The Ultimate Marketing Toolkit: Ads That Attract Customers. Blogs That Create Buzz. Web Sites That Wow.

THE

ULTIMATE 2nd Edition

MARKETING

TOOLKIT

Ads That Attract Customers.

Blogs That Create Buzz.

Websites That Wow.

PAULA PETERS

Copyright © 2009, 2006 by Paula Peters

All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any

form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are

made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by

Adams Business, an imprint of Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322. U.S.A.

www.adamsmedia.com

ISBN 10: 1-59869-893-1

ISBN 13: 978-1-59869-893-0

eISBN: 978-1-44051-411-1

Printed in the United States of America.

J I H G F E D C B A

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

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—From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION

INTRODUCTION OPEN UP YOUR TOOLKIT

CHAPTER 1 THE THIRTY-SECOND SOUND BITE

CHAPTER 2 THE UNIQUE LOGO

CHAPTER 3 THE TAG LINE

CHAPTER 4 THE BUSSINES CARD

CHAPTER 5 THE LETERHEAD

CHAPTER 6 THE WEBSITE

CHAPTER 7 THE PAY-PER-CLICK AD

CHAPTER 8 THE BLOG

CHAPTER 9 THE ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK

CHAPTER 10 THE E-MAIL OFFER

CHAPTER 11 THE FOLLOW-UP E-MAIL

CHAPTER 12 THE BIO

CHAPTER 13 THE BROCHURE

CHAPTER 14 THE INTRODUCTORY LETTER

CHAPTER 15 THE NEWS LETTER

CHAPTER 16 THE POSTCARD

CHAPTER 17 THE PRINT AD

CHAPTER 18 THE PRESS RELEASE

CHAPTER 19 WHEN TO HIRE A PROFESIONAL

APPENDIX SAMPLES

PERMISSIONS AND CREDITS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Through this process, I have learned that creating a good book is never the work of only one person. It is a combination of the synergies and efforts of many different people, all putting their positive energy in the right direction. I have been fortunate enough to have that right mix of people in my life as I worked on this book.

I would like to give special thanks to Ryan and Zack, for their support and belief in me. I am very grateful to all of my family for their constant questions and words of encouragement: Audrée, Joe, Christine, Tiajah, Viviana, Mia, Ella, Jeff, Misty, Ann, Rich, Grandma Humrichouse, Aunt Dee, and Aunt Adrienne. Special thanks also go to my supporters from the past few years: Lisa, Dale, Michelle and Dugger, Mark Havran, Brody Dorland, Mark Short, Aunie and Marty, Brenda and Scottie, Ken Godwin, Dr. Teri, Debbie’s Book Club, and the Lawrence Girls’ Night (you know who you are!). To Brittany, I could not have done this without your help. And to my father, Grandpa Dick—we all miss you.

Without the coaching and counseling of my excellent agent, Mike Snell, I would not have gotten past the first step of this process. And without the helpful guidance from my wonderful editors, Peter Archer and Meredith O’Hayre, this book would not be in your hands right now.

I am also grateful to the many people who gave me permission to use their samples and ideas in this book. You have all been super to work with!

To the reader: I hope that you enjoy reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

FOREWORD TO THE

SECOND EDITION

In the years since I first wrote The Ultimate Marketing Toolkit, a revolution has happened: electronic marketing—or e-marketing—tools have now become the hottest way to market your business. And, for the first time ever, these tools are widely and easily available to small businesses.

Because of this e-marketing revolution, customers are more sophisticated than ever. They shop for increasingly complex services and products on the web and feel confident about their decisions. Those who don’t buy on the web still use it as a tool to make the final decision in their purchase—such as following a sales meeting with a prospective vendor.

As a small business or organization, you are missing out on a great number of business opportunities if you do not market your business through the web. Not only do you need to have a website up and running—at a minimum—but you also need to effectively market using the Internet. If you don’t, I can guarantee you that your competitors will soon outstrip you—if they haven’t already.

While few businesses today are ready to give up their print brochures and business cards entirely in favor of blogs and social networking sites, customers are demanding more and more electronic interaction. Since every business still needs to attract customers, the goal is to find the right mix of traditional and e-marketing tools that works for your audience.

The good news is that e-marketing tools are now easier than ever to use, even for tech novices. There are also more services targeted—and priced—toward small business.

I hope you will try out many of the new e-marketing tools available in this book, including the follow-up e-mail, pay-per-click marketing, the blog, and the online social networking. You will be amazed at how easy they are to execute, and at the new customers they bring to your business.

Above all, don’t forget to experiment! Remember, marketing is more of an art than a science. Try a few tools. See what works for you. When you are done, see how many new customers you got out of your experiment. Keep what works, throw out what doesn’t . . . and try again. What works for one business may be totally different for the next.

Happy marketing!

Paula Peters

Peters Writing Services, Inc.

INTRODUCTION

OPEN UP YOUR

TOOLKIT

The biggest challenge you face every day is getting customers to buy your product or service. Whether you own a small business, help out with your church, handle marketing for a local association, or create marketing materials for an ad agency or major corporation, the challenge is the same: How will customers find you? And once they find you, how will they know that they need you?

Today, technology compounds that challenge, as more and more customers look for products and services exclusively through the Internet. Now you are expected to find customers through electronic means as well as traditional ones. And if you don’t, you can be certain that within the next two years, your competitors will be.

Even if you work for an established business, the pressure to find new customers is an ongoing problem. You can’t always find them when you need them. And it seems that you always need them in a steady supply!

Though finding customers is a tough enough nut for anybody to crack, it is even tougher when you throw in a limited marketing budget and the challenge of so many new technologies. Marketing can quickly get expensive. Maybe you’ve even checked out the price tags of a few advertising agencies or public relations firms, and you found that you can’t afford them. How do you sell yourself to customers when your marketing budget is small—or nonexistent?

That’s especially true when times are tough and marketing budgets are among the first area of the business to shrink. Such circumstances pose a special challenge to you to be creative and cost-effective in your marketing.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel: you can create these marketing tools yourself. Yes, I said—yourself! Creating most marketing tools is not as hard as you may think—even electronic marketing tools can be created easily by a single person. Whether you own your own business, work for another company, or just help out with a local organization, you can create all of the basic tools you need to market yourself—today. Right now. This minute.

The Ultimate Marketing Toolkit is the perfect book for anyone who needs to market, sell, or brand their small- to medium-sized business or organization. Even larger companies can benefit from the easy instructions included in this book. In fact, these chapters will give you all of the information you need to start selling your products and services quickly—even on a shoestring budget. You will learn how to write, design, and execute many of the basic tools for marketing, including:

• Business cards

• Brochures

• Websites

• E-mail offers

• Pay-per-click ads

• Blogs

In other words, you’ll learn everything you need to know to help win customers and begin earning money—now! It’s a fast, easy way to advertise your business, with very little cash invested up-front.

Each chapter of this book covers instructions for creating one piece of your marketing toolkit and is completely independent from the other chapters. You do not need to read the chapters in order. Instead, pick the marketing tool you need at the moment and read through the corresponding chapter to learn how to create it.

Each chapter comes with complete instructions for writing, designing, printing, posting, and submitting the marketing tools you need. Feel free to pick out the tools as you need them. You will probably find that you require different marketing tools during the different phases of growth at your business or organization.

In addition, since the last edition of the book, we have added lots of new chapters—and ideas—for e-marketing. As more and more customers buy from the web, you probably realize that your small business must create a web presence to attract new sales. Moreover, to be competitive, you will probably need to market through the Internet—through e-mails, blogs, and pay-per-click ads. You may be surprised at how easy it is to generate these electronic tools.

Above all, remember this: you are the boss. The suggestions and instructions included in this book are designed to walk you through the basics of each tool. You are free to deviate from these suggestions at any point. If you don’t like particular content or a design idea, scratch it and try your own. Be creative and experiment as much as you dare. In my experience, some of the best marketing pieces are the ones that break all the rules.

Good luck!

CHAPTER 1

THE THIRTY-SECOND

SOUND BITE

Before you ever spend a dime on your marketing, spend the next ten minutes developing a good thirty-second sound bite for your business. Why? Because you will use it more than any other tool in your marketing toolkit—and it’s one tool that is totally 100 percent free.

WHAT IS IT?

A thirty-second sound bite is a short introduction of you and your business that can be accomplished in thirty seconds or less. It answers the question that people always ask at parties: So . . . what do you do? It is your chance to show them your stuff.

Think of your thirty-second sound bite as a TV commercial, delivered by you. Someone has asked you for more information about your business, and you want to provide it as concisely as possible. You never know—he or she could be a potential customer.

This is especially important for new business owners. I have encountered many new business owners who miss out on opportunities with potential customers because they cannot quickly describe their core business concept in thirty seconds or less. Sometimes their message is so unclear that I still don’t get it, even after I ask questions! This is a particularly difficult problem for those of us with technology, computer, and manufacturing businesses. Sometimes it is challenging to explain to the average person just what we do—but that is exactly what we must do if we want to spread the word about our business and find potential leads through our networking efforts.

I once went to a chamber of commerce networking event with a friend of mine who owned a physical therapy business. After he finished talking to a nice woman who owned a sign shop, he moved on, and I introduced myself to her. After a few minutes of talking and giving each other our thirty-second sound bites, she mentioned that she was looking for a physical therapist to help her correct a running injury.

A physical therapist? I said. Did you realize that the guy you were just talking to was a physical therapist?

She looked stunned for a moment, then said, You know, we talked for five minutes about his business, but I never really figured out what he did!

Clearly, that was a missed opportunity for my friend that could have been avoided by a well-thought-out thirty-second sound bite.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT THIRTY-SECOND

SOUND BITE?

A great thirty-second sound bite will explain your business concept clearly and concisely in less than thirty seconds. When people hear it, they will know immediately whether they need your products or services—or not. That’s because a good thirty-second sound bite always includes four things:

1. The name of your business

2. Your main product or service

3. The customer group that uses your product or service

4. One benefit to those customers of using your product or service

Once you get these four things down, your new potential customers should have no trouble understanding what you do and how you can help them.

Jim Sherwin runs a business designing gardens for homeowners in a Kansas City suburb. His business is called Tulips ’N Tomatoes. (Please note that all names of businesses, locations, and business owners have been changed in this book. This protects the personal marketing information that I receive from my customers, colleagues, and class participants.)

When I met Jim, he gave me this excellent thirty-second sound bite:

Hi, my name is Jim Sherwin, and I own Tulips ’N Tomatoes. We design flower and vegetable gardens for people who love to have fresh-cut flowers and fresh vegetables in their homes but are too busy to care for their gardens. We design the garden, plant the seedlings, and come back once a month to make sure it’s growing properly until harvest.

Doesn’t that sound appealing? And if you are a busy parent holding down a job in suburban Kansas City, but still want to enjoy the fresh taste of a summer garden, then you see immediately that Tulips ’N Tomatoes is the help you need. Jim’s thirty-second sound bite gives us a great visual image of the big, ripe tomatoes just waiting to be eaten!

Notice that what Jim is not doing is a hard sell. He is not imposing himself on the listener or pressuring the listener to buy anything. Don’t confuse a thirty-second sound bite with a sales pitch. They are two different things. In this case, Jim is simply sharing a story about what he does for a living. But it’s a carefully thought-out story that can solicit new business from new customers. I like to call it a soft sell.

With some careful wording, even the most complicated business can fit into a thirty-second sound bite.

WRITE YOUR OWN

Now that you’ve read an example, you are ready to write your very own thirty-second sound bite. Don’t worry—this will not be hard. Just take out a blank piece of paper and a pen or open a new word processing document, take a deep breath, and begin.

Describe Your Product or Service

To start, write a short note that describes your main product or service. That’s it. It doesn’t need to be fancy, and it doesn’t even need to be a complete sentence.

Cindy Blair provides general legal mediation services to her customers. Her business is Blair Mediation Services, LLC. The description that she writes looks like this:

Legal mediation services.

That’s it. As I said, nothing fancy. Now, you do the same thing.

Pick a Target Customer

Next, write down a description of your target customer. Who is the main person or type of business that you sell to? If you are a new business or just dreaming of being in business, use your imagination. Whom do you want to sell to?

TIP!

Having an accurate understanding of your target customer is one of the keys to successful marketing. The more specifically you can describe your target customer, whether it is a person or a business—including income level, location, hobbies, buying habits—the more solid your marketing toolkit will be.

The more specific you are in identifying your target customer, the better your thirty-second sound bite will be. Your customers could be thirty-five-year-old moms who own dogs and live in city lofts; CFOs of small manufacturing firms with $1 million in annual revenue and sixty employees; or