The following is a repost from the RocketWatcher Blog on Startup Marketing. But never the less the following material on what a Startup Marketer needs is pure gold and we wanted to repost this information with the author April Dunford‘s permission.

Marketing Skill – It Isn’t Just One Thing

I refuse to believe that there are more bad marketers out there than there are bad programmers or sales people. But I also believe Fred’s right that the failure rate in senior Marketing positions at startups is high (I’ve certainly mopped up after a few). Why? I think companies often hire the wrong marketer for the job and marketers sometimes accept the wrong job. Both problems stem from the fact that “Marketing” means many different things.

The first step to hiring a great marketer (and for marketers to land a job they won’t suck at) is to clearly understand what you mean by “marketing”. It’s a multi-faceted job that can include (but doesn’t always!):

1. Advertising
2. Branding
3. Product Management
4. Lead Generation
5. Install base/Customer engagement strategy and tactics
6. Inbound Marketing and/or SEO
7. Sales Support
8. Market Strategy
9. Messaging/Positioning
10. Channel strategy/management/marketing
11. Partnerships and partner marketing
12. Media and Analyst Relations
13. Content strategy and creation
14. Other stuff that I don’t even know about

Don’t forget that skill in doing these at a large company is NOT equivalent to doing these at a startup and also how you do these things differs wildly for different types of companies (B2B vs. B2C, complex sales vs. non-complex sales, etc.).

Most marketers will have majored in some of these and minored in others. Determining which skills you want in a marketer is a good first step in narrowing down suitable candidates. Marketers, on the other hand, need to acknowledge that they ARE NOT experts in everything and probe harder in interviews to make sure their skills align with the job requirements.

But Be Careful What You Wish For

Unfortunately even if you have a good grasp of how to identify the marketer you want, they still might fail because what you wanted wasn’t what you needed. I spoke to a CEO recently that wanted a VP marketing with a background ONLY in inbound marketing where I saw a need for someone senior that could think strategically beyond inbound tactics. I talked to another looking for a “digital marketing expert” as their CMO while their current marketing mix included a lot of non-digital tactics that seemed to be working just fine. I might be wrong but I felt like the narrow way they had defined the jobs set the candidates up for failure.

But April, I’m Hiring a Marketer Because I Don’t Understand This Stuff – HELP!

In my opinion the best way to figure out what type of candidate you need is to talk to a lot of people. Talk to CEO’s and VC’s of companies like yours and ask them – Have they hired a bad marketer? What did they learn? Have they hired a good marketer? What made them good? (Aside – I wish Fred would write a post on THAT!) Talk to experienced marketing folks that aren’t potential candidates and ask them – What sort of marketer would be a fit for my company? What skills should they have? What should I look for on their resumes? Do that and I think you will be less likely to end up with a marketer that sucks (for your marketing job that is).

More Resources:

Marketing Framework Ideas

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A new report from Merchant Circle revealed that businesses are funneling more of their budget towards Facebook Marketing. Since Facebook is probably the most well-known social media site this probably makes a lot of sense. Also worth noting here is the amount of time users are spending online including time using Facebook. In a recent study conducted by Neilson’s, they estimated that the time spent on Facebook for January 2011 was as high as 7 hours per month. You can review their study results here:  Neilson’s report.

The 70 percent number is up from 50 percent for 2009, surpassing even Google as the most widely used marketing channel.

Traditional Offline methods:

What does this mean for traditional marketing? Well 24 percent of the survey respondents say that coupons or direct mail are still one of their top three most effective marketing tactics, followed by 23 percent using print Yellow Pages.

Marketing Budgets:

Another interesting metric to monitor is the amount merchants are spending on their marketing budgets. In this survey the marketing budgets were under $2,500 a year, and 60 percent have no plans to raise their budgets this year.

Survey Sample Size:

The Merchant Circle survey is based on a random sample of 8,456 small business owners in the United States.

More Marketing Resources:
For more information visit Facebook Marketing Solutions

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When you are involved with any business the first thing you must do is overcome objections. Buyers will look for reasons NOT to buy from you. Any good sales person will tell you this. However to help improve sales conversion you need to overcome these objections. If you are a newly formed company you may experience trepidation from your potential buyers. Mainly because you will not have many customers, testimonials or even much of a track record. Even if you are an established business there are still a few simple things you can do to improve sales conversions.

Guarantees
Do you offer money back guarantees? Exchange or Credit polices around returns? Perhaps you have a “risk free” guarantee that is common in infomercials to put potential buyers at ease that if they want to return the product they can. If you have a new product that no one has ever heard of, this may be the route to go to establish early sales and absorb any risks your customers have of buying from you.

Low Price Guarantees are also popular to compete against other retailers. Meaning that if you find a similar item that is offered for less a retailer will usually price match or give you an extra 10-20% off the listed price.

Try before you buy (aka the Free Trial)
Services including online services are a great product to offer free trials before customers sign any contracts or agree to subscribe for a monthly or annual contract. Netflix comes to mind with a no risk, free trial of their video service. If you don’t cancel before your trial expires you will automatically be enrolled in their monthly subscription.

Extras
So assuming your buyer has found something they want to buy, but is not happy about the process. Perhaps they believe the shipping cost is too high, which is why Amazon has had free shipping over a certain order amount for many years. You will notice that smaller retailers have started copying this tactic albeit at higher order totals. If you are a jeweler you may offer a free ring resize if you are not satisfied with the way your ring fits on your finger.

Extras could also include throwing in something extra such as a free product, which is one tactic infomercials use. For example “if you call right now” we will also include a free item.

Image Credit: vectorportal (via Flickr)

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Since most companies are starting to promote that they now have a presence on Facebook, a lot of business owners will be wondering if just having a presence is enough. The truth is that without participation your Facebook pages will just look like a ghost town. You probably remember visiting an online forum and the last posts where from months or even years ago. Well if there is no content on your Facebook page and no participation the same thing can happen.

Facebook has a user-base of over 500 million active users so it is certainly a worthwhile audience to try to market in to. So how do you show your prospective customers (aka FANS) that you are serious about communicating with them on Facebook? Well the first thing to do is after registering your profile is to create a fan page. Which you can think of as a mini-website with several tabs.

If you would like to see an example of a Facebook fan page visit the Need Help Marketing Fan Page.

Here are some pointers that we have come up with after reviewing successfully implemented Fan pages. As well as researching Facebook Marketing best practices.

Steps for an engaging Fan Page:

1. Create a Welcome tab
By creating a welcome tab you can introduce your visitor to what you have available on your Facebook fan page. This way you can link to the different content. But most importantly is to tell visitors why they want to join your page by clicking the Like button. When they click on the like button their friends will also see their activity and will increase your marketing reach. However you do not have an incentive or promotion for why someone should join your Fan page most won’t.

Most recently I saw a Fan page that said when the press comes knocking to ask for a customer reference to talk to we go to our “fans” on Facebook. Using this technique might be just the incentive to get them to signup to your fan page.

2. Use Photos or Videos
This is your chance to add some multi-media and add more interest. You may want to add pictures of company events, trade shows, customer visits, or even behind the scenes at your office. For some online businesses this will show credibility and that you are the real deal. Not to mention that photos and videos are shared frequently online which will help bring more traffic and potential customers if you have interesting content to share.

3. Add a Notes tab
Using the notes tab is a great way to add content to your fan page. In our case our Notes pages reproduces content from our main blog so that anyone that uses Facebook to search for marketing help will find our content. With so many users on Facebook it is becoming a bigger resource for searching for different topics to find out what is going on.

4. Add an About Us Page
An About Us page is your opportunity to introduce yourself to someone who is not familiar with you. Unless you are major brand like Nike that people recognize you should probably add some information about your company and information on your products or services. As well as links back to your main web site for more in-depth information.

5. Post on your Wall
Posting on your wall would probably be the most obvious recommendation and for most that is all they do. However that does not create repeat visitors and followers unless what you are posting to your wall is helpful, valuable or at a minimum interesting. You may push special discounts onto your wall so that your fans will get value out of being a fan of your page. Giving back to your fan base will also help you to get more fans and of course loyal customers.

Bonus Tip: Add “Like” buttons to your website, email newsletters, blogs, etc. Anywhere you can promote your Facebook Fan Page will greatly help get more traffic to that content as well as encouraging more fans which is always a good thing.

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Most marketers get asked when they are going to update their website. Why? Because those that work in your business see the website all the time and get tired of it. Or they believe there is nothing new to keep customers and prospects interested. However internal users are not usually the target audience for your public website. So should you listen to their suggestions?

The problem with listening to these suggestions is that they do not take into account what your prospect or customer needs. And this is who is really using your website and getting you business. Which could include finding your product information, locations, or even how to contact you.

Yes you should update content, but complete rewrites or navigation changes can confuse and frustrate more than they improve the quality of your website. Just think when you yourself have had to learn new software and you have to learn where everything is located. When you slow down visitors from finding what they are looking for your new change could be perceived as a change for the worse. Not what you were hoping for with a website rewrite.

At the same time you want to make sure people revisit your website and you keep them engaged. So the best compromise to appease everyone would be to space out the full redesign so they do not happen too often or are tied to re-branding or business changes. Some good ideas for keeping your content up to date and fresh include adding a news section or blog articles to your website to keep people coming back. Without hindering regular users of your website.

Another possibility before making wholesale changes to your website layout and content is to test using A/B testing. This way you can try different variations and see if they make a difference either positive or negative to your conversion rates or time spent on your website. Depending on your website traffic you may want to run these tests over several months to see if changing your button colors or navigation menu improves the user experience. A good point to keep in mind when redesigning your site navigation and workflow is that your Time On Site or Bounce rate type metrics may decrease if you effectively make finding information easier to find.

For more information on A/B Split testing we had an early article on this topic called:
A/B Test Splits and How to use them

Image Credit: john_a_ward (via Flickr)

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One way to get more attention is through the power of online videos. Online videos are a great way to get your company more exposure and to get noticed. With the onset of sites such as YouTube, and Twitter, a video can be viewed by hundreds if not thousands of people in a very short period of time. Sometimes referred to as a “viral” video because people like it so much they share it with their friends.

Both consumers and small business owners go to online videos for three main reasons:

1) To find tutorials for learning new things
2) Product demos and reviews
3) To find answers to their questions

Source: Enterprise Council on Small Business

They may be looking for how to videos to help them along with a complex problem or they may be looking to view a product demo prior to spending the money on a new product for their company. It is always important to research any purchases prior to making them. Someone, somewhere will have done your research ahead of time, saving you the hassle of countless hours figuring out which product is best for you.

As YouTube has become a phenomenon around the globe, millions of people make, upload and view videos on a daily basis. YouTube has now surpassed corporate sites as the number 1 source of finding videos. And something you may not realize is that YouTube has become a sort of search engine overnight. If you need to find information on a topic there is likely a YouTube video that you can watch to learn more.

Uploading video to your company site is still important, but uploading your videos to YouTube is even more important. Make sure if you have are posting a video online that you use popular keywords that will ensure you get noticed within search results. Here is a list of some key pointers when using the power of video as part of your marketing.

A) Always keep your videos as short as possible !

People for the most part have short attention spans, if the video they are watching is not short and to the point they will lose interest quickly. Time is important and if your viewer feels as though watching your video is wasting their time, they are less likely to come back and view more videos by your company in the future.

B) Focus

Keeping your videos focused on your topic and reaching your point quickly will enable your viewer to feel that your video was informative and likely keep your company in mind for a future purchase. Just like in presentations the less information you convey in a short time the more people will remember. This is not the time to tell us everything about your product or service. Keep the viewer wanting more.

C) Using social media to your advantage

With the help of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc videos have a chance of going viral or at the very least attracting other’s attention. If your content is entertaining or light-hearted in the form of a short funny skit, informative demo or even a multi week webinar will keep your fans interested and coming back for more.

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Earlier today eMarketer reported on the findings from a recent white paper from marketing agency 360i which looked at the content of twitter messages from marketers. Why is this research interesting? Well the findings of the research indicated most marketers where communicating with only 16% of their consumers (which would include any followers). And the rest of the tweeted messages were about sharing information including new products, features and/or services.

However if you think about this data a bit more you may come to the conclusion that a lot of consumers are following brands on Twitter specifically to get access to this type of news and information. Marketers may just be using the right channel to communicate to an attentive audience. You will need to watch your follower counts to see if they go up or down based on your usage and what kind of content you are putting in your tweets. And remember to always try to respond to anyone trying to reach out to you using your @twittername mentions.

To read more about this report visit Boosting the Power of Marketers’ Tweets

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Using Google Insights combined with iGoogle‘s Dashboard is a great way to easily keep track of search term frequency. In other words, what people online are searching for using Google. This is important because you can understand market trends as they happen, and with the default charting you can see if interest is going up or down over time.

Let’s review the following screenshot from my Dashboard I created using Google Insights. Once you have typed in a keyword search you will notice an iGoogle button that will look like this:

Once you click on that button you will then see your Google Insight chart or Keyword list on your home page for iGoogle. You can also click to set iGoogle as your home page in your web browser (shown in the screenshot below at the top).

Looking at the example you can see I am tracking small business marketing keywords, as well as Direct Marketing interest in Google searches over time. Of course this is just for illustration purposes, but you could also be tracking your competitors as keywords, their products, or even your own clients to see what they are publishing as content or news.

Now that you have saved all of these searches for quick review, you can also share this page with your co-workers using the Share Tab option. Or create multiple tabs within iGoogle to keep track of important keywords.

Google Insights is a very useful tool to judge if/when and how much people are googling keywords that relate to your business. Keeping tabs on competitors in order to stay on top of changes that may be taking place, and also as a tool to do your own research on a variety of topics. Including discovering common and related search terms. In some cases you may not even have thought of using keywords that your customers are using to find you. It may be in your company’s best interest to take the time to get to know Google Insights, see it’s potential in helping you make the most of your marketing dollars. Constantly providing fresh content and updating material may be the best way for your company to be noticed so that you have the upper hand against your competitors.

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Most small businesses go hunting to find that next new customer. Meaning that they put either a lot of energy, money or both into finding their next customer. When we say hunting we mean you are cold calling prospects, knocking on doors trying to find that one in ten opportunity that you are looking to land. In most cases, you won’t be sure if the person you talk to is even a potential buyer or not.

In general this is where marketing helps, there are those who can easily find new leads and those that have to work harder. If you are harvesting leads than you have your pickings and have probably spent your time working on your prospecting or lead generation strategies so new customers find you without you having to go out and look for them.  Sometimes this technique is referred to as inbound marketing and involves producing distributable content. If you spend some time creating useful resources that are not overtly sales pitches, you can attract potential customers easily.  In other words, they do not look like sponsored articles you have probably seen in magazines and newspapers, but instead provide useful information, such as benchmarks, market research, and even checklists.

If you put the time into creating these “satellites” people will find you and you will spend less time hunting for interested new customers.

Lets try to illustrate this concept using an example, let’s say I am looking to find a home inspector for my new home that I am considering. I will probably try to find information on local inspectors in my area. If I go to my favorite search engine and type in “home inspection checklist in california“., assuming I know nothing about inspecting a house I would probably be seeking out this information.

Now put yourself in the position of a home inspector in knowing that consumers are looking for information. Your satellite marketing could include a list of homes damaged due to local conditions such as drought, or heat, etc.  You could provide guides on what to look for when walking through your house or even how to choose your inspector carefully.

At first glance these informational products might seem trivial, however, if you think about it people looking to buy and those who are close to making a purchase will be reading these types of resources. If you have written them in such a way to make your business sound legit and knowledgeable then you will have customers contacting you when they are ready to make the next step and will identify themselves as a new lead.

Things to Keep in Mind

• Remember to ask how your new lead found you so you can focus your energy on effective resources
• Try to maximize the usefulness of your resources. Think about who may want to distribute this information, such as real estate agents who already are a trusted source of information, etc.
• Searching LinkedIn,  forums and twitter conversations,  you can usually find people looking for help or information.
• Record where possible who you sent information to, or if they asked for a consult. You may not have thought of this as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) but it really is fundamental to continuing your conversation with a prospective new customer.
• Videos travel fast on the internet, and also are shared frequently. If you can record a few videos 2 minutes or less in length on specific tips related to your industry you will have access to an estimated 100 M visitors per month on YouTube watching videos. You may not have realized there are a lot of educational related videos and tutorials on YouTube. All of these videos link directly back to you and establish yourself as an expert.

If you try to adopt this simple satellite marketing technique in your marketing more people will find you rather than trying to buy advertising in your local newspaper  where new customer potential may be limited.

Image Credit: foxypar4 (via Flickr)

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Recently I came across a new marketing framework created by April Dunford over on the Rocket Watcher blog. Which is a great resource for helping to market your start-up  business. But what struck me with this framework was how clear the ideas become when presented in this matrix. Below you can see what the marketing framework might look like, as it is currently in development.

Credit: April Dunford via RocketWatcher

If you are trying to get a handle on your small business marketing then this marketing framework may just be the checklist you have been looking for. Using this list you can make sure you have all of your marketing tactics working together. If you have feedback on how these areas may or may not help your small business please leave a comment.

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