4 MONEY SAVINGS TIPS TO HELP YOUR BUSINESS GAIN PUBLIC EXPOSURE

There are many techniques and methods which help an entrepreneur to reduce over their business marketing and advertising expenses – as it is understood that advertising is an integral and important component of any business. No business can survive or be successfully without some form of marketing or advertising. Below are provided some common methods to reduce marketing and advertising costs of your business.

1.) Piggyback: You can do this task jointly associating with other businesses when you sent out flyers and mailers to the local market. In case you are a buyer of a back page of the weekly community newspaper you can divide the cost of that page with another reputable retailer. This way you can piggyback your ad. Though there may be chance of reduced effect of your ad or lacking in response this can help you to maintain a regular advertising presence and saving money. Always piggyback with a reputable business partner. It can reduce the size of your ad you put the entire control over the other person who gets another half of the newspaper or magazine. So buy your ad yourself and ensure not share it with a competitor.

2.)Move to advertising: Take advertising to the next level of public relations as it is essentially free to some extent and measures. With public relations you can have exposure through your local media outlets and can generate better experience to your ad campaign. One good article about your business in a local newspaper or an appearance on a local TV show brings credibility to your business that is hard to gain with advertising.

3.)Referrals: Start and promote a referral system even in your company among your employees. Pay them some incentive for each referral that they bring in to your business. More you can go for word-of-mouth advertising that is great way and is cheaper than any other mode and method of advertising. You can go to social networking sites to promote your business activities. By using sites like Facebook and Twitter you can make good advantage of the social networking craze and can bring new customers to your business.

4.)Blogs: In the present scenario of online business where social media has rose up to a level there you can start a blog for your business. By using a blog you would be in condition to provide regular information about your products to your customer and in meantime can maintain relation with them.

Tips For Small Business Networking and Marketing

Why should you care? Small business drives the economy: they hire employees (two out of every three people hired are by a small business), they purchase goods and really care about growing their business. These entities are very special, but finding them requires a very tailored approach.

The ‘one size fits all’ method doesn’t work when it comes to connecting with small business owners.

Areas on which to focus that help small business owners notice you have to do with:

1) How your service helps the business owner stand out, in other words promotion.

2) How your service helps the business owner find new customers

As you think about how to apply this message to these business owners, don’t use generic “large company” titles such as “marketing director” or “purchasing agent.” Employees of small businesses wear many hats and have many generalists working at them – everyone needing to pitch in to cover the tasks at hand in order to grow their business.

Speak to how your product or service will help them “be found” or drive more revenue – near and dear to all of us, but especially to the small business person.

Understanding that 50 percent of small businesses with less than five employees don’t have a website, you have to think about how to best reach these business owners as well. While they may not have a website, they do subscribe to industry trade journals, meet with peers and use online services to stay competitive. Even though they might not be on the bleeding edge of technology adoption, as they are busy running their company, small businesses definitely look to find new ways of reaching customers.

Introducing your products and services through targeted ad placement is one approach for connecting with this group, another is providing useful information that helps a small business owner stay competitive. Become a champion of this group – provide resources and participate in the conversation where small business owners are.

So what can you quickly do to connect to the SMB audience? I’d suggest participating in these sites where small businesses are actively present:

1.) Manta (www.manta.com)- allows for specialized/targeted advertising to small businesses and decision makers by revenue, employee size, industry, etc...

2.) LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) – allows for finding business professionals by industry

3.) Present.ly (www.presently.com) – allows individuals within a company to post short, frequent updates that are tracked or "followed" by others. Unlike Twitter, it provides a secure and private way to share updates among members of a company, without them being visible to the general public

3.) TalkBizNow (www.talkbiznow.com) – allows networking while visualizing the small-world phenomenon by displaying how each member is connected to any other member.

For more information on marketing your business, please give Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising Agency a call at 1-855-We-Sale-U or visit us on the website at www.MontariBrooklyn.com.

22 Effective Marketing Tips, That Will Help With Branding

 
Montari Brooklyn Marketing and Advertising consistently offers marketing and advertising tips as an informative tool for everyone. To keep yourself up to date, we suggest that you follow our blog, which provides exclusive tips and strategies.
 
1) Marketing 101: Develop a powerful and compelling core message.
 
“Say something, say it well, say it often.”? Why should customers buy from you? Why should they even take a second glance? You need to build a powerful message that gets key points across without clutter … because clutter is what leads to abandonment. Although this is the essence of a successful branding and marketing campaign, you’d be surprised how many companies fail to grasp this concept.
 
2) Make sure your core message is “benefit oriented”?
 
People don’t buy services or products, they buy the benefits of those services or products. In all your communications, make sure your message translates into specific benefits.
 
3) Make sure your initial message directs prospects toward a specific action.
 
Your customers want to be told where to go to find the solutions they seek. This should be abundantly clear to all four major personality groups (Amiables, Drivers, Expressives, and Analyticals). When you invite customers to go somewhere to learn how to interact with your site and find out more about your company, you can greatly increase your potential for conversions.
 
4) Develop imagery that enhances your message and intrigues your target audience.
 
The images on your site should enhance your message by being visually stimulating. Sometimes this may only be an aesthetic; other times it may involve “timelining”? imagery and content together to use space more effectively and get across a message in a more distinctive fashion.
 
5) Develop a unique value proposition (UVP)
 
Sit down with a branding or marketing expert and define a UVP for your company as a reminder of your competitive advantages. Make sure these advantages are customer-centric, not business-centric.
 
6) Incorporate your UVP into all online and off-line media for brand consistency and saturation.
 
Make sure your message constantly reiterates your competitive benefits and your UVP. You never know which aspect of your brand a prospect might respond to, so make sure the message is consistently broadcast in whatever media you use.
 
7) Tell customers what they want to hear, not what you want to tell them.
 
We call this inside-out marketing. Too often, companies unknowingly focus on what they want to say, rather than what customers want to hear. An outside-in perspective with a true 360° view of your company from the customer’s viewpoint is best accomplished with the help of a qualified branding and marketing firm that can determine customers’ attitudes, expectations, and requirements.
 
8) Build value … not boredom.
 
I leave this one to Napoleon Hill: “It is as useless to try to sell a man something until you have first made him want to listen as it would be to command the earth to stop rotating”? Think and Grow Rich "Napoleon Hill"
 
9) Lead with a header and close with a call to action.
 
Readers are much more likely to read your message, white papers, case studies, etc., if you pique their interest or curiosity through well-written headers, transition headers, body content, and calls to action that lead to the next step in a sales cycle. Visit www.imageworksstudio.com for details on building a sales-generating brand.
 
10) “SCAN I AM”?
 
Today’s readers don’t read, they scan. They scan for areas of interest, offers, links to relevant information, etc. So it is important to set up your text so that it can be quickly scanned. Online text is not linear like a book; it’s interactive to follow users’ nonlinear demands.
 
11) Develop a branding “blueprint”? that …
 
shows clearly how you expect prospects to interact with your messages. This blueprint should start with an outline and show all paths from all forms of communication and how they lead to firm sales. Again, marketing and branding professionals can help develop a plan.
 
12) Evaluate your plan. Have others evaluate your plan. Re-evaluate and adjust.
 
No plan is perfect, and any plan should be constantly adjusted to maximize its effectiveness. It is critical to continually audit your branding plan and all your marketing media.
 
13) Re-evaluate again.
 
14) Adjust your blueprint …
 
to adapt to the market, trends, technologies, customer demands, etc. Review quarterly. Every successful brand in the world is optimized regularly. Branding is an ongoing effort, not a one-time occurrence.
 
15) Use measurable tools to track prospect response.
 
Use online forms and phone logs to track responses from prospects. Capturing information via legitimate means allows you to re-market to this customer base and to see which forms, programs, tools, and salespeople are getting the best results.
 
16) Build a list.
 
Use online forms and phone logs to build an opt-in prospect list to serve as a powerful conversion tool. (See below.)
 
17) Re-market, re-market, re-market.
 
A customer may need to see a message more than five times to even notice it once! Keep your marketing efforts going … and going …
 
18) Don’t forget referrals!
 
Build a specific program to track, manage, and solicit referral business. We like e-mail campaigns and direct mail for this. Give us a call to discuss how to make these work for you: 1-855-937-2538
 
19) Up-selling!
 
Your existing customer base is your best source of more business. Develop a formidable plan to make sure your customers know what services you provide and that you keep your core and other related messages in front of your customers as often as possible. (It may take up to 10 forms of contact for a customer to identify with your brand) Remember, sell the benefits…not the service!
 
20) Use programs and tools to generate interest.
 
People like simplicity and packages, offers, and deals that are easy to understand and evaluate. By creating various packages or free tools for prospects to interact with, you can stimulate interest that may have waned otherwise. 
 
21) Hit them from all angles!
 
It’s called shotgun marketing. A shotgun shell contains hundreds of tiny lead balls, increasing your chance of hitting a target. Marketing is much the same … the more media you use effectively, the better the chance that your message will be seen and remembered. There is no secret solution to marketing; it’s all about creating a total user experience across all platforms that projects your brand.
 
22) Use technologies and trends; they are your friends!
 
Using various technologies such as online bookings, reservations, response forms, PDF downloads, Blogging, Wikis, internal search engines, and newsfeeds can have a dramatic effect on your overall brand identity and on your marketing strategy in general. There are too many benefits to go into here, but feel free to visit us www.MontariBrooklyn.com

7 COMMON MISTAKES SMALL BUSINESSES MAKE

While experience can be a great teacher, learning from others' experiences--successes and failures--can save you time, money and a lot of frustration. So when it comes to growing your small business, here are some mistakes you want to avoid or fix.

Mistake No. 1: I Can Do It On My Own
Most of us became entrepreneurs because we are experts or skilled at something and believed we could do it better than our competitors or maybe our current boss. But building a successful business requires more than technical know-how. None of us are experts at everything. So surround yourself with other experts to fill the gaps. Whether you hire employees, sub-contract work, create joint ventures, work with coaches/consultants or develop strategic alliances, the support you need is available. Don't try to do it all yourself.

Mistake No. 2: Great Products the Market Doesn't Want
The best products or services will go unsold if you are talking to the wrong people--those who will likely never buy! Investing your time and money promoting your products or services to people who don't have the resources, authority or need--today or in the future--is both frustrating and costly. Who are the ideal customers for YOUR products and services? Be clear on this, find out where they are and how to reach them and then apply your resources to pull them in.

Mistake No. 3: Talk More Than You Listen
If you want to earn a customer's business, you need to solve their problem or fill a need. So, before you jump into your sales pitch, take the time to ask questions, listen carefully and determine what the customer needs. Your features and benefits are only relevant when they solve a customer's problem or fill a need. Successful people tend to be good listeners--so you'll achieve greater success when you spend less time talking and more time listening.

Mistake No. 4: No Follow Up
Investing resources to generate leads for your company without a proven method to convert them to paying customers is a costly mistake. Whether potential customers come to you by phone, email, online or in person, a system for consistent and timely follow up is key to sales growth. Take the time to develop a procedure for moving prospects to customers. Take advantage of technology, templates and scripts for efficiency and effectiveness. Be consistent and watch your sales soar.

Mistake No. 5: Disjointed or No Procedures
Documented procedures for all the critical tasks and operations is a key to efficiency, consistency, continuous improvement and profitability. Yet despite the benefits, it's ignored by too many small businesses. This mistake becomes obvious when you hire and train new people, attempt to outsource or start losing customers due to poor service or missed deadlines. Take it one at a time, but make written procedures a priority in your business. The results will surprise you.

Mistake No. 6: Hiring on the Fly
"Quick to hire and slow to fire" describes many small businesses. A strong team of people to support your business is certainly important, but only if they are the right people. There are proven hiring systems and tools, including a job description and clear goals, to help small businesses attract and retain quality people. Always hire with a purpose, invest in training, commit to developing your team and be willing to let go of those who don't fit.

Mistake No. 7: Roller Coaster Marketing
For many small businesses, marketing activities and spending looks like a roller coaster, up and down based on how busy you are or how sales are doing. If your marketing is sporadic, your results will likely be the same. The key to attracting and retaining customers is consistency. It is better to do 5-6 lead generation strategies well and consistently than doing 10-20 of them periodically.
Which of these mistakes are impacting your growth and profit? Make it a priority to fix them--one at a time, if necessary. The sooner you do, the sooner your sales and profit will grow.







Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joan_Nowak

SINGLE SOFTBALL SUNDAYS IN CHICAGO - SIGN UP TODAY

For the Fifth consecutive year, Chicago’s only softball for singles who want to mingle will begin on Sunday May 15th, 2011.  Singles Softball Sundays is a league that allows members to sign up without a team or partner. Members are grouped by age and demographics, 18 soft-baller’

s per team half men half women.  

*SEASON STARTS SUNDAY, MAY 15TH
*8 week season (including 2 weeks of playoffs, all teams make it in).
(No games over Memorial Day and July 4th weekends)
*Games played Sundays at 12, 1, 2 & 3 pm.
*All games at Wrightwood Park on Ashland and Wrightwood in Lincoln Park,
just 2 blocks from our league sponsor bar.
*Post-game parties at Augie's Booze & Schmooze on Wrightwood Ave.
(They have a huge parking lot for S3 Softball  League to park in across the street,
   plenty of outdoor seating, a sand volleyball court & bags)

As a new member, you will receive the following:
* "First Pitch" get to know your team Initial Event before the first game                                        
* 8 weeks of games (6 regular season, 2 playoffs)
(Final week Championship bracket & Consolation bracket                        
* Free beer pitchers for every team & great specials after games at the bar                          
*Team Shirts                                                                                                                                            
*A team drinking party for the winning team
*End of Season Party (we need to give props to the winners)
                                                             
                              So whether you're simply looking for something fun to do, are
                               fresh in town, want to make some new friends or are ready to
                              meet someone in a really casual way, S3 has got cha covered.


WRIGHT PARK
2534 N. Greenview ave.
Chicago, IL 60614
(Neighborhood: Lincoln Park)

JOIN THE LEAGUE TODAY BY VISITING www.S3Softball.com (Promotional Code:MBVIP)  RECEIVE $20.00 Off league fees. (ONLY 30 Spots left out of 500)

Bars and Restaurants Receive Free Marketing and Advertising! Join Today www.MyDrinkon.com
CALLING ON BARS, LOUNGES, RESTAURANTS, CONSUMERS, PARTY GOERS, and DEAL SEEKERS !!!!!!! www.MyDrinkOn.com wants to make a deal with you. Are you an establishment, that wants free marketing and advertising? Are you a consumer looking for great deal?
My Drink On (MDO) is an innovative approach to group buying for the top nightlife venues in the Windy City that incorporates socializing, networking and philanthropy into a single experience. What does this mean!? We have great drink deals and specials to the hottest bars, clubs, restaurants and lounges. We will also be hosting some great events, accompanied by a great drink deal and offer charity events including a great drink special.
“Our mission is to promote a safe consumption of alcohol while socializing, interacting and being active throughout our city. Enjoy a great drink deal with friends or become more active in a charity and have the opportunity to meet its founders while enjoying a drink special.” Says My Drink On.
Through 4 different models of group buying, MDO believes to offer its users and venues a complete nightlife social experience!
Featured Drink On-
Several times a week, an incredible drink deal from one of Chicago’s favorite bars, lounges, restaurants and nightclubs will be offered exclusively to My Drink On participants/subscribers at a discount. Stayed tuned as drink specials will be added continuously as we ramp up!

Premium Drink On-
My Drink On will collaborate with one of the city’s trendy, upscale establishments to aid in publicizing or co-hosting a special themed party for which discounted drink package can be purchased through My Drink On. In addition, My Drink On will start hosting after work functions, also providing a great drink special to accompany the meeting of new young and experienced professionals in Chicago and suburbs.

Civic Drink On-
Wanting to get more involved in philanthropic activities but not knowing how and where to do so, is a widespread commonality. Civic Drink On is an innovative concept that allows consumers to get involved in Chicago’s charitable organizations in a social atmosphere. My Drink On also brings you a great drink special to compliment the experience!

My Choice Drink On
Offers an array of weekly drink specials and deals throughout the city. Offers a range from after work happy hours and discounted drink packages to promotional pricing on the entire drink menu. This groundbreaking feature is ideal for people already out in the city looking for their next destination or just want to step away from their local watering hole and try something new. With My Choice Drink On, bar owners, nightclub proprietors and restaurateurs have the unique ability to list their own drink deals quickly and easily, thus putting their establishment in front of thousands of My Drink On users.

My Drink On wants you to have fun, enjoy the city and do it all at a savings!
JOIN www.MYDRINKON.com TODAY AND START SAVING WHILE NETWORKING WITH NEW INDIVIDUALS.

BUSINESSES:

My Drink On wants to feature you. We are a revolutionary approach to group discounting for the top nightlife venues in Chicago that incorporates socializing, networking and philanthropy into a single experience. My Drink On provides an interactive, user-friendly online marketplace where consumers can quickly and easily find non-restricted drink specials and deals of 50% or more at their favorite bars, nightclubs, restaurants and lounges. Let us customize a special for you, increase your foot traffic and spread the word about your venue through our multiple marketing and advertising channels. Compared to other sites, we will work with you to promote days you are looking for growth and structure a drink special at no cost to you. My Drink On wants to be a partner to bring bodies in without hurting your bottom line. Give us a shot, we entered this market because we read and heard all the other complaints.info@mydrinkon.com.

LET MYDRINKON.COM, become your deal maker! Let us provide your business free marketing and advertising! Let us help you grow your business and build brand awareness! www.MyDrinkon.com

How To Set A Marketing Budget For Business

How To Set a Marketing Budget for your Small Business?

People often ask us, “How much should we spend on marketing?”

It’s one of the most important questions you can ask if you want to maintain a healthy revenue growth for your small or medium business. Most companies under-spend on marketing, thinking they’re saving money. This quite simply isn’t true. You’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating: you have to spend money to make money. Your marketing efforts have a direct bearing on your revenue—it’s no good being penny wise but pound foolish. The trick is to spend wisely. A tailored marketing plan that will fulfill your company’s goals will recoup far more in increased revenue than you’d have saved by not investing in it.

So how much should you budget for such a thing?

The answer varies by industry and business size. There isn’t any one-size-fits-all figure that every successful company sticks to. Your marketing budget will vary depending on what industry you’re in, how big you are, how much you want to grow, and how fast.

However. There is a healthy range within which your marketing budget should fall. Both SCORE — the counselors to America’s small businesses—and the United States Small Business Administration (SBA) put the range for a proper marketing budget at between 2% and 10% of gross sales. That said, they also note that for B2C, retail and pharmaceuticals companies this figure can exceed 20%—especially during peak brand-building years.

Budget-setting guidelines
The development or refinement of your brand, along with the channels used to promote it. This includes relatively one-off investments like logos, websites, blogs, e-mail campaigns, sales presentations, brochures, ads, and so on.

The ongoing expense of promoting and advertising your brand to your customer base and your prospects.
Although the exact percentage of revenue you’ll dedicate to a marketing budget is determined by your industry and other factors, here’s a table we’ve put together based on our own experience, and several other good sources:
Revenue Marketing Budget
Less than $5 million 7–8%
$5–10 million 6–7%
$10–50 million 5–6%
$50–100 million 4–5%
More than $100 million 1–3%
It’s important to adjust for industry!

Every industry is different, so companies that sell to specific government branches or have ultra-specialized niches may be able to deduct 1–2% from the above figures. If your company is B2B or B2C, on the other hand, you may need to raise your budget by 1–3% to see solid results. Retail and pharmaceuticals lead the spending, with many of these companies devoting more than 20% of their net sales to marketing.

The overall average is reported to be 4–6%. For many companies, though, we think that’s a shade on the low side.

Your own unique circumstances may well merit an increase or reduction in your marketing budget. You’re very welcome to contact us if you’d like advice; and the SBA has some great resources online as well at: 
http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html. 

"We’ll just use what’s left over…"
Often, small businesses estimate their sales revenue, cost-of-goods, overhead and salaries, and then gross profit. Anything left is considered available funds for marketing support. That’s not such a good idea. … If you are the new competitor in the marketplace, you will have to spend more aggressively to establish your market share objective.

This is SCORE’s advice, and we couldn’t have put it better ourselves. Deciding what to spend on marketing based on what’s left over after everything else is a sure way to steer your business onto the rocks. If your marketing budget is an afterthought, then your marketing itself is an afterthought…and you’re going to have a very hard time building your revenue stream. Can I grow my company organically?

Sure you can. We call this organic growth, and it’s how nearly every business starts off. Remember washing cars or mowing lawns for a few bucks? Next thing you know, your neighbor wants it done. That neighbor refers you to another neighbor and so on. Many businesses grow their clientele like this: by word of mouth alone. And you can be very successful doing this—up to a point. But you’ll usually hit a brick wall where you just can’t grow any further on referrals and repeat business alone.

That’s when you have to get new customers—and for that you need a solid branding campaign. If you’re relying on partial branding, or organic growth alone, you will lose revenue in the sense that a certain percentage of people who would buy from you don’t know you exist. Either that, or they didn’t have their interest piqued when they interacted with your brand, and so they walked away when they should have stayed.

You cannot tally the lost revenue from those who either never found you, or who perceived your brand negatively and left your website without you ever knowing it. This is why it is so important to build your brand correctly.
Why risk millions to save thousands?

One reason so many Small Business fail is that they simply don’t understand how important marketing is to building a strong revenue stream—and so they allocate far too little money to it. Successful and highly profitable SMBs know how to allocate adequate funding to marketing each year. They know that marketing, if done properly, brings back solid returns…and also vice versa: not allocating enough to marketing could spell disaster. Think of marketing this way: It is a fundamental ingredient for profitability and growth.

Looking for a new marketing direction, request a quote for services from Montari Brooklyn Marketing & Advertising Agency. Call 855-We-Sale-U for more information or visit us at www.MontariBrooklyn.com.

COLD CALLING - STAYING ON TRACK

1.) Capturing your prospect’s attention. Start your process here. You should have a few strategies for capturing your prospect’s attention. Using their name is always a good way to capture their attention. So is paying them a compliment. Only after you have captured their attention can you venture to mentioning who you are and asking for a moment of their time. By the way, asking if they have a moment is a qualifying close. You are asking permission to move forward in the sales process.

2.) Offering a reason for the call, usually tied to a benefit that is of value to them. You should also have several reasons for the call per industry that you are targeting, easy enough to discover from your past customers. Refrain from product centric or company centric reasons, such as “we specialize in…” or “we focus on.” Keep your reasons prospect- or client-centric. A good way to keep this in mind is by starting your reason for your call with a statement like, “Our clients tell us…” followed with the benefits your clients have gained from doing business with you.
 
3.)Asking for the next steps. Asking for the next steps is simply another conditional close asking permission to continue to the next stage in the sales process.

Note * How far you go in the call will depend on your sales process and your product. If your next step is to schedule a lengthier phone call or conference call to ask questions, ask for that. If you next step is to get in front of the prospect, set up a face-to-face meeting. And if your next step is to ask them a few qualifying questions, ask them if they have time for a few questions.

Note * When participants in our programs ask for a cold calling script, they typically want some format to present their products or services as quickly as possible because they don’t want to spend the time doing the research before calling their prospect. It’s a lot easier to simply focus on their company, their products, and themselves and use it on every prospect they contact.

However, if you want to impress your prospects, show them that you care enough about them by focusing on what’s important to them, not on what’s easiest for you.
Focus on developing your communication skills, enhance your awareness, and increase your flexibility in handling multiple situations. You’ll find that you will become less dependent on scripts and work more with developing an opening framework for your sales process.

If you are interested in learning more abou t how Montari Brooklyn can set appointments for your company and sales team please visit us on the website at www.MontariBrooklyn.com or call us at 1-855-We-Sale-U.  "We Sell U! / We Get U Sales!"