May 25, 2000
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MarketingToSmallBiz.com
Practical News & Tips for Marketing
to SOHOs on the Internet
May 25, 2000 - Vol. I, Issue 2
Please forward to your friends & colleagues in the Biz.
We depend on your kudos & good judgment to grow!
1. NEWS: Citibank, Xerox, Dell, Small Business Advisor
2. CASE STUDY: ePolicy.com
3. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Terri Lonier of SOHO Summit
4. JOBS: ePolicy.com, Staples.com
5. EVENTS: SOHO Summit 2000
** Note: Are you reading a pass-along copy? Get your
own free subscription by going to our Web site today:
http://www.MarketingToSmallBiz.com
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NEWS
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-> Citibank Targets SOHOs – With a Credit Card
While most of us in the Internet space wonder what will
become of currency and banking in the future, financial
institutions continue to forge full speed ahead with
traditional, offline services aimed at the SOHO world.
Most recently, Citibank announced its plans to offer a
“new” credit card for small businesses. (Everyone is
getting on board with such cards these days, placing
this announcement into the sad category of "me-too
marketing!") With more than 20 million potential
customers to court, Citibank will market its new
MasterCard with services and benefits reminiscent of
American Express. We can't help but yawn at the new
announcement.
http://www.citibank.com/
-> Xerox and Dell Hold Hands on SOHO Sales
Last week, we told you about Xerox's recent change of
executive hands. Xerox certainly plans to stay in the
SOHO game. Dell just selected Xerox to "expand printer
offerings to its small business and corporate customers"
through a direct marketing campaign of Xerox-branded
office printers. The program begins in the U.S. and is
slated to expand worldwide in coming months. The joint
marketing agreement is quite a coup for Xerox, whose
struggle as an office equipment dinosaur has received
not-so-favorable press in recent months. Small business
customers can now find Xerox products for sale at the
Dell site. Ingram Micro Inc. handles fulfillment for
Dell's sales of Xerox printers.
http://www.xerox.com/
http://www.dell.com/
http://www.ingrammicro.com/
-> Yea/Nay: SmallBusiness.com's Web Site
Occasionally, we guess at Web site addresses to see who
has snapped up domain names with a small business hook.
Our recent by-chance visit to SmallBusiness.com caused
us to scratch our heads in wonder -- why make a Web site
live when you have nothing to show yet? Are they trying
to build up hype by being mysterious? A click on the
Media Relations page was a dead end. The site's come-on
to "Partner with Us" only caused us to wonder whether
this site's entire marketing plan hinges on its securing
of a cool Internet address. Our guess from the job
listings is that this site will become a media or
information resource for SOHOs one day. Problem is, if
SmallBusiness.com can't demonstrate some savvy online
marketing at its own construction site, can it establish
any online credibility with us? Or with advertisers?
Until we see some better stuff, it gets a Big Nay.
http://www.smallbusiness.com/
-> Media Buy of the Week: Small Business Advisor
Monthly Newsletter
With a page full of Web site awards and a trophy page of
advertisers (AmEx, AT&T, Office Depot, more), the Small
Business Advisor domain looks like a crowded ad venue.
But that’s why we looked at their monthly, opt-in e-mail
newsletter instead. It hits some 8,000 small-business
owners, and we believe they do read it because of the
low frequency and high stature of the publisher. Price:
$850 if you also buy a banner on the Web site for $17/M;
$1000 if you don’t. As a stand-alone buy it runs $125/M
-- hefty by banner standards, but reasonable for a
targeted, opt-in list campaign. For more info:
bobs@isquare.com or (703) 450 7049.
http://www.isquare.com/
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CASE STUDY: ePolicy.com
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The Offering: Founded in June 1999, ePolicy.com
Insurance Services, Inc. (ePolicy.com) is a B-to-B Internet
company that streamlines the business insurance
application and policy-writing process.
Target Audience: Currently, ePolicy.com serves over 23
million small businesses and solo practitioners.
Typically, such customers are hard to service through
traditional insurance brokers and agents.
Site Design: ePolicy’s Web interface lets SOHO’s
purchase insurance quickly, minimizing one of the most
hateful procedures in business (e.g. qualifying for
financial services). “What makes us unique is that the
qualifying criteria is in our engine,” says Richardson.
“Right now there is no one else on the market.”
“They are in and out and insured within about 15
minutes,” says C. Bruce Pfander, ePolicy’s Executive VP
and Chief Marketing Officer.
Traffic Generation: ePolicy.com invests its dollars in a
media mix targeting both online & offline vertical
markets. Roughly, 60% of the marketing budget goes to
online media while 40% goes to offline media.
ePolicy’s diverse marketing arsenal includes:
--1. Alliances with companies like Intuit, Inc. to
market ePolicy via QuickBooks 2000 and QuickBooks Pro
2000, QuickBooks.com and the small business channel of
Quicken.com. (According to Intuit, more than 2 million
SOHOs use its QuickBooks product/service line.)
--2. Affiliations with associations, such as bar and
accounting organizations
--3. Direct interactive marketing into vertical markets,
including trade print advertising coupled with direct
mail/email to both lawyers and accountants
--4. Database marketing to an existing prospect list.
--5. And last, but not least, horizontal marketing to
the broad category of small business insurance buyers
“Only do [horizontal marketing] when you have enough
aggregation of vertical markets. That is, when it makes
economic sense,” said Nicholas A. Richardson, Vice
President of Product Marketing for ePolicy.com.
Our Take: ePolicy’s unique selling proposition lies in
simplifying a traditional application process that also
results in savings to the SOHO customer.
http://www.epolicy.com
http://www.intuit.com
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Terri Lonier
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-> Terri Lonier of SOHO Summit On How Smart Marketers
Target Small Biz Customers
Five-time book author, Terri Lonier, CEO of Working
Solo, Inc. and Founder of the SOHO Summit conference,
has been a SOHO entrepreneur for over twenty years.
We asked her which companies have the most successful
marketing techniques aimed at SOHO customers.
Says Lonier: “Bigstep.com is a good example because they
aren't just about site building. They actually help
small businesses serve their customers and increase
their profits, thus positioning themselves as an ‘engine
behind small business success.’"
“Bigstep knows that small businesses want to give [their
customers] a mechanism for providing them with feedback.
So Bigstep helps [SOHOs] create specialized newsletters,
conduct surveys, and build one-to-one relationships.
Small businesses intuitively understand this [concept]
because it's how they themselves respond as consumers,
but they haven't always been able to integrate it into
their own small businesses.”
“Another company that’s doing the same thing -- that is,
empowering its customers -- is Demandline.com,” Lonier
tells us. “Demandline acts as an aggregator of small
businesses, which allows them to leverage their buying
power to get discounts from big providers.”
EDITOR’S TAKE:
After talking to Terri, MarketingToSmallBiz.com checked
out these two companies on the Web to see exactly what
they were doing to attract and retain SOHO customers.
Bigstep.com targets a variety of customers, including
sole proprietorships, retail stores and nonprofits, by
offering most of its services for free. The site tour
quickly informs visitors of Bigstep's offerings: step-
by-step site-building tools, automated search engine
submissions, customer account database tools, etc. To
drive home its position as a small-business mentor,
Bigstep publishes a detailed chart comparing its fees
and services to such competitors as FreeMerchant,
eCongo, Yahoo! stores, and Microsoft bCentral.
Bigstep's self-promotion includes listing itself under
such service-oriented directory headings as ‘Web site
hosting’ and ‘online site builders’. Its hosting service
includes a subdomain variation on its own address, as in
‘mycompany.bigstep.com’. As a result, online searches
for its customers’ domain names also produce results for
Bigstep.com.
Bigstep's affiliate program is more generous than most.
It pays $3 for every visitor who clicks on a link placed
on an affiliate's site and then signs up for a free
ebusiness account. This encourages current customers to
spread the word through their own sites and builds
Bigstep's customer base at a lower cost than the typical
banner-ad CPM.
Eventually, Bigstep plans to offer more fee-based
services to offset the cost of its free ones. Media
buyers interested in reaching the SOHO market have a
banner placement opportunity at Bigstep.com.
Rather than provide site development and e-business
management tools, Demandline positions itself as a
business-service shopping mall based on the "reverse
auction" e-commerce model. Discounted services include
telecommunications, Internet, financial, shipping, human
resources, and sales support. These are all areas where
SOHOs want to cut costs.
Part of Demandline’s appeal lies in its pursuit of
branded service providers like AT&T, UUNET, and
Cardservice International. Demandline continues to
secure additional discounts and services for its small
business customers, then promotes these wins through
newsletters, product features, and marketing tips. The
site supports itself through sales commissions paid by
the different service providers.
Demandline rewards its affiliates slightly less than
Bigstep -- a $2 per head bounty compared to Bigstep's $3
on each newly registered customer. Demandline counters
with a $10 gift certificate for new affiliates.
Both sites rely on sweepstakes and contests to attract
site visitors and support its affiliate base. Bigstep
has its $5000.00 Business Builder Sweepstakes while
Demandline is giving away a Las Vegas vacation.
http://www.WorkingSolo.com
http://www.SoloSummit.com
http://www.BigStep.com
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JOBS
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-> ePolicy.com Seeks Director / VP Public Relations
ePolicy is expanding into an entire suite of insurance
products tailored for small business and professionals.
An aggressive public relations effort will be critical
to complement the targeted marketing efforts. The ideal
candidate has a proven track record as a senior PR
professional, experience in both trade and consumer
publications is a must, experience as a journalist is a
big plus. This executive will manage the exposure of the
company and of its key executives, as well as developing
ancillary PR events. careers@epolicy.com
-> Staples.com: Manager Global & Small Business Creative
Responsible for overall creative of catalogs,
collateral, direct mail, and related marketing
materials. Drive sales by developing creative for each
business unit, and remain current on all branding issues
and creative concepts for consistent image. Must have
degree in advertising, marketing or communication field
with 10+ years experience in interactive creative, and
extensive knowledge of print processes.
joanne.wagner@staples.com
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EVENTS
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-> SOHO Summit 2000
Where business leaders explore the small office/home
office market. - June 4-6, 2000
La Costa Resort and Spa - Carlsbad, CA
http://www.sohosummit.com/
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MarketingToSmallBiz.com INFO
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