by The Boomer Gal | Oct 16, 2012 | Marketing
How To Build A Platform – Local Business Marketing in 3 Easy Steps
It’s very likely that you’ve heard the term “platform” or building a platform related to authors, musicians and other arty types. But building a platform is necessary for every local business. This platform is the stage from which your message gets heard. It used to be that only celebrities or those seeking celebrity had a platform. But thanks to the interwebs, that’s no longer true. Anyone can be a celebrity in their business, local community and industry.
How to build a platform – grab these three tools and we can get started.
- Concept
- Campaign
- Change
You were expecting hammer, nails and work gloves? Well, aren’t you cute. Our platform is going to be more cerebral and less elbow-grease. Although, some headlight fluid may not be a bad idea.
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by The Boomer Gal | Oct 2, 2012 | Marketing
Why Your Small Business Needs A Marketing Calendar
Marketing Calendar Audio Version
Having a marketing calendar saves you from making a common small business marketing mistake…or what I like to call…spaghetti marketing. The throw it at the wall and see if it sticks approach to small business marketing is a real killer. And here’s why.
It’s very easy to make a wrong decision based on anecdotal evidence. We tend to hang with other people who reflect our values, likes, dislikes and habits. In fact, funny enough, if you were to write out an avatar or profile for your ideal client, you would notice that they start to resemble…YOU!
The mistake happens when we decide that the people we interact with personally represent the majority. Take for example, the Director who decided that her company would stop using tele-recruitment to contact existing and potential clients because from her point of view, EVERYBODY has a cell phone now and the warm and cold calling from the phone bank to the home number was ineffective and a waste of resources.
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by The Boomer Gal | Aug 7, 2012 | Marketing
So just what is marketing?
Marketing has held many definitions since the Mad Men days. I saw that Seth Godin, on his blog back in March had this to say,
“In the Mad Men era, we added marketing last. Marketing and advertising were the same thing, and the job was to promote what was made.
In the connection era, the marketing is the product, the service and most of all the conversations it causes and the connections it makes.
Marketing is the first thing we do, not the last. Build connection and remarkability into your product or service from the start and then the end gets a lot easier. Build it into your app, your book, your movie, your insurance policy, and the red soles of your shoes.”
If you ask me, what is marketing, I view it as a much larger umbrella that covers the entire operation of your business. Marketing is in your customer service, your sales process, your networking, community outreach and advertising (if you’re doing any) both in your offline and online worlds. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Jul 24, 2012 | Marketing
If you want to reach the under 30 Millenials,
then you better know how to text.
Mobile Marketing in Local Business
I believe that mobile marketing will be the bridge that connects traditional direct marketing for small business with the world of online marketing. Let’s face it, the world has changed and it’s not finished yet.
If you want to converse with a Millenial [AKA: Generation Y, Echo Boomers and Generation Next] who in general terms is anyone born from approximately 1980-2001, warm up those thumbs!
It’s very difficult to communicate with a Millenial if you don’t text. It’s their preferred method of communication and they are the second largest age demographic after baby boomers.
To ignore them in your local marketing is a serious mistake. Generation Y were the first to grow up with computers in their homes and 500 television channels. They think nothing of walking around with a phone that has ZERO wires connected to a wall.
by The Boomer Gal | Jul 17, 2012 | Marketing
Website Lead Generation – Does Your Website Do It’s Job?
In the ’90’s, if your business had a website up and running, you were way ahead of the game.
But it’s not the 90s any longer.
Your website (and you should have a website by now) needs to become an effective lead magnet securing it’s place as a substantial lead generation machine in your small business marketing plan.
Lead generation is something all business owners worry over. So let me give you an idea of how your website lead generation should be implemented so that you can grow your local or small business faster. (more…)
by The Boomer Gal | Jul 10, 2012 | Marketing
The Art of Marketing to Women
The current way companies appeal to women is to take a male product and paint it pink.
–Michael Silverstein, a partner at Boston Consulting Group
First, I feel the need to make the economic argument for why marketing to women matters. The World Bank predicts that the earning power of women will hover around $18 trillion by 2014, which is $5 trillion increase in current income, and more than double the estimated GDP for growing economic forces like India and China combined.
And if that wasn’t enough to convince you that women make an enormous market for business, check out a few of these facts courtesy of Think Progress:
60% of American women are now the primary or co-breadwinner of the family
87% of women hold at least four years of high school or higher education as compared to 86% of men.
58% of undergraduate degrees in the US were awarded to women in 2010.
78% of mothers with children between 6 and 17 years of age are in the US labor force.
Now without getting into a feminist argument about the fact that women earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man in the US economy earns, a statistic that has virtually gone unchanged over the last 10 years; or the fact that only 12% of Fortune 500 CEOs are female, let’s explore the economic viability of marketing to women. A vastly under served market.
It’s very likely that you’ve heard the term “platform” or building a platform related to authors, musicians and other arty types. But building a platform is necessary for every local business. This platform is the stage from which your message gets heard. It used to be that only celebrities or those seeking celebrity had a platform. But thanks to the interwebs, that’s no longer true. Anyone can be a celebrity in their business, local community and industry.
