Francine Hardaway and Ed Nusbaum of Stealthmore Partners recently asked if I wouldn't mind stopping by a Fast Trac group to discuss bootstrapped marketing. I figured that this might mean 'free', and so I put together a list of 51 free marketing tips for small business that everyone seemed to have fun with, especially since the list was free, too.

I promised Francine that I'd post it on our blog, and so here we go: 10 or so at a time. We'll get 10 free marketing tips out every Sunday in November.  Thanks Francine and Ed for all you do for small businesses and entrepreneurs in Arizona, including the upcoming Entrepreneurship Conference in Phoenix November 12th.

Here are the first 10 (of 51) free marketing tips for small business.  The first 10 are mostly foundational things that every business should do but most don't. Remember that marketing is all about getting people who don't know you today to know you tomorrow.  Getting them to buy from you once they know you is sales.

1. Know and be your brand.  Every business owner should be able to articulate the firm's target market, the offering, how the firm is different and the key message. These are the primary four elements of your brand. Hopefully your firm's brand is congruent with your own personal brand, but they don't need to be identical unless your business is you, and vice-versa. I'd recommend against this for most business owners but that goes beyond a marketing issue. Oprah and Donald Trump are good examples of making them nearly one in the same for better (Oprah) or worse (Trump).

2. Know your target market.  This is #1 of the 4 elements of your brand. There is nothing more important than knowing who your target market is. It is NOT who your customers are. Ever had a bad customer?  They may not be in your target. Those great customers you have?  Think about why they're great and you'll likely identify a target group that you should attract more of.  Are they typically a man or woman, what title, what car do they drive, where do they live and work, how do they vote - know each group, rank them and know your #1.  This is one of the things that GM has messed up for 40 years and hopefully it's not too late for them to salvage a few brands.

3. Know your offering at a deep level.  This is the relatively easy one. We all know what we offer, but defining it succinctly might be a challenge.  And at what level?  It is XYZ product or service, and at a higher level it gives your target customer something very special. What is that special thing?  If you can get to that special thing at a deep emotional level, you'll be able to better message it.  So Wheaties is a bowl of wheat and when adding milk it is a breakfast meal. But when you add the box cover with a super athlete, it becomes 'Breakfast of Champions' that motivates children to excel and parents to buy it in the first place. It becomes all about achievement and not your standard breakfast meal.  Seems criminal, doesn't it?  Great marketing!

4. Know how you’re different.  My grandfather Joseph W. Brings was a small business owner in Queens, NY and he always used to say 'be a big fish in a small pond'.  There's a lot of wisdom in that one phrase. One inherent concept in the big fish theory is that by being big to a small group, you'll stand out. For goodness sakes stand out - why blend in? The world is a noisy place and you'll need to know how you're different so that you can communicate it and prospects will notice!  Las Vegas stayed on the right track when it realized that what it offered was all about pleasure, and that appealing to families at the same time sent a confusing message both to people seeking pleasure and to those with families. You can't mix and match or you risk confusion.

5. Have and communicate a message to your target.  So wrapping up this section - once you know your target, your offering and how you're different, you can create a message that incorporates it all in a way that means something to your target group of customers. Tie it to one of 6 basic areas – achievement (Wheaties), wellness (Mayo Clinic), security (Allstate Insurance), family (Jif peanut butter - choosy mothers choose Jif - and so if you don't, you're a bad mother!), pleasure (Las Vegas) or relationships (eharmony.com). You must speak to how you’re special to the target in a way that highlights the special benefits they receive by buying from you!  Then keep reinforcing it so that they confirm their great decision!

For the last 5 in the first 10 we'll be a little quicker...

6. Simplify.  Don’t expect people to digest complex topics and come up with the right answer. That’s your job. Make it easy for them. Lifelock has done this so well even though what they do isn't so complex. They make it drop dead simple with a brilliant, unexpected catch (Todd Davis' social security number). Simply powerful.

7. Keep your story personal.  Seth Godin is the king here with the groundbreaking book All Marketers Are Liars.  Read it and learn the greatness of stories and Seth Godin. Behind every great brand is a great story.

8. Have other people tell your story.  During a visit to the Crab Cooker restaurant in Newport Beach, CA three people waiting in line outside told the story of how 40 years ago the restaurant had turned down an aide to President Nixon who wanted to make a reservation. They don't take reservations!  What a great story, and now I'm telling it to you.  What story will people tell about your business that attracts more customers?

9. Attach your offering to a movement.  Get relevancy for your business through a hot current frame of reference, like "green", social media, safety, innovation, society’s victims (if you seek progressive clients), tax breaks (if you seek right-leaning clients), etc. The press will be more likely to cover you, too. Starbucks has done this effectively with "green", spinning a story about how they help coffee growers in the rainforest.

10. Prepare a media kit.  Create a “pitch” letter, press release, business card, backgrounder, testimonials, data sheet and photos, together in a folder. You'll be ready to pitch something relevant to the media and your target market once you've nailed your brand, told a few stories and have some folks in the community telling your personal story. The exercise of putting this together will help you pull it all togetherfor your business.

Next week: #11 - 20 free marketing tips from Growth Nation.  Thanks for reading.

All the best, Doug

Doug Bruhnke
Growth Nation
www.growthnation.com
Scottsdale, Arizona