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This incubator has developed and implemented
an effective incubator marketing plan. [View]
This incubator has implemented a wide range
of activities to raise public awareness, generate support
and recruit clients. [View]
This incubator showcases clients to the community
through its Web site, open houses, press releases and other
means. [View]
A marketing plan is more than a map. It’s a touchstone
for you, your staff, and your stakeholders, a statement of
what you believe your incubation program can achieve. It’s
a checklist of what needs to be done to attract more or better
clients, and new or stronger partners and sponsors. It’s
a snapshot of your incubation program’s potential at
a particular point in time, something you can look back on
to measure your progress and renew your commitment to improving
your incubation program.
Sounds a bit like a business plan, doesn’t it? It is
– and it isn’t. Your business plan describes the
overall goals and benchmarks for your incubation program.
The marketing plan supports your business plan as one way
to achieve particular business goals.
Just how elaborate your marketing plan gets is up to you.
Business incubator marketing plans range from one- or two-page
checklists to twenty-page documents packed with charts and
tables. It’s not important how long or detailed your
plan is; what matters is that you have a usable document that
outlines your marketing goals.
For example, Jasper Welch’s marketing plan for the
San Juan College Enterprise Center in Farmington, New Mexico,
is a list of fifteen marketing strategies, all in support
of the incubator’s overall goals: to “educate
the business, college and San Juan County communities about
the benefits and goals of the business incubation program
at the Enterprise Center and attract viable start-up companies
and quality emerging companies to the Enterprise Center.”
It makes for a short plan, Welch says, but it’s enough
for his needs – and it sets an example for clients.
“When companies come in and act all brain-dead about
marketing, I can whip this out and say, ‘At least do
this,’” he says. “It’s kind of hard
for us to preach the need to have a marketing plan if we don’t
have one. Even if it’s on a shoestring, at least we
have a plan.
Adapted from Colbert, Corinne, A Practical
Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA Publications,
2007, p. 27-28. The book covers conducting market research,
creating a marketing plan, marketing methods, and media relations;
it offers a CD filled with marketing materials created by
dozens of incubators from around the globe. All examples have
been vetted by NBIA staff. Designed specifically for incubator
managers, the Guide offers expertise by many top
professionals who have excelled at marketing tasks.
Most incubator marketing plans have elements in common:
- An executive summary (usually for longer and more
complex plans)
- A statement of the incubator’s overall business
goal or vision
- A description of the incubation program and its current
services
- A description of the overall market and the incubator’s
role in that market
- An analysis of what the incubator does well and where
it can improve
- A list of specific marketing goals and strategies
to achieve them
- A timeline of marketing activities, often with responsibilities
assigned
- An estimate of the expected costs associated with
each strategy or activity
- Some ways to measure the success of marketing activities
Adapted from Colbert, Corinne, A Practical
Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA Publications,
2007, p. 28.
For further information on marketing, see:
- Jackson, John Bradley. First, Best,
or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About
Niche Marketing, Dog Ear Publishing, 2006. Available
from the NBIA
Bookstore.
- Heath, Chip and Dan Heath. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, Random House, 2008. Available from the NBIA
Bookstore.
- MarketingSherpa.com
MarketingSherpa:
Practical Case Studies & Know-How
Articles, reports, job listings, events and other information
on marketing
- Entrepreneur.com
Marketing
Materials
Links to a number of articles about marketing
- About.com: Marketing
Do
Your Marketing Materials Sell?
Article about ensuring your marketing materials are effective
- TechCruch.com
Instant
Marketing Materials With BrandDoozie
Article about an online tool for designing marketing materials
- Marketing Resources, Ltd.
Tips and Articles
Links to a number of articles on marketing
- Inc.com
How to Advertise Your Small Business Online
Links to articles on marketing and advertising
[Back to top]
Good marketing can help keep your incubator full, and maintaining
a full incubator is the linchpin of a sustainable program.
“Success depends on keeping a steady flow of viable
clients into the incubator,” says Charles D’Agostino,
executive director of the Louisiana Business & Technology
Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Even when your incubator is full and you have a waiting list,
though, you still need to market the program. Marketing isn’t
just about clients. It’s about distinguishing your incubation
program from your competition, whether that competition comes
from other incubators or from other economic development initiatives
or commercial landlords. (Remember, you’re competing
not only for clients, but also for funding and other forms
of support.) Marketing is how you establish and maintain your
program’s reputation within the community. Through marketing,
you not only attract new clients, but also partners and sponsors
who can support and sustain your incubation program.
Good marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Some of
the most effective marketing methods are low- or no-cost options:
networking, cultivating relationships, using the Web and e-mail.
Remember: anything you do that puts your incubator, its achievements,
and its capabilities in front of an audience that can affect
the incubator — potential and current clients, stakeholders,
partners, the public — is marketing.
Of course, some marketing tasks do require money. But there
are many incubator managers who have leveraged their relationships
with partners and sponsors to cover part or all of the cost
of big-ticket items such as design, printing, advertising,
or catering for large events.
You don’t necessarily need a big staff to market effectively,
either. Members of your board of directors, partners and supporters,
and students from a nearby college or university all can help
you spread your message. “We’ve made it a part
of our policy that we hire interns [from nearby Southern New
Hampshire University] every semester” for marketing,
says Julie Gustafson, executive director of the Amoskeag Business
Incubator in Manchester, New Hampshire. She’s built
relationships with the university’s career development
department, as well as individual professors. “I have
two interns now just because teachers said, ‘I have
someone good for you,’” Gustafson says.
She also calls upon her board of directors, especially during
events held at the incubator. “I try to get the whole
board to attend events because I can only do so much,”
she says.
What marketing will cost you, however, is time. The incubator
managers interviewed for this book estimated that they spent
between 15 and 30 percent of their time in a given week on
marketing activities. That may seem like a lot, especially
when you’re overextended as it is. But you’re
probably already doing many of the same things these managers
are: writing and mailing press releases, speaking at Rotary
lunches, meeting with stakeholders.
While that’s a good start, truly effective marketing
requires thought and planning. “Shotgun marketing is
mistake I see a lot, where there’s no proper identification
of [who] the audience is,” says Evan Jones, director
of the @Wales Digital Media Initiative in Cardiff, Wales.
“It’s nice to see your ad in papers or hear about
your incubator on the radio, but [you have] to say, ‘How
many potential entrepreneurs are going to hear this? How many
are in digital media? How many are going to read our ad or
listen to it while turning right at a busy junction?’”
Excerpted from Colbert, Corinne,
A Practical Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA
Publications, 2007, pp. 1-2. This book, one of NBIA’s
newest publications, discusses how incubator managers have
conducted market research and developed marketing plans; it
also covers marketing methods and media relations. A CD that
accompanies the book provides more than 40 examples of real
incubator marketing products that have been vetted by NBIA,
including Web sites, brochures, advertisements, signage and
much more. In addition to discussing incubator branding, marketing
methods, advertising, direct mail, outreach, public relations,
publications and networking, the author covers many topics
such as harnessing the power of testimonials, tips for better
publicity photos, what to put on your Web site and much more.
Every year, the Advanced Technology Development
Center in Atlanta, Georgia, produces a T-shirt bearing the
names and logos of all current clients on the back, the ATDC
logo on the front, and the name and logo of the T-shirt sponsors
on the sleeve. “I want to get enough out there that
I’ll be at the grocery store and see somebody wearing
one,” says former General Manager Tony Antoniades.
Excerpted from Colbert, Corinne, A Practical Guide to
Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA Publications, 2007,
p. 30.
These twenty questions can help you get started on your incubator’s
marketing plan by encouraging you to see your program the
way your customers do. These questions focus on potential
clients, but can easily be altered to apply to partners, sponsors,
and stakeholders.
- Who is your most likely client?
- How is that potential client different from the general
population?
- What events trigger the need or desire for incubation services?
- When does this trigger occur? Can it be predicted?
- How does that potential client go about deciding whether
to enter an incubator?
- What are the potential client’s key decision factors?
- How do you compete with other service providers on these
factors?
- Are these differences known to the potential client?
- Are these differences meaningful to the potential client?
- How can your incubation program be exposed to your most
likely customers?
- What other noncompeting organizations share this target
market?
- How can you promote your incubation program to existing
clients?
- What other new services could you sell to existing clients?
- What is your competition doing to lure potential/current
clients away?
- What are other incubators doing to increase their client
base?
- What current nonsales-producing costs can be converted
into sales-producing investments?
- What can your partners or sponsors do to help you improve
your current services/awareness/occupancy?
- What emerging social economic or technological trends
can be turned into new client opportunities?
- What new markets could be served with a slight modification
of your current facilities and services?
- How can you make your incubation program easier to enter
or use?
Excerpted from Colbert, Corinne, A
Practical Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA
Publications, 2007, p. 30.
For further information
on marketing and public relations, see:
-
Phillips, Jim, “Web 2.0: Using new media to reach
tech-savvy entrepreneurs, NBIA Review, June 2008.
This article is available free to members in the NBIA Archives or as a PDF Quick Reference document
from the NBIA
Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
- Jackson, John Bradley. First, Best, or Different:
What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing,
Dog Ear Publishing, 2006.
- Tapscoff, Don and Williams, Anthony D. Wikinomics:
How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Portfolio,
a member of the Penguin Group USA, 2008.
- MarketingSherpa.com
MarketingSherpa:
Practical Case Studies & Know-How
Articles, reports, job listings, events and other information
on marketing
- Entrepreneur.com
Marketing
Materials
Links to a number of articles about marketing
- About.com: Marketing
Do
Your Marketing Materials Sell?
Article about ensuring your marketing materials are effective
- TechCrunch.com
Instant
Marketing Materials With BrandDoozie
Article about an online tool for designing marketing materials
- Marketing Resources, Ltd.
Tips and Articles
Links to a number of articles on marketing
- Inc.com
How to Advertise Your Small Business Online
Links to articles on marketing and advertising
[Back to top]
At minimum your incubator’s Web site should include:
- Your incubator’s history and mission statement
- High-quality photographs of your facility, both inside
and out
- A list of sponsors and partners
- Compelling information about your program’s
economic impacts, such as the number of jobs created, wages
paid to employees, etc.
- A list of your board of directors and/or advisors
- A list of client companies with links to their sites
- A schedule of upcoming events
- Complete contact information for the incubator, including
names and titles of primary staff members, phone and fax numbers,
e-mail addresses, and the incubator’s physical and mailing
addresses.
To make the most of your site, consider including:
- Incubator press releases
- Case studies about successful clients or graduates
- Your newsletter and/or brochure in downloadable format
- Links to news articles about your incubator, clients,
and graduates
- A video tour of your incubator facility
- Guidelines for application, including tips on preparing
a business plan and the actual forms potential clients must
complete and submit
- Links to relevant resources on business incorporation,
business planning, funding sources, regulatory agencies, etc.
Another possible use of a Web site is to create a clients-only
section accessible with assigned logins and passwords. A clients-only
section of your site could include:
- Specific incubator policies and procedures
- An internal directory with names and contact information
for all client companies
- Copies of your incubator logo for clients to include
in their own marketing materials
- Contact information for partners who offer low-or
no-cost services to incubator clients
- Business planning templates, tips, or software
- Forums where clients can exchange information and
share ideas
Excerpted from Colbert, Corinne,
A Practical Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA
Publications, 2007, pp. 63. This book, one of NBIA’s
newest publications, discusses how incubator managers have
conducted market research and developed marketing plans; it
also covers marketing methods and media relations. A CD that
accompanies the book provides more than 40 examples of real
incubator marketing products that have been vetted by NBIA,
including Web sites, brochures, advertisements, signage and
much more. In addition to discussing incubator branding, marketing
methods, advertising, direct mail, outreach, public relations,
publications and networking, the author covers many topics
such as harnessing the power of testimonials, tips for better
publicity photos, what to put on your Web site and much more.
In late 2005, Jan DeYoung, executive director of the St.
Louis Enterprise Centers in St. Louis, Missouri, met with
Ellen Sherberg, publisher of the St. Louis Business Journal,
about sponsoring NBIA’s 20th International Conference
on Business Incubation. In passing, DeYoung mentioned that
one of his incubation facilities was adding a shared-use kitchen
and that he already had clients for it, including DB Gourmet
Cookies, a company founded by three friends who first baked
cookies to raise money for college. Although established in
telecommunications careers, they re-formed the business not
only to sell cookies but also to offer entrepreneurship experiences
to children, who help with sales and production.
“Ellen said, ‘Oh, we’ve got to write about
them sometime,’” DeYoung says. “Bam, the
next day we had a call from a reporter.” Shortly thereafter,
the newspaper published a lengthy story about the incubator
and DB Gourmet Cookies, along with a color photograph of the
company’s founders. Other media outlets picked up the
story, including Sauce, a magazine devoted to regional restaurants
and cuisine.
“The phone just started ringing off the hook and we
started getting referrals,” DeYoung says.
Excerpted from Colbert, Corinne, A
Practical Guide to Business Incubator Marketing, NBIA
Publications, 2007, pp. 56-57.
For further information on marketing your
incubation program, see:
- Jackson, John Bradley. First, Best,
or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About
Niche Marketing, Dog Ear Publishing, 2006, pp. 149-159.
- Phillips, Jim, “Web 2.0: Using
new media to reach tech-savvy entrepreneurs, NBIA Review,
June 2008. This article is available free to members in
the NBIA Archives or as a PDF Quick Reference document
from the NBIA
Bookstore ($5/members; $10/nonmembers).
- Catalyst
Creating
an Effective Web Site
Article about how to clarify the goals of your Web site,
organize necessary information and implement consistent
layout
- SmartWebby
Web
Design Tips – Useful Tips for Effective Web Design
Suggestions for creating a professional, high-quality Web
site
[Back to top]
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