How Your Small Business Can Get My Attention

TweetHey!  Over here!  Look at me!

As marketers of small businesses we are competing for the attention of an increasingly sophisticated group of buyers.

So — how do you stand out?

How do you get my attention?

Make It About Me — Not You

If you want my attention it needs to be relevant to me.  I no longer want to be interrupted with messages that are not valuable to me at the moment that I am looking for them.

I don’t want to know about the 0% financing you offer on your product – when I am not interested in your product.

I don’t want to know about the sale you are having on your product or service — when I am not interested in your product or service.

I don’t want to hear from “other satisfied customers” when I have no interest in becoming a customer myself.

Notice that all of these statements have something in common —

Interest.

How do you generate interest?

Give me some info

I am not talking about a bio of your company and a set of testimonials here.  I am talking about truly valuable information that you may have charged for in the past.

The marketers that are excelling are giving away some of their best information for free.

Consider the following:

What Information To Give Away?

If you are wondering what information to give away — it’s simple — ask your market.

This is where a social media network  like Twitter can be very valuable.  Use search.twitter.com to listen to your target market.  Type in keywords that are relevant to your business or industry and listen to the conversation.

You have existing customers or prospects.  Call them. Set a lunch.  And ask them what they need.

Now deliver.

What Vehicle To Use To Deliver My Content?

Content can be delivered in many ways and for very little money:

• blog post (like this one),
• a DVD
• an e-book
• a video
• a newsletter
• a white paper

Find something that melds well with your level of expertise.  i.e. Don’t try to do a series of videos if you don’t currently have the expertise and are not willing to hire or learn it yourself.

Where To Deliver My Content?

My advice is to broadcast this content to as many members of your market as possible, in an effort to maximize the return on your investment of time and money.

You must find out where your market spends its time.

Here are some questions to ask:

• What offline events does my market attend?
  • Are they in the chambers of commerce?
  • Are they at charity events?
  • Are they members of particular organizations?
• What online “channels” does my market frequent?
  • Twitter?
  • Facebook?
  • Linked-In?
  • Forums?
  • Blogs?
  • YouTube?

Spend some time finding out the location of your market and then deliver your content there.  Don’t push it, offer it.  Make friends first, then comes the sale.

Bring The Plan Together

Consider all parts of your strategy before committing to the project.  Creating truly valuable and easy to use content takes time and sometimes money.

You will need to find your market first and find out what they need.  In the course of doing this, you will discover the best vehicles to use to deliver the content.

For instance, if you find that your market is using YouTube, a video will be necessary.  If you find that your market is at the local Chamber of Commerce, a white-paper series may be more effective.

Tagged as: Business Blogging