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For many business
owners, marketing
to fellow entrepreneurs is job one. The challenge is, entrepreneurs are
time-strapped multi-taskers who are also relatively risk-averse--making them
a difficult audience to reach and persuade. Sound familiar?
If fellow
entrepreneurs
are your bread and butter, your marketing must meet their unique needs and
requirements to motivate them to take action. Here are the top seven things
entrepreneurs want from marketers, and important tips on how your marketing
program can deliver them:
1. Increased sales:
Most business
owners say their primary objective is to increase sales. Will
buying your product or service help your prospects achieve that goal? If the
answer is yes, put that benefit front and center by making it one of your
most important marketing messages. When you help your customers grow, you
become an indispensable part of their success.
2. Safe choices:
Being
a business owner requires taking calculated risks, from buying inventory or
acquiring office space to hiring employees. But when it comes to buying
outside products and services, entrepreneurs as a group tend to be cautious.
Demonstrate that buying from you is a safe choice by providing a
content-rich campaign. It should include customer feedback, in-depth product
information and reviews where applicable, proof of your affiliations with
national associations, and industry certifications.
3. Maximum
convenience: Have
you ever met a successful business owner with extra time on his or her
hands? The truth is, running a growing business often requires long hours,
making shopping convenience a major draw for entrepreneurs. Multichannel
marketing--including, for example, a website, a brick-and-mortar store and a
direct-mail campaign--is essential to building sales from this target group.
The key is to provide a consistent branding experience, merchandise and
offers, as well as top-flight customer service across all channels.
4. Ways to save
money: Marketers
who have experience targeting major corporate buyers as well as
entrepreneurs will tell you it's often harder to convince entrepreneurs to
part with relatively small sums. Business owners are likely to be spending
their own money and are correspondingly conservative. Adding value to your
offers will help overcome resistance. Depending on what you market, you can
add features, bundle products together, offer VIP services and longer
warranties, and more. If you market primarily online, free shipping can help
close sales.
5. Do-it-yourself
solutions: Time-strapped
business owners have just enough work hours to get their own jobs done--and
they don't want to learn yours. Low-cost do-it-yourself solutions are
appreciated, provided they're turnkey. Successful marketers of
do-it-yourself products and services, from accounting software to e-mail
list management, must focus on ease-of-use as a principal benefit. Bundle in
free customer support for a winning combination.
6. Reliability and
performance: Entrepreneurs
carefully consider the post-sale customer experience when making a purchase.
They want to know that your company will be there to support what it sells.
What guarantees or warranties does your company offer? To motivate business
owners to complete sales, make reliability a central component of your
marketing message--don't bury this information at the bottom of your
marketing materials or website. And deliver top-quality customer service
during the hours your business customers most frequently shop.
7. Vendors they
trust: Entrepreneurs
often prefer to work with other business owners they know and trust. Special
events and networking are great ways to foster interaction with prospects.
An event can be as simple as a lunchtime roundtable workshop or as elaborate
as hosting the hospitality suite at a trade show. What matters most is that
you create an opportunity to build positive relationships
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