Facebook as Part of your Attraction Marketing Mix

by Kathy on August 5, 2009

attraction marketing using FacebookAttraction marketing is simply the practice of creating compelling marketing messages which DRAW customers to your business.  Because you’re sending out marketing messages about how you can solve your target audience’s problems – how you can help your target audience achieve their goals – and how your product or service can quench your customer’s desires – there’s no need for the “pushy” over the top Billy Mays type of hard selling that you often see in direct marketing.

Facebook can be a great choice for your small business marketing strategy – as long as you understand exactly HOW to correctly use Facebook in your marketing mix.

Using Facebook as part of your Marketing Mix

When you decide to add Facebook to your marketing mix, don’t make the mistake of confusing social media with other forms of marketing

The absolute WORST thing you can do when adding Facebook to your marketing mix is to treat your Facebook profile like a selling tool.  Facebook offers marketers a LOT of acceptable options for tightly targeting which Facebook users will see your ads.

However, don’t make the mistake of thinking your Facebook profile is the PLACE to features your marketing messages.  From “It’s Your Reputation at Stake”

Social media is a GREAT way to connect with people.  It’s a LOUSY form of direct marketing.   If you want to barrage your potential customers with your marketing message – use direct mail.  Those kind of “in your face” sales hype tactics WORK in direct mail and other forms of direct marketing.  Billy Mays’ sales tactics worked well in direct marketing –   they are AWFUL  when practiced in social media!

If there’s a Facebook marketing lesson to be learned here it’s definitely, Stop selling – start connecting.

Your Facebook profile is NOT the place for your marketing message.  Facebook ads are surprisingly affordable and can be tightly targeted.  However, most importantly – you won’t burn any social media bridges when you use the “approved” methods provided by Facebook to connect with your prospective customers

Knowing who your customers are is just one reason why creating a business plan is essential to creating effective attraction marketing campaigns.

Creating a Business Plan

by Kathy on July 31, 2009

creating a business planMany small business owners try to promote their business without first developing a small business marketing strategy. If you’re finding it difficult to come up with a marketing strategy – maybe it’s time to get back to the basics and review your initial business plan.

In it’s simpliest form, your business plan basically identifies the “who, what and where” of your business.

What is your vision for your business?  Mats Lederhausen over at the Harvard Business Blogs writes in What McDonald’s Can Teach Us About Recovery:

Plan your work, and work your plan. At McDonald’s we created a “plan to win.” Some would argue that it wasn’t perfect. Perhaps it wasn’t, but we decided that it was. And we haven’t looked back. Even through tragic circumstances — losing two CEOs in less than one year due to tragic deaths — the plan stayed intact and is still central today to the focus and alignment of the organization.

What is the core of your business?  What is your business plan?

This isn’t about crafting a 100 page document with perfect grammar and spelling using MLA formatting – this is about putting the core of what it is you do down on paper.

McDonald’s is a huge, international corporation and in the blog post – Mats writes about how at one point in time, McDonald’s management team had “lost sight” of the original vision.  In Mats words are that McDonald’s had confused “growth” with “success”.

When “growth” became the goal instead of customer satisfaction -well, that’s when things began to go sideways for McDonald’s as a corporation.

Have you confused growth with success?

How long as it been since you’ve revisited your original business plan?  Is your original vision still relevant today?

If you haven’t lately, take a moment and write down your central “business vision”.  What is it that you do?   WHY is it that you do what you do?

Once you answer those questions – then the business of attraction marketing becomes easier to implement.

Small Business Marketing Strategies

July 1, 2009

Many small business owners engage in marketing their small business with out first developing a small business marketing strategy.
Unfortunately, marketing your small business without first developing a small business marketing strategy is a lot like leaving on vacation without a destination in mind.
If you leave for your vacation without making plans – without planning your [...]

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Developing a small business marketing strategy

June 17, 2009

Creating a marketing strategy for your small business is like planning a trip… you have to know where you are – where you want to go – and how you want to get there.
However, in the case of developing a small business marketing strategy – something else comes into play – the most important element [...]

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Attracting Back Links

November 9, 2008

Money Bush Blog is launching a campaign to increase backlinks.
For those of you who don’t know, backlinks are links which come into your blog.
When another blog links to your blog, that is known as a backlink.
Backlinks are one way that Google decides how “good” your blog or website is.
This contest is a way to increase [...]

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Attraction as a Sales Marketing Strategy

June 30, 2008

When you think of “attraction marketing” think of it as a “new school” sales and marketing strategy as opposed to the “old school” sales and marketing strategy.
In the old days, every “great” sales and marketing strategy had it’s foundation in a “PUSH” mentality. A business would manufacture products and then it would be [...]

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Attraction Marketing Defined

June 16, 2008

Attraction Marketing is simply turning the traditional “sales” model on its head. In traditional “sales” the seller chases after the buyer and tries to coerce the buyer to buy. There isn’t any concern on the part of the seller for the buyer’s goals, desires or problems. In “conventional” marketing, the buyer’s role [...]

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The Essential Marketing Secrets that Amazon Forgot

March 30, 2008

Amazon has made a SERIOUS mistake in the way they conduct business and may be the mother of all Branding Boo Boos!
First, you need to understand a term to understand the gravity of the situation for Amazon.
POD stands for Print On Demand. Instead of printing thousands of copies of a book and hoping they [...]

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Stop Marketing, Stop Selling and Start Connecting

March 20, 2008

Over at License to Roam, Rachel Clarke reports in her post Self-replicating Awesomeness at SXSW the following exchange:
Deborah Schultz, Chris Heuer, David Parmet

DP: Brian Oberkirch put this together – he asked 2 questions. How to market into community without being too marketer like. And how do you build a community around what [...]

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Holy Grail of Marketing: Creating Viral Marketing Campaigns

March 17, 2008

Social Networking is all the buzz these days.  Big corporations and small business owners are wading in and trying to leverage social networking sites to create viral marketing campaigns.  Many mistakenly view “viral marketing” as merely another form of word of mouth advertising.
Seth Godin writes in “Is Viral Marketing the Same as Word of Mouth“:
Viral [...]

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