About Jodi Kaplan

Does Your Tech Business Have a Niche?

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Does your technology business have a marketing niche? Sometimes what businesses think is a niche isn’t really a niche at all. Is your niche a real one? How do you tell?

For example, Alicia on Marketing Professionals said, “I need a domain name, and I’m having trouble finding one. My niche is fitness…can you help?”

Her problem isn’t really finding a domain name. Her real problem is that “fitness” is much too broad. If she opens that gym, she’ll be competing against huge corporations, and established gyms with existing members and clients.

She’s not differentiating herself in any way. “Fitness” by itself isn’t really a niche, it’s a general category.

A real niche isn’t a broad term, like fitness. A real niche is a single slice of the fitness pie.

She needs to focus on that one slice, rather than trying to eat the whole pie all at once.

Why you need a niche

Say, like Alicia, you want to start a gym. You’re going to have a lot of competition. You’ll need to figure out a way to stand out from all those large companies, the ones with gyms in nearly every town, or even more than one location per town. You don’t have their staff, their resources, or their brand recognition.

So, you need to be different instead. Doing that, focusing on just one small piece of an enormous market, will help you in two ways. One, it builds that brand recognition. Two, it helps you focus your marketing efforts.

How to choose your niche

Staying with the gym example, pick something that the other all-purpose gyms don’t (or can’t) offer.

Cater to a specific group of people, and only those people.

For example, say you decide to focus on new moms. Now, instead of trying to sell to everyone (and we know how that works) you could target sites run by mommy bloggers to get the word out.

Have day care for the kids while mom exercises. Or, offer “mommy and me” classes so both child and mom can exercise, have fun, and play together. Your domain name might be stayfitmoms.com

Or, maybe you want to concentrate on stockbrokers. A fitness center geared to them could open very early (for a workout before the market opens), have TV screens playing CNBC or Bloomberg TV, offer massages to relieve stress, etc.

A gym that targeted baby boomers might focus on fitness for aging bodies, offer nutrition help, or 20 minute workouts for busy people.

Once you have that, you can start telling your story and the rest of your marketing falls naturally into place.

Find customers more easily and cheaply

Instead of looking for everybody and anybody, you concentrate on “your” market. You know who they are, and they’ll know who you are. You’ll be “the gym for stockbrokers,” instead of just “the gym down the block.”

If you’re “the stockbroker gym” you’ll have a better idea of what your website and your facilities should look like. You’ll want something that says “Wall Street”, rather than something that screams Disney. No cartoons, no animation. Instead, go for an atmosphere that’s buttoned-down, corporate looking, and geared to people who are driven and hard-charging.

Having a niche geared to stockbrokers also tells y ou what hours to open, where to locate, and what services to offer. You’ll also know where to advertise and what to put in your ads. The appeals to stockbrokers would be very different than the appeals to new moms.

The best part is, you’ll save time and actually make more money marketing to fewer people.

Photo: Daniel Philpott

Four Simple Steps to Great Marketing with AIDA

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Marketing your products and services can sometimes seem pretty hard. There are so many things to do and worry about – the quality of the product, reaching the right people, having the right message.

But, there are four simple steps that can make creating your marketing materials a whole lot easier. It’s based on using a direct marketing concept called AIDA. It sounds like an opera, but using AiDA in your marketing can make a big difference in the results you get. Here’s how it works (in four easy steps).

Step one – Attention

First, get your prospects’ attention. Your promotion won’t work unless your target audience stops and reads (or listens to) your message.
For instance, let’s say you’re selling a solar-powered furnace. Trumpet the savings that your customers enjoy by purchasing your product. For example, “Cut Your Heating Bills by 75%!”

Step two – Interest

Address their interests and outline the problem. In this case, the homeowner’s interest in saving money, and frustration with high heating bills. Then, you can tell them about your solution.

Step three – Desire

Discuss the benefits customers get by using your product. In this case, a solar-powered furnace cuts costs, eliminates reliance on foreign energy sources, and frees you from the whims of large oil companies.
“You’ll stay comfortable and warm all winter long, for only pennies a day. And, there’s a backup system in case of too many cloudy days.”

Step four – Action

Now that your prospects want to learn more about your product, tell them what to do. Ask them to call now, mail a form, etc.

Putting it all together

Imagine you’re standing in front of a room full of women and you put up a big sign that says:

Free Manhalo Blahnik shoes!

Since this is an imaginary room full of mostly women, I bet that would get their attention.

Now why?

One, you said FREE – everyone likes free stuff

Two, you said shoes to a room full of women and women love shoes.

Three, you said the free shoes were famous designer shoes – and they were FREE

Four, you told them where to go to get the shoes (go that way).

Now, you try it. Share your ideas here.

Photo: extra noise

Five Ways to Increase Web Response Rates

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

1. People Will Click Everywhere

Web visitors are like Chicago voters, they click early and often. People will click on buttons, graphics, logos, anything that might be a button. Give them lots of places to click, and track the clicks you get so you can tell which ones are the “hot” spots.

2. Ask for the Sale Repeatedly

Make it as easy to order as possible. You’ll probably get the most clicks from the top few buttons, but add more (especially if you’re using long copy that requires readers to scroll down several times to read all of it). People may be ready to buy 1/4 of the way down, or 3/4 of the way down the page. Don’t make them work to find an order button.

3. Test the Wording on Your Buttons

Submit or Subscribe sound too impersonal and machine-like. Instead, try something that more clearly tells readers what they’re getting: Get Your Marketing Tips.

4. Keep Your Forms Short

Only ask for the information you absolutely need. It should be clear why you need it (such as an e-mail address and a name to send a newsletter, or a shipping address for a product). If you need to qualify leads to pass on to your sales staff, ask questions they’ll need to know. You don’t want them wasting time following up leads that aren’t worth the trouble.

5. Use Big Buttons

Don’t hide the order form or the product photo. Make them clear and obvious. A white paper or newsletter offer in tiny 9 point type won’t get clicked on.

Photo: cheesepicklescheese

Why Paper is Better Than E-mail

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Chris Brogan recently pointed out a marketing tool that will make your customers smile. He bought a book and inside was a card thanking him for his purchase, telling him what other kinds of books the publisher produced, and inviting him to get updates on future titles as they are published.

As Chris pointed out, it’s a thank you, gives helpful information about the publisher, and includes a call to action.

Since it’s in your new book, you’re likely to look at it and read it. Asking for his email address might have seemed intrusive (a way to send more marketing material). However, a card (or better yet, a bookmark) is an extra gift. People delete unwanted emails without thinking twice. Paper seems more important and personal, and people tend to save it. You can only see email, but you can see, touch, and sometimes (if it’s fresh from the printer) smell paper and ink.

Old cataloger’s trick: make your catalog slightly smaller than your competitors’. People tend to keep them, and stack them. Guess which goes on top?

Photo:shaun

Are You Networking or Spamming?

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

I got an email from LinkedIn Requests yesterday. Thinking someone wanted to connect with me, or wanted advice, I opened it. Turned out to be essentially a commercial. Someone I didn’t know, and had no contact with, sent me three paragraphs describing his business, how wonderful it was, and telling me to contact him. He went on and on about his shipping and logistics company – telling me how I could save money and all about his innovative ideas.

Trouble is, I rarely ship packages, particularly large ones. Nearly everything I do is electronic: web copy, brochures, letters are all uploaded via FTP or emailed. No shipping.

The email was impersonal, irrelevant, and unanticipated. I have no need for this person’s services, and frankly, I was annoyed.

So, before you hit send on LinkedIn or “friend” someone, think about it from their point of view. Is this for me? Or for the other person? Who gets helped by this?

Author Archives: Jodi Kaplan