As part of my commitment to support you in the success of your enterprise, I've produced these four articles. I hope they prove helpful to you. Michael

Six Principles of Marketing
by Michael Greenstein, businesscoach@wholcom.net

Marketing is a relationship-building process that creates satisfied clients and partners. It's an ongoing process requires the aligning of our enterprise needs with those of the people we intend to serve. Here are six guiding principles of marketing:

1. Know Your Enterprise
Before we can build a successful enterprise, we need to identify, understand, and document our enterprise profile, i.e. our:

• mission: the beneficial difference we intend to make in our clients and partners lives
• resources: the skills, finances, energy, personnel, etc. available to the enterprise
• differentiation: how we intend to complement or stand out from other enterprises doing similar work
• services and products: what we're interested in and capable of providing to our clients at an affordable and profitable cost

2. Know Your Clients
Before we can build a successful enterprise, we need to identify, understand, and document who are potential and existing clients are: i.e. their

• needs: in terms of our specific services / products
• interests; in terms of our specific services / products
• life situation: conditions in our clients lives that would encourage them to buy our services and products
• demographics: our clients age, income level, education, location, etc.

3. Focus Your Resources
Not everyone will purchase our services or products. We must clearly identify the target markets that are most likely to respond positively to us and focus our resources on these specific groups. Most small enterprises don't have the resources to build client relationships with large markets.

4. Find Your Niche
Small enterprises are built by individuals and small groups of talented people, usually with limited financial and personnel resources. Our biggest strength is the personal service we offer. Because of the scope of our operations, we cannot and should not attempt to serve too large a market. We must find a market niche, i.e. a specific group of people, of manageable size, who will respond favourably to our personalized services and products.

5. Use the Right Marketing Tools
If we need to convey constantly changing enterprise information, put it on a web site, not on a brochure or flyer. If our target market lives in a specific location, use flyers, post cards, brochures, etc. and distribute directly to them. If our personal presence is essential to building our business, make regular personal appearances (talks, workshops, etc.) instead of relying on web and print tools.

6. Convey Your Core Message Consistently
Our core message is the beneficial difference our services and products make in peoples lives. This message should be conveyed in everything we say and do. If our core message is healing, than our web site, brochures, business cards, flyers, etc. should all convey a sense of our ability to heal. This message will be reinforced by our enterprise logo and graphics, how we dress for work, the look of our workplace, the behaviour of our staff, etc

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Ten Effective Marketing Tools
by Michael Greenstein,   michael@wholcom.net

Enterprises are built with relationship-building or marketing tools. Here are ten of the most effective ones:

1. Word of Mouth
The ultimate tool for any enterprise! Satisfied clients telling other people about their wonderful experience. Tips: 1. collect testimonials and use them on your web site, brochures, etc. 2. identify people who network or come in contact with many people and make a special effort to make them your clients.

2. Personal Appearances
Give free talks and demonstration to groups within your target market. to help you get your message out there. Tips 1. stay within your target market whenever possible, not the general public 2. bring lots of business cards, brochures, etc. for distribution 3. Make 80% of your talk about an interesting topic, 20% on how your own enterprise makes a beneficial difference in that area.

3. Referral Partnerships
Partner with people in complementary, non-competing fields who work with or come in contact with the same target market you are trying to reach and refer clients to each other. Examples: auto mechanics and body shops, personal trainers and fitness store owners, psychotherapists and naturopaths, etc.

4. Targeted Brochures, Flyers, Post Cards, etc.
When you identify a specific location where your potential clients are likely to live, work, or play i.e. an apartment building, sports club, place of business, etc., distribute a targeted flyer or brochure (not your general one) addressing their specific needs.

5. Web Sites
see the next article  Enterprise Web Site Basics

6. Business Cards
A simple, effective print media tool that makes it easy for people to contact you. All enterprises should consider having one! Tips 1. your card should convey the same core message as our web site, brochure, etc. 2. have cards on hand wherever you go! 3. create a distinctive, easy-to-read design. 4. remember your site address!

7. General Brochures, Flyers, Post Cards, etc.
These tools provide general information about your enterprise and should all convey the same core message. Provide these to your referral partners (# 3 above), bring them to talks and workshops, send them to satisfied clients and ask them to pass them on, etc.

8. Organization Referral Lists
Join an appropriate organization in your field of activity and ask to be put on their referral list. If you can, offer your personal services to the organization i.e. as a contributor of articles, giver of talks, etc. in order to develop a personal connection.

9. Yellow Page Advertisements
A potential effective tool if a. your product or service falls into an easily-recognizable category e.g. dentist, computers, hairdressing, etc. b. you have the budget for a full ad, not just a one-line listing. If your product or service is very specialized, advertising in a speciality magazine may be more effective.

10. Radio, Television, and Print Ads
When you know your potential clients read a specific magazine, newspaper section, listen to a specific radio program, or watch a specific TV show, you can place an ad in that media vehicle. An effective, low-cost alternative is to be interviewed or create an article or ongoing feature for the targeted media vehicle.

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Enterprise Web Site Basics
by Michael Greenstein, michael@wholcom.net

Introduction   Web sites are not magic, but they can support our enterprise success. Sufficient time has now passed since the Internet's inception to evaluate the web site as a relationship-building (marketing) tools. Here are some observations..

1. One Tool Among Many
Small enterprise success requires sound marketing practices. No one marketing tool alone will enable us to succeed if we don't:

• know our enterprise and clients needs
• focus our resources and find our niche
• use the right marketing tools
• consistently convey the same core message

Web sites can convey our enterprise message to some of our target market, but not all. Many clients may need different communication approaches to respond positively.

2. Not an Electronic Brochure
Reproducing our existing print brochure as our web site doesn't make full use of our site's interactive potential as a relationship-building tool. Web sites provide clients with the ability to respond instantly with feedback, orders, etc. They can also link visitors to the exact information they want without forcing them to read material they're not interested in. Web sites are also quite easy to update (see next point).

3. Conveys Changing Information
If we have a changing inventory of products, or offer workshops, courses, etc. on different dates, then a web site is an excellent low-cost tool to keep existing or potential clients informed of our activities. Some examples: catalogues, events calendars, etc.

4. No Substitute for Personal Contact
Going out and meeting people is still one of the most effective ways of creating successful business relationships. E-mails should complement our phone calls, not replace them. Web sites should complement our public talks and presentations, not replace them.

5. Excels at Public Education
If our marketing approach is to act as a trusted information source in our area of expertise, then a web site is an excellent vehicle. E-Newsletters, online courses, article libraries, etc. do a good job of conveying information at a low cost. A regular online flow of useful information is a good way to build client trust and loyalty.

6. No Value if they Aren't Being Seen
If we don't actively inform our target market about our web site's existence, our sites won't be seen. Its not enough to simply create a good site, we need to devote the necessary resources of time, money, energy, personnel, etc., to ensure its contents will be seen and used. (see the following article)

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Directing Clients to Our Site
by Michael Greenstein, web author  webauthor@wholcom.net

With hundreds of millions of web sites on the WWW, it can be difficult for our small enterprise site to get noticed. The challenge can be met by adopting good marketing practices and using some of the proven approaches that have worked for many other small enterprises. Here are some suggestions:

1. Use All Your Tools for Site Promotion
We need to refer to our web site at the public talks and workshops we give, the direct mail distribution we do, the phone or e-mail contacts we make, etc. All our brochures, flyers, business cards, etc. should include our web site address. We can also send e-mail or print invitation to prospective or existing clients to visit our site.

If we don't have a complete range of marketing tools at our disposal or are not making full use of them, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to promote our site (or our enterprise for that matter!!). Web site promotion has to be part of an overall marketing plan that uses a full range of marketing tools.

2. Link with Other Sites
One of the best ways of directing visitors to our site is to partner with sites in non-competing fields who attract visitors from the same target market we are trying to reach. This involves searching the web for complementary sites and exchanging links .

3. Get Listed in Search Engines
Another way that people are directed to web sites is through search engines and indexes. Search engines are special web sites that act as large databases of web pages, indexes are databases that list web sites.

Here's a useful site that helps enterprises list their sites with major search engines and indexes. http://www.selfpromotion.com

4. Have Relevant, Useful Site Content
A web site needs to be more than an electronic brochure. It must have relevant and useful content that solves problems, provides information or links to other information sources, updates clients on new services, prices, and events, provides opportunities for direct feedback from visitors, etc. We need to give people a specific and valid reason to visit our site and to return in the future.

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