Some of the marketing services currently available over the Internet today can be found on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Go Daddy and a variety of other search engines. If you do not want to pay for these services and desire to create a presence on the Web you may want to consider some social sites to do some advertizing for you. Some of these alternatives for less costly, or free, Internet marketing can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Meetup.com and Gmail – just to name a few.

Using these less expensive alternatives may not get you to the top of the Google page however; these social networking services are also being fished daily for key-words found within the text contained on the pages generated on each of them. Further, the people who use these alternatives have found a way to create leads and generate interest that has proved to be an invaluable part of doing business.

The following is a breakdown of some of the services you can expect to find of each of the aforementioned sites:

• LinkedIn will allow you to create a personal and/or professional profile where you may include who you are, where you are located and a detailed description of the services your company – provides.
• Facebook provides the user with a personal profile as well as an option to generate a business profile within their existing account. It is easy to toggle between your two pages and share your business profile with all of your Facebook friends and gives them an opportunity to click a ‘Like’ button at the top of your profile. Clicking on the ‘Like’ option generates another post to your friends Newsfeed whereby all of your friends’ contacts are then also able to click to view your business page instantly.
• Gmail provides a free email service as well as a chat option that several companies use for sales meetings as well as to train employees all over the globe. One business owner shared with me recently that she “found the people that don’t do well in the beginning are the ones that don’t use the Gmail chat option.”
• Twitter allows users to create a public account that gives the option to post your page to Google for free. Utilizing the status message on Twitter also gives your friends and ‘followers’ updates to what may be happening with you or your business instantly.
• YouTube is a free viral service that has been used by people to express their more creative side. Creating a professional business video and posting it to YouTube is a great way to educate the public at large about the services your company provides and to generate interest and leads that will inevitably grow your business.
• Meetup.com is unique in that it allows people to search for events taking place within their local community. Posting an event on this site can greatly benefit a business owner, or someone looking to generate leads and is well worth taking the ten minutes to sign up and post your event to their site.

Additionally, if you are looking for an inexpensive way to promote your business, Vista Print provides a wide array of creative services that business owners can use to market themselves at very little cost. The first 250 business cards ordered through VistaPrint are free.

While there seems to be a plethora of information and services available on the World Wide Web, the Internet, as a vehicle of marketing and doing business, is still in its infancy stages of what can be created and accomplished. As Walt Disney said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

References:

Geoffrey Kutnick, Marketing Director, Rudeluv Designs & Marketing, RD&M,; Lecture; 26, July 2011

As business people who dream of owning and operating a personal business, it is essential for us to create a written plan of action. Having a management action plan gives a road-map to the desired success ahead. Setting short and long term goals are a good way to help you stay focused when the path of entrepreneurship becomes overwhelming. Some other things to consider when creating a plan of action include location, target market, a competitive market analysis, vision and goals, mission statement, start-up and operating costs; profit and loss cost analysis, insurance and business license fees, advertising allocation, as well as any additional help will be needed, by way of employees or outside marketing consulting. All of these areas of consideration are only some of the components that go into creating any good business plan. Putting your business ideas in writing, along with specific facts and figures can take some time and effort and compiling components of a solid business plan is an often arduous process. Some business owners make the mistake of rushing into business dealings without putting anything in writing and avoid developing a clear and conscientious plan however; a prudent business person will make the investment to do so. Most entrepreneurs find that their businesses plans provide an invaluable tool for doing business and lend a greater sense of clarity as to what can be anticipated on the road that lies ahead. While you may want to seek advice during the often laborious process of compiling your business plan, it is not a good idea to have someone else write it for you. Since your business plan will be a reflection of your goals, aspirations and dreams for the future, it is something very personal. Most business owners have found that their Mission Statement is the most valuable component to their business plan. It establishes a clear picture of your intention and can later provide you with a great tool for training employees so they are able to see the bigger picture. A good mission statement can also be modified and used in much of your advertising and business dealings in the future. Further, written documentation that illustrates your intention of proposed business may also be useful if you intend to seek additional start-up capital from a financial institution.

If you are not sure how to obtain information needed to create other portions of your business plan, say a good competitive market analysis for example, your local Chamber of Commerce (COC) is a good place to start. The COC is an organization that helps local business owners by providing them with a wide array of information pertaining to the business dealings within their community and can offer you with some valuable information useful for you when writing your business plan. However; while the public information provided by the COC may help you with gathering general information you will need to for your competitive analysis, information may be limited and will require creativity in putting it all together. Further, if you need help with writing your business plan, as most everyone does, you will likely spend a lot of time on the Internet searching for examples of existing plans or even paying for services to companies who assert great success with ‘helping people just like you.’ While some great information and services may be found over the Internet, questions and concerns may not be answered completely as you attempt to tailor your plan to be a true reflection of your company. One of the most valuable ways many people have found in creating a business plan is to take a college course. If higher education is not within your means, consider a community college, which is much more affordable.

Once you complete your business plan, it will likely be something you will be proud of for years to come. Remember to continue to set short and long term goals once you are in business to help you work your plan and achieve success.

Also see : Entrepreneurship > Marketing Using Customer Testimonials

Most sizable organizations have an inside sales staff or inside sales department. I would like to make an argument for an inside marketing department, or at least a marketing department that does not ignore this essential role. As a marketing professional—or group thereof—you are responsible for marketing your product not only to the external customer, but also your own sales force. Sound strange? Think about it. First of all, if you are lucky enough to work in an organization where the sales staff are direct employees of the company, you are guaranteed their entire bandwidth, whatever that may be. Unfortunately, we do not all have that luxury, and many of us work in organizations where sales are handled through representatives and distributors. When this is the case, you are now competing with other companies for the salespeople’s bandwidth, as they likely represent or distribute more than just your product. In this situation, it becomes essential to market to the sales force in order to get buy-in from them in terms of the market potential for your product, the strength of the product’s unique value proposition, and the return they will achieve for the bandwidth they devote to you.

Furthermore, the sales force often needs a great deal more information or resources than the average customer, and providing additional information and training that will allow the salesperson to have enough tools under their belt to address many different customers with varying needs is also essentially the responsibility of the marketing department. Why? The marketing department should ultimately have some control over the messages being given to customers and prospects. What one’s brand comes to represent out in the world is in large part a reflection of how well-prepared your sales team is. Providing sales people with a deeper knowledge about your product than you would the customer boosts sales confidence, helps salespeople take on a more consultative role with the customer (consultative sales strategies are highly effective), and creates an image for your brand that is associated with knowledge.

Finally, getting your sales staff as excited about your product as you might want your customers to be is a strategy that will help you as a marketer—and your sales team as a sales team—in several distinct and highly useful ways. First of all, excitement is contagious, and our expertise as marketing professionals is to infect others with excitement or admiration for a product. The first people we want to pass this infection to is our own sales force. A salesperson that is truly excited about a product comes off as honest and helpful, so it is to our benefit to get them there. Second, by getting our salespeople excited about our product offering, capabilities, etc, we teach them tools they can use to get others excited about our offerings as well. This teach-by-doing or teach-by-showing model works very well for most learning styles and is bound to be more effective than trying to teach your salespeople about getting customer buy-in via powerpoint presentation.

Read More…

• Back to Basics Marketing
• Marketing as Company Wide Responsibility
• Mobilization: Reaching Outside the Marketing Department
• Advanced Lead Qualification: Sales and Marketing Work Together
• Sales’ Feedback into Marketing: Profiling Prospects and Their Problems
• You Are Here “Inside Marketing”: Marketing to Your Own Sales Organization
• Developing Unique, Customer-Focused Value Propositions
• How to Train an Entry-Level Marketing Employee
• When Return on Investment Doesn’t Paint a Full Picture
• Defining and Presenting Value Propositions in a Competitive Market
• Logos and Promotional Product Designs for “Difficult” Subjects
• Defining and Refining Value Propositions for Luxury Items
• Evaluating Return-On-Investment (ROI) for Tradeshow Activities
• Management Mistake in Small Business: No Investment during Trying Times