10 Reasons Your Business Should Be Using Email Marketing
Welcome to day one of Email Marketing Summer School. Over the next few days we’ll be taking an in depth look at email marketing, and discussing how you can begin using email to more effectively market and grow your business.
Today won’t be like the first day in most classes, going over the (boring) basics, we’re going to cut right to the good stuff and tell you why you should be integrating email marketing into your overall marketing campaign.
After reading the following list, we’ll let you decide if this is compelling enough to get you started, and stick with the rest of our “class”.
10 Reasons Your Business Should be Using Email Marketing
1. To Build Trust
Since you’ll be sending informational, focused, email communication, you will begin building trust with those on your list.
They will come to know you as a valuable source of information, and with that trust, they will actually start listening to what you have to say.
This is the most crucial step in the email marketing process. If you have an email list that trust you, you’ve won the battle, and we’ll talk more about how you build trust in an upcoming blog post.
2. To Become Familiar
Email by nature is a *friendly* form of communication. We feel the best about emails from friends and trusted sources. We look forward to these emails, and by using an email list to market your business you will be one of those people we look forward to getting email from. If you do it right, you will become familiar to those on your list, and your emails will be opened, read, and acted upon.
Better yet, you will become the “top of the mind” supplier of what you sell for those on your list. The more familiar you are to your list, the more likely they will be to think of you when they need to product or service you offer. Why buy from a stranger when they can buy from a friend?
3. To Get Repeat Business
When used correctly email marketing is a great way to get repeat business. You’ll be communicating with your list consistently, and providing opportunity for those on your list to buy from you time and again.
You’ll also be building an email list of current customers, allowing them to not only buy from you the first time in person, but possibly again via an email offer.
4. To Make More Sales
Isn’t that the goal of all marketing – more sales? If you do it right, your email list generate more sales for your business. By doing a combination of everything on this Top 10 list, your email marketing will be a lean, mean, sales getting machine!
5. To Build Your Authority
Many of the emails you send will be informational by nature, and through sharing of information you’ll be building your own credibility and authority as an expert on your subject. Guess who people buy from? That’s right, the experts.
6. To Save Money
It cost next to nothing to set up and maintain a powerful email campaign. You’ll pay $50-100/month for email list management software. After that, the cost of your time to get it set up and write/send emails are your only sunk cost. Compare it against any other form of marketing I think you’ll find it’s very hard to get more for less.
7. To Create an Opt-In Market
The people on your list have asked you to send them information – It doesn’t get better than this! Most marketing goes out to the crowd and you hope your message resonates with enough of them you make sales. If you have an email list you’re marketing efforts are automatically targeted to a population of people who WANT what you are offering.
8. To Save Time
It doesn’t take much time to send a few friendly emails a month to your list. When it comes to calculating a return on your time investment, email marketing is going to be tough to beat with other forms of more traditional ad generation.
9. To Expand Your Reach
If I see a great commercial on TV the only way I can share it is by retelling the concept to my friends, or hoping they’ve seen it. With email, that’s not the case. Your message can be passed on and shared with the click of a button. This essentially expands your reach beyond those on your list, to potentially everyone on the receivers "list" as well.
10. To Create Multiple Buying Opportunities
When a customer walks into a store, the place of business only has that one chance to sell them something. Once they walk out, you just have to hope they come back giving you another chance to sell.
Email marketing gives your customers multiple opportunities to buy from you. You’ll be reminding them how great your products and services are on a regular basis, pulling them back.
In Summary
I think it’s easy to see the benefit in building and using an email list as part of your marketing activities. If you’re not currently using email to market your products and services, I think you’re leaving a lot on the table.
Hopefully you’ll hang with us through Summer School, and some of the tips and techniques we talk about over the next few days help you grow and expand your business.
Class dismissed…
Photo Credit: b?tz?
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Email Marketing for Business – Summer School
Email marketing can be an extremely powerful and effective way to grow your business.
It’s effective, and doesn’t have to be *spammy* in any way, shape, or form. In fact the best email marketing will be a welcome addition to the receivers in box, not just another junk email.
75% of the marketing I do for my event management company is over email. I know first hand it works - If done right. Which is why I’ve decided to put together a little summer school course for you all
Email Marketing For Business 101
Over the next few days we’ll talk about the benefits of email marketing, discuss why it works, get you building an email list, and knowing you’ll be excited to get going – I’ll show you exactly how to use it.
If you’re already using email marketing, this series should reinforce the good habits effective email marketing demonstrates, and act as a good refresher course.
Prerequisite
Before we can move on though, there is a prerequisite to the class.
5 Reason’s Your Email Marketing Isn’t Working
Read the above article as it will be a primer into what we’re not going to do.
Email Marketing Approach
During the upcoming series, I want you to keep in mind that your email marketing will:
1) Be creating a relationship
2) Giving your readers something interesting to read, a reason to keep reading
3) Have a clear call to action
4) Be spell checked and grammar checked before hitting the send button
5) Emails will be on topic with why people signed on to your list
Class Schedule
- 10 Benefits to Email Marketing
- Why Email Marketing is so Effective (If done right)
- Getting Setup
- How To Build Your Email List
- Email Marketing Capstone – Putting it all together
See You Soon
Grab your notebooks and sharpen your pencils. It should be a fun few days, and by the end of it you’ll be on your way to using email marketing to effectively grow your small business.
And don’t worry, we won’t be going at break neck speed through this material, it’s summer school – appropriate for a leisurely approach!
Class is in session…
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5 Things They Don’t Teach You in Business School About Being an Entrepreneur
Ah, the life of an entrepreneur. Come up with a business idea, write your business plan, line up a bunch of venture funding, and retire to a private island a few short years later when you go public.
If you’re heading off to business school right now, reading this on your iPhone, dreaming of buying your own island – sorry for the ice bath of reality I’m about to dump on you.
5 Things They Don’t Teach you in Business School About Being an Entrepreneur
1. You’re more likely to make a living than make the Forbes 500
Most entrepreneurs end up making a living, and some make a really nice living doing what they love. Very few end up buying their own island, they’re too busy saving for their kids college and making the mortgage payments.
2. There is no money line to get in
There are a lot of you’s out there competing over very scarce resources. But don’t think you’ll just get in line and pick up your check. You’ll definitely need to be the cream of the crop to attract venture funding. More realistically, look for alternative sources of funds.
3. It’s more about you than your plan
Business success has more to do with you than anything else. The best plans mean nothing in the hands of the wrong person.
4. You’re in sales, whether you think so or not
Every business on the planet is selling something. You’re either selling a product, idea, or yourself…learn sales fundamentals, and apply them to everything you’re doing.
5. You’re going to fail
Yep, you will fail. You will probably fail multiple times. If that concerns you, pick another path for your life. If it doesn’t concern you that you will be an utter failure at some point, good – with every failure you get one step closer to success, cliché but true.
Conclusion
Being an entrepreneur can be the most satisfying thing you’ll do with your life. Understand there’s a lot more to it than supply/demand curves, business plans, target markets, or financial projections.
Most of it won’t be taught in Business 101, it’ll just be up to you – but that’s part of being an entrepreneur.
I’ll let you get back to summer vacation now…
Photo credit: losmininos
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Seven Habits of Highly Effective Twitter Users
Whether you use Twitter for business or pleasure, the way you interact with the community will have a lot to do with the quality of your experience.
Incorporate these seven traits, or habits, into your twittering and you’ll be sure to be a more popular Twitterer. For an all around better time Tweeting, be quick to follow users exhibiting these traits!
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Twitter Users
1. They Listen First
Good Twitter users will listen to what others are saying, and then join the conversation. Why is listening first so important? You will not add nearly as much value to your followers, or the conversations without it. If you’re not listening, you’re butting in.
2. They Give More than They Expect to Get
The best Tweeters out there give far more than they get. They are constantly passing on interesting items, telling a witty story or using the medium in new and interesting ways. They tweet to give value, not just get value.
3. They Promote Others
Look around at some of the most followed and well respected Twitter users out there – they are promoting others far more than they promote themselves. This builds community and trust, and allows them to promote themselves once in a while and actually have someone listen.
4. They “Mix it Up”
Variety is the spice of life, and it’s no different in Twitter-World. Sharing stories, passing along links, videos, and pictures is a great way to keep it fresh for those who follow you.
5. They Are Interactive
Twitter is a conversation, and most conversations tend to flow better when it’s a two way street. Great Tweeters ask questions, “poll” their audience, take suggestions, and create conversation.
6. They are “Goldilocks” Tweeters
Much like the fairy tail of Goldilocks, effective Twitter users know that there is a “just right” amount of Tweets. They aren’t bombarding their following, yet they have a presence.
7. They Never “Flame" Other Users
In the land of “follow-unfollow” effective Twitter users never get into verbal altercations with someone they are following. If someone is doing or saying something they don’t agree with, they just hit that “unfollow” button and move on.
Try incorporating these 7 habits of highly effective Twitter users and see if it changes your experience for the better. Also, be sure to seek out those demonstrating these habits as people to follow, they will enrich your Twitter experience as well.
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Five Reasons Small Businesses Should Make the Switch to VoIP
I don’t know about you, but I’m not real savvy when it comes to VoIP. Luckily for me (and anyone else confused by VoIP) Brent Thomson, CEO of Jive Communications, offered to write a guest post for us explaining the top 5 reasons businesses should consider VoIP.
Let’s see what we can learn…
What is VoIP Anyway?
Voice over Internet Protocol, more commonly known as VoIP, might seem revolutionary, but it’s really just the natural evolution of communication. Most businesses can already support VoIP thanks to their high-quality and robust broadband Internet connection. These connections are typically capable of transmitting more data than the users really need—much the same way that most personal computers are far more powerful than most users really require.
The bandwidth that has become available in the last few years has enabled small businesses to ditch the traditional telephone provider in favor of one that transmits their voice communication over their existing network infrastructure instead of over a separate set of dedicated telephone wires.
Get More for Less With VoIP
But why make the switch if you’re already getting the services you need? The answer is simple: Get more, for less. Since you’re already paying for the high-speed Internet connection, making the switch to VoIP has never been easier, or been more cost-effective.
Surprisingly for me, selecting VoIP as my first company’s telephone service did not come so easy. In 2005, at my first startup, our 16 employees survived on just two lines connected to a couple of cordless phones. As you can imagine, we got a lot of complaints from our customers that they couldn’t get through to us on the phone since the line was always busy. We realized we needed a real phone system that would give us voicemail, call waiting, transferring between extensions, etc.
Five Reasons You Should Switch
However, to get a system with the number of handsets we needed and the features we wanted was going to carry a one-time cost around $30,000, with ongoing fees added in as well. The solution we found was much different then we imagined: We built our own VoIP system, and included all the features we needed. Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about VoIP that I’d like to share with you now as the top five reasons you should make the switch:
1. SCALABILITY
Adding new lines to your VoIP phone system is as easy as buying a new telephone and telling your provider you have it. Depending on your carrier, there may not even be any additional hardware or “connection” charges. This way, you pay only for capacity you need.
2. FUNCTIONALITY
Many small business VoIP systems are based on software, rather than physical telephony equipment. The advantage of being software-based is that the provider can extend the capabilities of their system without purchasing new hardware. Their reduced cost per feature carries through to the end user and gives the customer some pretty high-end functionality at a fraction of what it used to cost. Some of these features include call queues, conference calling, transfers and forwarding, ring groups, etc.
3. PROFESSIONALISM
When a customer calls your office, you can’t afford to look unprofessional. The right system will help you portray to your clients the professional image you deserve. Using an auto-attendant feature can give callers options (like pressing 1 for sales or two for support) and route calls directly where they need to go. Two people working out of their garage can offer the same level of professionalism and sophistication as a large company with several departments.
4. PORTABILITY
What makes VoIP portable is that your phones will behave identically whether it’s in your office, home, or at a hotel in Tokyo—anywhere you have a high-speed Internet connection. With traditional phone service, your number is tied to a single physical location and moving to another city or state means it’s time to get a new number. However, with VoIP it’s as easy as plugging in your phone wherever you are and the same number will still reach you.
5. PRICE
There are two reasons VoIP is cheaper: First, there’s a healthy level of competition among VoIP carriers. There are no natural monopolies like there are with traditional telephone service. Second, VoIP utilizes your existing Internet connection, which means you no longer pay for access and usage fees on two separate sets of wires.
Once you make the switch and see all of the options available to you with VoIP, rest assured that you would be glad you did it.
ABOUT BRENT THOMSON
Brent Thomson is the CEO of Jive Communications, an enterprise-quality VoIP company that specializes in serving small businesses. Thomson helped develop Jive’s VoIP platform to offer a wide range of features including music on hold, extension dialing, unified messaging and online account management to its customers throughout the United States.
As the chief engineer, he created Jive’s purpose-engineered communications platform from the ground up to be fault-tolerant and extremely scalable without the enormous cost of other telephone switching platforms.
Photo Credit: Seattle Municipal Archives
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Seven Ways Small Businesses Can Benefit from Mobile Marketing
Today’s guest post comes from Ola Ayeni, President and CEO of Mobile Dialog. Ola shares his perspectives on a realtively untapped form of marketing that has shown potential and real results for those who have tried it. I think you’ll find the concept interesting.
I was recently asked to write an article for restaurant magazine that caters to independent restaurant owner on the benefits of mobile or marketing through the cell phone.
What I find most exciting about the article is the free or minimal cost it requires for small business owners to play in the new media marketing world.
What is required in order to reap rewards of their free marketing efforts is some of their time, good understanding on what to do and how to do it.
The Game Has Changed
When the first internet store was launched, it was a revolution that leveled the playing field between big corporations and small business.
Where once millions could only dream of becoming entrepreneurs, the internet allowed small businesses and even individuals with no capital to reach thousands of potential customers with a slick, user friendly website and a click of the mouse.
A New Marketing Revolution
Well today, another revolution is afoot in the field of advertising and marketing. There was once a time when only the “Big Boys” could reach large numbers of consumers, specifically targeted and tracked for results; but now with cell phone marketing technology small businesses can reach large numbers of geo-targeted customers who have opted-in to receive their offers with opt-in coupon services.
Many small businesses are getting their feet wet using this new marketing tool; but others are still not educated about the benefits to their business.
Seven Benefits to Mobile Marketing
There are seven major benefits to small businesses who market to customers through their cell phones.
1. Fresh Market
Cell phone advertising is a nearly untouched market, with very few businesses using the technology. Because the market is nowhere near a saturation point, consumers remain open to receiving advertisements. According to “In-Stat” 20% of cell phone users said some form of mobile advertising would be acceptable. There are 283 million cell phone users in the United States as of 2008 and the number continues to grow each year.
2. Large Market
Over 67 billion text messages are sent and received in any given month in the United States starting from June 2008. Consumers 18 – 45 years old are more likely to receive information via their phone than through traditional advertising outlets such as newspapers and radio.
3. Instant Access
Most consumers keep their cell phone on them at all times and over 90% of all text messages received are read. Customers can use their cell phone to redeem a coupon or offer at your store or via your website. As a result there is no added delay in purchasing due to lost or misplaced paper coupons.
4. Qualified Customers
All customers have opted to receive your coupon, promotion or info. via their cell phone by using a third-party cell phone marketing service such as Mobile Dialog, Cellfire and HipCriket so you know that they want to receive your marketing message.
5. Targeted Customers
Cell phone marketing can allow you to target customers by zip code, city, state and stated interest. So, if you’re a coffee shop in Dallas, TX you might target consumers who live in Dallas and expressed an interest in coffee shops or cafés.
Many cell phone marketing companies allow you to track who has received your message and who has redeemed your coupon, giving you detailed and instant reports on your marketing results. You can go with companies who already have consumer information or can gather your own list yourself. The second option is gradual and also cheaper way to go.
6. Viral
When your coupon is sent to a customer’s cell phone that information along with your business phone number and address is stored on the phone and can be forwarded to the customer’s friends and family.
For every customer who receives a coupon directly from you may forward that message to at least 10 additional people creating new customers for your business at no additional cost.
7. High Redemption Rates
Traditional advertising such as mailed coupons and flyers have a redemption rate as low as 1%. With mobile marketing the redemption rate can be as high as 30%.
When Dunkin Donuts text messaged coupons for 99 cent lattes to mobile phone customers in Massachusetts, they increased their Boston area store traffic by 21%.
Marketing through cell phones provides a level of targeting customers and tracking results never seen before in the traditional advertising field.
About the Author:
Ola Ayeni, DVM is the President and CEO of Mobile Dialog. He brings fresh and creative ideas to his clients, speaking at national and industry trade events about mobile marketing, new media and social network marketing.
Ola is passionate about bringing creative integrated marketing solutions to clients, and working with clients to apply and develop high level mobile marketing mix with traditional marketing strategies.
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Marketing to the Social Web and the New Rules of Engagement
With all the talk around here lately about social media’s place in business, customer interactions, service recovery, and marketing strategies for growth, I’ve been thinking more about how the world of marketing and doing business has changed with the digital/social *revolution*.
And more specifically has my business embraced the change?
Marketing to the Social Web
I ran across a presentation given by Larry Weber, Chairman of W2 Group, titled “Marketing to the Social Web – How Digital Customer Communities Build your Business”, which helped put together some thoughts for me regarding the changing landscape in which we do business
While the entire presentation was informational, one concept summed up the business world we are currently living in, and how it’s changed in a relatively short amount of time.
Don’t get me wrong, fundamentally business has not changed. We still need to find stuff people want/need and provide it to them, but the way we go about doing that is very different than years past.
The New Rules of Engagement
The presentation points out the differences between “Old Marketing” and “New Marketing”, which could just as easily summarize the difference between “Old Business” and “New Business”
Old Marketing:
- One-way communication
- Brand recall is Holy Grail
- Group customers by demographics
- Content controlled by marketers
- Virality driven by flash
- Michelin Guide – expert reviews
- Publishers control channels
- Top down strategy
- Information hierarchy
- Emphasis on cost – CPM
New Marketing:
- Brand is dialogue
- Customers determine brand value
- Group customers by behavior
- User generated content
- Virality based on content
- User reviews (Amazon, etc)
- Publishers build relationships
- Bottom up strategy
- Information on demand
- Invest for growth – measurable ROI
I think this is a nice illustration that approaching business and marketing the same way we did 20, 10 or even 5 years ago will be less than effecitve.
The Importance of Community Building
Customers will shape our businesses, we won’t shape our customers. Customizing experiences, building community, and relequinshing control of our brands to the consumer will be the driving force for growth.
Larry’s presenation also details the 7 Steps You Can Take to Build Digital Communities.
The communities we build will be very important to our businesses, and that portion of Larry’s presentation is certainly worth checking out.
Your Turn
What do you think about all of this? Do you agree that the rules of engagement have changed?
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Four Big Mistakes Social Media Marketers Make
In a post from a couple days ago I was lamenting about how email marketing was missing the mark with me, and today was thinking the same thing about social media marketing.
For all the effort it seems many social media marketers go through, many of their messages just don’t resonate with me. There are four areas I see where they are getting it all wrong.
What do Others Think of Social Media Marketing?
Wanting to know what others thought, I put out the following tweet this morning to see what the Twitterverse had to say on the subject:
As I thought, people had an opinion, and were happy to chime in. The general theme of the responses were right on with what I had been feeling about most social media marketing I’ve been seeing in recent months.
Four Big Mistakes Social Media Marketers Make
From the list of responses above, I see four main areas where social media marketers are coming up short.
1) Self Promotion
Many social media marketers focus on promoting themselves, and that is counter to the real power of social media. A one way conversation about yourself isn’t very social and is one of the main reasons these marketers are falling flat with their “target markets”. My take on this is self promotion becomes their only differentiator, and the USP becomes how well they can promote themselves.
2) Lack of Engagement/Communication
Goes hand in hand with point number one, but cannot be underestimated. The importance of communicating with the target market, engaging them in what your message is, can often be the make or break between success and failure of a social media campaign.
3) Operating with a “Push” Mentality
Much of the social media marketing I see is focused on pushing information to a target. The idea being you get your message out to enough people and the law of large numbers will play in your favor.
The error in that thinking is that it is much more efficient, and will convert at a higher rate, if you pull what your target market is looking for into your messaging. Figure out what they want, what’s important to them, and build a strategy from there…which leads me to my last point.
4) Rich with Tools – Poor With a Strategy
These marketers are very good technically with the social media tools available to them. But many lack an overall strategy (or at least the strategy isn’t obvious) for what they want to accomplish with their campaigns. Again falling back on pushing information, and a lot of it.
Summary
These are the areas where I see social media marketing leaving a lot on the table. I’m obviously not alone in that thinking, and within a few minutes got great feedback, validating my thoughts. This says to me that there are plenty of you out there who feel the same way, yet some marketers haven’t gotten the message yet or are unwilling to put in the effort to change.
What I believe they are misunderstanding is that the very nature of social media will make it difficult for them to continue down the same path with any success. The culture of social media will force them to evolve, and that is a good thing for all of us.
Your Turn
Much like the teacher who spends 90% of their time on 10% of the class who’s acting up, I think the poor marketers are getting a disproportionate amount of attention – I am SURE there are plenty of social media marketers out there doing everything right.
If you, or somebody you know is demonstrating some best practices when it comes to social media marketing let me know in the comments below or drop me an email – I’d like to do a follow up to this post on “The Four Areas Social Media Marketers are Getting It Right” and feature some of these great people.
A special thanks to all of you who responded via Twitter!
Photo Credit: respres
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5 Reasons Why Your Email Marketing Is Not Working
As Smallbizbee.com has grown over the past 10 months, so has the number of emails in my inbox.
A good number of those emails are forms of marketing, and almost all of them miss the mark with me.
Email marketing can be an extremely powerful and effective way to reach your customers – if done correctly.
Reasons Your Email Marketing Isn’t Working
Now, while I’m not claiming to be an email marketing expert, I can tell you why those who have marketed to me have nothing to show for their efforts. Here are the top five mistakes I see them making
1. No Relationship Built
Email marketing works best when the person recieving the email feels like they know you, trust you, and you have a relationship built with them to some degree
We read email from people we know, and skim or delete email from people we don’t. Simple as that.
Business is built around relationships, with relationships come trust, and with trust comes sales. For some reason email marketers, and business using email to communicate with their target market forget this.
2. No “Pull”
There has to be a reason to keep reading, a pull for the reader to continue.
Unless you are sending me an email at the exact moment I am looking to buy what you’re selling, just saying “Hey you – buy my stuff”, isn’t going to work. There’s no pull.
The worst offenders will not only be lacking a pull, but will go on for 1000 words without one, essentially repeating over and over again why I should buy their stuff.
Give me a reason to keep reading, tell me a story, give me value, show me how you’ll solve my problems, keep me interested in what you have to say.
3. Unclear Call to Action
Okay, I’m still reading but have no idea what you want me to do. Maybe you don’t want me to do anything, possibly this is only an informational, trust building email, and that’s okay. But, if you want me to “buy your stuff”, there better be a clear signal as to what you want me to do next, or I will take the easiest route possible and do nothing.
4. Poorly Written
It doesn’t have to be Hemingway, but it does have to be spelled correctly and use decent grammar. I cannot count how many times I’ve received a poorly written, mistake filled email where the person was asking me to buy their $299 info product. Why would I spend $299 on an info product that will be as poorly written/designed/produced as your email?
5. Low Correlation
For email marketing to work their needs to be a high correlation between why I signed up to receive information from you, and what you send me.
If I’m on your “Wine of the Month” newsletter list, your emails to me should be mostly, more or less, related to wine. If I signed up for your “Become a Better Blogger” emails, don’t try to sell me on Hawaii vacations. I may be interested, but when I signed up with you I had no intention of buying a Hawaii vacation. Keep it on point, and relevant to see the most success.
Conclusion
You don’t have much time in an email to grab the reader, and any of the above mistakes will have them clicking the delete button without thinking twice. Use this as a checklist the next time your business begins an email marketing campaign. If done correctly it will be a very efficient and cost effective way to reach your target market.
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The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur
The word Entrepreneur holds a certain level of mystique in our society.
On a daily basis we are reminded of the entrepreneurs who have started with nothing only to rise to celebrity status. Or maybe we see our next door neighbor who, while not a celebrity, has done very well for themselves starting and running small businesses.
The mystique comes from believing these individuals have something different in their genes, or a predisposition to business that has made them a success. Perhaps they were just lucky. Who knows?
The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur
Today, thanks to The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, we are one step closer to understanding the make up of an entrepreneur.
In their July 2009 report, The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur, The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation attempt to gain a little more clarity into what makes an entrepreneur tick.
They surveyed 549 company founders in a variety of industries, including aerospace and defense, computer and electronics, health care, and services. They asked the founders detailed questions about their backgrounds, motivations, and experiences in launching companies. Here’s what they found.
Key Findings
Below is a sampling of the key findings within the report, for detailed statistics and charts please find the full report linked at the bottom of this post.
- Company founders tend to be middle-aged and well-educated, and did better in high school than in college
- Most entrepreneurs are married and have children
- These entrepreneurs tend to come from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds, and were better educated and more entrepreneurial than their parents
- 71.5 percent of respondents came from middle-class backgrounds (34.6 percent upper-middle class and 36.9 percent lower-middle class). Additionally, 21.8 percent said they came from upper-lower-class families (blue-collar workers in some form of manual labor).
- 52 percent of respondents had some interest in becoming an entrepreneur when they were in college, but 34.7 percent didn’t even think about it, and 13.3 percent had little or no interest. Those from lower-upper-class backgrounds were more likely to have been extremely interested in starting a business than the average (25 percent vs. 18.5 percent)
- The majority of the entrepreneurs in our sample were serial entrepreneurs. The average number of
businesses launched by respondents was approximately 2.3; 41.4 percent were starting their first businesses - 74.8 percent of respondents indicated desire to build wealth as an important motivation in becoming an entrepreneur. This factor was rated as important by 82.1 percent of respondents who grew up in “lower-upper-class” families
- 60.3 percent said that working for others did not appeal to them
Get the Full Report
The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur – PDF, 24 pages
Conclusion
I found this report fascinating and I think you will too. What I saw were some people who “looked” like me and others who did not. It reinforced the idea that entrepreneurs are as diverse as the companies they start, but education and a desire to pave their own way, build wealth, and capitalize on businesses ideas are a consistent theme throughout.
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Declare Your Small Business Independence
I had the opportunity to contribute in a small way to a pretty neat project devised by Liz Markman of LaunchSquad.
The project is a viral Entrepreneurial Declaration of Independence which people can sign, much like a petition itself. Liz included some "Words of Wisdom" along with the declaration from notable small business experts and columnists, of which I was one of.
My Contribution
The question I was asked was:
What’s your advice for the small business entrepreneur for the rest of 2009?
To see the response to this question from the expert columnists, and read the declaration please visit: The Entrepreneurial Declaration of Independence.
You can Contribute
Liz invites you to contribute by answering the question, "what do you love about being a small business?" in the comments section of her post.
The Entrepreneurial Declaration of Independence
Pass it On
Once you’ve signed the declaration, please pass it on to other small business owners in your network. The value in something like this is the collective wisdom that is gathered, and I for one am pretty interested in what you all say you love about being a small business.
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Seth Godin On Social Networking For Business – Is It Useless?
Is social networking valuable for business? Seth Godin, widely considered an expert in all things marketing, says it may well be useless.
Seth’s Take on Social Networking
Networking for networking sake is worthless, according to Seth who answered the question in a recent Open Forum Q&A.
Having hundreds of Facebook friends, or thousands of followers on Twitter may not be as valuable as having a handful of deep relationships you can count on, people who will be there when you make the big ask.
Seth points out that networking is always important when it’s real, and a useless distraction when it’s fake. The internet has allowed an enormous amount of fake networking to take place.
We are becoming too focused on breadth and not depth of relationships. We count who likes us today, and who doesn’t, and are consumed with the metrics (friends, followers, connections) and not the true nature of those connections.
What Matters are Where the Real Relationships Are
Seth says we should be asking ourselves “Are their people out there I’d go out of my way for, and would they go out of their way for me?” That’s what you should be tracking.
And how do you get there? By going out of your way for them, and earning the privilege of one day having that connection be worthwhile.
Running Time: 2min
Your Turn
I’d like to hear what you think of social networking for business? Agree or disagree with Seth in the comments below.
photo credit: bpedro
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The Key To Innovation And Growth Is Ignoring Fear
Today we have Matt Heinz, of Heinz Marketing, sharing some wisdom on the topic of fear. In my opinion fear is responsible for more failures than any other business obstacle you’ll face, learn to control it and you’re 90% of the way to success.
One of the most powerful obstacles to innovation and success is fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of what’s ahead, fear of failure.
It’s easy to be paralyzed by fear in any capacity, but in our work – especially for business owners – it can stifle innovation, growth and success.
Successful Entrepreneurs Have One Thing in Common
Listen to successful entrepreneurs talk (or read their writing) and you realize quickly they have little to no fear. Otherwise there’s no way they’d have attempted what they were able to do. Successful entrepreneurs get that way by doing what nobody has ever done, or by getting there on a path nobody has traveled. Taking that path not only requires a lack of fear, but it also often is paved with failure.
Look at the history of successful entrepreneurs and they’ve failed – often many times. But that didn’t deter them. Didn’t faze them. They kept going, kept innovating, knowing they were onto something and knowing they would reach success. Sometimes that fear is based in ignorance. No matter. By ignoring the fear and obstacles, they did something incredible.
The Many Faces of Fear
Fear also comes in many shapes. Fear keeps some from starting their own business in the first place – quitting a steady job, putting their family at risk, taking a gamble on something they want, something they believe in. For some, fear is enough to keep them from getting started.
For others, fear is more mundane. Fear of testing a new partnership. Fear of hiring a full-time salesperson. Fear of opening that second retail location.
Fear is What You Make of It
Not having fear does not equate recklessness. Those who work without fear still make calculated, smart choices. Research can mitigate risk which reduces fear, certainly. But giving that business or project or hire or expansion the green light is the ultimate test.
Business owners work incredibly hard, and as Branch Rickey once said luck very much is the residue of design and hard work. But that work and dedication is colored by fear.
But you know what? The thing you fear isn’t real. Yes, failure is possible. But you control that. The new sales rep might not work. But you can fix that.
To grow, you need to embrace opportunity, ignore fear, and move forward. Sure, the risks are still there. But most of the time they aren’t actually in your way.
About Matt
Matt brings more than 12 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of organizations, vertical industries and company sizes. His career has focused on delivering measurable results for his employers and clients in the way of greater sales, revenue growth, product success and customer loyalty. Read more from Matt at his blog, www.mattonmarketingblog.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at www.twitter.com/heinzmarketing.
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How a Bad Salad Leads to Happy Customers and What Your Business Can Learn From It
My unbelievably exquisite, lovely, and beautiful wife (she may be reading this) came home from work yesterday and was bubbling over with excitement.
I first thought she was just excited to see me after a long day, but in her hand she held a 5 berry milkshake that was ¾ of the way empty and I immediateley identified that as the source of her good mood.
“What’s up?” I ask, “Why so cheery?”
“Not much”, she says all perky like, “Just enjoying my FREE 5 berry milkshake is all”
It was completely obvious she was not only enjoying her sweet delight, but couldn’t wait to tell me about the fact that it was free.
“Free…how’d you manage that?”
They Messed Up My Salad – It Was Great!
And from there she launches into a story about how she went to a local burger chain for lunch, and they totally screwed up her salad order, had to remake it, and it took an extra 10 minutes before she got her food.
The story doesn’t end there. Recognizing they maybe needed to do some service recovery with my wife, they gave her a $10 coupon for her troubles, and the salad was free (notice the free salad didn’t carry the same weight with her as the free milkshake).
So with her new found riches she had stopped off and got a milkshake on the way home, thus the good mood.
She had been telling everyone she knew, myself, the people at work, probably even the gas station attendant about her “good fortune”.
In her mind, the burger joint that completely botched her salad and cost her 10 minutes out of her day, walked on water and could do no wrong, and she was even recommending them to anyone who’d listen.
What’s Can We Learn
I think this story is a good illustration of the power righting a wrong. Had my wife’s salad been perfectly made I don’t know that she’d be extolling the virtues of this place as much as when they needed to do some service recovery.
It’s almost as if she was happier that they screwed up, and made it right, than if they had of done it right the first time! They turned their mistake into a positive “word of mouth” worthy event.
How to Apply This to Your Business
1. You have to be doing things right most of the time for this to work.
2. Correct all wrongs immediately, and take ownership of them (the wrong salad could have been blamed on the new cook, but instead the establishment took responsibility and didn’t place blame)
3. Sometimes, take responsibility for miniscule mistakes. Once, Starbucks gave me a free drink because it took them 1 minute to make my mocha instead of 30 seconds. This reinforces in your customers mind your high standards, and service expectations.
Why It Works
1. You’re taking ownership, and in the customers mind acknowledging they did not get something from you they should have. Too often businesses try to sweep mistakes under the rug, fearing customers will be upset, only to upset customers more by skirting the issue.
2. You give your customer a reason to come back and try you out again. Once they see you normally get it right, you’ll have won them over. They’ll know it’s a rare occurrence you aren’t perfect.
3. You give them something very easy to talk about. They’ll be singing your praises for righting a wrong, just like my wife did. And a good story like that spreads.
Try it with your own business. The next time you don’t meet a customers expectations, do some service recovery. Or better yet, use the Starbuck’s method once in a while to reinforce your extremely high standards for quality and service. See if you can get them to talk about how great you are for screwing up!
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A Simple Solution to Attract 63% More Customers!
That’s right, 63% of adults may not be buying from you for one simple reason.
In an economic downturn consumers are looking for one thing, and it impacts how and what they buy in a big way.
Consumers Looking for Deals
According to a Harris Interactive survey conducted last year:
In an economic recession consumers tend to cut budgets but, if provided discounts, they will buy – 54% of adults say they would reduce discretionary spending, and 63% say they would not make a purchase if a deal isn’t available.
In a similar survey conducted by ICOM Information & Communications (ICOM), 67% of US shoppers said they are more likely to use coupons during a recession.
Of the 1,529 US consumers participating in the survey, 45% said they were much more likely to use a coupon, and 22% said they were somewhat more likely to use a coupon during tough economical times.
Over the past 10 years, the average coupon redemption rate has declined to less than 1.0%, from a level of 1.6%, across all US coupons distributed, ICOM said.
Key Findings – Coupon Use in a Recession
- Broken down by age, 71% of consumers in the 18-34 year-old age bracket said they are much more likely or somewhat more likely to use coupons in a recession. That compares with 68% in the 35-54 year-old bracket and 63% among those 55 years and above.
- Geographically, 70% of Midwesterners said they are much more likely or somewhat more likely to use coupons in a recession, versus 69% of Westerners, 64% of Northeasterners and 62% of Southerners.
- Income didn’t make a significant difference, with 68% of those earning less than $50,000 a year saying they are much more likely or somewhat more likely to use coupons in a recession, compared with 67% for those earning more than $50,000.
But Who’s Clipping Coupons?
The age of clipping coupons and taking them to the store may be dieing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t attract customers with coupons or deals.
Websites and digital technology has actually encouraged coupon use among many consumers.
- Some 58% of consumers responding to the ICOM survey said their coupon use would increase if they could download a coupon from the internet and have it automatically connected to an electronically swiped frequent shopper card.
- No less than 77% of consumers in the 18-34 age group said they are much more likely or somewhat more likely to use coupons if given access to this paperless technology. In the 35-54 age group, 63% said they are much more likely or somewhat more likely. In the 55 and over bracket, 47% said they are much more likely or somewhat more likely.
So while clipping coupons is an old school way of thinking, this study shows that getting a coupon into your customers hands digitally may be the way to drive sales – especially during a down turn.
Tips for Success With Coupons
- Make it meaningful – consider what Ben & Jerry’s does with their coupons.
- Make it easy – Digitally deliver coupons through your website, or email list.
- Know your exposure – when digitally delivering coupons know your reach, and have a way to track redemption. Don’t end up with an expensive lesson like Starbuck’s.
If you haven’t considered offering a discount or a coupon to your customers, maybe now is the time. Use technology, digitally deliver the deals, and see if you can capture some of those 63% of consumers who would buy if a deal came their way.
This post was inspired by a reader question from Charmayne. Do you have a question you want answered? Get in touch with us.
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