Create A Catalog for Your Website

Here's an idea to make your top-selling inventory available on the web to anyone who wants to buy. You don't need to have an online store and you don't need to pay a web developer thousands of dollars to build a complicated data base.

Instead, just create a catalog with all your merchandise on your own computer and then offer it as a pdf download from your website.

In many ways, a pdf catalog is better than an actual printed catalog. There are no printing or mailing costs, and customers can save it to their computer for future reference.

DO IT YOURSELF
It may take a little time, but a catalog is not that difficult to create. You can do it with Word as long as you are comfortable working with tables and graphics in Word. Find Word tutorials here: Word 2007 Courses

Lay out your complete catalog including a cover page, table of contents, product information, and ordering instructions. Be sure to include an order form that may be faxed or mailed to you. When creating your catalog, include as much color as you can and include as many product pictures as you can.

When you are finished with the creation of your catalog, proof read it carefully. Now you're ready to convert the entire catalog from Word into a pdf document. You may already have the pdf conversion software on your computer, or you may have pdf driver installed in your printing options. If so, try those first and examine the results.

If that's not working, use this free online pdf converter: doc2pdf (donations accepted). I've found it to be very quick and completely accurate.

Once you've created the pdf document of your catalog, save it to your computer. Then send the file to your web developer and add it to the website. Make sure you prominently promote the "New Colorful Catalog" now available online.

EXAMPLES
Here are a couple of examples of some catalogs (all pdf file links):
Huetter Mill & Cabinet Molding and Stair Parts
Classic Cuisine Catering Catalog
Schlueter Dairy Technologies Catalog

When you do finish your catalog, be sure to send me a link to jay-at-themarketingspot-dot-com. If you already have a catalog, please let me know so that I can link to it as an example.


For more information on our company: www.themarketingspot.com
Read our other blog on small business marketing: The Marketing Spot

Childrens Furniture Advertising

Case Study: Punkin Patch, brick and mortar and online, upscale children's furniture and baby boutique.

Idea Wanted: New ways to advertise a new website with little to no budget.

Challenge: Get a new website noticed with virtually no money.

Background: Toks Aruoture purchased Punkin Patch, a children's furniture and baby decor boutique, in Atlanta 18 months ago. During that time they have hired 2 web designers to create an ecommerce website with the aim of selling baby furniture nationwide. After some disappointments their new website finally went live in the past week. However, during that time they made a significant investment in a year-long magazine advertising contract to promote a new website that was not ready. Add that total to the money they spent on web design and their budget is depleted.

Advice:

Punkin Patch caters to the affluent. This actually works to our advantage in trying to minimize expenditure while maximizing return on dollars spent. For Punkin Patch, we advise that they combine geographic and demographic targeting. While Punkin Patch may sell and ship to anywhere in the continental U.S. affluent consumers with more than $100,000 annual income don't just live anywhere in the continental U.S. They tend to live close to each other in particular neighborhoods.

We also advise that Punkin-Patch develop an advertising strategy that mixes both online and traditional forms of media. So let's get started.

Ideas:

1. Free press releases. Yes, we've made this recommendation before, because works. First use this press release generation tool to help you structure the press release. To give the press release more bite, other than "we sell baby furniture" we suggest that Punkin Patch offer a premium with the first order. We like the idea of a personalized burp big, but it can be just about anything baby related.
   
   After you've written your press release check this list of free press release distribution sites and begin the submission process. But hold on, don't submit to every one of them. Three is enough for right now. Then in another month choose another three...and so forth. We also suggest that Punkin Patch consider some higher level paid press release services to get a little broader coverage.
   
2. Use Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing to get ads placed in searches. Here's how it works. You choose keywords for your ads. When those keywords show up in searches, your ad appears in the sponsored links section. The best part of keyword search marketing is that you get to choose your budget. You pay on a per-click basis and when all your budget is used up, then you stop getting clicks. It allows you to test the waters before going whole hog.
   
   First, you choose your keywords using this keyword tool from Google. The key is to cross-reference keywords that have as minimal competition (keywords are priced on supply and demand) with as high a search volume as possible. We have already done this analysis for Punkin-Patch and recommended five search terms.
   
3. Send post cards offering free burp cloth with purchase. How in the world can we recommend direct mail with a national website? Two ways. First, as I mentioned earlier, affluent Americans don't live just any old place. You can target zip codes, even neighborhoods where the people make a lot of money. Second, whenever Punkin Patch gets an order, they now have all of that customer's data. If that customer is typical of the ideal buyer profile, mail postcards to their neighborhood declaring that their friend down the street has discovered Punkin-Patch.com, why don't you? We'll even give you a personalized burp bib with your first purchase.
   
   We are fond of postcards, especially for websites, because they are relatively inexpensive to print and mail. There's no opening of envelopes and if the postcard is properly designed, the consumer can't help but see your message. Even if the consumer intends to throw it in the trash.
   
4. Team up with Amazon. Toks has already been approached by Amazon to add Punkin Patch to their website. Because she has had some difficulties getting her own website running the way she wants, we advise her to proceed once she has read the agreement thoroughly. She also should call a couple of references who already have an Amazon storefront. There is no direct advertising expenditure here, however Toks will have to pay a percentage of the sale to Amazon. In return, Amazon provides the exposure to its expansive customer base and it absorbs all the credit card fees.
   
5. Email marketing. This method is often maligned because of the spam implications. However, we have talked to businesses who have used email with some success. The key is to deal with a list broker that has an opt-in or permission list. People have actually given permission (whether they knew it or not) to be on this email list. Be aware, however, that these lists can still have a high degree of inaccuracy. Take the total numbers with a degree of scepticism. To buy a list, you will pay $X per thousand addresses. You also have to put together your own ad using some html. We recommend that you create the message, but have a professional put the ad together.
   
6. Women's issues blogs. here you are going to have to use some good old-fashioned internet shoe leather. Surf all the women's blogs you can find. Search Technorati and Ice Rocket to find them. Look for ones that fit the affluent female profile. Participate in the conversation by commenting on the blogs. Contact the blog author and ask for a review of your website. There may be some that you might actually want to sponsor with a banner ad. Check the blog's popularity with Technorati, and ask for the blog author's feed stats (actual subscribers). A blogger who's on top of her game will be able to tell you how many subscribers she has and is probably using a service like Feedburner.

The Lesson:
The first lesson that Toks learned, the hard way, is don't start advertising until you are absolutely ready for business. Especially when you are depending on a website for your sales. I have not yet ever seen a website go up on schedule...ever. Did I mention that I've never seen a website go up on schedule? Ever?

If you do find yourself with little to no money to advertise and you know you need to advertise, all hope is not lost. Fortunately for you, the internet still has some anarchy and you can conquer little parts of it. Work hard to find the spots where you can leverage you message for free or practically free.

Finally, before advertising, go to our other blog, The Marketing Spot and read some of our lessons on branding and advertising. You can maximize the return on any advertising investment you make by maximizing the message you communicate.

If you have any additional ideas for Toks Aruoture and Punkin Patch, please add your thoughts by clicking the comments link below.

For more information on our company, see our website: www.themarketingspot.com

Clothing Website Experience

Case Study: HIZwear.com

Idea Wanted: Enhance the website experience

Challenge: Give customers a more involved experience at the website without cluttering its simple, effective design.

Background: Three friends decided to turn their passion into a business. Six months later they had HIZWear.com, a site that sells inspirational, scriptural-based t-shirts for women. Now that's a niche!

Advice: Here's a website that has a great lesson for small business owners: You don't have to be complicated and flashy to be effective. HIZwear is a simple website that sells what it sells without overburdening the visitor. Our advice is to give visitors a chance to connect a little more with the website in ways other than buying a shirt.

Ideas:

1. The “Our Story” portion is good; it's an honest, personal story that reveals something interesting about the business. However it appears to all run together. It might be a little easier to read if it were broken into some paragraphs. That may make it necessary to do a little editing, but it would also make it more readable. Also, when you have several paragraphs in a story, use subheadlines to break it up and keep the reader interested.
   
2. To make the site more personal; under the “3 Girlz Picture” include a caption identifying who is whom. The picture is great, because it shows that HIZwear is not a corportation, just three friends following their call from God.
   
3. To create a future customer base, include a link for visitors to sign up to be notified when a new t-shirt is released. Releasing a couple of new models every two months or so, will keep customers involved and coming back for more. For example, in November, release some long-sleeve T's and send an announcement to the email list that winter models are now available.
   
4. Create a suggestion box and let visitors suggest new t-shirt ideas. There may be some inappropriate suggestions but this idea would also create repeat traffic and build a community of believers who are hungry for ways to express their faith. Plus, the suggestions will probably yield some pretty good ideas.
   
5. Consider putting men’s models right next to the female shirts for a hiz & herz package. It would be perfect timing for Christmas shopping.
   
6. Add the signature to the website: Clothed in the Word of God. We love the signature, but only learned about it in email exchanges with one of the owners, Leisa Gay. It appears nowhere on the website. Add it just the below logo (which we also like).

The Lesson: When you have a product that fundamentally speaks to your customer's life values, you have to give them an opportunity to connect emotionally with you. Give customers the opportunity to be part of your company by engaging them and soliciting feedback. Create a community of customers who share common beliefs and you will foster word of mouth and customer loyalty.

If you would like free marketing ideas for your small business, fill out this form: Request for Ideas
For small business marketing advice, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot

Advertising a Travel Agency II

You may remember that back in early September, we tackled Baumann Travel in a case study. This week we decided to take on another travel agency because the situation and the lessons are much different.

Case Study: Diane Fazio's Dream Travel in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Idea Wanted: Advertising ideas to get more business

Challenge: The travel agency business has changed dramatically in the last 10 years as consumers turned to the Internet and largely book trips themselves online. Diane's challenge is to take her local travel agency, with a small marketing budget, and compete against the big online travel sites for customers and profits.

The Background: Diane operates Dream Travel out of her home in Lawrence. She specializes in honeymoon travel and Caribbean destinations. She started the business four years ago and said that she just loves it too much to not do it. Her business is OK, but she says she can handle a lot more.

Diane has earned several certifications including Sandals Certified Specialist. She loves travel herself and says that she has been to almost every major Caribbean destination.

Advice: You can waste a lot of money advertising your business. As a whole we believe that advertising is mostly ineffective when isolated as a marketing tool. In this case, Diane's keys to increasing Dream Travel's return on her advertising investment are: the way she positions her company, the media she uses for her message, and the message itself. Our ideas will revolve around those three areas, and then we recommend a website upgrade to give Dream Travel's advertising credibility.

Our Ideas:

1. Let's start with positioning, or building an image in the mind of the consumer. It's tempting to stand for a lot of different things and try to get business from several different segments of the market. However, people would rather deal with a specialist than a generalist. Dream Travel should be positioned in all it's advertising as the Wedding and Honeymoon specialists. Diane has a passion for this segment of the business and can genuinely position herself as a honeymoon travel expert. It doesn't mean that Dream Travel cannot book cruises, family vacations or group travel. It just means that she doesn't use her advertising to try to attract that business.
   
2. Now that we have our position, let's choose our media. We put Dream Travel’s criteria into our MediaSpotter tool and found that local community publications are Diane’s best choice. She is currently using the Perfect Wedding Guide in the Lawrence area as well as a sports display (a display case with advertising) at a local supermarket. We recommend that she not renew her ad in the sports display and begin placing ads for Dream Travel in wedding guides outside her own market (after she implements a couple of our other ideas below). There is no need to limit potential customers to her immediate geographic location. Diane has the ability to plan honeymoons for anyone anywhere. Theoretically, Dream Travel could be advertised in any wedding guide in any part of the country.
   
3. We know where we want to advertise, what we want our business to look like, now let's do makeover of the ad itself and fine-tune the message. Resist the temptation to put too much copy into your ads. Think of advertising as courtship; you are trying to court the prospective customer to taking the next step in their relationship with you. Rather than listing all the reasons customers should buy from you, use a pick-up line in your advertising. For Dream Travel, we recommend a very simple, colorful ad. Use a tropical island picture (which Diane currently does), put the name of the business at the top of the ad and directly underneath but the pick-up line: "It's like getting a free upgrade." Then in for the copy put: (headline) Dream Travel, The Honeymoon and Wedding Travel Specialists. (copy) Leave nothing to chance on the most important vacation you'll ever take. We plan honeymoons every day and we know how to upgrade your honeymoon without upping your budget. To see your honeymoon destination, simply visit our website: http://www.dreamtravelma.4mydeals.com/, or call 555-555-5555.
   
4. When visitors arrive at your website, they need to see the fulfillment of your advertisement. Dream Travel's website does not currently do this. We recommend a website redesign starting with a unique domain name. We believe Dream Travel needs to stop using the free service and invest in a professionally designed website that communicates her new position. We realize this is a tough step, but a necessary one. First, using the free service makes the web domain name too long and the 4mydeals part of the domain name detracts from the specialist image we are trying to craft. Also, the free service allows few options for customization. You have to invest some money and use a professional web designer, but you probably don't have to invest as much as you think. We believe that the website we envision for Dream Travel can be done for around a thousand dollars. However, there will be a significant time investment up front, and then few hours every couple of weeks to to keep it fresh and useful.
   
5. No, blogging is not passé yet (at least I hope not). We recommend that Diane blog on the website to establish Dream Travel as the honeymoon and wedding travel experts. She has been to almost all of the major Caribbean resorts and can offer first hand advice in her blogs. She can also give honeymoon travel tips. In her blog posts she should use keywords that will help her site show up well in web searches. Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find good keyword topics. We have emailed a list of potential keywords to Diane.


6. Here are some of our ideas for the new Dream Travel website: Post pictures and testimonials from past clients to ad credibility. Put Diane's picture prominently on the splash page and the blog to add a feeling of personalization. Include a photo album of all the resorts to which Diane has traveled and include tips for each to establish expertise. Put a "request a quote" form on the website to make it non-threatening and easy for people to do business with Dream Travel. Add a "Honeymoon Travel Secrets" section to make the site interesting.

The Lesson: Advertising is not magic, it does not work alone. Several factors are involved in getting business through advertising. Your ad must communicate your position in the marketplace (based on your brand), you must place your advertising where it has the best chance to succeed (think context), then your message must draw the customer in to wanting a relationship with you (courtship). Once you get them to go out on a date with you, you need a place to do business that is congruent with message you've been communicating ( Dream Travel's website).

So what do you think of our ideas? Do you have any others?

For small business marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot.
For more about our company, see our website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

Branding a Law Practice

Case Study: Kenneth Alan Forman PA, Immigration Attorney in North Miami Beach, Florida

Challenge: Re-brand a law practice that has recently expanded and has a vision of national influence.

Idea Wanted: A brand that will increase business from immigrants facing deportation, coupled with an image that carries weight across the entire country.

The Background: Ken Forman, the principal of the practice, has been in operation for more than 18 years and has just added his daughter to the practice. The goal is to expand the business to become the go-to practice defending deportation from immigration courts on a national scale.

His business values: Competence, Honesty, Protection
His Mission: To help immigrants who deserve to be here fight against the immigration courts trying to deport them.

Advice: Think through they eyes of the potential client and think big! Forman's clients are immigrants facing deportation and the firm has the vision of national reach.

To market to this specialized client you have to identify their key concerns and fears. Forman's clients are washed in fear and uncertainty. The objective is to communicate comfort, security and hope.

Our Ideas:

1. First develop the brand promise and use it as the foundation of all future marketing. We suggest the brand promise: "Safety, Security, Peace of Mind in America."
   
2. Next develop a signature that can be used in all future marketing materials. A signature is not a slogan or a tagline, because it is personal and has meaning. We suggest: "Stop Deportation, Stay in America" or "Stop Deportation, Go with Forman"
   
3. Brands need key, central visuals to reinforce the brand promise and the signature. Our recommendation for the Forman key visual is a large red, white and blue image of America with the texture of a big brick wall. In the wall their is a door open with a deportation sign above it. The two principals of the practice are blocking the front of the exit with their arms crossed. The signature is underneath the visual.
   
4. Change name and use big, important sounding titles. Adding significant staff is the perfect time to change the name of the business, especially if you want to change your target market. Because of Forman's desire to go national, we suggest an authoritative name such as the Forman and Lugo National Immigrant Rights Center, or Forman Immigrants Protection Center. Create initiatives such as the National Initiative to stop unjust deportation and publish a document backing it up.


5. Get a website. Forman currently has no website. Luckily some their large national competitors have weak websites and it would be easy to make an impact. We suggest a new website with a splash page that contains the key graphic and the signature in multiple languages. Then beneath the key visual, have a "Choose Your Language" option that includes English and the top three languages served by the practice. Don't clutter the website up with confusing options.: make it simple. Publish a document in multiple languages that chronicles a typical time line and lists immigrants rights. Then convert it to a pdf and make it easily downloadable.


6. Open satellite offices. Forman wants national reach and needs an appearance of national accessibility. Open small "storefront" offices in key immigration court cities like Los Angeles and New York. Staff them with a receptionist or use an answering service to save costs. Use a VOIP Internet phone service and obtain local Los Angeles and New York phone numbers that ring in the North Miami Beach office.

The Lesson:
When branding your business, start with your values and then develop a brand promise that clarifies what you promise to deliver beyond the stuff you happen to sell. After you have your brand promise, develop your signature; a slogan with teeth.

Always develop a vision statement of what you want your business to look like when your mission is completed. If you know what the future will look like, then you can craft your image and a brand that rings true. In Forman's example, you cannot have a vision of influence on a national scale and portray a country lawyer image, or try to maintain a personal brand.

Brand your business in orderly steps, starting with values, a mission, a vision, and then a brand promise. When you do, the big imaging ideas begin to flow more easily.

If you would like to get free marketing ideas for your business, fill out our idea spot form by clicking here.

Get more small business marketing lessons and advice at our other blog: The Marketing Spot

Learn more about our company at our website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

Add a Map to Your Website

Give your potential customers more than just a address or static map. Google allows you to place an interactive map of your business on your website or your blog. Below is a map of the known center of the small business marketing universe:

View Larger Map

Google also allows you to add a description and photo to the map if you want. Whether you use Google's map description or your own, a photo of the front of your building should be included. (I have not included one because I did not want to fall in one of the pot holes of our parking lot while taking the picture).

To add your map, watch the video and then build your Google Map here.

Make it easy for your customers to do business with you, and that means making it easy for them to find you. Add a map and a picture to your website.

Free Restaurant Advertising

Every sit-down restaurant should have a website. However, if you can't yet afford one, or you are "working on one," here is a temporary option. Post your menu online free at this website: Menu Elephant.

The site allows diners to search by city, state, business name and cuisine type. Once you post your menu, it receives a URL address which you can then use on your business cards as your own website address. The site also maps your location.

Click here to post your menu free.

For small business marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot

For more about our company, see our website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/