10 ways to invest $10k
- Darren Horrigan
- 1 December 2009
- Page 2 of 2 : single page
7. Build your brand
Fahd is a marketing devotee and has invested heavily in his own business. "Marketing isn't advertising," he says. "It's about how you package your services and how you put yourself on the market. It could be anything from the way you correspond with clients, how you hire staff, or how your people answer the phone."
Lara Solomon, the award-winning creator of the cult brand Mocks
,
mobile phone socks, and author of Brand New Day: The Highs and Lows of Starting a Small Business, also believes in branding.
"Get all your branding sorted," she says.
"Work with a designer to make sure you have a consistent look and feel across all your promotional items. And buy items that will make your brand stick in people's minds. This also makes your business look bigger."
Sophie Andrews, founder of Space4 and author of The Ideas Book:
175+ Great Home Based Business Ideas, says she would invest $3000 in a personalised marketing plan. "My choice would be ‘Get a Kickstart Marketing Plan', which includes coaching and a strategy day," she says.
8. Create a great website
Vanessa Cullen, founder and principal of Forward Thinking Design, started with what she calls a "backyard-level web set-up" but has just invested in a new, professional site.
"I cannot emphasise how worthwhile that upgrade has been," she says. "It's the only thing that can make you look as good as the customers you want to attract. Get your web presence in tip-top condition and get some quality third party advice for an objective, market-focused direction."
John Allan, CEO of TrueLocal, an online directory of
Australian businesses, says he would spend $1000 building a basic business website.
"Start small," he says. "You can always build something grander once you get a feel for what content and site structure works best for your business.
"Then, open a Yahoo Search Marketing andGoogle Adwords account and take up their introductory search engine marketing packages. Spend about $3200 across both ($266 per month). Search engine marketing is a low-cost marketing tool for many businesses."
9. Conduct market research
John O'Keefe, principal and founder of O'Keefe Communications, says he is still amazed at the number of SMEs that have a limited idea of their target audience.
"Invest the 10 grand in market research to determine every facet of your target audience," he says.
"Establish the basic touch points of who, why, when and how your prospects buy your products or services. Build a profile by age, income, sex and where they live. And get the research done by a professional - not friends or relos.
"Market research is the best investment even the smallest SME can make if they want to survive and grow. Too many SMEs don't bother determining their target audience because they're simply too busy churning out the widgets. And marketing terrifies them. Others you just can't help."
10. Exploit e-marketing
Craig Reardon, director of e-marketing specialists, The E Team, says he would spend his $10,000 on three key e-marketing goals: gearing his website to close sales; getting to the top of Google; and unleashing viral strategies.
"Because your competitor is just a click away, you need to set up your website so it can close sales. When push comes to shove, if it's a choice between the website that can complete the transaction and one that requires further communication, the former wins every time.
"So have as much information and evidence of your quality as possible. Include a range of payment options and prove you are secure and legitimate. Make sure your site looks, reads, navigates and performs as professionally as you can afford.
"If my presence on Google lacked visibility, much of my 10K would be spent on improving that with both organic and paid positioning. Google is still the starting point for shopping for pretty much anything. It's essential your business is as high up the search results as possible.
"Viral marketing strategies will vary for each business because each has different markets, budgets, competitors and objectives. For some it will be social networking, while for others, good old-fashioned publicity." #
