News

Sales are the lifeline of our businesses. As start-up entrepreneurs, we need to score those first few sales to show that our offering is in demand. The first few years are when we want to break-even, proving to all that our businesses are self-sufficient. After that, selling as much as we can brings profitability and unleashes growth potential.

But closing the deal is one of our most difficult tasks. We give all of ourselves to our businesses, and asking people for money can bring on fear of rejection. First time entrepreneurs are worried about pushing the sale too hard and scaring away consumers altogether. More experienced business owners often think that their offering is so great or established that it will sell itself.

These ways of thinking prevent our businesses from meeting our expectations and fulfilling their promise. We can, however, boost our confidence in selling and, in turn, improve our sales by practicing a few techniques to seal the deal. When I began my modeling agency, I believed that all fashion designers and editors would immediately want to book my diverse models because of their talents and benefits alone. After all, how could anyone resist my marketing logic: "Imagine if your consumer saw how great a particular dress looked on someone of her age, size, and background, and liked what she saw. Don't you think she would be more likely to purchase the dress?"

My pitch garnered interest, but never solidified the sale. Clients needed more. And time was my enemy. Second thoughts, competition, or unforeseen events made them change their mind. I had to persuade, listen, negotiate, and, if they were still not convinced, embark on a last ditch effort. Through these experiences, I developed a series of techniques that turns potentials to purchases. Here are my tips on how to close the sale:

Give a Summary. Recap the major benefits associated with the product or service. Be specific. This is a good technique for a potential customer who has told you their needs. Highlight each benefit as it relates to their needs.

Be Indirect. Ask the customer to buy in a causal manner by asking "What do you think?" and "Do these terms suit you?" The prospect's answer determines your next move. If the consumer says, "I want to think about this for a few days," ask when would be a good time to call again. Follow up immediately with an email thanking the customer for their time and then call on the specified date.

Seize the Moment. If the consumer indicates interest by saying that "this looks great" or "I am interested," do not wait. Proceed by showing them a contract or taking them to the cash register. If they ask for a different colour, size, or package, ask whether they would prefer it. If they answer "yes," move forward as if the sale is agreed.

Overcome Doubts. When a prospect opposes an objection to your proposal, listen to their doubts. Politely address each one with evidence. Do not be hostile or discouraged. Every objection puts you one step nearer to closing the negotiation. An objection is purely satisfying a concern of the counterpart that was not addressed earlier in the negotiation.

Share News. Throughout the negotiating process, funnel new information to your prospect. This might be a press release, a copy of a story about your business from the local newspaper, or a testimonial from an existing customer. Prospects that are nervous about working with you, perhaps because you are new or it is their first time buying from you, will particularly appreciate these reassurances.

Build Urgency. Sometimes the consumer will be happy to close the deal — when they can get around to it. Timing may be much more important to you. Create a sense of urgency to get their commitment by making some final concessions to refocus their attention. This may involve offering a greater discount or offering a two-year service agreement. Alternatively, you can let them know that the offering is limited because either you have exclusive stock or that bookings for your service are quickly filling up.

While all of these tips will help you close the deal, the one sure way is to build relationships overtime. Consumers who have tried your offering and trust it will be less cautious about closing future deals. For me, it took some clients one day while it took others one month to agree to the terms and sign. But it was worth it; the first deal is the first step in a long relationship of many more.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Staying on Track: How to Develop A Marketing Calendar

As small business owners, we often have a multi-faceted job description: President/Executive Assistant/Janitor. Finding time to implement new initiatives can be difficult among all our other tasks. As an entrepreneur, I am always brainstorming new marketing activities. But at the start of my business —when I was the sole staff member — the ideas never left my head.

I remembered them en route to work, during my morning run, and in the shower. I would say to myself, "I need to start this newsletter or send out the next issue." But I would then arrive at work, and become consumed with scouting new models, trying to pitch them to fashion editors, and other daily operating activities. I quickly discovered that I my business with was not growing; without updating my marketing efforts, I would fail to generate customers.

My solution was to develop a marketing calendar — a schedule to organize my marketing activities. The calendar serves as a working document I used to manage, categorize, and prioritize my agency's marketing initiatives. I would revise and update it throughout the plan year, adding new activities and removing ones that are no longer required.

Some entrepreneurship coaches suggest that the start of your business, or the start of the calendar year, is the best time to begin organizing your marketing activities. I disagree with their advice. Like me, you may have not known about a marketing calendar when you opened shop, or even at the start of this calendar year. Instead, the best time to begin is right now — once you have learned the techniques.

Simple Spreadsheet. A marketing calendar does not need to be complicated. I use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet matrix. Across the top x-axis, I place column headings representing the months of the year. Down the y-axis, or the first left-hand column, I list each individual marketing initiative, event or activity that I will use during the year. For example, if am going to create a newsletter every other month starting in August 1, I would put an X in the February, April, June, August, October and December columns.

Activities. How do you know which activities to include in your calendar? Brainstorm all the marketing tactics for upcoming twelve months, but keep in mind that you cannot do everything. Balance your marketing workload with the operating tasks. Plan for what you can do completely, not halfway, and those with which you are emotionally and financially comfortable. Prioritize accordingly, and then place your ideas in your matrix.

Analysis. Review your calendar regularly to evaluate your activities. Too many X's close together might indicate that you need to spread out your activity. However, there are natural bunches that occur as a result of seasonality in your business and your customers' buying habits. For example, many retail operations market heavily in the third quarter, for instance, and bunch up marketing activity in anticipation for the fourth-quarter holiday season. Too much time in between the X's in your activities leaves customers and prospects untouched and likely to forget about your firm.

At the end of the year, the quarter, or any other period of time you specify, grade each activity. I use a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being spectacular, or you can use a simple A, B or C grading system. If your particular initiative worked, grade it high. If it was moderately successful, give it a midlevel grade, and if it did not work, give it a low rating. When you plan the next period's marketing, repeat what worked or what you graded highly. Fix, modify, or tweak the marketing that was graded at a midlevel, and eliminate the marketing that did not work at all.

By following these steps, you can ensure your marketing activities stay on track. Once you establish your marketing calendar, keep it updated on a regular basis — akin to paying your bills. Ten years after I began my business, I continue to the same basic marketing calendar with which I started. The results speak for themselves; today I represent 300 models. I learned that consistent marketing keeps you in business, but planned consistent marketing grows your business. So stop dreaming in shower or waiting until January to create a calendar; instead, open a new spreadsheet now.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Barack for Business: How to make your business Obama, not Hillary

For the past sixteen months, we have been bombarded with the latest moves of the two Democratic frontrunners. But last week brought an end to the "official" race. Barack Obama won the minimum number of delegates required to claim victory over Hillary Clinton, officially proclaiming himself the preemptive nominee of the Democratic Party.

The past year and half, however, were much more than a game of politics; they were a lesson in marketing prowess. Campaigning for President differs little from campaigning for market share. Both politicians and businesses have something to sell. Both engage in fierce competition to earn the trust and confidence of the public. Both have the chance to win one ultimate prize — leader of the country or of the marketplace.

Each candidate embarked on a different strategy and, consequently, achieved different results. Heeding their tactics not only offers a road map for future political campaigns, but for the marketing campaigns of small businesses. In the following section, I have extracted three key marketing tactics that led Obama to victory and Clinton to defeat. I explain how you can apply these principles to your marketing efforts.

Stay on Message. Obama never went off message. From his launch to his victory speeches, he promised to bring change to Washington by doing politics differently. Clinton, in contrast, changed her core message three times. She was first the candidate of experience, then the candidate of change and finally the candidate of hard working Americans.

Obama's consistent message earned the trust of voters because it displayed confidence in his position. His stability reinforced his message to voters, etching it into their minds overtime. Clinton not only confused voters with her changing messages, but lost trust and garnered skepticism by contradicting herself with each new theme. For instance, she claimed to be a candidate of change after having asserted that she was the candidate of experience as part of the Washington establishment for two decades.

From these two tactics, we discover that our marketing messages must be consistent. This consistency should be displayed in all written materials, such as emphasizing the same benefits, using the same tagline, and conveying the same mission in your brochures, ads, and website. It should also be displayed in all visual materials; use in the same font, logos, and colours on your website, brochures, business cards, and signage. Remember that repetition is beneficial because, we see in Obama's campaign, it takes time for your message to take root in the minds of consumers —especially if you are new.

Plan Ahead. One of Clinton's fatal mistakes was her strategic planning. She expected to clench the nomination on Super Tuesday, and hence did not plan nor budget beyond this February evening. Obama, however, strategized and budgeted until the last primary on June 3rd. When the nomination was still undecided on Super Tuesday, Clinton had to scramble for cash (she lent her campaign over $11 million) and to develop a quick strategy, while Obama simply needed to follow his established plan.

As entrepreneurs, we should not put all of our eggs in one basket, believing that we will meet our objective by following one route on a specific date. Instead, we should develop several marketing and financial plans to fit a variety of outcomes and scenarios. By doing so, we not be stuck without a strategy to move forward should we fail sell our projected targets as a result, for instance, of a negative news article, unexpected competition, adverse weather, or the loss of a key staff member.

Go Online. Although each camp made unprecedented use of the internet, their approaches varied. Clinton has a "descriptive" site. Viewers could read her biography and platform, and submit online registrations to volunteer and donate money. She also posted videos of her speeches, endorsements, and weekly "HillCasts" to share her policies with voters. While Obama offered the same "descriptive" tools, her also offered an "interactive" site.

He invited voters to participate in online communities by creating their own profiles akin to Facebook. Once created, voters could start and join groups, write blogs and comment on those of others, invite people to become their "friends," send one another messages, begin, invite, or RSVP to events, and join or coordinate volunteer efforts in their neighbourhood. Voters could also each create their own fundraising page to set goals, outreach to others, and watch their donation terminator rise in real time.

How can entrepreneurs leverage the web in the same manner as Obama? Engage consumers with interactive online offerings. Offer them the opportunity to participate on your site through message boards and chat rooms. In an effort to reinvigorate Starbucks, the company created an interactive site where customers can make suggestions, others can vote on and discuss them, and Starbucks can see which ideas gain popular support. More than 10,000 Starbucks fans wished for something to plug the hole in lids to prevent sloshing; Starbucks listened and introduced "splash sticks."

If you are concerned about the cost of building this dimension, use one of the established social networking or blog sites to create your own profile and interact with consumers. But just because you engage consumers, don't forget to show them your business through written descriptions and videos. The web is particularly helpful for new businesseses. It took Obama's campaign to victory by helping him organize large numbers of supporters, particularly as a counter to the influence of the Clintons. Similarly, the internet can establish your new business without huge financial investment.

Your business can be an Obama or a Clinton — can win or loose — depending on moves you make. To win, keep your message consistent, plan for a variety of scenarios, and engage consumers online. Following these tactics will allow your firm to be Obama and beat out the Clinton in your field.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Why going green is not enough: How to reach consumers in the right way

Sales of green goods is worth more than retail sales of beer and cigarettes, according to a recent survey by the UK-based Cooperative Bank. But simply adding sustainable products and services to your offering does not guarantee business; you need to effectively market these offerings to consumers.

When marketing environmentally friendly products and services, most small businesses fail to undertake marketing strategies that garner consumers' attention and business. Their marketing messages fall prey to clichés — such as promoting abstract social benefits — which consumers discount. A study conducted by Ipsos Reid showed that seven in ten consumers agree that companies call their products green as a marketing tactic. This is no way to win business.

For the past ten years, I have promoted models that help build a "psychologically green" society. By representing models of all ages, sizes, colours, and abilities, I offer the fashion industry the opportunity to promote empowering and inclusive images of women and men in their editorials, advertisements, and runway shows.

To dispel consumer skepticism, my marketing claims are based on irrefutable facts and provided specific social benefits. I have also sought out certifications from non-profits to demonstrate that my offering provides positive social benefits. For instance, I have garnered endorsements eating disorder and body image organizations. You should also seek out certifications from non-profits and government agencies to show consumers that your offerings meet official green standards. Use their logos and the words "independently certified" in all your marketing messages.

I discovered, however, that even with today's focus on social and environmental issues, most consumers do not purchase green products and service just to save the planet. The growth in sales of organic foods and energy-efficient appliances is largely because shoppers want to eat healthy food and save money on electrical bills. To succeed in the competitive green marketplace, you have to look beyond the greater environmental benefits to the tangible advantages that consumers gain by purchasing your green product or service. It comes down to answering the core question every consumer asks when deciding to purchase an offering: "What is in it for me?"

From my experience, here are three benefits that you need to cover to succeed in your green marketing campaign.

Financial. Saving money, when coupled with the additional benefit of saving the planet, is a strong motivator. Particularly with a more expensive product, the key is to present a marketing message based on the value to the consumer in the form of cost savings over the product's lifetime. Items such as compact fluorescent light bulbs and energy-saving water heaters, for example, don't just benefit the world we live in; over time, they deliver measurable savings to the purchaser on electrical bills. When promoting my diverse models, I show advertising agents how using models who reflect their target market build long-term brand equity by allowing consumers to see themselves in the models and, eventually, the brand.

Health. Decide how your product will enhance the health and safety of users, and create a green message that relates directly to the customers' personal environment. A study by S.C. Johnson found that consumers are more likely to act on green benefits that protect one's personal health and safety than environmental at large. For example, the survey found that more consumers would purchase products promoting that they were "safe to use around children" and contained "no toxic ingredients" than those that promoted "recyclable packaging." I persuade my clients to hire diverse models by explaining how using models of a healthy weight in adverts helps foster positive self-esteem and body image among their viewing consumers.

Convenience. Green marketers often fail to consider the importance of convenience to customers. Electric cars were a dismal failure because of their need for constant recharging. Today's green products and services must deliver all the convenience that consumers expect by saving them time or being easy to use. For instance, California and Virginia allow hybrid vehicle drivers to travel solo in high-occupancy vehicle lanes. Toyota has marketed this convenience to drivers in high-congestion areas through its Prius website. To provide convenience to my clients, I offer online portfolios and bookings, available 24/7, in addition to showcasing special government programs available to firms that empower women. Your products may ultimately have the power to save the world, but more consumers will purchase them if they also promise to save them time and money.

With these tactics, your marketing campaign will not only improve the world but also improve your sales. Providing environmental benefits is not enough to earn the business of eager consumers in a competitive green marketplace. You also need to tell them how they will personally benefit from using your products or services. This way, you will not only help the planet go green, but you will help your bank account go green too.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Location is Nothing (ideas are everything): How rural businesses attract consumers from other locales

Author and fellow Globe columnist Richard Florida's new book, Who's Your City, challenges the marketing prowess of rural entrepreneurs. Florida takes issue with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's notion that "the world is flat"— that under globalization, the economic advantages of any place in particular have been erased.

Author and Globe columnist Richard Florida's new book, Who's Your City, challenges the marketing prowess of rural entrepreneurs. Florida takes issue with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's notion that "the world is flat"— that under globalization, the economic advantages of any place in particular have been erased.

This idea, for Florida, is an oversimplification. While a few rural areas may be experiencing economic development, he says, globalization has meant a tendency for "higher-level economic activities such as innovation, design, finance, and media" to cluster in an ever smaller number of locations. For Florida, globalization is not flattening the world; it has made it "spiky."

Such an argument beckons rural entrepreneurs to destitution. Unless they live in a mega-region of one of the anomalous rural engines, the success of their small business is doomed before they already begun. Florida would suggest that their first decision was your last; they located in the wrong place and, therefore, are doomed to failure.

But in stark contract to Florida's theory, rural small business people of Canada tell a very different story — one of success.

I recently had the privilege to visit entrepreneurs in Cape Breton. Like the rest of Canada, small business is one of the main drivers for their economy; 95% of companies on Cape Breton Island had less than fifty employees in 2006. The region is certainly not spiky according to Florida's theory; it is not a design, finance, or media hub. Nevertheless, I discovered that their entrepreneurs thrive. Not only do they sell to local consumers, they sell to consumers around the world. They are sending a strong message to Florida: The success of their businesses are not dictated nor determined by place; to them, where they live doesn't matter.

How do these rural small business owners displace place? They effectively combine the tools of technological and media globalization with their own ingenious ideas ⎯ and then watch consumers flock. Speaking with many of these driven entrepreneurs, I have distilled key marketing strategies that have allowed them to develop successful businesses that attract worldwide customers from the comfort of their sea-front homes. What is more, most of following tactics follow the key rule of small business budgeting: Little cost for large gains.

Winning Websites. Your website is the most important vehicle to attract consumers from other locales. Visitors are two clicks away from dozens of other similar sites. Why should they believe what you have to say? Prove early on that they can trust you by providing your credentials. Similarly, use testimonials from happy customers. Format your text to allow viewers to scan rather than read word-by-word. Break up your text with bold and direct headlines; bulleted lists and subheading; short paragraphs of one to four lines; plain font such as Arial or Verdana; and solid and light background.

E-Commerce. Transform your advertising-based website into a storefront. Allow customers to purchase from it ⎯ thereby attracting buyers from anywhere in the world.

Software. Lease e-commerce software to keep costs low and allow for updates without making a new investment. Leasing will not break the budget: Monster Commerce, for instance, charges $100 per month for a complete package: a shopping cart, analytics package, 24/7 phone support line and regular software updates.

Picture. Customers want to see products before buying them. Any products that you sell online need to be accompanied by professional photographs. Nevertheless, your text also needs to persuade. Combine the concrete features of the offering with the benefits to buyers (show how your product or service will make their lives easier).

Guarantee. Since most products or services cannot be inspected online, many consumers may be understandably cautious about buying. A strong guarantee shows you stand behind what you are selling. For example, offer a full refund within thirty days if the consumer is unhappy with your offering.

Urgency. Many online shoppers are bargain shoppers. Entice them to buy from you by offering sales and discounts. Persuade them to act now by offering the sale for a limited time period.

Shipping. When selling online, about a third of the shoppers who begin checkout online do not finish it because of the shipping fee. Institute a free shipping policy by including the cost in your product price or by offering free shipping when a consumer spends over a certain amount. Also, find the best method of shipping for your product in terms of expense and reliability and specify it to consumers.

eBay. You can enter e-commerce without having to set up your own site by using eBay. Use the same techniques as selling on your own site: quality pictures, research shipping, and offer guarantees and sales. List your eBay front on your website.

Social Shopping. Almost 90% of respondents in a 2006 Yahoo survey said that they research products online before deciding to purchase them ⎯ leading to the phenomenon dubbed "social shopping." An offspring of social networking, these popular sites empower consumers to list and review their favourite businesses. Since fellow shoppers write the reviews, potential buyers trust their advice. Ask satisfied consumers to list your business (along with your URL) on a social shopping site or add a review.

AdWords. Google's primary source of revenue offers pay-per-click advertising for local, national, and international distribution. Text ads are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. When a user searches Google's engine, ads for relevant words are shown as "sponsored links" on the right side of the screen. Advertisers specify the words that should trigger their ads and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click. Businesses set their own budget, ranging from $20 to $20 million. There are countless tips for writing adwords; far too many for me to discuss here. Ironically, google "adword tips" to discover them.

Facebook. Your own URL is not the only online promotional tool at your disposal. Facebook, with more than 69 million active members, is a marketing opportunity too large to ignore. Many entrepreneurs maintain profiles, whether to keep up with colleagues, search for business partners and employees, or to promote their brand. But now that the platform opened up to outside developers, there is a new wave of new applications that are designed especially for the site.

30 Boxes. This popular online calendar service now integrates with Facebook by sending out calendar updates over newsfeed. Customers can keep track of new product arrivals and upcoming sales.

Flyers. Target university students or any specific group of people through Facebook. Flyers. Flyers are web ads that are targeted to people in particular networks, affiliations, and groups. The best part is that they start at only $5.

SplashCast. A video player lets you embed multimedia into your Facebook profile. You can upload your own content and add YouTube videos. Start a video blog, for instance, in which you share advice, stories, and new products ⎯ sending it out to your Facebook friends.

MySpace. It may not hold networking court in Canada, but MySpace is royalty in America. Your profile is customizable; aside from your unique MySpace domain name, you can select the fronts, colours, backgrounds, music, and videos. Use the same design tips for your profile suggested for your website. Once you create your account, you need to attract potential customers. MySpace allows you to search by zip code or geographical radius to find people. Keep them updated through bulleting posts, event invites, and personal messages, always inviting them to your website. All this marketing power, no cost ⎯ MySpace is free.

With advances in technology and communications, rural entrepreneurs in Cape Breton and across Canada are not limited by location. Armed with great ideas, they have no need to move to the urban sprawl; they can leverage websites, e-commerce, email, and facebook, among others, to attract consumers living next door or the next continent ⎯ all from their own community. While Florida will tell you that place matters to the success of your business, these entrepreneurs show you that it does not ⎯ unless you count the work-life balance of walking on the beach after filling a dozen orders for consumers around the world. Be sure, the only spikes that you'll encounter are accelerating profits.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

The Branded Moment: How to Cultivate Your Brand on a Budget

At first sight, her collection shocked the fashion bevy. They flickered their Dior cerulean lids, gripped their snakeskin Birkins, and dug their Manolos into the floor. Designer Kimberley Newport-Mimran closed the March edition of L'Oréal Fashion Week with what appeared to be a revamping of her Pink Tartan label. Her models marched out in high-top boots and fingerless leather gloves ⎯ grunge and punk recast her usual sleek and sophisticated style. Second sight, however, allowed everyone in the audience to breath a sigh of relief. Underneath the hard edge styling, her clothes did not disavow her classic brand. Her core elements were there: The tailored shirt, tunic dress and slim pant. Rest assured, the presentation was punk, but the clothes were polished.

As Kim showed the fashion industry her latest wears, she showed small business owners the rule of all marketing efforts: All hail to the brand.

Brands are insurmountably valuable in today's corporate world ⎯ they are the single most powerful asset on the balance sheet. Consider what Sean Moffitt, founder of Agent Wildfire: Canada's Word of Mouth Specialist, recently told a group of small business owners: In the 1960s, we were exposed to 700 ads per day. Today we are exposed to over 3,000 today. No wonder, Sean explained, that the day-after-recall of ads was 36% in the 1960s but only 3% now. With this permeation of media, building the brand should be first marketing move of small business owners ⎯ with all other marketing efforts following suit.

There is so much at stake in our branded moment. How do you want to be seen in the eyes of your consumers? Being uncertain ⎯ or worse, stuck with a less-than-stellar image ⎯ could open the door to failure, not fortune. Soft drinks to spas toil endlessly to create some of the world's most recognized brands. They know the rewards of building a successful brand are significant: A relationship with consumers and, ultimately, their loyalty and long-term business. But it does not have to cost millions or take years to put your company's branding efforts on track.

How do you build your brand on a budget? Sean says that remarkable bands start conversations with consumers by being authentic, cool, intimate, innovative, and creating memorable experiences. But beyond these buzzwords are sound solutions. I have surveyed Kim, Sean, and my best practices to distill some guidelines on how you can attract consumers by building a brand without busting the bank.

Differentiate. How will your brand stand out in the crowd of competitors? Ensure your brand is unique by performing a competitive analysis. Clip all your competitors' ads, review their press coverage, research them online, and buy their products and services. Then decide what makes your product or service different. Consider whether you have an edge: Are offering a new feature? Can you customize your offering? How can you make your benefit to consumers compelling? When answering these questions, make sure your point of differentiation is concrete enough to be grasped; simple enough to be remembered; unexpected enough to grab people's attention, and credible enough to be believable.

Emotion. In the bestseller Lovemarks, Kevin Roberts writes that humans are powered by emotion, not by reason. Studies show that when the emotion centers of our brain are damaged, we do not just lose the ability to laugh or cry, we lose the ability to make decisions. Alarm bells for businesses sound here: Without an emotional connection to your brand, consumers will be less likely to choose your offering. But how does your brand stir consumers' emotions? One way is to share a real, inspiring story about your business. For example, consider how you began your firm, or how you transformed one consumer's life through your offering. Put it on the front page of your website and on the back of your business cards.

Listen. Successful brands define themselves through their consumers. Your first step is to discover which characteristics of your offering resonate with them. Create an advisory panel of consumers to uncover and monitor how they perceive your brand and what they value about it. Your panel will help you fine-tune your brand image and also let you know whether you have gotten off track. Remember that trying to be all things to all people results in a diluted and weak brand; focus on a clear and concise message that your core, loyal market values.

Consistency. Every time a customer has contact with your company, whether visiting your website or seeing your print ad, she experiences your brand. How consistently is your brand communicated? Ensure that the image conveyed by all departments and marketing materials do not conflict with one another; every interaction between a customer and your brand must be uniform. Follow Kim's best practice: She has honed a consistent brand image from production to communication by having a written manual that shares her brand message and standards with all of her staff.

Experience. Customers consider the experience of others prior to making purchases. They look at reviews, read press and pay attention to word-of-mouth to feel confident that their purchase experiences will be fulfilling. You can build a successful brand by improving your customers' experiences with your company. Consider creating a pleasant or entraining surprise for consumers when they buy from your firm. The cashiers at one fast-food restaurant play a game of rock-paper-scissors with each consumer. If the consumer wins, they receive a free soda. You can bet that consumers tell everyone about this surprise ⎯ and it is one that neither they nor those they tell forget fast.

Collaborative. In our era of Web 2.0, brands resonate with consumers by actively engaging them. Today's consumers, Sean explains, have evolved from buying a specific product or service because they trust, want, and prefer it; they buy the offering because they want to participant with it. Be a progressive brand-builder, and engage your consumers by starting a blog, facebook account, or podcast. Identify key consumers who can begin collaborating and then persuade others to do the same. That said, the old-fashioned way to engage consumers still holds true: Take your most loyal customers out for dinner to tell them how much you appreciate their business.

By cultivating a successful brand, the fashion world quickly took notice of Pink Tartan. From selling in one shop in 2002, Kim's label is now sold in over 170 stores across North America. While she has created a consistent brand, she is also not afraid to have fun and play with it's image ⎯ but only for second, until the lids open, grips loosen, and feet relax to see that their brand still remains what they have grown to know and love. You too can capitalize upon this branded moment and build the brand of your small business. But how will you know whether you have succeeded? Sean suggests asking yourself a question: If you business went away tomorrow, would anyone care? Brand them well, and they will not only care, they will never let you go away.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

The disgruntled customer: How to deal with customer complaints

All small business owners fumble. Even the most celebrated entrepreneurs make errors, such as the renowned London-based chef Gordon Ramsay. When Gordon opened his first restaurant, Royal Hospital Road, he made a fundamental mistake: He disregarded his mistakes. During the early days of Royal Hospital Road, Gordon thought he was the cleverest restaurateur. Whenever a letter of complaint arrived, he crumpled it into a ball, and then flung it into the trash ("as an appropriate testimony to the writers credentials," he writes in Playing with Fire). But as soon as Gordon's business partner discovered his practice, the mile high bin transformed into a mile high filing cabinet — with all the letters pressed flat. With this, Gordon discovered that complaints are your most valuable marketing tools.

Whenever customers complain, they are building your business. Critiques reveal something unfavourable about your offering that you previously did not know. You were only made aware of the error because the customer told you. In fact, seeking this same feedback motivates big business to pay expensive marketing consultants and researcher. You get it for free. Complaints also allow you to create a stronger and more profitable relationship with consumers. When properly managed, complaints turn into increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and referrals.

As the owner of a modeling agency, I have received constructive feedback from my models and the clients booking them: Models decry their portfolios and photographers disparage that models who are late for jobs. Initially, my outlook resembled Gordon's; it was hard to take negative feedback, especially after pouring all of my passion into my business. But I quickly discovered that I could only grow my agency — or at least stay in business — by incorporating feedback from consumers. Sometimes you will receive letters. Other times phone calls. Still other times in-person confrontations. Yet regardless of the communication mode, you can use that same tactics to deal with customer complaints and, in turn, transform your mistakes into your competencies. From my experiences, this is what I do to manage a disgruntled consumer:

Immediacy. Deal with the complaint within the day. If you do not attend to the dissatisfied customer as soon as she or he shares criticism, you simply provide them with more time to ingrain a poor impression of your business into their hearts and minds.

Apologize. When you receive a complaint, apologize first and foremost. Your apology shows the consumer that their experience is of utmost importance to you. Do not provide reasons for why the mistake occurred — you will only appear to be challenging them. This is not the time to correct the customer's perception; they are always right. Also, empathize with the consumer by putting yourself in their shoes, and showing that you understand the effect of the error on their experience. Listen. When speaking with an upset customer, it is easy to focus on their emotional state. Although it is important to know how the customer feels, listening to what the customer is saying, instead of focusing on how they are saying it, is the best way to generate an actionable solution.

Understand. Summarize the customer's problem to them. Some will greatly appreciate this, while others will be slightly disenchanted by your repetition. In either case, it is important that you understand the full scope of the problem (those customers who are not impressed with a small amount of repetition will be even more upset if they find out that you misunderstood their concern for ten minutes).

Take Responsibility. Take full blame for the problem, even if others were more responsible than you. Do not make excuses. If a customer is told that someone else is to blame, they will begin to question the competency of your entire business. Blaming someone else shows the customer that the problem cannot be controlled and will likely recur.

Composure. When addressing a complaint, remain calm. Getting defensive or angry never helps — in fact, it makes the situation worse. Your goal is not to distinguish right from wrong, but to help a disappointed customer and keep their business. Do not cross your arms, place your hands on your hips, or lean. Instead, stand with your hands clasped behind you. Have your head slightly tilted and maintain eye contact to give the impression that you are listening closely to what the customer is saying.

Personality Type. Assess the personality type of the disgruntled consumer. A customer who is acting aggressively needs to have their problem solved quickly. Recognize their problem and immediately find a solution. Wasting time exhausting the issue, or apologizing excessively, only increases frustration. In contrast, a timid customer needs to be validated and encouraged to express the full extent of their problem. Thinking that a timid customer can be brushed aside will turn a small problem into a big one.

Be Confident. For the customer to have confidence that their complaint is being handled correctly, a confident response is needed. There is no need to be arrogant, or to speak down to the customer. Holding a conversation in a confident manner communicates that consumer in good hands. Show confidence by presenting a specific solution instead of asking the customer what they would like see happen. Solutions. Although apologizing and listening makes the customer feel valued, they do not prove that your business is worthy of further patronage. Consumers need to be convinced that an additional experience will be better than the former one. For this reason, you should assure the customer that you are going to take specific steps to guarantee that their unpleasant experience will never be repeated. This assurance validates the customer's concerns, and shows that you will not allow the negative situation to repeat itself.

Repatriation. To further show consumers that their negative experience will not repeat, provide them with an incentive to return to your business by making a complementary offering or reimbursement. If a scarf has been lost because Gordon's staff gave it to someone else, he writes a cheque for its value. If a waiter refilles a still water glass with sparkling water, Gordon lets the guest know that their table will be welcomed with champagne on their next visit. After the customer has tried your business again, follow up with a phone call to see if they were happy — and to rebuild your relationship.

Thank You. You need make it clear that you are in debt to the guest for telling you whatever mistake took place. Thanking them reaffirms that you were listening, and they are likely to remember that you thanked them for bringing a problem to your attention.

Customers have an amazing ability to express the smallest level of disappointment, but they will also tell everyone about an amazing experience. According to research at Cambridge University, happy customers tell ten other people about their satisfaction and unhappy customers tell twenty. But you do not have to wait for customers to come to you. Actively encourage comments about your business by having a comment form at the point of purchase, online, or emailed with your newsletter. By listening to consumers' feedback and incorporating it into your business, you will improve your offering, develop loyalty, and generate referrals.

Listening to his consumers helped Gordon turn Royal Hospital Road into a three Michelin star restaurant. Moreover, it helped him develop a winning fine dinning formula that has propelled his firm, Gordon Ramsay Holding, to operate some of the most preeminent restaurants— with ten Michelin stars between them. Similarly, listening to consumers helped me develop a marketing strategy that has garnered accounts with leading fashion and beauty brands around the world. Now these sound like mistakes worth making.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Starbuck Your Business: Lessons from the Coffee Giant

Before it became the ubiquitous empire, Starbucks was a single shop. Howard Schultz, the former salesman who is also known as the coffeehouse's CEO, was a small business owner. In thirty years, he transformed his small business into one of the most admired and successful brands in the world due, in large part, to his ability to re-think the traditional marketing paradigm.

Starbucks is a daily ritual for many small business owners. I often begin my mornings with a grande bold, or savour a extra-shot-tall cappuccino before heading to meetings. At the start of my business, when my home doubled as my office, the local Starbucks served as my office; it was where I met prospective models, or wrote a proposal when I needed to escape the affection of my cats.

Beyond the coffee and office space, Starbucks' strategy also became part of my daily ritual — incorporated into my marketing plans and actions. Some might decry taking heed from Starbucks; the brand is a latte left gone cold. A year ago, Starbucks was a $33 (US) stock; now it is at $18.26. For the first time in history, analysts use "negative traffic" to describe its financial state.

Yet it is its successes and shortcomings that offer an arsenal of marketing lessons to our small businesses. Their same strategies that expanded one shop into fifteen thousand can guide our quest for market share and growth. Their recent shortcomings too provide advice on how to mitigate the factors that are bedfellows of growth.

Certainly our small businesses do not have equivalent resources to Starbucks. But we can still emulate their marketing model; their key strategies are based on creative capital that no amount of money can buy. Below are some of the tips that I learned from Starbucks and regularly apply to my marketing efforts.

Know Your Market. A few years after buying Starbucks, Schultz's most profitable shop was at an intersection in Vancouver. It served ten thousand people each week, turning away hundreds. Not wanting to lose traffic, Schultz devised a plan: He would open another Starbucks across the street. To any rational businessperson, such an idea seemed crazy. But not to Schultz or to customers — who flocked to the new shop. The two locations did not hurt each other's sales because they attracted different clienteles.

The success of the new store was due to Schultz's ability to watch prospective customers: Each street corner had its own flow of unique pedestrians. Starbucks could bring in thousands of new customers each week by making another store more convenient and attractive to a different demographic. Moreover, the success was a due to Schultz's ability to do the unexpected, even if it meant debunking accepted marketing practice. Like Schultz, look for insights into your prospective customers needs by watching their actions, activities, and lifestyle. See beyond the status quo to anticipate their needs and innovatively respond to them.

Partner. Even Starbucks needs help to reach its goals. The company partnered with Chapters and Indigo to make its coffee available to bookstore customers. They entered into a partnership with Pepsi-Cola Company to introduce a bottled version of Starbucks' beverages.

Starbucks was able to enter new markets and increase profits by forming strategic alliances. For your small business, you also need to realize that you cannot grow alone. Find another entrepreneur or company who is willing to work with you and share the financial risks. Your partner can introduce you to new customers, keep you ahead of technological changes, and help you break into new markets.

Customers First. Starbucks' mission directs its marketing: "Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time." Unlike other multinationals that spend $300 million per year on traditional marketing campaigns, Starbucks only spends one percent of its revenues, or roughly about $30 million on marketing (mostly on product launches and the introduction of new beverages). The company relies on word-of-mouth marketing generated by customer satisfaction.

You can also generate word-of-mouth marketing by fulfilling all of your customers' needs. Starbucks, for instance, provides patrons with the choice of relaxing on a sofa with their beverage or taking it out. Even the decision to cluster stores (having locations only blocks apart) stemmed from the goal of reducing wait times. By keeping customers satisfied, you will inspire loyalty from customers — so fierce that they will rave about your business and bring new customers to your door.

Core Product. Product line expansion propelled Starbucks, but it also came at a cost — the quality of their coffee. In 2007, Canadian Business conducted a survey of fast-food coffees. The results showed that Starbucks lost sight of its core product: McDonald's, Tim Horton's, Second Cup, and Timothy's all topped the coffee giant. We can heed a simple lesson here: The quality of your core product must come first and foremost, regardless of expansion plans. It is the product that originally attracted consumers to your brand and allowed it to grow. If you expand, remember to reinforce the message that your offering is getting better rather than just bigger.

New Initiatives. Starbucks' ability to roll out new products has been a key competitive advantage. They introduced sandwiches, supermarket sales of their whole beans, and prepaid Starbucks cards. In 2002, Starbucks developed the innovative ordering program where customers can pre-order and prepay for beverages and pastries on their website. To grow, small businesses need to introduce new offerings that compliment your existing products and enhance consumers' experience with your business.

Be warned, however, that you must keep the quality of your new offerings consistent with existing ones. Failing to do so will result in savvy consumers rejecting your new products or services, and perhaps even rejecting your brand altogether, insulted that you tried to take advantage of their patronage by selling them something mediocre. Starbucks introduced warm breakfast sandwiches, but they were critiqued for being stale and smelly and, subsequently, have been removed from sale.

Experience. Turning Starbucks into the "Third Place" — one has their home, office, and Starbucks — allowed the brand to transform a pedestrian product into an aesthetic experience. The brand promise was that they treated coffee as one would wine, complimented by an attractive, comfortable, and entertaining store with wireless access and music. Starbucks customers do not buy a coffee; they buy an experience — an experience of participating in a community that elevates coffee from a drink to a lifestyle. Consider how you can turn consuming your offering into an experience for customers. Make it about more than a rational decision — make it an emotional connection.

Authenticity. While experience builds authenticity, rapid expansions can result in its ubiquity. In a recent memo, Schultz wrote that the rapid expansion caused a "watering down of the Starbucks experience." For instance, the introduction of automatic espresso machines "removed much of the romance and theater" of watching the baristas make it by hand. As you grow your business, be cautious not to break your brand promise — subverting the very aspects that originally attracted consumers to your offering. Monitoring the authenticity of your experience needs to be continuous. Should the experience be broken, trust is lost and so too are your consumers.

Leverage Location. With Starbucks in every community, many small businesses assume that independent coffee and food shops will close, unable to complete with Goliath. But history has shown the opposite; Starbucks' frequently boosts sales of adjacent businesses, even coffeehouses. Each new Starbucks creates local buzz, drawing new consumers to the commercial strip. Unlike big box stores, Starbucks does not steal customers from independents because they offer steeper prices and specialized menus from local rivals. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, although Starbucks tripled in size between 2000 and 2005, the number of independent coffeehouses grew forty percent in this period.

So be ready for business to boom when Starbucks opens next-door, or should you be opening a new location, open your small retail business close to a Starbucks. They have already conducted market research to demonstrate that the community has a consumer-base. They will act an anchor on your business strip, attracting new consumers without requiring you to spend a marketing cent.

Whether your business is expanding in the city or around the world, take note from the successes and shortcomings of Starbucks. Their ingenuous marketing, focused on customer satisfaction rather than million-dollar adverts, propelled the brand from a small business to a global corporation. But, most importantly, they show us that expansion can come at a price. Starbucks is close to being a business based on fantastic properties rather than fantastic coffee. If consumers do not get what they want, they will look elsewhere.

No entrepreneur wants to risk customers by breaking their brand promise. Prevent this crisis from happening to your business by learning from Starbucks: Analyze your marketing practices each year according the abovementioned points. By doing so, your latte will always be served hot.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Seven-Minute Marketing: A critical plan

Every small business owner knows that their role is far more than the "CEO" title on their business card. They are also the marketing director, sales agent, accountant, human resources manager, and — when the owner is also the sole staff member — administrative assistant. Undertaking all of these roles simultaneously often results in taking shortcuts — in particular, procrastinating to write your marketing plan.

At the smart of our businesses, we often have a business plan that we submitted for loans, grants, and other financing. Once our businesses are in business, however, we are often too inundated with the excitement and chaos of daily operations to make time to write and revise our marketing plans. Yet failing to allocate time to communicate our marketing map limits our ability to attain the next level of entrepreneurial success — in other words, failing to plan is planning to fail.

Consider the statistics: Forty-five percent of small businesses failed in their first two years of operation because of poor preparation and planning, according to Statistics Canada.

I began my modeling agency with a myriad of marketing ideas to attract new models and fashion brands to hire them. Yet very soon after my doors opened, negotiating contracts and coordinating photo shoots consumed me, leaving little time to execute, let alone strategize, my original marketing initiatives. After the year in business, I was not at the place that I had envisioned; I did not have the number of models signed to my roster, nor the number of bookings.

Given this shortfall, I took the same action as any CEO — whether they have one or one hundred staff members — and reflected upon why my firm did not meet my goals. The answer was clear: I had not forgotten about my original marketing ideas; I had forgotten to create a roadmap that detailed how to coordinate and execute them. A formal plan provides a tangible blueprint to garner to customers — transitioning ideas from mind to matter.

Like many entrepreneurs, I had bought into the prevailing myth that marketing plans were not a priority for small business owners; they required extensive preparation and commitment when our time is tight. But effective marketing plans, I discovered, do not demand thousands of words and hours of time. In fact, the day after my revelation, I took seven minutes to write a seven-point marketing plan.

Following is my blueprint for how you too can create the same marketing plan for your small business. Each bolded heading serves of one of the seven cornerstones of your marketing plan. The corresponding text explains what you need to do to address the theme. Write each of the seven headings on the top of a different page. Use bullet points under each heading to decide how you will tackle it. Allocate one minute per heading. In seven minutes, you will have created your own marketing map.

Goals. What action do you want your prospective customer to take after being exposed to your marketing? Call you? Visit your website? Send you an email? Be specific, otherwise your prospects never will be. Now turn the question to you. What outcome do you want from your marketing activities? Create SMART goals: sensible, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. For example, perhaps you want to develop fifty new leads by June 3, or generate 1,000 web hits per day.


Competitive Advantage. Why will prospective customers take the action that you desire? They want to acquire the benefits that your business offers, especially the ones that are unique to you. Should you offer multiple exclusive benefits, select only one to be the luminary of your marketing; focusing on more might confuse an audience already besieged by marketing clutter. When possible, communicate your competitive advantage in a manner that allows it to provide the solution to specific problems of consumers. People are more likely to purchase something that solves existing problems rather than something that solely offers positive benefits.

Target Audience. Who are your customers? What are their genders, incomes, ages, interests and geographic locations? The more specific you are about them, the more accurate your marketing efforts. Remember that you should only broadcast to people with a high propensity to want and need your offering. Do not confuse high numbers with profitability; A thousand random prospects will not earn you as many sales as ten of the right ones. Consider the copying company that realized that, as an industry, the legal sector churned out the most copies. It redirected some it's marketing to that sector and increased profits thirty-one percent in one year.

Marketing Tools. I have outlined the arsenal of marketing tools in my previous columns: Media interviews, Yellow Pages, newspaper advertising, trade shows, cold calls, and YouTube are only examples. Remember that some of these options require no outlay of funds, while others require $100 to $100 000. When making your selection, choose only those that you can afford, understand, and effectively employ. Research the tools that you select to discover their best practices rather than attempting to learn their firepower from scratch.

Niche. When people hear the name of your company, what is the first thought that you want to enter their minds? Is it your price, speed, exclusivity, value, service, or selection? This is your niche: What you represent in the minds of your prospects. Focus on a specific concept rather than trying to represent all things to all people. Niches can be defined in many ways, including through a specific target market or a distinct means of service. For example: "Jon So is the most e-mail- knowledgeable PR agent." Once you have defined your niche, make it the focus of your marketing.

Identity. Your identity is the personality of your business. Is you firm down-to-earth, exclusive, or socially responsible? Let your identity shine through by creatively integrating it into all of your marketing efforts.

Budget. While many marketing tools are free, it is important to spend money on business presentation: the quality of your stationery, business cards, website, brochures, and logos. The public develops their first sense of your business through your visual and written materials — so make a strong impression and invest in them. Consider allocating a percentage of gross revenue to marketing. At the start, although you have the least income, spend generously in your debut to create a solid impression. Invest ten percent the first year. Rising sales will make that absolute dollar mount around five percent the next year and three thereafter.

My plan has allowed my business to grow and expand, while still allowing me to manage daily activities. You too can watch your business flourish without taking time away from the day-to-day operations. Remember to review and revise your plan every month, making minor alterations as required. Perhaps you can now confidently write "marketing manager" beside "CEO" on your business card, knowing full well that the job has been effectively completed in seven-minutes flat.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Not Just a Pretty Picture: How to Craft Your Logo

About half of all businesses fail within their first five years, according to Statistics Canada. Pundits commonly cite unprofessional and ineffective marketing as the primarily source of their failure. Unless your marketing materials stand out from competitors and attract consumers, your business will suffer.

But you can reduce your business being one of the entrepreneurial causalities by crafting a professional logo — one of the quickest routes to business success. It is a logo that boosts the credibility, visibility, and recognizably of your business — three factors that will help your small firm to grow and succeed.

Many new entrepreneurs delay their logo development, citing an initial lack of customers and cash flow. They explain that logos are a marketing luxury, not necessity. But while this line of thinking may sound prudent, it can result in your business never getting off the ground, and moreover, folding when it would otherwise succeed.

How can something as supposed frivolous as a pretty picture make such a significant impact on the potential livelihood of your business?

Not only does your logo lay the foundation of your branding efforts, it dictates them. From your business cards to your website, your logo appears on all your marketing materials and, as a result, influences their design, such as their colours and formats. A professional logo can be leveraged to create professional materials; a poorly designed logo cannot.

Potential consumers judge your business by your logo. Take a small newspaper or Yellow Pages advert. Often all that fits in these small spaces is your contact information and logo. If your logo projects the right image, it can be the sole reason someone decides to contact your company. However, if it looks unprofessional, it could alone be the reason they choose to look elsewhere.

For consumers, your logo is memorable and meaningful. If people cannot remember what your logo looks like, they will not remember your firm. Take the most recognizable logos: The M-shaped arches, a shell, or a swoosh. All are simple concepts, effectively employed by McDonalds, Shell and Nike.

Your logo is a quick visual cue that conveys the essence of your brand in an image-oriented, time-restricted world. As business owners today, you face an audience accustomed to visually stimulating media, convenience and instant gratification. The overwhelming choices faced by time-crunched consumers forces them to identify shortcuts. Your logo is such a shortcut: It instantly conveys your brand message and appeal. Your logo also ties together all of your marketing materials; in fact your logo may be the only visual element marketing materials have in common.

Your logo affords a unique opportunity for your business to appear bigger and more established. It can make you can look like an experienced company that has been in existence for decades, though you might only have one employee and have just opened last month. People who see a professional logo will associate the positive attributes of big companies — security and financial stability — with your company.

Effective logos need to be professionally designed. With an amateur design, your business will not look stable. It will appear more likely to fold, failing to ignite confidence in consumers who do business with you. Just ask yourself: Would you do business with someone who might not be in business by the end of your project or after you have purchased an item? Large, successful businesses would never consider doing business without professional and original marketing materials.

While you logo needs to be professional, you do not need to front a ton of cash for it. Consider posting a notice at a local graphic arts school, or searching for a new, young designer on craigslist. Not only will their rates be on budget, but they might also provide a fresher, more compelling design than a traditional firm. Take Nike, for instance. When Phil Knight started the brand, he was hoping to find a mark as recognizable as the Adidas three stripes. He hired a young student named Carolyn Davidson to design his logo, paying her $35 for what has become one of the best-known marks in the world.

While the designer will technically craft the creative mark, you direct the craftsmanship. Consider the following tips to help direct the design of your logo:

Know Your Brand. In order to create a successful logo, you need to define the goals and character of your firm. These elements must be transferred to the logo because it coveys the character of your company and helps to accomplish its goals.

Keep It Simple. If you cannot look at a logo for fewer than ten seconds and re-draw it with decent accuracy, it is probably too complex to be easily remembered. Aside from being difficult to remember, complex logos, such as photography or intricate imagery, cannot effectively be reduced in size or rendered in black and white for business materials, such as fax cover letters. Use vector graphics to design your logo, allowing it to be resized without loss of fidelity.

Colour. Selecting the right colour is an integral component of logo design. Your colour should not only appear on your logo, but on all your promotional materials. As much as possible, the colour you choose should set you apart, work with your industry, and tie to your brand promise. Keep your colours limited to one or two. To help you choose, here is an overview of what certain colours convey in a North American context:

Blue: Cool blue is perceived as trustworthy, dependable, fiscally responsible and secure. Blue is an especially popular colours with financial institutions, as its message of stability inspires trust.

Red: Red activates your pituitary gland, increasing your heart rate and causing you to breathe more rapidly. This visceral response makes red aggressive, energetic, provocative and attention grabbing. Count on red to evoke a passionate response, albeit not always a favorable one as it can represent danger or indebtedness.

Green: Green connotes health, freshness and serenity. However, green's meaning varies with its many shades. Deeper greens are associated with wealth or prestige, while light greens are calming.

Yellow: Yellow is associated with the sun, communicating optimism, positivism, light and warmth. Certain shades seem to motivate and stimulate creative thought and energy. The eye sees bright yellows before any other color, making them great for point-of-purchase displays.

Purple: Purple is a colour favored by creative types. When it blends passionate red and tranquil blue, the colour evokes mystery, sophistication, spirituality and royalty. Lavender evokes nostalgia and sentimentality.

Pink: Pink's message varies by intensity. Hot pinks convey energy, youthfulness, fun and excitement and are recommended for less expensive or trendy products for women or girls. Dusty pinks appear sentimental. Lighter pinks are more romantic.

Orange: Cheerful orange evokes exuberance, fun and vitality. With the drama of red plus the cheer of yellow, orange is viewed as gregarious and often childlike. However, lighter shades appeal to an upscale market, whereas peach tones work well with health care, restaurants and beauty salons.

Brown: This earthy colour conveys simplicity, durability and stability. It can also elicit a negative response from consumers who relate to it as dirty. Certain shades of brown, like terracotta, can convey an upscale look. From a functional perspective, brown tends to hide dirt, making it a logical choice for some trucking and industrial companies.

Black: Black is serious, bold, powerful and classic. It creates drama and connotes sophistication. Black works well for expensive products, but can also make a product look heavy.

White: White connotes simplicity, cleanliness and purity. The human eye views white as a brilliant colour, so it immediately catches the eye in signage. White is often used with infant and health-related products.

All the colours can be categorized into two basic categories: warm and cold. In general, warm colours, such as red and yellow, send an outgoing, energetic message, while cool colours, such as blue, are calmer and more reserved. However, brightening cool colours increases its vibrancy and reduces its reserve.

Consistency. If you have a business card has one look and a Website with another, this creates a confused — and confusing — look for your business. This can also cause an identity crisis for a small business; when looking at your differently designed materials, potential clients may be fooled into thinking that they are looking at materials that represent different companies. To reduce such confusion, employ your logo — one logo — on all of your marketing materials.

Use It. Once you've designed your logo, your work has just begun; you need to make it visible. Use your logo on everything that emanates from your company. Remember that the goal is not to saturate the entire market with your logo, but to ensure your target audience gets a strong dose of it. To gain visibility, consider sponsoring events and local sports teams and using it on promotional products from pens to Frisbees. You can also incorporate your logo into your packaging and collateral, such as product packaging or your tissue paper. Be savvy in choosing opportunities that are relevant for your company.

By implementing these techniques, you will have taken the first step to brand your business and help ensure its success. Your logo is not just a pretty picture; it is an icon the will instill trust, confidence, and loyalty among consumers, inspiring them to remember your firm and choose it over others. They say a picture is worth a million words; I say that a logo can generate a million dollars.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

New Year, New Look: how to develop your own personal brand

Pressing the proverbial restart button is the gift that each New Year brings. We can create new goals, embark upon new directions, and realize new perspectives — giving ourselves a fresh start. But making ourselves anew also applies to our identity as small business owners.

At first glace, building your personal brand might sound inconsequential compared with building the brand of your business. But the brand of your small business — to a great extent —rests upon how consumers perceive you as the owner. Consider why you bring your own business to the local fishery, manicurist, or repair stop. While your first-time visit might be the result of a recognized name or convenient location, you bring your business back as a result of the entrepreneur — whose knowledge you trust, efficiency you value, and smile makes your encounter memorable.

As the owner and, in most cases, main operator, your character and manner help define how customers identify your company. Your ability to establish and maintain rapport with customers results in long-term relationships and coveted referral business. When customers know and like you, they are more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt if anything goes awry. But if customers do not like you, you may never see them again.

Although I have now grown my own small business to over twenty staff members, I continue to play a lead role as the owner and operator; I am responsible for developing new business and maintaining established clients. My modeling agency has spent considerable time and energy establishing our corporate brand image. Nevertheless, clients continue to cite my enthusiasm and expertise as key reasons why they remain loyal.

At the start of each year, I reflect on how I can build my bolster brand as the entrepreneur in the hope of maintaining client loyalty. Here is the process that I embark on each January to strengthen my own personal brand — a process that you too can follow to develop your personal brand as a small business owner.

Define Yourself. Your first step is to determine what image you want customers to take away from their encounters with you — your expertise, character, and personality. While this task may sound daunting at first, begin in a lighthearted manner by thinking about which Friend's character you are most like: Would you consider yourself to be more like Ross, Chandler or Joey, or Monica, Phoebe or Rachel? Are you more of the academic, joker, or charmer? By consistently presenting yourself based on the image that you have identified, you will have created an effective personal brand. Those who interact with you will have a strong sense of who you as an entrepreneur, business owner, and person.

Unique Traits. Personal branding is based upon your uniqueness. While some of your personal attributes may overlap with those of others, your overall image should be one-of-a-kind — this is what will differentiate you and make you stand out. You should consider your leadership abilities; your special strengths, talents or achievements; your personality traits; and your distinctive qualities. Think outside the box, and be as specific as possible so your brand does not mirror anyone else. For example, the owner of a Halifax flower shop partly defines himself by his collection of colourful hats. If you are in search of flowers, local residents will point you in his direction, saying: "Go see the hat man; his flowers are as colourful as his hats."

Spreading Your Word. Once you have determined your personal brand image, you need a strategy to broadcast it to your target audience. Visibility and persistence are critical to ensuring that your personal brand is communicated to customers. This means that you must live your personal brand at all times; if that is challenging, then you probably were not honest during the defining process and need to rethink. Here are three ways to share your personal brand with consumers:

Face-to-Face. Interactions with consumers at your store or office provide the greatest opportunities to acquaint them with your personal brand. If your customer base is too large or spread out, you can use other personal communications vehicles — including e-mail, direct mail and personalized letters — to convey your image.

Media. Consumers can discover you through media interviews and appearances. Develop a campaign in which you are the focus. Pitch an entrepreneur profile on yourself to your local newspapers and television news programs. You can also approach a journalist who reports on a subject relevant to your business and offer yourself for an interview as a guest expert. If you want creative control, you can broadcast your own tips by writing a blog or posting on YouTube. In each media report, let your personal image shine.

Staff. Your personal brand is also conveyed by the messages from your staff. They share stories with consumers about you and your expertise. Speak with your staff about what stories they should share and why they should share them.

Regardless of how you spread the word, remember that all the choices you make — from your language, to your front, to your signature, to your attire — can enhance or detract from your personal brand. Choose wisely.

Personal branding for small business owners is not an option today — you will be perceived in a certain matter either by default or design. As with all branding, reinventing yourself time and time again is not advisable, but strategically leveraging your personality and expertise in each and every encounter will help you stand out in the minds of consumers. Without a personal brand, consumers will feel disconnected from your firm and, more importantly, have little incentive to come back. At the start of this New Year, establish your personal brand; next year you will see the strong market share that results.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Writing effective ad copy: how to capture your prospects

"What really influences consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form," wrote advertising icon David Ogilvy in his bestseller Ogilvy on Advertising. Whether you are buying ad space in a newspaper, on a google banner, or in the Yellow Pages, potential consumers will be exposed your message. But being exposed doesn't mean that they will be persuaded — or even read it. The deciding factor, as Ogilvy stated, is what you say and how you say it.

At few weeks back, I took heed from Ogilvy's legendary words. I was designing a new series of adverts for online mediums to recruit new models for my modeling agency. While I am not a professional copywriter, I am well accustomed to delivering the sales pitch for my business, perfected during trade shows, networking events, and cold calls.

To begin my ad, I pretended that I was making a sales presentation in writing. I wrote what I was offering and why it was better than my competitors. But this was not simply a sales presentation—it was my copy platform, what my copy shall say. By completing the same exercise, you too can write your own copy platform.

Now you have to play with your ideas — transforming your content into copy. The artistry of ad copy lies in the ability to express ideas with words to persuade people. As in any art form, there are no precise rules that can guide you. But based on my experience, I developed some initial tips to help construct ad copy. My tips provide starting direction, with the aim of inspiring you as you sport your own creative caps.

Set Your Objectives. Writing copy begins with defining the goals of the specific ad — what do you want it to accomplish? Following these objectives ensures that your copy is focused and relevant. Similarly, know the audience you are aiming to reach. Put yourself in their shoes and address their needs and desires, in addition to using their language.

Grab Attention. Consumers are inundated with ads, so it's vital that your advert immediately grabs interest with the headline. David Ogilvy said that, on average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body. Given the importance of headlines, here are some tips on what to include in them.

• Ask a Question. Ask and answer a question that appeals to your prospects' self-interest. For example, "Got a Backache? Cure it with Jon's Massage."

• Sell Benefits. Include the greatest benefit that your product delivers.

• Name Your Market. Identify your target audience, such as music-loving teenagers or balding men. But remember not to exclude a secondary market.

• Name Your Firm. Include your company name. Even if people only read the headline, they will at least become familiar with your firm.

• Choose Positives. Leave prospects with a positive impression over a negative one. For example, say "Jon's Massage Cures Your Backache" rather than "Jon's Massage will Not Let Your Backache Stay for Too Long."

• Use Present Tense. It is stronger and more immediate than past or future tenses.

• Independent. Your headline needs to be understood on its own, without relying on the following text to be understood.

• Be Declarative. Put your prospect into your headline, assume that they have the need that you are addressing, and speak as though they are already satisfied with your offering. For example, do not write: "If you need a plumber, call Tim's Pluming." Rather, write: "Tim's Pluming Saved My House From Flooding."

The Body. Paint a picture of your prospects' future life as a result of their purchase. What benefits do they gain by using your offering? What separates it from your competitors? Your copy needs to demonstrate how these outcomes are achieved and can only be achieved with concise descriptions of the features and advantages of your product or service. Include proof of results through testimonials, guarantees, and statistics.

Be Specific. Make the benefits of your offering as precise as possible. Consumers value their time and money, and stressing them will improve your chances of earning their business. Include exact prices, discounts, guarantees, times, colors, and smells that distinguish your products and services in the marketplace.

Which Words. The ways your words and sentences sound trigger mental images. Employ compelling literacy devices to inspire the imagination of prospects, such as alliteration, cacophony, rhythm, rhyme, dialogue, and imagery. Remember not to use lyrical prose just for the sake of it—each word should add to your message.

Grammar. Your copy should be grammatically correct. While there are many examples of successful advertising that are ungrammatical, a breach of grammatical rules should be deliberate and designed to serve a specific purpose. Unless there is a conscious reason to do otherwise, copy should be grammatically sound in order to effectively communicate.

Be Succinct. Keep sentences short and use familiar words. Paragraphs should be no more than a few lines. Inject subheads to break up text and highlight important points. You want the reader to do the least possible work to get your message.

Avoid Clichés. They turn some people off. More significantly, people don't hear them as they pass mindlessly off the tongue without bothering to visit the mind, and the point you're trying to make is lost. If you find yourself tempted to use a cliché, think about the message you want to convey and try to rephrase it in a more imaginative way.

Call to Action. The ultimate aim of an ad is to generate action on the part of the reader. What precisely do you want your reader to do? Call now? File for future reference? Send in a coupon? Send for a brochure? Remember something? Sum up your copy by stating the goal of your call to action. If you are aiming to stimulate sales, offer a discount to all readers who bring in the ad or quote a reference number.

Proofread. It's an obvious point, but remember to do it. Go through your advertising copy carefully to make sure that every word is spelled correctly, the grammar is impeccable and the punctuation is dead on. Even tiny mistakes in spelling or grammar can be glaring, leaving the consumer to question your professionalism.

Don't expect to perfect your copy on the first try. I had to write twenty different headlines and corresponding texts before I picked the best one to attract new models. Writing persuasive copy is an art form, one that takes time to develop. My tips will help direct you on the right path. But no matter how many samples you write, you have an inherent advantage; as David Ogilvy said, "Good copy can't be written with tongue in cheek, written just for a living. You've got to believe in the product." As the entrepreneur, you already have this covered. A few tries, and effective copy will flow.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

My recent jaunt to Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo inspired my latest marketing initiative. Watching my models rock the runway in minimalist chic excited my fashion sensibilities and my entrepreneurial pride; I had come a long way from my trusted teenage backpack and my office in my mom's basement. But there was another aspect about doing business in Japan that invigorated this entrepreneur: their business cards.

From my first meeting, I discovered that exchanging business cards is a ceremony rather than a transaction in Japan. When presenting a card, it must face upward from the recipient's perspective. This practice is a far cry from the Canadian way of accepting a card by stuffing it into your nearest pocket — an action considered rude by Japanese businesspeople. Instead, the business card is accepted with both hands, touched, and studied carefully.

The Japanese have much to teach us about the art of the business card.

This small 3.5-by-2-inch card is an integral part of any marketing plan. In fact, it is one of the most basic and least expensive marketing tools for a small business. Your business card can make or break a client's first impression of your company, generating as much of an impression as your personal appearance.

While you can't expect your business card to tell the whole story about your company, you should expect it to present the image you want people to remember. From my Japanese journey, here are the lessons learned on how to create the perfect business card:

The Message. Choose a card style that's appropriate for your business, industry and personal style. What works for a modeling agent won't necessarily work for a real-estate agent. Begin by thinking about the message you want to project. After all, business cards are an extension of your brand and the personality of your company.

The Design. As a general rule, follow the "less is more" mantra — keep the design clean and simple. Avoid turning your business card into a novel. Cramming too much information in a small font size is difficult to read and won't look good. Other than this rule, let the artist in you shine.

Design Trends. A basic card is usually printed in black ink on plain white or cream stock. This is a good style to choose when utility is all you need. It's an approach that can appeal to clients who are not be impressed by fancy design features. But giving your cards some creative flare can generate attention, enhance your brand, and score new clients. Consider some of the popular trends that I discovered in Japan and now see at home:

Embossing This technique allows particular words to pop off the cardstock.

Both Sides Use the front of the card for an image and the back for contact details. Alternatively, keep all your information on one side and let the other side serve as a discount coupon, an appointment reminder, a map to your location, or a calendar of special events.

Hi-Tech. Another way to market your business is the USB business card. Put your contact information on a USB thumb drive and then share as many files as you want. For example, if you are handing out an USB card at a trade show or networking event, save your product and price list or a proposal on it.

Vertical. Try giving your layout a 90-degree turn by printing vertically instead of the traditional horizontal layout.

Size. Though you can experiment with layout, stick with the traditional 3.5-by-2-inch business card dimensions. This way, the card will fit into your client's card scanner, Rolodex or wallet.

Texture. The feel of your card can generate a second look — and touch. Try nonstandard materials, such as metal, leather, or chocolate. You can also use unusual shapes, edges, and folds. Tactile cards are considerably more expensive than regular cards because they use nonstandard production processes. But for some businesses, this more unusual card may be worth the price.

Pictures. Visuals representing your product or service, or a benefit your business provides, can help you communicate your message better than dozens of words. Having your face on your card — whether it's a photograph, a drawing or a caricature — helps a contact remember you. Don't forget to make sure the picture size meets the printing criteria to avoid a pixilated image.

Colour. You can print any colour font onto any colour background. Some printers use colour cardstock while others print colour ink onto a white background to give it colour. The former allows you to have your font be any colour. The latter limits you to white font. An emerging style is to a have a double-sided card with one white background side and one colourful background side. If you're selecting from a printer's catalog, there are about fifteen standard colours to choose from. If you have another ink colour in mind, your printer can show a Pantone Matching System book that includes every shade under the sun.

Basic Information. Though this may sound like obvious advice, it might cost you another trip to the printer if you don't heed it: Remember to include your name, title, company name, address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail and website on the card. If your business uses social networking sites as marketing tools, display your Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube links.

Finishes. Most business cards are printed on 80-pound cardstock with a mat finish. Consider increasing the weight of your cardstock to make your card feel substantial and luxurious.

Ask. Before you print your business cards, ask your customers, clients, family, and friends for their thoughts on the sample. A second opinion can spot errors that you missed, or can suggest design elements that you overlooked.

Printing. Want to try a new style, but not invest in a huge print run? Do you require less than 500 or 1000 cards? Now you can access high quality, cost effective small print runs. Many business card shops allow customers to design, order and print their business cards in minutes. Staples, for instance, recently launched a "Business Cards in Minutes" program, promising professional-quality business cards in thirty minutes. This service allows users to print as few as 100 cards at a time.

After my trip to Japan, I revamped my business cards from a single-sided, orange font, and white background card to a double-sided card with an orange background and white font on one side and a picture of my models on the other. By conveying the right message with my business cards, success is now in my cards. No more stuffing business cards into my back pocket. I can make my presentation a ceremonious occasion.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

How to top your customers' wish lists

Decorations wallpaper windows of your favorite stores; tunes ring from their doors; and the owners prepare for the biggest shopping season in Canadian retail—the Holidays.

Despite rising gas, oil and energy prices, consumers still feel generous when it comes to gift giving. Statistics Canada reported that Canadians dropped $34.5 billion in retail stores in December 2004, tripling the monthly intake for these stores.

On average, according to The Retail Council of Canada, each Canadian will spend $687 this year during the holiday season. They will also spend an average of $670 on non-gift related expenses, such as clothing, travel, decorations, beauty services, and entertainment.

Consumers' generous holiday shopping offers a great gift to your small business. You don't have to stimulate their spending—it's already there. They are ready, willing, and frantic to buy. But to earn their business, you have to be first on their wish list.

How does your small business get a scoop the plum pudding?

You need to anticipate and solve customers' buying dilemmas. While many firms might think it wise to invest in expensive advertising campaigns, budget savvy email marketing can be just as effective. In fact, it can bring in even better results because you are able to target, personalize, and update each message.

Having written holiday promotional emails for the past ten years, here my tips to make your message the biggest gift to your small business:

Personal Touch Inboxes quickly fill up during the holidays. Greetings, invitations, and promotions often double our daily new messages. Your email can stand out by being personalized to each consumer. Look at their past purchasing behaviors. Know what interests them and suggest relevant products in three price categories.

Solve Problems Consumers are crammed with questions as they embark on their gift-buying quest. What do they do when the clock's ticking and they haven't made a dent in their gift list? How do they get cool gifts on a budget? What do they get for the person who has everything? Answering these common questions allows you to anticipate and help solve their challenges.

B2B Gifts Corporate B2B gift buyers have their own set of gift purchasing problems, but on a larger scale. What's their budget? How many gifts do they need to buy? How can their gifts stand out among all the others? Suggest gift ideas for their staff and consumers in price ranges that reflect past purchases. Add value by making the decision fun and easy.

Services It's not only retail shops that profit during the holidays. As an entrepreneur running a B2B service business, I have taken advantage of holiday spending. My modeling agency sells holiday fashion shows to malls and department stores. Consumers are, after all, on the look out for the perfect gifts for spouses, parents, and kids. Similarly, your restaurant can offer holiday catering or your housekeeping service can have holiday cleaning before the family arrives. Add a holiday theme to your regular offering to help clients maximize their holiday season.

Time Your Offer There are planners and procrastinators. Be there for both. Understand the timing horizon of your customers so your email arrives when they're ready to buy. Make sure the subject line reflects the time-line. For example: "Early Holiday Gift Ideas" or "Not Too Late for Great Gifts." Fall isn't too early for corporate gift buyers and event planners to make holiday plans. Your first email campaign should arrive in time to help them make their business buying decisions.

Be on top of consumers' wish lists by solving problems rather than pushing products. These same email-marketing strategies work for other holidays and seasonal events, such as Mother's Day and graduation season. When you're solving problems and making your customers' lives easier, your communications are welcomed all year-round. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

How to turn your competitors into allies

"Going to war" is how marketers often describe their approach to competition. According to the metaphor, competitors are the "enemy" to be blown away by the artillery of small business. While the metaphor engenders an adrenaline rush for some entrepreneurs at the same time as it offends others, it sets all of them on the wrong track.

Competition should not be viewed as "us vs. them" but instead as "us with them."

A few years back, I wanted to pitch my modeling agency as the exclusive supplier of models for a huge fashion show. The event was attended by national media, and was sure to boost our profile. But there was catch: the show required eighty runway models and I only had fifty signed to my Toronto roster. I also specialized in models of all ages and sizes. The show producer would want at least half of the models to be thin and tall—the standard runway walkers.

I didn't have the resources to scout over twenty-five new models for the show. Without them, the show producer wouldn't consider my agency. But neither did my small business competitors. They only had fifty runway models on their books, and were restricted by the same small business budget. Our small sizes and unique niches limited both of us from scoring the contract individually—but combining our talents allowed us to score it together.

I met with the owner of another small, well-respected modeling agency specializing in standard runway models. We decided to go after the fashion show producer together, pitching ourselves as the exclusive modeling service for the show. Each of us would supply half of the models; I provided the non-traditional models and my competitor supplied the traditional ones. The producer signed on.

Turning competitors into allies helped my firm gain a new client that we would not have gotten ourselves. Here are five ways to transform your competitors from adversaries to friends, and by doing, increase your revenues:

Networks: It can be challenging to market your small business in the face of national chains. Forge alliances with other small businesses in the same industry but located in other geographic areas (other cities or neighborhoods) to create a network with a bigger image and scope. For example, if you owned a catering company in Edmonton, join forces with other caterers in Victoria, Ottawa, and Halifax to create an umbrella marketing campaign. You can agree not to encroach on each other's territories, but gain greater marketing capacities by pooling ad dollars and having a national network behind you.

Referrals: Friends send you business; enemies don't. Regardless of the type of company you operate, your niche is mostly likely different from competitors. Some customers will be right for you while others will find a better fit with someone else. Get to know your competitors through networking at events to earn their trust and respect. You can keep your referral arrangements informal, or you can formalize the relationships by offering referral fees.

Events and Promotions: Competitive alliances open up a new pool of consumers. The owners of three quilting shops joined forces to create weekend "Shop Hops" during which they offered tea to consumers, prizes, quilting lessons, and sales. Since each of the shops had a strong point of differentiation—offering different types of fabrics and classes—the owners were confident that they would retain their own customers while gaining new ones. The event was a huge success; the retailers did a month worth of sales in the single weekend.

Joint Pitch: Like me, you can team up with your competitors to win contracts from large corporate clients by working together to provide a product or service. In a competitive bid, pitching to major corporations can be difficult for small businesses. The corporate manager must make "safe" decisions to protect her job. Even when a small company appears to provide the better solutions, the manager may still go with a larger or more established company solely because it is safer. Forming an alliance with the right competitor allows your small business to appear as safe and powerful as the big ones.

By making peace not war with competitors, you too can develop a new stream of revenue and grow your business. I have metaphorically held hands with other modeling agencies for the past few years -- and fashion show producers have continued to award their business to us. Personally, winning a contract together is a lot more rewarding than beating out your competitor because we all win.

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Inside product placement

A few weeks ago, my two best friends and I watched Talladega Night. As we laughed at Will Ferrell, my marketing light bulb went off at the seamless product placement of Wonder Bread. In the film, this brand is the sponsor of Farrell's race car, and is authentically embedded into the film from witty one-liners to race car attire.

After the movie, my friends and I talked about how Wonder Bread had sought such brilliant exposure. We agreed that the brand manager must have known someone at Sony Pictures, and also paid out a ton of cash for the deal. Indeed, big brands would seem to be the de facto movie stars of Hollywood. They have the dollars—like movie stars have the celebrity—to garner prime exposure.

As a small business owner, I couldn't help but wonder how our products can earn their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?

Many would assume that, without the dollars, Hollywood product placement is a luxury exclusively afforded to multinationals. However, after speaking to producers, I learned that entrepreneurs are well positioned to make their way into television and film without spending a cent on product placement through what the film and television industry call a trade-out.

A trade-out is basically a trade-off. Producers use the products and services of businesses in their scenes in return for granting them exposure and a credit. No sponsorship fees are required from the small business owner; they are solely required to pay for the costs of providing the product.

Calgary sisters Tag and Catherine Goulet gained international exposure for their small business FabJob, specializing in the publication of career books, through a trade-out. In June 2004, the set coordinator for the movie Bewitched called them, having found their website through a google search, because she was looking for books to use in a scene of the film. The sisters couriered off some sample books right away.

Two months later, they received an email from the set coordinator saying that she not only wanted to use three copies of each book, but also wanted a large cardboard book display. All of this was needed within the week. Being ambitious entrepreneurs, Tag and Catherine coordinated and fulfilled the request within the time period.

Although their books were not prominently featured in the film, and in fact appear so quickly that people would not notice them without specifically looking out, the sisters feel that the product placement was effective. "The benefit to us hasn't been the fact that people can see our books in a movie," explains Tag. "The benefit is that we can say our books have been featured in a movie starring Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman." Being featured in the film, she explained, increased the credibility of FabJob and also attracted consumers who want to taste Hollywood life.

Personally, I can attest to the value such high profile exposure. When I was 19 years old, a producer from the Oprah Winfrey Show called my office, inviting me to be a guest on an episode about "cool jobs." She had heard about my agency from reading a recent profile in Teen People Magazine.

My experience was similar to the FabJob sisters; I had to move fast to meet the producers' requests. They wanted arrive at my office the following morning to film a typical day at my modeling agency, including a photo shoot and fashion show. We did not have shoots and shows each day, but I could not say no to Oprah. I agreed, immediately coordinating a shoot and show for their cameras. After the show, I received about half a million emails from interested individuals and have been able to say that my business was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show

While Hollywood came calling to Tag, Catherine, and myself, you do not have to wait to get your small business' name in lights. Instead, you can actively approach producers and incorporate product placement into your marketing strategy. Here are some tips to make your business a star without paying a fee.

Brainstorm. Think about your goals for wanting to have your product featured in film or on television. If you want to reach your target market, ask yourself what types of films or programs they watch. For example, should you be targeting stay-at-home moms, you might want to consider everything from soap operas to daytime talk shows. However, if your goal is to build credibility among the general public, think about hosts and actors who instill confidence.

Developing a List. Your initial list of films and programs are likely to be your favorite ones. But try to avoid these easy choices by exploring movies and shows to which you are not naturally drawn. Ask your consumers what shows they watch, and which actors and hosts instill confidence in them. Once you compile a list, learn as much as you can about each show and film. Put yourself in the shoes of the producer and honestly envision your product being used. If you can see it being a fit in some way, then the film or show is worth approaching.

Television Contacts. Do a google search for the show's website, which should list the name and contact information for the production company. If the show's site does not contain this information, the credits of the program will list the production company (You can then do an internet search for their website). Once you find the website of the production company, find the person in change of business development or product placement as they are the one to whom you should address all correspondence.

Film Contacts. If you are interested in film, read the current online editions of Variety or Hollywood Reporter. Most issues list films in development, including the actors signed to the project and the appropriate production companies (You can then do an internet search for their website to attain the contact information). Remember to approach several production companies and several projects—like cold calling, successful product placement is a numbers game.

No Calls. Do not call the production company to speak with a producer about product placement. Your call simply puts them on the spot, making it easy for them to say, "No." If you do call, it should only be to speak with a receptionist to acquire the name of the appropriate contact person.

Send a Media Kit. Once you have located the contact information, mail off a media kit. Your kit should include a cover letter, photos and descriptions of your offerings, endorsements and media exposure, and your contact information. This material should be presented on no more than three pages, be professionally designed, and be clear and succinct to allow for quick reading. Write at the top or bottom of each page in bold: "We welcome the opportunity for product placement."

The Producer is the Producer. Be careful about suggesting a scenario of how your product should be used. This will only limit your opportunities, and insult the producer's creative control. Instead, suggest a match between the show or film and your product without offering specific direction. For example, Should you be pitch Canadian Idol suggest, "Since our doughnut shop is based in Toronto and Canadian Idol is set in the same city, please keep us in mind." Suggesting that the contestants might want to have breakfast at your shop is too much information.

The Secret. Most high profile films and shows require you to sign confidentiality agreement, ensuring secrecy about your involvement until the release date. Do not to tell anyone, even your friends. If gossip is leaked to tabloids or blogs, and linked to you, then you are liable. Make sure you are clear about when you are allowed to promote your involvement before sending any materials to the printer or adding updates to your website.

Promote It. After spending your energy and resources to provide products for the movie or show, remember to include it in all your promotional materials. From your business cards to your website, include "As featured on (name the film or show)." You should also send out a press release to local media because having a local firm featured in a Hollywood film or show is exciting community news.

Having your offering featured on television and in film infuses legitimacy and star quality into your small business for years to come. FabJob features Will Ferrell flipping through their books on the homepage of their website. Many consumers have told me, "If Oprah thinks you're worth featuring, your modeling agency must be good." Our experiences show that Wonder Bread is not the only brand to go to Hollywood. By including trade-outs in your marketing, you too can reap the benefits of Oprahification or being in the next blockbuster while still meeting your budget.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

On December 16th, 2006, Farzana Doctor had a lot to celebrate. For starters, the day marked her thirty-fifth birthday, and twelve of her friends were hosting a bunch to mark the occasion. But the day was also the start of an exciting personal and professional adventure; earlier that week, Inanna Publications offered Farzana a contract to publish her first book — Stealing Nasreen.

As everyone sat around the dinning table, Farzana knew that she faced a challenge. About 20,000 books are published in Canada each year, and over 170,000 in the U.S. Her fictional debut needed to sit front and centre on the busy bookstore shelf, or else risk being lost in crowd and from consumers. On top of this, her established, but small publisher lacked the recourses to launch a fully-fledged marketing campaign.

Farzana needed to spread the word about Stealing Nasreen without a budget. She began by asking each brunching friend to be her "agent." In this role, they would carry her book, cover facing out, everywhere and anywhere they went. Whether on the bus, at their office, or buying groceries, they would showcase her book to all onlookers. Her friends agreed (after all, it was her birthday).

Speaking to Farzana, I realized that a book is no different than any other small business product or service. There is a product, and there are limited marketing funds. In this situation, word-of-mouth marketing is the winning choice for each small business marketing plan. However, you can't just sit back and wait for word-of-mouth to happen. You need to develop and execute a formal program to achieve results.

Here are some strategies to spread the word about your product or service. Some of initiatives worked for Farzana. Others have worked for me in my efforts to recruit new models for my modeling agency. But all of the strategies can be applied to any small business without making a dent in your budget.

Family and Friends. Those who already care about you will be the first to support your initiatives. Take heed from Farzana, and invite your closed friends to be ambassadors for your new product. Inform them about the features and prices to answer questions from interested buyers. Have them tell everyone they know about your offering, whether via email or in-person at their office, gym, or community group.

Facebook It. The social networking site provides a powerful resource to stimulate dialogue. The "events" function allows you to promote a happening, and invite your friends to it (who can invite their friends). Farzana uses this feature to promote her readings, but you could also use it to publicize a sale, product launch, or seminar. The "group" feature allows you to create a forum for your business. I created one for my agency where members can post comments about modeling. The notes function allows your friends to write reviews about your offering, and notify their contacts about it.

Personal Travels. Going away for a wedding or to visit family provides an opportunity to meet new contacts in new markets. Farzana turned a family holiday into a book tour. After visiting her father in Texas, she drove back to Toronto with her sister, stopping at the cities along the way to read from her book at local bookstores (she first called the stores to arrange the events). Similarly, I arrange meeting with fashion designers when I visit my family in Montreal and Los Angeles

Groups and Associations. Pre-exiting groups provide a network of new contacts ranging from customers to staff members to suppliers. Select three different groups to join in the next three months, such as chambers of commerce, neighborhood associations, and trade associations. Through membership at the Toronto Fashion Incubator, I met my new staff members as well as designers who hired my models.

Blogging. Blogs allow you to share information about your offering through your stories. In an informal, diary-like style, you can document your exciting and stressful entrepreneurial experiences. Readers develop a relationship with your business by developing one with you, rather than through a hard sell. Farzana began a blog to detail her tour and daily life. She receives an average of 30 to 60 hit per day from those interested in her book and her life as an author.

Community Events. Happenings allow you to interact with potential customers. Contact organizations that coordinate events for your target market. Pitch an activity to enhance their event and, in turn, promote your business. Farzana contacted local Pride organizations and offered to read from her book during their festivities because her novel had a queer theme. I have contacted organizations for eating disorders, and offered to have my models to speak about body image at their conferences.

Not-for-Profit Boards. Contact an organization related to an issue that is close to your heart, and offer to volunteer your skills as a member of their Board of Directors. Not only will you be helping support important social work, but you will also be meeting other boards members in a variety of fields. As a Board member for the Canadian Foundation for Women's Health, I share my marketing skills while also meeting many new contacts.

Thank You. Develop a creative way to thank friends and associates who referred someone to you. You could offer a discount on their purchase, or simply write a kind thank you note. This gesture will not only show your appreciation, but will also encourage them to refer. I often send people who refer new models to me passes for an upcoming fashion show.

Word-of-mouth marketing taps you into a network that exists beyond your own sphere. Despite her lack of recourses, Farzana effectively promoted her novel in both Canada and the US by instituting some of the suggested strategies. Similarly, I attract an average of fifty new models a month because they have heard about my business. You too can remain open to every possible new consumer by remembering Farzana's mantra for spreading the word: "Take every opportunity to tell everyone because you never know what will happen."

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

"Don't stay in bed, unless you can make money in bed," said the late comedian George Burns. With our laptops connected to wireless internet, we can heed Burns' advice and grow our small businesses. The online world allows us to build new relationships, otherwise known as network, by connecting us with a vast field of potential customers, clients, and resources.

On snowy Friday mornings, I often opt for my duvet cover instead of my office desk. My laptop sits perched on my pillow as I log onto Facebook. My morning objective: Develop new contacts to grow my modeling agency. Once I'm logged onto the social networking site, I search for modeling and fashion groups. I post my responses to members' questions, and send messages to possible models and other contacts.

But old school, in-person networking events are well worth getting about of bed and braving the cold. In 2004, I attended a forum on eating disorders at which I met two marketing directors for a beauty brand. We discussed our businesses, and found a synergy between our visions. I followed up from the initial encounter, had several meeting, and was eventually asked to supply models for their latest project — the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty.

Whether you network online, in-person, or both, expanding your contact list is your pathway to financial growth. Being successful at networking, however, is not simply about attending events, talking to people, and emptying your pockets of business cards. Such tactics often leave your in-box bare. Instead, you need to develop the skills to turn your networking into results. Here are some tips that have helped me make money by staying in bed (or at least staying there longer than usual):

Events. Conferences, speeches, and receptions are great places to meet new contacts. Become a member of your local chamber of commerce, entrepreneurial organization, and industry association to become invited to these gatherings. You can also join groups where potential clients meet. I joined a local fashion designer's association because these professionals are part of my target market.

Focus on Quality. I frequently meet people who, while talking to me, keep their eyes roving around the room, seeking the next person to chat up. They assume that successful networking is a race to collect business cards. But business cards are only of value when relationships are established. You have to earn the trust of new contacts by developing a rapport and giving them your full attention.

First Impressions. Your handshake, facial expressions, and eye contact all impact your sole opportunity to make a first impression. Greet people with solid a handshake and a warm smile. I make eye contact by noticing the colour of the other person's eyes as shake their hand. Listen carefully to their name. Repeat their name by saying, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ritika." Try using their name two addition times in the conversation.

Ask About Them. Begin conversations by asking about the new contact rather than talking about you. As Stephen Covey states, "Seek first to understand and then to be understood." Comment on their business by asking them to elaborate on a point. As they explain, listen intently to what they tell you. Once you have demonstrated interest in someone else, they will — in most cases — become more interested in you.

Your Pitch. Develop a ten-second introduction and a thirty-second presentation. The former explains what you do and for whom. I often say, "I work with fashion and beauty brands to help them increase their sales by scouting and sourcing models that reflect their customers." This encourages the other person to ask for more information. When they do, recite your presentation. This should provide an example of your work and the results that you have helped your clients achieve.

Get Feedback. Practice your handshake, introduction, and presentation with a friend. You can improve your confidence through repetition, and your friends can provide suggestions on how you can come across more clearly and confidently.

Follow Up. Contact prospective clients immediately after the event by sending an email or card. Mention something from your conversation and express your interest to keep in contact. Within two weeks of this initial follow up, contact them and arrange to meet in-person. At this meeting, you can learn more about their business, their challenges, and how you could potentially help them.

Inner Circle. Attending events is not the only way to meet new contacts. Your family, your friends, and you likely know many people whose network you can utilize. Think about the people you each know, what they do for a living, and whether they have contacts relevant to your business. Approach these individuals to ask for their help in connecting you to possible customers and clients.

Be Clear. When approaching your inner circle, make your request direct. State the types of people or firms with whom you want to meet. For example, you can say, "I would like to meet with companies developing databases." You can even name the specific firm and job title of the contact. For example, "I'm looking to connect with the Managing Director of the database division at Apple."

Online Opportunity. The internet has created many new ways to network. Type the name of your profession into a search engine. If you have a clear target market, you can search for this name, such as "baby boomers" or "biotechnology." Check the search results for websites featuring bulletin boards, discussion lists, and live chats. These online forums can also be found on social networking websites and on those of your local chamber of commerce and industry associations. Online hosts, such as Yahoo or MSN, also feature these interactive forums on their sites.

Using Online Forums. Answering questions on interactive forums allows you to demonstrate your expertise and become known to the people who frequent them. Include a signature at the end of your post that states your company's offering. For example, I include, "Ben Barry Agency, Model Scouting and Sourcing." You can also give people a reason to get in touch with you. For example, under your signature, write: "Visit my web site for a free resource guide." If you see a post that indicates someone might benefit from your firm, send them a message. But never directly sell to them because you might be banned from the forum.

Just Email. If there are specific people who you would like meet, call their office, obtain their email, and write to them directly. Tell them that you are an entrepreneur, and would appreciate the opportunity to meet. Ask for five minutes of their time; everyone has five minutes. Once you're in the meeting, deliver your ten-second introduction and thirty-second presentation. Do homework on the firm, and outline how your offering can benefit them. Remember to use your tips on creating a strong first impression.

Remain Active. Get out to at least two events per month to maintain a public presence. You should also participate on online boards once every few days in order to stay current with the group's happenings. If you don't participate, you'll always wonder whom you missed meeting. You should also keep in regular contact with your network. Call to touch base, or email to arrange a coffee date.

No matter how well you perfect your networking skills, the longevity of your contacts depend on your ability to reciprocate. When I follow up with new contacts and check in with established ones, I offer my help. I share valuable contacts, networking events, and associations. Showing my contacts that I think about them leads them to think about me — allowing me to stay in bed while growing my business for many snowy days to come.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

How to stand out from the pack

Attracting consumers is the never-ending objective of our small businesses. How do we draw in new buyers? How do we close sales with potentials? How do we strengthen existing relationships with satisfied shoppers?

Websites, posters, and press share our offering with the public. Cold calls capture the attention of targeted potentials. YouTube and viral marketing keeps happy customers updated on our happenings.

None of these marketing tools, however, automatically bring consumers through our door, building trust through face-to-face interactions.

This is where trade shows come in. By bringing consumers into the same room as us, they add the in-person element missing from our other marketing initiatives. They also build upon the work developed from these initiatives. Name recognition from press, pitches from cold calls, and branding from existing sales are each strengthened through the guaranteed customer encounters of trade shows.

But paying the $250 to $2,500 participation fee is a lost investment unless you're prepared. My first Toronto Fashion Week, in 2002, I expected that sales would be a sure result. Having recently opened the Toronto office for Ottawa-headquartered modeling agency, I needed to promote my talent to the city's designers. The fashion industry trade show appeared to be the quickest and fastest way to meet them—the organizers, after all, assured the who's who of attendees.

My job seemed simple. I paid the registration fee, showed up, and waited for customers to come to me. But as I watched attendees walk over to my competitors, I quickly realized that guaranteed attendees didn't guarantee sales. Few customers came my way.

During the following Toronto Fashion Week, registering was only a small step of my strategy. My team and I spent hours planning and executing before, during, and after the show. This time, many customers discovered my agency—including the organizers of the Toronto Fashion Week who hired my models for their official ads.

After one dive, and many successful trade show experiences, here are some tips of how to optimize trade shows for your small business:

Find a Show. No matter what industry you're in, there will be a Canadian trade show for it. There's Book Expo for publishing; Canada Farm Show for agriculture; and Finance Forum for financial services. Check out http://www.biztradeshows.com/canada for a list of trade shows in Canada.

Making the Choice. After researching the shows, there will likely be a few relevant options. Contact the organizer to obtain details on their show to determine whether it attracts the best audience for your offering. Since organizers' marketing materials are obviously positive, contact former participants (the marketing information should list who has taken part) in order to get their perspectives.

Set Goals. Determine what you want to get out of participation. Do you expect to sell a particular amount of inventory, or become known to a certain number of buyers? You can have more than one goal, but be clear about what you hope to achieve. Be sure to select the show that best meets your goals.

Brilliant Budgets. Due to tight budgets, creating booth displays concerns most small business owners, especially after already shelling out for the participation fee. Contact graphic design departments at local colleges, and request an intern to help design your booth. Make sure you also determine how much you are willing to spend for the booth. Prepare a written budget, apportion the money properly, and record your expenses.

Advance Advertising. Put the word out that you're participating in the trade show. Advertise your attendance on your website. Send e-vites to potential and existing customers. Be sure you give them your booth number, and the benefits of visiting.

Exhibition Space. Before you design your booth, get the details on your booth's location. Is it in a high traffic or low traffic area? Are your competitors beside you? What are the physical conditions of the booth space, such as lighting? Answering these questions will help you design a booth that stands out in your area. In future years, as you become a regular at the show and also become familiar with the venue, you'll be given priority to select your booth's location.

Clean and Clear. Attendees will walk past hundreds of booths. You don't have much time to make sure they understand your offering. Keep your booth simple. Hang key informational about your products at eye-level. Post all key information that is required for your target customers to make purchase decisions: prices, minimum orders, and shipping costs.

Makes Visitors Feel Comfortable. Too often booths are designed to "look cool" but instead only discourage visitors. Remove physical barriers to visitor exchanges by making it easy to enter and obtain the information. For example, a U-shaped space removes the barriers between the booth operator and attendee, encouraging exchange.

Visit Your Booth. Before the show, have a few friends visit your booth. Ask them whether they found your display user-friendly and memorable.

Pulling the Crowd. Many of your competitors are in the same room — and competing for the same business. Draw people's interest with an interactive display. Use a quiz or game on a computer, a contest, or scheduled demonstrations.

Promotional Items. Give away small items that attendees can use and, at the same time, be reminded of your business. Branded pens and armbands, featuring a short quotation related to your business, are low-cost, frequently used promotional items. Also consider samples. While your offering might not be conducive to actual product samples, be creative. I can't give out models to attendees, but I make inexpensive flipbooks featuring receipts from my models alongside their pictures. Be sure you place these items in a location where people will have to meet you before them get them, especially for more costly items that are reserved for potential clients.

Stocked Literature. Have an ambitious supply of flyers and business cards for visitors. You should also have a press kit prepared for the trade media. Be ready to do business; make sure your order forms, pens, credit card slips, or anything else you need to close sales are ready.

Engage Attendees. Greet each person who approaches your display with a warm welcome. Be sure your body language is friendly. For instance, don't stand there with your arms crossed over your chest. Chat with visitors, and find out what aspect of your business they're most interested in.

Train Your Staff. The people operating your booth should be knowledgeable about your business, sales processes, and participation goals. They need to greet attendees, engage them in conversation, and answer their specific questions. If your booth has no visitors, don't have your staff chat with each other. Instead, one or two should stand outside your booth to personally approach attendees and encourage them to visit. The number of staff needed depends upon the size of your booth, but ensure that at least one person is present at all times.

Record Visitors. Attracting visitors is the only the first step. Don't let them leave until you record their contact information and what particular offering interests them. Use a prepared spreadsheet on your laptop to record the details, saving you time from having to transfer data after the show and also from trying to decipher quick, unclear writing.

Follow Up Promptly. Send emails or make the phone calls to follow up on the contacts you made during the trade show the following week. The faster you make contact, the more you'll stand out and close sales.

Trade shows are an incredible source of customers for your small business. But simply participating isn't enough. Make the participation fee worthwhile by taking the time and effort to research the events, plan your display, and follow up on contacts. After my unsuccessful first season of Toronto Fashion Week, I never again showed up unprepared.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

It began with the Yellow Pages. Having opened my modeling agency six months prior and now with fifteen models under contract, I needed to do my job as their agent — find them work.

When I began I agency, like many entrepreneurs, I didn't have any contacts in my industry. No one I knew hired models. But my lacking Rolodex wasn't going to stop me. Instead, I set out to build it up.

I opened the Yellow Pages to industries that I assumed hired models: advertising agencies, apparel retailers, fashion designers, and photographers. That thick sunshine coloured book sure made my job easy. Each industry was neatly divided, with the company names and phone numbers listed bellow.

But my job soon became tricky. The Yellow Pages didn't list any contact names. It didn't tell me what to say when I got on the phone. "Hello, I got your number from the Yellow Pages," certainly wasn't going to cut it.

Overwhelmed with questions, I called a mentor, Jeremiah Greene. He was also an entrepreneur, operating a water-filter company serving government offices and private-firms. Cold calling, he explained, was the centerpiece of his marketing strategy. It's how he generated customers from his first days in business to his twentieth year.

Jeremiah shared his wisdom. He was the director to my actor rehearsing before opening night. Over the next years, I refined my craft. As I gleaned my techniques, I shared them with him, hoping to return some of his generosity.

Ten years later, and after thousands of failed and flourishing cold calls, I've developed my cold calling script. Here are my tried-tested-and-true tips - the ones that have grown my business from zero to over sixty satisfied customers, most of whom hadn't heard of me before they answered my call.

Know Who You're Calling. Understand the background and work of each prospect. Visit their website, which usually lists their history, previous work, latest news, and pure gold, contact names. Now you can begin each call prepared.

Shifting the Focus. I was initially nervous about cold calling. I didn't want to say the wrong thing, be a nuisance, or get rejected. All my worries were about me rather than the focus of my call — the customer? By focusing on ourselves, we can't really listen to the needs of our prospect. Shift your energy to them. What value you can deliver? How can you benefit their company? Ask them questions about their business and unique needs.

Prepare your Opening. You have twenty seconds to get the customer's attention. You can't afford to ramble or trip up. Write out an opening statement in advance. Don't read it over the phone, but use it to organize your thoughts. Include a greeting and an introduction, a reference point (something about the prospect found from your research), the benefits of your offering, and a transition to a question or dialogue.

For example, here is one of my openings: "Good afternoon, Ms. Baxter. This is Ben Barry from the Ben Barry Agency. I read in the local paper that you recently launched a catalogue. We specialize in providing fashion models that match brands' target markets. I'd like to ask you a few questions to determine whether our services meet your needs."

Be Energized. Make cold calls when you feel fresh. For me, this is at the start of the business day. Think of the call as a friendly conversation, not an adversarial one. Remember that you have a great product that genuinely serves a need.

Gatekeepers are Allies. Support staff stands between you and the decision makers. They are valuable sources of information; they can direct you to the right person and help you to understand how their company might use your product or service. Be friendly, generous, and engage them in conversations.

Voice Mail Tips. If you get voicemail, leave a message between 15 to 35 seconds. Any longer and you'll lose their attention. State a reason for the prospect to call you back. Inducing yourself, scheduling a meeting, or sending information is not going to make your phone ring. What is their motivation to speak with you? Think about what problem can you solve for them.

Speak with Enthusiasm. Smile when leaving your voice mail message. It comes across on the phone. If you're not excited about what you have, then how can you expect a prospect to be?

Ask to Follow Up. Whether you're following up after an initial conversation, sending a package, or having a meeting, ask before doing so. For instance, say: "May I follow up with you to answer any questions you have regarding my bid?" Now they're expecting your call.

Schedule the Follow Up. Once you've gotten permission to follow up, schedule a date and time. Put it in your planner. This eliminates the time-consuming game of phone tag, reducing the number of calls you'll have to make.

Deliver Value in Every Call. When following up, don't call to "follow up." Take some extra time to make you call compelling. Is there something timely that you can share with them about your offering? Do you have a new package, product line, program that would help them? Is there something newsworthy that you can discuss that applies to them?

Bridge Each Conversation with the Last. Each time you speak with the prospect, refer to your last conversation. Remind them why they need to continue speaking with you. What initially piqued their interest?

Read Proposals Together. If you're sending a proposal, arrange a meeting to go over it together upon delivery. Reviewing the proposal with the customer allows you to handle all possible objections immediately and then ask for their business. You'll reduce the chance of your proposal becoming another item on their lengthy to-do list.

Persistence Pays. Eighty percent of new sales are made after the fifth contact, yet the majority of salespeople give up after the second. Develop a follow up schedule. Write down in your planner when you last called, and when you'll call again. Follow your plans, and keep calling.

Today, ten years after making my first cold call, I continue to set aside one day a week to put these tips into practice. Tuesdays are cold call days at the Ben Barry Agency. I research prospects, practice opening statements, and make colds calls - taking breaks in-between to sift through the latest Yellow Pages to discover new prospects.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Evicted. Imagine seeing this word in bold letters on the front door of the apartment you've leased for 14 years. Even more, imagine reading this as you think about your empty back account, having put every last penny into your fledging small business. Before he turned around his business through the online phenomena of YouTube, Ward Bingham didn't have to imagine this scenario. It was his reality.

Ward's near-bankruptcy experience was unthinkable when he launched his business, Mondonation, seven months before. From the start, it looked liked his company would take off. Inspired by the success of Lance Armstrong's bracelets, Ward created t-shirts with "I believe" printed onto them. His product had an extra feature: Wearers customized a personal statement of their belief onto the shirts.

Mondonation was launched with an event targeted toward traditional media outlets. The press jumped all over the affair, garnering front-page coverage. But consumers didn't bite. Not one sale resulted from the print, radio, and television press. As the lack of sales persisted, Ward's resources quickly drew up. His days as an entrepreneur seemed numbered.

While Ward contemplated the fate of his venture, a friend had told him about Time Magazine's 2006 "Invention of the Year" — YouTube. The now popular website, which sold to Google for $1.65 billion in October, 2006, allows users to create profiles and post their own videos. Alongside each video, others comment by posting a video or writing a response. Users subscribe to each other's profiles, and receive messages each time new videos are posted.

Fascinated by YouTube, Ward created his profile and became hooked. One particular video caught his attention — it was of three brothers doing back-flips. "It was very clever and well produced," Ward remembers. He wrote them a message asking whether they would make a similar video wearing his t-shirts. They agreed, and he sent them some samples.

But they didn't make Ward an acrobatics video. Instead, they asked their YouTube friends to post videos of what they believed. The result was a montage of forty people from over 10 countries stating their beliefs, with the Mondonation website prominently displayed at the end. The video was sent to all the participants, who passed it along — generating immediate sales and close to one million views to date. "It only cost me $400 to send them some t-shirts, and this spawned $100,000 worth of sales," says Ward.

Today, Ward exclusively markets Mondonation through YouTube. Making videos requires no training. Most are shot on basic digital cameras and edited on home computer software (although many videos are not edited) by people with no professional training. There's no cost to join YouTube, and posting video is free. Gone are the days of multi-million-dollar television time. Most important, with 20 million visitors each month from around the world, YouTube provides a commanding audience.

While big businesses are trying to jump on the bandwagon, small businesses have an undeniable advantage. "YouTube is about being accessible and relatable," explains Ward. Consumers are much more likely to connect to a small business owner who is intimately connected to her products than a CEO removed from the frontlines. Whether you own a restaurant or make jewelry, you're missing out if you ignore YouTube. Based on Ward's story, I've extracted some tips that small business owners can use to market within this booming community.

Know your Consumer. Marketing on YouTube is most effective when your business involves e-commerce. Since YouTube users are already online, they can jump to your website without making an extra effort. Ward believes that traditional press failed to generate sales for Mondonation because most readers were not yet e-commerce savvy and confident. YouTube members, however, were much more likely to be online shoppers since their use of the site demonstrates online trust.

Ask a Student. If you don't already own a personal video camera, you probably don't want to invest in one until you test YouTube. Same goes with editing software. You might also feel unsure about shooting and editing without some guidance. One option is to try a friend who owns and uses this equipment. But you can also call the film and television department at your local college to ask for students to help make a video. Post a notice on their listserv or tap into their existing co-op program.

Be a Person. "YouTube is not a place to market your business unless you market yourself first," Ward warns. Start by creating an individual profile, allowing users to get to know you the person before your business. Once people get to know you, they'll want to support you — and, in turn, support your venture. Ward began by posting very personal videos in which he explained surviving a boat crash in the Thames River. By sharing this life-altering experience, he was able to show people his motivation behind the "I believe" t-shirts.

Get Subscribers. No one will know about your videos just by posting them. You'll have to actively earn subscriptions from your fellow YouTubers. Building up an initial list takes time. Watch other people's videos that have a common theme to your business, make comments, and ask them to subscribe. As subscribers, they'll be updated every time you post a new video. Your initial fans will tell their friends, who will tell their friends, and the domino effect will roll out. Ward reminds users to be authentic when asking for subscribers. Find people whose videos and interests are related to you and your posts, rather than just asking anyone and everyone.

Post New Videos. Once you get subscribers, you'll need to keep them hooked. Otherwise, they'll forget about you — and your company. Post a new video once a month. Experiment with new topics, different people and locations, and editing techniques. One of your videos might capture the attention of the YouTube organizers, having them select it as a "feature video" on the site's front page. You couldn't ask for better exposure.

Maintain Relationships. Don't let your subscribers forget about you. Part of being an authentic YouTuber is being part of the community. Watch your subscriber's latest videos and post responses. Ward says that much of the inspiration for his videos comes from his daily dose of two to three hours of Youtube watching. Not only does this time get his creative juices flowing, it develops his relationships.

The Topic. You're now excited to market through YouTube. But the big question still remains: What should I do for my video? The answer, unfortunately, won't provide much guidance: anything. It can be a video blog about life as an entrepreneur or your tips on the theme of your business or any creative idea you might dream up.

Your small business opportunities from YouTube are unlimited. You never know who'll be watching when you broadcast yourself around the globe. Ward has received orders from international organizations to celebrity trendsetters. He won't come home to an evicted sign again.

Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com.

PREVIOUS COLUMN: The trick to attracting a crowd

Successful marketing "inspires love" from consumers, claims marketing icon and CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Kevin Roberts in his book Lovemarks. Thanks to technology and globalization, small businesses operate in a marketplace where their counterparts offer almost identical products and services. Embedding your business into the hearts of consumers is the only way to stand out.

Now how small business exactly does this is another topic altogether. Typical paid ads—at least alone—don't cut it. They just fade into the corporate wallpaper that already saturates our visual and virtual worlds. You need to be imaginative, initiating tactics that touch people's lives in a very intimate way.

All the entrepreneurs whom I'm met have been creative in their marketing. They've discovered firsthand what makes consumers fall in and out of love. But out of all their strategies, one approach has consistently allowed them to achieve personal resonance with consumers: seminars. After all, no one likes cold calls. That's that primary reason why seminars work. They're a warm up to what would otherwise be a cold call.

Seminars are a great way to provide information and target specific demographics. More importantly, they allow consumers to put a face, typically the entrepreneurs, to the business. Seminars run the gamete from intimate gatherings of ten people to buzzing events of one hundred fans. Regardless of whether your seminar is small or large, there are some key tips to remember when you're planning it.

Creative Content. The seminar topic doesn't need to have a direct connection to your business. Just make sure the topic is connected to the field. For instance, say you own a restaurant, offer classes on dinner party planning, wine and beer selection, or cooking.

Regular Seminars. You can start with a pilot seminar, but don't stop there. Offer ten consecutive seminars on different topics but that are all tied to a common theme. To extend the previous example, if you run a restaurant and are holding dinner party classes, introduce a different element of the dinner party at each seminar. This will allow you to build more intimate relationships overtime.

Know Your Audience. Develop relevant content for target participants. Don't simply take generic content and package it for the group. Get to know their concerns, challenges, and vernacular, and incorporate these into your presentation. If you're offering seminars for women on investing, for example, understand and address women's traditional relationships to investing and the stereotypes they'll have to combat.

Invite Experts. You don't need to lead all of the seminars. Ask people with expertise on a given topic to instruct. Should the expertise come from another entrepreneur running a complementary business, consider hosting joint seminars — allowing each of you to tap into the other's resources and database.

The Big Event. Host a keynote event where you invite an expert to speak. With a recognized name, you can draw several hundred people or more. This method establishes and reinforces your brand with the audience. It also gets your business out to more people at once. That said, it's much more costly than a small seminar. But you can ease the drain on your resources by seeking alliances with other organizations, such as charities. Remember to introduce the speaker yourself, so guests can see you face-to-face, and include your company name as "presenting" the seminar.

Charge a Fee. For routine and keynote seminars, charge a fee. Attendance is usually higher for events people have to pay for than for freebies. Consider giving the admissions fee, after paying your costs, to a charity. Your participants will feel that they're not only paying to learn about an interesting topic, but they're also helping the community.

Time Matters. Hold seminars at convenient times for your target audience. If you are targeting busy professionals, hold you seminar during breakfast, lunch, or on weekends.

Lunch and Learns. Contact human resource departments of big companies and offer them a lunchtime seminar specifically designed for their staff. Make sure that you cover a topic that the corporation would find relevant to staff, such as a lifestyle or personal health issue. Offer it at no cost to the firm, but ask them to provide lunch for participants.

Inventive Venues. Have fun with venues. You can always hold the seminar at your shop should the space allow it. But if it's not big enough, or you operate from a sterile office or out of your home, consider using a coffee shop, restaurant, or bookstore. Convention halls and hotel banquet room are overdone for large keynotes. Be creative and see whether there is a suitable room in a local museum or at city hall.

Spread the World. No matter how much work you put into the seminar, people won't attend unless you tell them. Post flyers, send e-mails, and create a facebook event. Call organizations that may be interested in the topic. Ask if you can use their membership list or put a notice in their e-blast and on their website. You can also try to get a local radio station, television station, or newspaper to sponsor the event and give you free ads.

Collect Contacts. Don't let people just walk out into the street after your seminar. They're potential consumers. Distribute evaluations forms and a question asking permission to contact them directly about your services and future events. Have a draw prize to create an incentive to return the cards.

Problem Solving. Seminars don't only have to be used to sell your business; they can also help you solve problems. Develop a regular seminar for a group of local entrepreneurs. At each seminar, one entrepreneur can share his or her latest challenge and seek guidance from the other group members. You can rotate moderators, and similarly rotate venues at the respective moderator's business. I'm a part of a six-person entrepreneur seminar group. Not only have I gotten great advice, but the members have also introduced me to new clients.

How do all these tips take shape in daily business life? Very successfully. Just ask Carlyle Jansen, owner of Toronto-based Good for Her, a female-targeted sex and sexuality shop. Jansen's store markets seminars that introduce women to sex and, in return, introduce women to her store. When she began, she held seven different seminars. Today, she holds over 35 on topics from online dating to stripping to a book club. She hands out flyers to people visiting her shop, and posts flyers on community bulletin boards. Facilitators are paid the majority of the participants' fees, and the store uses the rest to pay for marketing costs. Before the season is over, participants ask her when the next schedule is being released. For Jansen, like many entrepreneurs, seminars are indeed inspiring love.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

PREVIOUS COLUMN: Factoring gender into your marketing plans

As small business owners, we do gender everyday in our marketing efforts. We'll assume a consumer nodding her head equals a done deal. We'll use military metaphors to explain our products. We'll lure female consumers by adding pink.

Okay, maybe these are extreme stereotypes. But how many times have you fallen into their trap when marketing? More than a few, no doubt. I have too. We'll apply our assumptions about what men and women want, think, and do. We won't think about gender; we'll just presume gender. After all, who has the time? Not with the store to open, customers to serve, and nearly due bills to pay.

But not thinking about gender is a grave mistake.

In The 80% Minority by Toronto's Joanne Thomas Yaccato, the title says it all; women control 80% of consumer dollars spent in North America, but feel alienated by most marketing programs. Her 2003 book provides a comprehensive guide on how big business can effectively attract women, and tap into their huge spending power. Through case studies, Thomas Yaccato shows how multi-million dollar powerhouses from RBC to Toyota have increased sales by effectively reaching women.

But what are our small businesses to do? We don't have the budgets or staff to follow Thomas Yaccato's advice: hire expensive gender specialists, conduct rigorous research, and implement integrative marketing campaigns. So are we left out from reaping the rewards of targeting women? Not at all. My local modeling agency is no Ford or Elite supermodel, but this hasn't stopped us from attracting many female (and male) models.

How have I been able to attract these new models? Well, they've flooded into my office ever since I added what Thomas Yaccato calls a 'gender lens' to everything that I do. With this lens, we see the impact our firms have upon women in their modern and multidimensional world, and then apply these insights to our marketing. My lens has helped me see that my models are busy running from part-time jobs, to school, to taking care of their kids. In order to avoid conflict with busy schedules and childcare responsibilities, I now book shoots on weekends and have opened up a daycare at our office during campaign season.

But my lens sees further than Thomas Yaccato's. She only views women through it; I view both women and men. Sure, both groups are often socialized differently. But both also have masculine and feminine traits. Today, fathers are becoming equal caregivers, and daughters are holding down third base after ballet class. Adding a gender lens helps us recognize that men have feminine characteristics and women have masculine ones, and allows our businesses to connect with diverse gendered characteristics in each sex.

Using a gender lens may sound like one big (and expensive) task, but it's actually quite simple (and cheap) to do. Many family restaurants put change tables in men's restrooms and hardware stores provide in-store childcare centres. I can tell you that for men who have changed their kids on disgusting bathroom floors and for women who have selected paint colour beside their curious child, these initiative make a big difference when they're deciding where to shop.

You too can attract these buyers by recognizing gender. Start by asking yourself, your employees, and your consumers a variety of questions. You'll soon know what you're doing right with gender, and what you'll need to change. Here are the questions that have helped me refocus my gender lens.

Female-Focused Program. Determine whether you need to design a specialized marketing program for female consumers, or an inclusive one for all. Is your industry perceived as taking women seriously? Are men and women represented in decision-making capacities in your firm? Are your customer contact points free from gender stereotypes? If you answered yes to the questions, one marketing program can be promoted to reach both women and men. However, if you answered no, you should design separate programs for women and men.

Mars and Venus. How do you represent women and men's qualities in your advertising, sales pitches, and consumer service? Do you target men by focusing on ambition and a rational attitude, and reach women by focusing on nurturing and emotional abilities? Both groups will be suspect of such easy binaries. Instead, use images, language, and themes that respect's women and men's feminine and masculine characteristics. Also, add features to your products and services, such as the changing tables in men's washrooms, which recognize that we're all masculine and feminine.

Multidimensional People. Women (and men) are not only different from each other, but they are also different throughout the day. They play a dozen or more roles — mother, wife, lover, caregiver, businessperson, couch potato, fitness freak, indulger. Different roles. Different needs. Different marketing approaches. Figure out what role your customer is playing when she interacts with your product, and then frame your marketing accordingly. A Halifax yoga studio provides a supervised arts studio for children; while mom's in downward dog, her kids build clay sculptures.

More Than Roles. Figuring out women's (and men's) role is not enough to reach them. You need to better understand their state when they use your product. What values are coming into play? What needs must be satisfied? What mood are they in? What frame of mind? What anxieties have surfaced? What biases are getting in the way? Use you answers to develop stronger advertising and sales pitches.

Beyond Solving Problems. We don't all live our lives trying to fix problems. Position your product in a different way from the problem/solution model - in a way that personally impacts women's (and men's) lives. How does your product make their lives simpler? How does it support their multidimensional lives? How does it provide physical, mental, spiritual, or financial benefits? You'll further reach buyers by applying these answers to product engineering and development, how and where you market, delivery channels, the hours you are open, and customer support.

Thinking Before Talking. Whether dealing with salespeople or reading ads, language is responsible for making or breaking the deal. How do your salespeople speak to your consumers? What language do they use? Thomas Yaccato thanked her bank manger for approving her line of credit only to be told, "No problem. You know, that's quite a nice little hobby you've got going." Umm, little hobby? I thought Thomas Yaccato just got an official business line of credit. Clearly, the issue was not one of discrimination. She had gotten the line of credit. It was gender bias in the sales experience. Use inclusive words and speak seriously to female consumers in conversations and advertising. For instance, only call a woman a girl if she is under 16. For those 16 and 17, say young woman.

Live Your Marketing. Does your company culture match your marketing? If not, you'll need to transform your staffing environment and human resources policies to understand and adopt a gender conscious approach.

Answering these questions is a process. It gets going by asking the questions. It creates change by listening to the answers — often the hardest part. We are likely to first hear what we already believe. But hearing the opposite usually means we're actually listening. Only then can our small businesses do gender differently.

EARLIER COLUMNS

A few weeks back, I had the honour of being one of 32 judges for the ACE Canadian Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Six finalists hailing from Vancouver to Charlottetown presented their product packaging to party planning businesses. To get to these finals, the six — who each ran profitable businesses while also attending full-time university - had already beat out 150 applicants, and won competitions in their province and region. Without a doubt, they were all already winning entrepreneurs.

As I listened to each one share their business journey, I remembered standing in their place five years ago — when I had competed and won the title. The week before my presentation, my patient friends listened to my speech many times over. They would come at me with questions, trying to guess every possible angle that the judges would take. My final presentation ran smoothly, with the exception of one question that none of my friends had anticipated: What was my biggest marketing mess-up and what did I learn from it?

I had to think fast. Thankfully, one experience jumped out. A year after opening my modeling agency, I made a poster featuring headshots of each of my models. I mailed 150 copies to ad agents, editors, and stylists. No one called. Not even a thank you. And no wonder; I was selling to busy business people. Assistants often opened my package, and shoved my poster into a drawer — if not the garbage. I had to catch their attention. During the next round of mailings, I called each contact to score a five-minute meeting and sell my agency face-to-face.

Fast-forward five years. I was one of the judges of this same competition that I won. It was now my turn to ask the questions. Sure, the finalists needed to articulate their competitive advantage and walk me through their growth strategies. But I wanted to know more. I wanted them to demonstrate the same characteristic the judge had sought in me; the ability to see mistakes as opportunities. And so I asked the finalists the same question the judge had asked me.

Each entrepreneur's response was honest and critical. They showed that their success was a result of their ability to act, reflect, and then act again. With their support, I am sharing their answers with you. I have also extracted some marketing tips from their stories. The finalists' reflections alerted me to common marketing blunders, and inspired me to re-evaluate my own marketing plan. I hope they'll do the same for you.

First up, I'd like to introduce you to the Winner of the ACE Canadian Student Entrepreneur of the Year Kendal Harazny. I'll follow his story by sharing those of two finalists from Ontario and Nova Scotia.

KENDAL HARAZNY

Age: 21

Business: TicketGold

School: University of Alberta

Website: www.ticketgold.com

"My biggest marketing blunder was recognizing when was the right time to begin significant advertising," says the Canadian Student Entrepreneur of the Year and owner a ticket brokerage firm Kendal Harazny. "The only point in marketing at a significant level would be if you have enough inventory to be confident that you have tickets to satisfy most potential customers needs." Otherwise he'll leave consumers out of tickets and he'll also be out a bundle from marketing. So in the meantime, he's focused on building up his inventory. Then, he says, "I'll be ready to drop big coin on advertising."

Product First. Market Second. "You can only market your business if you have enough inventory ready to sell," say Kendal. "You need to be confident that you can satisfy most customers needs when they want to purchase, or they won't come back."

Evaluate Your ROI. "It would be easy to spend lots of dollars advertising my website to sell to new customers at a 8 to 12 percent markup, however after all overhead and advertising expenses, it wouldn't be worth it," Kendal says. He now calculates whether his margins earned from marketing activities justify their costs.

Rethink The Sell. It's easy to highlight the same features as everyone else when you market your business. Better price. Better Selection. Better Convenience. But how about highlighting something new. What information could you give consumers to smooth their qualms and excite them about their purchase? An influx of competition forced Kendal to do answer these questions. "I had to be creative in my marketing, such as showing consumers where their seats were located and what their view would look like."

Your Value to Consumers. Some products require less aggressive marketing. For those exclusive, rare or luxury items, consumers will go searching. Kendal quickly discovered that this is true of tickets. "It doesn't require much marketing for tickets that 20000 people got and 200000 people want."

DUNCAN ENMAN

Age: 23

Business: Can Stock Photo Inc.

School: Saint Mary's University

Website: www.canstockphoto.com

"I wish I could say that my biggest marketing blunder was focusing on the wrong demographic or utilizing the wrong distribution channels," says the Eastern Canada Student Entrepreneur of the Year Duncan Enman. "But my mistake was almost unforgivable: I simply wasn't marketing at all" Like many entrepreneurs, Duncan didn't even think about marketing after spending all his energy developing his stock photography website to be the most effective one out there. "Luckily I did realize my mistake and quickly reinvested my energies into aggressive promotion, which fortunately saved me from a close encounter with the business grim reaper."

They Won't Know Unless You Tell Them. "When I launched his business, I thought attracting consumers would be easy. I would launch my [stock photo] website, send the link to a few people, and then watch the traffic roll in," he remembers. "Surely visitors would tell their friends and word of mouth would take over from there." Duncan soon learned word of mouth and good publicity didn't bring in business. He began to take out paid advertising on search engines and publications read by his target market.

A Great Product is Part I. "I spent so much time focusing on my product that I lost sight of my marketing strategy," Duncan remarks. "Of course it does not matter how great your product is if no one has ever heard of it. Duncan now sets aside time and resources to plan a marketing strategy so his target customers can discover his product.

KEVIN DOWNE

Age: 23

Business: Mind Over Math

School: University of Waterloo

Website: www.mindovermath.ca

Print adverts are the standard means to get your message out. So no one blinked when Central Canada Student Entrepreneur of the Year Kevin Downe decided to take out an ad in a local magazine for his new math tutoring service. "I purchased a black and white business card sized ad, easily the most expensive advertisement I had ever purchased," he recalls. Not even one response came in. "The problem was I didn't look at the magazine, and the people who were reading it." Next time around, Kevin invested in a larger layout and providing the best tutoring out there.

Know Your Media's Consumer. "Although the magazine was delivered to many different families who may have students needing help with math, the type of people who would actually sit down and read the magazine cover to cover, enough to see a business card sized ad, was not very many," Kevin soon realized. "These people were typically retired with kids who had gone through their math struggles years ago." Kevin now figures out the reading patterns of media he is considering: "Who is reading? When do they read? What sections do they read?"

More is More. "This magazine may have been very good for us if I had invested in an ad four times the size and, consequently, four times the price. I thought originally that just being in the magazine would be good enough for us, but I realize now that I should have either made a bigger investment or none at all."

The Product is Marketing. "I have delivered flyers door-to-door, put flyers in newspapers, and done other things all to get next to zero response from the target. I have learned that as a service that relies on trust and developing customer relationships, the best thing that we can do to market this business is to deliver an amazing service that people will talk about."

Each of these student entrepreneurs made some marketing mess-ups. Sure, some people might freak out and close up shop. But not them. They identified their blunders and then used the lessons learned to direct their future decisions - improving their strategy, skills, and sales. For how else do we know what works without knowing what doesn't? I can tell you there are no more mailings without meetings for my biz-to-biz marketing anymore.

24-year old Ben Barry is CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada and author of Fashioning Reality (Key Porter Books). His marketing column is updated every second week. He can be reached at ben@benbarry.com

EARLIER COLUMNS

May 13, 2007

When I first opened the doors of my modeling agency, I needed to figure out how to sign up potential models. Buying ad space was too expensive. Coordinating a model search required established partners. Stopping people on the street took more time than I had. And so I opted for flyers.

Sitting down at my PC, I created flyers. They read "Models Wanted" and had dangling strips of paper with my phone number that could be torn off. I taped these bright orange sheets onto lampposts and bulletin boards.

Like many small business owners, flyers are our marketing tool of choice. User- and price-friendly design software saves us the $80-plus per hour professional designer fees. Printing costs fit all our marketing budgets - from $2 per flyer for full colour card stock to 5 cents for a simple black and white photocopy on printer paper. Getting our flyers out and seen can easily be done without busting our bank accounts or taking up our time.

My first flyers were a hit. My agency signed up 30 new models, and has continued to include flyers in our marketing plan ever since. Thankfully, however, I have become a wiser flyer-architect over the past ten years as I have learned how to make flyers that sell.

LAY IT OUT

Initial Questions. Before designing begins, ask yourself: who will be reading your flyers and where will they be seen - on crowed boards, dropped off in mailboxes, or given out to people? These answers will help you decide which messages will attract readers and what layout will allow your flyers to stand out.

Be the Designer. Your computer should come equipped with basic design software. Microsoft Word, for instance, comes with a flyer template. For those craving more sophisticated style, you can drop up to $600 for fancier, specialized programs. But consider it a solid investment — you'll be able to create fresh and chic flyers for years to come.

Design Jitters. Still uncomfortable designing flyers yourself? Hire an up-and-coming designer by posting an ad on craigslist.com or on the bulletin board of a local design school. Offer a flat rate of between $50 to $200 (depending on the work required).

Use Visuals. Images grab attention before words. Take digital pictures or select stock photos that best capture what you are selling or your theme. One large picture makes a stronger impression than several smaller ones. Place the image in the top half of the page for maximum visibility. If you also want to include several smaller ones, group them together at the bottom.

Less is More. Don't fill your flyers with too many pictures or too much text. Both detract from your copy. Keep the page clean and spacious for easy reading. If you use colour, more than two are distracting and looks unprofessional.

Font Selection. Limit yourself to two fonts. Use one font for your headlines and another font family for the copy (a family is all the related styles that come with the font, including bold, italic, and bold italic). Use italics or bold variations within the family for captions, such as testimonials. Remember to select fonts and colours that are consistent with your other marketing materials and website.

WRITE IT UP

Eye-Popping Titles. The headline must capture the reader's attention. Otherwise, they won't look any further. Identify a problem they have in the title (and for which your offering provides a solution). Use language that creates interest by its shock value or literary devices, such as alliteration.

Consumer Focus. In the copy, tell readers how your product or service offers a solution to the problem you identified in the headline. Focus on what your offering can do for them. Put your message in terms of "you" rather than "we." People don't care about what "we" offer. They care about how your offering can make their lives better.

Offer Incentives. Give a benefit to the consumer, such as a discount or a free upon presentation of the flyer or a special number (should the flyer be posted). This will make the flyer memorable, and persuade new consumers to try what you're offering.

Use Testimonials. Print a few short reviews from satisfied customers to convince potential ones to try out your business. You'll boost the confidence of those who are new to your business and reduce skepticism. Include the reviewers' names and locations to gain credibility.

Call to action. Conclude your copy by asking readers to visit your shop or website, or contact you for more information. Make this easy for them by including all your contact info. Avoid dangling strips of paper with contact details; I've learned it's okay for selling a used bike but not a professional business.

GET IT OUT

Target. Attract specific consumers by placing your flyers in the places where they visit. You can drop them off in mailboxes, hand them out on the street, and post them on lampposts and bulletin boards. For example, if you're targeting parents, place your flyers on car windshields in lots beside shopping malls, grocery stores, and community centres.

Affordable Delivery. Not only might placing your flyers within local newspapers might be out of your budget, they'll also get lost in the crowd. Hire some students to distribute your flyers. They'll often work flexible hours, and for flexible wages (some might even do it for free product). Prep the delivers on your business in case they're asked questions.

e-Distribution. Save some printing costs, and e-blast your flyers to your address book. Ask the recipients to forward the flyer to their contacts, and to continue the snowball. Check out groups, blogs, and websites that attract your target consumers. In return for linking to your site, ask the host the email your flyer to their group list or to post it on their site.

Although my first flyers eventually became a hit, it was not immediate. I distributed my flyers seven times before I got a substantial response. Today, I continue to deliver seven rounds of the same flyer before I begin a fresh campaign. Sure, each round brings new models into my office. But the value of using flyers consistently for ten years has kept my business etched in people's minds — so much that when someone wants to model, they're told to call the agent from the flyers.

EARLIER COLUMNS

May 4, 2007

How to pitch to the student crowd

Every student will gladly tell you about the fees that they shell out each year for tuition. But have you asked them what else they spend their hard earned, saved, and loaned cash on? If you did, they would tell you about their spending beyond the books — making them a market that cannot be ignored.

Young people between the ages of 19 to 24 years old have an annual disposable income of over $26 billion, according to Mike Farrell, Partner of Toronto-based Youthography/Y Syndicate. In fact, the youth market is actually larger than their disposable income suggests. "What young people consider to be essential items are a moving target," Farrell says. "Cell phones once were considered to be a luxury purchase and now are an essential one, sometimes coming before rent."

On a media saturated campus, how do small businesses compete with big budget brands? Jeff Roach, VP of Marketing for Youthgraphy/Y Syndicate, cautions that small businesses face a tough time going head-to-head with big businesses to earn youth dollars. "Small businesses don't have the budgets to launch the same marketing research and campaigns as big brands."

I disagree. Being on both sides of this $26 billion coin -- as student and also a small business owner -- I know small businesses are uniquely positioned to attract students. A sizable budget, in fact, has little to do with effective marketing on campus. After all, most students disregard the big budget wallpapering of campus newspapers and washrooms and are skeptical of aggressive advertising. In order stand out from the campus crowd, here are several ways to support students — and gain their support right back.

The Student special Most students live on a tight budget. We appreciate discounts designed for us. Offer a student deal on a certain item, or a percentage off at all the total bill. Not only will you attract us — you'll stay bustling during slow times. A restaurant close to my campus offers a student special on their all-day breakfast during their quiet weekdays and a hair salon offers 25% off for students on its slow scissor days.

Sampling "College students love free stuff", says CEO of Buzz Marketing Tina Wells. "Just make sure you're handing out something that's functional and fun," she advices. One morning, a local coffee shop close to my campus gave out freshly baked muffins to ear muffed students heading to class. The taste was addictive, the warmth was soothing, and the shop was en route to class — we kept coming back from that day on.

Service sampling Even if you don't offer a product, you can still sample. You can provide needed school gear — pens, agendas, USB drives — imprinted with your services, student deals, and logo. The agenda passed out by a local clothing store has kept me organized by marketing off exams, campus events, and school holidays — while also inspiring frequent wardrobe updating with the pictures of its hot digs and promise of 15% off for students.

The marketing intern Farrell recommends that businesses targeting youth get them involved from day one. After all, we know where our friends hang out and what attracts them. Many schools offer co-opt programs. Students volunteer their time, share their expertise, and, in return, gain experience to boost their resumes. A marketing intern can create and implement a marketing plan specially designed for you. Contact the local business program to add your name to their internship list.

Speaking to students Professors and students search for people to share their entrepreneurial stories and advice. Contact business professors and campus clubs, and offer to speak. You'll inspire the next generation to achieve their dreams, and to be your next consumers. When sponsoring a student group or speaking to a class, offer them a regular discount and ask to have it sent out on their group email list.

Sponsor student life Maybe you don't have the budget to sponsor a student club, but you can still offer an in-kind donation or a special discount for their members. One independent bookstore hosts the weekly discussions of the student reading club and a local cafe provides discounted drinks to the running team. Beyond getting their logo on a website and t-shirts, we get to experience the business first hand and build a relationship.

Facebook us The widely popular online social networking site is the front door to students. Several small businesses around my campus have started groups on entrepreneurship and social issues that matter to us. They're regularly updated with interesting information and also offer all group members a special discount from the moderator's business. All you need to do is create a free profile, start the group, and invite members from local campus networks to join. But I caution you not to misuse facebook purely as a marketing tool. Some businesses have messaged us solely to get our dollars — and have ended up neither getting them nor our respect.

Doing good "College students are a lot more critical than other consumers," says Wells. After all, our classes teach us how to think critically and question the corporation. We don't only care about how you make money, but how you help the world. Smaller orders and local decisions make going green, using fair-traded goods, and being socially responsible much more manageable for your small businesses over your large competitors. Remember to tell us how you are making the world just and sustainable in your promo materials.

Whether we're telling you about high tuition fees or where we buy coffee, students are not afraid to talk. If we love something or hate it, you'll hear it loud and clear. We'll tell you on blogs, in classes, or during study breaks. While my suggested strategies defy a traditional advertising approach, you'll still be sure to hit the masses through the magical diffusion of campus buzz.

Previous Column

April 25

How to build a buzz around your business

At age fifteen, I eagerly sat in the waiting room of an Ottawa newspaper. I had begun my own modeling agency one year before, and had hoped to promote my models to the paper's fashion editor ever since I opened shop. Now I was finally here and ready to pitch my business with all I had.

When the editor appeared in front me, he asked everyone as to whether they were "Mr. Ben Barry." Ten head shakes later, his eyes finally met mine with a puzzled look.

Once in his office, I flipped through the pictures of my models. Rather then ask about each one, he asked me: "How old are you?" "When did you start your agency?" How old are you again?" I left the meeting with a full-page spread -- not on my models but on my burgeoning business.

That was nine years ago. Today, my 200 models have appeared in ads for such corporations as Nike, Dove, L'Oreal, and Sears. I have been featured on Canada AM, CNN, Fashion Television, and Oprah, as well as in the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, and People Magazine, among others, for my work. Macleans recognized me as "One of Twenty Leaders of Tomorrow" and I was named CIBC National Student Entrepreneur of the Year. My first book, Fashioning Reality: A New Generation of Entrepreneurship was recently released. In it, I share my experiences of building my business, and those of other young small business owners.

When I began my business, this media spotlight was unimaginable. At the start, I was like most entrepreneurs. We know our businesses; we love our businesses. We can manage operations hands-down. But we don't know how to sell our work and ourselves to the media. In fact, working with the media seldom appears on the pages of our business plans.

Creating hype is vital for our small businesses. For new enterprises, it allows consumers to learn about our offerings, and lends credibility to the "just opened" sign hanging on the office door. Established firms can attract new markets as well as share new products with loyal buyers.

Small businesses, however, have small budgets. This poses a major challenge to building hype. Mass advertising buys are far beyond our financial reach. A one-time ad in a local daily runs between $1,000 for a tiny box to $20,000 for a full page. This figure is almost tripled for a national paper or a 30-second television commercial (in addition to the cost of creating the ads). Press offers the huge exposure of which our entrepreneurial dreams are made, and avoids the costs of producing ads and buying space. However, most entrepreneurs cannot pay the hefty $5,000 to $15,000 per month retainers of PR firms — leaving this task to the entrepreneur.

Over the past ten years, my agency has generated extensive press without ever directly contracting a PR firm. From Canada AM to Oprah, from the Halifax Herald to the Globe and Mail, I have been my firm's media liaison. Through these experiences, I have gleaning tips on the biz of building buzz.

Send the email. The media will never know about your business unless someone tells them. If self-promotion feels uncomfortable, think about like this: the media is a business that relies on stories to fill their pages and airtime. If you are still hesitant, ask a satisfied consumer to tell the media about your business. After all, happy consumers are your best spokespeople.

Think like the media. Put yourself in the shoes of whom you are pitching. What types of articles do they write? Pitch an idea that fits with their focus and themes. I know from good authority that most people don't do this. It's a big mistake.

Be Prepared. If the media take your story, they often have to turn it around in day or two. Provide the journalist with relevant interview contacts, background, and current studies to make their job easier and enhance the story.

Beyond "just opened." While your first story may be about your new company, the second needs go further. Try different approaches where your firm is not the focus. For instance, since you are an expert in whatever field you do business, pitch a story where you share advice. Tie it in with the new season, or a current news item.

Media dominos. Never underestimate the power of one article. Writers and producers frequently scan the media for their own story ideas. One article will often snowball. The first article on my agency caught the attention of producers for the local news and they decided to profile my company. Soon after, national papers and newscasts came calling, each having seen a previous media item. Eventually the story spread to the Oprah Winfrey Show and I was interviewed by the media magnate herself. As I learned, you never know where one media item will lead.

Constant reinvention. Once you have successfully pitched one story, move onto a different one. No one wants to cover the same story again.

Keep contacts. Relationships are key to business, and this is true with the media. Keep contacts of journalists and producers who covered your business. Pitch new story ideas to them. Reporters get hundreds of pitches each day. They are more likely to read an email from someone with whom they have worked in the past.

Be the Media. So your pitch is rejected. Then what? Give your writing talents a go and share your perspectives, experiences, and advice in op-ed articles or even your own blog (include your blog address on business cards, email signatures, and promo materials to spread the word). You can also share your stories and tips by creating video segments to post on YouTube. Send some clips to TV and radio programs, and they may ask you to become a regular commentator — or at least cover you and your media creations.

Perfect Partnerships. Community events are often newsworthy. Consider developing an event with community stakeholders, and invite the public. Seminars, conferences, and shows provide another vehicle for interacting with consumers and garnering press.

Media exposure has helped my agency grow. It has added reliability to my youth-owned firm. It has allowed my small business to compete with big businesses by giving us a personal face that consumers trust. Most importantly, the fashion editor's puzzled look not only turned into an article, but into a contract for my models a few months later — one that has continued for ten years.