Tuesday I will be going into the studio with marketing genius Robin Robins, to record another EntreLeadership Podcast answering your marketing questions.
The topic: Small Business Marketing De-Mystified: How To Quickly Get More Quality Clients For Your Small Business. Please ask your questions in the comments.
STOP LETTING YOUR BUSINESS RUN YOU.
INSTEAD, LEARN HOW TO LEAD YOUR TEAM TO SUCCESS!
Walk through your challenges with one of our coaches for FREE and see the difference a shift in mindset can make.
DO YOU WANT THE BEST TIPS, TRICKS, AND TOOLS TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS?
Sign up for weekly curated insights and frameworks from coaches, leaders, and business owners that help you take your business to the next level.
CEO
Chris has a heart for changing lives by helping people discover the life and business they really want.
Decades of personal and leadership development experience, as well as running multi-million dollar businesses, has made him an expert in life and business coaching. personality types, and communication styles.
Growing up in a small logging town near Lake Tahoe, California, Chris learned a strong work ethic at home from his full-time working mom. He began his leadership and training career in the corporate world, starting but at E'TRADE.
Featured In
Thanks Chris for a new podcast! I started listening to the entreleadership podcast about 3 weeks ago and I have listened to nearly (70% maybe?) every past episode. I’ve been checking every day since Oct 23 hoping for a new episode!
Welcome, Aren! Glad to see you enjoying them. The podcasts are definitely addicting! They come out about every two weeks, plus some extended interviews exclusively shared here. Hope to hear more from you!
I work at a nonprofit, so our marketing consists of community awareness of our programs, as well as encouraging donors and volunteers. Do you have some low or no-cost tips for getting the word out when we have no advertising budget?
Guerilla marketing is an awesome book for non-profits and small business. It talks strategy and no cost. Also – check out your local college and ask if any public relations students need unpaid internships, this is a great experience for them to get real experience and it helps out non-profits that don’t have a big budget. 🙂
Hey Chris and Robin, I work at an autobody repair shop and we dont sell anything but our service. What are some things to do to set us apart from our competition?
I own a community newspaper in a mid metropolitan market. We have a small number but very loyal subscribers. We have also fully embraced social media. In fact we have well over 1,100 Facebook fans. Is there any way to encourage them to become subscribers (in print or online) without making them feel like we are “pitching” them all the time. Thanks a ton
David, I can’t for the life of me remember what book i was reading recently that gave an example of a community newspaper that had an outrageous number of subscribers considering their population (I want to say it was 90%+ of their population). Why was it so popular? They had one simple idea that they stuck to no matter what and that idea was to do as MANY stories about local community members as possible. No matter what was going on in the outside world, the focus would always remain on getting as many stories involving local people as possible. The concept was so simple, yet it is hard for papers to stick by doing, however, this paper stuck to their guns and did it.
Best of luck!!
jen
Thank you very much for your response, Jen. What you describe lines up with the mission of our newspaper. With this approach, and the response we get from current subscribers, we know if more people would give us a chance, they would gladly subscribe. I don’t think traditional marketing would gain us much.. Which is sad, considering we ARE traditional marketing. I would love for us to “buck the trend” so we could serve our communities in a much greater capacity. Thank you for your insight. It gives me hope that we are on the right path.
Oh that is great David. I know as a mom, if someone did an article about me, it would make me smile and definitely buy a newspaper, HOWEVER, if they did an article on my kids – I would buy them out. Just a thought.
I remember being on the yearbook club in high school – I was the photographer. One day, we ran out of film and the home economics class had baked some delicious chocolate chip cookies that smelled delicious. We went in and starting snapping the camera of students who automatically smiled when the camera pointed their way. What happened? Of course we were offered cookies. Now I am NOT proud that we did that as an adult as it was deceiving, however, the point is when it is about the people that are actually the subscribers they loved it. Just to clarify a little further, yes I did go back and take shots on a another day when they were not cooking something nearly as fun to make up for our little cookie plot.
If I remember the name of the book or the paper, I will send it over.
Best of luck!!!!
Jen
Chris and Robin, my family recently started a membership based woodworking shop, something that is unique in our community. Because of that our marketing has to educate our audience and bring in much needed business (income!) at the same time. I would love any advice on how to most effectively build our audience and customer base on a very limited budget. We offer memberships as well as classes.
What are some good ways to market your services as you start a business? I’m thinking of a service-based business rather than a product-based business.
I’m with you on that question my friend! Hope yours gets picked. 😉
We design total learning solutions for our clients via eLearning, curriculum design and Learning Management System services. How do we get all members of a team to be laser-focused and market our product in their day-to-day role?
How do you balance the “getting new customers” side of marketing with the “keeping the customers you have” side?
What is the best way to generate leads using print marketing?
What trends, besides mobile and integrated niche marketing, do you foresee in advertising/PR/marketing? And/or what book has most influenced your view of marketing/PR?
– Thanks from a PR/business student
I want to find better ways to reach out to corporate clients. These are the people we work with the most – but boy, do they ever take a long time to make a purchase decision.
The clients who have stayed with us the longest, and who are still with us (6+ years now) took one year each from initial contact to working with us. That seems to be the trend.
Are there better or more efficient ways to bring in corporate clients?
Thanks for your help!
My question was how do I do that marketing funnel that Dave talked about in the EntreLeadership book? And what I mean is how long should I space it out between offering free stuff to perhaps a eBook, to an eCourse, then a training program, or some more deeper like a mentorship/coaching type service? I equip and train music ministry and Christian music business leaders. So juts having a hard time determining how long between raising the price or fee. I hope this makes since. I’m not sure if I am saying it right. lol! Thanks Chris!
Fun, Fun, and More Fun Chris LoCurto.
Here are my questions for Robin:
1. HELP! How can I speed up success as a speaker and author? I know, patience is important, but any tips you may have would be great. Currently, seeking out opportunities to serve and then learning to serve THEIR needs as best I can. Offering to speak for FREE for community outreach events and then asking for referrals for any organizations, clubs, or corporations. From there, I am starting to offer workshops that relate to the talk.
2. What is the best bang for your dollar when it comes to advertising for this type of business or should one just focus on serving well and relying on word of mouth referrals?
3. Where do you find your inspiration and ideas when it comes to being intentional about the choosing what conferences you attend, blogs you read, podcasts you listen to, and books you invest in?
MANY thanks!!!
Live Beyond Awesome.
Jen
Twitter: TheIronJen
Okay, you don’t need to answer, however, I would LOVE to hear the answer IF you get time.
Say, you had 4,000 spanish speaking how to get a job books that have been best-selling books by an incredibly famous (and wise) author that you need to write up a business plan in 4 days as to how you would use / sell these books (this is the terms of the agreement). What creative ways would suggest find to find profitable homes for these wonderful books quickly.
Yes this is a real question to a real puzzle I am desperately trying to solve – all in good fun as landing the deal to buy the discounted books and selling them would pay off the rest of our debt in 2 weeks versus 12 months!
Many thanks for your consideration!
Live Beyond Awesome.
Jen
Twitter: @TheIronJen
As a young Certified Public Accountant, striving to establish my own practice, what would be best possible way to advertise and grow my proprietary firm?
Chris,
Might be late to the party here but this one is gnawing at me and no one has answered it that I can find.
The overwhelming majority of my marketing over the past few years has been highly targeted marketing such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Retargeting. With privacy laws getting stricter and stricter and consumers getting more savvy, how do you see demographic marketing changing over the next 2-3 years?
Thanks!
Do you have some low or no-cost tips for getting the word out when we have no advertising budget? this is an premier acumen for them to get real acumen and it helps out non-profits that don’t have a big budget.