This year’s marketing tag lines have been incredibly catchy. From political campaigns to electrical devices, marketing campaigns and hot shot advertising agencies seem to be wittier than year’s past. Here are the Top 11 Marketing Taglines:

1. Change we need – Barack Obama 2008 political campaign. These three simple words were embedded into the mind’s of voters via bumper stickers, commercials, marketing tools and instilled in his public speeches.
2. Can you hear me now? …Good – Verizon Wireless. A common saying for most cell phone users, the tagline correlates with this booming phone provider.
3. Wii would like to play – Nintendo Wii. The quirky characters in the television commercials help to reiterate the fun to be had with this gaming system.
4. Five dollar foot long — Subway. The tag line has kept us singing the message throughout the day and has become an effective marketing tool to attract customers looking for an affordable meal.
5. What’s in your wallet? – Capital One. A simple question that has attracted many new customers looking for an extra credit line.
6. What happens here, stays here – Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. The saying is already popular with those visiting the area and Las Vegas continues to be a popular destination for those looking for guilt-free vacations.
7. Are you in good hands? – Allstate. With their dramatic and eye-opening television commercials, the tag line brings home the idea of the importance of full coverage auto insurance.
8. Easy, breezy, beautiful Covergirl – Covergirl makeup. The makeup manufacturers use models from all backgrounds and continues to be a popular choice for women looking for a fresh and breezy look.
9. Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined – Hooters. Known for their wings and peculiar work attire, Hooter’s offers casual dining in an even more casual atmosphere.
10. Foster’s. Australian for beer. – Foster’s. With an extremely simple commercial and tag line, American’s love the accent and the beverage.
11. It gives you wings — Redbull. Redbull continues to be one of the top selling energy drinks in the country and continues to draw up the best animated commercials. And yes, it gives you wings.

If you’re a small business owner and looking to get more from your current online marketing plan, or if you’re ready to start marketing online, visit our online marketing business service center.

How to Create your own effective Tagline?

As a small business owner looking to increase the number of consumers who recognize your brand and products through your online marketing business, you have probably thought about working with an advertising agency to create your own campaign. And after intensive consideration, you have then found out that these services don’t work within your budget. With some creativity and clever plays on words, you can create your own effective tagline to work with your business.

Figure out what you want to communicate with your tagline and who your target audience is. You have probably brainstormed a few selling propositions or services that you set you apart from your competitors. Keep a running list of these ideas and concepts and see how they correlate with your list of potential tag lines. Next, study your target audience and think about how this audience will benefit from your product or service. Create a sense of a call to action and activate your potential customers to learn more about your company. Evoke feelings, either comedic or more profound, within your audience members and let them know why they should seek you instead of your competitors. You may also want to look into pay per click services to best attract your target audience, so speak to a specialist about your options.

Brainstorm and start doing research. You will want to look at other effective advertising campaigns and product brands and try and see why they were so effective in attracting new customers. Look in categories like your own and also those industries that have no similarity for tag line ideas. Look at the words they use and see how you can incorporate those ideas with your own. You might come across a brilliant tag line idea while looking at other successful ones. Look around your own environment for examples: anywhere where you can find advertisements, clever packaging, or logos that attract an ideal set of targeted individuals. Conduct a brainstorming session with your friends, family and those familiar with your business to feed off other ideas for your campaign.

Take a look at your competitors’ taglines. By looking at your competitors taglines, you will know what works and doesn’t work when it comes to creating a brand. If you find a clever brand that attracts interest within yourself, try rearranging words or use your own words to create a similar idea. However, don’t ever make a tagline too similar to those already established, as potential clients might find you to be an unreliable company. Use a thesaurus or specialized dictionary for alternative words to the ordinary. Check out their website, if applicable, to see what certain keywords they use to increase their online visibility. If your budget allows for it, look into SEO services to optimize your website.

Gather your thoughts and decide on a tagline. Go through all of your ideas and look for the best potential taglines. Ask your peers about what tagline makes creates an impact on them and keep a tally of the results. You may want to contact a marketing specialist for their expertise and thoughts on the taglines you narrowed down.

No simpler words have ever hurt an owner more. Despite all your messaging, marketing, selling, and posturing, you learn it’s all for naught when:

• At a networking event, you overhear a colleague refer an ideal prospect to a competitor of yours. When you ask your colleague why he referred your competitor and not you, he says, “I didn’t know you did that.”
• Worse, even, you learn your customer just suggested his friend call an unqualified competitor instead of automatically pushing the work your way. And, when confronted, your client says, “You do that? I had no idea!”
• Your own employee hears and ignores your client drop multiple buying signals. As gently as you can, you point this out and your employee responds, “Oh that’s right, I guess we do that.”

This is painful for three reasons:

1. Your marketing and sales messaging is ineffective
2. You have no idea how much business you are losing every day
3. Your colleagues, customers and employees feel sheepish for not knowing better

But what can and should you do? Keep refining and simplifying your message. Look at it through the eyes of your colleagues, clients and staff. Have you really made it simple?
Who do you refer and why is it easy to refer those you can? Make it as easy for your supporters as you want them to do unto you. Are you able to refer your closest clients and colleagues to their prospects? Where you have done so, isn’t it because your clients and colleagues:

1. Communicate a clear, current and simple grasp of how their best and highest use is purchased and referred
2. Know how their message is understood and repeated by others
3. Track how and who is referring them and conversely who and how they are referring others

Hearing the damning words, “I didn’t know you do that,” is most painful when your own customers or clients are hiring others to do work you could be doing. Ask yourself, “Do you have a 100% share of your customer’s business?”

If not, then start uncovering and gaining these opportunities so your clients will see, first-hand, what you do!

Andrew J. Birol is the President of Birol Growth Consulting, who helps owners grow their businesses by growing their best and highest use®.

Many new small businesses get confused about what marketing steps they need to take first.

I believe that there are 3 essential components that you need in your marketing framework:

1. a website
2. free giveaway and opt-in box
3. marketing tactics based on your core marketing strength

Let’s look at each of these in more depth:

The first component you absolutely need in your marketing framework is a website.  I’m sure you’ve heard this again and again, and are probably sick of hearing about it….but that’s because it is so important!

A website is crucial for building credibility, trust, a relationship with prospects and clients, and also as the key means for building your list.  This leads us into the second component you need in your marketing framework.

The second component is a free giveaway and an opt-in box.  These go hand-in-hand - you need to have an opt-in box on each page of your website that gives people access to a free giveaway in exchange for their name and email address.  This is the way you start capturing names and build a list of prospects that you can communicate with on a regular basis and build a relationship with them.

A free giveaway is a piece of valuable information that your prospective clients would find useful.  There are many different formats you can provide your free giveaway in:  a report, audio lesson, tips & tricks, a checklist, an audio recording and so on.

The third component that you need in your marketing framework is tactics built around your core marketing strength. There are 3 main areas that most marketing tactics fall under:  writing, speaking and networking.

All of us are usually stronger in one of these areas, we enjoy one area more, or it comes easier and we can therefore do it quicker.

Once you figure out that, you will start to add marketing tactics that are built around that core strength of yours, and then grow from there.

So if you’re just starting out or you are not achieving the results that you want, take a look at your marketing framework.  Make sure you have these 3 components working smoothly and rest assured you’ve got a solid marketing base from which to go forward.

Do you naturally gravitate towards marketing tactics that involve writing?  If so, take advantage of this core marketing strength in marketing your small business.

When you enjoy doing something and are good at it, then you can do it quicker, easier and with more enjoyment.  Doesn’t that sound great - especially when it comes to marketing?

Below I’ve outlined the most common (and effective) beginner and advanced marketing strategies that you can use if writing is your core marketing strength.

Beginner marketing tactics for writing include:

• write articles and submit to online submission sites
• write articles and post to your website
• have a blog
• write an ezine
• write press releases and news releases
• create autoresponders and email campaigns

Advanced marketing tactics for writing:

• write articles for industry and association publications (print and online)
• write ebooks
• write a book for publication
• write info products
• do guest blog posts
  • I do Resource Nation
• offer articles to strategic alliance partners and affiliates
• write a column for a newspaper or magazine or an online site
• write a newsletter
• write and send out direct marketing pieces

Have I left anything out?  Please let me know (then I can start using it too!).

I define core marketing strength as being tactics that you enjoy doing, are good at and what you naturally gravitate towards.

For example, my core marketing strength is writing.  I love writing, I can do it pretty quickly and easily and I have lots of ideas of things I can write about (around my business services and products).

I enjoy speaking and I’ve done lots of it, but it causes me some angst and it’s not something I absolutely thrive on doing.

Networking (especially in-person) is definitely not something I really like, am comfortable with or really want to do!  I’ll do it, I have done it - especially in my corporate life, but it isn’t something I get hopped up about doing!  I’m much better one-on-one with people.

So guess what?  I’ve built my marketing framework around writing. I chose marketing tactics that involved writing - like submitting articles, having a blog, doing guest blogs, writing ebooks and so on.

Once that got going and was humming along consistently, I started adding some marketing tactics that include networking and speaking.

But the key thing is that I built my marketing framework around something I enjoyed, could do fast and with not tons of effort.  This ensured that I took action with my marketing right away and that I enjoyed it.  We all know that we will do something we enjoy, but procrastinate endlessly if it’s something we feel not that great at, don’t enjoy or it seems too difficult.

Once you figure out what your core marketing strength is, you can build a marketing framework that encompasses 3 or 4 tactics based on your strength.  From there you can add additional strategies from your core area and/or add some from the other two areas.

Marketing can be fun - so help make it enjoyable by choosing marketing tactics that you actually like doing!

I would love to hear what your core marketing strength is and which marketing tactics you’re using based on that strength.

These are difficult economic times that send shivers down the most optimistic entrepreneur’s spine, but there is a silver lining. It is during difficult financial times that the smartest, forward thinking companies rise to the top. The biggest challenge is to survive and the best way to do so is with a good plan.

Often times as sales decrease, the first thing companies cut is their marketing budgets, but in order to maintain or increase sales, it is important to have a strong market presence – keeping your company’s product or service out there and top of mind. That said it is possible to cut back on costs and increase outreach by developing a smart marketing strategy. Just having a good plan can save time, design and printing costs and cut down on waste.

For many a marketing plan may seem overwhelming or unnecessary. For some, when sales really slow, they feel a need just to do something; an ad or a direct mail piece, or some other marketing opportunity – taking a shot gun approach and hoping to hit something. In the end, this approach can be costly and ineffective. So make a plan, it can always be changed if it is not working. Here are some steps to make the process simpler:

To begin, first determine a marketing budget for the year. Depending on the profit margin of your product and service 2% - 5% of gross forecasted sales should be a minimum budget. If you have a high profit margin, you could increase that percentage a bit. If you do not have forecasted sales numbers, focus on a sales goal for the year.

Next, once you have that budget number, begin to divide up the amount by your marketing tactics. I recommend the following tools – collateral, web site, electronic and print advertising, direct mail, events, etc. When looking at these options, also keep in mind your target market and the mediums they respond to the best. Be sure you have a mix of tactics to ensure a solid “cross-media” strategy. If you find your budget is too tight to do all the items you would like, shift more of your budget to areas that offer a higher return on investment or allocate more of your budget to specific times of year which historically have provided better response rates. Build in a mechanism to track response to your marketing efforts. Web and e-marketing will have analytics built in, but just always asking, “How Did You Hear About Us?” is valuable information.

One tactic that should be included as a component in your marketing plan is a loyalty program. During a time when everyone will be reviewing their spending, customer loyalty is very important. It is easier and less costly to keep a customer than to get a new one. Service is a big part of loyalty, but special programs, deals and communication to your “regulars” will go a long way in keeping them. Plus, they will be the best source of referrals and viral marketing.

Finally, remember to review your plan throughout the year. Re-evalutate, look at actual sales vs. forecasted sales and adjust your budget numbers appropriately. Also, you should check to make sure you are getting the greatest return on investment (ROI) for each tactic you use. When one tactic out performs another, than you should shift dollars to increase the effectiveness, cutting out what does not work. Marketing methods are always changing, new markets open up, and technology is playing a greater role every day so try some new things too! Good luck.

We’ve all heard it - over and over. Recession, job loss, tough times.

Does this remind anybody else of the old story about Chicken Little (”the sky is falling”)?

I am a fierce believer that what we think about comes about. If we don’t want financial struggles, despair and “oh no” experiences, why do we spend so much of our time thinking about them?

How is it that some businesses see growth - even record growth - during these “slow” times?

They get back to basics. What are they?

1. They focus on what they do best, and they make the most of it. When did it become admirable to be “Jack of all Trades and master of none”?  Being a one-stop shop may seem like a convenient way to service your customer, and it certainly can be. It also can confuse potential customers into wondering what it exactly is that you do. The same pattern holds for job seekers during these times - employers hire specialists more often than generalists. Why? Because they know exactly what they are getting rather than investing in a candidate and not being certain of what they will get. Be specific. What do you really do? Are you sure?
2. They foster and nurture their strongest networks and referral sources. We all do business with people we know, like and trust. Connect with individuals who believe in the “Givers Gain” philosophy. Who in your circle are your best referral sources? Who has referred business to you in the past? How can you help them grow their business? Help them, and your “know, like and trust” factor will grow exponentially.
3. They dig in and get to it. It’s so easy to wait for things to come to us. Although I do subscribe to the idea of “astral advertising” (aka The Law of Attraction), the perfect client isn’t going to simply appear at our office door with a bucket of money to toss into your lap. Put the right ideas out there (remember, what we think about comes about…) and get to work. Put yourself in situations where you will meet the people you most want to connect with. Be strategic with your time and efforts. This is not about being desparate and begging for clients. You offer a great product or service to your clients, and you will help them (grow their business, save time, save money, insert other benefit here). Don’t be afraid to beat your own drum - that’s how people will hear you.

In my experience as a small business owner for eight years, I have found that there is a lot of confusion over the best ways to market a business. With the plethora of marketing strategies that are available these days between online, offline and integrated marketing, the choices certainly can make one’s head spin. Yet consistent and clear marketing is critical to success. What’s more, business owners and entrepreneurs who do not spend time to plan their marketing strategy have unknowingly set out on a course headed straight for doom.

1. Having a Well-Defined Target Market
This step is often overlooked, but it is critical to spend time defining your ideal client. Defining a target market helps you define who is most likely to buy your product or service versus any random person who can buy simply because they have a credit card. Being armed with this information will help you maximize a small marketing budget because you will only market to extremely focused and targeted audiences, creating a high ROI. Most small business owners would benefit tremendously by selecting a very narrow target market, sometimes called a micro-niche, and going after that market.

2. Marketing Message
Once you know your target market, you can develop a clear marketing message that addresses your market’s specific problems and shows that you have the business that can solve them. The goal of a marketing message is to grab the attention of your target market and make them interested in finding out more information from you. We are all inundated with marketing messages throughout the day, so creating a message that stands out and makes your target market notice you is imperative.

3. Realistic Marketing and PR Plan
A marketing and public relations plan does not have to be complicated. In fact, it should be very simple so you are more likely to follow it. If you have a simple plan that you have integrated with your calendar, you are far more likely to meet your goals. If you select five to ten ways to market your business and repeat them consistently, you will see results. Also, free PR opportunities are out there for you! Your plan should include article and press release submissions to your local business newspaper and membership organizations, at the very least.

4. Networking
Never underestimate the power of a strong web of prospects, clients, joint venture partners, affiliates and others! Who you know and how you treat them will dictate your success. It’s important to select only the best networking groups that put you in the midst of your ideal clients, potential partners or referral sources. It’s better to only be a member of one or two highly targeted networking groups that you can commit to than a dozen where nobody remembers you because you can’t consistently attend or get involved.

5. Email Marketing
Publishing a relationship-building ezine (e-newsletter) is a core marketing tool for most businesses. It’s inexpensive – and when done well, it works to build relationships with others. It’s a wonderful way to showcase your expertise and allows your clients, prospects and partners, and colleagues to get you know, like and trust you.

6. A Sales and Marketing Based Web Site
Your web site can and should be flexing its marketing and sales muscle every second of every day. A marketing and sales-based web site will capture leads and lead them directly into your marketing funnel, allowing you to start to build relationships with them.

7. Professional Marketing Collateral
Having professionally designed and printed marketing collateral is critical. People will judge you based on something as simple as the paper weight of your business card! If you’re really on the cutting edge, you can create a simple CD with an introduction to your business instead of, or in addition to a brochure. Be sure to use your marketing message, hire a graphic artist to do the design work and include a call to action in all of your materials.

8. Your Support Team
Nobody succeeds alone. As a business owner, you will likely need to locate a marketing-based “dream team” of support such as a graphic artist, a web developer, web designer, copy writer, printer, promotions company and an assistant, just to name a few. Having relationships with each of these professionals will come in handy even if you only need to call on their services a few times a year.

9. Time Mastery
It is up to each of us as business owners to tenaciously covet our time, who we spend it with and how we spend it. As a business owner, it is important to spend the vast majority of our work time on high pay-off activities. It is your right to say no to meetings, volunteer work, committee work or other engagements that do not directly support your main business goals.

10. Systems
Michael Gerber, best-selling author of The E Myth, Revisited, says, “The system is the solution.” If you ever find yourself frustrated with something related to billing, your client intake process, your voice mail, or if you spend too much time retraining your staff how to do something, you are in need of a new system. Creating a system can be very simple. It’s a matter of finding out how something is currently being done, making changes necessary to rid yourself of burdensome tasks, and writing down the new and improved process in a flow chart. Once you have it documented, you can hand the flow chart to everyone involved and provide training, even if it’s just a discussion, so the process runs smoothly.
Before you get overwhelmed with this list of “marketing must-haves,” remember tip #8. You don’t need to do it all alone. In fact, you shouldn’t even try. Delegation of things you cannot do, do not want to do, or someone else can do better is one of the best investments you can make into your business. Hiring people who will support your vision will lead you to success. It will allow you to free up your time to spend it where you need to - on leading your business.

© 2008 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing

Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, publishes Smart Marketing, a free bi-weekly ezine featuring marketing tools and resources designed to help the busy entrepreneur become known as an expert, build trust with clients and prospects and generate more income. Subscribe today at www.richlifemarketing.com.

This article may be reprinted when the copyright and author bio are included.

Here’s the last 3 components that you need to ensure that your follow-up marketing strategies are as effective and efficient as possible for you.

Follow up needs to be automated

Try to automate your follow-up marketing as much as you can.  All of us are busy and the more we can systematize our marketing, the easier and quicker we can start reaping the rewards.

Luckily there is an abundance of tools and people you can use to simplify and automate your follow-up activities - from autoresponders to full contact management systems to Virtual Assistants.

An example of automating your follow-up marketing would be a shopping cart program that sends out automatic emails in a series after someone purchases your product, or a company that formats and sends out your ezine, or a VA who produces and sends out electronic greeting and thank you cards for you.

Follow up needs reliable data

To take advantage of many of the ways to follow up with your prospects and clients, you need to have a system in place that captures information about people and keeps track of interactions and communications you have with everyone.

Use software such as Aweber and 1Shopping Cart to gather and store information like client’s birthdays, business anniversary dates, purchasing information, emails that were sent, and so on.

Follow up needs to have varied delivery methods

Keep your follow-up marketing interesting and keep people intrigued by using different methods of delivery.  Incorporate email, telephone, direct mail, audio and so on, to provide variety in how you connect with people and grab their attention.

By varying the way you communicate and follow up with people, you’re showing that you are creative and interested in talking to them in different ways.  It shows commitment on your part and an understanding that freshness and variety is key in making any business relationship strong.

Take a look at how you are implementing your follow-up marketing tactics - are you using all 8 components (as outlined in the last 3 blog postings)?  If not, take some time today to see how you can make your follow-up marketing run as quickly, easily and profitably as possible.

There are 8 components that will help you make the most of your follow-up marketing strategies and ensure they are as effective as possible.  Here are 3 more of the components you need to pay attention to.

Follow up needs to be consistent

Not only does follow up need to be frequent, it needs to be consistent.

As with any marketing strategy you choose to do, if you do not do it on a regular basis and do it haphazardly, then that’s what you’ll get in return - haphazard results.

Remember that marketing (including follow up) is about building a relationship and if people hear from you a couple times and then not for a few months, they’re not going to get a warm, fuzzy feeling about you.  Consistently following up shows people that you value them, are reliable and committed to providing a service to them.

Follow up needs to build momentum

Frequency and consistency with follow-up marketing allows for momentum to occur.  I define momentum in marketing as each strategy and communication builds on each other and are linked together.

For example, you might start your second email by saying, “8 days ago I sent you an email…”   Or after they’ve purchased a product or downloaded an ebook, send them a handful of emails that highlight something specific about the product or in the report that can help them.

Referencing the previous communication links what you’re saying with what you’ve already said, and reminds your prospect that you care enough to continue the conversation.

Follow up needs to be organized

To ensure that your follow-up marketing is consistent, you need to organize it by putting it in your calendar and on your to-do list.

When you carve out time in your daily and weekly schedule for follow-up activities, then you go a long way towards actually doing them!  How many of us get things done that we haven’t made time for?  Not very many of us I’ll bet!

So put a half-hour aside each Friday to write some thank you notes, and schedule an hour each Monday to write your weekly ezine, and an hour every second Wednesday to write a new email message to send to your list.