Posted by Rena Tom ? Thursday, October 18, 2012 ? Leave a Comment?
If you subscribe to?UPPERCASE?(and you should) you have already seen this in Issue 14, but if not, here is the text from my business column.
If you are a small business that makes and sells a product or provides a creative service, you have a lot of freedom. Not only do you have the ability to work when you want, you can work with whom you like. You really are able to choose your customers, or to work with clients that fit your criteria. The relationship then changes from transactional to collaborative, which is much more interesting and personal.
How do you find your dream customers? By carefully marketing yourself to attract their attention. You probably have a number of competitors who offer a similar product or service. How you engage with potential clients will make all the difference when they are evaluating who to work with or buy from.
Let?s assume that your product or service is top-notch, and focus on how to drive awareness of that fact to your community. If you keep the following ABCs in mind when you plan your marketing strategy, you can stay nimble and ahead of the pack.
A is for About You.
Your ?About? page is one of the most visited pages on your website. If you don?t believe me, go check your Google Analytics. People like knowing more about who they are dealing with, even if they aren?t strictly dealing with you yet. That is why it is so crucial that this page is presenting the kind of information someone is looking for.
This means that you should think carefully ? are people seeking information about you personally? If so, talk about your own story, include some quirky details about your life, and quotes from people who love to work with you.
Do you have a unique product? People will want more details about your company, how you developed the product, and why they need to buy it. This kind of information is used with great effect in Kickstarter campaigns, if you want to check out examples, but can easily translate to a company website as well.
Or, if you provide a service, maybe they really are trying to determine if you can help them. Some About pages turn the tables and are really about the customer and what they are looking for. Lead off with copy about the problem you are solving and perhaps a testimonial from a satisfied customer.
B is for Branding.
You might be your own best salesperson but you have to sleep sometime! Branding is an opportunity for you to always be sharing your vision, even if you are thousands of miles away from your customer.
Your branding should be designed with your customer in mind. What you make is not going to appeal to all people, so focus your attention on your particular customer base and talk to them directly and colloquially. You can ?talk? through your logo, your packaging, and through the way you write on your website, your client communication, your hangtags or your catalog.
This applies to service providers too. If you are a designer with a vast body of work, your portfolio should be edited to show not only your best work but the kind of work you like best, with the clients you loved to work with. If you do photography but love food shoots the most, showcasing primarily those clients will help strengthen your brand as someone to turn to for beautiful food photography.
C is for Community Engagement.
It?s not enough to show off a big clear target via your branding ? you should provide the bow and arrows to reach it, too. Interact with your customer base to give back, to share expertise, and to build trust and authority. This can look like a lot of different things and you should choose the ways of interacting that are the most comfortable for you.
For instance, my business is consulting and my customers are creative business owners with a penchant for handmade or sustainable practices. Besides consulting, I maintain a blog with original content, speak at conferences, hold virtual office hours, and write for other creative publications (including this one). I also read widely and share what I find via Twitter.
I am offering my knowledge across a variety of media, and you can too. If you are a product designer, you can blog about your business practices, film a video in your studio, offer a tutorial on how you make your work, and so on. Use the methods that are suitable for your business and your customer.
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Basically, the ABCs of DIY marketing are about caring and sharing ? about yourself, your business, and your community. Understanding that your business is part of a larger ecosystem while still maintaining focus on your particular area of expertise or corner of the world will help you find, talk to and work with people who really get what you do ? and that?s what makes running your own business worthwhile.
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