Are you starting a computer-related business and you’re not sure how to build a solid computer marketing plan?
 
When you first start out marketing your business, you need to make sure you know exactly which type of small business owners you are trying to reach and come up with a targeted marketing message. This means you need to think about the characteristics of your ideal prospective clients and figure out how you can best reach them.
 
If you are just getting started, you might feel overwhelmed when you realize there are as many as 30 computer marketing tasks you can do as a business owner. You should make a list of all the possibilities and then find four or five that appeal to you most. The main thing to remember is that you must diversify. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. You should always have a few different computer marketing campaigns running at all times.
 
The following 3 tips can help you design a computer marketing plan that will work with your unique business and bring you the best prospects, customers and clients.

1. Consider Your Many Computer Marketing Options. Think about which marketing strategies you can use and consider how they would work to grow your specific business. Some of the tactics to consider include outbound telemarketing; targeted direct postcard or letter mailings where you send a set number of postcards/letters to a targeted group and do a follow-up a few weeks later; B2B trade shows in your area; expos or industry events; organizational marketing; seminars you host yourself or co-host with trusted business advisers or partners. There are many other creative options you can select, so think about how you can best reach your target audience.

2. Diversify and Track Your Marketing Campaigns. One of the most important characteristics of a great computer marketing plan is that it is diverse. Again, never spend your entire annual marketing budget on a single campaign. You want to hit different areas and then figure out a way you can track and measure what you’re doing. Figure out how much time and money you are investing in each campaign and which type of leads you are getting as a direct result of your investment. Basically, you need to figure out which marketing strategies work and which do not so you can do more of those that are working and eliminate what just isn’t bringing in business.
3. Evaluate Your Marketing Results Each Quarter. No matter which computer marketing strategies and campaigns you choose, you need to give each one a chance to generate results. This means that, in most cases, you need stick with each campaign for at least two to three months to see how it develops. Once the quarter is over, stick with the campaigns that worked and abandon those that did not. Then add a couple new campaigns to the mix, so that you’re constantly testing out new client-attraction strategies. Remember that marketing is an on-going, evolutionary process that will be refined over time.

In this article, we talked about 3 ways to develop a strong computer marketing plan that will help you build a solid client list. Learn more about how you can build a great computer marketing plan that gets you steady, high-paying clients now at the attached link. 
 
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   1. Remember, There are a Lot of Small Businesses Out There. As you are thinking about yourself as a network consultant, remember there are millions of small businesses in the U.S. and millions more abroad. There’s a pretty good chance there are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of companies that would qualify as small businesses within a one hour’s drive of your local area. But if you latch onto the wrong ones, you’re not going to be able to build a very good career as a network consultant. You need to really fine-tune your focus and find a specialty and a unique twist on consulting that no one else has in your local area. This will help you narrow down the field of potential prospects, target your marketing campaigns much more time-efficiently and cost-effectively and allow you to really stand out among your competitors.

   2. Know How and Where to Find the Best Accounts. You need to know where to find the best accounts as a network consultant. Often this means knowing how to say, “No Thanks.” You need to know your target prospects very well and be able to verify through a consistent, diligent lead qualification process that a small business will be a gratifying client for your network consultant business. Your goal is obviously to feel a certain sense of career satisfaction as a network consultant. This sense of gratification is probably one of the reasons you decided to go out on your own, as opposed to sticking with a traditional corporate IT career. If you want to experience the joy of success, you really need to establish a good process for building healthy client-consultant relationships. The first step is admitting that you can’t possibly be all things to all people.

   3. Think About Finances. Your career as a network consultant has to be lucrative financially. You need to have a profitable business and stable sources of recurring consulting revenue. All small businesses are not created equal, and your job is not to be the Mother Teresa of Network Support. You are probably not becoming a network consultant to start a career in charity or accidentally launch a non-profit agency. So you must consider your own financial health when determining which types of clients you should target with your marketing campaigns.
 
You certainly need to have empathy for customers and clients you support. And you need to do a great job for your clients. But you have to be very careful and very targeted about marketing your business, and choosing clients, if you want to build a long-lasting career as a network consultant.
 
In this short article we discussed 3 tips to help you with marketing and building a stable career as a network consultant. Learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying clients as a network consultant now at the attached link.

Copyright (C), NetworkConsultantMarketing.com, All Rights Reserved

How do you make yourself memorable?  You have to sell YOU by focusing on your unique expertise and the benefits you offer.  

Are You a “Thing” or a Real Person Offering Sophisticated Solutions?

Remember, you are NOT a commodities broker.  Commodities are cheap “things” that will just attract price hunters.  You need to really focus on your unique problem-solving skills and specialty.  

Make Yourself Known

Great IT marketing materials don’t shroud you in mystery.  You can’t try to hide the size of your company on your Web site or business cards by making it really anonymous, nor should you.  Sell your background and the background of any staff or subcontractors and be sure to share your unique philosophies and small business problem-solving abilities.

You really need to craft a unique, fresh IT marketing message that represents you in order to attract the best, highest paying clients.  It needs to say something different about you that makes prospects remember you over other computer consulting firms they could be choosing.
Today we talked about IT marketing and why you need to make yourself memorable to get ideal clients for your business.  To learn more about this topic, visit the attached link.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

1.    Be ready to talk about your computer consultancy by taking some time to prepare for meetings.  Spend 30-45 minutes before sales calls and other meetings with potential clients to learn something about your prospects so you can figure out how your solutions will fit.

2.    Put together a complete profile of your prospects to make sure you know how you can work with their complex business problems.  Find out what their business is about, which industry they are in, which types of services they provide, how many locations they have and how long they’ve been in business.

3.    Look in the news for information about your potential client.  You will probably be able to find news stories in Google or in the local newspaper through search functions. This will help you know more about your prospects and what they are doing and accomplishing.

Today we talked about some tips that can help you better communicate information about your computer consultancy.  To learn more about this topic, visit the attached link!

Submitted By:  Joshua Feinberg

Target, Target, Target!

Targeted IT marketing campaigns are always more effective than those that are not.  Don’t send the same message to 2,000 small businesses in your area and hope for them to hit on hot buttons.  Target a specific group and find out what really concerns them.  Then come up with a message that speaks to this concern and stress you have expertise in their specific area.

IT Marketing Postcards Can Build Relationships

The goal with direct mail is not to close the sale.  You can’t get them to agree to a $25,000 client server network just because of a little postcard.  Relationships take time and effort to cultivate.

IT marketing postcards should generate a response.  You want prospects to say they are interested and then focus your energy on nurturing the best opportunities of those responses.  Then you want to try to get them to agree to a seminar with other people that have expressed interest or a free report or free needs analysis.   

IT Marketing:  Urgency is Everything

You need to make sure people know there is an urgency to what you are asking with your IT marketing materials.  They need to act now … or never!  You don’t want people to take your postcard, read it and file it away indefinitely.  You want people to get to know, like and trust you.  The best way to do this is to encourage one-on-one contact or one-on-group contact where they can see you in person and know what it is like to work with you.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Why?

First of all, your customers already know you and know what your computer repair business is all about.  You already own the list, and the people on it already know, like and trust you, which are three of the biggest obstacles to overcome when it comes to successful marketing.

What Should You Stress with Your Marketing?

If you know a lot about virus protection, firewalls, passwords, data backup and power protection, this is a good place to start when mailing to computer repair business customers and trying to get them to agree to IT audits.

Offer a discounted IT audit package.  For example, if you usually charge $400, you can offer a special good through an expiration date — $299.  You should also think about including a bonus such as an entry-level battery backup unit or surge protector … or simple just a CD or DVD of the last data protection seminar you gave.  Make sure your offer has real value to customers.  

Track Marketing Results

With any computer repair business marketing strategy, tracking is important.  So tracking the responses to a mailing you send it critical.  You might get five percent inquiries and note that half of them end up taking the audit, which will help you predict responses to future mailings.   Remember your audience of computer repair business customers is going to be more responsive than anyone else you target through direct mail.  

Help Computer Repair Business Customers Use Their Assets

You need to look at existing customer relationships and determine more ways you can help them use what they own already.  They probably have bought a lot of useful assets that they aren’t even using, but that could really bring them increased productivity and benefits.  

Solidify Computer Repair Business Relationships

Direct mail and talking to your current customers can not only help you help your customers get the most out of their current IT assets but also can help you get good service revenue.  Also, this type of contact helps establish the relationships that will sustain your computer repair business long term.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

An IT Marketing Case Study

Consider a consultant that says this:

“I’ve send out over 300 postcards that offer general computer troubleshooting services, automated online backup and wireless home networks … I bought lists of area businesses that were divided by revenue, credit rating, years in business, number of PCs … The wireless home network postcards went to homeowners that purchased their house for over $500,000 and the automated online data backup went to people that had recently purchased new business licenses …”

And the consultant’s results?

“The IT marketing results have been nonexistent. I haven’t received a single phone call or e-mail.”

The question is, what did this consultant do wrong?

Don’t Expect a Too Much Out of Your IT Marketing Efforts

You sent out “over 300 postcards?”  That’s not really very many in terms of an all-out campaign.  And it definitely isn’t enough to make for good statistics.  Don’t spend your entire IT marketing budget in one place before you know whether it works or not.  But don’t think you can spend the cost of 300 times one stamp for a postcard and get a landslide of response.  If you got no response from that type of IT marketing campaign, consider the reality of your numbers.  

What Should Your Postcards Include?

Your lists in the above scenario are probably not wrong.  But your copy might be suspect.  What are you offering?  Is your headline compelling?  Did you hit their points of pain and have a clear deadline?  Did you use a compelling offer that got them to pick up the phone, send you and e-mail or mail back a coupon?

The Bottom Line about IT Marketing and Postcards

Are postcards a bad media?  They are not!  In fact, they’re great, because no one has to open an envelope, which makes deciding to respond a lot easier.  You won’t have to deal with putting compelling information on an envelope to get someone to respond to your IT marketing strategies.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

As a note, if you are in Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand or any other nation besides the U.S., please be sure to convert these revenue figures to your local currency.  

The High End of the Sweet Spot

When you start dealing with the top of the computer consultant repair business sweet spot – more than 50 PCs or more than $10 million in annual sales – you will run into more companies that are hiring salaried IT people instead of outsourcing computer consulting needs.  At this point, you start to face stiff competition and people that will add up your invoices and figure out if they can do it more cheaply in house.  

Real Servers

When qualifying computer consultant repair business sweet spot clients, you need to seek out those companies large enough to need a real, dedicated server and not just a peer-to-peer network.  When a business needs a real server, it needs a lot of professional services to accompany it.  This is your chance to become an outsourced IT department and computer consultant repair specialist!

Does the Company Have More than One Location?

Often a sweet spot computer consultant repair client will have just one location, but sometimes there will be a main office and branch offices.  Branch offices become opportunities for your computer consultant repair business because they will need data sharing techniques in real time between many different locations.

Submitted By:  Computer Consulting Business

First of all, you need to make sure you have STRONG references.  Talk about benefits:  how you saved clients money; how your technology solutions bring more revenue; how you helped close out the month faster; how you improved productivity; how you helped clients communicate with tele-workers, suppliers and vendors.

In IT marketing, you need to make your references very strong, even if you just have a few.

IT Marketing and Your First References

You can get references by volunteering.  Choose a couple non-profits that you can stand behind and set up a closed-ended deal.  You don’t want to volunteer your services for a long time.  Part of the deal should include a testimonial for your company.

Asking for Referrals with IT Marketing

A lot of people have a hard time asking for referrals.  You don’t want to push or look needy, but you do need referrals for IT marketing.

You can ask for referrals when someone gives you a compliment.  If someone tells you how happy he/she is with a project, you can use that opportunity to ask for an updated testimonial (or a first-time testimonial if you don’t already have one) and also ask if the person knows anyone in the area that might benefit from your services.

The Main Idea

One of the best ways to conduct relationship IT marketing is by asking current clients for testimonials and referrals.  Your clients will not mind supporting your good work.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

What about Case Studies?

A case study in IT marketing is essentially a sophisticated testimonial.  It typically will have a picture of your client with a logo, full name, address and any contact information.  A case study is a few short paragraphs discussing the benefits your client has received as part of a relationship with your firm.  Make sure the bottom of the case study is signed by the client and also has your firm’s contact info.  Anywhere between two and four case studies create a compelling part of your IT marketing portfolio.  

What about Web Sites?

A Web site acts as an important business tool; if you put the right content into it, it will have great impact on your clients.  You can’t waste space on advertising the cheapest power supply or other piece of technology.  Communicate your unique expertise at providing sophisticated, industry-specific solutions to small business problems.  

Address a Niche with Each Web Page

If you are targeting three niches with IT marketing, you should have a separate page for each.  You need each page to talk about industry-specific trends and how your solutions address them.  

What are the hot topics in your niche?  Which typical software packages will you need to know to work with people and show your competency?  You need to know which benefits you are offering to your niche and advertise the benefits on your Web site.

Always Emphasize Service with Your Web Site

Your Web site traffic is going to come from two places:  demand you’ve generated somewhere else; competitors.  

You need prospects to understand that you focus on unique services and the problems these services solve – not just from a technical perspective, but from a small business perspective.  

The Main Idea about IT Marketing

Use case studies and your Web site to get the most out of a strong IT marketing campaign and be sure to address niches and their problems.  

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

The following organizations can help you with your IT marketing techniques.  Don’t join more than one of each type, but you can use these categories as a guideline for choosing the best ones for you.

General Business Organizations

This category involves a chamber of commerce, Rotary club or Kiwanis.  It could also be a group like Le Tip or BNI.  This type of organization is good for IT marketing because it is a place to find a lot of other small business owners and managers.

A User Group  

If you want to specialize in installing Windows-based networks or security or some other specialty, you might want to think about this type of business group.  This type of group allows you to meet other people with similar specialties and interests.   

Targeted Business Organizations and Trade Groups

This category for IT marketing will offer the clients you seek.  If you are in the medical industry for example you can look at medical trade groups.  Determine which types of events are coming up and whether or not there is a newsletter.

Join a Niche for IT Marketing

If you want to get referrals and make connections, you need to get more active in your niche.  If you become a part of a niche, you will get better referrals.  When you are selling technical services, you have to have technical expertise, but really succeeding in the IT consulting world and with your IT marketing campaign is about WHO you know rather than WHAT you know.

Relationships Are Important to IT Marketing

What will really determine the success of your IT marketing campaign is relationships.  Sure, technical skills are important, but even if your technical skills are average, relationships with partners, subcontractors, vendors and anyone that can send you business will really pull you through to the end.

If you want to get more referrals with IT marketing, you will need to know more people.  Join organizations in different arenas to get more out of your IT marketing campaign.  

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

The most important part of your elevator speech is that it should focus on your firm’s benefits rather than just features.  For example, my elevator speech:

“Hi, I’m Joshua Feinberg from the Computer Consulting Kit.  We help small business computer consultants sell more services, build their businesses and run more profitable companies.”

If you are trying to sell to small businesses, your IT marketing elevator speech might look like these:

“My Company helps small businesses in the local area use technology more effectively.”

“My company helps small businesses in the area solve computer problems.”

Sincerity and Your Elevator Speech

With any IT marketing strategy, you need to be sincere.  You need to appear able to help people and have a real interest in hearing more about them.  When networking, you should try to let the person receiving your IT marketing message do most of the talking and establish yourself as a good listener.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

You Are Not a Commodity

Commodities are based on price and are cheap.  Selling “You, Inc.” is essential because you have to stress that you have a special problem-solving ability that no one else has and that you can provide the best solutions for small businesses.   

Get Past Your IT Marketing Materials

You have to make sure you are visible on your website and in all your IT marketing materials.  Don’t hide the size of your company by keeping everything anonymous.  If you focus on selling your background and the background of any staff members, you will be more likely to communicate your particular beliefs and philosophies and attract the best clients.  

You Are Unique

A question that is often asked about IT marketing among consultants is, “What is the best, most cost-effective way to get great leads?”

When everyone is going after the same leads with the same pitch from years ago, they are unoriginal.  You need to provide a unique pitch and a unique IT marketing message to get the best leads.  

Make Your IT Marketing Materials Special

To see if you are truly special with your IT marketing message, examine your business card and your home page.  Then take a few business cards and home pages from our local competitors and see how they are different.  Everyone is probably talking about offering very generalized tasks – PC hardware and software sales, LANs, etc. – but this is not unique.  

When you are unique, you end up competing against a dozen competitors instead of a few hundred, and you increase the success of your IT marketing plan.  

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

Speak at Meetings for Other Groups

When you speak at others’ meetings, you get a captive audience.  They are going to a chamber of commerce breakfast or a Rotary meeting already, and someone they know and trust has convinced them to show up.

Design a Speech that Will Reach Your Audience

You want to be sure you talk about a general topic that will appeal to business owners.  Don’t use a lot of acronyms with IT marketing and keep it really low-tech.  The business organizations should also be focused on those that would be in the sweet spot.  You can find this information out by talking to the executive director or manager of the organization when doing your research.  

Free Seminars and IT Marketing

You can also spread the word about your business and name by doing a free seminar.  Talk about protecting computer systems from viruses, security breaches and blackouts or something else relevant.

The hardest part about running seminars as part of an IT marketing campaign is carrying them out.  You need someone in your store that can deliver the seminar well, and you should ideally split up the duties between more than one person to keep it interesting for attendees.  Don’t let it go beyond 45 minutes.   

IT Marketing Techniques that Will Get People in the Seats

To generate demand and get RSVPs for your free seminars and events, do a direct mail piece to a targeted list.  An effective and inexpensive way to do this type of mailing as an IT marketing campaign is to combine your seminar with a chamber of commerce mailing and put a flyer in with the newsletter.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

The concept of IT marketing can be very overwhelming for those new to the IT world.  There are as many as 30 different IT marketing activities that you can do at once.  You should pick the four or five that sound best to you and work on them a little bit at a time.  You should, however be doing several IT marketing things at once.

IT Marketing Ideas

You may choose outbound telemarketing, postcard mailings or direct mail letters.  You might also be going to trade shows, expos or industry events.  You can also hold a seminar.  The key is to track and measure everything you do.  

It’s All about Diversity

Get involved in many different areas, figure out how to measure and track your activities and keep going.  You should know how much time and money you’re investing in each IT marketing category.  What leads are you getting?  What is working?  You of course will want to do more of the IT marketing strategies that work and less of those that don’t.

Evaluate IT Marketing Strategies Each Quarter

You should stick to any IT marketing activities you choose for at least two or three months to get a good idea of how well it works.  Stay with marketing ideas that work and then add new ones to the mix as you move forward.  IT marketing is ongoing – a process of refining over time.

Submitted By:  Joshua Feinberg

IT Consultants That Charge Are Professionals

If you want others to see you as a true professional, you have to charge hourly rates comparable to those computer consultants that you hope to compete with once you go full time.  If you charge too low, you will not be able to build on-going revenue that will allow you to become a full-time consultant.  When contracts come up for renewal, you will have a difficult time raising your rates unless you make them high enough in the beginning. 

Competing full-time IT consultants already know which billing rates will keep them afloat.  Successful IT consultants also know about taxes, training expenses, insurance, marketing, promotion, research and administrative costs. 

IT Consultants Value Their Services

If you think you can charge rock-bottom rates for your consulting services, market to those that will like that concept while charging $25, $35 or $45 per hour and working like crazy and still stay alive, you are wrong.  You can’t work that many hours on a full-time basis. 

IT consultants that make it study the competition when setting rates and give themselves multiple sources of steady consulting revenue. 

The Main Idea with IT Consultants

You have to diversify your revenue sources and build a client base if you want to compete with other IT consultants that have gone full-time.  Don’t quit your day job if 90% of your revenue is from just one or two clients. 

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Long sales letters can help build urgency, stir up the pot, get people to take action, take prospects through the pain of ignoring IT issues, take prospects through the joy that comes from increased productivity and explain the benefits of growing a company sometimes by 200% without adding staff!

Many of these elements can only be stressed in a long IT marketing letter, so don’t be afraid to keep writing.  

Address Painful Subjects

If you aren’t well-versed in writing sales letters, you can hire an advertising or marketing consultant or a freelance copywriter to do them.  But no matter what you choose to do, you have to make sure the letter addresses the main points of pain for your targets.

Free is Good

In order to get demand to be high with IT marketing, you may want to send out a letter with your business card and offer a free bribe like a one-hour needs assessment.  Make sure the bribe has an end date attached or limits it to the first X number of businesses that respond.

If you are successful at presenting yourself as an IT expert for a niche industry, your IT marketing letters and calls will be better received.  Your knowledge should be obvious in the headline and repeated throughout.  You are offering a relevant service, and most professionals will want to hear what you have to say.

Your letter should discuss work you’ve done for similar firms – use testimonials at every opportunity – and how you can help your target’s firm.  The problems and trends of the industry will be well known by those receiving your letter.     

The Main Idea

The goal with an IT marketing letter is to get your prospect from free to fee, which means an in-depth billable audit or your proving ground project.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

When you are just starting your business, you will most likely feel overwhelmed by the number of IT marketing tasks you can be doing at any one moment.  Instead of trying to do them all, choose four or five you think are best from the list and do them.  You want to be engaged in several IT marketing tasks at once, but you don’t want to do too many or none will be successful.  

IT Marketing Ideas

You might choose telemarketing, postcard mailings or direct mail letters.  You might also choose trade shows in your area, expos or conducting your own seminar.  Whatever you choose for IT marketing you have to diversify your techniques.  

Diversify Strategies

You should think about hitting different areas and tracking what you’re doing as part of your overall IT marketing plan.  How much time and money are you putting in each technique?  What kinds of leads are you getting and what benefits are you getting from your investments?  Find out what is working for you and then do more of it.  Then get rid of IT marketing activities that are doing nothing for your business.  

Evaluate Each Quarter

Whichever IT marketing activities you select, stay with them for three months and then evaluate.  Stick with IT marketing techniques that work and then throw some new ones into the mix.  Marketing is on-going and takes time to develop.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Test

When you are marketing your small business computer consulting firm, make sure you run small, organized tests before going whole-heartedly into any one marketing scheme.  For example, when doing direct mail, don’t mail 5,000 or more pieces the first time or put $2,500 to $5,000 on the line for something that might not work.

Think Small and Focused

Before going fully into a small business computer consulting direct mailing campaign, try a $500 test to see how you do.  If you think you need to put an ad in the yellow pages or newspaper, think carefully.  This type of marketing is not typically the most efficient, because you are not targeting a focused group, and 95% of people reading the ad will not be interested.  

Make Small Bets to Minimize Risk

If you are convinced you need to market your small business computer consulting firm in the yellow pages or newspaper, make sure you test with something small before committing.  

When you make marketing and business decisions in small business computer consulting, you need to make small and very calculated bets to test, analyze and track.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Direct mail postcards are an excellent IT marketing strategy because you do not have to worry about them being thrown away unread.  Because they are already opened, they will be noticed.  Postcards are less expensive than other direct mail pieces, so you can save money in your IT marketing budget.

IT Marketing:  Direct Mail Postcards Have to Be Targeted

You don’t want to send the same message to 2,000 small businesses and hope to get their attention.  Target a specific group with which you have experience.  Your message in IT marketing as part of your direct mail postcards campaign has to be well-directed and has to tell recipients you have some expertise in their field.  

Direct Mail Postcards are Part of Relationship IT Marketing

Direct mail is not an attempt to make a sale.  You won’t be able to get anyone to sign anything based on a direct mail postcard because relationships take time to build and grow.

The point of IT marketing direct mail postcards is to get a response.  You want to garner interest in learning more so you can find the best prospects from the pool of respondents.

The next IT marketing step after direct mail postcards is to get prospects to come to seminars with other interested individuals or offer a free report or free needs analysis.

Time is Critical to IT Marketing

You need to create a sense of urgency as part of IT marketing or else people will file it away for a long time and maybe never even act.  Get people to like, know and trust you by initiating one-on-one contact or group contact that helps them see what you have to offer and what working with you is like.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg