This approach lends you instant credibility, and increases your response rate. If the people on the other end of the telephone know that the survey will be made available to the local TV station, they will search high and low to find you the answer!

Narrowing The Field

These simple steps provide an excellent basis from which to attack your marketing. But focus a little more deeply and you’ll find even more valuable information. For instance, by looking at who has Websites and who doesn’t) you’ll find that, in certain industries, there are more business Websites than in other industries. Let’s assume here that high-tech industries have a higher percentage of businesses with Websites than do any other industry segments.

You’ve now narrowed your target market to include:

• small business operators
• who manage high-tech businesses
• within a fifty kilometer radius of your business

From your survey, you know how most of the businesses in your area hear of Website
designers.

That’s a well-targeted market!

Now you can grab your market’s attention with laser-like precision. Moreover, because your marketing is so well-targeted, it should be very successful.

The moral of this example? It makes no sense to take $5,000 worth of newspaper advertisements and hope for the best if, with just two hours' work, you can find out exactly how your particular market hears of people in your line of business, and target your promotions, far more cheaply, to them.

Case 6.2. Mmm ... Donuts

My business is perfectly situated—it’s directly above a bakery, a café, and a Domino’s Pizza! The café has changed hands three times in the past twelve months. Why? Because the operators don’t target their market.

The market for the café will be people located within a radius of about five kilometers of the store. The absolute best market will be people within a 100 meter radius. An even better market will be people who work in offices within about fifty metres of the café, which is open largely during business hours.

At any point in time, my business might have twelve employees working frantically away. Almost all of us here like to eat lunch out of the office, or at least to go out to buy our lunch, which we then bring back to the office.

Yet, in the twelve months we’ve been in those offices, we have never had the café staff knock on the door and say, “Hey, you guys! Come and eat lunch with us! We make great kebabs, sensational sandwiches and perfect pies, have icy cold drinks and we will treat you like the important people you are! Here’s a voucher for a special deal to try us out this week—come on in!”

You’re in business. You want to sell whatever it is you sell. Tell people about what you sell. Ask them to buy.

The café should be dropping their new menu in to us every week. They should have wandered around the nearby offices and introduced themselves. They should letterbox drop flyers galore. They should have fabulous big signage outside their shop. And they should do whatever they can to tell people that they’re in business, and that they have something to sell. Only then will they start to sell.

The Perfect Lead

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there are a million different ways to get the attention of your market.

When people think of “marketing” they tend to think of large, costly tactics. Radio advertising. Newspaper inserts. Be aware that not every marketing tactic you use has to be a large-scale, one-to-many transmission like a flyer or an ad in the local paper. In fact, a small-scale promotion allows you to target with much greater precision the needs of a particular market segment.

We often generate leads from highly qualified prospects. In its simplest form, this promotion might see us run a competition for a lucky customer of the local stationery supply store. The competition’s prize is a free template-based Website. The stationery store owner is happy to allow us to run the competition through his store, as it makes him popular with his clients (one of whom is the lucky winner of a free Website).

We also receive the 100 or so entry forms submitted by competition entrants. We have 100 names, titles, business names, addresses and telephone numbers of business people within our area who have expressed interest in a Website! As you’ve guessed, these forms are the basis of the next step in our marketing process. I can feel some business coming on!

These competition entrants are mailed a “You’re a winner” letter, which informs them that although they didn’t win the free Website, they have won a free mouse pad and a free hour-long consultation with a Web consultant to help them identify whether their business would benefit from a Website. The letter finishes by telling them that the writer will be in touch.

That letter is accompanied by an article we’ve written, titled “Does your business need a Website?” In addition to this, we generally toss in some articles that have been written about us, along with testimonials from happy clients.

Now we have 100 potentially hot prospects expecting a call from us. They expect that we’ll set up a meeting to discuss their needs for a Website. Don’t ask them to call you. They won’t get around to it.

Let’s look at the characteristics of this market segment.

• They want a Website (otherwise they wouldn’t have entered the competition).
• They’ve been educated about the benefits of a Website (in your letter and article).
• They know about our business (which has also benefited from the implied endorsement of the stationery store, which increases our perceived credibility).

From those 100 hot prospects, I’d be surprised if we didn’t make three sales.

• That’s three new clients. That’s at least $6,000 even if they only want a teensy weensy Website.
• That’s three more clients on our ongoing list.
• That’s three more clients to give us referrals.

And here’s another interesting tip: always give the competition winner options for the
site they win. For example, offer:

1. the template site for free, or
   
2. the template site plus a few other added extras for a little money, or
   
3. a custom-designed site, with the total bill discounted by $1,000.

They’ll almost always choose from the two options that will cost them money. We have a client who manages a resort and runs a monthly competition for two nights’ free accommodation.

80% of the winners extend the length of their stay by up to five nights! And 42% of the winners re-book to stay within the next twelve months.

Now, these are just a couple of ways to market your business for a minimal investment. Don’t blindly follow the herd by tossing your money away on marketing tactics that don’t work. Research your market, talk with your market, analyze your market—that’s the way to very cost-effective marketing.

Key Points

• Tightly targeted marketing is inexpensive—and should generate a decent ROI.
• Research your audience, and use what you learn to refine your marketing efforts.
• Ask your clients how they found you. This should indicate what marketing channels your prospects will use.
• The perfect lead is well-qualified. Qualified prospects are best, so try to use marketing tools that prequalify the potential client.

Advertising, Promotion And Public Relations

Now that we’ve discussed the importance of highly targeted promotions and qualified lead generation, it’s time to turn our thoughts to some of the more common marketing alternatives.

In this section, I’ll get a little more specific on advertising, promotion and Public Relations (PR).

We’ll look at how you can assess the potential of a particular marketing tool. We’ll also consider a range of different tools, and what they can and cannot do for you. Lastly, we’ll get into PR in some depth—if you’ve ever wanted to know how to write the ultimate media release, keep reading!

Assessing Your Advertising Options

Just what is the best way to assess your advertising options?

There’s no “right” answer to that question. There are all sorts of cultural, economic and local considerations that impact on the effectiveness of every advertising medium.

However, here are some general guidelines that will help you assess each different medium you consider using.

Use Your Research

Take a look at the audience survey you completed and see if the particular medium
you’re considering is mentioned.

There’s no point advertising in the newspaper if your target market did not identify it as one of the ways they found a Web developer. Similarly, there’s no point advertising in a particular newspaper if no one in your target audience reads it.

Rely heavily on your research—that is why you’re researching, after all!

Analyze The CPM

CPM stands for Cost Per Thousand, M being the Roman numeral for 1,000.

The CPM is the most analytical and objective measurement you can make of a communications vehicle. Once you know how much it costs to use a particular means to contact 1,000 people, you can easily compare the costs between media.

It works like this. The local newspaper reaches 50,000 people. You can buy a half-page display advertisement in the paper for $1,000. Therefore, if we divide 1,000 by fifty, we see that it will cost us $20 to reach a thousand people.

Obviously, the lower the CPM, the better. But keep in mind “media waste.” This refers to the number of people who see your ad, but who aren’t in your target audience and don’t have a need for your services.

Usually, the more “mass”, or general, the reach of the medium you use, the more media wastage there will be. For instance, a TV ad on the local television station will likely reach far more uninterested parties than will a direct mail campaign targeting businesses in your area that don’t have a Website.

So, when you consider CPM, also consider the amount of media waste. The CPM of a newspaper ad might be cheap at $20, but if 90% of the paper’s audience aren’t in your target market, it doesn’t matter how low the CPM is, you’re still wasting a lot of media—and money!

Speak With Other Advertisers

If the local TV station representative is trying to sell you some space, choose an advertisement or two you see running on that channel, and call those advertisers. You'll soon have a reasonable idea about what sort of response those ads are generating.

Listen To Your Instincts

Timing and gut feel are important. Some times of the year or month are simply a dead loss for Web design business.

For example, most businesses close down over the Christmas period, while their owners are off enjoying the season’s festivities. Don't waste your money advertising then.

Stick To Your Budget

Budget is a major consideration. Running three radio advertisements across three days might be within your budget, but it won’t be of any benefit. Some media, like radio, require repetition of your message in order to be effective.

If you don't have the budget to suit the medium, then don’t bother buying the space. Keep track of your expenditures using the Marketing Budget that's included in the Budget spreadsheet on this kit's CDROM.

Consider The Real Costs

Remember, also, the fact that an advertisement generates an inquiry doesn't necessarily mean that it’s successful. Here’s why. A client is currently running an advertisement in a local free weekly newspaper. His thinking was that if the ad generated one new client in twelve months, the advertisement would have been “successful.”

Wrong! The ad has been a disaster. After sixteen weeks at a cost of $60 per week, his ad has generated twelve inquiries. He has yet to make a sale. Yet the client estimates that meeting with the people who inquired, putting together the proposals, and talking on the telephone with these “prospects” has cost him in excess of $2,000 already.

He now subjects each “lead” to a fairly rigorous qualifying process before he takes the relationship any further. And he’s trying to off-load the advertisements (as he’s tied in to an advertising agreement with the paper for the full year).

Which Promotional Option Suits You?

I can’t tell you the answer to that! However, taking into account the targeted marketing tips I provided earlier, I’ll discuss here a few of the popular options for advertising, promotion and PR efforts.

All of the techniques listed below are perfectly capable of generating new clients in droves. Your challenge is to identify which option suits you, try it, and measure the results so that you can improve your ROI in your future promotional efforts.

Newspaper Advertising

Base your budget on the CPM I mentioned earlier. Newspaper advertising needs to be really well targeted to be successful. As we’ve discussed, it would probably be more cost effective for you to advertise in a business newspaper, rather than the local community newspaper.

Yellow Pages Advertising

This is almost a ‘must have.’ Many people will choose a designer from the Yellow Pages. These ads can be very expensive and, unfortunately, with this medium it’s a case of “the bigger, the better!”

If you do make the commitment to buying a large, prominent (and more expensive) Yellow Pages ad, then make sure you very closely measure which clients find out about you from these ads, and what sort of return you receive on your investment.

Radio Ads

Radio spots are not usually well-targeted. Don’t advertise on radio unless you can try it very cheaply, and be sure to track the results!

On the other hand, a radio appearance can be a great way to boost your profile. For instance, if you're interviewed as a special guest during the computer show on your local radio station, you can attract real attention to yourself and your business.

Writing Articles

If you can get a “Why you might need a Website” article published in a business magazine, it can work very well to generate leads.

Writing articles is a good form of PR, and allows you to “borrow credibility” from the publication in which your article appears. As the only expense involved is the time it takes you to write the article, this form of promotion can be very cost-effective.

Flyers

Flyers are OK, but only because they’re cheap. You can target them a little (for example, by delivering them only to local businesses), and with a little luck you might receive a call or two as a result of your efforts.

Hold A Seminar

Why not hold a seminar titled “Developing a Website for Your Business”? Great idea! It’s beautifully targeted, you have the opportunity to build enormous credibility, and you have a group of hot prospects in a room for a day, learning all about the Web—direct from you!

Spend $1,000 to promote the seminar, fill up a good-sized room, and retire to the Bahamas on the profits! Well… not quite, but you’ll do OK!

The trouble here is that you have to spend a little to make a little. Charge a token fee of, say, $10 per head, so that your audience perceives some value in spending a day with you. Granted, you may not make much of a profit from the event itself, but it’s the lead-generation that will benefit your business in the long run.

Ask For Referrals From People You Know

It didn’t take me too long to realize that the vast majority (and most profitable part) of my business came from prospects who were referred to us by past and current clients.

Know what we do now? We ask everyone we know to please, please, please refer their friends or business contacts to us. If someone refers us a client, we say thanks.

Referrals are perfectly targeted, and don’t require any work on your part. If you’re not asking every man and his dog for referrals to your business, then you aren’t serious about being in business.

Local ISPs And Hosting Companies

Local providers of computer- and Internet-related services can be a rich source of referrals. Contact them to establish a reciprocal arrangement through which you refer hosting clients to them if they refer Web design clients to you. This arrangement can work on a commission basis as well.

Branded Merchandise

T-shirts, stickers, buttons, mouse pads, pens, and mugs with your logo on them? Don’t even think about it!

What influences people to select someone in your line of business? I’ll bet it isn’t how nice your branded coffee mugs are. Prospects won’t initially select you based on merchandise, so don’t do it: it’s a waste of money.

Having said that, I do find these products great as gifts for clients you want to thank for some reason. But this kind of expense can only really be justified when you’re well established and very profitable.

Write A Report

Write a report devoted to making and saving money with a Website, and give it away for free. It’ll be another great lead generation tool.

Once the report’s finished, take a small ad in the local paper, do a post office box flyer drop, send targeted direct mail, and shoot out a Media Release promoting your report. You’ll soon have some very hot prospects on your doorstep!

Here's another idea. Include a Tips Sheet as part of the free report. Then use this Tips Sheet as the main part of your media release, which you write like a Top Ten list: “The Top Ten Ways to Avoid Being Ripped Off on the Internet!”

That sort of release, backed up by some research, will almost always get a run in relevant media.

Classified Ads

Advertising in newspaper classifieds is very cheap and can work quite well. Worth a try.

Telemarketing

Phone marketing can also work well. Try it and see.

Guest Speaking

Fantastic! Guest speaking is free, and generates real interest on the spot. You’ll be perceived as an expert, you’ll learn the techniques required for public speaking (which are a huge advantage), and you’ll be exposing yourself in the nicest possible way to your potential market.

Brochure

Printed brochures can be good, but only once you’ve established your business. When you’re starting out, it’s much more cost-effective to demonstrate your professionalism in other ways that require a smaller initial outlay. Our research tells us that fewer than 20% of an audience will read your brochure.

Newsletters

Newsletters are great! They’re cheap and they’re easy. Use a desktop publisher with some decent paper. I can produce a great-looking newsletter for about sixty cents a copy.

For some reason, people seem to attach more credibility to the printed word than they do to an electronic message. For this reason, newsletters can help build recognition and improve perceptions of your credibility within the market, especially if your newsletter’s continued regularly, over a long period of time.

Networking

As we’ve discussed before, networking is a must-do. Join the local business groups, go to the lunches, attend the charity golf days. Remember, however, to keep a close eye on the amount you spend on these events, and closely analyze the return you make.

Prepare A Video Or CD

Describing your business and the benefits you provide in a video or CD is a great idea, right? No. People won’t watch the video, nor will they look at the CD. You’d think they would, and both these media provide a great way to demonstrate your expertise, but people just don’t look at them. Why not? Because it’s too easy to procrastinate.

Think about it. If someone dropped off a video to your office, would you find time to look at it?

Sponsorships

Sponsorship opportunities usually require you to provide cold hard cash and/or services. The impact of these kinds of arrangements is very difficult to measure, as sponsorship rarely provides an immediate response.

Public Relations

Love it, love it, love it! It’s free if you do it yourself, and the impact can be enormous if you get your story covered on a decent TV show, radio program or newspaper feature.

PR has the benefit that it doesn’t have to be particularly well-targeted if it gets to one million people in your city and doesn’t cost you anything! PR is excellent, so let’s take a closer look at this form of promotions.

A Public Relations Primer

Public Relations covers a wide range of activities, but in a promotional sense, it’s about building goodwill for your business by gaining unpaid media attention. The whole premise of PR is that you “borrow credibility” from the media, rather than looking like an advertiser who’s simply paid for exposure.

So, how does it work? First, you have to attract the press. Now, you can get the media’s attention in two ways—the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way is to write a concise, well-constructed release about your newsworthy event. The hard way is to write a sloppy release on something that nobody cares about.

Here are the basic rules of thumb you’ll need to follow:

• Media releases should be one page long—and one page only. You need to tell your entire story in that single page.
• Your release should be on A4 or US Letter size paper only, no odd sizes.
• The paper you write your media release on must be plain white, not colored—no letterhead, no logo, nothing but white.

As you get a bit more confident, and become recognized by the media, you might want to bend these rules—this will probably be OK once you’ve established yourself a little. But to begin with, stick to these guidelines.

Now, let’s look at what you need to include in your release.

Contents Of A Media Release

Your media releases should always follow this standard, accepted format. It's what journalists and editors will expect, and it allows you to communicate your message clearly. Your media release should contain the following elements (see the sample Media Release file on the CD-ROM—it's a good example of how the following elements work together in practice).

Release Timing Details

The timing of publication of a media release can be extremely important in some cases. To let the press know when they can use a release, it’s common practice to include release timing details in the upper left corner of the page. You have two options; choose the one that's more appropriate for your purpose.

You can either write "For immediate release," to let the journalist know that he/she can report upon the information at any time. Or you can write "For release on October 1st, 2003," which lets the journalist know if your story is urgent or time-relevant.

Headline

The headline of the release is next. Your headline has a big job: it must grab the attention of your readers, and encourage them to keep reading, so it has to be compelling. Make it as interesting as you can.

Body Copy

The body copy is next. Split this into three parts.

1. In the first paragraph, tell the whole story: the who, what, when, where and why. Tell the whole story in 2, or maybe three sentences. It's sometimes a little tricky, but it can be done.

2. The second part of the release should contain quotes that give credibility to the story while fleshing out the most important details.

3. The third part of your media release should contain your call to action. What do
   you want to have happen as a result of your media release?

As you write, think about your release from the point of view of someone who doesn't know you or your company. Who cares about the information you’re discussing in the release? If you can't answer that, then your release isn't newsworthy. If you can answer that, make sure you write the release in a way that will be interesting to them.

Contact Details

When the release is complete, write "ENDS" on its own line. Below this write: "For further information, contact:” followed by your name and phone number.

And that’s it!

Top Ten Tips For Your Media Release

1. Make sure the information is newsworthy.

2. Write a great headline.

3. Start with a brief description of the news: the who, what, when, where, why and how.

4. Ask yourself, "Is this really newsworthy?"

5. Make sure the first ten words of your release are effective, as they're the most important.

6. Avoid the excessive use of adjectives and fancy language.

7. Focus on the facts.

8. Provide contact details, and make sure you can be reached.

9. Send it to the right person! There’s not much use sending your IT story to the
   sports journalist.

10. Follow the structure I've outlined here—don't deviate from this plan! These are the standard rules you should keep in mind when you write a media release.

    Stick with these and you’ll have a professional-looking release, for which you won't have had to pay hundreds of dollars!

Making Contact

Send your release to the right person. There’s not much use sending your Internet-related story to the sports journalist! A quick call to the reception desk at those newspapers or television studios you’re targeting should get you the information you need.

How To Distribute Your Release

With the range of distribution outlets available these days, it’s a simple matter to pay a media list to shoot your release off to 500 editors across the country. But is that best?

Should you sit at your fax machine and slowly send out release after release to the editors you’ve targeted? Maybe you should send the release off to an Internet-based service for rapid email distribution.

What's the best way to distribute your release?

The answer to this question will change with the type of release you’re sending. As usual, I’d suggest you test various methods and closely monitor the results. You might find that your Internet-related media releases have great success when distributed via an Internet-based service.

But my big word here would be ‘targeted.’ In my company, we first identify the specific publications or media we want to target, then take a look at what they produce and the news angles they take. After that, it's a simple matter of writing our release specifically for that publication or show, that editor, or that particular journalist.

Sure, this might mean a little extra work, but the results that a well-targeted media campaign can provide can be well worth it.

The Call

It’s all gone well so far. You've sent your media release off to your targeted media contacts and you sit back, imagining your face on the nightly news… and then you get the call.

Suddenly, you have a journalist on the phone who wants more information on the story, and perhaps a quote or 2! What do you do next? You have a couple of options:

1. Panic, start um-ing and ah-ing, blurt out a few long-winded answers, and generally squander your opportunity to get your message across.

2. Calmly gather all the relevant material you have had sitting on your desk ready for this call, and start the interview.

If you want to take the second option, you’ll need to be ready ahead of time. So, when you prepare your release, prepare for what may happen.

Prepare for the interview. Try to think about what journalists would want to know. In my experience, they want information: they want it concise, they want it relevant, and they want it now. It’s your task to give them what they need to do a good job.

Make it as easy as possible for the media to do their jobs. Most people seem to assume that journalists are hunting around for the dirt, that they'll grab any slip-up you make and turn you into a laughing stock. In my experience, this has not been the case. The vast majority of journalists I've dealt with have been professional, accommodating, and have taken great pride in putting together a story that’s interesting and top quality.

If you don't have much experience with the media, rest assured that they won’t make your life harder. They’ll almost always guide you through the process and make it as easy as possible.

When you’re speaking with the media, try to relax. Imagine the interview is a friendly conversation with someone who wants to learn a bit more about what you have to say, because that is exactly what it is.

So, before you send off the release, make sure you have handy as much information as might be required. Also, have a list of the contact details of the people the journalist might like to interview about your news item. That way, when the press calls, you’ll be ready for action!

The Release Has Been Run! What Now?

The local television station has sent out a journalist to cover your media release and you find yourself featured on the evening news. It makes a big impact for business and lifts the business profile a mile! Fantastic!

What’s next? Do you send the journalist a gift of a dozen bottles of wine, send her out for dinner or just send money? Well, none of the above actually!

Look at this situation from the perspective that we use to approach client care. Anyone who helps your business is doing you a favour. If you reward the behavior, it will be repeated. And, it’s just good manners.

So, what should you do when the media runs your story? Say “thanks.” It's common courtesy. Here is an example letter you might like to use:

Dear John,
Just a quick note to say thanks for coming out to interview me about our business now selling pieces of the moon.