’m still using the Share on Facebook bookmarklet all the time!

It only takes a few minutes to suck you in, but the business and personal returns can be invaluable.

The Facebook Lexicon is a neat tool that counts occurrences of words and phrases on Walls over time - depending on the brand, or word, you can certainly see some interesting trends, and even gain valuable time predicting the next upswing (with caution, of course).

I typed in “economy” and not surprisingly, there’s a huge spike in the lexicon in September.

Is your name, business, competitors, industry, niche or friends in the lexicon?

Its good to see how companies are responding to consumer demand for Green Business Strategies.  With corporations and consumers clearly expressing their demand for businesses that balance activities for financial, social and environmental benefits, the governments must be close behind. 

This series of ads makes the business argument for sustainability in everyday operations pretty clear.

Here is IBM’s energy efficiency offerings for small businesses.

This is a powerful ad, that came to me on Facebook about a 1/2 hour ago  (spiritual leader and FB Friend, Chris Attwood posted it to his profile, to share it with his entire network of FB Friends).

Some of what I love about this ad:

• Viral distribution - with a compelling message and a clear deadline, it’s a cheap & fast way to spend 5 minutes making your absolute best last-ditch pitch to another mass of potential voters (I’ve seen the views go up by 50,000 since yesterday)
• Powerful call-to-action (register to vote before the ad is done!)
• A-List Celebrity endorsements
• Well-scripted.  Seriously, I was moved to tears, laughter, stirrings of attraction… if I could vote, I would have registered immediately!

What do you think of it?

I think it’s worth the 5 minutes during a coffee break for Leonardo DiCaprio alone.  I’m just sayin’

Don’t Vote YouTube