Growing your Business

Conventional advertising whether through print or digital ads can be intimidating and expensive for many small businesses. But there are some “creative” alternatives to getting the word out that have big reach with relatively little investment:

	Daily Deals: Sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial, Red Plum and scores of others provide you with a way to reach large numbers with $0 upfront investment. You present an enticing introductory offer with a deep discount of at least 50%. Dedicated emails with high open rates are sent to your specified target market (by key demographics like age, gender, geographic location, income, etc.). You only “pay” for the prospects that take the offer. If you can work the numbers out, this can be a very effective way to “advertise” to your target group.
	eBooks: Some savvy marketers are using eBooks to get the word out on their product or service. You can offer books on Amazon for as little as $0.99. Create some great expert content with a compelling title and cover, and place it strategically in the right book category. Make sure you have a call to action to sign up at your website to get more information and you can inexpensively grow your prospect list with people interested in your area of expertise.
	How-to Videos: YouTube is now the go-to source for learning a new skill or fixing a problem. Post a series of how-to videos in your subject area that are quick, informative and entertaining. If you tag them properly with the right keywords, you can gain loads of new prospects who now see you as the “how-to” expert.

P.S. There is another hidden benefit. Each of these tactics helps your SEO by driving traffic to your site.

Have you used any of these unconventional advertising tactics? Share in the Comments section below.

Jeanne Rossomme - President, RoadMap Marketing Jeanne uses her 20 years of marketing know-how to help small business owners reach their goals. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she held a variety of marketing positions with DuPont and General Electric. Jeanne regularly hosts online webinars and workshops in both English and Spanish. www.roadmapmarketing.com | @roadmapmarketin | More from Jeanne

For most owners I meet, there is more than one bottom line. Yes, we talk about target sales, pricing and markets, but there are always other goals that are kneaded into the plan: employment for family, contributions to non-profits, commitment to the environment, flexibility to be with children, and many others.

Unfortunately, many small business studies, and even advice experts, either ignore this fact or treat it as an impediment to growth. Fortunately, the Startup Genome project has recently come up with a framework and continuing research to look at organizations along both dimensions: economic growth and the greater good of humanity.

Growth or Economic Impact is defined by the well-established metrics for economic value — namely revenue, profit, market cap and ROI. Companies with high growth create products and services that have value, or are paid for, by large numbers of customers. This value creation in turn spins off other forms of value such as employment and investment returns.

Long Term Societal Impact is a more subjective measure but the authors do a good job of creating a checklist definition:

Negative Long Term Societal Impact (off the grid in the negative direction)

• Persuade people to buy things they don’t need or that harm them long term
• Exploit people
• Waste people’s time
• Make people or the world unhealthy
• Give a false sense of satisfaction or accomplishment

Marginal Long Term Positive Impact

• Treat symptoms
• Incrementally improve relatively efficient areas
• Make people feel better about themselves
• Help people make a living
• Niche focus

Transformational Societal Impact

• Approach problems systematically, treating root causes
• Teach men to fish rather than giving them fish
• Focus on unlocking human potential
• Create more value than they capture
• Seek to empower people
• Improve people’s relationships, their ability to create and ability to learn
• They nurture ecosystems and platforms

To make the picture clear, here is the grid with some well-known examples:

The truth is that most small businesses fall into the lower left hand corner because they are not interested in growth (70-80% say that growth is not a top priority) and their missions have limited societal impact. But this does not jive with the visions and aspirations I hear owners speak of in workshops. Our dreams see the possibility of more.

Can we strive and reach to become transformational entrepreneurs? By tapping into organizations like SCORE and supporting each other in our BHAGs, we definitely can.

For the full article click here.

Jeanne Rossomme - President, RoadMap Marketing Jeanne uses her 20 years of marketing know-how to help small business owners reach their goals. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she held a variety of marketing positions with DuPont and General Electric. Jeanne regularly hosts online webinars and workshops in both English and Spanish. www.roadmapmarketing.com | @roadmapmarketin | More from Jeanne