Sage Advice

Welcome to the inaugural copy of the Sage Advice newsletter. Each month, we'll provide sound advice on marketing, communications, search engine marketing, and PR for emerging growth companies. Our goal is to share useful strategies that produce results without killing your budget or your attention span.

We welcome all feedback good, bad, and indifferent. And please let us know if you know someone who could benefit from some Sage Advice.

Best regards,

Jennifer Guinan

The Dos and Don'ts of an Elevator Pitch ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dreaded question: "What exactly does your company do?" It's a simple question, but do you find that every time you answer it you give a different answer?

One of the first steps in positioning and branding a new company is to craft an elevator pitch. Simply put, an elevator pitch is a clear, compelling description of your business that is short enough to be understood--by your mother no less--in the time it takes to ride an elevator. That's about 60 seconds or 150 to 225 words. This is not an easy as it sounds. To do it well requires a great amount of thought, strategizing, and finesse.

Here are some quick Dos and Don'ts:

• Do start with a hook: what is most compelling about your story?
• Do show how you solve a problem. Too many companies offer a solution, but never identify the problem they are solving?
• Do briefly describe what you sell but don't kill them with details at this point.
• Do tell them who you are: who is behind the company and why you will succeed. (Got a great advisory board? Mention it.)
• Do briefly describe the target market: who it is; what industry; how big.
• Do mention how you will get revenue.
• Do note your competitive advantage be it intellectual property, distribution, partners, or whatever.
• Do speak in plain English. Don't use acronyms, technospeak, hype, or marketing babble.
• Do show enthusiasm and passion (if you don't believe it, who will?) but don't go over the top. (That's why used-car salesmen are forced to sell used cars.)
• Do practice, practice, practice. It should roll off your tongue naturally and consistently. No ums or uhs.
• Do make sure everyone in the company has the same story. Don't forget the receptionist. You don't want to be in a position where members of your own team have contradictory descriptions of your company.
• Do adjust for your audience. Customers are more interested in what problem you are solving for them than how you plan to make money. Save those details for potential investors.
• Do close with a call to action. Get a business card, schedule a follow-up call, set up a presentation, something.
• Do write it down. This will have a million uses--from the boilerplate in your press releases to online directory listings--to get your company description in the world consistently. Do shorter versions as well--all the way down to about three sentences. This will be vital for your pitch deck.

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Five Tips: Search Engine Optimization ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Search engine optimization sounds so daunting for most young companies. Who has time for dealing with metatags and keyword density when you're trying to get a company off the ground? Below is a simple list of five things you can easily do to improve your visibility on search engines.

1. You can afford free. Index your site with the Open Directory Project. It's free! The Open Directory Project powers core directory services for Google, Lycos, AOL Search, Netscape Search, and lots more.
2. Know thyself through thy customers' eyes. Remember that the words you use to describe your company are not necessarily the same ones that a prospect might use. Sometimes you need to go with the masses when it comes to keywords. Review your keyword list (if you have one), and see if your prospects would even think to search for them. You might even want to (gasp!) ask your customers about what keywords they use.
3. Stay on the up-and-up. Don't cram your keyword tag with dozens of keywords or repeating keywords. It doesn't work. Use 10 to 12 good, applicable keywords.
4. Put it in the Flash can. Don't let your web designer talk you into a Flash intro. Not only will everyone skip it because it's annoying and doesn't provide much in terms of information, it will stop the search engine spiders that crawl your site dead in their tracks.
5. Be more than a welcome mat. Develop unique titles for each of your pages. These titles appear at the top of the web browser window when your prospects or potential investors check out your site. So please, don't use, "Welcome to XYZ Company." This tells them nothing of value, except maybe that you have manners. Use the title to tell what you do, what problem you solve, and/or what the particular page is about. We're only talking about a handful of words per page (10 max), so it's not as painful as it might sound.

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New Sage Strategic Marketing Packages ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sage Strategic Marketing offers emerging-growth companies new Strategic Marketing Packages, giving you bite-sized strategic marketing projects that you can manage to swallow as your company takes off.

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About Sage Strategic Marketing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sage Strategic Marketing focuses on strategic marketing, communications, PR, and Internet and search engine marketing for emerging-growth companies. That's all we do, and we're the best at it. We have unique expertise and a long track record of successfully helping small, relatively unknown companies communicate their unique promise and gain the visibility they need to fuel growth.

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Sage Life Advice

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Never order fish in a restaurant on a Monday.

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Contact Sage

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