The document presents a marketing workshop hosted by Wendy Lieber of Athena Marketing, focusing on helping small businesses develop effective marketing strategies. It covers the importance of having a marketing plan, addressing common challenges faced by small businesses, and provides guidance on implementing marketing tactics such as blogging and social media. The session emphasizes the need for consistency in marketing efforts to achieve business growth and success.

1. by: Wendy Lieber
Athena Marketing
wendy@athena-marketing.com
954.294.6467
Grow your business through
smart, simple marketing

2. Key topics we will cover:
• What is marketing?
• Key issues small businesses face
• Start with a marketing strategy
• How to create an implement a game plan
• Q&A

3. First let’s talk about me
• Undergrad in marketing from FSU, MBA from NSU
• Strong product management/branding background with consumer
durables
• Worked in Private Equity community - responsible for enhancing
value of operating companies through marketing
• Got bit by the entrepreneurial bug in 2001 - started Athena
Marketing, haven’t looked back
• My passion is helping businesses share their story in a compelling,
relevant way that results in growing their business

4. Key issues small businesses
are facing
• Everyone in the company wearing lots of hats. Especially YOU.
• Never enough time to “get it all done”
• Keeping your head above water is tough enough, never-mind finding the time
or budget to innovate new products/services or new marketing strategies.
• You don’t have a marketing plan or any consistency in your marketing
activities
• You mistake tactics like email, website, social media with “doing marketing”
• Overwhelmed with all the digital tools available and information coming at you
and don’t know where to start so just don’t do anything

5. What is marketing?

6. What is marketing?

7. Why bother with marketing?
"If I'd wanted to be in marketing I wouldn't be running a roofing company.”!
• You are in marketing whether you like it or not.
• Marketing is not about pressuring people to buy your service.
• Marketing is about the way you deliver your service, how you interact with
customers and prospects, how you address issues like customer satisfaction,
identifying opportunities, understanding customer needs and as a result being
better than your competitors.
• Having a good marketing strategy in place help reduce business risk and improve
profitability, and stay ahead of your competition in good times and in bad.
• Marketing enhances a company’s brand which makes them more valuable to
customers, prospects, strategic partners and investors.

8. Where to start?

9. Key questions you must be asking
and answering on a consistent basis:
• Why does my business exist?
• What are my goals?
• Who is my target audience? When do
we do our best work? Who is our perfect
client?
• What problems do I solve for my
customers?
• How do I stand out from my competition?
What do I do better, cheaper or faster?
• Are we explaining our benefits clearly to
our target audiences?
• How does our business generate new
leads?
• What marketing assets do we have?
• What methods can I use on a consistent
basis to communicate with prospects
and customers?
• How am I going to keep my current
customers so I get repeat business and
get referrals from them?
• How am I going to track and measure
my marketing activities and results?
• Do I have a written marketing plan with
an activity calendar that I am following?
• Do I have the right resources in house or
do I need to outsource my marketing?

10. Good news/not so good news
• Technology has changed the
way we communicate with our
audiences.
• Every company is a publisher
and has the ability to get their
story published.
• Technology helps us connect
with our customers 24/7 and
them with us
• More access to information
than ever before.

11. Fascinating Stats
• 78% of Internet users conduct product research online.
That means your website stands a good chance of being a prospect's "first
impression." That also means your new business card isn't a business card—it's
Google.
• 78% of business people use their mobile device to check email.
So that means pretty much everybody that can check email on a mobile device, does .
Is your email newsletter optimized for mobile devices ?
• 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog.
Finally, some good news! Blogging is good. Intrusive ads are bad. See how simple it
is?
• 41% of B2B companies and 67% of B2C companies have acquired a customer
through Facebook. If this stat doesn't poke a hole in the "Facebook is not useful for
B2B companies" myth, I don't know what will.
• The number of marketers who say Facebook is “critical” or “important” to their
business has increased 83% in just 2 years. That's right— critical or important.
When a channel generates not only leads, but real revenue, you can't call it
"experimental" any longer.

12. Creating a game plan
Outbound vs Inbound Marketing

14. Creating a game plan
• Inventory of your marketing assets:
1. Website
2. Blog
3. Newsletter/Email communication
4. CRM systems, email lists, databases
5. Testimonials/3rd party reviews
6. News, Recent Projects, New Materials/Technology, Education, Subject Matter Expertise
7. Logos, tag lines
8. Collateral materials - brochures, signage, vehicles
9. Digital media
10.Employees
11.Trade Organizations/Media Contacts/Industry Relationships

15. Implementing the plan
• Phase I: Developing your foundation - all driven from your
marketing plan
1. Website - Up to date, 2014 date on it, device responsive, blog/news area that is
updated frequently, install Google Analytics
2. Blog - News, Recent Projects, New Materials/Technology, Education, Subject
Matter Expertise - Companies that blog have far better marketing results. (Blog
weekly)
55% more visitors
97% more inbound links
434% more indexed pages
3. Communication - Newsletter/Email Communication to your database - Minimum
monthly
4. Referral Program - ask for referrals on a consistent basis
presenter note: you’ll notice I didn’t include social media - if you don’t have these 3 key things, you don’t have a foundation to do good
social media

16. Implementing the plan
• Phase II - Building on the foundation!
• Establish a social media presence
LinkedIn
Google+
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
• Adding social media sites/feeds to your site
• Publicize in your newsletter on any other communication
materials - signage, vehicles, trade shows
• Engage in conversations - Comment, Like, Retweet - Interact
with your audience, target audience, hashtags
• Advertise

17. Measure, Manage and
Refine
• Review your marketing plan and key goals
• Determine key measurements you will track
• Initially it will be just getting things done: Website content, # of blog
posts, Newsletters, Social Media Posts
• Website visitors, Time on Site, Pages Visited
• Open Rate, Click Through
• Google Rank for specific keywords
• Social Media Audience, Interaction
• # of Conversations
• Repeat Business, Referrals, New Business
• Refine and Improve

18. Keys to Success
• Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, Refer - Everything you do is
marketing
• Your success, or lack thereof, all starts with your marketing plan
that answers key questions about your goals, your why, your
audience and your USP
• Consistency is key - without it you will never be able to manage,
measure and refine
• You have marketing assets! You aren’t starting at ground 0.
• Build a strong foundation and grow from there.
• Start simple with your 1. website, 2. your blog and 3.
consistent communication with your audience
• Review your goals and KPI’s as often as you review your sales
and pipeline - you will start to see how they work beautifully
together!

19. Questions
• Anyone having a challenge right now they want to
solve?
• What marketing have you done that has worked for you
or failed miserably?
• Joint ventures

20. Wendy Lieber
954.294.6467
wendy@athena-marketing.com
www.athena-marketing.com
!
!