Patrick Kennedy, VP, Superior Woodcraft, Inc. contributed the following article. If you read this article and try one of the tips, tell us about it! What works for you? What doesn’t? We want to talk with you!
During our last conversation we focused on marketing in a local economy. The internet puts the world at your fingers, but who cares? Most of us only care about marketing to our local customers. You can still use the internet to market to the local marketplace. Let’s see how.
Perhaps you’ve begun by donating some of your work to local charities; maybe you’re planning to exhibit at a local artisans’ festival; don’t stop there. All of your efforts and activity can reach much farther than the arenas in which they began: leverage this work and tell your potential clients what you are doing.
Leverage your marketing efforts: broadcast your business exponentially by spreading the word across the internet.
First, you need an online presence and links to your website. If you have a website great; if not, work on creating one. Many of these suggestions cost no money, but they are not free. Remember your time is valuable and has a cost to you. Don’t delude yourself and think that these suggestions are totally free, but they are probably the best deals in town. Here are some suggestions on how to use the internet to leverage your work by focusing on getting the word out to your local marketplace.
1. Create your own blog or work with other artisans and local businesses to create a blog. Tell the world about your donation and where you will be exhibiting.
2. Several websites focus on buying local and offer free listings for local independent companies. One such site is Independent We Stand. Use them to your advantage.
3. Use Getlisted.org, localeze or Universal Business Listing to list your company information so your local customers can find you on the internet.
4. Contact your suppliers to see if they will place a link to your website or blog on their website. You can reciprocate by placing a link to your supplier’s website on your sites.
5. See if your Alma matter lists contact information and links about their alumni.
6. Google offers an array of free or low cost products you can utilize to promote your company or help customers locate you. Use Google Adwords or Goggle Places to help your potential clients find you.
7. Use websites such as PRWeb to help distribute information you want the local marketplace to know.
8. Use sites such as facebook and linkedin to increase your online social network.
9. If you having blogging capabilities with your CustomMade account use it.
10. Support your local businesses and they will support you. Your dollars count.
Okay, these are a lot of suggestions. Don’t try to tackle them all at one time. Start by picking one or two items to tackle first and keep working at it. Over time you will build a strong online presence and be able to leverage your activity. You can visit Superior Woodcraft Blog to see an example of how I leverage Superior Woodcraft’s actions and reach out to our local marketplace.
Please join my discussion by posting a comment. I would enjoy hearing from you and learning from your comments and suggestions. Remember – “Acting locally, together, we can all help each other through these trying economic times. The only support and assistance we need is each other.”
More of Patrick Kennedy’s writings can be found here.
Comments
Hey there Patrick,
Thanks for referencing PRWeb in your blog post. You provided some great ways to gain online visibility and I'd love to add a few more: generate conversation with word of mouth marketing (information spreads quickly online as well as offline through word of mouth) and provide relevant and interesting content to your target audience through your online social channels as often as possible.
--Stacey Acevero (www.bloggingprweb.com)
Stacey,
Thank you for your suggestions:
1. Generating conversation with word of mouth marketing (generating the Buzz).
2. Provide relevant & interesting content to your target audience through online social channels as often as possible.
I really like your first suggestion. It is effective and doesn't cost a lot. Some companies do a fantastic job of creating Buzz around their products. One example that comes to mind is Apple. It seems like people are always talking about Apple.
Great ideas and thanks. It is always nice to hear from experts and learn from your ideas.
Patrick
Too much and it will make you look narcissistic, cheap or even desperate.
Patrick,
Thanks for helping Independent We Stand spread the word. Independent locally owned businesses can register for free on our searchable database at http://www.IndependentWeStand.org/take-a-stand/register-your-business. Its our way of helping consumers find and support local businesses.
Bill Brunelle (www.IndependentWeStand.org)
Hey Bill! Do you guys have anything special planned for Small Business Saturday? http://smallbusinesssaturday.com/
It's an exciting time of year for small businesses...
Hi All. I'm just a hobbyist as a woodworker. My career is actually in marketing. Patrick offers lots of great suggestions here for marketing to the world at large. However, a major one that needs to be added is mining your customer/prospect base. As cabinetmakers and woodworkers, you have an invaluable marketing resource--content. By content I mean the ongoing library of work that you create--pictures, etc. Use it. Twitter, facebook, and email are easy to use and provide a method of ongoing communication that doesn't require sales calls. Make sure your web site has facebook and twitter links that direct toward joining your group. Add a field on your website for collecting email addresses and link it to a simple email marketing program like Constant Contact. Then, when you have completed new work, gotten in some fantastic new stock, or even developed a new design, shout it out to your audience. Successful marketing is all about repetition. Stay in front of consumers because you never know when they will come to a buying decision.
Hello everyone,
We have a good dialog here, great suggestions and some divergent views.
Dboetb – points out some negative views that could be created. I agree in that you definitely don’t want create negativity. What we need to do is to employ those ideas that work best for us and our customers. These suggestions are just tools for marketing. You don’t need to use all the tools or use them all time. Like most of your tools you will find your favorite ones to use – the tools that feel comfortable in your hand, become an extension of you and create great results. Experiment to see what works best for you. - Patrick
CustomMade,
It really is an exciting time for small businesses and we are supporting this American Express event 100%. It is great to have big player like AmEx who recognizes the value of small businesses and has the brand power to help spread the word.
Patrick
You have mistaken critical thinking with negativity. In business one learns not to take what is said at face value without some scrutiny. Wouldn't you agree? Or should we take these pro series blogs at face value and buy into the Custom Made marketing ploy without question?
My comments contain no malice nor derogatory remarks, they are intended to open up real dialog concerning the subjects addressed in these blogs but instead I am looked at as distracting and ignored.
Don't think that doesn't send up a few red flags?
One needs only read the comments on this blog to see that the majority are from Internet marketing entities that were mentioned in the original blog and only one, at this point, that is a professional woodworker that isn't a member of Custom Made.
If you would rather not address these issues then please say so, but please don't attempt making me out as the distract-or, that's not good salesmanship.
Don B
Mikeyt6214 –
You have great suggestions for ongoing communications that don’t require face-to-face sales calls. That suggestion is efficient and a great alternative for those of us who aren’t 100%thrilled with making sales calls.
Your comment that successful marketing is all about repetition can’t be stressed enough. Very rarely does a person commit to a purchase on just 1-2 exposures to the product. Repetition is the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word marketing.
Thanks Mikeyt6214
Patrick
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