Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Marketing materials are NOT what they used to be. Websites have taken a lot of focus and attention away from traditional printed pieces like tri-fold brochures.  But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t create them.  You still need many of the traditional pieces; you just need to give them a new function and purpose.

If your prospect uses the internet to get basic information about your product and your company, your printed materials are now the second stage of helping them decide if your product or service is the right choice for them.  Take them to the next step and have them start interacting with your product.  Your marketing materials need to “pop” and make the recipient think “I cannot live another day without this product or service.”

That is a tall order for most of us.  But not impossible.  Here are the first two ways you can get the “gotta have that” response from your prospects.

Think Before You Print
Time: 40 min
Cost: $0
Clear Differentiated Position: Priceless

Don’t make the mistake of just sitting down and creating business cards, flyers and brochures.  Answer the following questions first.  You can do these exercises as an individual business owner or if you have associates and employees, do them as a group activity.  Either way, you’ll find the results enlightening and useful.

1. “Who are you?”  This will quickly identify the “personality” of your marketing materials.  If you’re doing this for a company, “Who are you – as a company” Sit across from a partner – or include a team. Then ask “Who are you?”  Use adjectives and nouns to answer the question.  If you or your company were a color, which would you be?  If you were an animal, which would you be?  At the end of 10 minutes, sit back and listen as your partner or team members tell you what they heard.   What images or analogies come to mind right away?
2. “What is it about our ideal customer that makes them so attractive?” Take out a piece of blank paper and draw a line down the middle.  Draw a picture or an icon representing an ideal customer on the left side, then explain what it is about them that makes them ideal for you.  What do you provide that’s just what they need?

The Super Two-fer
Time: <5 hours to write the content
Cost: DIY = $0, Professionally designed & printed about $1.25 +postage
Customers laughing and buying more stuff: Priceless

Here’s an idea I got from super direct marketers Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer. Get twice the use out of your business envelopes and letterhead. Celebrate your customer’s ½-Birthday or Anniversary of being your client! For example, if your customer’s birthday is on January 10^th, then on June 10^th you’d send them a ½-Birthday letter. Likewise, if a company became a customer in January, you’d send your contact(s) at the customer a ½-Anniversary letter.

Create a special 50% off “gift” offer and mail it in ½-letterhead and ½-envelope. Here are some shots of the example mailings I received from Bill Glazer. You can see that the envelopes are literally standard business mailing envelopes cut in half and sealed with a clear label.

This is a great way to stand out from the crowd, build loyalty with your customers and get twice the use out of your envelopes and letterhead!

To get chosen in today’s cluttered marketplace takes some upfront creative effort on your part, but once you have the ideas, and concepts outlined, the DIY marketing tools are there to help you put them together for very little investment. And that means that you are free to experiment. Get started today.

Next week I’ll share two more ways you can wow prospects with your marketing materials.

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Ivana Taylor is the Founder of www.DIYMarketers.com , a place where in-house marketers go to get low-cost, high-impact marketing strategies. She is also a contributing expert for Small Business Trends.

Brainstorm photo by: Marco Arment