Marketing – Page 11 – Business Plus Baby

April 23, 2012April 23, 2012

Ten tips for market placement

Today’s article comes from Laura Rigney, author of Pitching Products for Small Business. Laura’s book helps you along the path from developing your product to branding and pitching your idea to buyers at high street and online retailers.

1 – Ensure you have a strong brand.

When you are trying to bring your product to market, you will be seen immediately beside your biggest competition so you need to stand out as much as possible. Think like a consumer; what sort of packaging appeals to you? What kind of branding do you like? Take a look at the branding of other similar products and see what they all have in common and use this knowledge to your advantage. Most importantly, make sure that it is clear to potential purchasers what your product is and what it does! Continue reading “Ten tips for market placement”

April 2, 2012April 1, 2012

Social Media PR Strategy Simplified for Mumpreneurs

Introducing today’s guest blogger Prerna Malik of Social Media Direct and The Mom Writes…

Have you been struggling with a way to get much needed visibility for your business? Do you feel a limited budget means limited PR opportunities?

Well, let’s talk.

First of all, you don’t have to have a BIG budget to get visibility for your business.

Why?

Because we live in an age where social media rocks and learning to use social media can help you create a PR strategy that is simple, productive, effective and best of all, nearly free.

However, using social media to build, sustain and engage relationships can seem daunting to a mumpreneur who’s already juggling a LOT.

So, here are simple steps to take to create a social media PR strategy for your mom-owned business:

1. Know Your Goals

Begin by identifying what you’d expect to achieve from your social media efforts. You don’t want to spend your precious time and dedicated efforts faffing away on Facebook or Twitter. Do you want to build your email list, get media publicity, garner online reviews or land press mentions? Identify your goals and choose your social networks accordingly.

Twitter, for instance, is great for helping you connect with journalists via Muck Rack or creating your own Twitter Lists. The same is true for LinkedIn which can help you reach media professionals by doing a quick search and adding them to your network.

So, begin by writing down your goals for your social media PR strategy.

2. Know Your Audience

Once you know what you want your social media strategy to give you, take a good, hard look at where your target audience hangs out. You can do this by doing a quick survey of your customers if you have an existing mailing list, reviewing where your competition hangs out or monitoring the conversations on a few key social networks to begin with. Once you know where you’ll find your target audience, it is time for you to start creating a presence on those social networks as well.

3. Know Your Value Add

A strong social media strategy will include identifying how you would add value to your followers and network. What is your unique selling point or USP? Why should the media notice you? Why will reviewers want to test your products? Yes, this may take time but once you have it nailed, you’ll be able to cut to the chase and offer the media exactly what they want.

4. Know Your Resources

Finally, know your resources. If you’re a mumpreneur with a small baby and a growing business, you may not be able to schedule time on a regular basis for using social media. Could you hire a social media manager to help you do that? If blogging and guest posting is not your forte, do you really want to struggle with it? Outsource that and instead, focus on using Twitter and Facebook. Knowing your resources as a mom and business owner will help you trim the fat, avoid unnecessary overwhelm and create a targeted social media strategy that will bring you results.

Biography:

Want to chat about creating a strong and successful social media strategy for your business? Want to power up your home business while taking care of yourself, your home and family? Sign up for a FREE one-on-one session with Prerna or get her eBook, How to be a Work-at-Home Mom: The Happily Ever After Guide to Leading the WAHM Life and learn how to be a more productive, efficient and effective mumpreneur. Prerna Malik is the editor of The Mom Writes, a go-to, award-winning site for work-at-home mothers and the co-owner of Social Media Direct, a digital agency that offers affordable and effective social media and web content solutions.

If you enjoyed this post, why not make sure you stay in touch by joining my mailing list? I’ll also send you a copy of my e-book Running a business around a family: 9 steps to success.

February 20, 2012April 14, 2013

The Secret Weapon to Outpace Your Competition

Today’s guest post is from Kim Timothy, graphic designer and branding expert at Boutique By Design. Kim is the designer of the Earn What You Deserve as a Mumpreneur logo, so I can recommend her personally, too! Over to you, Kim…

You have a business. You’ve worked hard to build your dream and now success is becoming a blissful reality. Problem is, the world is full of insanely talented, passionate and creative people who have sought out the exact same reality. They are your competitors and, quite frankly, they suck. But before you become discouraged and give up hope, I present the ultimate secret weapon in the form of three very powerful little words…Unique Selling Point.

A unique selling point (USP for short) is something that sets your business apart from your competition. It defines a special, memorable and exclusive offering unique only to your business. It also provides a solid reason for customers to continually choose your business over your competitors. USPs are always expressed as a single clear and concise sentence that summarizes the essence of your business and serve as the theme of your marketing.

Let’s Define Your Unique Selling Point

Continue reading “The Secret Weapon to Outpace Your Competition”

February 3, 2012April 18, 2012

Network your way to success

For many mums, going back to work after having a baby can be a real struggle. Switching from home to a high-pressure workplace can be a difficult transition, and part-time work that’s flexible and affordable is few and far between at the moment. If you’re expecting a second child or juggling school schedules, it may no longer be practical to be out seeking work. At the same time, it may seem to be a big challenge to start up your own business.

Many mums who have succeeded in starting up a small business from home have begun by doing a lot of research. Thankfully, the Internet is incredibly useful in this regard as it gives public access to all kinds of company accounts and social profiles. By doing research, you can find out about your clients and competitors, and start the next, and perhaps most important, phase of your business.

Networking doesn’t come easily to the majority of people, and it’s even harder when mums are restricted from travelling to conventions and appearing at breakfast meet-ups. But thanks to social media, there’s plenty of space to make your niche, whether it’s by offering advice or establishing a presence in certain communities. And it’s not reserved for people who have degrees in computer science, either; just build a profile and go. The benefit is twofold as you get to know others in your industry and discover personal aptitudes that you might not have been aware of before.

At this stage, it’s important to support others as much as possible. Without the support of a company, you will encounter many challenges that will seem scary, and you will probably need to rely on your community at some stage in the future. You will probably also have to leave your comfort zone on a number of occasions. Take these opportunities to demonstrate your expertise in your industry through creative outreach such as workshops and giveaways, and keep blogging, tweeting, up-voting and commenting on a regular basis.

The Internet can be an overwhelming place for people just starting a business, especially if you’re doing it on your own. But many mums can extend their expertise through conversation – online, that is! Simply by reaching out, establishing connections and ensuring you build a niche for yourself in your industry, it’s possible to be a stay-at-home mum and a successful businesswoman as well.

photo credit: ammgramm

January 26, 2012March 27, 2012

Build a marketing campaign

For mums running a small business, it can be challenging trying to find the time to effectively reach your audience as well as making ends meet. Part time jobs can supplement your income temporarily until you find your feet, particularly if they are in the evening and you have a partner to look after the kids at this time. Additionally if you need to find staff you can always try advertising for them online.

Once you have decided who you are selling to, whether your focus is crafts, childcare, or business services, you will need to try and plan an effective marketing campaign. You may believe that your products will sell themselves and in an ideal world this could be the case but unfortunately people usually have to do some advertising and marketing.

Initially you need to understand your position in the marketplace and do some research. Once you know this you can begin to build a plan – which doesn’t have to be expensive as many mums often believe.

If you live in a small community that frequently runs small events you can use these as a way to communicate to people. Perhaps they already know you but didn’t realise you were providing this service. Friends and family will be more trusting of your products so be aware that this can be very effective. It’s all about networking, showing examples and highlighting why you are different to other similar competitors.

As soon as you have a few frequent customers, get them to refer you to their friends. Client reviews are often deemed more trustworthy than your own opinions about your business as these are people who have actually benefited from what you have to offer.

Try sending out some free samples or handing them out at the community events. Everybody loves getting something for nothing, particularly after Christmas when they are short of cash, and this can generate future orders for your product or service.

If you haven’t already done so, set up a facebook page – even if you don’t have a full website yet or can’t afford one, facebook will allow you to engage with your customers, responding to queries, informing them of special offers and basically getting people to interact about your services. The more ‘buzz’ you create the better your company is likely to do. If you don’t have time for this, you could just try blogging as this could avoid you having to respond until you expand and can afford to pay somebody else.

There are many easy ways that you can market your products and services in order to get your small business on the right track in 2012. Monitor what proves most successful and try to do this a second time if it’s suitable to do so.

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photo credit: Infrogmation