PEERTOPEER
2MA4RKETIN7G outbound call, the person on the other end has
heard of my company; or make the phone ring.
(By the way, this is also how to measure your marketing return on investment. Is the phone ringing?
When you make outbound contacts, have people
heard of you?)
HOW ARE YOU DIFFERENT?
Next, you need to identify yourself and your
expertise, and then differentiate yourself from
the competition. What is your unique selling
proposition? As an IT professional, it’s important
to be a technology wizard, of course, but you
need to be more than that. You are going to have
to compete with the service providers that have
sprung out from the retail store environment—the
“Geek Squads” of the world and so forth. You
must explain how your company, with its unique
experience and perspective, is better than the
franchise operations.
If you’re in business, you’re already
marketing. So you may as well give some
thought as to how you’re doing it.
By Jerry Weinstock • Photograph by Scott Indermaur
Profile: Jerry Weinstock
President and CEO,
Internet Business Initiatives LLC
Location: Lenexa, Kan.
Established: 1999
Number of employees: Three
Web site:
www.iBizInitiatives.com
Services offered: We help small and
medium-size companies achieve
their sales and marketing goals via
technology.
Favorite part of my job: I enjoy de-
signing and implementing creative
solutions to make technology work
the way clients run their businesses.
Least favorite part: Dealing with
vendors who try to own our relation-
ship with the customer
MARKETING IS OFTEN A LOW PRIORITY for
small businesses. When budgets are tight, marketing and travel expenses are usually the first to
go. Yet marketing is vital to everyone’s business.
Like it or not, new customers are the lifeblood of
your company. Even if you have a good clientele
right now, you will eventually lose customers
through no fault of your own. You need a pipeline
to keep new ones flowing in.
Marketing to existing customers is important as
well. They may think you offer only a certain type
of service, for example, whereas you actually provide a range of offerings they don’t know about—
unless you tell them. Finally, whether you know it
or not, you’re already marketing just by being in
business. You may as well give some thought as
to how you’re doing it.
WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?
Especially as a small IT company, you need to understand the people you’re selling to. Are they
technology types or business owners? The latter
often consider the computer infrastructure a nonstrategic part of their business. When you talk to
them about an upgrade, for example, they may
view it in terms of taking money from their pockets, as it concerns their personal bottom line. If
you’re talking to the IT person at a small or midsize company, though, funds for upgrades are
coming out of a budget he or she already has and
shouldn’t affect their personal income.
A SENSE OF PURPOSE
First, define what marketing means to you and
what you want it to accomplish. My practical definition of marketing stems from a salesperson’s
perspective that it exists to do one of two things:
soften the beachhead, so that when I make an
METHODOLOGY
When it comes to actual marketing vehicles, the
first item to consider is your home page. It must
explain who you are, what you do, why you’re
good at it, who you sell to, how people can buy
from you, and why they should buy from you. All
this should align with your unique selling proposition and with your audience, so that you provide
the right user experience when they come to your
site to check you out.
Other ways of reaching out include newsletters,
direct mailings, seminars, and phone calls. Email
marketing is a very good way to reach current and
potential customers, but only if done properly
(see “Risky Communications?”).
