Small Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Pages’

When you are writing a business proposal it can be in response to a “Request for Proposal” (or “Invitation to Tender”) – that is, a re-active proposal – one that is reacting to an event from the buyer. Or you can write a pro-active proposal – one that you present to a buyer without waiting for them to ask several potential suppliers for competitive proposals.

A pro-active proposal may be used to help define a business case for a particular project – the client may not have realised the benefits of changing to your particular brand of widgets, for example. But what is the best format for a pro-active proposal? Of course it depends on the complexity and nature of your products, but in many ways the pro-active proposal is there to serve one of two purposes.

1) To provide the client with a written follow-up to sales activity
2) To gain attention of a client prior to sales activity

Undoubtedly if you have had existing sales calls and the client wishes to move ahead, then you need to write a proposal that provides complete details of the product or service you offer and all the accompanying terms and descriptions of your offer – a full proposal.

But if you are sending a proposal into a business that you have no agreement with, is that going to work? No. For two main reasons.

Firstly: it’s too big a document for anyone to be interested in reading. Sure, it may be interesting but it’s going in the bin.
Secondly: it isn’t customised to the client’s situation and requirements. So how can you provide the details when you don’t know them?

What can work though, is a well presented letter proposal, used as a marketing tool. Rather than sending the glossy brochure out, that’s also likely to end up in the circular file next to the desk, send a personalised letter.

You may not know the customer’s need, but you should be able to find out the decision makers name. And your letter can get straight to the point of highlighting the benefits you can offer. Not just the generic benefits of your solution (again, you don’t know their situation, so think carefully about the client benefits?) but the benefits of having you come in and having a discussion.

A sales letter can be a powerful tool, and more people are likely to read a personalised letter than read a glossy brochure. Make it short and powerful – it’s a sales tool, so why not include some proposal power words? Have a clear call to action at the end (what they can do) and also a statement about what you will do (when you will call to follow up).

A sales letter won’t work every time, but in certain situations they can be a very powerful tool that is easy to create, cheap to send out and gets results.

Find out more about writing sales letters at http://www.learntowriteproposals.com

If you are a book author who wants potential readers to find you on the internet, you want to be as visible as possible in places that those readers might be. And in almost every social media place that you sign up for – such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – you are given the opportunity to write a profile about yourself.

What should these profiles say to effectively attract potential readers?

Twitter Has Only 160 Characters for Your Bio Info

Let’s start with Twitter with 160 characters max for your bio. Obviously you are going to put that you are a book author (perhaps fiction or nonfiction) and presumably you will have a book website URL for the “more info URL” field in your profile. What else are you going to say in those 160 characters? That depends.

Do you have a business besides being a book author? If so, you may want to put info about that business in your bio. Or is there a particular hook about your book that you want to get across in your bio? Perhaps your book is a novel based on a true story.

Your goal in the brief Twitter bio is to make yourself interesting enough (although all true) that people can find “connections” to you and want to follow you.

This means that you must not leave this bio blank. If you want people to follow you on Twitter, you have to be willing to share about yourself.

And remember that you can change this info easily. For example, if your book wins an award, you should consider changing your Twitter bio to reflect that award. Revisit your bio every couple of months to ensure that it presents the most up-to-date version of yourself.

Facebook Has Much More Space for Bio Info

Now let’s move on to Facebook, which has a longer bio section under info on your profile page with the ability to include as many of your own website URLs as you want.

Now here’s the often-overlooked extra of Facebook:

You can have a very brief bio section under your photo that people can see when visiting your wall page as well as your info page. This is a golden opportunity to get the most important points across in a very short space. Because, honestly, how many people are going to read all those long entries on your info page? (And for the long entries, do use lists instead of long, dense paragraphs.)

Take advantage of this brief, easy-to-read bio with the info you most want to share with your Facebook friends. Note that this may not necessarily be the same as the info you choose to share with your Twitter followers, even though in both cases you want to emphasize that you are a book author. And, again, update this brief Facebook bio every couple of months.

LinkedIn Has Its Own Peculiarities

Now for the third social networking site – LinkedIn. This site gives you a very brief space to put a few words under your photo along with the opportunity to provide a brief summary of your business. Book authors should take advantage of both places to convey their most important information. Then the rest of the profile info on LinkedIn is more job and career-oriented.

There is one important “trick.” LinkedIn only allows three website links. But don’t click on “My Company” or “My Website” or “My Blog” before putting in the links. Click on “Other” in each case. Then to the right of “Other” put descriptive words such as “Book Blog” or “Book Site.” You want potential readers to know they can find out about your book(s) at your sites.

As with your other social media profiles, revisit your LinkedIn profile info every so often to ensure that the info is up to date.

In conclusion, don’t make the mistake of thinking that these profiles are unimportant and thus you dash off writing the info. These profiles provide the information that helps make you interesting to potential readers. Spend as much time writing and revising these social media profiles as you would spend writing and revising any paragraph or page in your novel or nonfiction book.

How to Promote Your Business in the Yellow Pages:

Ask the Expert

By Fran Finley

The Expert

Our expert on Yellow Pages advertising is author, speaker, consultant, Barry Maher. You may have seen Maher on the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, CNBC or in the pages of USA Today, the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. His book, Filling the Glass was recently honored as “[One of] The Seven Essential Popular Business Books” by Today’s Librarian magazine. Few people realize that Maher is also the author of the book, Getting the Most from Your Yellow Pages Advertising, and that he conducts Yellow Pages workshops at conventions across the country. According to TIME, “Barry Maher has helped thousands of small businesses get the most cost effective Yellow Pages advertising possible.”

Does Yellow Pages advertising really work?

Well, it certainly can work. But it’s far more likely to work if you pay attention to a few key rules.

Can’t you rely on your Yellow Pages sales rep for any help you need?

Sometimes the rep can be part of the problem. Too many Yellow Page ads are whipped up in the few minutes the rep has left after trying to sell you a bigger ad. Ask, no, insist, that your directory publishers develop an ad for you that justifies the cost. If they can’t, have the ad produced yourself.

Okay, so you need a great looking ad. What about the content?

Content is another key. The first piece of ad copy that readers see, the headline, has to be powerful enough to drag them away from all those competing ads. Never use your company name as your headline unless it really is that powerful. Unless it really is the most important selling copy in the ad.

What other copy should you include?

You have to include all the hard, factual information potential customers need to make a decision to call or drop by: be it about image, market niche, products and services, features, brand names, expertise, pricing, quality, hours, reliability, speed, location, service area, credit available, whatever it might be.

So you should use every bit of ad space you’re paying for?

Absolutely not. Your ad is competing for readability with every other ad under your heading or headings. If it’s difficult to read, it isn’t going to be read. You’ve got to refine your copy until you can provide all the information potential clients want in an ad that’s so uncluttered and inviting that reading it becomes automatic.

What about visuals, like drawings and photos?

Nothing can turn a mediocre Yellow Pages ad into a great one faster than the right illustration. If your picture isn’t worth a thousand words, find one that is.

How about ad size: is bigger better?

Unfortunately, all things being equal, bigger ads get a greater response. They also get the best placement, closest to the front of the heading. Placement can be even more important than size.

A visually appealing ad can make up for some size, especially under a heading where all the ads are on the same page or two. It’s much more difficult to compete with ads on an earlier page. That page may never be turned.

Always consider placement when you’re deciding on ad size. Have your sales rep show you where the size you’re considering would fall in this year’s directory. That should give you an idea of the position, relative to the competition, you’d have next year. Sometimes going up a size and spending just a few more dollars will move you much closer to the front of the heading. Sometimes you can cut back in size without losing much in the way of position.

What about using color?

Color is eye catching. And expensive. If the money you’d be spending is approximately the same, you’re better off significantly improving the size and placement of your ad than the color.

Some areas are covered by several competing directories. Should you buy ads in all of them?

Make the sales rep prove value before you buy, especially when you’re considering a directory for the first time. If he or she can’t prove value, don’t put any real money there. Instead, try something small: perhaps even a simple in-column ad, or even just a listing. Track your response, survey your customers to discover how they discovered you. Then next year you’ll have know.

What’s the biggest Yellow Pages mistake you’ve ever encountered?

That’s got to be the attorney who found herself listed not under ATTORNEYS but under REPTILES. I’ll leave it to you to decide if that was perhaps more truth in advertising than she bargained for.

Which reminds me: Always insist on getting a proof for your display ad.

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