5 Rules for Writing an Exceptional Elevator Pitch
For a small business owner, a simple chance conversation can be an opportunity to drum up new business for your company. Asking what someone does for a living is part of a polite conversation, and it gives you the opportunity to give your elevator pitch. If you aren’t familiar with the terminology, an elevator pitch is just a brief explanation of what you do — and how you can help your audience.
For those of you who are just creating an elevator pitch, or for anyone who wants to improve their current version, we’ve put together a list of 5 rules for creating an elevator pitch that rises above the rest. Here’s the list:
Marketing Essentials Part 6: Getting Exposure
So far in our Marketing Essentials series, we’ve covered discovering your brand, creating a marketing message, your web presence and business card strategies.
But none of these marketing essentials will help you earn clients unless you have this final element — exposure.
Exposure is key to growing your business. The more people that know about your services or products, the more chances you have to make a sale.
Strangely enough, though, too many people still think that by just launching a business they will get clients. They invest their time, money, and energy, and then throw open the figurative doors. Unfortunately though, if people don’t know about the business there is no way they’ll be able to buy anything.
You need to make your small business visible. You’re the one who has to spread the word.
And even if you have the best store location in the world, you still need to show people that you exist. Why? Because when people travel, they look straight ahead at where they’re going. Unless your business is smack in the middle of their path or unless they turn their head to look, they won’t notice you. Period.
So what can you do?
35 Powerful Ways to Get Noticed
If you want to make more money in business, become an expert, get famous, or many other things – the first thing you have to do is learn how to get noticed.
But in today’s increasingly crowded world, getting people to pay attention to you isn’t easy -- unless you’ve got a list of proven tactics to fall back on.
With that goal in mind, we’ve created the following collection of 35 power ways to get noticed.
Marketing Essentials Part 5: Behold the Business Card
So far in our Marketing Essentials series, we’ve explored how to discover your brand, creating a marketing message, and the importance of web presence, no matter what your business.
Now it’s time to focus our attention on the humble business card – one of the cheapest, most effective marketing essentials every business needs.
Have you ever stood in the checkout line of a store and noticed the rack of business cards waiting for your attention? Did any of them catch your eye?
Probably not. Stuck in a rack that holds sometimes up to 20 competitor cards, those little cardboard pieces didn’t engage you at all. You probably didn’t even notice the business name printed on even one of them. You very likely left them all there, paid for your items and walked out the store.
Your business card has a very important job. A business card is a low-cost multisensory marketing tools that convey your brand, your message and the personality of your company in one powerful shot.
Think about it – you can touch a business card and feel the quality the company stands for. You visually take in the colors and design to feel the emotional impact of the brand and message. And you read the information on the card.
Your business card is often the first impression and contact people have with your business. It tells people about your business, gives them a way to contact you, creates a memorable effect and allows people to pass on your card to others – that’s free marketing for you.
Read on to learn how to get the most from your business cards.
Marketing by Color: Don’t Try To Sell Blue Potatoes
The colors you use for your logo, your business card, your web design and even your storefront display influence consumers – sometimes very strongly.
For example, what colors do you associate with a spooky night? Most likely, you’ll choose black, shades of gray and maybe a little silver or even orange. Haunted evenings generally don’t come in vivid blues and fresh greens, after all.
Here’s another example: Think about Coca Cola. What color jumps to mind? Most people choose red, because Coca Cola has associated that color with their brand image. Their logo is red, their cans are red and everything about the soda giant seems to be red.
You would most likely wince if you tried to associate the color green and Coca Cola together.
Read more to find out how you can use the power of color psychology to your advantage.
How To Turn A Disadvantage Into A Competitive Edge
Every small business dreams of becoming a big business – but achieving size and influence can be a long time coming, especially in a market that is becoming more crowded by the week.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be “number one” to have your sales numbers experience a satisfying increase – you just have to get creative and discover how to frame a perceived disadvantage as a powerful competitive edge. Here are the stories of three companies who did just that, and enjoyed a larger market share as a result.
Marketing Essentials Part 4: Having a Website
Do you think your business doesn't need a website? Do you believe that people in your town don't care about the Internet? Do you feel that selling locally absolves you of web presence?
You might want to think again.
According to eMarketer.com and Techweb.com, nearly 400 million North American residents had Internet connection in 2007. By 2008, over 67% of Canadians and 70% of Americans were plugged into the Internet. In early 2008, 7.8 million Canadians were online every day, and 172 million Americans were online as well.
Not too shabby.
What are these people doing online? They're surfing the web, culling information on what they want and need, from music to online education to telephone numbers to store hours. They're being entertained, they're getting informed, they're making decisions…
…and they're shopping.
No matter what type of business you have, from local to international, from small to mega-corporation, from car mechanic to sports equipment store to handcrafting artisan, you need to be online. Ignoring the Internet's existence translates to neglecting your business.
