How Much Money Should Small Businesses Spend on Marketing?
Do you have a marketing budget set aside to promote your small business each year? Marketing experts typically recommend that you reserve as much as 10% of your small business’ gross sales for marketing. That includes advertising, promotions, direct mail, giveaways like magnets and such, promotional signage, and so on. The question is whether or not 10% is realistic for your small business or not.
There are several factors to consider when determining your annual marketing budget:
First, the amount of money you spend on marketing should be directly related to the growth stage of your business. Is your business still in its infancy, or is your business mature and well-known? The stage of your business certainly impacts how much money you need to spend to promote it. What industry does your business operate in? Different industries require varying marketing investments to remain competitive. On that note, what are your competitors doing? It’s important to maintain a level playing field at the very least.
Second, you need to plan what new products, services or enhancements you’ll introduce to your small business in the upcoming year. Naturally, if you’re launching a new product, you’ll need to invest enough in the marketing of that product to raise awareness and recognition of it.
Third, you need to determine what business goals you have set. If you want to grow your business by a certain amount within the next year, you need to invest enough money in promotional efforts to help you get there.
Bottom-line, you should invest 5%-10% of your gross sales into your marketing budget. Make a plan before the new year starts and stick to it. Set aside a bit of your budget for opportunities that might arise throughout the year. Most importantly, use your marketing budget. It might sound like a great idea to hold onto that money if your business is doing well, but to grow, you need to reinvest in marketing your business.
DataViking Offers Free Web Site Builder to Hosting Customers
DataViking, an industry-leading provider of end-to-end web hosting services, today announced that the web site building software tool RVSiteBuilder Pro will be available with all shared and reseller hosting packages.
RVSiteBuilder Pro is a hosted web site building software application that features an intuitive WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) user interface and a large library of ready-made templates that allow users to create a professional looking web site in literally minutes. A wide selection of themes allow users to create a web site for almost any purpose, whether it be a blog, photo gallery or a web presence for a small business.
RVSiteBuilder Pro enables users to build much more than plain vanilla web sites. Several new features can be conveniently integrated into a web site through a point and click interface, including photos albums, hit counters, guest books, blogs and FAQ guides. There is also a supply of free media such as commonly used banners, buttons and icons, along with a library of images.
“DataViking is always looking for a way to add value to our hosting offerings,” stated Angel Anderson, CEO of DataViking. “RVSiteBuilder Pro is an easy-to-use software application that anybody without technical experience can use to build an attractive, professional looking web site. This is the essence of value and we are providing it free to our shared and reseller hosting customers. It is further proof that DataViking is committed to enabling customers to realize their full potential on the Internet.”
RVSiteBuilder Pro recently released an updated version of its software (version 3.0), adding an updated navigation system, a new blogging application, database capabilities and improvements to the Ajax-enabled user interface. A total of 16 new templates have been added to the library in this newest release. RVSiteBuilder Pro has a library of 646 templates.
For more advanced users, there is an online Flash editor and users can also download templates, customize them and then re-upload them for future use.
RVSiteBuilder Pro supports all major web browsers and operating systems.
It is available in multiple languages, allowing customers around the world to build a web site in the language they are most comfortable with. Languages supported include English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian-Portuguese, Finnish, Norwegian, Turkish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian and Slovak
43 Do-It-Yourself Marketing Ideas To Start Today
You can market yourself and your business on your own every single day…and you should!
Need some inspiration to get you started? Here are 43 do-it-yourself marketing ideas that you can start doing today:
- Start an e-mail marketing campaign
- Get listed in online industry directories
- Ask for and use client testimonials
- Sponsor a charity event or local sports team
- Design and schedule a free teleconference or webinar for your target market
- Create a unique selling proposition
- Comment on blog posts
- Do a wearable marketing (shirts, hats, bags) giveaway
- Get out in your community to promote yourself
- Toot your own horn
- Consider a direct mail campaign
- Do some pro bono work
- Package your products and services
- Monitor your online reputation
- Join a professional organization
- Promote someone else
- Start reviewing your website analytics
- Revamp your business card
- Develop productive relationships through social media
- Create a niche specialty
- Give back
- Make a point to show your clients you appreciate them
- Start writing and submitting articles online
- Get a vanity (and memorable) business phone number
- Offer incentives for referrals
- Develop personal relationships with your clients
- Plan a website redesign
- Spend some time sharpening up your site in terms of SEO
- Create an elevator pitch
- Clean up your e-mail signature
- Start thinking about holiday gifts for your clients
- Go viral
- Start a blog for your business
- Develop a pay-per-click campaign
- Update your portfolio
- Upsell when appropriate
- Look into conferences and networking events you can attend
- Sign up for the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) e-mail list
- Run a contest and give away a free “sample” service
- Get a strategic partnership going with a client or colleague
- Write and submit a press release
- Explore affiliate marketing
- Focus on word of mouth marketing
In compiling this list, I actually ended up making my own mini-marketing plan for the next few months and will be putting some of these into action. What marketing ideas would you add to this list? Do you plan to do to ramp up your marketing activities?
Are You Tweeting Away Prospects?
There is no question that social networking sites are a hot topic in business these days. Whatever size company you run, you’re probably seeing notices for seminars and workshops on how to use Twitter or Facebook as part of your marketing strategy. Articles abound pointing to social media as the new “silver bullet” that gives you quick and easy access to a flood of new customers.
Unfortunately, many business, particularly, have seized upon the concept of “social media networking for business” without taking the time to find the appropriate boundaries between “social” and “business.” This is in part because people who do, say, copywriting or website design tend to be “early adopters” of new tools and technology.
Sad to say, however, “early adopter” often means “someone who adopts or applies a new method without thinking about it very much.” Explore what some business people are leaving on their social networking sites, and you will quickly come to the conclusion that some of them are doing themselves more harm than good.
A Recent Hiring Decision
A short while ago, I was looking for a virtual assistant (VA). A VA provides clerical, secretarial, or administrative support to a small business without being physically located in, or even near, the business he or she serves.
I looked at some directories of virtual assistants and compiled a list of candidates for the work. Then I looked at their individual websites for more information. And finally, I did some Internet searches on their names, and their business names. (Hint: to check out a name you know, try plugging the following into the Google search box: “firstname lastname” site:twitter.com)
When it came down to choosing a few finalists, I found myself strongly influenced by what some of the candidates had posted on their Twitter accounts. It was striking to see the difference between the crisp professionalism of the VA’s official website and the sloppy mix of personal views, business activity, and the messy workings of daily life to be found in their “tweets.”
Certainly, lots of people are using Twitter, Facebook, or similar services as a sort of public diary sharing all aspects of their lives, business and personal. If you are doing that, you have plenty of company…
… but not necessarily good company, from a business perspective!
Ben Franklin Was Right Again
Ben Franklin was certainly one of the most remarkable individuals of his, or any time. An exceptional businessman, scientist, inventor, politician, and writer, he began penning his famous autobiography for the pleasure of his own immediate family. And in his introduction, he accused himself of rambling, in his old age, and suggested to his relatives, whom he expected to be reading his memoir, that:
“One does not dress for private company as for a public ball.”
Do you show up for the public ball, expecting to dance with people who might hire your services, dressed like you’re lying on the couch in front of the television, or out back doing your yard work?
Many business seem to be doing just that. I recently did a quick search for web designers on Twitter, and on many sites I found “tweets” about projects they were working on, coding or design issues, and the like.
All well and good. The bad news is that on those very same sites I found remarks like these:
· “Just ran 5 miles at the regional park. Beutiful [sic] evening”
· “Sipping on some coffee”
· “its nice and warm here today”
· “Waiting in a very long line to get on the train”
· “Lunching with Joe”
· “Time to change oil on car…”
· “I feel like chicken tonight!”
· “OMG are teenage daughters meant to be this much stress?”
· “Making a pot roast”
· “Mel Gibson’s wife files for divorce”
· “only another 4 hours of work”
When I am trying to decide whether you will put everything you have into making me look good on my website, am I encouraged to hear that you are counting the hours until you can stop working?
If I’m looking for someone who is passionate about web design, or any other service, I’m pretty sure I want someone whose postings reflect that passion about what they do, rather than an obsession with everything but their “paperwork.”
Twitter, in particular, asks the question “What are you doing right now?” As a friend, I might want to know the answer to that question (although frankly, I’m somewhat doubtful about that). As someone who might hire you, that question does not interest me in the least.
The question I want to ask, as a prospective customer of yours, is “What can you do for me right now?”
Separate Lives, Safe Marketing
If you enjoy your Twitter or Facebook or other account, I’m certainly not suggesting that you shut it down. I am recommending that you seriously consider what kind of information you are displaying to anyone who searches for you, including your prospective customers.
We have all seen stories of high school and college kids who posted drunken photos of themselves, only to face disciplinary action. But, as we’ve seen from the list of “tweets” above, you don’t have to go anywhere near that far to show prospective clients why you are not the best person for the job.
Here are some tips to make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot with your brilliant new social media marketing strategy:
- Establish separate accounts for your business and personal posts. On your personal page, make sure you point business visitors to your other account.
- Be scrupulously focused on business matters on your business account. It is all too easy to let the personal stuff mix in here and there, if you aren’t vigilant.
- Even on your personal account, think about whether you are publicly displaying information that the prospect could find, view, and use to decide that someone else could do a better job. Don’t mention how drunk you were last night, and make careful decisions about whether you want to express, for example, political views on controversial subjects.
Social networking services like Twitter or Facebook can be used, with care and deliberation, to build your business. But treat that word “social” as a caution signal.
If you are looking for new friends, log on to your account and tell us everything.
If you’re looking for new business, think carefully about what you are doing.
What is a Web Browser? No One Knows!
This is depressing. Google recently interviewed a random sample of people in Times Square, New York, and asked a simple question: “What is a web browser?”
Fewer than 8% of people knew. Most confused it with a search engine, and the majority did not appear to know which browser they used. More worrying for Google was that no one had heard of Chrome…
That’s a little scary. Perhaps Google’s survey was performed on a bad day? Unfortunately, I’ve a horrible feeling that the figures would be similar no matter where you asked the question (except for Finland, which appears to have a disproportionately high percentage of technically-literate people!).
This leaves web developers with a problem. Whilst we may be passionate about our browser of choice, the vast majority of non-geeks in the real world use whatever browser is on their PC. Most people will only switch if a techie-friend does it for them — and I bet they don’t notice any significant differences.
How can we encourage the adoption of newer and better technology if no one knows what we’re talking about? I suspect many of the ‘kill IE6′ campaigns have a negligible effect, and ignorance must be partially responsible for the slow and lingering death of the browser.
How do you explain what a ‘web browser’ is to the 92% of people who do not know or care?