The Marketing Starter's Guide for New Business Owners

The Marketing
Starter’s Guide
For New Business Owners

A quick marketing guide for non-marketing folk.

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer
so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
- Peter F. Drucker

Justin J. Dean
Founder of A Couple of Monkeys

So
you’re
starting
a
business.

You are likely reading this guide because you’ve decided to start a business or some other venture that
requires attracting an audience or customers. It could be an Etsy shop, an eBay business or even a new
blog. It could be a new start-up company, or a new book you’ve written. It could be a small business
that you’ve acquired, or a struggling business you’d like to resurrect. Either way, you are here because
you’re passionate about your business, but you don’t know much about how to market it or where to
even start.

The purpose of this guide is not to give you all the marketing secrets you’ll need to successfully run
your new business, as you’ll likely need help from professional marketers if you’re serious about your
venture (and there are plenty of great marketing books out there that are more comprehensive). Rather
this guide was written to get you started… started thinking about marketing and the importance it
should have in your business plan.

It can be frustrating having a great idea, concept, or talent – something that others need or want, and
are willing to pay for - but not having the skills or experience to be able to tell them about it in a way
that will generate the results you are hoping for.

My hope is that this guide will give you some quick pointers on where to get started with marketing, in
order to relieve the anxiety that comes with launching a new business. Then you can focus on what you
do best – the idea, the business, your product. Where you decide to go from there is up to you. My
suggestion would be finding a marketing-minded partner or consultant who can manage marketing
tasks for you, because ignoring them or giving marketing a low priority could be the biggest mistake
you can make when starting a new business.

“Marketing isn't magic. There is a science to it.”
- Dan Zarrella, Social Media Scientist

The Marketing Starter’s Guide | Justin J. Dean 2

Contents

1. Your
Website

2. Social
Media

3. Branding

4. Email
Marketing

5. Online
Advertising

6. Outsourcing

About
the
Author

© 2011 Copyright Justin J. Dean


1
Your
Website

“In today's information age of marketing and Web 2.0,
a company's website is the key to their entire business.”
- Marcus Sheridan, Author & Speaker

I’m starting with your website, because it’s likely going to be the most important part
of your business. Whether your business is online-based or not, a functional and
focused website is going to be the backbone of any marketing strategy.

Whether you already have a website, or you’ve never owned one in your life, here are
some basics on how they work and how you can get started building your own:

Domain
name
or
URL
This is the name or address of your website. It’s what visitors type into their browser
to get to your website, or what others use to link to your website. Examples are
google.com, stacysheadbands.com, or yourbusiness.com.

Coming up with a clever domain name for your company can be difficult. In 1989 it
was easier, but today just about every website that makes sense is taken (and even
the ones that don’t make sense). The name of your company followed by .com is
likely not going to be available but it’s definitely where you should start.


Domains can be purchased from a Domain Registrar. Some of the big one’s are
godaddy.com, register.com and 1and1.com. These are companies that sell and
register domain names. You can search for domain names using these companies
before you buy them so you know if the name you want is available. Just because you
type the domain you want into your browser and nothing comes up, doesn’t mean
someone doesn’t already own that name.

After searching one of the registrars, if the name you want is not already taken, you
can purchase it for as little as a few bucks a year – usually between $5 and $10 per
year. You have to re-register your domain name every year or you could lose it to
someone else. Most domain registrars will give you a discount if you register several
years at once.

Personally I use GoDaddy.com to register domains. They are reliable, and you can
usually search the Internet for coupon codes and get domains pretty cheap. However,
I hate their website, the company philosophies in general, and don’t really
recommend that beginners use them. You’ll likely get suckered into buying things
you don’t need, and can easily get confused by their intentionally cluttered website. I
would suggest register.com or 1and1.com for beginners, even if it means paying an
extra dollar or two for the domain.

If the name of your company isn’t available, you might have to get creative with your
domain name. Try other extensions besides .com, such as .net or .org. You can even
use .ly, or .tv or a number of other extensions.


Dot coms (.com) are obviously the most recognized and
desirable, but you have to remember that most people who
visit your site aren’t going to type it in directly – they are
going to get there from a search engine like Google, a link
on another site, or they are going to click on an ad if you
advertise. So don’t beat yourself up if your domain name
isn’t perfect. People are understanding and forgiving when a
company’s domain name is a little off.

Some examples successful companies who got creative with domain names:

Bit.ly MTV.tv Last.fm
Del.icio.us Ma.tt Chi.mp
Insure.me Will.i.am Blo.gs

Also, using tools like Domai.nr and PickyDomains.com can help you get creative and
find a name that works well for your business.

Web
Host
Simply owning a domain name does not mean you have a website. All websites need
to be hosted on a server somewhere. Large companies host their own websites by
setting up servers in a room, connected to ultra high speed Internet connections and
hiring a guy or a team to run them. Luckily, you don’t have to do that.


There are hundreds of Web Hosting companies that will host your website for you.
Usually the same domain registrar who sold you the domain can host the site for you
as well. Often times they’ll even have specials where you can register the domain for
free if you host it with them, or at least get a discount.

Web
Design

Once you have a domain name and a host for your site, you then need to actually
build the website. There are a number of ways to do this:

Hire
a
web
designer

Ideally you’d hire a professional web designer who knows HTML and other
scripting languages and they would build you an awesome site that is beautiful,
search engine friendly and optimized for your company’s needs and audience.
That can mean spending anywhere from $200 to $10,000, but it’s the way to
go if you have the budget that can handle it.

Do-‐it-‐yourself
design
software

Another option is to use web design tools that are geared towards beginners.
Your hosting company may even provide a cheap service or free tool to use.
Often times these tools will result in quick, easy to setup websites but they
won’t be compelling or optimized for your business. They’ll be simple, may be
even bland or cheap looking. If all else fails and you have no budget then this
may be the only option you have though – at least to get you started. However, I
don’t condone throwing up a crappy looking site, as that can actually harm your


image and potential for sales. If the tool you use doesn’t result in a decent
looking website, then maybe just put together a simple site that has your logo
and contact information only. Or just wait until you have the money to invest in
a real website or the time to learn more.

Learn
how
to
design
yourself

HTML and CSS are not that hard to learn if you are already technically inclined.
The best web design software is Adobe Dreamweaver and I’d guess that more
than 75% of websites are designed using it. It’s not for beginners, but with
patience and motivation you can learn it. Years ago I taught myself how to use
Dreamweaver by watching online tutorials and videos, as well as finding
websites I liked and spending time studying their code. Let me be clear on this
though: don’t think you can just step up and teach yourself web design unless
you are serious about taking the time to learn by yourself. If you are not already
technical, computer savvy and artistic then it’s better to just let someone else
do it for you. Your community college may also offer affordable classes.

Use
a
CMS
System

My absolute preference for designing and managing websites is
WordPress. WordPress is a Content Management System that allows designing
and updating of your website to be easy, even for beginners, while at the same
time gives you full functionality to create a website that is as dynamic and
complex as you want it to be. In fact a study was just released that estimated
more than 20% of the websites active today are built on WordPress - major sites


from major companies that you use every day. The WordPress platform is best
known as a blogging platform, but that is just one aspect of what it does – its
perfect for designing fully functional business websites, online stores or any
kind of site, regardless of whether you want a blog or not.

Using
WordPress

Designing with WordPress will take a moment to research and learn, but
it will be much easier to learn than HTML or Dreamweaver. You don’t
have to know code at all.

There are two ways to use WordPress to build your site:

The first is to go to wordpress.com and pay a monthly fee for them to host your site
and use the WordPress software. I recommend this option for beginners or those who
are scared of all this geeky technical stuff. Since they host the site for you, you don’t
have to pay a website host at all (so the cost is about the same). You’ll get a website
address like this: yourwebsite.wordpress.com, which is OK for a blog, but not ideal
for a business. You’ll want to pay extra for the feature that lets you use your own
domain name, so that yourbusiness.com will take your visitors to your wordpress.com
site without them ever knowing it’s a wordpress.com site. Once you sign-up on their
website, following the instructions to setup your site is pretty self explanatory and
they have many resources to get you started.


The second option is wordpress.org where you can download a free copy of the
WordPress software. This option is for the more advanced user, and requires that you
have a separate website host like we talked about above. You’ll need to upload the
software to your website and install it. It’s not as complicated as you think, but it
does require a little bit of knowledge about hosting and website databases.

The wordpress.org version of WordPress has more functionality and controls than the
paid version at wordpress.com. If you want full control of your website then this is the
way to go. If the installation is scaring you, it might be a good idea to hire a
consultant to install it for you, then once it’s up you can log in and take over the
design. Most web consultants will simply install WordPress for as cheap as $20.

Again, if you are a beginner or just scared, wordpress.com is a great option.

Using
Templates

The cool thing about WordPress, whether you host it yourself or pay them to host it,
is that you can start designing your website using a template. Some will argue that a
template is not ideal, because theoretically another company could use the same
template and it may make you look sloppy or unprofessional.

In my opinion, unless your business is a web design company, using a template
is perfectly acceptable and is a very affordable way to get a professional web
designer quality site up and running with very little effort.


The chances of one of your competitors using the same template you used, and also
using WordPress to build their site, is pretty minimal. Worse case you switch
templates if that happens.

Now, there are a ton of crappy templates out there – so don’t use them. Invest in a
good template. ThemeForest.net is a great marketplace to buy quality templates,
often for as little as $12 to $30. Within WordPress there are a lot of free templates as
well. All you do is download the template, upload it to WordPress, and start adding
your content, images, logo, change colors, etc. Everything about a template is fully
customizable, so you can make it your own. Some things may be more complicated
than others, but it’s up to you what you want to change.

You can also hire a web designer to setup the template or add your content, and they
will usually charge you a lot less than what they would charge for a website from
scratch. If you go the WordPress.com route, they make it easy to select and install
templates right from the website.

Shopping
Carts

If your business requires selling things online, then you have several different options
for setting up an online shopping cart as well. Accepting credit card payments online
is also easier than you think.

WordPress has plugins that help you extend the functionality of your site, and there


are many shopping cart plugins that are free or very cheap. The most popular is
called eShop and you can also find templates that integrate the plugin in their design.

However, you may want to ditch WordPress all together, and use a shopping
cart/website service like Shopify.com. They provide the shopping cart functionality,
payment processing and web design – all for a low monthly fee. Again, they host your
site so you don’t have to pay a hosting company as well.

If your business relies on Etsy or eBay for sales, then you’ll want to setup your shop
on their sites directly, and you won’t necessarily have to worry about having your own
website.

SEO

I don’t want to spend a lot of time on SEO, because it can get a lot more complicated
and exhaustive than I want this guide to be. However, its worth noting because SEO,
or search engine optimization, does play a significant part in promoting your website
and keeping it competitive.

SEO is basically the practice of designing and managing your site so that it naturally
gets picked up and ranked well with search engines like Google. This way, when
someone searches online for products or companies like yours, your website will
show up in the results. Without proper SEO your site might get buried deep in the
results and never found by searchers.


There are varying techniques and strategies to SEO, and because of this I highly
recommend getting a professional to help ensure your site is properly optimized.
Making a bad SEO mistake could get you delisted from Google all together, or at least
penalized so you don’t rank as high. This could cost you lots of visitors and sales and
is hard to reverse.

At the same time, you have to be very careful whom you hire to help you with SEO.
There are many companies who guarantee you the first page of Google results – I
would stay away from any company who guarantees that. 99% of the time that means
they are going to deploy strategies that are against Google policies. It might get you
the top result for the search terms you want to target, but it will only last as long as
the company takes to cash your check. It can also diminish your brand and you’ll lose
the trust of your customers.

If you’re serious about your website and want to ensure you are maximizing its
potential, then I suggest you get serious about its design and SEO. If you’re going to
hire help, here are some tips to help choose a good SEO professional:

 Content is king. Good content and offering what people want is what gets you ranked high on
search engines – not a page full of keywords, filler crap, and duplicate content.
 A guarantee to focus on your customer or audience, not a guarantee for first placement.
 SEO is an on-going effort not a one-time adjustment. They should understand that search
trends change frequently and so should your website and SEO efforts.
 They should do research on your company as well as what people are already searching to find
companies and products like yours. This includes an in-depth look at your competitors as well.


2
Social
Media

“Focus on how to be social, not on how to do social.”

When it comes to marketing your website, business, or products you want a
- Jay Baer, Convince & Convert

strategic mix of mediums to get your message out there. Depending on your
audience, and where they live, work and play, your strategy may be narrowly focused
on certain mediums, or it may be wide open dabbling in many different mediums.

One of those mediums is social media, and it will likely be the most important
medium of your marketing strategy.

The term “Social Media” is used to describe all of the web apps,
websites, mobile apps and technologies that allow users and brands
to communicate and dialogue with each other, as well as share
content and media.

It’s Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIN, Flickr, Last.fm, MySpace,
Digg, blogs, and the like.


As a business, social media can be used for two main purposes:

Social
Media
for
Brand
Promotion

One aspect of social media is certainly to promote your brand and products. Many
companies use Twitter to update the world when they have a new product, a press
release, or something to say about the company. Collecting Twitter followers who pay
attention to your updates creates loyalty, and return visits and sales. A Facebook
business page do the same, and allows you to easily share photos, videos, or even sell
your products directly from your Facebook page. With Facebook it’s easier for friends
of your fans to see your brand, as your messages and activity will show up on your
customer’s friends news feeds as well. It’s also easier to have a conversation with
customers since Facebook has a commenting system.

Anytime you launch a new product, post a new blog post, make a change to your
website, or have anything meaningful to share, it’s a great idea to blast that out to
Facebook, Twitter and any social network you are active on. Make a few YouTube
videos explaining your products or demo it in action, then blast the videos out on all
the networks so you can reach the most people.

I believe its important to active on all of these sites, especially the main ones like
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, but be sure that you are actually active on each
one or you may hurt your image rather than enhance it. You have to remember
that the users of social media sites are there to engage with their friends and share


content, they aren’t specifically looking to be sold something. So don’t get into the
habit of treating it as a one way street - promoting your business without engaging
with the readers.

The really cool part about social media is that, if done right, your customers can join
in the promotion as well. Encourage your customers to post their own photos and
videos using your products, or even just a quick status update on how they are using
it or like it. Their friends are more likely to join the conversation or try your product
for themselves if their friend is the one promoting it, and not you.

Social
Media
for
Customer
Service

The heart of social media is engagement with your customers, not promotion of your
brand. Whether you like it or not, your customers (and your enemies) are going to talk
about your business on Facebook, Twitter, blogs and more. You can’t control their
actions, but you can join the conversation.

If your customers are on Twitter, then you should be on Twitter. If they are on
Facebook, you should be on Facebook.

“Businesses used to have a small suggestion box near the door
that mostly housed dust bunnies and an occasional piece of gum.
Rarely would someone get back to you. But people can now make a post
from an iPhone or a BlackBerry while they’re sitting in your restaurant.”
– Charles Nelson, President of Sprinkles Cupcakes


Promoting your brand using these services is great, as I mentioned above, but that is
only going to entice your customers and the public to dialogue about your company
more. You are going to see good and bad discussions, it’s up to you how you manage
it and respond to it.

Using social media you can respond to your customer’s complaints, as well as
encourage them to share something positive about your company. Staying out of it all
together is not something I advise. Even if your Facebook page and Twitter account
are hounded with negativity, your presence and responses will reveal to your
customers and potential customers what you truly care about and believe in – which is
hopefully quality products and great customer service.

“Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not.
Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.”
– Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog

Social Media is still evolving. Every day someone comes up with a fresh idea for
promoting their brand and engaging with their customers through social networks.
Staying ahead of the game means getting creative with sharing your message.

Part of getting creative may mean hiring someone to design a compelling Facebook
page for your business, or even hiring someone who can manage all of your networks
and communications for you. There are also many tools out there that allow you to
run creative promotions yourself, such as woobox.com, which creates contests and
custom Facebook tabs.


3
Branding

"Long-term brand equity and growth depends
on our ability to successfully integrate and implement
all elements of a comprehensive marketing program."
- Timm F Crull, Chairman & CEO of Nestle

Running a business is more than just selling products; it’s selling an image and a
lifestyle. It’s selling a feeling, or an emotion. It’s selling trust.

Two companies can sell the exact same product, but the one with the better message,
the prettier packaging, and the awesome website is going to sell more than their
competitor who may not have a website, and whose product is packaged poorly.

Your image needs to be consistent and compelling with every interaction the
customer has with you, your company and your product. This means you need to pay
attention to the design detail and consistency of your message in the following areas:

Logos Email messages Social Media
Website Design Business Cards Advertisements
Product Packaging Stationary & Letterhead Phone Etiquette
Customer Service Uniforms Invoicing


If you can control your image in all of these areas, and if your image is professional
and consistent and in line with your product and the type of audience you want to
attract, then your customers will trust you. It will be more about the relationship they
have with you, and less about the product you want them to buy. That gives you the
opportunity to hit a home run by providing them with a quality product that they’ll
actually love.

Once you have a solid brand idea and a plan for consistency, use your brand as your
foundation. Let it be integrated into every business practice. Your brand should be
embraced by your business leaders, and engrained in your employees. It should guide
your every decision.

When it comes to printing your materials, don’t run to Kinko’s to get business cards.
And for the love of God don’t print them yourself at home. Create a good design, and
use a quality printer to print them for you. GotPrint.net or UPrinting.com are two of
my preferred vendors for printing, and both are extremely affordable.

"Well-managed brands live on –
only bad brand managers die."
- George Bull


4
Online
Advertising

'Advertising is based on one thing: happiness.
And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell
of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of a road
that screams with reassurance that whatever you're doing is OK. You are OK.'
- Don Draper, Mad Men

Possibly the first thing you think of when you hear ‘marketing’ is advertising. It’s
certainly a very large piece of the mix. Like everything else we’ve talked about, it’s
relatively easy to get started, however if you don’t take the time to learn what you are
doing it could be a waste of money.

For the purpose of this guide, I’m going to share some tips on how to advertise
online. Traditional advertising (newspapers, billboards, TV, radio, etc.) is still a very
effective way to advertise, but for the small business owner or entrepreneur just
starting to grow his business, you are likely going to get better results by putting
your money online.

Online advertising is an extremely cost effective way of generating highly qualified
sales leads and targeted visitors to your website. One of the main benefits that it has
over more traditional forms of advertising is that the results are easily measurable.
You can track the responses to your ads all the way through to the sale. This is why


online advertising is so attractive, as you can easily measure how well your campaigns
are doing and where your money is going.

There are several affordable and effective options for advertising online:

Facebook
Social
Ads

As I said above, if your customers or potential customers are
on Facebook (and with more than 750 million users they
probably are) then you should be there as well. However,
users aren’t always going to search out your business so you
have to go to them.

Promoting your business using paid Facebook ads is a great way to get in front of
them, and Facebook is one of the only websites to allow such specific targeting and
options. It’s also very affordable and can work with any budget from $5 to $50k plus.

Unlike Google, which allows you to advertise where your customers are searching,
Facebook allows you to target the customers themselves, on a very specific level.

For example: “engaged women age 18-34 who live in Seattle and have children
and like David Bowie.” That way your ad isn’t wasted on people who won’t like your
product.


It’s true that most ads go ignored, but ads that are designed well and targeted well
usually get better results. With Facebook you can also elect to only pay when an ad is
clicked, so you are only spending money on the ad if it brought someone to your site.

If your business has a physical location you can also add
Facebook Deals, which are like coupons that you can offer
to people who check into your location on Facebook.

Benefits of Facebook Ads:
- Promote your Facebook Page or website
- Use the "Like" button to increase your ad's influence
- Build a community around your business
- Connect with more than 750 million potential customers
- Add a Facebook Deal and offer a coupon
- Choose your audience by location, age, workplace, interests & more.

To get started advertising on Facebook, just follow the instructions at facebook.com/ads

Google
AdWords

While Facebook has more targeting options, Google can often yield better results and
value. Choosing where you spend your ad budget really depends on your audience
and who are trying to target. If you have the money to spend, I usually recommend a
balance of Facebook and Google ads.


Google Adwords are the ads or “sponsored results” that show up
when you perform a search at Google.com. The results appear in
the yellow box at the top of the results page, as well as along the
right side of the page. Your ads can also appear on websites that
have Google ads embedded on their website, or within Google
apps like Gmail. Searching on sites like Google and Yahoo is still
the number one way people find websites, even websites they
visit often.

Advertising on Google is all based on keywords. Keywords are the
words and phrases you use to perform a search. If you are a tshirt
business you might want to target keywords like “men’s tshirts”
or “t-shirts”. When someone searches for those terms, your ads
will appear on the page. You can get more specific in order to hone in on your
audience so your ads will get more clicks.

Setting up your advertising campaigns on Google Adwords can be a lot trickier than
Facebook ads. A certified Adwords professional or consulting company is probably
worth the money, as they’ll save you the hassle of wasting money trying to write the
best ads and target the best keywords. It can take a lot of research to find the perfect
keywords to target for your specific business.

To get started with Adwords, just got to adwords.com


LinkedIN
Ads

Another great website for advertising, that is easy to setup and cost effective, is
LinkedIN. You’ll want to use this site if your audience is older working professionals,
HR employees or job seekers.

Just like Facebook you can get very specific with the targeting of your audience on
LinkedIN, including:

- By job title and function
- By industry and company size
- By seniority and age, gender & location
- By LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIN is a social network of working professionals and job seekers. People use the site to
promote their work experience, network with other professionals, as well as to find jobs and
hire employees. Keep this audience profile in mind when deciding whether or not to advertise
on LinkedIN or not, as it might not be the right fit for you.

To get started with LinkedIN ads just go to linkedin.com/ads

Banner
Ads

In addition to Facebook, Google and LinkedIN you should target specific websites and
blogs that offer advertising and inquire about purchasing banner ads on their sites
directly. Rates will vary depending on the site, but they can be very effective.


5
Email
Marketing

“A spam campaign feels like a smart idea, but over time,
the more you use it, the less your brand is worth. A permission campaign,
on the other hand, only grows in value, until it gets big enough
that you can build an entire business around it.”
- Seth Godin, Permission Marketing

One of my favorite ways to promote a business is email marketing. It’s fast, cheap
and easy. And if done properly it’s relatively effective.

Think of email marketing like receiving an advertisement in the mail. Except it’s done
electronically through email, and it’s more direct because it lands in a customer’s
personal inbox. To be clear, we’re not talking about spam. If anything, receiving
coupons in the mailbox at home is spam – you never asked for them, yet it’s your
responsibility to throw them away if you don’t use them.

Email marketing is specifically the process of sending email messages to users who
asked to receive them. In fact, email spam is illegal and sending messages to your
customers when they didn’t sign up for them can get you in a lot of trouble.

This can look like a monthly newsletter that you send to clients informing them about
your company’s progress, new products and other valuable information. It can be


quick blasts about specific products, a new discount or promotion, or even surveys to
solicit feedback from your customers.

Getting your customer’s permission to send them messages is easy. Just ask for
it. Whether that be in person, or with their order, or as a sign-up form on your
website (or all of the above).

Keeping them interested in your messages is the tricky part. You want your messages
to be something that they want to read. Otherwise they’ll treat it like spam and
unsubscribe or just delete the email. You want your emails to be frequent enough that
they don’t forget about you and they keep coming back to your site to buy your
products. But you don’t want them frequent enough that they get annoyed with you.

You also want your emails to look beautiful as well as have a call to action for your
customers, whether that be replying to the email or clicking a link to visit your
website.

When creating your emails you don’t want to use Gmail or Outlook – you’ll need an
email marketing platform. There are many platforms to choose from, but the only one
I’m going to mention is MailChimp – and that’s because it’s the best.

I’ve used it for years, and it’s simple and easy to learn. What’s also great about
MailChimp is that it’s free up to 12,000 emails per month. For most small businesses,
especially in the beginning, that’s going to be plenty. As far as I know, no other email


marketing platform offers that price, as well as the ease of use and tools that
MailChimp provides.

Email Marketing Platforms, like MailChimp, perform many different functions:

1. They store all of your email addresses, and maintain your lists for you. Every
email you send includes a link to unsubscribe from the email list (required by
law) and if a customer clicks on the link MailChimp takes them off of your list
for you. That way, next time you go to send an email they aren’t included.

2. MailChimp also allows you to deliver beautiful emails with HTML and graphics
without having to know code. Using their simple editors you can create great
looking emails that will entice your customers to read and click.

3. Once you send your emails, MailChimp will provide you with detailed reports
showing who opened the email, who clicked on what, who forwarded the email
to their friends, and more. This is very helpful information that you can use for
future mailings. For instance, if the reports tell you that most people read your
emails at 8am, and hardly anyone reads them at 3pm – you may want to
continue sending them early in the morning.

Email marketing is a numbers game. You want to send out emails to as many people
as you can at once, and you can expect about 2% to 3% of your recipients to actually
open it and read it. If you send an email to 100 people, that’s only 2 or 3 of them that


will engage with your message. Whereas, if you send it to 2000 email addresses,
that’s more like 40 to 60 people who may read it.

These are just general averages. If you have a customer base that loves your products
and respects your brand, you could see a lot better engagement than this. Beloved
brands like Apple see response rates as high as 20% to 30%, and services like
GroupOn see rates upwards of 50%.

A clever mix of branding, your message, your design, and your timing will gain you
the best results – and sometimes that means sending several emails and testing out
what works best with your audience.


6
Outsourcing

“As technology makes it easier for a business
to find and collaborate with outsource expertise,
a huge and competitive market for consultants will arise.”
- Bill Gates, The Road Ahead

When it comes down to it, running a successful business – not a hobby, but a
business – takes a lot of hard work, determination, and strategic partnerships that
sometimes cost money. All of the work I describe above can be outsourced to other
companies and consultants who are experts with marketing and design.

Someone once said “It takes money to make money,” and they were absolutely right.
If you aren’t willing to spend a little money to make your business grow, then you
may want to rethink whether now is the time to start your business. I’m not saying it
can’t be done without spending money, but it takes a special person who is willing to
work extra hard to learn this stuff on their own.

There’s nothing wrong with focusing your time and efforts on running your business,
and letting a professional take care of marketing. After all, it’s selling your product or
service that is most important to you, right? You call a plumber when your pipes are
clogged, and an electrician to fix your wiring. You call a lawyer to represent you in
court, and a doctor to perform your surgeries. Hiring a marketing consultant, web
designer or freelancer may be the best business decision you ever make.


About
the
Author

Justin J. Dean is a marketing and web geek, entrepreneur, blogger, and technology
enthusiast. He has over 12 years of experience leading advertising, technology and
design teams for some of the most innovative digital media start-ups, as well as some
of the most creative Fortune 500 companies.

Through his consulting group A Couple of Monkeys he has provided marketing
assistance to small businesses worldwide since 2004. He is also a founding blogger for the tech blog,
Mac & Andy (www.macandandy.com).

Justin currently resides in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two kids. You can learn more about
him at www.jdean.me.

Copyright
Information

© 2011 Copyright Justin J. Dean and A Couple of Monkeys

Please visit www.acoupleofmonkeys.com for more information.

This work by Justin J. Dean is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.

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The Marketing Starter's Guide for New Business Owners

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