Modish Biz Tips

Retail: Brick by Brick- Marketing and Sales, Part 2

{photo by Erin Darcy. Time to wrap your business plan up with some pretty packaging!}

We're back again today to finish up the second half of the Marketing and Sales plan in our Business Plan Challenge! We only have 3 more topics to discuss - Operations, Financial plan and the Executive Summary. You're almost there!

So lets be serious for a minute. Are you working on your business plan? Anyone feeling really overwhelmed? You're entitled to! Writing a business plan is a really big commitment, and some parts are very painful. Trust us, once you get your first copy completed it will feel wonderful.

The second half of the Marketing and Sales plan covers your marketing and sales strategy. With each of these you will be developing your company brand, the one image that pops into people's minds when they think of your business.

The Marketing Strategy:

Company Image: Describe the image you want your company to project. This will includes both the image you present to your customers and how you want your customers to describe your business. By image, include both tangible and intangible descriptions. For example, maybe your business will be known for great window displays and excellent customer service.

Advertising and Promotion: Thinking about the description of your target market, what advertising and promotional methods will best reach your customer? In this section, include all of the advertising and promotional ideas your business will use. Make sure all of your ideas are cost effective. Thinking of new, creative promotional ideas can often be very inexpensive and produce great results. One of the best promotions I've experienced was for the opening of a new hair salon. One Saturday, on one of the local shopping streets, the salon had their employees hand out cotton candy from a machine. The free bright pink cotton candy inspired memories of my childhood and instantly made me a fan of the salon.

Sales Strategy:

Retail: Brick by Brick- Marketing and Sales

The focus of the next section of the business plan, in our Business Plan Challenge, is Marketing and Sales. We’re sure that all of the smart Modish BIZtips readers know the difference between marketing and sales, but just to make sure everything is clear, lets do a quick review.

Marketing is building relationships and letting people know what your business does. Sales, on the other hand, are the result of your customer seeing your business’ marketing information, and ultimately paying you money!

This section of the business plan addresses both of these areas: how you are going to attract customers to your business and how you are going to deliver the sale.

Product or Service Information

• Product or Service Description: Describe in detail what your business will be selling or what service you will be offering. This should be quite specific.


• Differentiation: What makes your product or service different than others currently available (examine your competition to make this section easier to answer)


• Pricing Strategy: There are three ways to compete in any market – speed of delivery, quality of product and price of product. Your pricing strategy will be a combination of two of these items, but not all three. You can have a high quality product that is quickly delivered, but it will cost a lot of money (you’re not competing on price). Or, your product will be inexpensive and delivered quickly, but the quality will not be recognized. For your strategy, choose a combination of these items that will be a strong position against the competition.

Target Market

Marais: A study in awesomely effective marketing

I just came across this remarkable example of how to use video on your site to effectively draw in your customers and had to share it with you!

From Daily Candy this morning I stumbled upon Marais, a new start-up shoe company run by a bunch of awesome, down to earth, versatile and smart women. And how do I know that about them? Because I "met" them on their site through photos and videos.

Not only are their shoes fantastic enough for me to want to buy them anyway (key to successful business #1: have a good product! :) but their marketing efforts really seal the deal:

• The entire site is infused with their personality- when you first head there, you're led directly to a page that introduces all the women involved in the company. Click on their pics, and you see an about page on each of them that integrates photos and video- you can see them and hear them and get a sense of who they are.
• The about pages also link to the girls' individual favorite shoes from their line so if you identify with the style of one of the girls, you can click right over and see (and purchase!) the shoes they like best.
• The whole "Marais world" section is really brilliant- it creates an ideal "world" of what it's like to live in their shoes. It depicts the lifestyle who they see as their target customers, allowing us to relate to them all the more. This awesome "A Day with Marais" video gives a glimpse into what the girls behind Marais are like and also what their target customers are like. It shows them having fun hula-hooping, picnicing in the park, walking along trails and running around taking pictures, all the while wearing their line of shoes, of course. They make you want to be part of their world. Plus, the video let's you see the shoes "in action" so to speak and makes them appear to be super comfy and perfect for everyday life.

Obviously I'm exactly the customer they're targeting- a fashionable 20-something who likes cute, but comfortable shoes and can't spend a fortune on them. And let me tell you, their marketing worked on me. I checked out every shoe, thought of which colors would look best with which outfits hanging in my closet... I didn't purchase today, no, but that doesn't matter. I'm affected, they're in my head and bookmarked- I'm going to remember their site and I'm very likely going to buy from them in the future. That's what you want your marketing to do too.

I think they are a great example of really effective marketing and branding- they create a presence in a real way and look, it got them on Daily Candy! Check out their site for ideas of how to incorporate video and more of your personality into your own website, so you can connect with your customers even better.

How to make a video on the cheap that will draw in your customers

I have a special post for you today from Mary Beth Anderson of Junkdrawer Media! Junkdrawer Media is a new multimedia production company specializing in video for the web, and today Mary Beth is going to teach you how to use video to better your business! As indie crafters, you can use videos to present tutorials or build viral marketing campaigns that will show your business off to your customers in a contemporary and unique way. So, Mary Beth, take it away!

{photo by natalie portman's shaved head}

Wow, these days there are a million ways to connect with your customers and one way that seems to really be picking up speed is video. I think that in the next few years, video will become more and more common on company websites. It’s a great way to put an actual person to the face…ya know? Sure your photo might be on the main banner, and your “about” page is chock full of trivia about you and your products…but in this digital age, where you might never meet any of your customers face to face, a video brings you and your business to life, which in turn fosters brand loyalty.

At my company, Junkdrawer Media, my business partner and I spend our days concocting creative ways for our clients to develop videos that speak to their consumers in a dynamic and engaging way. We specialize in shmancy broadcast quality web videos, but I think that any business, large or small, should be taking the internet by the horns…and talking to their consumers directly with video.

The beauty of web videos is that they can be about anything; a short how-to demo, a verité style bio, a scripted film featuring your earrings made of rubber bands…whatever. There are no rules. Go crazy and have fun!

Sold yet? I hope so. And in that spirit, I present to you (drum roll please):

:: HOW TO MAKE A VIDEO ON THE CHEAP THAT WILL DRAW IN YOUR CUSTOMERS::

1. Come up with a plan

Don’t just turn on the camera and start blabbing away.  Think about what you want to say, teach, or convey.  Even if it’s a short little list of key points on a napkin…write it down and have it handy throughout your shoot.  It will help you keep your thoughts organized and on track.  I always like to start out with the basic…who, what, where, when, why and how?  Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and let your creative juices flow!

2. Buy or borrow a camera

If there was one thing that I learned during my time working in TV, it was how to get something for nothing…so if your 2nd cousin has a cool DV camera that’s lying under his bed collecting dust, ask and see if he would lend it to you for a day. I bet he’d say yes…and almost guarantee he would help by manning the camera.  If not, you’d be surprised at how inexpensive digital video cameras are these days.  I think the flip camera (http://www.theflip.com/products.shtml) is a fantastic option when it comes to web videos.  It’s a line of small cameras that plugs right into your computer when you’re done filming and make for easy editing! When I checked online they were on-sale for about $100 bucks. Not too shabby.  Whatever you do….please, I implore you, don’t use your cell phone.  Deal?

3. Shoot your video

Who Cares? A Marketing Lesson from Seth Godin

I was feeling a bit stuck on what to talk about today and decided I'd look for an inspiring video to share here instead. I headed to TED which shares videos of the talks they host by incredible, talented, very smart people, and found this video by master marketing guru, Seth Godin.

It's called sliced bread and other marketing delights. It's 17min long if you have a chance to sit down this weekend and take a peek, I really suggest watching it. There's lots of great ideas and interesting insights involved with how to market your business successfully.

Below the video, I've posted some notes on his talk, in case you can't watch it yourself, along with my thoughts on how his advice can be applied to better our own little micro-businesses.

*feed readers, pop over to the blog here to see the video! :)

What To Do When Sales Slow Down (Don't sing the Bad Economy Blues)

{photo by Kevin Dooley. Does your shop seem a little deserted lately?}

I know many of us have noticed a slump in sales over the last few months and that's of course understandable, given the state of our economy. But just because big businesses are collapsing, doesn't mean your micro-business has to, too.

In fact, you're probably in better shape to stay afloat in this situation than the big guys are. Check out this Harvard Business article about Why Small Businesses Will Win This Economy, and US News' look at Starting a Small Business in a Bad Economy and how you can still make it successful.

There are plenty of things you can do to help keep both your sales and your chin up during these tough times. For instance:

Focus on marketing yourself

Maybe when you were busier you were too overwhelmed with shipping out orders to even have to think about placing and ad or asking a blog to write about you. When times are flourishing, customers seem to just come find you.

But if you find yourself with more time than sales on your hands right now, use it to actively market yourself and spread the word about your business. Keep up on your blog posts, send out a newsletter this month, create a press kit, place some ads on blogs that serve your niche (you can get some pretty good traffic coming in for as little as $20 a month!), email bloggers and introduce yourself, collaborate with other creatives on special projects... Now is the time to focus on getting in contact with people, making connections and really working on getting yourself "out there."

Remember the customers you already have

The people most likely to buy from you, are people that have bought from you in the past. It's easier for someone to decide to spend their money on you when they already know exactly what they're going to get out of their purchase.

Your past customers know the quality of your items, they know how good your customer service is, they know the cute little gift wrapping everything comes in... Get in touch with them and remind them about your business and what you have to offer, maybe even offer them a special discount or incentive with purchase or with a referral. Don't forget about the customer base you've already worked hard to build up.

Offer an incentive with purchase