In the past few years, we have seen an enormous shift in how big companies have been approaching marketing.

And as small business owners, we shouldn’t ignore that but in some way glean from it.

In the age of blogging and social media, it is no longer effective to simply broadcast your marketing or advertising outwardly to, or even at, an audience.

According to Mashable, businesses saw a great need to focus a good portion of their marketing efforts to content marketing in 2011. To quote, “In the past year, marketers distributed more business-to-business content on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter than ever, according to [the Content Marketing Institute].”

And that will only continue in 2012.

The manner in which Content Marketing differs from traditional marketing is that Content Marketing calls for interactivity.

It’s purpose is to provide information that customers are searching for and then allows them to share it with others.

The Holy Grail of Content Marketing is that the piece of content becomes viral and is shared with millions in a short amount of time.

Can you accomplish this as a small business?

Fortunately you can. With a bit of ingenuity (or maybe a lot), some creativity, and some “cojones”…some great content can be created for your business that will be invaluable to you in 2012.

Companies like Coca-Cola, Mint.com, and AMEX are expending great energy on content marketing. The infographic below will give you an idea why…

Although you might not have the budgets of some of these larger companies, you’ll still benefit by getting a good idea or two.

In today’s article I’m going to show you how to craft the best elevator pitch that’ll shock and awe your prospect and have them begging you for more information.

Whether you work for someone else or own a small business, you will at some point be asked…“So what do you do?”

It’s inevitable.

If you haven’t been asked that yet, you will. Believe me. And having a well-crafted elevator pitch will make you sound both interesting and professional.

But first, what is an elevator pitch?

According to Wikipedia:

“An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds or 100-150 words).”

So, what do you say then when you’re asked what you do or what your business is about?

Well, most people would start to spew out verbal vomit, jumping right in and starting to talk about how and why they started their business, why it’s their passion, their work schedule, how they love working for themselves, and how they’re the best in the industry.

Boring! Who cares?

In order to create the best elevator pitch for your business, you first have to realize that your elevator pitch’s focus should not be on you or even your product or service.

The focus of your elevator pitch should always be the benefits to your prospect or client.

How are you going to help them? How does your product or service affect their bottom line?

Your elevator pitch should be benefit focused.

So, instead of saying something like, “We sell the best insurance products”…include something like, “We show families how they can protect their assets and save money”.

Did you notice how the latter is benefit focused? If you say that to someone, the logical thing for that person to do is ask, “How?” And that’s how you can continue to schedule an appointment with an interested prospect.

Remember to Keep It Short

You have to remember that an elevator pitch is not a conversation, so keep it short.

You want to use your elevator pitch to arouse interest and intrigue. You want to entice your listener to want to learn more. So your goal is to craft something that will stay in the minds of your listeners even after they’ve left.

Be creative.

Use a question if possible.

Where to Use Your Elevator Pitch

So where can you use your new, finely crafted elevator pitch?

You can think a bit out of the box. You don’t have to limit yourself to person-to-person networking events.

According to Darren Rowse at Problogger, a few places that you can share your elevator pitch are:

• Your Website’s Tagline
• Your About Page
• Real Life Conversation
• Business Cards
• Pitching to Media
• Pitching to Other Bloggers
• Email Signature
• Social Media Profiles

The places that you can share your elevator pitch are really endless, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Give Yourself Options

You’ll probably have many, many opportunities to share your elevator pitch.

And you know, as well as I do, that you won’t always get the perfect opportunity to share your pitch. Sometimes you’ll have 30 seconds to share your pitch…sometimes you’ll have 10 seconds.

Prepare some options and multiple variations of your pitch.

For example, our full-length elevator pitch here at KangoMedia is, “KangoMedia helps small businesses make a big impact online with a professional image that breaks into new markets, generates leads, and makes more sales through effective web design and development.”

A shorter version is as simple as “KangoMedia builds websites that work for their clients.”

Of course, our elevator is always a work in progress. We are continuously tweaking it…as should you.

We Want to Hear Your Elevator Pitch

Do you have an elevator pitch or are you currently working on crafting one?

We’d love to hear from you!

Be sure to share your elevator pitch below and share this post with your friends.

If I only had a nickel for every time someone asked me…

“What is Web Hosting and Why Am I Being Charged For It?”

I’ll try to stick to a basic explanation without getting too technical and getting into a discussion about domain names registration, ip addresses, and so on. I don’t like blurting out web development jargon if I don’t have to.

According to Wikipedia,

“A web hоsting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. “

I read that definition and it’s clear as crystal to me, but it may be as clear as mud to you, so I’ll try to offer another explanation.

Let’s imagine a scenario.

You hire a web designer to create a website for your small business or organization. The designer might design the look and feel of the website in a graphic program on his personal computer. The images that were created are files that can range from several kilobytes to megabytes.

Then you give him a CD with photographs of your business partners, clients, samples of work for him to add to the website. Those pictures are also files that can range from several kilobytes to megabytes.

You also provide many documents with text and content that you would like to have on the website. You guessed it, these files also can range from several kilobytes to megabytes.

The web designer also has to code and program pages that internet browsers can read in languages such as HTML, PHP, RUBY, Flash, etc.

All of these images, content, and other files take up space on a computer and they have to be stored somewhere.

Now, you could store them on your personal computer. However, if you did that, nobody would be able to see them because they would not be accessible to the World Wide Web. And if you did make it accessible to the World Wide Web from your personal computer you would run the risk of hackers accessing your computer and your website would be inaccessible on the internet any time you turned off your computer.

This is where a Web Host comes in. As mentioned above, a Web Host provides space on their computers, or servers, where you can store your files and make them accessible to the World Wide Web.

So, paying for web hosting is similar to paying rent for your business address. A web host gives your website a specific address on their computer and your website is live as long as you pay for your space.

I hope you now have a better understanding of what web hosting is and why your web developer is charging you for it. It’s not scam…it’s not just a techies way of pinching a few bucks out of you.

If you have any further questions on this topic, feel free to leave a comment below or fill out our contact form.