Focus…a Marketing StrategyWritten by Ann Marie Rubertone
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As an entrepreneur who has limited time and money to waste chasing after unqualified prospects, it's vital to narrowly focus on your best, most profitable target audience groups. This will reduce your media costs--since you won't be advertising to reach marginal groups--and free up time you would otherwise lose meeting with low-quality prospects. For entrepreneurs who operate several businesses at once, choosing just one can seem like an overwhelming task. The secret lies in following both your head and your heart. Start by examining business potential and corresponding costs of each of your ideas. For example, consider which business has greatest chance for success based on your ability to fund and manage operation. Then, review ideas that look best on paper and decide which you feel most passionate about. When you're passionate about what you do, it shines through to customers--and can make all difference between lackluster sales and a stunning success.
Ann Marie Rubertone is a marketing consultant & freelance writer. Her two newest booklets, “The One Page Marketing Plan” and "13 Household Items You Can Use To Market Your Business" tips for marketing on a shoestring budget. For more information, contact Ann Marie Rubertone, Check It Out (772) 335-0073, www.checkitoutinc.com cio@adelphia.net
| | Fern Reiss’s PublishingGame.com: Achieve Media Attention for Your BusinessWritten by Fern Reiss
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Talk to press. Press kits mostly get tossed or buried. But today there are services you can subscribe to that will keep you up to date on what journalists are working on, so that you can respond in time to be quoted in their articles. I respond to health journalists with quotes about my Infertility Diet book; I respond to business journalists with information about my Publishing Game and Expertizing products. But I also respond about lifestyle issues--entrepreneurship, marriage, kids, home business. One of things I do in my all-day Expertizing workshops is train authors and executives to develop soundbites that will propel them into these articles. Even without training, you can generate plenty of press. Don't forget speaking. If you enjoy public speaking, do as much of it as you can. Speaking can pay--even public libraries pay for talks--and even without pay, it's worth it for publicity. If you speak at Learning Annex, for example, thousands of people see your information. When it comes to speaking, this is one of few times you shouldn't focus just on your niche. Cast your net more widely, and see if you don't have something to say to others. For example, this year I'm speaking at Media Relations, at SPAN, and at Book Expo America, all of which are in my target audience. But I'm also speaking to over 200 CEOs at an executive transition firm event--and that's probably going to generate more business for me, because writers and publishers have heard of me already, but these executives may have not. So look for new audiences and groups that might be interested, as well as your target markets. And then forget what I'm telling you, about how you have to do this or that sort of PR. Do publicity you love. What you love doing will be most effective for you, because you'll enjoy it. So if you like to speak, go out and do that, but if you'd prefer to sit home in your bathrobe and do it all by email, do that instead. Live dream way you want to.
Fern Reiss is the CEO of http://www.Expertizing.com and http://www.PublishingGame.com. More information on Fern's books ("The Publishing Game: Find an Agent in 30 Days," (literary agents) "The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days," (self publishing) and "The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days" (book promotion) and all-day Publishing Game workshops can be found at PublishingGame.com.
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