FOLLOW THE REAL LIFE STORIES OF 12 BUSINESS OWNERS AND GET SOME GREAT IDEAS ON HOW TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

The Small Business Big Brand 30 Day Marketing Challenge was launched at a marketing symposium in Sydney on 17 February where 12 amazing business owners from all over Australia and New Zealand have joined forces to catapult their marketing efforts. Over the course of the challenge we’ll be following their stories to find out what they are up to and what’s working and what’s not. We hope you get some great new ideas on how to market your business at low cost and with maximum impact by following their stories.

Check out this Youtube clip to find out more about the challenge and to see an interview with challenger, Christine Tonkins of Gecko Tots

We are currently taking bookings for the next Small Business Big Brand 30 Day Marketing Challenge to be launched at a Symposium on 5 May in Sydney. We will only be taking 12 challengers. If you would like more information and details on how to book, please contact our office by emailing Doris on info@connectmarketing.com.au or phone 1300 886 107.

Find out more about the people behind the businesses, their marketing challenge and Carolyn Stafford's advice to them. Read on…

Peter Magner and Chris Jackson of Precision Physio About: Pete and Chris are Masters Qualified Physios and founders of Precision Physio, Sydney’s leading provider of premium quality physiotherapy services with 4 clinics across Sydney. Their mission is to simplify the path for their clients to confidently return to doing the things they love - their family, their sport and their healthy lifestyle. Marketing challenge: Pete & Chris know they provide their clients with outstanding results and this keeps them coming back. However, their major marketing challenge is how to effectively and compellingly get their message out to their broader local community who don’t know they exist or what they can do. Carolyn’s advice: Many of Chris and Pete’s clients come to them because of an injury of some sort. So they need to develop a list of potential alliances within a 3km radius that might also be treating people for injuries. This could include GP’s, masseurs, podiatrists, osteopaths, yoga and pilates teachers and more. They should then arrange to meet with these people to discuss how they might refer each other business. . Geoff Baxter of the Business of I.T. (BoIT) About: With 30 years experience in IT, Geoff has come to understand that many corporate IT areas have been focused on technology rather than how it can be used to drive bottom line performance. His mission is to turn corporate IT into an asset that is valued by the business through his process driven consulting programs. Marketing challenge: BoIT is a start-up and therefore does not currently have a profile or recognition in the community it operates. Geoff’s challenge is to refine his positioning, services and processes to target his ‘top 100’ preferred client list and to get some meetings in place. He also needs to establish his expertise as a thought leader in IT through a website, blog and other online forums. Carolyn’s advice: Geoff needs to create a compelling customer value proposition that is different to other consultants. In the current cost-cutting and staff-shedding environment, consultants are going to find it tough, so it will be best to focus on the middle sized companies and niche industries such as law and accounting where Geoff has a strong demonstrable background and established relationships. Justin Small of RedClean About: Justin is the mastermind behind this franchise cleaning company which was established in 2007 to provide commercial and construction cleaning services across the country. With over 9 franchises now in operation, the key to this unique franchise model is a strong and continuing business relationship between the franchisor and each franchisee. Marketing challenge: Justin is dedicated to providing support, ongoing training and new business leads to his franchisees. His challenge is to reach the sales targets set for his recent national tele-marketing campaign where he offered 10% of the revenue of all new contracts to the Bushfire Appeal. He also needs to equip his franchisees with the knowledge and skills they need to market their business more effectively in their local area. Carolyn’s advice: Justin needs to work with his franchisees to help them refine their target markets and ideal contracts and to develop a target list of potential clients. Each franchisee will need a tailored local area marketing plan to complement the national marketing efforts. This could include warm and cold calling, local advertising, networking, alliance building and a referral program. As many of the franchisees come from varying cultures and backgrounds, it's important they feel comfortable with the plan or they won’t be willing to execute it. Christine Tonkins of Gecko Tots About: Christine is the passionate designer and manufacturer behind children’s wear range, Gecko Tots. She believes every child is unique and that they should be encouraged to express themselves and stand out from the crowd in order to become happy and healthy individuals. Gecko Tots children’s clothes allow your children to simply stand out! Marketing challenge: Christine has realised that to survive in these tough times she must put a marketing plan in place and determine her real points of difference so she can use them more effectively in her communications. She particularly needs to improve her knowledge of eMarketing so that she can grow her business drastically online. Carolyn’s advice: Christine now has a marketing plan in place. Gecko Tots has many points of difference but needs a tagline that reflects their major point of difference and one that will inspire parents and grandparents to buy her clothes. We currently like ‘Out there clothes, for out there kids’. With regards to eMarketing, she only needs to know ‘what to do’ not ‘how to do it’, so she first needs to get the knowledge and then find an expert to help execute. Elizabeth Ball of It's In the Stars About: Elizabeth helps couples and parents have fun getting to know themselves and their kids through her beautifully presented astrology reports. Customers buy her LoveStars and BabyStars personalised reports through her own website and through more than 25 gift websites in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Marketing challenge: Elizabeth specifically wants to reach mothers wanting to understand their children, women seeking fun, fresh insights into their relationship, and men wanting to surprise their partners. Her challenge is to create awareness about her free monthly It's In The Stars horoscope newsletter, 2009 forecast and gift blog. She also needs to increase the number of distributors and retailers marketing her reports. Carolyn’ advice: Elizabeth needs to make her free member only content - the 2009 forecast and exclusive member info in the monthly horoscope newsletter - much more obvious so people subscribe when they visit her site. People need to be told what you want them to do, so the subscribe button needs to be more obvious. Once her blog is launched in March, she can add snippets of SEO-friendly info to that, Twitter and Facebook and other social media to encourage people to visit her site and buy her products. Dex Humphreys of O Organics Produce About: Established in 1999, O Organic Produce creates wholesome delicious food using fresh local organic produce. Their cafe at 487 Crown Street, Surry Hills was Sydney’s first organically certified cafe. They have grown from a small two man team to a well established multi-faceted company creating a positive attitude in the community towards health and environmental sustainability using not only their cafe but also through catering and supplying whole foods to many health food stores and cafes.  Marketing challenge: Dex wants to seriously grow the number of patrons purchasing food from their cafe and dramatically increase the catering division of their business. He intends to do this through a strong innovative online program, which includes social networking, a weekly blog/newsletter and a customer referral system with incentives. Carolyn’s advice: The cafe already has a strong following so they need to leverage this by encouraging customers to buy more and to buy more often and to refer them to friends. Dex needs to ensure that he has a solid customer database as the basis for his online programs and before collecting any customer email addresses he needs to ensure there is a compelling reason for people to want to be on the email list. Monthly recipes or exclusive invitations into the kitchen where their chefs give a cooking demo might work. A quick survey to find out what his customers would like might help.  Kathryn Anda of PepWorldwide About: PEPworldwide are the world leaders in workplace productivity. They simply change the way people work forever, following their unique Personal Efficiency Programs based on one-to-one coaching ‘at the workstation’ principles. Their programs help white-collar workers, managers and whole teams improve their work processes and the use of office technology to maximise their productivity. Marketing challenge: Over the last 10 years they have lost touch with thousands of past participants in their programs because they have either moved companies or location. Kathryn feels these people provide warmer business opportunities than cold leads as they may be able to introduce the PEP concept into their current company. Their marketing challenge is to develop a data-base of these people through searching on social media sites such as Facebook and Linkedin to re-establish contact and renew their relationships. Carolyn’s advice: Supplement the social media program to find these people in other ways by checking the phone directories. You could also consider running a quirky online campaign ‘have you been PEPed?’ If so, tell us about it and WIN a PEP makeover. It may also be appropriate to make contact with the companies that you already have as clients and ask them for information on where their PEPed people have moved on to. Luke Anear of The G Spot About: The G Spot is a web marketing company that helps businesses drastically increase online enquiries and sales. They provide website makeovers, search engine optimisation, google adwords services, landing page services and web copywriting and are about to launch Finding The G SPOT, a complete DIY knowledge based program for business owners. Marketing challenge: Luke’s challenge is to launch Finding The G SPOT by tapping into affiliate marketing channels to create 10,000 leads in order to generate 500 new sales in 30 days. Carolyn’s advice: Develop an online campaign to supplement the affiliate program to include advertising on key small business websites. Create an online community section on your website to generate trust and authenticity where users of your programs can share experiences and ideas and support each other in their online quest. Create a fun ad to be aired on Youtube. Pollyanna Lenkic of Perspectives Coaching About: Pollyannas business equips people in organisations to get on with business. She has a track record of delivering results through her tailored Leadership Development Programs, Presentation Skills Programs, Time Mastery, Systems Mastery and Team Building programs. She is a regular blogger on smartcompany.com.au and a keynote speaker and presenter. Marketing challenge: With the change in the economic climate Pollyanna wants to refresh her marketing strategies and drive revenue growth through new sources. Working on this challenge in a team environment where she can contribute to others as well as benefit from the camaraderie and contribution of the other participants is what attracted Pollyanna to be a part of the challenge. Carolyn’s advice: Pollyanna has to refine her marketing plan and focus on one of the great ideas in the plan. She has some very unique workshops that have had rave reviews from past clients so she should pick the ‘golden nugget’ or one workshop that is highly unique and most relevant in today’s current economic climate and develop a campaign to get in front of past clients and a target list of new clients. Rich Harvey of Propertybuyers About: Rich and his team help home buyers and investors search and negotiate for residential and commercial real estate. They provide independent advice and research to help clients find the right property at the right price saving them time, money and stress. Propertybuyer has won 11 business awards including the National Telstra Business Award & REINSW Award for Excellence. Marketing challenge: Rich's challenge is to increase the volume and quality of leads (especially high value clients) by identifying the key drivers that prompt clients to use the service. He needs to enhance the core marketing message (saving time, money and stress) to educate prospects on the benefits of using a buyers’ agent and establish a consistent referral program. Carolyn’s advice: Rich has a great marketing plan and a strong list of past clients who have the potential to buy from him again and refer him new clients. In addition to enhancing his core messages he could consider introducing a ‘client for life’ program or a Property Review service to ensure he becomes the first ‘port of call’ every time clients have a property purchase decision to make. Monique Field and Tania Veronese at House and About Inside & Out 1/289 Princes Highway, Unanderra NSW Phone 02 4272 7656 About: Monique began selling her unique furniture 4 years ago. Her determination and passion for her business has seen the business flourish into the largest importer of hand-made crafted timber furniture in the Illawarra. The beautiful range, sourced from remote Asian regions, demands to be noticed amongst the cluttered furniture market. Marketing Challenge: Monique is determined for her business to become a household name in the Illawarra. Her challenge is to get the message out more in her community through networking as well as starting work on their re-branding, website and the launch of an e-Newsletter campaign. Along with this, the staff will be trained on the new marketing strategies and KPI's so that they become excited about pushing forward. Carolyn’s advice: Monique has traditionally relied too heavily on advertising as her source of new business. She has already identified she will be focusing on eMarketing and networking to supplement her advertising but she should add at least two more marketing tactics to the mix. One idea is to create a monthly ‘in-store’ event where she invites an interior decorator to give on-the-spot advice or holds a sausage sizzle and children’s face painting day. The longer people linger, the better the opportunity Monique and her staff have to create deeper relationships with customers which will keep them coming back and telling their friends. Nick Bowditch of Nick Bowditch Travel About: Nick started his travel consultancy in 2008 after working as a travel agent and spending a large part of his life travelling overseas. He has been fortunate enough to live and work on 6 continents and to have travelled to over 80 countries. Since starting this challenge he has decided to position himself as ‘Australia’s Family Travel Expert’ where he brings families together where ever they wish to be in the world! Marketing challenge: His biggest challenge is to build more traffic to his online presence which in turn will build his customer database and make electronic marketing so much easier. He wants to develop a weekly newsletter to go to the database ensuring the content is newsworthy and interesting to them. He also wants to make the branding of “Australia’s Family Travel Expert” commonplace and leverage it everywhere and develop the best referral system he can. Carolyn’s advice: To position himself firmly as a family travel expert and before he starts growing his online presence, Nick should conduct an opinion poll to find out where the best family holiday destinations are, which ones are most affordable and ‘kid friendly’. He could develop a simple survey using www.surveymonkey.com that can be launched via his website, Twitter, Facebook and other social media. He could offer a prize for the ‘best family travel story’ and create an online forum on his website for families to give each other travel tips and advice.