In content delivery be the tortoise, not the hare.

Welcome to the last installment in a three-part blog series about how to ensure you’re reaching all members of your target audience, taking their content processing preferences into consideration. (Click here for the first installment and here for the second.)

Last Thursday I gave you some ideas of ways you can diversify the content you create for your business, in an effort to reach more members of your target audience and today I have some more suggestions for you.

To say that your business should encompass ALL of the above and suggestions I offered last week  might be a stretch…or is it? You’re not expected to create all of these forms of distribution in a day…a week…or even a month. Can it be done? Sure, but it isn’t necessary. Remember the Tortoise & the Hare? Slow and steady wins the race, and if you can begin incorporating just one new form of content distribution each month, or every other month, then you have a powerful, viral mechanism to grow your business, increase your subscribers, and build a following.

Diversifying the Content you Create

On Tuesday we talked about the importance of keeping the content processing preference of your target audience in mind and how, for example, you are essentially blocking out those who don’t like ezines when that’s the only type of marketing you do. (Catch up by clicking here.)

Today I’m going to go over some different types of content you can create to connect and communicate with all of the different types of people who make up your target audience:

Now, in a perfect demonstration of how shorter entries are just fine, I’m going to leave you hanging here and you can come back on Tuesday for some more ideas. Really, do you have time to read anymore at my little old blog today anyway?

Didn’t think so! See you next week.

Are you ignoring a large segment of your target audience?

Ever heard the phrase: “to each his own?” Well if so you should keep it in mind when working on your marketing and content creation strategies. Too often, business owners stick to what they know…what they’re comfortable with…without ever taking a minute to think about whether or not that’s the same as what their audience wants.

Marketing is not a one-way street and your audience does not fit into a tiny little one-dimensional box. Each of your prospects has their own way of learning, sharing and listening. It’s up to you to make it easy for your customers and potential clients to access your information, act on it, and more importantly, share it.

All Marketing Is Not Created Equal

Creating various forms of content is imperative to your business, but distributing content to your audience from different directions gives you a better chance of standing out from the crowd.

All Prospects Are Not Created Equal

There’s another phrase that I KNOW you’ve heard: “You can’t please everyone.” Ok, now I know I’ve touted this before when it comes to business owners trying to please everyone by doing everything themselves…you just can’t. It’s impossible. Your efforts are best served by sticking to what you know and outsourcing what you don’t. Otherwise you’ll never be truly happy in your business and you most certainly will never get ahead.

But in this case, you can throw it out the window because you actually can please your entire audience. How? By making sure you cover all your content bases so they are working together…in tandem…for your business and your target market.

Make it EASY for your audience to:

Because remember, your audience has its own preference of how to obtain that information.

20% of them might love reading electronic newsletters, 35% might go for RSS feeds, 10% might react to video, 25% may respond to social media connections, and so on and so forth.

If you’re only distributing an electronic newsletter once a month, where does that leave the rest of your audience?

On Thursday I’ll tell you about some forms of content you can create to connect and communicate with your audience. In the meantime, think about what you’re currently doing to market your business and how many different learning styles you might be catering to.

Start spreadin’ the news (better)

Newsletters are one of the most popular marketing tools used to market small businesses today. Whether you’re sending a printed newsletter via snail mail or an electronic newsletter via email, it’s a win-win for everyone. For the subscriber, they benefit from receiving up-to-date information about your business; helpful articles, promotions and giveaways. For your small business, this is your opportunity to stay in touch with your audience. The beauty of the whole thing is, they’ve given you their permission to market to them!

In this post, we’re gonna focus on electronic newsletters, also known as the sophisticated and sleek-sounding “eZine” or the regular old email newsletter.

An eZine is a really great tool for many reasons:

  1. It’s cheap. No commercial printing with a hefty price tag involved.
  2. You can send one out almost instantly. You don’t have to wait 7-10 days for it to be printed, then another 3 days to prepare the mailing, then another 7-10 days for the recipient to receive it via snail mail depending on whether you mailed it 1st class or bulk mail, and again, no postage required.
  3. It works. It’s the ideal opportunity to keep in touch, gain feedback from your subscribers, customers, and potential customers, and to gain new subscribers…a new audience for your business.

Now just hold on a second. Before you decide to jump on the newsletter bandwagon, there are a few crucial elements to consider. Even if you already have a newsletter, you should be following these tips so consider this a refresher and if you’re not doing the following, then make it a point to rework your publication so your readers get the most value.

Tips to be the best you can be-Zine:

Last but not least, you need a good distribution company to deliver your newsletter and so you can track your subscribers as well as who is opening what messages and clicking on what links.

We’ll talk about that in detail another time. Until then, I hope you’ll take what I’ve given you today and apply it in your own newslettering!

Ciao ‘til Thursday!

Try Before You Buy Promotional Products

Promotional products are a popular marketing tool for many businesses. I’m sure you have 1 or even 50 items lying around your desk, office, and home right now. From pens to mouse pads to notepads to drinkware to rulers to stress balls. So how many of these items do you deem to be of high quality? How many did you think were so flimsy and cheap that you threw them in the garbage?

Many business owners aren’t aware they can request samples of promotional products prior to purchasing them, but reputable promotional companies offer just that. And there’s a very good reason why you should be taking advantage of it.

If you plan to order personalized pens bearing your company’s message for a trade show, request samples of an assortment of pens in advance. You want to be able to see, touch and inspect them for quality. Determine which ones don’t write well, break easily or are just cheap looking.

Same goes for any promo product you have in mind. If you’re considering paying $4 for a leather bound notebook to give out to your event attendees don’t you want to make sure it isn’t a piece of crap before you order 4000 of them?

Clearly, not everyone requests samples because I’ve gotten a lot of junky stuff from various events in my day. And I’m not the only one. I’ve heard from many business owners who were quite unhappy with the promotional products they ordered, but there’s not much you can do when they didn’t request a sample before making that investment. If you think it’s a waste of time, consider how your giveaway fares when your audience receives a t-shirt where the printing faded almost completely off after one washing, or the magnet that doesn’t actually stick to anything. (true stories)

Marketing dollars for small businesses have to be wisely spent, and while promotional products are fun and can help establish your brand or support your current campaign, it can also give your company a negative impression if you didn’t do your research. And well…you don’t want to be known as the company that always gives away the crappiest stuff now do you?

Seriously if you’re going to spend hundreds or thousands or dollars on a giveaway item to promote your company, how would you feel if you knew that every single one of those items ended up in the trash because everyone thought it was crappy? What a waste of money that would be, not to mention the negativity you generated for your company.

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