SmallBusinessNewz

Matthew Scott, the director of Duct Tape Marketing (who will have a presence at the Microsoft Business Summit in March) has launched a 15-week marketing virtual course aimed at small businesses.

While the Basecamp course has received ringing endorsements from both Forbes Business and Harvard Business review, I have not attended it myself, but it does look quite helpful.

There are 15 lessons in all, but a few that stand out to me are:

Creating a Unique Core Message

Having a unique core message is all about sticking out from the crowd. Chances are, you have a lot of competitors in your niche, so why should your customers choose you? You offer the same product at the same price. What makes you better than the rest?

These are questions you must answer yourself before you can expect to gain any edge over the competition.

Tell Them an Authentic Story and Win Them Forever

Sharing a story with your customers about how you or your product has helped yourself or someone else in the past is a good way to form a connection with them. It can help customers to visualize the potential of your product and form an idea for themselves about how it can help them.

Matthew utilizes this concept himself while marketing this very course, by sharing the story of his military background leading to his corporate success. It is not necessarily a story about his product, but still one that potential customers can form a connection with.

Case Studies and Testimonials

Like sharing stories with your customers, sharing case studies and testimonials can have a similar effect in forming that connection.

Seeing how others have benefited from your product can be very persuasive. Not to mention that if your competitor does not provide real life examples, yours could be the difference in the customer’s buying decision.

Creating a content based web presence

It’s nice to be able to give your customers some quality information they can use without just shoving a product in their face. Two reasons for this are trust and branding.

When a customer can ideas that you have provided, they are more likely to trust you and hence more likely to buy from you. Providing valuable content also makes people remember your brand – also making them more likely to buy from you (if in fact your content is of quality and of use).

A great example of this is Aaron Wall, author of SEOBook, who has been providing high quality online marketing articles for years. He is seen as an authority in his niche and therefore people trust him and buy from him a lot. Mike Moran recently tackled this subject quite well.

There appears to be a wealth of information offered in the course, including so much more than the above topics. If anyone attends this course, I will be very interested in hearing your opinions in the comments.