Limited budget? SCORE’s marketing workshop shows you how to blend traditional and online techniques to get customers

Workshop: Development & Implementation of an Effective Marketing Plan
When: August 26, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m
Where: SCORE Atlanta, 233 Peachtree Street, Ste. 1900
Details: Online at tinyurl.com/cydufq or call, 404 331 0121

A Marketing Plan Assures your Success
Lack of Planning Can Forebode Your Failure

By: Jerry Chautin, SCORE volunteer, business columnist
SCOREing small-business success

The online photographs blew me away. Ayesha Lakes posted them online at www.phoartgraphy.com. She is the owner of PhoArtgraphy and a professional photographer with sensitivities and skills that started at age 11. “One of my aunts gave me a Vivitar 110 pocket camera for Christmas and I never looked back,” she says. “I took pictures of everyone and everything at any event I could, just because I loved it.”

Pundits say, “Do what you love.” But what they do not tell you is that you also have to make a living doing it. That requires understanding who your customers are, how to reach them and knowing how much they are willing to pay for your product or service. Equally as important, you must learn how to get enough customers so that you can pay your bills and enjoy the lifestyle you dreamed about.

A marketing plan, with the accompanying research and selling strategy, is the heart of your business plan. Add to that a few financial projections and you will have the necessary framework to succeed. That is what you will learn to do at SCORE’s August 26 workshop. Jay Levy and Bill Cooey present it. They are both SCORE volunteers and marketing experts.

Levy is currently the marketing chair for SCORE Atlanta. He was formerly a marketing executive in the healthcare industry and also launched his own marketing agency. It gives him direct experience with what start-up and existing small-business owners need to be successful in today’s challenging economy.

In addition to volunteering for SCORE, Cooey is the principal owner of e3datasolutions, LLC, an Internet and web-based marketing firm. Since minimizing cost is always an issue for small-business owners, he will address capturing more business from your Web site. Because of the Internet, he says that, “there is a huge amount of marketing intelligence that companies used to pay millions of dollars for that can now be had for free.”

Meanwhile, back at the PhoArtgraphy studio, photographer Lakes says, “My SCORE experience impacted my marketing. It provided me with good ideas; the most important of them is creating a marketing plan.”

Additionally, she learned about search engine optimization. “I have implemented one of the ideas regarding SEO, and I think that may have increased my visibility,” she says.

Alan Zell recommends wilsonweb.com and searchengine.com for information on SEO. He is a SCORE volunteer in Portland, Oregon. But he stresses the need to combine traditional sales and marketing techniques with SEO. “The further one gets away from their prospective clients the costs go up with less results.”

Cooey agrees. “SEO is not the panacea that many are led to believe. The resources spent on SEO in most cases can be better used by attending networking events or replying to posts at relevant industry blogs.”

SCORE Atlanta’s workshop will discuss the various approaches to traditional, and nontraditional marketing. You can decide what is best for your business.

www.scoreatlanta.org

OTHER INFORMATION:

About SCORE:
Since 1964, SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” has helped more than 8 million aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling and business workshops. It is a nonprofit resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. More than 11,200 volunteer business counselors in 370 chapters serve their communities through entrepreneur education dedicated to the formation, growth and success of small businesses. The Atlanta chapter has 100 volunteers in conveniently located branch offices.

Note to media: Photos of the SCORE counselors quoted and interviews are available upon request. For interviews with SCORE business counselors or SCORE small-business clients, contact SCORE’s chairman, Jeff Mesquita: e-mail, scoremarketing@joimail.com, cell: (770) 713-1702. You may use this article in part or in its entirety and distribute copies with credit to SCORE Atlanta www.scoreatlanta.org. The columnist’s CV is online at: tenonline.org/sref/jc1bio.html

SCORE Atlanta | Publish Date: 08.19.09 | Back to home |