Given these two facts alone, don’t you think it might be something that you should be using?

The first objection that most business owners have with regard to using video marketing as part of their marketing strategy is that they think it is too expensive. There is still this common misconception that it is something that can only be afforded by, used by or only applies to the ‘big boys’ in business.

Well, this is now not the case and in this article I am going to explain to you just how easy it is to create and produce a quality video for your business, and at a fraction of the price that you may think it would cost.

Some Basics For Creating A Great Video

First of all, I do think that it is advisable to choose a location where the lighting is good. If you’re planning on filming your video indoors then use a room that has either plenty of natural light coming in, or light coloured walls, or even better, both.

Sound is also something that you will need to consider when creating your video. Ideally you do not want any background noise if you can help it. So things such as loud traffic noise, particularly noisy machinery or over enthusiastic staff could drown out the audio on your video, and so this has to be assessed when choosing an appropriate location.

And that’s really it in all honesty. As you can see most (if not all) of it is plain common sense in reality. Choosing an appropriate and well lit area that has little or no background noise is the absolute minimum that you want to aim for.

You could also think about what it is in the background, to ensure that the viewer is getting a representative and professional image of what your company is about.

So as you can see, video marketing is not as difficult or troublesome as you may have initially thought, and the benefits of it can be enormous.

This May Surprise You

The great thing is that with just a little planning, as you’ve seen above, you can set the perfect scene for your video. Also, with the advent of High Definition (HD) camcorder technology, you can still produce excellent videos on a lot less than a Hollywood film budget, even with a tiny hand held device.

You certainly don’t need a film or television crew to create a great video for your business, you really don’t. You only need to look at the videos that you can see on You Tube the next time you’re on the internet to see what I mean, as the quality of most home-made films is now more than acceptable
for the purposes of marketing your business.

I can assure you that many of the videos that you will see posted on You Tube have been created with simple, hand held devices, and the majority of them will not even have been made with the use of a tripod or any professional lighting.

Why Video Marketing Works

I suppose the closest alternative to video marketing would have to be television advertising. The reality is however, that for the vast majority of small and medium sized business owners, the prospect of advertising on television is still pretty much financially out of reach.

Television advertising even today is still relatively expensive when compared to all other means of advertising, and there is no realistic way that many small business owners can possibly justify the cost of running a television advertisement.

Even a simple 30 second television advertisement could blow a company’s entire years marketing budget in one fell swoop. This factor alone perhaps demonstrates the lack of feasibility in a small business using television advertising, which is why video marketing is something that can serve as a very effective alternative.

Using Podcasts For Expert Status

One hugely advantageous aspect of using podcasting as part of your marketing strategy is what it can do for your positioning.

So what exactly do I mean by that?

Well, producing a podcast can allow your business to create a valuable identity as a leader in your field, whilst enhancing your credibility too. By doing this, you could quickly find yourself becoming an authority in your industry, which is no bad thing.

It is also extremely doubtful that any of your competitors will be doing podcasting, or any other significant marketing strategies for that matter and so straight away you’re more than a step ahead of them.

You Can This Guerrilla Marketing Strategy

Why not, as a way of adding more value for your listeners, interview some of your top customers and use these interviews as powerful marketing tools for your business?

By doing this, what you are doing is leveraging something called ’social proof’. Social proof is exactly what a testimonial is, and by having this in audio format this will be infinitely more powerful than a written testimonial.

This will help prospects to visualise exactly why they should be doing business with you, as opposed to your nearest competitors.

It also cements your authority in your given industry.

Of course it would also be wise to use these very same recordings as testimonials and have them put on your website, so ensure that you ask the customers that you’re interviewing to voice their opinion of your products or services.

Plus, you could create customer loyalty as most of us like to be asked our opinions on something, and this may demonstrate to your top customers that they are indeed valued, and that their views and opinions do count.

The Double Whammy Effect Takes Place

This could potentially have a double whammy effect on your business as well. To begin with, you could get some excellent publicity from doing this as you’re customers will love you for it, plus you’re able to showcase your expertise in your particular area of business.

The double whammy effect takes place because this will in turn enhance your credibility, and the way that you are perceived by your peers, competitors, prospective customers, and of course your current clients.

You’re competitors will also be both curious and worried as to what you are up to.

Why Not Use Your Competition To Your Advantage?

So in that case, why not interview your competitors? As long as you position it correctly, they will probably be more than happy to have you interview them as it will give them so notoriety and publicity, however as it is you interviewing them, you will be perceived as the expert, and not them.

So they’re getting what they want, which is some publicity, but you’re also getting what you want, which is enhanced credibility of your expert status.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably know from your own experience that most people love to talk about their expertise, their family and just generally about themselves.

This means that you probably know several people that ramble on and on about what they’ve done this week, last week and last month. These could be prime candidates for interviewing and as you will be seen as the expert, the benefits to your business could be enormous.

I hope this article gives you some insight in to just how effective a podcast could be in enhancing your businesses reputation and standing. And as you will have read in Part One of this article, it really is not that difficult to produce a podcast, so what are you waiting for?

However, I thought that a recent radio interview that I had may help, and so do have a listen to this (by clicking on the button below) and feel free to leave any questions or thoughts below.

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Part One of this article walked you through the basics of why social media can benefit your business’ marketing strategy. Part Two will now look at some specific reasons why, and explain how you can leave your competition trailing in your wake.

As consumers these days, we are all so busy with life. We work hard, we spend time with our children and our families and we do not have time to necessarily stop what we are doing in order to be ’sold to’, which is really how things used to work.

That has all changed now however.

The order of the day now is subtly dove-tailing your marketing message within a medium, a means of communication that your target audience is already using. This means that your company’s message will not feel like an interruption at all, merely another aspect of the social media environment that your target audience is engrossed in.

Why The Internet Is So Important

One of the reasons why the internet is now becoming increasingly popular, is because it can literally be accessed from anywhere on the planet.

The introduction and accessibility of laptop computers, palmtop computers and mobile phones with internet technology (WAP enabled phones) means that you can now be online ‘on the go’ in virtually any environment that you choose.

You may well already be benefiting from this, as you can be communicating with employees and work colleagues, clients and even family or friends from a train or a taxi cab. Suddenly journeys which would have previously been ‘dead’ time as little as 20 years ago, can now be used productively.

So the internet provides convenience in our lives. What it can also do is provide instant information, and in an age where we tend to like most things done yesterday, the internet is often the first thing someone uses in order to seek information.

Beware, Things Are Not What They Used To Be

And so integrating your marketing into media where people are more likely to see you, much the same as a billboard on a busy street, is why the internet is beneficial for your business. The one difference is however, that with marketing in general, the rules have now changed.

There is now a new term in marketing called ‘permission marketing’. This effectively means that the ‘old way of doing things’, so simply just barging in and advertising your businesses’ products and services to the world doesn’t work any more.

The way that these social media sites work could lend itself perfectly to your business. One of the main benefits is the sheer speed at which communication takes place using social media. This speed can be used to potentially see your company’s marketing message passed from person to person in double quick time.

In fact, your company’s message can spread just like a virus, hence the term ‘viral’ that is now common place in the marketing dictionary.

The fact is that we are more likely to trust a recommendation of a product or service from someone that we trust. And by it’s very nature, this is one thing that social media can provide for your business. This also makes for an extremely powerful tool and rewards the businesses who are able to provide a great product or service, backed up by fantastic customer service and after sales service.

If your business is able to deliver on all three fronts then you’re not only going to have many satisfied customers, but potentially many more prospects knocking at your door too.

In the social media arena, views and opinions can be shared between friends (or by you too), and photographs, audio and video can also be used. This is yet another reason why social media is so powerful.

So to bring this article to a close, I would also like to just suggest something to you that could quite possibly send your business global.

If this is something that appeals to you, is relevant to your business or is an option that you’ve been considering, then you’ll find this hugely important.

How To Reach A World Wide Audience – Fast

When I look at my Facebook profile at the time of writing this article, I see that roughly one sixth of my ‘friends’ are located overseas, so not in the UK. Do you think that this could open up some possibilities for you in getting your product or service international exposure? You bet it is.

Going global may not necessarily be on your business’ agenda. It might not be something that you think is right for your business at this moment in time, but the opportunity is most certainly there if you do want to branch out.

Potentially all it’s going to cost you to have your product or service seen by a world wide audience is a small investment of time and a well planned and executed strategy. Just imagine what the results could be.

Social media will not work for every business of course. Its just like any other means of marketing in that respect, however it may just be the medium that propels your business to the next level, and who knows where that could lead?

If you’re unfamiliar with the term social media, you’re possibly thinking social what? If this is the case, please allow me to explain in this article what social media is all about, and how it can be used to help your business.

What Exactly Is Social Media?

Social media in its basic sense refers to online media (websites) that enables (and also encourages) social interaction. This was something that until the dawn of what was termed by the internet fraternity as ‘Web 2.0′, was somewhat lacking from our online experience.

Previously, websites did not allow for much in the way of communication.

And yet now we are not only able to see and listen online, but we can also interact too, and I am going to tell you how this can be used to your advantage, and also the benefit of your business.

Our experiences online have very much changed in recent years, with the advent of sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter to name but a few. If you are unfamiliar with any of these sites then do have a look at them.

These interactive, social media sites have not only given individuals the opportunity to interact more and more with their friends, family and acquaintances online, but it has enabled businesses to reach their potential customers in new and exciting ways, and this is good news for your business.

Why Social Media Can Help Your Business

Perhaps most importantly, the whole concept of social media enables you and your business to market to potential customers on their terms. So what do I mean by that and why is it significant?

By marketing your business using the internet in general, but perhaps specifically by using a tool such as social media, your fitting your message in to a logical part of the daily activities for many of us these days.

So what do I mean by that?

Well this is because browsing and catching up with friends, family and colleagues online, rather than doing what we did ten years ago and picking the phone up and talking to them, is now normal practice. So this is good news for you and your business.

So the important point for you here is that you are not having to interrupt or stop people from doing what they would already be doing. This means that people are likely to stumble across your business almost without consciously thinking about it, and so you simply need to make your business more visible to them, and I am going to show you how to do exactly that.

Assembling Your Herd

One thing that participating in social media has enabled most individuals to do is to increase their own personal ‘database’ of contacts, such is the ease at which it can be done on many of these interactive social media sites.

For the users of these sites, the advantage is that they allow you, more than ever before, to keep in contact with friends, family, old school friends, whom ever you want to, and all at the click of a mouse.

This is not only convenient for the vast majority of us that lead increasingly busy lives, but it saves us time as well. Once again, this is great news for your business as time is a precious commodity.

Whether you have any experience of the many social media sites that are scattered across the internet or not, you will soon notice that mini communities begin to develop within an individual’s sphere of influence. This could be a community of friends, family or work colleagues, and all of these contacts will have their own different interests, tastes and opinions, and therein lies the potential opportunity for you.

This is how you can quickly build a database of hungry prospects and potential clients.

In Part Two of this article I will discuss why the use of social media can help you obliterate your competition, and how you can literally communicate your message to as many prospects as you want to both domestically as well as internationally.

In Part One of this article I discussed why it is important to understand who your market is and why trying to market your product or service to everyone is a huge mistake to make.

Part Two will now go into more detail as to how you can do this quickly and easily, as well as identifying what you should and should not do in order to maximise your success.

When assessing who your ideal potential customers are, you may well already have a reasonable idea based upon the existing customers that you have. If you keep a database or list of your current customers, you should start thinking about grouping them logically based upon current factors – it may be based upon income or age perhaps? This is an ideal way to start and it will get you thinking in the right direction for the future.

Use What You Already Have

Once you have been through your list of current clients, you can then begin to think about future clients and how you can start targeting them. You will of course already have an insight into what your target audience is, based upon the customers that you already have. You simply have to go out there and find more of the same.

And once again, all it takes is a little work and effort on your part, but the results can be astonishingly successful when you do this correctly, so a little effort can go a long way. I cannot emphasise enough that the money and effort that you’ll be saving in the long run will more than outweigh the initial effort that you have to put in to this.

If one of the demographics you wanted to target was income, do you think you and your team could target the more wealthy areas in your town or city? Of course you could.

You Can Probably Start Doing This Today

All this requires in its most basic form is that you or someone from your team drives around in order to establish where the wealth could be, so big houses and luxury cars could be your first reference point. If you’re more than familiar with the town or city that you operate in, and the surrounding areas in the locality, you probably have a good idea already as to where you could begin targeting.

You can also do a lot worse that by using mailing lists too, as these can be very effective for identifying a target market. In the UK (where I am based), there are several decent companies who provide this service, and they allow you to drill down to your target audience based on certain criteria and parametres.

Once you have established some geographical areas (or whichever criteria you have chosen) to target, you need to find the appropriate means to contact them. You could use direct mail which can be very, very effective and bring a good ROI (Return On Investment) if implemented correctly.

Do Not Fall Into This Trap

Success also comes from not just trying once and then giving up because the uptake the first time around was not what you’d hoped. Certainly in the direct mail arena there are creative strategies that involve your prospect receiving four, five or more mailings and so the first mailing is merely the first piece of a larger puzzle.

At this point you may start looking at your business in a slightly different way. You might be assessing and evaluating what the benefits of your products or services are to your customers, rather than focusing on the features. This process will also enable you to eventually create an unstoppable USP, and together with your focus on your business’s benefits to its clients, you can now market your business with a message that has the correct and desired impact

You have also now found your ideal, target market by looking at your current clientele, as well as the aspirations of perhaps where your business would like to be in the future, or indeed where it should be, and this will have you streets ahead of your competition.

Regardless of what you may have been taught, what you may think or what you may assume, every company has a target market, every company.

I consistently hear a common statement from business owners when I present them with the question “Who is your target market?” or “Who is your ideal customer?” The answer they invariably give me is “Everyone”. Everyone?

You cannot possibly appeal to everyone and trying to do so can be a huge and costly mistake. You may have a comprehensive range of products or services that may well appeal to different types of audiences.

Collectively these different target markets may make up a decent percentage of the population, but this is not the same. You cannot be all things to everyone and market your entire range to everyone. At least I’d hope you are not doing this, and if you are you need to stop doing this immediately.

Throwing Mud Is Throwing Money

Marketing your business in this way is like constantly throwing mud at a wall and waiting patiently to see what sticks and what doesn’t. At some point in time some of the mud will most certainly stick, but an awful lot of mud will hit the ground too, and this is bad news for you.

The reason that this is bad news for your business is because the mud that you are throwing, including the mud that hits the ground, is your money. This is money that could have been used to keep on a member of staff that you may have had to get rid of, or perhaps money that you can use to pay yourself that hard earned bonus that you’ve been promising yourself. It may that you need a new company vehicle, item of machinery or equipment. Worse still, this could be someone’s wages that you’ve had to delay paying due to a shortage of cash flow.

If you’re one of the fortunate ones who’s business is doing quite well at present, think how much better you could be doing by spending your marketing budget wisely, and in a more focused and targeted way. If you are currently not researching or focusing on your target audience, let me give you another analogy. Doing this is a bit like going on holiday without having a definite destination in mind, or a route planned, hotel booked or flights paid for. It is utter madness.

You’ll not be surprised to see that this falls in to the bracket of the ‘failure to prepare’ type of approach, and you now know what the result of that is. The other aspect of this is that it really is not that difficult to do either, and so having a plan and being focused is not only essential, but something that you are more than capable of doing. There is no excuse for not doing this.

Ways In Which You Can Target The Right Market

There are different ways in which you can begin to target your market, and it begins by focussing your efforts more closely on those individuals who you believe are more likely to want to use your products or services. Perhaps the most effective place to start targeting your prospects is by their demographics – so by this I mean their age, sex, income, education, home ownership status and location to name a few.

I am also not suggesting that you target all of the above. You need to focus on one or two of these and give it your all. Once you have targeted one or two areas you can then move on to target another couple if that’s appropriate, but do not try and do it all at once as you may find yourself getting nowhere fast.

Whilst this may sound like the type of strategy that ‘other’ businesses or ‘bigger’ businesses do, or perhaps something that is too much trouble than it is worth, think again. I know of many small and medium sized businesses who now use this approach and so it is most definitely something that you can be using.

It does not take as long as you may think it does to formulate an affective and targeted strategy, and the cost savings gained from a lack of wasted marketing budget can be put back into your business too. This means that it’s a win-win situation for you and worth the small amount of effort involved.

In Part Two of this article I’ll discuss an easy way for you to know who to target as customers, and also let you know how to market to them and what you must avoid doing in order to be successful.

I’ve also had some strange experiences at various networking events that I have attended this week, and so I thought you may find it useful if I identify a major pitfall that could come back to haunt you and your business.

So what I am talking about?

Whether you are a small business owner, a sales person or an executive for a national or multi-national company this rule applies to you.

It also doesn’t matter whether or not you sell to businesses or consumers, or whether you sell a product or a service.

By reading carefully, and considering the information and ideas in this post, you’ll be way ahead of your competitors.

I urge you today, to switch the emphasis of your marketing away from ‘me too’ or ‘brand recognition’ or what I refer to as ’spray and pray’ – basically throwing mud at a wall – and into sound methods that bring direct response to your marketing.

Who Are All These Experts?

And I have come across this so may times this week alone – media sales people, PR consultants, advertising companies, other so-called business consultants, all of whom have no real idea or appreciation for what direct response is or can do for a business.

And frankly this is a worry, as it is one of the most powerful ways to market your business.

I keep hearing “Well I can get any business on page one of Google”. Ok, but what if this is not right for the business?

Sure the internet can be hugely beneficial for some businesses – but not all. And putting all your eggs in one basket is very, very dangerous.

The fact is, whether it is your web site, or your Yellow Pages advertisement, or your radio advertisement or your business card – it should all be geared towards direct response – meaning getting a response from your prospect or client now.

I’ll elaborate more in another post on some of the specific strategies, but essentially its about having a message that means your target audience feels compelled top contact you NOW, rather than doing it next week, or worse still, contacting your competitor.

Don’t do it the way of the crowd, of the 95 per cent of other businesses who have very little clue what they are doing – and are suffering as a result.

I am constantly stressing the important of profit and today I’ll give you some different strategies that you can use in order to create improved profits.

Some of the basic concepts are:

1. Increasing the prices of the products and services that you sell
2. Sell more during each transaction – up sell, down sell or cross sell
3. Monitor cash flow via payments terms – both in and out
4. Ensure you track every marketing strategy for effectiveness and ROI

Number one is often something that business owners fully believe that they CANNOT do. They seem to believe that increasing prices, particularly at the moment is commercial suicide.

WRONG!

Clearly there needs to be a valid reason for doing this and so it is all in the positioning. You need to build up the value proposition so that your clients appreciate that prices are going up, but that they are getting back an appreciable improvement in return.

I discuss this in more detail in my book, and will elaborate on this is a future post, but you’ll be surprised at just how easy it is to increase your prices if it is done correctly.

Your Customers Like You, So Give Them More Reason To Do So

Bundling products and services together is a proven and effective way to increase the transaction value for each client (although of course it will not work for every client), and the best bit is – its FREE.

If you were able to up sell, down sell or cross sell to only ten per cent of your current clients, just imagine the effect that would have on your bottom line. And as these are already clients of yours, it has cost you ZERO marketing cost to gain more revenue.

The Life Blood Of Any Business

Ensuring that your cash flow of your business is healthy is absolutely critical to the success of it.

And this means watching what comes in, as well as what goes out. How many of your clients are on 90 day terms? Even if you got them down to 60 days this would have a positive effect on your business.

And its the same with payments going out. Can you negotiate increasing any 30 day terms to 60 days? Once again, the difference that this can make is huge.

What You Track You Can Improve – Or Bin!

How many of you are actually tracking every ounce of marketing that you do?

The sad reality is that in the vast majority of cases that I come across, I get a blank look from the business owner when I mention this.

The analogy that I use to represent what they’re doing is ‘throwing mud at a wall’ as this is quite literally what is happening.

Most businesses have NO idea what is working and what is not, but they just continue to run the same campaigns that they always have.

If you track what Return On Investment (ROI) you;re getting from each marketing method, you can then aim to improve it, maintain it, or get rid of it.

As some very famous Meerkats are currently saying on TV …. SIMPLES!

If you do not know who Perry Marshall is then you can click the link above and see some of his work. He is in my view, a marketing genius, and he is also renowned in our circles as the leading authority on Google adwords – Google’s pay per click advertising facility.

KISS Your Way To The Bank

In a nutshell, he was waxing lyrical about how he sees so many companies over-complicated things. Whether it is extra processes, extra paper work, extra meetings – I think you get the picture.

Sure, sometimes the very nature of a business can be complex, and therefore some of the processes can involve a degree of complexity, but there is general room for simplicity, even on a minute scale.

Perry explained that marketing essentially boils down to just four elements:

• Traffic
• Conversion
• Economics
• the 80/20 principal

And it is so true. Why make it more complicated that it is?

The fact is, there are some people that just prefer complexity – they like it – even thrive on it. This creates more and not to mention unnecessary work for people. I’m thinking Local Government here

So simplicity works. Simplicity is good. Simplicity wins.

Do not go over to the dark side.