Your business, my business, every business attempts to be better in some way than its competitors and then use this “better” thing (known in marketing circles as differentiation) as the keystone of its marketing strategy. I can cite an endless number of examples of differentiation strategies from Wal-Mart’s low price strategy to Tiffany’s high price exclusivity and from Fed Ex’s fast, accurate delivery to the “Make it your way” sandwich at Burger King. Having a differentiation strategy is important but there is more to communicate and it is important.

This critical element is “The Benefit.”

Your customers and prospects are primarily interested in your answer to just one question – “What’s the Benefit?” or stated another way, “What’s In It For Me?” When you give them a meaningful answer to that question they will understand good reasons for being your customer.

For it to be effective, the benefit has to be understood by the targeted consumer and that means that you have to show them and tell them in a way that they can understand. It means that your language must be clear, not industry lingo. It must be stated simply in short memorable sentences, not in long arcane technical paragraphs. And the information must be available and accessible across many different methods of communication – when spoken, when read, when seen in print or transmitted electronically.

It is good that a product is more durable and lasts longer (that’s a feature) but what is the benefit of it lasting longer? Perhaps it is lower maintenance costs or less down time / higher productivity or lower cost per use or more enjoyment as a point of differentiation. I believe it was Beech-Nut Gum that used “longer lasting taste” (“I’m not talking while the flavor lasts”) as their point of differentiation?).

There are many possible benefits from every “better” innovation and differentiation. It is your challenge is to discover what those benefits are and how best to communicate them constantly and frequently so that your customers and prospects understand “What’s In It For Them” and why they should buy it… from you!

Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, “Front Lines with Larry Galler” For a free coaching session, email Larry for an appointment – Larry@larrygaller.com. Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com

The key to the growth of any business lies in acquiring new customers, but in this economy, not many can afford an aggressive marketing campaign. Fortunately, with a little creativity and dedication, you can use alternative marketing techniques to attract new customers and grow your business. Ways to advertise for little to no cost include forming partnerships, starting a referral incentive program, and creatively pursuing media coverage. Increase your web presence through blogging, commenting, article writing and social media.

1. Generate a Newsletter:

Offer an email newsletter which includes short articles, links to important events or news relating to your business, helpful tips, and customer comments. Make this newsletter available to your customers and your affiliates. Your customers will feel more connected to your company and will remain a customer longer. Your affiliates will stay abreast of any changes within the company and might even send the newsletter out to their clients, increasing the number of recipients. Potential customers will also be reminded of your product or service every month when your newsletter gets delivered in your inbox. In addition to email you can advertise your newsletter by including a link on your blog.

2. Set Up a Referral Incentive Program:

People love freebies, even little ones. By offering some product or service free when customers refer other paying customers, you are setting them up with a good reason to tell their friends about you. Your customers may love your product but they aren’t necessarily going to tell everyone about it without a little nudge. Personal gain is probably the best incentive out there so let your customers speak for you by rewarding them with a free gift.

3. Become a Company Standard:

Targeting a group of related customers, like a franchise, can result in rapid growth of your brand. Do some research and target a set of companies that would benefit by your product. Start selling to them. Once a few of these customers are yours, approach the headquarters with a proposal to become the company standard. If you are successful, you can go from having 16 new customers to 60 with very little effort. The corporate office will recommend your product to new franchises, which is effectively free advertisement for you.

4. Form a Partnership:

Another way to advertise free is by partnering with a company that will recommend your product or service. Consider a product or service that is closely related to your own. If you own a bakery, for example, consider partnering with a local restaurant. If they serve your baked goods, you will benefit by their recommendation of you. In return, you send your customers their way.

If you own an internet based business, consider what other online products your customers are likely to use. Online time tracking software could benefit by partnering with a payroll company since the two go hand in hand. Not only can a partnership cut advertising costs, but it also establishes stronger business credibility since someone else is recommending your company.

5. Pursue Unconventional Media Coverage:

Be on the lookout for unusual places to drop your name. Remember that your name does not have to appear solely in market related media. For example, a musician might have a chance to promote his business in an article about an upcoming show or on the bio of his music web page. This kind of exposure does not target an audience that is necessarily interested in your product, but keep in mind that the people that need your product have varying interests. In other words, you never know where you might get noticed. Take advantage of the diversity of possibilities.

6. Hire a Search Engine Optimization Expert:

Attract search engines with proven SEO techniques. Search engines scan Internet pages for keywords and content to determine the placement of your page on their search query. You want to appear high on the list for the greatest exposure. You can do some reading about these techniques and implement a few of them yourself. SEO is a complex field in and of itself and requires technical skill to master. For the best results, hire a good web developer that has proven experience and success with SEO techniques, or go out and get a few good books on the subject and start to work.

7. Start a Blog:

Blog pages have several business advantages. They keep your clients abreast of the latest company news. They attract search engines which will generate more hits to your site. They are also one of many ways to establish yourself as an authority in your field. In order to run a successful blog – i.e. get your customer’s attention – you will need to write compelling and relevant entries. This can be about anything within your field, not just about your company. Blogs can be a great waste of time if they are boring or if they are not updated regularly, so take your time with them. Consider whether you would care about this topic if you randomly ran into it. If you wouldn’t, no one else would either.

8. Write Articles:

This may not be an immediately obvious way of attracting new customers because it is impossible to know how many people that read your article actually buy your product. Nevertheless, if you can get your article in places where people will read it, it will help establish you as an authority in your field and generate exposure. This isn’t the easiest thing to do, of course. It takes time to write articles. It also takes a little ingenuity to come up with compelling subject matter. Chances aren’t good that many people will want to read an article describing your product, but they may want to read an article about some issue your product resolves.

9. Write Press Releases:

Writing a press release is a lot easier than writing an article but it still can generate plenty of exposure. There are many press release publication sites available which all offer free services in addition to premium paid service. Getting your press releases published can help attract editors who might want to mention your company’s news in a major publication. But even if no major publication picks it up, it will help increase the SEO for your website. For small news, you may chose to publish some of your press releases only within your own news page, but even this helps your company look like a dynamic company.

10. Use Social Media Outlets:

This is an important marketing technique these days and involves constructing a web presence within forums, blogs, and other social Internet groups like Facebook and Twitter. This will generate more hits in search queries and generally increase your web presence. By plastering your name all over the walls so to speak customers will find you more easily.

These are some great ideas to get your marketing campaign up and running for cheap. They all take work and some of them even cunning. Explore the topics further in the myriad marketing and social media books available today.

Peggy Emch has a background in mathematics and is currently the retention expert and public relations manager for the online software company, Timesheets.com. She maintains a personal relationship with customers and reports her experience with the product and the community on the company blog and in related articles.

Let’s get right down to it, shall we:

Best REALTOR Slogans

#5. “My job is your future”- Good. So you understand how big of a deal a home purchase is for me.

#4. “Purveyor of fine homes to fine people” – Not bad; a little boring, but you have a good command of the language and demonstrate strong commitment to a targeted market.

#3. “Sold in 100 days, or I’ll buy it”- Does this belong in the top 5? Yes – because you stand out, commit, and I know I’ll have a guaranteed sale within 4 months.

#2. “I Never Forget You Have a Choice”- That’s what I like to hear – you’ll always have the right motivations while we’re working together.

#1. “Anyone can sell your home. I can sell it for more.” – Strong, assertive and straight to the point. Let me put you to the test.

Worst REALTOR Slogans

#5. “A Realtor You Can Trust”- Sounds like something your parole officer told you to say.

#4. “No Fancy Punchlines – Just Great Service”- Does this constitute an oxymoron? (Definitely a moron)

#3. “It’s the Energy!”- What does that even mean? I think your doctor over-prescribes stimulants… Out of curiosity, what’s his name (my friend wants to know…)?

#2. “Everything I Touch Turns to Sold!” – Ha ha! It’s funny, I’ll give you that. But now that the joke’s over can you introduce me to a real REALTOR?

#1. “Spouses Selling Houses” – Do you include domestic disputes with showings?

Conclusion

This was a tough article to write because there are at least 20 terrible catch phrases for every good one. Some rules of thumb:

• Use common sense – No one wants to hear you state the obvious – and no one is interested in self-indulgence. There’s also not much room for humor (there are exceptions of course), so keep it professional.
• If you say something bold in your slogan, make sure you’re willing to eat, sleep, and breathe by it.
• If you can’t come up with anything good, don’t worry: Clients won’t notice that you don’t have a catch phrase, but you might lose clients if you have a bad one.

Sam Prochazka manages RealPageMaker, a company that has been building REALTOR Websites since 2002. Sam Prochazka regularly contributes to the Real Estate Websites Blog.

Marketing is a very interesting and sometimes difficult subject to master. I have personally been in the sales, marketing, real estate and mortgage industry for many years and have seen and witnessed many different marketing campaigns. Some of them were brilliant and many of them were ridiculous. However if you ask me I still revert back to the Abraham Lincoln theory in which you’ll never have any success unless you take action.

It amazes me when you see a well recognized company and brand that makes a rookie mistake by marketing improperly. Even the big box stores and the giants sometimes can forget the fundamentals. They need to understand that most of the time less is best. You have to remember that today’s attention span is very tight compared to how it was ten years ago. You have two seconds to grab a potential customers attention so don’t overload them with information.

I’ve worked with some intelligent people over the past ten years and one thing that I’ve learned is to be patient. Especially when it comes to your marketing. Don’t try and sell people. Don’t chase them. If you chase them they will run. Instead, believe in what it is that you’re trying to market and talk about it for a second. it a couple of hot buttons but talk more about their best interests, not your program or product.

I have recently spent some time around youth sports and kids little leagues. I see a lot of volunteers and coaches teaching these kids. The majority of them are very nice people with good track records. However, there is always that one out of a hundred that may have slipped through a background check because a company wasn’t paying attention to detail. If you let that one person slip through without getting noticed that could have a adverse affect on the integrity of the little league program. It’s the same thing when it comes to marketing. Pay close attention to detail about the message that you’re trying to send. Don’t let that one bad message slip in and have a reverse affect on your overall campaign.

Think about a soccer team and this team is one that has a history of being a winner. One of the key attributes about this team that you always recognize is their uniforms color blue. You’re also very familiar with the field that they regularly play on. They also have a very unique team name which is another attribute. These attributes is what makes the brand. Then you want to think about functional benefits. What is it that they actually do that makes them successful? As a club that have a core bunch off kids who have great discipline, work hard, want to win and they are well coached by a winner. Then you have the emotional benefits. They are creative. They make people feel good when you watch them. they’ll try something different. Even if they aren’t winning they are still an exciting team to watch. All of these qualities make up what I refer to as “brand essence” and that’s what you need to think about when you’re doing your marketing.