Marketing for Solopreneurs

Face Up: Is Your Photo On Your Website?

Judy and I are members of a cool business networking community called Biznik.com. Recently on one of the forums, someone asked: “Should you put your photo on your website?”

How did people weigh in? The original poster said she always looks for a photo on someone’s website and doesn’t like it when she can’t find one. She compared it to starting a book and turning to the back inside cover first to look at the author’s picture. She just needs to see the person.

Another poster felt that photos can build credibility. But she also said that someone she met who sold information products online tested with and without a photo and actually sold more without his photo. Assuming the reason wasn’t that he’s incredibly ugly, I’m curious about those results. Are there certain businesses, services, products, where it’s best to go “photo-less?”

Most biznik posters felt it was a good thing to have your photo on your website. I feel, especially for the solopreneur, it can help in your branding, particularly if you have a service-focused business. But if you are selling a product, marketing the solution to your customer’s problem that your product will provide is probably more important than your personal branding. In short, focus on what you are selling —yourself or a product.

We have chosen to put photos on our blog and websites. Why? The Internet is impersonal and there are so many sites out there offering so many services that sometimes it just helps your customers get a better feel for who you are. It makes you more human. When I visit a site, I ask myself: Does this website show me friendly, approachable, solution-focused professionals, or is it a group of strange dudes in the corner of their basement trying to sell me the world?

At MarketingYourSmallBiz.com, our faces are a key part of our personal branding. Our local clients know us as well, if not better, by our photos as they do by our business name. And hopefully you, our online customers and future customers, know us a little better, too.

The Changing Entrepreneur: What Kind of Business Are You?

I read an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The author, Diana Ransom of smSmallBiz.com, reported on the new trend of specialized labeling for entrepreneurs.

While “solopreneur” has become widely accepted as a term for someone who owns a one-person-shop, the number of ways to distinguish the small business owner may be getting a little out of control. With everything from “ecopreneur” to “mompreneur”, there seems to be a label for everyone.

Some marketers like this new trend because it helps the business owner stand out in a competitive marketplace. The label can describe you as the businessperson, your niche market or both.

Here are some of the current buzzwords:

Solopreneur: a one-person business.
Copreneurs: owners of a two-person business, often a husband and wife.
Sideline Entrepreneur: a moonlighter who is testing the waters with a side business.
Travelpreneur/Adventurepreneur: the adventure-seeking entrepreneur.
Socialpreneur: the owner of a nonprofit company looking to solve a social problem
Ecopreneurs/Greenpreneurs: entrepreneurs who have turned their “green” causes into profits
Mompreneur/Dadpreneur: a parent with young children and a home-based business
Teenpreneur: a college or teen-aged entrepreneur
Entrepreness/Fempreneur: a female entrepreneur who caters to the women’s market
Serial Entrepreneur: a start-up “addict” who goes from one business to another

So, a woman who is a one-person business, who has a child and works at home, and who creates environmentally-friendly products is a solo-mom-eco-social-preneur?

Do you fit anywhere on this list? Do you like being labeled?

Will A Special Color Sell Your Product?

Recently Pantone, the color standards mega-company, announced its Fall ’08 Color Forecast, presumably the Bible for graphic designers, interior decorators and all the other artist types whose creations will suffer unless they know and use the trendy “it” colors. According to Pantone, Fall ’08 is defined by “rich, elegant hues that offer vibrant selections. ” (”Rich and elegant?” What were last fall’s colors—washed out and tacky?). Blue Iris is one of the “in” colors this year, described as "combining the stable and calming aspects of blue and the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple". Boy, that’s expecting a lot from a color.

Pantone has much to gain from their “color forecasts.” In fact, though the predictions are available to the public a few months in advance of the season, the designers, decorators and marketing companies must pony up $750 per book if they want it earlier. (The Fall ’09 book is on sale now.) It is in Pantone’s best interest to create a color trend frenzy.

Every year, the trendy colors show up in fashion, home décor, retail products and sales and marketing pieces. Large corporations spend thousands of dollars redesigning their logos and reception areas and hiring the best agencies to tell them what those colors will do for them, how they will make their customers feel, what emotions they will evoke.

Will using the newest, most popular colors bring more customers in the door? I honestly doubt it. We small businesses are very aware that our USP—Unique Selling Proposition—our sales messages, our personal brand are the way we attract new customers and retain the ones we have.

15 years ago, when we created the logo for Cat’s Eye Group, our small biz marketing company, we chose the color teal. I think sometime in the 90's it was "in," but just as quickly it became passé, yesterday’s color. Yet strangely enough, we still get comments on how much people like our logo and how immediately recognizable it is. They never seem to say, "Oh, ick. Teal. Come on Bob, get with the times!"

Do you personally feel that colors evoke emotions? And does that affect your decision when you are creating your marketing materials?