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Check us out on our website to read more blog posts – http://www.marquisemarketing.com/blog. We will keep all of the archived blogs on this site, but new content will be added on our website.

Look forward to seeing you over there!

Allison Tibbs interview on Marketing for Small Businesses

Check out the interview that Allison Tibbs, CEO of Marquise,LLC , had with e-Motion Marketing regarding Marketing for Small Businesses.  Enjoy!

Is your marketing message working for your business?

Yesterday I had a chat with a prospect client about developing a marketing campaign for his company.  He had never done any marketing for his business and he wanted to amp up his marketing for 2011.  When we got to discussing his marketing message, he was unsure of what exactly I meant.  He asked “Oh, you mean my tagline?”  It was clear, that the reason that he hadn’t done much marketing for his business, was because he wasn’t aware that he needed to have a marketing message that resonated with his target market.

As a small business owner it is important that you take the time to carefully craft your marketing message, and create one that will speak directly to your target market. If you are finding yourself stuck or receiving minimal results with your marketing, it may because your marketing message is non-existing or its not clicking with your target customers.

Here are 3 tips that I’d suggest you do, to get the ball rolling:

1. Determine who you ideal customer is.  Once you’ve done that try to determine what exactly their problem or need is.

2. Once you have determined the problem or need, create a list of who your product or service can help to solve that problem or need.

3. Create a list of how you want your target customer to feel after experiencing your product or service.

From these 3 things, you can begin the process of developing your marketing message, which can begin to translated on marketing materials, your website, and incorporated in your sales pitches and materials.

Hopefully, this will help!

If you need more information about developing your marketing message for your product or service, feel free to visit http://www.marquisemarketing.com or contact me directly at info@marquisemarketing to set up a FREE consultation.

Own It! Believe in yourself and your company!

Today I had a chat with an aspiring entrepreneur who was ready to take her business to the next level.  She told me that she had a website, business cards, brochures, and many other types of marketing materials that she spent a lot of time and money to design.  However, she was doing nothing with them and she didn’t know how to begin to market her new small business.  She was letting the fear of “will people really take me seriously as a new business owner?” stand in the way of her stepping out there and getting her business off the ground.

The first thing that I told her was that she needed to “own it”. What I mean by this is, if she wants to position and market herself a new consultant and coach in her industry, she has to truly believe that she is capable, qualified, and relvant.  She had self doubt in herself and her ability to be successful in her new business venture, so naturally, she never told anyone what she was doing when she met people. Basically, she was making a huge mistake and missing out on potential opportunities and clients by keeping quiet.

If you have taken the time to fully develop your concept, research your target market and developed an acceptable solution to their needs, and handled all of the administrative items needed to start your business, then by all means, go out there and let people know about it.  Your target market may be waiting for YOU!

Here are a few tips to help you to get started:

1. Believe in yourself.

2. Believe in your company, product and services.

3. Begin to introduce yourself as a CEO of your new company.

These 3 things may sound simple, but if you don’t believe in yourself or your company, no one else will. By starting with these 3 steps, you will begin to find yourself building your confidence as a business owner but also building the confidence of others in yourself and your business.

It’s that easy, so go out there and “OWN IT”!!!

For more information, visit http://www.marquisemarketing.com

Marquise, LLC CEO Certified as an Entreprenuership Coach

Allison Tibbs, CEO of Marquise, LLC, was certified to be a Entrepreneurship Coach by the Professional Woman Network on December 4th, 2010.  She spent 2 days in Los Angeles, California learning about how to successfully coach aspiring entrepreneurs to take action and start their businesses.  Allison felt that this would be a great addition to her current skill set and to Marquise,LLC.

“A lot of potential clients were coming to me with a basic concept of a product or service, but had no clue how to get it launched.  I realized that by being certified, I could now help small business owners to launch and market their businesses.  It was a natural fit.”

Marquise, LLC plans on rolling out a comprehensive Entrepreneurship Small Business Coaching program in addition to there flagship Marketing Coaching that focuses on the “6 P’s of Marketing for Small Businesses”.  For more information about becoming a coaching client, email Allison Tibbs at atibbs@marquisemarketing.com or visit www.marquisemarketing.com.

Is your network limiting your net worth?

As entrepreneurs and small business owners, it is important that we stick together.  Mainly because we can all serve as a HUGE resource for one another. By sharing our experiences, failures, successes, and advice with one another we are creating an even stronger network and environment that supports and boosts entrepreneurship.

Here is an important question, that you should answer honestly. As an entrepreneur, how many entrepreneurs do you have in your Rolodex or cell phone?  If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, half of your phone book should other small business owners and entrepreneurs.  If not, then you have a lot of work to do.

My favorite quote is “Your net worth is dependent on your network”.  Make sure to build your network with entrepreneurs, sites like LinkedIn and their groups are a great way to start.  One group that I love is OnStartups.  Once you have built your network, make sure to nurture your relationships.  See how they can help your business and how you can help theirs.

By constantly surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals, you will become a better entrepreneur because you will have the advantage to learn from those in your circle. You will also be able share ideas that could lead to you improving your business, correcting a problem that you’ve been having or even create a new business partnership with another entrepreneur.

Great Presentation on Social Media by Jon Thomas

Check out this great presentation on Social Media that I found on Slideshare.  It was created by Jon Thomas, Founder of Presentation Advisors and Communcations Manager at Story Worldwide.  For more information, email Jon at jon@presentationadvisors.com

Networking is a Contact Sport

So many small business owners miss potential opportunities to make money, because they choose to be passive networkers.  They go to conferences and events and collect tons of business cards, but when they return home they place those cards in a drawer or folder and never use them again.  In my opinion, if you are not going to use the business cards you have two options – throw them away (why accumulate junk) or don’t even bother collecting them in the first place.

Networking is a contact sport! If someone is handing you their business card, they are giving you permission to contact them and to begin the networking process.  So, CONTACT THEM.  I see so many people who are missing great opportunities and ways to grow their businesses. Here are some tips to take advantage of some networking opportunities:

1. After you meet someone, write down notes about your conversation/interaction with that person on the back of the business card.This way when you email them, you have something to reference in your email or phone call to jog their memory of who you are and what you talked about.

2. Follow up within 48 hours.  This can be done with a quick email saying hello and how much you enjoyed your conversation.  Also, if there is any topics that you want to discuss with them (potential partnership opportunities, introductions or follow up information), add short sentence about that. Just remember that the initial contact should be short and sweet.  If your relationship develops, then there will be plenty of time to have long discussions and conversations.

3. Stay in contact.  I like to send out an email or phone call at least once a month to a handful of people that I’ve met along the way.  Just to keep yourself top of mind and to maintain the relationship.  You don’t have to follow up with every person you meet, every month. Just pick a select handful of people, but alternate these people once a month. Soon you’ll have a good network of people that you are consistently following up with.

4. Connect via Social Networks – I’d suggest LinkedIn, but some businesses can utilize Facebook or Twitter.  This is a way to personalize your connection and get to know more about the person. Don’t go overboard. Use good judgment here, folks!

In short, don’t let wasted opportunities keep your business from growing.  Your network can boost your success level to new heights, to go out there and make it happen!

Your product or service isn’t for EVERYONE!

Yesterday I met with a new client who wanted to boost his marketing efforts for his product.  Our meeting was going very well, until I asked him about his target market.  He said “Oh, I plan on marketing this baby to EVERYONE!”  In that moment, I knew that I was about to burst his bubble, but he needed to know the truth.  I stopped him mid sentence and told him that his product was not for “everyone” and by pushing a marketing campaign to “everyone” he would be spending a lot of money, wasting a lot of time (for himself and who is marketing to) and would most likely miss his target market sweet spot.

If you have a product that you think that everyone can benefit from, that is great. However, having a generic marketing strategy is the wrong way to go about it.  My suggestion is to pick one or two target markets that you want to focus on and take the time to learn as much as you can about those markets.  The more research you do, the more you will understand that they may be susceptible to very different marketing approaches.  This will save you from spending time and money pushing your product in a way that is not well received by your target market.

Think about it this way, a 5 year old who hates peas will need to persuaded to eat them in a very different way than a 15 year old who hates peas.  For the 5 year old, you may have to hide it in something (bundled marketing strategy), but for the 15 year old you may emphasize how you need veggies to have great skin and hair (benefits marketing strategy).

So take the time to focus on a specific target market and figure out the best way to market your product to them.  You’ll save time and money, and your customers will feel that you are taking the time to get to know what they want and need.  It will make them feel special and show that you are dedicated to serving them.

SEO: What is it and how can it help your business?

When I speak to most small business owners, they say that they have a website but aren’t getting good results from it.  They feel that people aren’t finding them when they go to Google or Bing and they wonder why they even paid all of that money to get a website put together in the first place.

Well, it is very important to have a website, as it is a great marketing tool for your business, but if you are showing up on the 3rd page of Google, chances are you will not be seen by your target market.  One way to help to make sure that you are visible through search engines, is to make sure that you have incorporated SEO into your website strategy.

Many people are not sure what SEO even means.  It stands for Search Engine Optimization and basically it is the process of improving visibility of your website in search engines.  It focuses on how the search engines work and how people use search engines to find information. I could spend the next few hours writing about what exactly it is and how the meta keywords and tags need to be used in order to improve your SEO, but I won’t. Instead, I will say that if you have a website, check with the person who created your site and ask them about SEO and applying it to your website. If they cannot help you out, go out and find an SEO consultant (or a student in college who is studying web site design —FREE!) who can help you out.  If you have some technical skills in website design or computer science, you can try to take a stab at it. Head over to Borders or Barnes & Nobles, they have an entire section dedicated to SEO.

Regardless of how you go about it, all that really matters is that you need to make sure that SEO is a part of your website and web marketing strategy.