About Jodi Kaplan

Why Do People Buy From You?

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

It may not be why you think. Greg discovered that people who buy green energy systems do it to be socially responsible. This discovery made his client realize that they were competing with both construction companies and charities. It also led to possible new partnerships with nature and conservation organizations.

Bodo talked to trade show attendees and found that the people who bought platinum lab materials were more concerned about durability than price.

Asking your customers questions can lead to new ways of marketing your products, open avenues for building new partnerships, and help you to better focus your marketing efforts.

There’s no point going on about the 12 colors your 42″ plasma TV comes in if what people really care about is the great picture (or the bragging rights).

How can you find out?

Ask them. Email a short survey (you can use surveymonkey or even Google docs), or make a few phone calls. Find out what’s on their minds. You may get a few surprises. You may also find new possibilities.

What Kinds of Marketing Do You Use?

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Today, I thought I’d open up the floor to you (the readers). I’d like to know what kinds of marketing you’re using.

Are you mostly old school offline (TV, print, postcards, direct mail)? Or, are you focused on Web tools? Are you the king (or queen) of social networking, blog comments? Email?

Please share what you’re doing and whether you were satisfied with the results.

xurbie

Does Product Placement Work?

Posted on June 11, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Morning Joe (a morning news and talk show in the US) is now partnering with a fancy coffee company from Seattle. The brand is mentioned prominently before commercial breaks. The hosts hold large cups of coffee (with the logo) in their hands, and drink from them throughout the show. They even had the CEO come on and talk about how he noticed they drank his coffee and thought it would be a “good fit” and “leverage their brand equity” and a lot of other blather.

Does anyone outside of the TV show and the coffee company really care?

Will this blatant product placement sell more coffee? Does plastering banking logos or sportswear logos on a tennis player really drive anyone to switch banks? Has anyone bought a camera because the brand was on the front of a race car?

Or is it just annoying? I’m annoyed. Are you? Or do you not care one way or the other? Your thoughts?

Mykl Roventine

How to Narrow Your Marketing and Improve Your Results

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

A client told me that his wife often sends him to the store to buy groceries. Seems simple, right? But, there’s a hitch. She says “dairy,” when what she really wants is:

½ gallon 2% milk
1 pint whole milk
1 dozen eggs
1 lb. unsalted butter

If he comes home with just the milk, or only one kind of milk, and no eggs, he’s in trouble. Not knowing what groceries you really want can annoy your spouse, not knowing who your customers are can jeopardize your business.

When going shopping, you need a list of what you want to buy. When looking for customers, you need a list that describes your ideal customer.

To avoid problems at home (and at work), decide what you’re selling, what problem it solves, and who you want to sell it to.

Who are your ideal customers?

Can you describe them? Build a picture in your head. Are they companies? Consumers? What kind of people? Men? Women? Executives? Plumbers?

What problem do they have?

Poor replacement pipes? Accounting software that takes five hours to run payroll for 100 people?

How can you solve the problem?

A lightweight exhibit design that cuts shipping costs in half? A payroll system that runs the same report in 10 minutes?

Where are they?

Worldwide? Next door?

Can they afford your services?

Do they have money allocated to buy what you’re selling? Is your offer appealing to them? Does it save them time or money or both?

When you know who you’re looking for, and what they’re looking for, it will be much easier to find them, and find more of them.

(I gave this same advice to someone recently, telling him to focus on a niche. He took down his general marketing message, re-focused on a specific industry, added appropriate content and keywords, and his traffic went up!).

Photo: LFL16

5 Ways to Stretch Your Marketing Budget

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Yesterday’s post touched on low cost marketing tactics to extend your budget (and your marketing campaign). Here are five more ways to stretch your marketing budget, build partnerships, extend your business’s reach, and earn more money.

1) Partner with a complementary business.

I’m a copywriter and a small business marketer, but I have relationships with graphic designers, web developers, and video producers that allow me to offer additional services.

Plus, we can refer business to each other. If you specialize in exhibit design, partner with a video producer. Both of you focus on trade shows and events, but you don’t compete.

2) Content marketing. This is the hot “latest” buzzword now, but it’s not really new. Writing on your own site is important, but you need to expand your reach and get in front of more potential clients.

Have guest posts on your blog, or guest articles in your newsletter. Approach other bloggers and request a guest post (make sure your article is appropriate and relevant to the topic of the blog).

Post answers to common client questions on social media, Google+, and don’t forget industry blogs and forums. Don’t just post your own material, share others’ posts too. If you see a question you can answer, do that in the comments. It often encourages people to follow your account, building your following and extending your reach.

3) Ask permission, even if you don’t have to. When I started my newsletter, I put together a free marketing guide with expert advice from business and marketing experts. They had given permission to reprint the articles (with attribution), but I thought it was polite to contact them and let them know.

Several offered to promote the newsletter and the guide in their own, established newsletters, which got mine off to a good start!

4) Share your ideas. Got more ideas than you can execute? Partner with someone else. Feed them the ideas, let them implement them, and share the income. Just make sure you set out the terms of the agreement clearly, on paper, and in advance.

5) Create a referral network page. Add your partners’ logos to your Web site, or set up a special web page with information about their services. Use the page to refer business to each other, and to extend your reach. With more services (through your partners) you’ll look bigger and can get more business.

Author Archives: Jodi Kaplan