Day 1 – Your Marketing Toolkit

The foundation of your Marketing Arsenal is your personal Marketing Toolkit, the basic marketing essentials you must to have and use to build your business.

Your clients and the general public percieve you and your services based upon what they see, what they know, what they hear and what we say.

What They See

Marketing starts visually.   Because of this, the first tools you need in your marketing toolkit are visual tools that tells something about you and passes on your name, your business name, your general service or profession and your contact information to a potential client.

There are two basic tools you can create inexpensively and quickly, the business card and the letterhead.  The first of these is the business card.

If you have not ordered business cards, then get some right now!  A business card is utilized by all professionals who want to leave an initial and lasting impression on their potential clients – or their market. You can order some, or you can make them yourself.

When you introduce yourself and then present a business card you are creating an image in the other person’s mind.  A business card is like a mini-brochure of your products and services.  When they receive your business card, your prospects and clients know you are serious about what you do. The more people you share your business cards with, the more you will show that you are serious about your success as well.

It is astonishing how many clients one business card can generate!  It is not unusual for a single business card to be passed around friends and acquaintances with the contact information being gleaned resulting in multiple business leads being generated from just one card.

Business cards are one of your most powerful visual tools in your marketing arsenal.  When you leave business cards in public areas – people do pick them up.  They are curious – just like we are – and what to know what the card says, who you are, what you offer and when they get that information they contact you and see what you can do for them.

Creating a business card isn’t difficult, it’s actually one of the easiest things you can do when you’re creating your marketing toolkit.  The three basic steps are to decide what business information you need to include, what layout you want fully available.  And then print it.

When you’re deciding on what business information you want to include, you need to remember that the business card’s main job is to give people your contact information.  When you’re doing that you want to be sure to include every possible means of contact, whether it’s by computer, fax, office visit, by mail or by telephone.

The information you want to convey will include; your name, title, your business name and tagline, your telephone number and fax number, your mailing or physical address, your e-mail address and your website.

If you don’t have any of these components, then just include what information you do have.  As a minimum you should have your name, your business name, your phone number and address.

By all means, be sure to include an address, whether it is a physical street address or a postal address.  There is nothing that looks fishier than a business card without an address.  When you leave your address off, the first thing your clients and prospects will want to know is “Why aren’t they sharing their address?”

If you’re working from home, you may consider getting a post office box.  If you cannot get a post office box and must use your street address, you can add a touch of professionalism by adding a suite number (such as “Suite 123″).  By adding a business name and suite number, it becomes difficult for your customers to recognize it as a home address.

Your information needs to fit a standard 2″ x 3″ business card layout.  You can design your own using any basic graphic design or word processing software with a business card layout, which you will find available as a template in the software.

Microsoft Word includes a layout template for printing business cards.  These templates fit standard business card stock available at your local office supply store.  This business card stock will run through your laser or inkjet printer, and has perforations, which allow you to separate it into a regular business card set.

You can start by printing 40 or 50 business cards on your own printer and pass them around to your close friends and relatives for evaluation.  After you have settled on your own design, you can order larger quantities through your local office supply store.

If you did not have a computer and are not inclined to buy one, then you should consider hiring a professional graphic designer to layout one for you.

The best way to begin to use your business cards is to enlist the help of your close friends and family.   Once you share with them your goals, they will help you.   They want that level of success for you just as much as you want that kind of success for them and their businesses.  Give your friends and family a set number of cards and let them know that you want them to share your business cards with that number of people over the next few days or the next week.   By incorporating your friends and family into your distribution plan you double if not triple your opportunities to influence the market and provide the information in the general public to bring in the clients you need.

You need clients to be successful.  Clients need to see you as a legitimate and consummate professional and business cards are the tool you need to succeed in this introductory marketing arena.

The next way to get your business cards out is to leave a stack of them in area businesses and offices that you do business with.   Other professionals who you already have a working relationship with are usually more than happy to discuss your business and are open to easy and undemanding ways that they can help you grow your business.   Most do not have a problem with offering your cards to their customers and at a minimum they will take one of your cards for their business so that they can have your details themselves.

It is just standard practice for businesses to highlight other businesses.  This is a form of networking that we will discuss in a later lesson that will teach you how to network with influential and other professionals and grow your business through BRM (Business Reply Mailers) and quick-catch marketing tools.

When you start looking for the visual tools of others, you will be amazed to find business cards of talented professionals like yourself in restaurants, grocery stores, car repair shops and more.   Where you see a card or if at any point you pick up a business card of someone else – leave a card!  That spot worked to grab your visual attention and your business card in that location with be a visual draw to others.

Your other basic visual tool, the letterhead, communicates personality and style to your clients and prospects.  Many times new practitioners make the mistake of creating a less than professional image to their audience by trying to be modern and stylish.  Take a look at what your competitiors are doing, and consider ways to improve on that image, while still projecting your niche.

Since you use your letter head whenever you send “official” or business correspondence.  You could be sending a marketing letter, conducting business, or making an announcement.

Creating your own letter head is as simple as 1, 2, 3, or 1,2.  Lay it out, create it in a word processor such as Microsoft Word, and then print it. Or you could hire a graphic designer and then have the approved design printed.  Either way you choose, there are basic design principles you should start with.

Your letterhead should include the following information, when available:  Your business name, your logo, your mailing address, phone number and fax number, and your tag line (if you have one).  You may also want to include your website and email address.

An easy approach is to open your word processing software, import your logo graphic and add your business name at the top, either centered or left justified, in a large font, possibly 24 points.

Next, in a small font, possibly 8 or 10 points, add your mailing address, phone and fax numbers on a single line as the page footer .  A second line may contain your website URL and your email address.

Finally, play with it and rearrange it until you are satisfied.  Print it on your laser or inkjet printer and use it.

Your envelope should match your letterhead (and logo if you used one), plus your business name and mailing address, placed in the upper left corner on the front of the envelope approximately 3/8″ of an inch from the top and left.

That’s it!  Your business cards and letterhead are ready.

What They See

People know a great deal when they see it and if you are marketing your company correctly – they will know your company when they see certain images or what is referred to as branding logos.

Your logo is representative of you on your business cards, on your letterheads, on your direct mail pieces, in print media advertising and in all other forms of visual advertising.   Your logo over time becomes identified with you.

A drive across just about any main street in America will afford you the opportunity of seeing branding logos at work.   Fast food restaurants, major retailers, gas stations and more all use logos as visual reminders to their potential customers of what they offer.   If someone wants some French fries one of the first things they are going to look for is the double golden arches.   Even without mentioning the name we all know what fast food establishment is being represented.

Your logo should be professional, unique, and specific to you.

Professional logos look different than the ones that the most of us can generate on our home computers.   There is a reason for this.   The average person could not come in and create some of the financial papers and spreadsheets that we can – those are our skill strengths not theirs.   Likewise, if graphic designing is not a skill set we have we need to hire a professional to help us create the look we want that will convey the message we should send to potential customers.

A professional graphic designer or a custom-printing service can create great designs with minimal expense to us.  A graphic design artist is a person who is distinctly skilled to listen to our ideas, analyze those ideas based upon our marketing goals compared to the products or services we offer and save us the time and frustration.   We don’t want the hassle of having to learn graphic design and complex design programs to create in twice the time and triple the headaches what someone else enjoys doing.  Let a professional designer work in their strengths and in turn you spend your time and effort working in yours.

Your logo needs to be professionally-crafted.  It also needs to be unique.   A drawback to DIY or design it yourself on your home computer instead of expecting someone else to do it for you is that the majority of design programs that we could easily learn have templates that everyone uses.

While the individual name, business name and contact information change the overall logo design stays the same and creates what is called branding confusion in the marketplace.  These cookie-cutter methods keep you in the center of the pack instead of setting your business apart from the rest and creating a visual imagery that is easily recalled, easily associated and easily reflected as the leading business in that select genre of businesses.

A skilled graphic design artist will offer the professionalism and uniqueness you need while providing you with a business logo that is specific to your profession, your products, your services or you-individually.   What they create will be a one size fits only you design and what you will get is a logo that is not confused with the logos of your competitors and that captivates your potential market and pulls in clients.

If you should decide to create and design your own logo, the best thing you can do is experiment.  Take some graphic design software and work with the ideas that you have in your own mind, trying as many different combinations of color, images and lettering that you can think of.

Try designing your logo with a picture, and without picture.  Try your font with different colors, shapes and sizes.  You are only limited by what you can think of.

Your best bet is to come up with it least a half a dozen different, unique designs.  Then have your friends, family, and business associates give you their opinion.  Ask them what they think, which one jumps out at them, and which one they trust.  But, remember, you have to make the final decision.

Remember, your logo represents your business.  You wanted to express you, and your business.

What They Know

What you want people to know about your business can be summed up in a single concise statement, called a “tag line,” that small little catchphrase that you see and hear featured everywhere … in radio advertisements, on television, in print ads, on business cards and letterheads.  Everywhere. Tag lines have become a part of business branding.

The tag line should identify your target market and convey your most important benefit in one short statement.  It let’s your prospect immediately decide if you are the practitioner for them.  Even better, a well written tag line lets your prospects know they are the kind of customer you serve.

Since most practitioners use their personal name as part of their practice name, using a tag line is especially important as a way to express their Unique Selling Proposition.

The basic kinds of tag lines are ones that identify your product or service, the ones that express a unique benfit of your service, one that identifies who your typical customers are, and ones that express some fluffy idea.

Possibly the most powerful tag line is one that includes an identification of the customer or client base and expresses the unique benefit these customers receive from using your product or service.  The weakest is the fluffy idea tag line.  Stay away from it like it was the plague.

An easy way to create your tag line is to start with your elevator speech and refine it into a single sentence or statement.  Remember Virginia Ranger and her small business payroll service?  Well, a good tag line for Virginia’s payroll service “Pay Perfect,” might be:  “Pay Perfect: Perfect Results For Small Business Payrolls.”

Feel free to experiment with your tagline, and then give it the “Granny” test.  Show it to your Granny, and if she understands it, then you have accomplished your task.  Your Granny doesn’t need to understand it, but if she does, then the chances are good that most people will.

Next, start using your tag line on everything you produce.  Add it to your business cards, your letterhead, brochures, and all your advertising.

What They Hear

The first personal introduction a person receives regarding your business usually comes from your mouth to their ears.  They either hear what you want them to hear or they hear what you do not want them to hear.  You have utilized your essential marketing tools well and your message is heard or else you miss the opportunity to make a great first impression and your voice and the status of your business is no longer promoted in their minds above any other professional in your area of expertise.   You are just one among many who are relatively just like you, offering the same or similar services in the same or similar market.

In your marketing toolkit, what you say can be controlled, customized and creative to represent you in a way that distinguishes you above all others.  You cannot control how people hear you but you can control what they hear.

When you are promoting your business this is referred to as pitching.  Just like in baseball, there are all types of pitches that can be thrown but the end result is always the same – a ball, a strike, or a hit.

A pitch in marketing is simply an approximately 15 second series of words that sums up what you, your products and your services and your business represent.  While this may seem simple in concept is it difficult for most of us to perfect.

Even though we do not want to think of ourselves as having frivolous words, or being long-winded, or saying things that are not essential – most of us have trouble in the area of communication.   We find it difficult to say what needs to be said in just the right way.

In this case the “right way” would need to be accomplished in roughly the same amount of time it takes for an elevator to go from one floor to the next.  Because of this illustration, a pitch is often referred to as an elevator speech.   It is the few words that you would say to someone while riding the elevator with them from the 1st Floor to the 2nd Floor.   Under normal elevator working conditions – that is not much time.

Granted if you get stuck between floors the two of you can share not only your pitches but your life history in a relatively short period of time!  For most, there is only that small window of opportunity in which you get a chance to say what you want to say.

When developing your elevator pitch.  Just remember that is nothing more than a short introduction of you and your business.  When someone asked you for more information about your business, you want to provide it as concisely as possible.

A great 15 second elevator pitch will explain your business clearly and concisely.  It will contain; the name of your business, your main product or service, the name of your target market, and the main benefit to that target market.  When they use your product or service.  When you include those for things, anyone hearing your elevator speech will have no trouble understanding what you did and how you can help them.

It’s not hard to create your own 15 second elevator speech.  Just take out a blank piece of paper and a pen, and get started.

First, write a short paragraph describing your service.  Don’t get carried away, and don’t worry about it being a complete paragraph.

Virginia Ranger, provides a payroll service to small businesses.  Her description looks something like this:

“Dedicated service for your payroll needs.”

That’s it.

Your next step is to describe your target market, who you currently sell to.  If you’re just starting a practice, don’t worry, just select your target niche.  Think, “Who do I want to sell to?”

Next, state who your customers are. Your customers could be CEO’s of small manufacturing firms with under fifty employees; or owners of local restaurants with fifteen to twenty employees. Whoever you see as your customer is who you want to list.

Virginia sees her customers as owners of local businesses with small payrolls.

Don’t try to make an all-inclusive description of everyone you want to serve, keep it limited.  You want your elevator speech to be as tightly focused as possible.

Now is the time to stake your customer benefit.  The benefits your target customer will see in using your service.  In Virginia’s case, the benefit may look like this:

Save time and avoid IRS penalties and interest by ensuring that your payroll records are kept up-to-date and accurate

Now that’s a needs and benefits focused statement.

Take a look at what you’ve written.  Is your elevator speech starting to come together?  With these three bits of information, all that’s missing is introducing yourself.

Virginia’s elevator speech could wind up looking like this:

“Hi, my name is Virginia Ranger, and I own payroll services.  We provide accurate and timely payroll processing and recordkeeping for local small business owners.  Our services save our customers time and give them the security of knowing that their records and reporting will always meet IRS requirements and deadlines.”

A pitch will always be a ball, a strike or a hit.   If what you say is a ball that means that you missed the opportunity and failed to present your business or products in such a way that would entice someone to want to know more.   You are close to letting the person walk – in this case – away – if you do not change your pitch.

A strike is a pitch that was delivered flawlessly but for whatever reason the person listening did not respond as they should.  Your delivery was perfect and you executed your words in a professional manner and tossed your pitch out only to have the other person distracted and non-responsive and your inner umpire calls “Strike!”   The exchange between you and the other person at this point is heading off-course and you might just be headed to the dugout to think things over.

A hit is a connection between you and the other person.   You toss out what you do, what business or services you present, who you are and it connects with a felt need of theirs and they want to know more.   Your pitch worked, questions are asked, business cards and personal information is exchanged and a new business opportunity has been put into motion.

Pitches are highly effective when done correctly and ineffective when designed poorly, executed unprofessionally or received partially.

Pitch design or pitch writing is a skill set that is unique to select individuals.  Like designing a logo, instead of wasting time, money and sanity learning something that is not essential to strengthening your strongest talents and abilities, often it is more effective to hire someone or pay a service to write your elevator speeches or pitches for you.

These services or professional speech writers ask specific questions  and from your responses customize a quick and easy professional pitch for you to use anytime where you have a few seconds or minutes to introduce yourself and entice a potential client to take a closer look at what you and your business has to offer.

A tell-tale sign of a poor elevator speech is not only what you say but how you say it.   When you work with a pitch designer or a person who excels at writing the very thing you need, you are more confident in your approach.  When you are confident many things happen inside of you as well as outside of you.  Inside – your heart is not racing, you are not distracted by your own thoughts and negativism.   You know you have a wonderful business to represent, you know that YOU are your best asset and you have the right words to say.  That is the triple threat to fear and you in turn are confident when you are speaking.   Confidence on the outside conveys stability, self-control and competence – all qualities that allow another person to believe in you, your products and your services enough to want to know more about them.

When your pitch writer has designed your elevator speech pitch – practice it.   Sure it may sound strange the first couple of times you hear yourself talking to yourself aloud about yourself – but you will get used to it and once you are sold on your pitch you will begin to say it with a conviction that will sell or connect with others.

When you are practicing your pitch, watch your facial expressions in a mirror as well as record or videotape yourself.  You want to be able to see how others see you as well as hear how other hear you deliver your pitch.

Custom business cards, a professionally-designed logo and a professionally designed pitch or elevator speech are necessary tools for your marketing arsenal as they affect what people see, what they know and what they hear.   Additionally it is important to consider what you say.

What You Say

Every tool mentioned so far says something about you.  Business cards introduce you.  Logos establish you. Pitches expand your influence in your market.   There are many other items of print media that include your name, your business name and information about your company that are the equivalent of you speaking volumes about your products, services and your business.

Custom-imprinted items such as letterheads, note cards, and brochures accent other tools you have in your arsenal.  When a person receives your business card the next step for them is ask for more.   What you give them when they ask for more is what you want to say to them.   If they are asking you about a particular financial product or service you offer a great tool for you to have are colorful and customized brochures that explain your product or service and its benefits to them.   If a potential client asks you what you do and how your services can benefit them, a great item that is you speaking about your professionalism and personal touch is an imprinted letterhead.   Customized letterhead contains your unique logo, your name and information and also includes a personal message from you to them addressing their questions or concerns.

From note cards to business cards and from logos to letterhead, what you say in your marketing matters to the success of your business.

When you use poorly designed items to present you and your business that is the same as you claiming the same description for yourself.   When you present generic or cookie cutter marketing tools you tell potential clients that you are just like everyone else.  When you fail to utilize the skills of others that are their strengths but your weaknesses – whether you realize it or not – that is you saying you don’t want success.

The greatest asset of your business does not need to be working from a place of weakness but from a position of strength which values who you are as well as what you want your business to become.

Blueprints To Build:

Partners you need to have in building your business are a pitch designer, a graphic design artist, and a custom-imprinting company that understands the tools you need to succeed.

Put your Marketing Toolkit together.  Make sure it contains custom business cards, a personalized marketing pitch or elevator speech, a logo specifically designed to represent you and only you and quality imprinted materials that are essential to the professional business conversation between you and your clients.

Tomorrow – Building Out

Tomorrow we’ll discuss the details and specifics of networking and network marketing and I’ll explain why who you know is not nearly important as who knows you.