Kate Hodel & Sarah Mote - Building Your Own Marketing Plan
1. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Building Your Own Marketing Plan
Kate Pope Hodel, U.S.SourceLink
Sarah Mote, U.S.SourceLink
@ussourcelink
2. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
The plan . . .
You’ll walk out with a
few very specific
tactics to
• reach your key
audiences
• begin an
integrated
marketing plan
6. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Who is your audience?
Urban Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs
Rural Entrepreneurs
Bankers
Provide expansion funding
Can be referral sources
Microlenders
Provide funding
Provide coaching
Education
Careers for students
Tech transfer for faculty
Investors
Provide funding for startups
Civic leaders/legis.
Make decisions regarding funding
Make decisions regarding regulation
Corporations
Provide mentoring
Provide potential marke5ts
Can be referral sources
Resource Partners
Help entrepreneurs to success
Provide services and resources
Your Funders
Looking for ROI
Benefit the community at large
Innovation-Led
Innovative product or process
Intention to grow quickly
Entrepreneurship Support
Care about success of entrepreneurs
Main Street
Bricks and Mortar location
Retail, restaurant, professional
Second Stage
Beyond startup
Employees beyond owners span of control
Startups
Idea or concept
Need market analysis
Need license/permits
Microenterprise
Based on individual expertise
>$35K to capitalize
Home-based/consulting
7. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
BANKER
Funder + Entrepreneurship Support
Relationship builder and problem solver who helps small
businesses with financial goals.
Strategic, responsive, professional, organized, accessible to
customers.
She carries a full bench of small business clients in addition
to serving on boards, volunteering and actively networking.
CHALLENGES
marketing, developing solid referral for clients, staying
abreast of industry changes
8. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
MOMPRENEUR
Microenterprise + Startup
Creative problem solver who thrives on messy
situations that need a resourceful solution.
Organized, social, creative, efficient, practical, detailed
and a peace-maker.
She’s currently living her dream, working for herself and
wearing all the hats: accounting, customer service, PR,
advertising, administrative, janitorial.
CHALLENGES
marketing, managed growth, outsourcing hats, first hire
9. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
SGF, STL, KC,
Columbia, Cape,
St. Jo.
SGF, STL, KC,
Columbia, Cape,
St. Jo.
Libraries
10. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Choose
the audiences you are trying to
reach
Customize
them as you need to (gender, age,
location, industry)
Prioritize
WHO
11. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
SGF, STL, KC,
Columbia, Cape,
St. Jo.
Libraries
What is your message?
12. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
Ask your
neighbor—
or call in the
experts.
What’s next?
Get help with
your
businesses
next steps.
Put our 400+
brains behind
your brawn.
Do you have a
license for that?
Find out steps
your startup
missed.
Because there’s no
time for
entrepreneurship
to be more
complicated.
13. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Choose
a few key audiences.
Write
message balloons for each.
You may have more than one
message for each audience.
WHAT
14. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
attract
SEO
website
Resource
Navigator
calendar
blog
learning
center
news
stories
videos
webinars
white papers
15. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
attract
SEO
website
Resource
Navigator
calendar
blog
learning
center
news
stories
videos
webinars
white papers
push
welcome
follow up
events
surveys
anniversary
reengage
newsletter
website
affinity
lead
16. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
attract
SEO
website
Resource
Navigator
calendar
blog
learning
center
news
stories
videos
webinars
white papers
push
welcome
follow up
events
surveys
anniversary
reengage
newsletter
website
affinity
lead
engage
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Google+
Pinterest
Instagram
social
bookmarking
17. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
attract
SEO
website
Resource
Navigator
calendar
blog
learning
center
news
stories
videos
webinars
white papers
push
welcome
follow up
events
surveys
anniversary
reengage
newsletter
website
affinity
lead
engage
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Google+
Pinterest
Instagram
social
bookmarking
meet-n-
greet
coffee
RP-hosted
events
trade shows
networking
RP meetings
focus groups
Google+
hangouts
18. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
attract
SEO
website
Resource
Navigator
calendar
blog
learning
center
news
stories
videos
webinars
white papers
push
welcome
follow up
events
surveys
anniversary
reengage
newsletter
website
affinity
lead
engage
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Google+
Pinterest
Instagram
social
bookmarking
meet-n-
greet
coffee
RP-hosted
events
trade shows
networking
RP meetings
focus groups
Google+
hangouts
promote
newspaper
radio
television
19. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
attract
SEO
website
Resource
Navigator
calendar
blog
learning
center
news
stories
videos
webinars
white papers
push
welcome
follow up
events
surveys
anniversary
reengage
newsletter
website
affinity
lead
engage
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Google+
Pinterest
Instagram
social
bookmarking
meet-n-
greet
coffee
RP-hosted
events
trade shows
networking
RP meetings
focus groups
Google+
hangouts
promote
newspaper
radio
television
linger
hotline cards
business
cards
palm cards
invitations
thank you
welcome
letter/card
direct mail
brochures
reports
billboards
20. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
Reach
biz
How we
help
you
How do
you use
social?
How we
help
region
What
do you
need?
We link,
not just
give
links.
What MO
e-ship
looks like
This could
be you.
How we
help
region
How we
help
you
Events,
tips,
reports
What
we can
do
What we
can do
with you
Call us
How
can we
help?
Call us
Call us Call us
Call us
How we
help
region
How we
help
region
How we
help
region
Call us
21. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Increase hotline calls. Increase RP engagement. Increase corporate support.
Reach
biz
How we
help
you
How do
you use
social?
How we
help
region
What
do you
need?
We link,
not just
give
links.
What MO
e-ship
looks like
This could
be you.
How we
help
region
How we
help
you
Events,
tips,
reports
What
we can
do
What we
can do
with you
Call us
How
can we
help?
Call us
Call us Call us
Call us
How we
help
region
How we
help
region
How we
help
region
Call us
Calls
Web visits
Posts from RPs
Calls
Subscribers
Click through
Impressions
Follows from
RPs
Calls
# of visits
Posts
Events in
calendar
Calls
Calls
Web visits
Calls
How will you measure?
22. Annual Conference, April 23-24, 2014
Pick
an audience, a message and a
channel. You may need duplicate or
even modify audience cards for
different channels.
WHERE
Editor's Notes
Welcome to Build Your Own Marketing Plan with Kate and Sarah.
Over the next hour, we will walk you through some tactics to reach your key audiences so that you can walk out with the beginning of an integrated marketing plan.
Let’s get STARTED.
Any marketing plan starts with your goals and objectives. What are you trying to accomplish? And then it’s about figuring out who you audience is, where they are, and how to reach them with the right message that will help you achieve your goals.
The poster in front of you is your foundation—and the foundation of that poster and of your marketing plan are your goals. For MOSL, our key three goals for the next year (you choose your time frame) are to
Increase hotline calls
Increase Resource Partner engagement.
Increase corporate support.
Go ahead and drop yours in at the top.
With your goals in play, next you need to know who is going to help you reach them. Who is your audience, hwere are they, and how do you reach them with the right message that will help you achieve your goals.
Who are the candidates?
One of your core audiences is your RESOURCE PARTNERS—those who help guide your community’s ENTREPRENEURS to success.
But as Maria talked about yesterday, those entrepreneurs are DIFFERENT: some are focused on rapid acceleration, some are small lifestyle business, some are established and growing, some define the face and character of your community, some serve RURAL areas, some urban, and then there are those who are just getting STARTED.
There are also those folks who are not Resource Partners, but who serve your entrepreneurs—MICROLENDERS, bankers, angels and VCs, accountants, lawyers. And those who help pave the way for entrepreneurs through EDUCATION or tech transfer.
And then there are YOUR FUNDERS and the other folks in your community who SUPPORT ENTREPRENEURSHIP and care about the success of entrepreneurs and their impact on the economy: civic leaders, corporations, etc.
Lots of folks in the ecosystem, but even this categories don’t make it easy.
Each audience contains yet another universe of personas. If you’re looking for funders, know what they “look like”: what are their key needs, what are their pain points, what drives their decisions?
Segmenting your audience helps you determine their
key characteristics
key needs
what drives them to act
“Tagging” your customers—say with BizTrakker—helps you understand
who are your most frequent players
how many more prospects look like them
who are their key are influencers
where you can find them
how you can better serve them
what are your talking points
This startup mompreneur is very different from a startup construction company. They have different needs and pain points—marketing vs. insurance, different types of capital concerns, different business structures, licenses, performance bonds, startup capital, contracts, estimating, approach to sales and needs for human capital.
And they hang out in different places, social networks, trade publications, the type of media they consume.
Customize your messages, tactics and channels to reach the different segments, based on your goals.
Here’s where we’re headed.
For MOSL, we have three core goals: to increase hotline calls, increase RP engagement, and increase corporate support. Who’s going to help us achieve those goals and meet our objectives? Entrepreneurs, Resource Partners, and Funders.
Because we’re working regionally, we’re segmenting those audiences—between rural and urban entrepreneurs, between the kind of RPs and Funders that exist in those demographics and that entrepreneurs know and trust.
You have your goals. You know who want to engage with, and you know what they want and what they need. Now, it’s time to CRAFT YOUR MESSAGES.
What will get those folks to call, engage, fund
What will you say to get them to get them to act and help you achieve your objectives?
And how will you tweak your messages to reach your different market segments?
Here are some examples of messages we at MOSL may use to help increase those hotline calls.
Now, it’s YOUR TURN.
Here’s where we’re headed.
ONLINE CONTENT: This is your hub, HQ—your inbound traffic and where you “convert” your customers. This kind of content marketing is focused on getting found by your customers in their time of need. Think blog, calendar, rich content and relevant tips and tools. This is the end game—either this or the phone—this is where you want your customers to land.
BUT they’re not going to find it on their own. They need help finding you.
Search engine optimization and search engine marketing—matching your content with the keywords they’re typing into search engines—is one way to drive them to your site. You can also share your story through . . .
EMAIL: Direct marketing to a group of people, often targeted.
Events: You can create a whole campaign around events—including webinars, conferences, battles—to help build interest and encourage participation. (Invites, follow up, reminders, thank you emails.)
Newsletter: Sent on a regular basis—monthly, quarterly—these help you reinforce your expertise, build loyalty, and engage with your subscribers as well as grow you list of new clients.
Website Affinity: When a user clicks through to your website, you can use the info collected about his or her activity to send emails with relevant content to match the interests indicated at your site.
Lead-Nurturing: Move customers through the funnel—and educate them about your services. Short emails with the main purpose of driving folks to take action on your website.
SOCIAL
Sharing your content on social networks helps you expand your reach, give your content legs, and connect/engage/interact/converse with target audiences. The key: make sure your message speaks to the medium (Facebook is a very different beast, tone than Pinterest or Twitter or LinkedIn) and make sure your content is shareable (tone, images, etc.). Start by listening and make sure you engage—with prospects, influencers, RPs.
IN PERSON
It really makes a difference and is key to building relationships with funders, with influencers, with Resource Partners. Corey Mohn nails this—check out social streams—using in-person + social + online.
TRADITIONAL
Think ads, placed stories, bylined articles, radio spots, interviews on morning shows. Traditional media doesn’t allow you to engage the way social media does—but it does allow you to reach a broad audience over, potentially, a longer period of time (than, say, a tweet).
PRINT
Again, this is shelf life. Print gives you something you can leave behind to turn that first impression into a lasting impression.
Here’s where we’re headed. What do we see?
Here’s where we’re headed. What do we see?
This should help determine where to invest time/resources.
Look for commonalities. What channels do you use for multiple audiences? What messages are similar? What’s your chain of communication, i.e., what do you need to put into play—blog posts, reports, printed materials, social relationships--before you reach out?