Marketing and Promoting Your Home-Based Enterprise: A Wrap Up

If you missed Terrie Bonfiglio's amazing workshop Marketing and Promoting Your Home-Based Enterprise, don't worry, we can fill you in on the excitement.

The High Points:

During a very informative Powerpoint presentation, Terrie walked us through several marketing strategies, as well as the importance of research, branding, and utilization of social media.

Terrie stressed that, before you go to market, you should prep by following these simple steps:

• Identify your niche
• Do comparative shopping
• Research your customers
• Define what makes you different
• Design a brand around that niche

Skimping on prep, she noted, is the single largest cause of small business failure.

Not only did Terrie address how important branding was, she gave a bit of a test on brand recognition.  Who among us doesn't remember a few commercial jingles from their childhood?  Remember Santa riding a razor through the snow in the Norelco commercial?  Or the polar bears from Coca-Cola?  That sort of branding is what every small business owner wants - something immediately recognizable and, above all, memorable.

Brands, she noted, should capture the look, feel, color, and consistency of your product, as well as your story.

Social Media Utilization:

There are many free tools available online to the small business owner, Terrie noted.  Among them are:

Tools to help you work with social media:

• www.SimplyMeasured.com
• www.SocialAnalytics.com
• www.SmartInsights.com
• www.Klout.com
• www.SocialMediaExaminer.com

• www.CANVA.com
• www.Easel.ly
• www.PiktoChart.com
• www.Giphy.com

Terrie also addressed the business model canvas, downloadable from this site:  http://businessmodelgeneration.com

If you are interested in more information or a class on the business model canvas, leave us a comment and we'll do our best to set things up for you!