Basics for Marketing Home Business

Essentially, home business marketing is just like marketing for big businesses. In order for your business to be successful, you need to make money. For your business to make money, you need sales. To make or increase sales, you need to market your product or service effectively.
It's important to understand some basic marketing terms so you'll know how to go about finding customers and prospects and how to secure their business. Whether you personally perform all of your home business marketing tasks or have someone else perform them for you, at least you'll understand what's going on and why it may or may not be important.
Marketing Terms for Home Business
Home business marketing activities may include public relations, market research, collateral publication and distribution, along with strategy and analysis.

Positioning, branding, distribution and advertising are also a big part of marketing activities for most businesses, and home business are no exception. Here are some basic definitions to get you started:
• Public relations – may consist of a variety of activities engaged in by organizations or celebrities that are intended to promote a positive relationship or image with their customers and prospective customers (members of the public). Public relations activities may include maintaining relationships with the media and establishing a visible presence at trade shows and other public or private events. It may also include the preparation and distribution of press releases, which are newsworthy articles intended to be published in the media for the purpose of showcasing the company's activities to the public.
• Press releases - newsworthy articles intended to be published in the media for the purpose of showcasing the company's activities to the public. Often considered an effective form of "free" advertising, although it may cost some money to hire someone to write the article and/or pay to distribute it over the news wires.
• Market Research – the activities undertaken by an organization to determine the nature of its customers and competitors, as well as the demand for its products or services along with the features that customers prefer in similar products or services. These activities may include customer surveys, business intelligence and test marketing the reaction to a product or service being offered.
• Marketing collateral - a collection of marketing communications materials used as part of an organization's marketing strategy. Marketing collateral might include brochures, data sheets that provide an overview of the features of a product or service (often a technical overview), and white papers, which are articles or reports written to showcase an organization's products or services, the effectiveness of the technology behind them, and/or a comparison of the organization's products, services or method of operating compared to its competitors.
• Positioning – techniques used in marketing intended to identify the place or position of an organization's product or service within its target market compared to its competition. These techniques are used to influence and/or reinforce certain perceptions that customers and prospects have of the product or service. Once an organization is able to identify how it wants its customers to perceive its product or service, marketing activities can be focused on achieving the desired results. Understand your competitive advantage
• Branding - is the organization's representation of what it stands for, often based on cumulative impressions and positive reinforcement. Like a cattle brand, a business brand can be identified readily and is used for increased awareness of the business. Branding is used throughout the company, such as in its logo, stationery, business cards, on its web site and in its tagline. A great example of effective branding is the Nike "swoosh" logo because it's instantly recognizable around the world.
• Distribution - is the mixture of methods used to get your product or service to its customers. For example, you may need to decide if you will sell your products through a catalog, on the Internet, in a brick and mortar store, or a combination of these. Understanding the best methods or channels for how your product or service is distributed is important for maximizing your sales. Your decisions in this area will greatly impact your other marketing activities.
More Home Business Marketing Terms
• Marketing campaign - one or more marketing activities undertaken in an effort to increase business. A campaign usually has a starting and ending date, an objective, and a means to measure how effective each activity was in accomplishing its objective. The overall effectiveness of the campaign is also tracked. Gathering and analyzing campaign results is important because it helps identify activities that should be repeated, and which activities were not worth the time or expense. Marketing campaigns may include Internet marketing and search engine marketing techniques.
• Lead generation - the process of accumulating contact information on prospective customers (prospects) for your business.
• Cold calling - the process of visiting prospective customers in person (such as in going door-to-door) or in telephoning prospects without their advance knowledge of your visit or call. The effectiveness of cold calling is largely dependent on the nature of the product or service you have to offer.
• Guerrilla marketing - a term created by Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the book Guerrilla Marketing. Levinson offers tips for getting maximum results with minimum costs. These tips may be very effective for home business marketing.
• Internet marketing – marketing your product or service via the Internet. Techniques include search engine marketing, banner ads, and a variety of Web publishing and search engine optimization techniques that will be discussed in future articles.
• Search engine marketing - The act of marketing a Web site via search engines, whether this is improving rank in organic listings (non-paid search results), purchasing paid listings or a combination of both.
Put Your Marketing Knowledge to Work
Now that you have a basic understanding of the terms used in home business marketing, its time to put them to use. Knowledge alone won't bring customers to your door. For one thing, you need to know your competitive advantage, keep it in focus, and then center your marketing efforts around it.
Many home business owners claim they don't have the time for marketing. Without it, the business is not very likely to succeed. Setting aside a specific time of the day and/or day of the week is one way to stay on top of your marketing efforts.
Remember, the more effectively you can market, the bigger return you'll get for your time and money. Strong marketing efforts do not necessarily require a big budget. But they do require some time, careful thought, and results tracking.

Being Unique is a Good Thing

New entrepreneurs frequently hear the advice to "be unique" in their marketing. The basic idea is a valuable one -- to get attention in a crowded marketplace, you must stand out in some way. Distinguishing your product or service from the competition can make your marketing more effective. Crafting a novel marketing message can attract the notice of more potential customers.
There's no question that an element of uniqueness in your marketing can make your business more memorable, competitive, and special to your target audience. These are all reasons why being different can be good. But how different should you be?
A student in one of my classes had noticed there were no display ads for management consultants in his local Yellow Pages. "What a great opportunity," he thought, "to make my business stand out to prospective clients." He spent over $200 per month on a large ad for a full year.
The result was not a single phone call, unless you count the ones from vendors trying to sell him photocopiers and phone systems.
He had neglected to ask his consulting colleagues WHY none of them had ads in the Yellow Pages. It seemed like a good idea to him, and no one else was doing it, so he pulled out his checkbook. What never occurred to him -- and what any experienced colleague could have told him -- was that companies don't choose management consultants from ads in the phone book.
Sometimes you can be too unique for your own good. There's a lot in sales and marketing that is tried and true. If you decide to forge a completely new trail, you may be attempting an experiment that many others in your field have already tried with no success.
It's not always just your marketing techniques that are a little too different. The same problem can afflict the product or service you are marketing.
I met a fellow while networking who had a "unique process" for helping companies resolve conflicts between employee groups. When I asked him to explain his process, he said I would have to experience it to understand it. I inquired how it compared to solutions like mediation or team building, and he told me it was a totally different approach that defied comparison.
Since I knew a company that needed help with a problem like the one he described, I would have liked to refer him. But I couldn't picture myself calling my friend at the company to say, "Hi, I know someone who says he can fix your problem, but he can't explain how. You'll just have to hire him and see."
Being noticeably different from the competition can help you attract customers and close sales. But claiming that you have no competition is naive. Comparisons to a known quantity can help prospective customers understand where your product or service fits in the range of solutions they are considering. If they can't compare it to anything, it's doubtful that they will be able to see how your offering could work.
Your market, too, needs to be a group of people who already exist and can be readily identified. A reader once wrote to ask me for some advice on getting her new book published. I asked what market category it fell into, and she replied that she hadn't really thought about it.
I pressed her bit, explaining that her book needed to be categorized in order to be marketed and sold. Even something as simple as where to shelve it in a bookstore depended on having a category to print on the back cover. Was it self-help, spirituality, careers, business? Who did she see as the audience for her book?
She asserted that she was creating a new paradigm, and if I was going to help her, I needed to think more creatively. My reply was to tell her I couldn't help her at all. Her idea may have been brilliant, but no publisher was going to touch her project.
Creating the perception that your product or service is one of a kind can help you capture people's attention and make them remember you. But you have to be able to identify the people you want to reach and communicate how you can be of service in words they can understand.
You know those car commercials that go, "Zoom, zoom, zoom?" I had to see those ads dozens of times before I could remember that the car being advertised was a Mazda. "Zoom" was unique alright, but what did it have to do with Mazda? Or with the benefits of owning one? A catchy slogan like "Inspiration Beats Perspiration" may be clever and unusual, but what the heck is it marketing?
Definitely look for a unique way to express the benefits you offer to your clients, but make sure it still communicates what you actually do. It's okay to get creative with your marketing, but don't bet the rent money on untried techniques.
If you really want to make your marketing more effective, cheaper and less stressful, stop re-inventing the wheel. Find models that work and replicate them.
I'm not suggesting that you plagiarize your competitors' marketing copy, but when you see someone successful in your field, find out what they are doing right, and follow their lead.
Don't let your business be a victim of "terminal uniqueness" -- the belief that you are so different from anyone else that none of the rules apply to you. Being distinctive is good; being eccentric can be unwise.

Know your brad's before pulling the trigger on your brand's Publik Relation launch

It bears repeating: if PR is branding 1.0, and advertising, etc., is branding 2.0, and so on, it stands to reason that you want to make your brand "statement" early, and often. This means showing your attributes at the product's debut, the launch, the coming-out, whatever you want to call it. Answer these questions, the "ABC's", literally, of what you need to know to do a thorough introduction, and you're on your way:
A. Product and Technology 1. What is the problem you're solving and who has it? 2. What does the product consist of? -How does it work? -What does it “replace” in the customer’s perception? 3. What are its differentiating strengths? 4. What are the most important benefits? How do you rank them in order of priority? 5. What are the technological barriers to entry? 6. What are the supporting products/services? 7. What are the risks, obstacles, weaknesses? 8. What is the timeframe for future enhancements, features, services? 9. What is your value proposition?
B. The Market 1. What is the “profile” of a typical customer? Partner(s)? 2. Why do you think customers will purchase? Why will partners want to participate? 3. What are barriers to sales? What are barriers to establishing partnerships? 4. How big is the market (dollars)? 5. Competitively, what are the alternatives to your product? How does it compare in terms of features/benefits and “whole product” (partnerships, service, etc.)?
C. Company 1. What is the best analogy that describes what you’re doing today (historically, technologically, economically)? 2. What is your vision? Your mission? 3. What are your company goals (sales, acquisition, IPO, etc.)? 4. How will you make money (business model)? 5. What is your “core competency”? 6. “SWOT” analysis: Management Funding Market Partners Technology 7. What is your greatest concern about the company’s prospects (“What keeps you up at night”)? 8. What are you looking to this rollout to achieve? Once these questions are answered, you're well on your way to a brand-minded PR introduction.