Bob is a great guy and has a lot of good will in the DC area. if you meet him you at once know he is going to do his best to make you successful. It was a no brainer when the mantle of the Unintentional Entrepreneur DC event fell on me to ask Bob to speak on the topic marketing to entrepreneurs. Bob has been helping local companies and start-ups. Come to the event on August 5th at Johns Hopkins University Montgomery Campus to get the secrets of Marketing by spending an hour a day. Attend This Event
Bob has managed marketing initiatives with annual budgets ranging from the $150 million network tv launch of MCI Friends & Family (back when network tv really meant something) to $75 (seriously!). Bob’s work and writing has been profiled or covered by the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Miami Herald, USA Today and Marketing News, the AMA’s flagship magazine. While building London, Ink, Bob has also become known as a serious networker who continually leverages face to face and online networking channels to generate targeted awareness of his business–an approach he has dubbed, “Cloud Marketing”.
On Becoming an Entrepeneur by Choice or By Force
Shashi recently caught up with him at a networking event and they discussed the current economic environment and the Wall Street Journal article that mentioned how more people are becoming entrepreneurs today. Whether that is by choice or by force it did not say but bob pointed out that “it can be a blessing if you have a buyout and are forced to take a hard look which could be freeing”.
Some great marketing tips for large and small businesses alike
1.) Do outreach to existing clients – Many companies might be concerned that your business might not survive and they will be without a key vendor to deliver a product or service – now is the time to reassure them you aren’t going anywhere and in fact turn up the customer service so you a remembered for the long term.
2.) If your product/service is your best advertisement, start over – We have seen companies spend millions of dollars on advertising to promote mediocre products. If they would spend a large portion of money on R&D or product development they would be much more successful with a great product that speaks for itself.
3.) Marketing is a reflection of product success – Marketing really should be used as a reflection of success for something already successful. The best message/tag line won’t fix at the core might be a product problem.
For the full interview, see the video below:
Web.com is now offering forums designed to support small businesses in cities throughout the US. Learn more about these forums here: http://Businessforum.web.com/
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