February CWiB Meeting Highlights

FEBRUARY HIGHLIGHTS

Our meeting was held February 8 at The GiddyUp in Folsom. Cristie Fraits facilitated the February meeting, filling in for Patricia and Debra. Our breakfast was graciously sponsored by Kick It. We thank Deborah and Jeanne for their generous support and the tasty goodies they provided for the attendees.

The introduction of the businesses in attendance revealed some new women in business, and we’d like to welcome them to our group.

The guest speaker was Matt Lundy of REI Promos (reipromos.com). His talk focused on the practical aspects of marketing your business. The three main takeaways from his presentation included:

First, before you spend money on marketing, you have to understand who your ‘best customer’ is so that your limited resources are spent wisely. Look at your receipts. See who is coming in or giving you business. Find out why they are coming to you. Then seek out ways to attract more of that type of customer/client. Understanding your market will help you spend your marketing budget wisely.

Second, you need to develop a budget, a baseline, a timeline and a review period. This will allow you to try some marketing approaches for a set period of time, compare it to where you started, and then see if it worked or not. If it didn’t, you can adjust your approach and try again. If it did, look at how you can do more of that or even improve upon it.

Third, you should develop a 10, 30, and 60-second ’speech’ about your business. Call it the ‘elevator pitch’. Something concise that tells people who you are and what you do - in a conversational manner, in plain English rather than the jargon typical of your industry. This not only helps you to present your business to potential customers/clients, it will help you better understand your own business by drilling down to the core. Being able to describe yourself clearly and succinctly in any social interaction is crucial. He suggested taking advantage of opportunities offered by Business Network International (https://www.bni.com/), Toastmasters, or similar groups to help develop that skill.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing your business to potential clients and growing your business. What may be appropriate for one may not be for someone else. Knowing what your market needs from you will help guide you in deciding the best way to attract more business.