Viral Marketing Flourishes in Recession
August 6, 2009
Image by luc legay via Flickr
Many small businesses have cut their advertising budgets and put their marketing efforts on hold. Their satisfied customers, social networks, and happy business partners therefore become their main promoters. As this is the year of reinventing, recycling and repositioning for many small businesses, let’s think about the best ways to help the above mentioned groups spread the good word for your business.
- Give away information, products or services within target groups in your social network.
- Make it effortless for your best customers to provide information about you and your product (hand out business cards, promotional materials, etc.)
- Offer products and services that can easily fit the needs of different companies – from small to very large.
- Understand common motivations and behaviors – find common needs – create mutually beneficial partnerships.
- Utilize your existing social networks, become a “go to person” on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as well as in your local Chamber of Commerce.
- Take advantage of other people’s networks to gain exposure for your products and services.
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Small Businesses Can Also Experience Rebirth
July 31, 2009
Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and coauthor of Built to Last, now tells us why even great companies can fail and how some survive and thrive after coming close to disaster.
In his new book, How the Mighty Fall,
Collins offers leaders the hope that they reverse their course when they are failing. He says every institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline. Any of them can fail and most eventually do. But some companies recover and become stronger.
Collins gives these stages of decline.
Stage 1.Complacency – know why specific things are a success and under what conditions they will no longer work. Good leaders realize that luck has played a role in their success and don’t become convinced that they personally were responsible for it.
Stage 2. Undisciplined pursuit of more. Do not neglect negative data and put a positive spin on ambiguous factors.
Stage 4. Grasping for salvation – lurching into a new area or product rather than getting back to the discipline that brought success in the first place.
Stage 5. Capitulation to irrelevance or death. The longer a company grasps for silver bullets, the more likely it is that it will continue the downward spiral.
To survive and thrive, companies need to listen to customers in an unemotional way. They should tune in to the customer experience. As long as they can avoid getting entirely knocked out of the game, hope remains.
How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In, by Jim Collins, published by Jim Collins, 240 pages,
12 Rules for Being a Great Marketer
April 8, 2009
I found a great post by Steve Tobak on the BNET site. Here’s what he tells us:
12 Rules for Being a Great Marketer (Part I, Rules 1 – 6)
- Sales is your friend. The whole “natural tension between sales and marketing” thing is a dysfunctional crock. Sales owns the customer relationship. As a marketer, one of your key functions is to facilitate sales’ ability to sell your products. You need each other and your goals can and should be aligned.
- Be patient with your boss and peers. Not coincidentally, strong leaders and managers often tend to be controlling individuals. That means they can become easily frustrated with things they don’t understand, i.e. marketing. Be patient and pay attention to their feedback.
- Remember, you have way more customers than you think. The executive staff, your peers, product development, manufacturing, sales, finance, HR, employee communications, they’re all stakeholders in the marketing function. Treat them as such.
- Bond with the development and product people. This goes way beyond educating and teaching. These are very smart people with a strong, vested interest in what you plan to do with their product. Bond with them, listen to them, understand their issues and concerns, make them partners in your “process;” it’ll pay off big-time.
- Teach, teach, teach. Successful marketers are strong communicators and educators. Spend as much time teaching and educating internally as you do networking and meeting with customers externally. Again, it’ll pay off.
- Measure and communicate results. The biggest slam on marketing is that it’s an expense black hole with no metrics to measure results. Be disciplined. Spend 10 percent of your budget on metrics for key programs and take the time to communicate results – both good and bad – to stakeholders. Do it.
How Should You Improve Your Web Presence in 2009?
March 25, 2009
Static websites are out. Make sure your website is interactive to keep visitors coming back. Small businesses need to improve their online marketing efforts to ensure their websites meet visitors’ needs and expectations.
Add customer reviews, feedback and testimonials. If you are selling products online, provide customers the ability to provide product ratings and reviews. It enhances the user experience and gives prospective buyers the confidence to buy as well as leads to customer loyalty. So, if a customer was happy with their purchase from your online store, make sure you add feedback to your website.
E-newsletter: An e-newsletter is a must-have tool that makes it easy and cost effective to communicate with a mass audience. First, make sure you have a content rich e-newsletter. Make sure you are promoting it. Add an e-newsletter sign-up form to your home page and give visitors proper incentive to subscribe. If you don’t have a large email list yet, no worries. Add a forwarding feature to the newsletter so your subscribers can forward your newsletter to their friends, and colleagues.
RSS feeds: Forrester Research, in its “RSS 101 for Marketers” report, said, “RSS is a powerful tool that marketers should test and deploy to proactively maintain relationships with their customers.”
RSS is a technology that enables users to “subscribe” to content from websites without providing an email address. When the content is updated, users automatically get notified and their “RSS Reader” pulls this content directly from the source. Since the content is pulled instead of “pushed”, marketers don’t have to worry about their message being caught in spam filters.
Have a blog on your website? Integrating multiple RSS feeds into your website allows visitors to read the content that’s most important to them.
SEO is making its way into marketing plans and budgets. By focusing on SEO, businesses have the potential to increase their position in search engines, increase traffic to their websites, and as a result, drive revenue. Begin your SEO efforts by ensuring that all of your web site content is optimized with the keywords your prospective customers will use to find you. Relevant content is the key to achieving higher rankings in search engines. Don’t know which key words are right for your business or how to begin optimizing your content. Use Wordtracker.
Consistent message throughout your web content: Websites need to be updated with new content regularly to keep customers coming back. Focus on message consistency. Make the message in your email campaign cohesive with the message on your website. All forms of communication including your website, e-newsletter, collateral and advertising should consistently deliver the same message in order to maximize the potential of your marketing efforts.
What Can Small Business Owners Learn From Obama
January 20, 2009
1. Leadership skills – he put together a great team for his campaign and motivated his people all the way.
2. Never give up, believe in yourself, even if you have no reason to do so, polls did not always predict Obama as a winner.
3. Presentation skills – Obama is one of the most eloquent and self-confident speakers I have ever seen. Practice!
4. Social media marketing – get away from ads to building online communities, just like Obama did.
5. Viral marketing – get everyone talking and singing about you. Where are you now, Obama girl?
6. If you can’t get to young consumers otherwise, send them a text message or an email- speak their “love language”.
7. Go to gym and play some ball – relieve your stress, basketball plays big part in Obama’s life.
8. Buy some nice clothes and look sharp – I loved Obama’s suit on election night!
9. Supportive spouse or partner is always a blessing – keep your spouse and partner happy. Have you noticed the smile on Michelle Obama’s face?
10. Humble beginnings don’t always mean humble lives – with hard work, passion and dedication small business owners can beat the odds, just like Obama did.
Father of Accounting
December 29, 2008
Well, bookkeeping can be inspiring…..Let’s talk about numbers before 2008 ends…Henry Ford is often looked up to as the father of mass production; doctors have their Hippocrates, and philosophers have Plato. But who is the father of accounting?For a long time, accountants did not recognize the name of Luca Pacioli although about the same time Columbus was discovering America, Luca was writing the directions for double-entry bookkeeping. Pacioli was the first person to describe double-entry accounting, also known as the Venetian method. This new system was then state of the art, it revolutionized economy and business. Pacioli’s directions became the most widely read mathematical work in all of Italy, and his work was one of the first books published on the Gutenberg press.
The fact that his book “Summa de Arithmetic, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita” was illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, added needed credibility. (Where is Leonardo now when I am planning to write a book?)
Small Business Lessons Learned in 2008
December 28, 2008
1. Not very profitable, but time – consuming demanding customers tend to refer prospects and customers who reflect their style and values.
2. Customers who value you and what you do are the best referral sources.
3. Set boundaries for your customers from the outset, tell them “This is how we work…”, otherwise they will create their own boundaries.
4. Pay attention when your prospect complains about being treated badly by the rest of the world including partners, vendors, consultants and former customers – you may become the next entrepreneur they will complain about.
5. If you are a coach or consultant, try to avoid customers who have never worked with a consultant, unless they show sure signs of their willingness to learn and implement new things.
6. Social networking is important, but prioritize – plan your activities and their frequency, otherwise social networking becomes a burden.
7. Get to know your associates, subcontractors and business partners before you commit to long-term projects – mavericks may be crucial to changing this world, but they may not always contribute to helping you achieve your goals.
8. Become a frequently improving, always up-to-date resource for other small business owners and your customers.
9. Reward your best customers, subcontractors and business partners.
10. If you are very driven, results oriented, nimble and forward looking – don’t take on customers who are not.I am sure that 2009 will be a year of re-evaluation, reinvention, recycling and repurposing as we all try to find smarter cost-effective ways of living and conducting business. Will small business owners see a light in the end of a tunnel in 2009?
Small Business Advice, Found at Barnes and Noble
December 22, 2008
Our family likes to hang out at Barnes and Noble. I am happy my kids still prefer books to video games. Today we stopped at our favorite hangout again. While my husband and kids enjoyed delicious hot chocolate and cookies, I checked out some business books I had not seen before, including Small Business Bible: Second Edition by Steven D. Strauss.
Marketing to small business owners differs from marketing to non-profit organizations, but here it was, black on white, the list of suggestions to keep in mind when dealing with small business owners:
Small business owners buy when the pains get too great to bear.
You have to put your product or services in front of the owner again and again – when the time of pain comes – you will be the one he/she remembers.
Small business owners don’t want to be bothered – so get down to business and benefits.
Small busineess owners don’t want to be sold, therefore your job is to educate them, without a heavy hand. Lead them to the water – when they are ready, they will drink form your well.
Time and money are huge considerations – explain how your product and service saves time and money as well as makes your prospect’s life easier.
Small business owners dream of reducing the risk. Show them that your product or service carries little risk.
Small Business is Always In a Marketing Wheel
December 1, 2008
I was recently asked to explain the concept of “marketing wheel”. I had to stop and think. For a moment, I thought of a steering wheel that helps entrepreneurs stay on course, but then remembered that there was no need to “reinvent the wheel”, there is a term like “marketing wheel”. I prefer to call it a “marketing loop” instead as it seems to be a never-ending process.
First, discover and get to know your ideal customer and your marketing environment.
Secondly, customize your product or service to address your ideal customer’s needs without forgetting your marketing environment. Don’t forget to observe and learn from your competition!
Then you create marketing messages that grab attention, motivate and move your ideal prospects towards making a purchase. This phase can be longer than expected and some “fish” that take your bait need to be thrown back into the water…
Close the sale, but don’t stop there. Customer service starts at this point. If you do it right, the initial sale may lead into repeat business and referrals.
Talk to your customers to find out what they need and want. Use your findings to improve your products and services as well as marketing messages.
Then do the same thing over and over…..Welcome to the Small Business Marketing Loop!
Dont’ become a victim of Wheel of Marketing Misfortune.
Improve Your Sales and Marketing Skills
November 17, 2008
In tough economic times, customers may be feeling more pain than you know. They want to feel better, and you can help. Show how your product or service can solve a problem or improve their bottom line.
* Making more money for yourself should not be your goal. Making yourself the best you can be is a better choice.
* Be happy even when you can’t get an appointment or close the sale. Dr. G. Clotaire Rapaille, consultant to 50 of the top Fortune 100 companies, says rejection allows the game to continue. Send a gift to the one who turned you down and you will be remembered.
* Prepare. Know what your prospect will say and what your response will be. Study your prospects and their operation so you know the answers.
* Speak in a natural conversational way. If you memorize a script, you may come across as dull. Be prepared, and you will be able to improvise on the spot.
* Make a connection if there is an opportunity. Master small talk.
* Know that sales are not entirely based on the logic and intelligence of the prospect.
* Believe in the benefits your product or service will provide. Think of what the product or service will do and love it.
Best salespeople I know are all good communicators, they love people and know how to handle rejection.
