Quick Response Codes = QR Codes

QR codes are not complicated codes that serve to confuse our lives. In fact, they are simply codes designed in a pattern format and arranged in squarish blocks place onto a white background. These codes are embedded with information meant as advertising and promotion messages that can be accessed via one simple click on your mobile device. Companies big and small, have jumped onto the QR Code Bandwagon and begun to tap on the vast potential of this marketing avenue, ranging from pushing coupons, time-sensitive offers, discount promotions or simply advertising their wares or launching a new product, not to mention also conducting branding exercises too.

The key reason why companies of all sizes can tap on this marketing channel is due to the fact that the QR code is a versatile tool to say the least. You can choose to embed all kinds of information about your product, company for any type of marketing activity you can think of, such as launching a local-based marketing campaign or a regionalised advertising exercise. In fact, you can also use QR codes for surveys and gather consumer feedback about on products or services.

And if you are a local small business owner who is looking to building your customer list of mobile numbers, there is no other more direct and effective approach than tapping on the QR codes to build that list. And if you have a website or a Facebook Fanpage, you could also use your QR code to drive traffic to them.

All that said about the endless uses and benefits of QR codes, and still many businesses do not know enough of the benefits of it and hence shun away from this very efficient and cost effective tool. It is indeed sad that ignorance and fear of avant-garde technology is standing in their way of business bottom lines. Here are more advantages of QR codes to sway your stand.

Low Cost and Paper Free Channel

The way QR codes works is that you simply click on them and view the data or information embedded in them. You can view it any time at your own convenience. As you can see, this delivery process is literally paper-free and absolutely low or no cost to you. Not only do you get to play your part to foster a green environment, you also save on costly reprints of your advertising and marketing collaterals.

Curiosity-Enhanced Excitement Generates Sales

That QR code is indeed an odd looking square mash of tiny black dots on them. As this is a fairly new approach to marketing, many consumers are still not widely exposed to this tool and many would be curious as to what is embedded within the code. This could lead them to click into the icons for more information and eventually generate greater sales.

Instant Response For Product or Company Information Requests

By Quick Response Code, it literally means instant response. Now you no longer need to wait indefinitely for that product information email to come by in your inbox, or wait endlessly for the snail mail to come. Potential consumers will appreciate the instant access to pertinent information.

While QR codes is still a novel concept it has indeed caught on and it will not be long before businesses compete in this arena fast and furiously selling their wares.

Check out more on Mobile Media Marketing and Small Business Marketing Strategies.

Targeted Email Marketing Strategy

As stated in Part 2 of this series, targeted email marketing is the internet version of direct mailing strategy of your promotion marketing mix. While it might seem an easier process to manage than traditional direct mailing, there are particular aspects of the process that you will need to execute care and EQ.

Permission Marketing – Have You Opted In Yet?

Firstly, you must know that with email marketing comes the key concern of mass spamming. In order not to be branded as a spammer, you should install an emailing procedure that does is legitimate. This means that we should request that the interested individual opt-in, that is to give permission for you to email them information. This is what is otherwise known as permission marketing.

Due to the fact that this is rather complicated procedure to follow up with, you should be using an autoresponder. It automates the process from sending emails, follow ups, monitoring click-through rates as well as helps you to manage your customer/contact lists. You can easily find top notch full service autoresponders for less than $20 per month or you might wish to consider customizing one in-house for your particular email marketing needs.

Key Factors Contributing To The Success Of Targeted Email Marketing

Email marketing, if executed correctly, can be a very targeted approach which could bring in lucrative revenues at the click of a few buttons. However, that said, your reputation, brand positioning, customer relationship management skills and customer loyalty contribute cumulatively to this end result.

Email marketing requires an abundance of tact, and effort to build relationships. Sending too many emails to your clients or not keeping in touch often enough could equally result in a high un-subscribe rate. Striking that balance takes a lot of effort, patience and experience over time.

If you should intend to embark upon an targeted email marketing strategy, you must be prepared to spend time and learn the skill of online relationship building. Start a newsletter which keeps your clientele informed and updated, giving away free product samplings or free educational info in the form of ebooks, CDs, DVD, or simply a series of related videos. Flood them with quality value for free, and foster a binding relationship preparing them for your up-sells and cross-sells in the future.

Email Marketing Monetization Strategy

When the fruits of your labor is ripe for picking, you will naturally start to up-sell and cross-sell your products and services to your clientele. You might wish to also plan ahead with a comprehensive email marketing monetization strategy which encompasses marketing your own products to your own list as well as Joint Venture with other list owners to cross sell and up sell each other’s lists. This latter approach has proven extremely lucrative to large list owners. However, that said, you need to have exceptional relationships with your clientele in order to achieve good results from this approach.

To check out the 3 other parts to this series, Click Here.

Also Find out more here about small business marketing strategies and internet marketing for small business too.

Web Internet Marketing

A web internet marketing strategy must be an integral and complimenting part of your small business marketing strategies. As defined in part 2, web internet marketing is the process of website creation, development and driving site traffic with either organic search engine optimization methods or paid web advertising.

Here is the key to having a successful website. An actively website with good quality content, constantly updated, keyword-rich, well laid out, with strong traffic.

To have a site which is active, alive and high in traffic, you will need high quality content, consistently updating it with posts and articles. Keyword research is critical and you might want to gather a list of main keywords which you will write your article around. A well structured site layout not only helps with easy navigation, but also, expedites search engine spiders when they crawl your site.

And of course, web traffic generation is key to your site’s survival which brings us to the fact that you will need to execute strong organic SEO as a basic foundation. This entails writing unique title, meta tags as well as internal linking/content optimization. On-Page SEO is as critical as external linking would include getting backlinks by activities like blog and forum participation, submissions to web directories, article directories.

Time for Website Monetization

With a good content and steady traffic, you are now in a position to market online and make money from your site with your own products and service or become an affiliate market.

You could set up an online store on the site to directly sell your products. There will be times when other complimentary product site owners would request to JV with you or advertise on your site, thereby generating even more revenue for your business. Renting out “online real estate” is one very popular way to make money from your site that many high traffic site owners are currently cashing in on.

Alternatively, giving away a free ebook or any other ethical bribes would be good bait in exchange for an email address you can send more information to sell your wares.

Integrating Your Web Internet Marketing Strategy With The Marketing Plan

Your web internet marketing strategy should form part of your marketing plan, in particular, part of the marketing mix. Distribution channels are strengthened with the added advantage of this additional reach, opening up new markets for your existing products. Online promotions strategies will target new and existing customers bringing in added revenue.

One key point to note however, is that you should never cannibalize your various channels of distribution and pricing. For example, you need to make sure that all pricing strategies are in sync and fair across all types of delivery channels. And online and offline promotions should always be comparative in their respective special offers.

In certain situations, you could literally spin off your web internet marketing strategy into a new business plan and run the online portion of your business independently.

Stay tuned for part 4 of the series “Internet Marketing For Small Business – Do You Have An Online Marketing Strategy Yet?”

Check out more  small business marketing strategies information here.

In particular, we also shared the importance of having cohesive and coherent messages used by both on and offline marketing activities and this is the key and basis for our discussion on structuring the online strategies into the overall marketing mix. Using a consistent voice across all marketing collaterals is key to your product and brand positioning.

There are two major arms to internet marketing for small business and they are namely, web internet marketing as well as targeted email marketing. The former is a lot more technical than the latter but both are interdependent upon each other in some ways.

Web Internet Marketing

Web internet marketing evolves around website creation, development and driving traffic to your site and generally uses either organic search engine optimization SEO methods or paid web traffic, that is, paid advertising. There two main types of websites platforms you can adopt, wordpress or static sites. WordPress is a common blog platform which has become well customized for marketing purposes in recent years.

Those looking to using organic SEO will prefer the blog platform by consistently loading the sites up with information. As driving traffic to your website is a key criteria to ensuring online growth, organic SEO is a longer-lasting traffic driving system than the paid alternative. That said, paid web traffic can be lucrative and allows you upward scalability as and when you wish.

Targeted Email Marketing Strategy

Targeted email marketing on the other hand, is the online version of traditional direct mailing campaigns which requires contact details like your clients’ email addresses as well as their names. You will need an auto-responder to ensure that your email marketing campaigns are well executed in orderly fashion.

First and foremost, if you intend to execute your targeted email marketing strategy, you need to ally the major concern of mass spamming. You can and should have a built-in filter process to solicit active opt-in into your email list of contacts. By opting in, your contact is deemed to have given you consent to email him or her information and hence you are legitimate opt-in email marketer and not a spammer.

This approach is considered targeted to your specific segments as you have directed your email collection approach at specific people in these segments either by giving a free ebook, CD, video training or some product discounts. And you can then proceed to send them emails to solicit for sales on your products or affiliated products and services.

This is part 2 of a four part series of “Internet Marketing For Small Business”. Check out part 1 and look out for part 3 of this series.

Also, check out Small Business Marketing Strategies for more information here.

Here, we shall discuss the benefits of having a well structured internet marketing and advertising strategy and how that could literally transform your traditional brick and mortar business.

Internet Marketing and Advertising Strategies Compliment Your Marketing Plan

Internet marketing and advertising is a very critical component of your 4Ps marketing mix, namely the distribution and promotion mix. This is due to the fact that we have experienced a great shift in technograpic changes, mainly in the way we work, and function in our daily lives. Or might I say that the internet has opened a huge door of opportunity for both consumers and marketers, what with the increasingly sedentary lifestyles that we lead in front of our computer screens. Paradoxically, this also applies to those who literally survive on mobile lifestyles, greatly reliant on their cell phones for social activities.

Yes, technographics, one of the three key psychographics that I have highlighted in my new BusinessFast4ward Small Business Marketing Strategies ebook, has become the key to unlocking your online marketing strategy, and for that matter, mobile marketing as well. . This concept delved deep into the modern day mindset and buyers’ behaviours to unravel the purchasing behavioural patterns of those who embrace online and mobile lifestyles.

Achieving A Comprehensive Cohesive On And Offline Business Plan

You will of course need to know your clientele very intimately, have a thorough understanding of the technographic behavioural and purchasing traits as well as be proficient in structuring a comprehensive online marketing strategy that compliments your broad business and marketing plan. And of course, to be effective, you will need to align them in tandem with your traditional offline marketing activities in order to achieve integration of all strategies implemented. It is critical that your internet marketing and advertising strategies be consistent and conveys the exact similar positioning, tone and information to your target market, with standardized marketing collaterals across the board.

Stay tuned part 2 of this series. Check out Internet Marketing For Small Business more information effective online marketing strategies for small business.

Know What Your Target Audience Wants, Then Give It To Them

If you only dig deeper and analyze your target segments in greater details, by asking critical questions like their buying habits, lifestyles, values, needs and how your product fit into their lifestyles, you would be able to derive much deeper understanding of whether your product is a strategic fit into their lives.

The more intimately you are acquainted with your target customers the easier is your task of winning them over into your camp. And this is what brand positioning strategy is all about. Center your Brand, product and business around your target audience, connect with them and help them fulfill their needs, make them feel that you have created your Brand and products that are specifically For them.

Foster Two Way Communication For Brand Loyalty

Open up a two way communication with your customers and potential ones to facilitate exchange about the products and your Brand via one-on-one interviews or focus group surveys. Although this is in actual fact a multi-way communication with all your customers, making it look two-way is the key to fostering positive vibes about your Brand with each and every consumer. Speak their lingo and grow the Brand hand in hand, as this will subconsciously give ownership of the Brand to them foster deep brand loyalty eventually without you having to run expensive brand positioning campaigns.

Reinforce Your Brand Persona

When you live your Brand, it is not only you who would be walking and talking your Brand, but everyone in your business from employees, partners and vendors, community members, friends, and customers should be made known the specifics of your Brand persona. Create a company or community event with the purpose of subtly reinforcing brand positioning across all platforms from staff, partners and customers.

The above would be good timing to launch an awareness drive of the meaning of your logo design, taglines, other paperwork and marketing materials, letterheads, business cards and most importantly too, product packaging. Run contests on your website to expand the scope of awareness, utilising free publicity, tapping on the power of press releases etc. While you may find that this aspects of reinforcing your Brand persona may seem superfluous but it is important to take note that the above are indeed proven Brand positioning strategies that work.

Small business marketing strategies succeed in bringing in the revenues when executed appropriately in the right environment and timing with the right people. That said, change is also omni-present and we must always be on the alert to tap onto creative forms self promotion.

On top of that, your Brand Persona must change with the times, hence requiring you to constantly re-evaluate the attributes, values and beliefs that it upholds. Grow your Brand with your customers and with the times. That Coca Cola is still very much alive and kicking after 125 years from its debut is testament to this branding strategy.

The true definition of Branding is “the process of identifying the distinctive value of the object in question, that distinctive value of which your consumers covet or desire to own and are willing to pay an extra amount of money for.” The object in question can be a brand a product or a business. Branding strategies are hence the branding ideas that deliver this perception to the clientele for consumption.

While the above might sound very complicated to novice marketers, there are several steps that you can follow to ease the complication and drive your branding strategies to the next level.

What is Your Business, Really?

If you have not done so, start today and outline your mission and vision statements for your business. You should also brainstorm to include your core values. Essentially, your vision statement is one which your business wishes to become while the mission statement is one which identifies succinctly what your business does. Your core values on the other hand indicate the principle values and beliefs which your business operates around. You business core values should emulate that of a human, such as being passionate about service, respectful of the environment, and assume accountability etc.

Who and Where are Your Target Audience?

Knowing your target audience is the key to any successful business and your target audiences can be identified by three main segmentation tools, namely demographics, psychographics, as well as technographics. Take note here, that you will need to identify the profile of your Ideal target audience as this should be enable you to better target them with your branding ideas. Demographics tend to measure the hard facts of your target segments, like age group, education, geographic location, income etc. Psychographics indicate the soft aspects like buying behaviour, attitudes and values. Technographics is a new terminology which describe individuals who embrace a technology-driven culture, love social networking, live a mobile lifestyle, uses the computer, tablet and cell phone, twit and FB on a daily basis.

What is Your Value Proposition?

Having analysed the above two questions in depth, you should now have better and more intimate information about your own business as well as your target audience. Now think of a unique value or benefit that your product or brand can offer to your ideal target audience. The unique value benefit should be so compelling that your potential clientele cannot afford to refuse. Check out that one key benefit in your core value that you can expound on. This value benefit must be able to stand the test of time and must have a competitive sustainable advantage over other brands.

Creating and Delivering Your Brand Message

You should know your product inside out before you even begin to think of your branding message. Look at the 4Ps of your product, that is, the marketing mix which includes the product features and unique benefits, solutions that it brings to your ideal target audience, pricing strategies, delivery channels etc. All these components will eventually help you to narrow down your product or brand positioning into eye catching, thought provoking and compelling brand positioning strategies.

An eye catching logo for instance can invoke memory and create positivism towards your brand thus endearing it in the mind of your customers. Your taglines or slogans must be value driven and more preferably be that unique selling position that you have created. These brand messages will then drive forth your product branding from longer lasting mindshare.

Achieve Synergy with Your Integrated Marketing Mix

As discussed, the branding strategies must blend with your overall 4p Marketing Mix else they will all seem disjointed and there will not be a single message to be carried forth to the public, thereby creating confusion of the brand, the product and even about the business in the minds of your target audience. Synergy should also be achieved across all marketing platforms as in the amalgamation of offline traditional marketing, online marketing as well as mobile marketing, with each platform supporting one another to create the optimized branding effects.

Developing an integrated marketing mix means that you have to constantly assess the market response, adjust and tweak your message accordingly. Do it subtly not to cause alarm so unless you have intentions to drastically change your branding message and strategies. Continuously test your message with subtle changes and blend it well with the right marketing mix.

Remember that branding is a process and it takes time, effort, and patience to embed the brand into the minds of your target audience. No one off approach can help you achieve your branding objectives. And aligning your advertising, sales campaigns, public relations messages in tandem with your branding strategies will help to synergize and enhance the overall impact.

The main advantages of mobile marketing over existing forms of marketing strategies is its inherent capability to have extensive reach but at the same time, are more affordable.

If you get down to the basics of what drives business, it is simply these two equations, namely, the number of leads generated as well as lead-to-sale conversion efficiency. When you use traditional forms of marketing tactics to generate leads, the cost effectiveness is low. However, with mobile marketing, you will not have much less problems turning over high lead-to-sale conversion as well as the generation of leads.

The Conventional Marketing Approach

Take for instance you spend $10,000 on a booth for 10 days at the centre of a shopping mall to launch your new product and run an introductory product redemption promotion. You tap on the traffic from the mall but note that about 40 percent are repeat traffic of mall staff, hence hurting your potential to generate your target number of leads. Would this be the best use of your financial and manpower resources to introduce your new product which is carried across all major supermarkets within the vicinity? This is also not a good strategy for lead-to-sale conversion either.

The Mobile Marketing Approach

Or would you rather run a mobile marketing campaign with text marketing messages to potential customers for a free redemption of your new product at any supermarkets by simply producing that text message to the cashiers? And did I mention that you probably spend less than a third that budget of your shopping mall launch project?

To top this off, you would probably be able to tap on the mobile marketing companies which provide a wide reach of market segments which you could drill down to target very specific target audiences. This capability will enable you to market to the most suitable potential buyers. This approach would not only generate for you your desired number of leads but also a much higher lead-to-sale conversion.

Instead of running unprofitable conventional promotions wasting both financial and manpower resources, using mobile marketing is seems a more viable and successful alternative. It is capable of helping you reduce business and marketing costs as well as enhancing efficiency.

The ability of mobile marketing to enable two way or multi-way communication enhances your brand building strategies, interactivity and also helps you elevate your customer service to a different level.

There are indeed more ways than these for mobile marketing to build your brand, your products, and your business. Its potential is limited by only your innovation and creativity. Its boundaries stretch beyond conventional marketing, and mobile marketing is indeed a multi-purpose tool surpassing most traditional marketing approaches in profit maximization.

The Power of Word of Mouth – Testimonials

No matter how great your products are, It is what your customers have to say about them that either make or break your success story. Getting existing customers who are satisfied and happy with your products to say it out loud, expound the benefits and personally endorse your products is the best testimonials you could ever get.

Check out their permission to publish their testimonials for marketing and advertising purposes. Do not underestimate the positive impact that customer testimonials have on helping you build credibility and trust. This approach can be used as an effective branding strategy if you work that into your marketing campaigns properly.

Critical Pricing Perceptions – Affordability

Yes it is all about the perception. Reality does not change but many buyers simply perceive affordability to be more palatable when you breakdown your pricing into “12 monthly instalments” instead of a hefty 550 dollar one time payment. Or the “less than 2 dollar a day and you can own this comfy couch Right Now” pitch never seem to lose its magic.

Perception of affordability also includes rounding down of the dollar, such as $19.90 or $19.70 rather than $20. This pricing tactic gives the perception that the item is less expensive.

Captivating Headlines and Taglines For Slogans

Use attention grabbing headlines to catch potential customers’ attention. Invoke their curiosity, and generate extensive eyeballing. Profound headline and taglines are capable of conveying intense and deep messages to potential buyers. This is Adverstisements 101 for you.

What Is In An Irresistible Compelling Offer?

Provide an offer which, in the perception of your potential buyers, too good to give up. Pricing is only a small part of the equation, package your offer such that the real value of sum of its parts is greater that the whole, and a lot greater at that too. Gifts and bonus products, free travel size packages that come with the purchase, or accumulation of points for attractive redemption that one must have.

“Offer Expiring in two days”, “80% discount of products will end tomorrow” are some of the motivation tactics used by retailers to push for more sales. Run campaigns which cost you little but enhance the bottom line.

Expound On Your Benefits Not Features

Many marketers tend to sell the features rather than the benefits of their products and hence achieve mediocre results. A feature of a portable food warmer is “keeps your food warm” while a benefit is “enables you freedom to bring your toddler out and feed him wherever you may be”.

Note that your potential customers buy from you because they want to enjoy the benefits of your product. They can easily read the features on the labels. Most products have an emotional tag which drives buyers. Use NLP’s “feel” perception to build on the benefits, add on the emotive aspects to your sales pitch.

For more information on this series, check out part 1 at New Business Startups – Timeless Small Business Marketing Strategies That Always Work.

Check out Small Business Marketing Strategies if you are planning on new business startups.

A little strategizing with your business planning could actually help you manage the new business startups. The key reason that I stress new business startups is such that you could start everything new and afresh but if you already have an existing business up, you could make the necessary adjustments to grow it effectively. Here are some of the key timeless small business marketing strategies that never fail to work.

What Is Your Key USP? – Unique Selling Proposition, That Is…

Brand your product into that perception niche that you wish to dominate you’re your authentic Unique Selling Proposition. Stand out from the mundane, shine bright with your USP, make and fulfil your promise to customers. If your USP is 1 hour delivery time within a 40 mile radius, then you should honour that promise, else your reputation will go down the drain. If your promise is to ensure that children who attend your tutoring classes will achieve at least one “A” grade for one subject within three months, you jolly well make sure that the children achieve what you promise the parents.

Customer Retention vs Customer Acquisition – Which Should You Choose?

Which is a cheaper option, customer retention or customer acquisition? The answer is obvious of course, it is Customer retention. Did you know that it costs about six times more to attract a new customer as it would to keep and milk an existing one? And research has shown that the success probability of selling to a new customer is 1 out of 16 as compared to that of 2.2 when selling to existing customers.

Yes, you would have to spend 6 times more money for new customer acquisition, money which could literally be spent on growing and building your existing customer base as well as forging more lucrative joint ventures with complimentary business partnerships. Of course with new business startups, you will surely need to spend on customer acquisition strategies in order to grow your customer list. The key to customer retention is relationship building with them to establish trust and credibility.

Cross-selling and Up-selling – How and When Should You Do It?

Cross selling and Upselling have become very successful as small business marketing strategies these days. Of course for new business startups you will need to spend time growing your customer lists, build bonding rapport with them before you start to sell to them. Indeed, it might be easier to cross sell to existing clientele in this environment of economic downturn as existing customers are already familiar with you and more trust has been built.

That said however, you should be very sure that you are not overtly pushy with your upsells as upsells mean selling more expensive items to your list. You need to know your clientele profiles sufficiently well in order to achieve your selling objectives, yet keep them loyal at the same time. From a needs perspective, customers must have a compelling need or want for your product to buy it. And your task is to invoke that desire to possess the product by expounding on the USP which meets their needs.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this series of New Business Startups – Timeless Small Business Marketing Strategies That Always Work. Yes, starting your own small business may not be as difficult as you are led to believe.

Check out Small Business Marketing Strategies for more information here.