Archive for small business marketing ideas
Are you wasting resources building your brand?
Posted by: | CommentsAs a small business marketing strategy consultant, I’m not a big fan of brand-building because it’s a huge waste of scarce resources. On top of that, you can achieve the same goal while making sales at the same time. Why wait for someone to need your product? Give them a reason to contact you now!
Even if you have a product or service that most people don’t immediately need (medical, legal, funeral, etc.), you can begin developing a relationship with them so when the need arises, they contact you because they feel they already know you!
How to Get More Customers
Posted by: | CommentsHow to Get More Customers
This is a must-see video for any business owner who’s asked the question how to get more customers. When you realize the million-dollar question is, “How do I make more money in my business?”
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Small Business Marketing Tips for Local Advertising
Posted by: | CommentsI’m going to guess that you’ve seen the local advertisers like Super Shopper, Reach Magazine and Val Pak. I’ve seen a lot of companies use them to generate a lot of new business.
The general weaknesses I’ve seen have more to to with the ad selection, layout and offer. Most business are unaware that there is a science to advertising. There are formulas to creating headlines, layout, copy and content.If you’ve read books such as Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins, How to Write Advertising that Sells by Clyde Bedell or Oglivy on Advertising by David Oglivy, you know what I’m writing about.
Unfortunately, few business owners are aware of this and, from what I’ve seen (at least locally) few of the local ad circular companies know about them either.
Local Advertising shouldn't be a guessing game
Open up a local circular and it can be like looking at a Grateful Dead album cover. They’re very colorful and visually appealing but trying to cut through the crap to see the core selling message can be a major challenge.
The other beef I have with them is that all the ads for similar businesses are virtually identical. Change the logo and address and they are interchangeable. When I ask a business owner why he or she runs the same ad as their competitor, the response is,” That’s what the rep recommended.”
Think about this. Even if your business is similar to others, do you say to clients, Buy from me because I’m identical to the guy or gal down the street?”
Of course not!
If that’s the case, why do people follow the leader like sheep when creating ads? Be different. Be bold! Be unique and stand out from the crowd. When you look at competitive ads, it’s not really that hard to do.
Want to stand out from the crowd and generate more sales from ads you ever thought possible? Then make a decision to put results ahead of creativity and use proven, scientific methods to creating ads. You will be amazed at the dramatic increases in response you can generate with truly good advertising.
Who’s running the business?
Posted by: | CommentsSmall business marketing tip - Get rid of problem employees.
One of the things that never ceases to surprise me is the number of small businesses owners who allow their growth to be limited, even determined by their employees. Small business marketing So many of them keep people around who don’t do their work, have rotten attitudes, destroy office morale or drive away clients.
I remember an employee of a client who told me that their clients either couldn’t afford or didn’t need a product we wanted to promote! When I asked how she knew the financial situation of 1,500 clients, she was unable to answer the question. I wrote a sales letter promoting this product and a large number of clients called in and bought it. Still, she won’t sell it.
I realize immediate termination is not always an option and the issues surrounding termination and unemployment are complex. However, if an employee is hurting your business, you really need to make plans to change their behavior. If that doesn’t work make plans to terminate and replace them. Doing so is a favor to you, your customers and the emplo0yee. If a person has a bad attitude or no motivation, the odds are that you will never change them.
Many talk about how indispensable certain employees are. When I hear that I remember a saying my dad told me, “The graveyards are full of indispensable people.” If you have allowed an employee to become “indispensable,” think about taking action to make sure they aren’t and that you will survive and thrive without them.
David Oglivy on Advertising
Posted by: | CommentsDavid Oglivy is an advertising legend. I consider his book “Oglivy on Advertising” to be one of the most important in my library. There are a lot of people in the advertising and marketing business that consider what he says about “Creative Advertising” to be heresy. I happen to agree with him.
Since I serve small businesses, I agree with his philosophy that ads should be direct response and generate a ROI and sales. Look at it this way, if your business was close to failing and you had two months to turn things around, would you try to be creative and build your brand or would you want your ad to generate immediate sales? Why wait for a creative brand-building campaign when you can have a creative brand-building campaign that makes you money today?
Small Business Marketing Tips – Are you contacting your customers?
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As a marketer, one of the things business owners say that continues to astound me is, “My customers don’t want to hear from us.”
I normally like to ask how they know this. Think about it… they never contact their customers but they somehow know the customers don’t want to hear from them. One of my niches is the independent insurance and large numbers of them seem terrified about contacting clients.
As part of my service, I conduct customer surveys for clients. I always ask those I’m surveying if it would be okay to contact them with updates, sales, new products or services they may be interested in. Over 90% of them say, “Sure!”
Why the big disparity? There are a couple of factors at work here. One is “Salesman syndrome,” which is having a negative image of themselves as a salesperson. Another thing is that it’s an excuse to avoid taking the time to do the work. Finally, it’s ignorance about the benefits of keeping in touch with clients.
The Direct Marketing Association did a study about this issue. They showed that for every month that passed without a company contacting a customer, there’s a 10% reduction in loyalty to the company. If you don’t contact your customers for 6 months, 60% of their loyalty is gone. Wait a year and they most likely could care less about your company!
That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? Let me go back to the business owners who tell me their clients don’t want to hear from them, they also tell me they have incredible client loyalty. Let’s add things up – No contact + no follow-up + no thank you notes + no special offers to clients + no email communications + no newsletter + no phone calls = client loyalty.
For some reason, the math doesn’t work for me and it won’t for you.
Social Media Marketing Introductions
Posted by: | CommentsSocial media marketing is here to stay. As I see it, it’s much more than a new way of “doing business.” There are a lot of opinions on the value of social media and if they are valuable business marketing tools. Like any other component of your marketing mix. Social media has it’s strong and weak points for use in marketing. In my opinion, the main drawback is the time I see people people devoting to it without a strategy behind it.
The reason behind this post is to rant a bit about one of my pet peeves and that is the way in which people introduce themselves, particularly on LinkedIn. I sort of feel that social media means “social,” which implies a bit of a relationship is being established. I get LinkedIn invitations with the standard “Paul, I’d like to add you to my network. – Bob”
Now that’s warm and personal! I’ve had people I knew several years ago give that introduction. What about, “Hi Paul, it’s been a while! Hope all is well since we worked together. Are you still doing xyz?”
It only takes a moment to be personal and social in social media. Don’t look at me like another name on your list. If that’s what it’s all about, then their is really no reason to have me in your network. Many will disagree with me and say quantity counts but I still look to the relationships.
Paul