Entrepreneurship: It’s All About a Can-Do Attitude

This week's post is by Elisa Peimer.

Marketing isn't just about positioning your products for maximum positive exposure. It's also about positioning your company to be seen in a positive light. And if you're an entrepreneur of any kind, your company is you.

If you don't believe what you offer is valuable, you can't expect clients and customers to believe it. Yet of all the things I’ve learned about getting your own business in gear and being successful, maintaining this positive attitude is often the most difficult thing, even if it seems the most basic.

A positive attitude means saying and believing that, even in the midst of a recession, with no clients, and being a start-up, you’re going to make your business work. For a glass-half-empty kind of person, adopting that mindset can be a real challenge. But it’s imperative. If you’re going to convince people that your services are valuable, the first person who has to believe it is you.

This really hit home for me recently after speaking to a couple of friends, both of whom have run their own businesses for their entire professional careers. They’re in completely different fields, but they have two things in common. The first is that their companies have had moments of both real success and real challenges. The second is that they never seem to doubt that they can succeed moving forward. What I find admirable about that is that they maintain that positive attitude despite the fact that their businesses have not followed a straight uphill trajectory. It isn't an unbroken string of success that has made them impervious to negative thinking, it's their own internal energy and drive. The fact that sometimes they stumble doesn’t make them doubt their ability to succeed.

Try this simple, refreshing, eye-opening exercise:

Write down all the reasons why someone should hire you.

That's it.

These could include all kinds of different facets of you and your business. Maybe you have many years of experience in your field. Or you’re really good at follow-through. You're good with people. You've got a network of contacts that makes you more valuable. You're a great idea-person. You’re a fantastic proofreader, consultant, financial advisor, writer, designer, developer – whatever it is. You know what your skills are, and where your strengths lie. Make sure you remember those facts. Keep them in mind and use them to feel confident and valuable when you’re looking for business or working with a client.

Of course, that's often easier said than done. But it's essential. As you forge ahead in your business – and in your life – remember that your biggest fan is you. It’s much easier to focus on your failures and shortcomings, and we all have those. But it’s more pleasant – and lucrative – to concentrate on what makes us valuable to our clients, our friends, and ourselves.

Chain Stores and Localvores

Marketing is the language of commerce, and like any language it can be used for good or ill. Sometimes the line is hard to draw.

One of the latest marketing buzzwords to escape the hive is "local-washing," a variant of "green-washing."

Green-washing has been around for a while. It means making false or exaggerated claims that a product is environmentally friendly. Local-washing, then, means asserting (or suggesting) that a product or service is local when in fact it is not — or when using the term "local" is, at the very least, a bit of a stretch.

The new marketing technique takes advantage of the growing "localvore" movement, in which consumers favor products (food and other things) that come from their own region. The growing popularity of farmers' markets, business alliances like Indiebound (for independent booksellers), and region-based movements such as Local First Vermont are a few of the more organized manifestations of the increasingly popular "local first" way of thinking.

Big corporations are learning to take advantage. Wal-Mart stores, where an increasingly large number of Americans do their grocery shopping, now feature local produce sections. But according to Stacy Mitchell of the New Rules Project, "[t]he chain's] local-food offerings are usually limited to a few of the main commodity crops of the state in question...Yet this modest gesture has won Wal-Mart glowing coverage in numerous daily newspapers. Few ask...[whether this actually creates] more and better opportunities for local farmers than the grocers [Wal-Mart] replaces...Wal-Mart, like other chains, has learned that tossing around the word 'local' is a relatively inexpensive way to convey civic virtue."

Starbucks is rebranding some of its stores, removing their corporate identity entirely in order to disguise them as independent shops. Barnes & Noble encourages store employees to create video blogs about their favorite books as part of an effort to make individual stores "feel" more local. Supermarket chain Winn-Dixie touts "local flavor since 1956." HSBC, the huge international financial institution, calls itself "the world's local bank."

These techniques can seem disingenuous, even outright fraudulent. On the other hand, it's hard to blame the chains for availing themselves of whatever cultural developments are attracting consumers. They didn't get to be big corporations by being inherently evil, they did so by outcompeting in the marketplace. Now, suffering something of a backlash, they are casting about for ways to maintain their dominance.

Can big chains fool enough of the public enough of the time to make their local-washing campaigns succeed? Can we accept a certain level of exaggeration as a natural manifestation of market forces at work? Or is any degree of local-washing unacceptable deception?

Is more regulation needed? Vermont has strict rules about when a product can be labeled with the state's name. New York City's Greenmarkets permit only produce grown on farms within a specific mileage range of the city.

What do you think?

Meanwhile, stay tuned. No one knows how all this will shake out.  See you at the Greenmarket!

Merchandising: Capitalizing on the Surprising

In our office we have a coffee mug with the picture, name, and slogan of a singer-songwriter we knew years ago. She left the business awhile back, but if she ever turns up in our orbit again, it's fair to say that the presence of that mug will have some effect on the interest we'll take.

I thought of this when I learned of a high-class twist on the time-tested concept of the promotional mug. In conjunction with the release of Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, Los Abrazos Rotos, the illy coffee company has created an arty cup-and-saucer collection featuring emblematic scenes from the director's most famous movies.

Now, much as I adore Penélope Cruz, I'm not about to spend $60 for the privilege of sipping espresso from a cup with her face on it. But that's not the point. Just the fact that I've learned about this promotion (via a Twitter post) has incrementally increased the likelihood that I'll see the film.

Why? Because the film's promoters did something just a little bit new, a little bit different, and hence a little bit worth tweeting about.

When I saw Rock of Ages on Broadway a couple of months ago, every audience member was handed an LED "cigarette lighter" to wave during the show's classic hair-band songs. It was a great promotional gimmick, because the darn thing's actually useful as a small flashlight, so I've held on to it. Although I loved Rock of Ages, I'm sure that tiny piece of swag has increased the number of people I've recommended the show to, because carrying the little light around in my bag has kept the musical closer to top-of-mind.

Merchandising—whether it's swag (free stuff) or purchasable items (original cast albums, concert t-shirts, an Almodóvar espresso cup)—is here to stay, because it works. But coming up with something creative, something a little different from what people are used to—something, in other words, worth talking about—can give a campaign that extra nudge and push the product deeper into public awareness.

It doesn't even have to be expensive.  For the right price, you can get a logo imprinted on just about any manufactured item you can think of, but the do-it-yourself method works too: I've seen musicians selling, along with their CDs and t-shirts, unique items such as art prints, self-printed books of poetry, homemade cosmetics, and logo-imprinted candy.  Some of these items are more lasting than others, of course, but the creative thinking is evident.  Singer-songwriter Kay Ashley hands out "Kay-zoos" at her shows—bright yellow kazoos emblazoned with her logo.  During her set, she has you play along with a particular song, and when you go home you have a lasting (and possibly useful) souvenir.

So it's not necessarily about spending a lot of money.  It's creative thinking that can give your product a push into the public's consciousness. Go and create.

I’m in the Mood for Some #Moonfruit!

This week's post comes from Elisa Peimer, one of Oren Hope's founding partners.

Since I wrote about Twitter a couple of months ago, I’ve been Twittering along – tweeting about music, life, and work, and catching up on friends through their tweets. Occasionally, I like to check out the trending topics to see what people are talking about. Generally, it’s what I expect – Michael Jackson, the political situation in Iran, Wimbledon, or the hot celebrity of the moment.

But the other day I saw the top trending topic was something called #moonfruit. What the heck was moonfruit, and why was everybody talking about it? Intrigued, I clicked on over, only to find that moonfruit wasn’t a story at all, or even any kind of discussion. It’s a promotion, run by web development firm Moonfruit.

To celebrate their tenth birthday, they’re giving away a Macbook Pro every day for ten days. To enter, you have to include the tag #moonfruit in your Twitter posts. Each posting is entered into the contest for a random drawing, which means the more posts you include the tag in, the more chances you have to win. Consequently, thousands of people are tagging #moonfruit in their posts, skyrocketing the tag right to the top of the Trending Topics list. Which means it’s on every Twitter user’s front page, which means that people like me, who’ve never heard of Moonfruit, are clicking on it to see what it is.

Moonfruit has managed to get in front of hundreds of thousands of potential clients on one of the world’s most popular websites for two whole weeks, with the kind of promotion that’s so simple it’s been done for ages. It’s the Web 2.0 version of an enter-to-win box – fill out a form, drop in your entry, and hope for the best. Except that now, all you have to do is type the tag into your tweet and you’ve entered the contest. But what makes this so much more powerful is that each entry is shared with all of your Twitter followers, so the contest and the company awareness spread in a classic example of viral marketing.

I have got to say that this is one of the most brilliant marketing schemes I’ve seen in a long time.

Writing for the Web, Part Two: Home Page Homilies

Entire books have been written about writing for the web. They have titles like, well, Writing for the Web. Also: Writing for the Web: A Practical Guide, Writing for Multimedia and the Web, and the nicely alliterative Killer Web Content. I imagine these books are used in Marketing courses, and I'm sure they contain many sensible words of wisdom. But honestly, it's hard to imagine anyone needing to study a whole book to learn a few basic principles.

For pretty much any home page, these principles can be summed up easily, as follows:

• Use concise, accessible language.
• Give the key information right up front. (Explain who, what, where, when, and/or how, as needed.)
• Get it right. (Don't allow any spelling or grammatical errors to get through your proofing process.)
• Make it easy on the eyes. (This is partially, but only partially, the web designer's responsibility.)

Here are a few examples of sites that get these things right and wrong.

1. Electrician

Let's say I live in New York and I want to find an electrician. When I search for "electrician new york," among the top entries is Altman Electric. Altman's home page provides the essential information right up front: where they're located, what types of customers they service, and how to contact them. It meets the four requirements described above: no technical terms or excess verbiage, key information up front, no grammatical or spelling errors, easy to read.

Now take a look at another top search result, Apollo One. This home page fails on most counts. It doesn't look good. The text is too low on the page and full of errors. There's no mention of their coverage area except for the phrase "in New York" at the top, which is ambiguous, as "New York" could mean Manhattan, all of New York City, any of a number of conceptions of "Greater New York," or even New York State. For all I know, Apollo One could be a better deal for me than Altman, but I won't be finding that out, because if I need an electrician fast, you can bet I'd call Altman first.

2. Database Developer

Let's say I need to hire someone to develop my company's FileMaker databases. I search the web for FileMaker developers and I find Scottworld. Their home page has most of the bases covered. The font size is smaller than it should be, but the essential information is right there in the first two brief paragraphs, explained in plain language.

There's one thing missing, though. How do you contact them? You have to scroll almost to the bottom before you spot a tiny "Contact Us" text link. It took me many seconds to find it, by which time my eyes were tired.

Now look at Excelisys's home page. This one has more serious problems. It's busy, colorful, loaded with logos. The key text is contained in a white-on-black box, which makes it a little hard to read, and it begins with a sentence that isn't even a sentence and is dotted with extraneous capital letters. The rest of the text suffers from grammatical errors and incorrect punctuation. While the site has a lot of material I could review to get an idea of what these folks do and how well they do it, I'm not likely to click through to see that material, because the home page has made a poor impression.

Search for anything you like, and you'll find examples of bad, better, and best-practices home pages. Make sure your own home page follows the simple principles outlined above.

Writing for the Web, Part One: Basics

If your business is so well established that you don't have to go looking for customers, great! Stop reading this and go have a drink. Most of us, though, have to make an effort. Part of that effort is describing what we do and why we are the ones you should hire to do it.

In the old days, these descriptions were written to be printed on paper: brochures, packaging, and signs -- collectively known as "marketing collateral." Paper media are still with us, of course, but websites now shoulder a big chunk of the marketing burden. Yet surprisingly, although websites and online marketing have been with us for years now, companies often give little thought to creating copy that's appropriate for the web.

What should be on your website for potential clients and customers to read? Here are some basic guidelines for getting it right.

1. Don't dump in everything but the kitchen sink. Your home page and sectional landing pages should contain clear, concise text -- more than slogans, but less than essays. Every business can be summed up in a paragraph. If you can't come up with a paragraph that succinctly and accurately describes what you do and why you do it well, you may need some outside marketing help.

2. If you have multiple lines of business, or several aspects of your product or service each of which needs to be explained, create separate pages for them, all linked from the main (home) page. If you're not sure what deserves its own page or section and what doesn't, there's one obvious and effective way to figure it out: visit competitors' sites and note which ones are clear and concise, easy to navigate and understand, and which aren't. Use the good ones as models for your own site.

3. Include words and phrases that will optimize your site for search engines. There are many sources of information available on search engine optimization (SEO). About.com has some articles on the subject, including "Website Optimization in Ten Easy Steps". (Your mileage may vary in terms of how "easy" the steps are. But despite what some advertisements suggest, you can definitely do your own SEO).

Next week, we'll look at some well-crafted sites and see what makes their textual content effective.

Networking, Part Two: Stranger Things

Talking to people you know and making new connections through them is a great way to market yourself or your business. But it has a built-in limitation: it depends on the people you already know. No matter how social you may (or may not) be, there are always going to be a lot more people you don't know.

There's also the question of quality: your friends and acquaintances may be great people personally, but they may not be connected in ways that are helpful to you professionally. It all depends on whether they have similar backgrounds or work experience to yours.

That's where organized networking groups come in. And no, you don't need to be a graduate of a prestigious college (or any college at all, for that matter) to take advantage of them.

Having a college connection does give you a built-in "in" to alumni networking groups. Just Google "alumni networking" plus the name of your college, or sign up for LinkedIn and search for your alma mater, and you can easily find these groups.

But there are plenty of networking groups centered not on colleges but on professions, locales, or other commonalities. Start with your profession. Virtually any profession has societies that provide information and support; their websites often point to networking opportunities.

Are you a yoga instructor who just moved to Boston? Do you want to meet hip young high-tech workers in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn?  Chances are, whatever you do and wherever you are, there's a networking group out there that can cater to you.

Then there's the very structured world of Business Networking International, which has chapters in many regions, charges a membership fee, and has strict attendance rules. This kind of group brings together professionals with different backgrounds who might need each others' services or can act as conduits to their own personal networks. The idea is that each person you meet is a doorway to a roomful of other people whom you wouldn't otherwise be able to contact.

So you've signed up to attend a networking event. What should you expect? They vary quite a bit, from big cocktail-party type events in which everyone stands around wearing name tags, to smaller sit-around-a-conference table meetings. The best are those that provide both an opportunity to introduce yourself to the group, and some time to chat informally. In any case, keep these general guidelines in mind:

• Dress as you would for a job interview.
• Bring plenty of business cards.
• Prepare an in-a-nutshell statement of what you do and what you're hoping to get out of the group or session. Unless you're a supremely confident talker, practice your pitch at home first.
• In your statement, give enough detail to provide a clear idea of your skills, experience, and goals; but make it concise enough so you don't drone on and lose concentration, because that's a sure way to lose your audience!
• Listen carefully to others' presentations and to what they say in conversation, and take notes. Just as you're hoping to make contacts and learn useful information, so are they; you may have something of great value to someone else. Karma is good!
• Follow up! If you meet someone who might be able to help you, or vice versa, follow up with a phone call or an email.

Attending these events has the added benefit of getting you out of your routine, out of your office or your home, and into a fresh environment with new people. Meeting just one person -- one former stranger -- whom you can connect with on some level can make your whole day!