Someone studying marketing at university, recently asked me what I thought a social media expert was.

I told her that I see social media experts as people, who understand how to make social media platforms deliver results for organizations and individuals.

However, she had a better answer, which I ‘think’ she intended as a joke.  I just had to share it with you, because of you follow any of these people it might sound familiar.

“A social media expert is someone that talks about community, follows tens of thousands of people, then uses software, so they never have to listen to what the people they follow are saying!”

That made me smile!

Photo: Disco Stu

Related posts:

1. Don’t copy your social media guru
2. Twitter junkies and social media addicts

As you may already know, I am passionate about helping as many people as possible to massively boost their sales and profits. This means I’m always looking for great marketing ideas, which I can share with people – and today, I have enlisted the help of 37 amazing professionals, who are going to each give a single, short marketing tip!

What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?

My question was; “What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?” Now, the reason the following answers to this question are so focused, is that they were given by people who only had 140 characters in order to get their answer across!

Twitter

Yes, each of the answers you are about to read, were submitted by people I do not know, but who follow me via my favourite social media website Twitter.  The end result are 37 diverse and often-powerful answers, from 37 incredibly clever people, who wanted to pass on their ideas to help you and your business!

I am posting the answers exactly as they were sent, with the abbreviations etc, so you can see for yourself just how much value someone can get into such short messages!

It’s also worth considering that these answers come from a brilliantly rich group of people, from many different profiles of businesses, and this is reflected in their answers – which really helps!

I think the end result is amazing and would like to personally thank everyone who was kind enough to offer this advice here for my readers.  Obviously, I do not endorse and am not responsible for, the content of the external sites listed in this post!

After you read the answers below, see if you can offer some great advice yourself, using 140 characters, in the comments section!

So, what 1 piece of marketing advice would YOU give to a start-up business?

Here’s 37 answers in 140 characters or less!

Marketing is like a snowball. You have to keep rolling to see results. You can’t start and stop and start and stop.
Cynthia Powell www.ChicksAndCubs.com

Innovation in marketing is as much imp as innovation in product itself. think different in marketing it.
Sushrut Bidwai www.sushrutbidwai.com

Invest in the right marketing people, both leaders & executers. People w/ vision + desire / workethic to make vision happen.
Chris Hoppel Samsung www.samsung.com

Think, do you need your product to succeed or do your customers need your product to succeed?
Aronado www.LuckyStartups.com

1. I laid every biz card I had across a table, picked up the phone & started calling ea. contact.
2. Held in-person meetings to tell our story.
Lisa Cruz

Help others link to you by writing articles, link swaps, donate products for prize giveaways, send products for blog reviews.
www.MyPreciousKid.com

Take small steps toward big goals every day, don’t climb the mountain all at once or you’ll get discouraged. Discipline counts.
Juliann Grant http://blog.telesian.com

Communicate possible outcomes. Start-ups are driven with passion. Visualize potential outcomes so clients get excited.
Jeff Cook www.digitalriver.com

Don’t try do everything yourself, outsource tasks that don’t directly make you money. Ex: accounting, website design.
Kim Cornwall Malseed www.marcomink.com

Focus, focus, focus!
Lance Ulanoff Editor-in-chief with www.PCMag.com

Be clear about what you do, focus on it and be as good as you possibly can at it!
David Rosam http://dangerous-thinking.com

Establish an ad budget first thing. 5% of sales should be saved for marketing and decided upfront where to spend.
Joe Gauder http://supersonicstandstill.blogspot.com

Brand representation is every experience the customer has in affiliation with the company.
Christina Wehry www.coloradoshakes.org

Blog for SEO. Human, affordable, & allows in-bound marketing
http://blogging.compendiumblog.com

Define yourself and be true to that definition in everything you do. You cannot be “all things to all people
Kathleen Morse

Work, work some more, keep going, keep trying and be patient – take extra care of your users.
CJ Jenkins http://scienceforseo.blogspot.com

Relationships matter most. Emotional connection+status w brand. Offer MORE value that what u get. Participate in community.
Lisa de Bruin http://winedivergirl.wordpress.com

Do not compromise your fees. Charge by project, not hourly. Don’t waste money on brochures. Have a clear vision of your business/market.
Joanne Victoria www.JoanneVictoria.com

Have money and plan set aside for 2 yrs of no-to-next-to-no profit; of course aim for better and sooner
Christian Markley; www.blu3digital.com

Follow up with clients and potential clients on a consistent basis, create simple systems to maintain the follow up!
Alan Underkofler www.followupsuccess.com

My advice: Social networks do not magically bring people to your product you have to engage in the community to see any results.
Tony Colvin http://ireflectm.com

Define your niche market, stay away from paying big bucks for ads that don’t target your niche.
Denise Russos http://posolutions.wordpress.com

First marketing money should be spent on the web – highest accountability & returns.
Darryl Parker www.parkerweb.com

All action is a response to a felt need: find the need, appeal to the need at least 7 times, and offer a solution!
Bill Collier http://blog.freedomist.info

Do your research first! Make sure you have a market for your product or service. Separate your emotion from the facts.
Wendy Limauge www.businessbloggingguide.com

Make sure you know your purpose, identity & audience. 100% focus & clarity is key to success in a fragmented world.
Damien Basile www.thecauseisthehabit.com

Just get it out there. It doesn’t have to be perfect yet. Don’t let analysis paralysis set in. You can always fine tune later.
Christopher Thiede www.buildcommunications.com

Don’t overestimate your own ability to market yourself. Get an expert. Their objective view and knowledge is invaluable.
Tony Roberts www.inhumanbeings.com

Build your network, both online and in person. these are your foot soldiers, resources, etc. help them and they will help you.
Jon-Mikel Bailey www.woodstreet.com

Be honest. Under promise and over deliver.
Brian Johnson www.konnects.com

Be authentic and truly desire to help people with your business and success will come to you.
Kim Fenolio www.americasbestcompanies.com

Do NOT skimp on your web presence. Regardless what product or service you sell/provide most research begins online.
Charles Lauller www.bizzuka.com

Monitor activity and track time/resources invested vs returns. Change one aspect at a time to understand impact of the change.
Reeta Luthra www.paradoxofreality.com

Shamelessly leverage who you know to seed word-of-mouth marketing. your network is your most valuable asset
Maxine Teller http://mixtmediastrategies.com

Talk to your customer. constantly. don’t assume you have what they need. confirm it with them.
Julie Lenzer Kirk www.JulieLenzerKirk.com

There are “bug” days and “windshield” days. Be the Windshield and ready to travel lonely dirt roads to reach your destination.
Tim Hayden www.gpexperience.com

Truly love what you do or you won’t stick with it long enough to succeed!
Karalyn J. Eckerle http://cardinalpointva.typepad.com

Conclusion

The marketing tips above were sent to me within just thirty minutes of asking the original question.  This means that there are not only a lot of extremely helpful people ‘out there’ – it also shows what a great marketing and business development tool Twitter can be for your business.

OK – Now it’s YOUR turn!

In 140 characters or less, please share YOUR answer to this question;
“What 1 piece of marketing advice would you give to a start-up business?”

I look forward to reading your replies!
.

No related posts.

Part 1 of ‘The Marketing Mix‘ can be found by clicking here.

I am going to show you how to make your marketing more successful and more reliable, with something called your ‘marketing mix’. I am also going to give you a list and explanation of some of the most popular types of marketing, used by small and medium sized businesses.  I strongly suggest you read part one of this before proceeding.

This is a BIG marketing guide, with lots of great ideas, so please share it on your favourite social network or social bookmarking site.

In part one of this guide I shared one of the most common errors small businesses make with their marketing. The error is that they rely on just one or two different marketing activities in order to generate their sales.

This is a REALLY bad idea!

Firstly, if you rely on just one or two different forms of marketing, you are missing out on STACKS of new business and opportunities! No matter how good you are at getting the full leverage from a couple of marketing activities, you will be placing a very low ceiling on your business’s potential, if you limit yourself in this way. The most successful small businesses all use at least four or five different kinds of marketing – often 8 or 10 or more!

Secondly, by relying on just one or two marketing activities, you leave yourself extremely vulnerable when one of them stops working! A business owner emailed me to say that she relied on an advertisement in a business publication for over 90% of her sales leads. One of her competitors started advertising in the same publication and her number of leads (and sales) dropped by 40% overnight – That hurts.

So, your marketing mix should combine at least four or five different marketing activities, which compound and create a regular supply of sales for you. Here are some of the marketing options you should consider adding to YOUR marketing mix.

Advertising

A targeted message delivered through a great ad, which is read, listened to or watched by your core target client group is REALLY powerful! For a free advertising guide, click here.

Online networking or ‘social networks’

Online networking has great marketing potential. The key is to join a network that is best suited to your needs and to be selective with whom you network! Focus on the quality of people in your network and NOT just the quantity. If you develop a network of 30 well-connected, motivated, professional people and I develop a network of 3000 people who ‘just wanted to join my network’ – your network will be massively more valuable then mine.

A couple of the more popular business networks are www.ecademy.com and www.linkedin.com.  Other’s now use Facebook exclusively as a business networking tool.  I personally use Twitter and have found, like many others, that it is perhaps the most powerful of all.  Whatever network you choose, you are likely to see FAR BETTER results than through wasting your time at traditional ‘networking events’ (Click here to see why traditionasl networking is a waste of your time!)

Exhibitions

As an exhibitor at, (or visitor to), a well-attended exhibition aimed at your target client base – you can easily get to meet people face-to-face, who are almost impossible to reach using other forms of marketing. Depending on your industry or profession and the average lifetime value to your business of a client, you could find exhibiting at well-attended exhibitions an extremely valuable part of your marketing mix. I know companies who win most of their high quality work via exhibitions.

Email marketing

It’s a fact; email marketing is extremely cost effective and certainly one of the most powerful marketing tools available to small businesses. It works incredibly well – and costs little or nothing.

Here are a few things to consider before adding email marketing to your marketing mix. I recommend you build your own email database (mailing list) rather than buy one from a list broker. The best way to get started is to ask your existing clients and contacts if you can have their email address and if it’s ok for you to email them occasionally with news or special offers.

You also need to get people joining your email list from your website! To do this, make it as easy as possible, (like this one), and offer something of value as an incentive for them to join your mailing list (I offer a free ebook) Also, only ask for their email address – not their life history, and let them know that you will never, ever pass on their details to ANYONE!

ONLY send people valuable information (like this free guide) or a genuinely special offer. I also strongly recommend that you don’t bombard people with email; just one message every week or 14 days is more than enough. I send my Newsletter out once every seven to 14 days, because people hate being bombarded with information; even great information! As a result, very few people ask to be removed from my subscriber list.

Finally, to grow your list, ask readers to forward your emails on. Obviously, making sure all the while, that you abide by the rules governing email marketing in your country.

Telephone marketing – Tele sales

Telephone marketing works – but it’s less effective than it used to be. Not that long ago, you could call someone’s direct ‘phone line and know that if they were in, they would pick up the phone. Today, people from even the smallest of companies screen all their inbound calls with voice mail; to eliminate unwanted interruptions and sales calls. This means you now need to make massively more calls to reach a smaller number of people!

I used to tell the owners of small businesses to learn how to make telemarketing calls and then set some time aside and make those calls! Today, I suggest you outsource the whole process to a proven telephone marketing company. Doing it yourself is now a low-leverage marketing activity, because it requires so much time.

Outsourced telephone marketing is still a high leverage activity, because you will usually only pay per lead or sale.

Traditional networking

Traditional networking is a total waste of your time – avoid it!

Your website

It’s not enough to simply ‘have a website’! Your website needs to work for your business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; generating leads, making sales or collecting the email addresses of potential clients. If your website is simply an online brochure, it’s costing you a fortune in lost sales, lost profits and lost opportunities!

When your website is supported by a newsletter and some Internet marketing, the results can be transformational. Still not convinced? Without spending a penny on advertising, my Internet marketing often reaches over 2 million people in a week! I will be writing separate guides all about forum marketing, article marketing, pay-per-click and blogging shortly.

Joint ventures

Sometimes known as a J.V, a ‘Joint Venture’ is where you and another business or person get together to (usually) cross-market your services. The key to JV success, is to find someone credible, who offers a non-conflicting product or service to the exact same profile of person or business as you do.

So, if you sell recruitment services to the hospitality industry and they sell employee benefits packages to the hospitality industry – BINGO! They can include one of your flyers or letters in one of their mailings and you can do the same for them; everybody wins. Avoid doing a JV with ANYONE you contacts you via email – unless you know them or can check them out. If in doubt – leave it.

Endorsed relationships

An ‘Endorsed Relationship’ is similar to a Joint Venture – BUT with one BIG and POWERFUL difference! The person you do the venture with actually gives you their professional or personal endorsement. This is marketing gold dust.

For example: Rather than just slipping one of YOUR marketing flyers in with one of THEIR client mailings (as they would in a Joint Venture), they actually write to their clients and give you their full endorsement. This is easily the single most powerful form of referral and one of the most powerful marketing tools on the planet.

I have seen endorsed mailings return a 90% positive response rate!

Conclusion

Obviously, the above list does not cover every marketing option open to you, but I hope it gives you a few ideas.

No matter how good your service is, your future success will be determined by how good you are at winning and retaining good quality clients. As Robert Kiyosaki says, lots of people can make a better hamburger than McDonalds; but very few can sell hamburgers more successfully. In today’s super-competitive economy, your marketing is more important than ever before, so make sure you give it the time and investment it needs!

No related posts.