How to Think your Pitch Strategy

I recently read 'Pitch Anything' by Oren Klaff, whose impressive credentials in the business world include raising more than $400 million.  A highly recommended read that will make you look at pitching in a whole new way.

The thing that came to mind, as I was absorbed and fascinated by the methods he shares, was – you’ve got to have some real guts to take this on.  There are persuasive, quick thinking and on the spot tactics that come in to play, and that he describes brilliantly.

Which got me to thinking that how to pitch anything really starts with first having guts.  But what does having guts look like? Learning to get comfortable with presenting with guts means being able to take control and influence your outcome with a calm assertiveness. I broke it down to mastering the following key criteria:

Be Bold

It is not a congeniality contest. The goal is not to be nice and get people to like you. Know what you came in the room to do and present yourself and your pitch with conviction. Keep an unerring focus on the prize – i.e. leaving with what you came to achieve. And be compelling and clear when asking for what you want and why you should get it.

Be In Control of the Room

When you walk in to the room very quickly assess the interaction between key players. Stay attentive to their body language and actions during the presentation so that you can hold their interest in your pitch. At any point that you feel you are losing ground, don’t show that you are thrown off course. Take a couple of seconds if you need to and come back with something compelling to reengage. It requires thinking on your feet, which you need to get good at.

Stand Your Ground, Calmly

This does not mean that you ignore or not welcome feedback. It means being able to handle feedback with calm and confidence. Also, not allowing yourself to get thrown off your pitch or led into a direction that gets you off track from your goals. It goes back to maintaining control - first of you and, in turn, of the room.  Take a quick moment to collect your thoughts and reclaim your focus.

For an outstanding approach that breaks down dynamic methods for pitching in any situation, pick up a copy of Klaff’s book 'Pitch Anything.' It will help you think your pitch strategy at a whole different level; and get you used to presenting yourself a winner – and winning!

Preemptive Marketing Strategies for Startups

Business accelerators and incubators have become popular options for startups. For one, having a dedicated, loyal backing (i.e. group of advisors) helps these small companies tackle any developmental crises like financial planning and forecasting or even marketing.

Even with an idea in place, it's often a challenge for startups to get their infrastructure up and running. Operational consultants help businesses get started by providing expert advice on how to operate backend operations and take care of any legalities and licensing. Marketing, however, is a more complex procedure.

For starters, much of today’s marketing includes online campaigning. From social media and blogging to Web development and advertising, there are a lot of factors to consider. All of these elements add up to create a digital brand that can make or break startups that, more than existing businesses, have the unique opportunity to generate a lot of fan-based hype and promotion.

The first step for startups is to determine the direction in which they want to go. This direction is usually outlined in a company’s business plan, an often-misunderstood template of what a business’ objectives are. Below are a few key elements of a business plan that have the potential to drive a startup’s fledgling marketing campaigns in the right direction:

§  Business Basics: The opening sections of a business plan include soft goals such as mission statements and company values. These are important to consider because they later become buzzwords for marketing tactics.

§  Market Analysis: In this section, business planners take a look at local competition and the industry they are entering as a whole. Is the idea even feasible? What sets it apart from other similar companies? Without broad market analysis, it becomes a challenge for startups to initiate successful marketing strategies.

§  Product and Service Overview: Based on the startup’s purpose and concept, this section includes an in-depth write up on what the company plans to deliver or manufacture. It is important for entrepreneurs to consider questions like, “Is this product purchased only once?” “Is there only one target audience that will consider this service?” Even with products in the prototype stage, it is important for startup owners to imagine what their company’s sellable assets will look like in the future.

§  Marketing Plan: This section pulls together the previous three topics. Here, entrepreneurs will start outlining their brand and strategize ways to market it. It is often advised that companies begin by infiltrating one particular market and working outward from there.

The business plan also includes a section on finances and operations. Planners will look into the total costs of producing products and operating a business and figure out how much they have to sell (and at what price) to stay competitive and successful. Importantly, business plans are proactive ways for entrepreneurs to find investors and procure bank loans.

 

Web Branding and Developing Online Presence

What is online is what people see. Most companies understand the importance of having online assets like websites and social media accounts, though startups are in a much better position to create long-lasting campaigns that actively attract new and existing consumers. Here is a rundown on different marketing methods entrepreneurs should consider. They are all easy to manage, efficient, affordable, and show results if handled properly.

Websites

Domains tie everything together. When it comes to websites, the most important thing to do as a startup is to avoid the things that do not work. Having huge blocks of text, abusing keywords, inserting videos and media on every page, and creating an online mess is unattractive and a waste of resources.

Instead, startups should focus on creating a site that introduces people to their brand. Short videos are a good start. Investing in simple, sleek designs, easy navigation, and other features are a must, too. Most importantly, Web marketers need to constantly update their sites to meet visitor demand and to inform rather than promote.

Social Media

Like with websites, it is easy to overdo social media. Tap into the platforms that make sense for the idea. Is it a tech company? Consider using Google+, Facebook, and Twitter to keep followers interested by posting updates and other industry insights. For product and craft-based companies, use other sites like Pinterest to promote creativity. Because social media works both ways, entrepreneurs should pay attention to the success of their posts in order to tailor future ones that pick up more shares and likes.

Blogging

Blogging, of course, is one of the easiest ways to stay in touch with consumers. Startups have a lot to say; why not tie it all into a blog? Keep them informative and leave out the promotional content.

For more on how to build content marketing into your plan, check 5 Quick Tips for Great Content Marketing

5 Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Can Avoid Launching A Business

1. STAY PUT IN YOUR JOB UNTIL THE TIME IS RIGHT

Don’t leave your job right away! It is important to never leave a stable job until your new venture is up and running. Many people have found themselves in financially awkward situations because they left a secure job to pursue a business opportunity before they even had a plan. While it is good to take risks, these need to be tactical risks. Quitting a job without a safety net can be damaging to your business opportunity.

2. DON’T DO IT JUST FOR THE MONEY

Another mistake made by entrepreneurs is not carefully considering what business you are about to go into.  Don’t assume that you should structure your startup venture around something that will solely make a lot of money. It is not a bad idea to aim for a prosperous market, but entrepreneurs do not want to get stuck in a business that they do not enjoy. Running a business should be as much enjoyable as it is profitable. That is what will create real success.

3. ONLY TAKE CALCULATED RISKS

As mentioned previously, any risks taken should be calculated risks. This means that entrepreneurs should never risk entire assets. This is a very common and crucial error that has left many entrepreneurs with little money after their business failed. Starting a business is risky and it should always be planned with a safety net in case something was to happen.

4. DON’T RUSH IT

Think through your opportunity and plan it before you seize it. Don’t rush to market in fear that you will lose out on the opportunity. Do the right groundwork to secure your success.

5. AVOID HIGH-RISK STARTUPS

Don’t try to champion the most difficult industry for their first business venture. It is okay to start small and work upwards. Shooting too high can cause a business to fall short of its goal, leaving you in a financial pit. The best idea is to go for a low-price business at first. That way, you don’t have to invest too much capital. When you start small, you are leaving the rest of the field open for improvement. Once you have secured a stable startup, then you can begin to grow.  

For more useful tips on developing your business, check out Assessing The Potential Of A New Business Opportunity

10 Tips for LinkedIn Business Growth

Many companies sign up for a LinkedIn presence but then do nothing to optimize or utilize it. Yet, LinkedIn can go a long way toward bringing in new leads and sales, and ultimately toward boosting the company’s sphere of influence, depending on the business and how willing it is to invest in LinkedIn as a viable resource for strategic growth. 

Simply setting up a LinkedIn page gets you nowhere. You have to strategize, and you have to be diligent to tap in to the immense potential for business development.

Here are 10 tips that can help you invest your time and efforts for growth.

1.     START OFF COMPLETE

Before you begin to promote your LinkedIn page, you need to make sure you have something that’s actually worth promoting. That means taking the time to complete the profile, ensuring that you provide thorough and detailed information about your company. Ensure that there is a professional-quality photograph or image, as well, because good visual branding increases consumer trust.

2.     DOUBLE UP PROFILES

Create both a personal page and a company one. Whether you’re the CEO of the company or simply a consultant, you need to have your own page through which you can project individual authority—but of course, a company page is also vital. Make sure that your company page includes all pertinent data about the business, including the number of employees you have.

3.     PROMOTE THE COMPANY PAGE

If you’re going to be really investing in using this page as a tool for online branding and business development—which you should—then it helps to take the time to let people know it’s there. Include a link to it on your company website and on your Facebook page, and also in e-mail signatures and on business cards.

4.     BUILD YOUR NETWORK

LinkedIn will automatically recommend people for you to add to your network, simply based on the content you already have in your profile. The more connections you build, the more your customers and potential customers will see that you’re reputable and authoritative. Regularly search for contacts, import contacts from your e-mail address book, and use the recommendations that LinkedIn offers.

The contacts should not all be from the same industry. Let’s say that you own an advertising firm, you want to have connections from within the world of advertising, but you also want to have connections with realtors, and lawyers, and small business owners who might need advertising services. You’re not doing your company any favors by remaining within a small bubble.

5.     JOIN GROUPS

Join groups with high numbers of participants, and ensure that you’re in groups that are both directly and tangentially related to what your own profession is, for maximum impact.

6.     GET RECOMMENDATIONS

A recommendation is one of the best things you can get for engendering trust and goodwill from potential customers and clients. As such, it is very much worthwhile for companies and professionals to actively solicit recommendations from customers who are satisfied with the work done or the product provided.

7.     SEEK OUT AND CONNECT

Use the platform’s search feature to seek out people to connect with. Looking for a new employee? Don’t wait for him or her to find you. Search for someone who fits your job description and send a personalized request to connect. LinkedIn’s search tool is extremely effective, so use it!

8.     INCREASE PRODCUTIVITY WITH THE MOBILE APP

Business professionals can increase their productivity by using the mobile app. Access LinkedIn while you’re riding the subway, waiting for an appointment, or taking your lunch break. Approve new connections and take care of other housecleaning items during your down time.

9.     MAKE REGULAR UPDATES

Regular status updates can make any LinkedIn page more effective, and a good way to increase those status updates, fairly easily, is to tie in the company Twitter account. Integrating these two social platforms is a great way to really get more bang for your buck, in terms of those updates you’re writing.

10.   INCORPORATE THE COMPANY BLOG

As of fairly recently, LinkedIn has produced a way to automatically feature blog updates (you can manually enter them, as well). Make sure your company blog is linked from your profile page, perhaps with an attention-getting and descriptive title to keep your latest messaging and updates in front of your key business contacts.

How to Use Buzzworthy Guerrilla Marketing: Take it from a Rock Band.

It was a couple years ago that I read of Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire’s approach to launching their album and stumbling across the article again, I feel it’s worth another look at what businesses can learn and benefit from a more guerrilla tact to marketing and advertising. Indie rock bands are not often thought to be the fodder of Bloomberg Business Week articles, but such is the case with the Canadian natives in Arcade Fire. The band, in the process of preparing to release its latest record -- a double-disc project titled Reflektor – was hailed “experts of guerilla marketing craft.”

Arcade Fire isn’t exactly the type of band that needs an aggressive and mysterious street marketing plan to be successful. After all, the band, who arrived on the scene with 2004’s critically-beloved Funeral and won a surprise Grammy for Album of the Year with 2010’s The Suburbs, is arguably the biggest and most buzzworthy band in the so-called “indie rock” scene.

Indeed, the members of Arcade Fire, which include husband-and-wife vocalists Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, as well as a seemingly ever-shifting group of versatile instrumentalists, could easily have rested on its laurels and depended on the success of their previous album and the marketing sweep of their record label—North Carolina’s Merge Records—to help the upcoming Reflektor toward a hopeful (and highly likely) number one berth atop the Billboard charts. Instead, Arcade Fire took to a marketing route for this album that was anything but run-of-the-mill, using an inspired set of guerilla marketing tactics other bands and record labels—or even major businesses outside of the entertainment industry—could learn a little something from.

Arcade Fire’s innovative marketing campaign began suddenly and unexpectedly in July 2013, when one of the band’s Twitter followers sent them a tweet with the simplistic words of “you’re my favorite.” The band responded to the compliment with a tweet of their own, thanking the fan for his support and then tossing off a seemingly nonchalant comment that would function as the band’s announcement of their return: “Our new album will be out on October 29th.”

From there, the marketing campaign for Reflektor was executed largely from the shadows and almost entirely at the street level. Sidewalk chalk and mysterious posters gave way to secret shows, with small pieces of information gradually making their way to the press. First, the title was unveiled through the cryptographic symbol that the band continuously emblazoned on their posters or in their chalking campaigns; later, pre-order bundles on the band’s website revealed that the new record would be a double-album release; and eventually, song titles and lengths—most of them long—were revealed on iTunes and other digital music vendors.

There was also a single—the dance-oriented title track, which “leaked” to YouTube and began collecting buzz before the band even mentioned that iconic glam rock superstar David Bowie had contributed back-up vocals—as well as advance listening parties and reviews from major music publications that only fed the flames further. A euphoric write-up of the new album was published on Rolling Stone’s website a month prior to the album’s release, with the writer, veteran music journalist David Fricke, calling Reflektor “the best album Arcade Fire have ever made.”

The band’s marketing campaign managed to generate a huge amount of attention and anticipation for their new album, even though they have never had much of a presence on mainstream pop music radio.

So what’s the big takeaway? 

The most ingenious part of the campaign for Reflektor is that Arcade Fire managed to maintain the mystery of guerilla marketing forms while still sticking to the same advertising calendar that most major music releases follow. The band released a radio single, but did so in an unorthodox way; they also sent out promotional advances to key music publications to stir up anticipation, but have thus far done so without the album leaking to the public ahead of its highly-publicized release date.

Arcade Fire appeared on Saturday Night Live, taking over NBC’s late-night programming slot for a half hour after the popular sketch TV show’s 39th season premiere to unveil a batch of news songs. However, even the SNL concert special was far from commonplace. The special, which was directed by filmmaker Roman Coppola and which featured cameos from the likes of Ben Stiller, James Franco, Bill Hader, Zach Galifianakis, and U2 front man Bono—as well as pseudo “host” work from Michael Cera, a fellow Canadian—balanced oddball comedy and a near-nightmarish visual aesthetic with the obviously-promotional premiere of several new songs from Arcade Fire’s new album.

The whole marketing campaign ultimately boils down to one thing: Arcade Fire was able to keep their album in the public eye without resorting to invasive advertising. Instead of irritating pop-up web browser ads or repetitive television commercials, the band has built up a perfect storm of anticipation for Reflektor by disguising their true motives—ostensibly, to sell their product—in layers of performance art, self-mockery, and shadowy guerilla marketing. The band managed to forge a calculated marketing path while simultaneously making the whole thing look like an accidental mess, and that same kind of guerilla marketing model could be a refreshing substitute for the more in-your-face advertising strategies that most businesses use today.