{"id":120,"date":"2016-04-03T20:07:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T00:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/teetsb\/?p=120"},"modified":"2016-04-03T20:07:33","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T00:07:33","slug":"article-review-assignment-1-april-4-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iblog.dearbornschools.org\/teetsb\/2016\/04\/03\/article-review-assignment-1-april-4-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Article Review Assignment #1- April 4, 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a great article that summarizes how a business uses marketing. \u00a0Read the following article and write a half page summary that explains how to use marketing in a business. \u00a0This article review is worth 15 summative points.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shark Tank’ Star Robert Herjavec’s Top 5 Small-Business Marketing Tips<\/strong>
\nMARCH 28, 2016
\nWhen Robert Herjavec wanted to start his own company, people discouraged him. They said he couldn\u2019t do it. He had zero experience, he didn\u2019t have a business degree and he knew nothing about running a business.<\/p>\n

The headstrong Shark Tank star investor steamrolled ahead anyway. In 1990, he launched his first company, BRAK Systems, which he later sold to AT&T.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only knew that I loved what I do and how to work hard,\u201d Herjavec told Entrepreneur. Today, Herjavec Group, his Toronto-based Internet security firm, has grown from three workers in 2003 to 220 employees strong, and it\u2019s on pace to bank $150 million in revenue this year, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Related: Shark Tank Star Robert Herjavec on the 5 Worst Sales Sins<\/p>\n

Herjavec\u2019s commitment to taking the risky entrepreneurial leap — despite the naysayers, and he had plenty of them — has more than paid off. So what if he didn\u2019t have formal training? He also didn\u2019t possess the needed marketing know-how, at least not at first and not all on his own. But that was fine by him.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many entrepreneurs, we didn\u2019t really know what to do at first,\u201d he says. \u201cAs a startup, it\u2019s almost overwhelming. I learned that\u2019s where a third party comes in to help you. They take the marketing pressure off so you can do more of what you love to do — your business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Countless marketing agencies the world over aim to do just that. One such company is Deluxe Corporation. Herjavec announced a new partnership with the Shoreview, Minn.-based firm last week. Together, they unveiled a series of small-business marketing videos. The short \u201cBehind the Business\u201d vignettes feature the multi-millionaire celebrity entrepreneur alongside a few of the companies he\u2019s invested in on Shark Tank.<\/p>\n

1. Target your customers where they hang out on social media.
\nSimply having several social-media accounts for your company isn\u2019t enough. To fully leverage the potential for acquiring new customers on social media, you must also market to them where they live online.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Facebook and other social platforms, you can have highly targeted marketing campaigns to attract customers who are interested in the product or service that you have,\u201d Herjavec says. \u201cFind the user groups they meet up in on social and win them over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related: Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec on Great Business Pitches and Why Sales Reps Need to Be Chameleons<\/p>\n

As an example, he points to The Natural Grip, a fitness product startup he invests in. The company makes special gloves for people who do Crossfit, gymnastics or lift weights. \u201cThat community, athletes, really likes to hang out in certain places on Facebook and we went there to find and engage them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Marketing direct to potential customers on active fan pages and buzzy user groups within the popular social-media mecca turned out to be a smart move. It gained the sporty startup a grip of new customers, according to Herjavec.<\/p>\n

2. Don\u2019t be afraid to sell direct online.
\nEven as the ecommerce economy continues to surge, many small businesses old and new still don\u2019t have shopping carts on their websites. Herjavec says failing to sell directly online is \u201cfoolishly leaving money on the table.\u201d He believes that if your customers trust and believe in your brand, they\u2019ll buy what you sell on the Internet.<\/p>\n

Of those that do offer online shopping, the feature is often set up so poorly that it frustrates and confuses customers. The result: Potential buyers end up abandoning their shopping carts altogether and the sale is dead on arrival. \u201cIt quickly becomes such a hassle to go through with the transaction that they say \u2018forget it,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cDon\u2019t let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know how to set up an online shopping cart, Herjavec suggests leaving it to the pros. \u201cThere are lots of great companies that can handle it for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. Use stunning imagery to grab customers’ attention.
\n\u201cPeople are very busy and the first thing that hits them in any marketing communication is a really pretty picture, not words,\u201d he says, \u201cand I know that sounds really trivial but that engages people and gets them to look at more of your outreach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herjavec\u2019s onto something here. Visual imagery is often more immediately engaging than monotonous walls of text, as the brain is widely believed to processes visuals thousands of times faster than text. Images transmit messages in an instant, not only making your marketing messages pop, but also rendering them more memorable, too.<\/p>\n

4. Market to your customers how they like to be marketed to.
\n\u201cYour customers have a certain amount of information they\u2019re willing to absorb about your brand and certain ways they like to receive that information in over a certain amount of time,\u201d he says. It\u2019s your job to pay attention and learn how they are best marketed to.<\/p>\n

How much information can they handle with each outreach? How do they prefer to be communicated with (via social-media updates, e-newsletter, text notifications, etc.)? How much communication is too much and how much is not enough? If marketing email subscribers start dropping off, find out why and adjust accordingly.<\/p>\n

Related: 3 Online Marketing Strategies to Kick-Start Stagnant Sales<\/p>\n

When it comes to Herjavec\u2019s own contact preferences as a consumer, he feels being marketed to by email once every couple of weeks is more than enough. \u201cI\u2019m a big car guy, so a lot of the car companies market to me, but they\u2019ve learned when enough information is enough for me and that\u2019s once or twice a month,” he says. “Once a day is too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Hire a marketing agency so you can do more of what you love.
\nOutsourcing your marketing needs to an agency dedicated to taking your brand awareness to the next level frees you up to get back to business. If you don\u2019t have the budget to hire a marketing firm, Herjavec suggests partnering with someone you trust who has successfully marketed their own business.<\/p>\n

Whatever you do, he says, don\u2019t take the whole job on yourself, not if you don\u2019t have the experience to back it up.<\/p>\n

Related: Get the Most Out of Your Marketing Agency in 5 Ways<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say, if you\u2019re not a marketing person, you didn\u2019t start the businesses to do marketing, so don\u2019t do it,\u201d he says. It\u2019s crucial that you focus your energy as a small-business owner on the core reason you started up in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wanted to take on the world with the product or service you had, that did something better than anybody else. And that was what you were passionate about, that that\u2019s what caused you to quit your job, get a second mortgage or whatever the reason was.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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