how to market & brand your business

Marketing & Branding for Small BusinessesMARIA ASUELIMEN | AMA CONSULTING LLC

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

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AMA Consulting Capabilities Strategic Marketing Planning Small Business Certifications Proposal Management Support Federal Contracting Support Entrepreneurship & Leadership Development Trainings

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

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How We Work Values: Excellence, Diligence, Integrity and Compassion Outcomes Oriented Agile Approach Ease of Interaction Networks

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

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Our Clients Small Businesses: 8(a), WOSB, HUBZONE, SDVOSB, VOSB Small Business Categories Industries: Information Technology Healthcare Staffing Construction Professional Services Media Security

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Marketing Constantly communicating the value of your goods and services to potential customers/clientsAdvertising: Newspaper, Online directories, Radio, Cable TV, Blogs, Social Media platformsContent Marketing/Social MediaEmail MarketingCold CallsSpeaking EngagementsAuthoring Networking

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Marketing Tip Have A Plan

Know Your Market

Know Your Business

Set a Budget

Execute

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Create a Marketing Plan. Why?Clear vision for your business

Become better at using strategy to build brand awareness

Sell your product/service easier

Address & identify potential problems

Allows for test to see if strategies are giving the desired results

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

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GoalsGoals are what you want to achieve. They must be ACTIONABLE and SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and have a timeline.

Short term and long term

Can be in terms of revenue, technical capability or positioning

Set no more that 5 short term and 5 long term at a time

Examples: Bring in $50,000 in revenue, find 10 new clients for the business, and attend 3 networking events monthly in 2016.

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

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Steps & Priorities Steps are activities carried out in order to achieve a goal. Priorities are steps that have the most effect on a goal

Steps have to state who, when and where the action will be taken

Must be as detailed as possible

Can list up to 5 prioritized steps under a goal with a duration (daily, weekly, monthly)

Each step MUST be related to a goal

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Know your market!IndustryKnow the Size, Trends and Key Players Department of Commerce: https://www.commerce.gov/economicindicators North American Industry Classification Codes: http://www.naics.com/search/

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Know your market! Competitors Direct: Business that market goods and services just like you to your target market

Indirect: Alternative ways your target market can meet their needs

The U.S. Census Bureau www.census.gov demographic statistics for any town, city, or state in America.

Public Library Databases: http://fcpl.org/departments/grant-seekers-resource-center/databases

Dynamic Small Business Search Database: http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm

Better Business Bureau (BBB) www.bbb.org

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Know your MarketWho is you’re a customerApproachable High Conversion Rate: Ready, Willing and Able Profitable

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Know your Business What is your why?What is your differentiator? 30 sec elevation speech: Who you are, what you do and who you do it for

30 sec elevator Speech exercise

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Set a budget Set a marketing budget

Typically 7% of your projected sales

Execute

Action! Action! Action! Schedule Activities Follow up Be responsive

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Social Media Where do you Post? Understand where your audience is first and go from there.

LinkedIn – B2B – Great for influencing influencers

Twitter – B2B & B2C – Short bursts of real-time engagement.

Facebook – B2C – Sporting, social companies and events work particularly well here

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

What is Branding?Branding is about creating an identity/Image.

It’s what sets one company apart from another

Logo & Tag Line

Business Cards

Business Stationery: Letterhead, compliments slips, envelopes, etc.

Emails: Everyone in the company should use a branded email address (@yourdomain.etc), a branded email signature including logo and tag line

Website

Social Media

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

Branding Tips A strong brand can help your business attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Think about successful brands

• Branding should be related to your why

• Be authentic: Your brand should reflect the personality and values of your business.

• Tell the story of your business: You can start developing your brand by considering the story of your business - how it started, what you hope to achieve, who you hope to appeal to.

10104 SENATE DRIVE SUITE 208 LANHAM MD 20706 WWW.AMACONSULTONLINE.COM

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AMA Consulting LLC10104 Senate Drive Suite 208

Lanham MD 20706www.amaconsultonline.com

P.(301)577-9300

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