Deluxe's Project Rev will help small business owners
SHOREVIEW, Minn. -- Shoreview-based Deluxe Corporation prints checks, but it also provides products and services to four million small business customers. It's newest campaign, Project REV, is a marketing lab for small businesses.
""Eighty-percent of small businesses struggle to find marketing that works for them," says Deluxe Vice President of Brand, Laura Radewald.
To address that issue, Deluxe offered up an opportunity for a year long mentorship with Deluxe plus $5000 in marketing support, and a way for those businesses to measure and share their results with other businesses through a website, Project REV.
Each business owner is also matched up with a counselor from SCORE, an organization of volunteer business experts who offer advice to small businesses nationwide.
Deluxe selected nine businesses out of 400 that applied for the opportunity.
"We were looking for high-potential small businesses," says Radewald, who adds the businesses represent a wide range of products and services, from a wide geographic area.
Edina-based w.b. Builders is the only local company to make the cut.
"All of these small businesses were able to articulate their struggles with marketing," says Radewald.
Those struggles can be considerable. A Deluxe survey found nearly a quarter of the small businesses asked questioned the effectiveness of marketing.
"Marketing is the way that you present your business to the world," says Radewald. "And today, marketing entails having a professional looking website, being found online, engaging in those things in email marketing, and doing it all in digital speed."
Radewald says good marketing is also grounded in knowing what you want the marketing to do for your business,
"Are you looking for leads, are you looking for new customers, are you looking to retain your customers?" says Radewald.
All of these will be addressed over the course of the year on Project REV, which includes videos and blogs by the nine businesses owners who are being mentored, as well as discussion from the online community.
You can follow the project online at Project REV.
(Copyright 2010 by KARE. All rights reserved.)