Making Your Small Business Memorable: Use Animals

By Dave Ramacitti

The one overriding goal of your small business’s marketing efforts, especially during a start-up phase, is to be noticed, is to be memorable in the eyes of customers or potential customers. You achieve being memorable by finding something your customers or potential customers can identify with, an image that you can own. Then you deliver that image --- your marketing message --- in a unique and memorable way, that is, in a way that is different from your competitors.

One way you can present your marketing message in a unique way is to involve animals. Animals, like the unforgettable Taco Bell talking Chihuahua and Target’s Spot the dog, can give your business a unique look and feel. For example, all you have to see are the proudly stepping Clydesdales to know what’s being advertised. Budweiser doesn’t have to use its “official” logo, those horses are so familiar they’ve become Bud’s “unofficial” logo.

Here’s a quickie quiz: What brand do you instantly associate with a tiger? What product uses a sassy duck as its spokesperson? How about the highly energetic bunny? As we said above, Target has Spot the dog, but what store uses a giraffe?

Dave Ramacitti is co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a new website dedicated to helping small businesses be smarter marketers. To receive a free copy of our special report "58 Free and Low Cost Ways to Promote Your New Small Business" visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com/signup © 2010 by David F. Ramacitti. Excerpted from The All-Important Stuff You Gotta Do First to Effectively Market Your Small Business © 2009 by David F. Ramacitti

Have Some Fun to Make Your Small Business Memorable

By Dave Ramacitti

The one overriding goal of your small business’s marketing efforts, especially during a start-up phase, is to be noticed, is to be memorable in the eyes of customers or potential customers. You can achieve being memorable by finding something your customers or potential customers can identify with, an image that you can own. Then you deliver that image --- your marketing message --- in a unique and memorable way, that is, in a way that is different from your competitors.

One way you can present your marketing message in a unique way is use a humorous or quirky approach in your ads and other promotions. Who can forget the hilarious Budweiser lizards, or, more recently, the quirky Quizno’s sponge monkeys?

Never heard of the sponge monkeys? Try Google-ing them… They were certainly memorable and perhaps more than a little annoying --- hmmm, maybe memorable and annoying tend to go together.

This technique is not for everyone, though. As a business you have to be comfortable with what you’re doing. Could you deal with it if people said about your business, “Oh yea, you’re the guys with those weird sponge-monkeys.” Actually, you should be happy if they’re saying that, because it means you’re being remembered over your competitors.

Humor is a great way to be really exceptional if you can pull it off. Think about it: Don’t most businesses tend to take themselves way too seriously? If you are the one who doesn’t take yourself too seriously, you could truly standout.

# # #

Dave Ramacitti is co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a new website dedicated to helping small businesses be more effective marketers. To receive a free copy of our special report "58 Free and Low Cost Ways to Promote Your New Small Business" visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com/signup © 2010 by David F. Ramacitti. Excerpted from The All-Important Stuff You Gotta Do First to Effectively Market Your Small Business © 2009 by David F. Ramacitti

One Way to Make Your Small Business’s Ads Memorable is to Feature a Pretty Girl

The one overriding goal of your small business’s marketing efforts, especially during a start-up phase, is to be noticed, is to be memorable in the eyes of customers or potential customers. You achieve being memorable by finding something your customers or potential customers can identify with, an image that you can own. Then you deliver that image --- your marketing message --- in a unique and memorable way, that is, in a way that is different from your competitors.

One way you can present your marketing message in a unique way is to feature a pretty girl. In this case I’m not talking about using a beautiful woman to illustrate the use of a product to a target audience, such as is done in shampoo or make-up ads. Rather, I’m talking about using a pretty girl simply as a compelling visual image, for example, like the whiskey Black Velvet does in their billboards and print ads during the holiday season. A beautiful woman will always turn heads.

(Dave Ramacitti is co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a new website dedicated to helping small businesses be smarter marketers. To receive a free copy of our special report "58 Free and Low Cost Ways to Promote Your New Small Business" visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com/signup © 2010 by David F. Ramacitti. Excerpted from The All-Important Stuff You Gotta Do First to Effectively Market Your Small Business © 2009 by David F. Ramacitti)

How Often Should You Email Customers?

Well...it depends.

Email is still a popular means by which to advertise to customers, even with other avenues available. Coupled with the fact that it's inexpensive, it's almost a no-brainer to make it part of any marketing campaign.  A good campaign generates sales and builds customer loyalty. The trick is to determine how often to send notices. If you send them too much, you wind up in the delete folder more often than not. Don't send them enough, and you could miss out on possible leads, sales, or find yourself emailing addresses that are no longer in use.

To ensure an effective email campaign, follow these guidelines:

• Make sure your content is short and sweet. Anywhere from 350-500 words per email should do it, and if you can get your point across with less words, even better.

• Use your campaign to alert customers to specials, send them coupons, or forward valuable information that will help them solve problems. It shouldn't just be about selling your services.

• Include a call to action. Tell them the expiration date and how to redeem the coupon. If you're solving a problem for them, tell them how to get in touch with you.

In general, you should not email customers more than once per week. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. They should look forward to opening your emails to read what you have to say. To determine how frequently to email them, test frequency levels. Try once per week, once per month, and twice per month. Ask yourself the following questions during the test period.

1. How many unsubscribes did I get at each level?
2. How many click-throughs?
3. How many customers opened the email?

By reviewing the numbers, you'll have a better idea of how often you should send messages to your customers. There's no magic number for all businesses, but you can get as close as possible to what's ideal for your product or service.

Freelance Assistance, LLC can help you create an email campaign that fits your customers' needs. We'll take over the weekly or monthly task of sending out notices. Send us an email to find out how we can create original content so you can stay in touch with your customers.

To Make Your Small Business Memorable Use a Tagline

The one overriding goal of your small business’s marketing efforts, especially during a start-up phase, is to be noticed, is to be memorable in the eyes of customers or potential customers. You achieve being memorable by finding something your customers or potential customers can identify with, an image that you can own. Then you deliver that image --- your marketing message --- in a unique and memorable way, that is, in a way that is different from your competitors.

One way you can present your marketing message in a unique way is to have a memorable tagline or slogan and promote the heck out of it. “You’re in good hands with…” I don’t even have to complete the phrase; it is instantly recognizable as the tagline that Allstate Insurance has been using for decades.

A memorable tagline that means something to your customers or potential customers --- particularly if it has emotional impact, like Allstate’s --- is a great shorthand way to define your business, to differentiate yourself from the competition, and to build identity over time.

I can’t emphasize enough that your tagline must clearly be different from any taglines your competitors use; to sound like them is to promote them instead of yourself. At the same time, keep in mind that it has to make sense, it has to be instantly understandable. A too cute tagline may send mixed messages (mean different things to different people) and can be worse than no tagline at all.

Dave Ramacitti is co-founder and chief content developer for Marketing Over Easy, a new website dedicated to helpi9ng small businesses be smarter marketers.

To receive a free copy of our information-packed special report “58 Free & Low Cost Tricks to Effectively Promote Your New Small Business” visit us at www.marketingovereasy.com.

© 2010 by David F. Ramacitti. Excerpted from The All-Important Stuff You Gotta Do First to Effectively Market Your Small Business © 2009 by David F. Ramacitti.