Wait a minute!

If you’re in business, then those may not be relaxing thoughts at all! It’s time to do something about growing your business!

Unless you’re in a tourist industry (in which case you need marketing ideas fast) or other seasonal business, summertime may be a slower time of year. Customers, clients and prospects are more inclined to be on vacation, and that can make it harder to get results with your marketing.

So how can you use the slower season to your advantage? Here are several ways you can use right away!

1. Develop Your Content Marketing Plan

I’ve said it for years. On the web, content is king. Regardless of any search engine “tricks of the trade” you (or your web designers) may have employed, none of them will have any significant long-term effect if you don’t have good quality content.

But having the right content strategy is even more valuable now than ever before.

Why?

2 words: social media.

In a time when Facebook fans are being shown to spend hundreds of dollars more per year than non-fans, it seems awfully attractive to “get some fans.”

But you won’t… not without highly focused content.

Developing a solid content marketing strategy takes time and energy… even if you’ve got someone else to implement it. More importantly, however, it can take some time to get results — particularly if you’re just getting started or if you’ve neglected this for a while. So there’s no time like the present to get started!

2. Revisit Your Contacts Database

If you’re old school, this means whip out the Rolodex and go back through it. Here’s what you’re looking for:

• Potential Joint Venture or Referral Partners: Separate out the non-competitive contacts who serve the same market you serve, or for whom there is significant overlap. For each one, write down 2-3 possible ways that you could each cooperatively reach out to your existing relationships with an offer for the products/services of the other. Teaming up gives you the ability to share resources and gain new prospects at very low cost.
• Customers You Haven’t Heard from In a While: You’re looking for people who used to buy from you, but who dropped off the face of the earth. Set aside an hour or two a week to reach out to them. If they’re local, take ‘em to Starbucks or to lunch. If not, set phone appointments. Find out what’s changing in their world. Your goal here is to listen, not to try to win back their business. This is one of the most valuable exercises any business can engage in since the changing needs and wants of a given customer can be a big clue about what needs to be changed in your business. Maybe a new product or service needs could be rolled out that’s a better match for their needs. Perhaps your message is missing the mark. You won’t know until you listen!
• Happy Customers: Find the people you’ve done a “bang up” job with and reach out to them. Find out: why they bought from you, what thrilled them about your product or service, and who they know that needs what they got from you. After you’ve heard them tell you in their own words about their experience, ask if they’d mind if you write down what you heard them say and post it on your website, Facebook, YouTube, etc. after they approve it. Even better: get a photo (or video… keep reading!) to add authenticity and credibility to their words.

3. Acquire a New Skill

Marketing is a continuous process. It happens all the time in your business whether you want it to or not. Proactively getting the right message out in today’s world involves using some skills you may not have need in a while (or ever before!). Here are some of the most valuable skills you can acquire right now — either by learning them yourself, sending a team member for some training, or hiring someone who has one or more of them:

• Writing better copy. We all need marketing copy all the time. Your Facebook posts, Tweets, blog posts, postcards, in-store promotions, e-mail, newspaper ads, radio spots… whatever you’re doing to reach out… they need to effectively communicate and compel the right people to take action.
• Simple video production. Using video on your website, Facebook posts, or even on YouTube can pack a substantial punch in terms of communicating quickly and powerfully with prospects and customers. Here’s a tip: grab an inexpensive digital device like this Flip UltraHD Camcorder that makes creating and uploading videos a snap! You can get great results even if you’re shaking like a cold Chihuahua when you show up at a customer’s location and shoot.
• Actually using Social Media as a marketer. It’s one thing to share pictures of the kids (or grandkids… you know who you are!) and “like” the latest funny video posted by your friends. It’s another thing to roll out an engaging stream of content from your business fan page or Twitter account that measurably produces new sales.

Incidentally… while I hope that the thoughts here have been useful to you, we’ve got a valuable webinar coming up next week that I’d like to invite you to. If you’re an e-mail subscriber, you’ll get your personal invitation automatically. If not, sign up here and get a free download in the process! It’ll be worth your while… I guarantee it!

Waste of Time?

Should employees be permitted to use Facebook or Twitter on the job?

The typical reaction from owners & managers is some flavor of: “What a waste of time!” And while I’m the first one to agree that there are zillions of ways to waste time online, here are some factors worth considering.

Productivity

How productive are you and your team? This is typically cited as the top consideration for employers creating policies about Facebook and other social media activities.

But in the interest of solving real productivity problems, a far bigger loss of productivity may be the culture of interruptions in your workplace. Are your employees fair game to be interrupted at any point in time by superiors? It may be time to consider the cost. This New York Times piece reveals some interesting tidbits:

• the average workplace interruption takes nearly 30 minutes to recover from
• interruptions now account for 28 percent of workers’ time (and therefore salary!)
• routine interruptions, coupled with constant time pressure, lead to frustration, stress and loss of morale

Compare this to Facebook and other forms of “workplace internet leisure browsing,” and you find that people who use the internet for personal reasons at work are about 9 percent more productive than those who do not.

Counter intuitive? Perhaps… but when you consider that people often use leisure browsing and social media to help them effectively take a break and regain focus, it starts to make more sense.

Oppressive Restrictions

The workplace can be stressful enough without feeling boxed in by hard-line policies that are clear meant to serve the organization and not the individual within it. Yet 54 percent of companies ban workers from using social media sites at work.

Before you jump on the bandwagon, consider the cost:

How will this policy be enforced?

Using technology to block access to sites? What about mobile devices? Facebook and Twitter are being accessed from mobile devices and via text messaging more than ever before?

Plan to “friend” or “follow” your employees? You could find yourself getting sued.

How’s your marketing?

Properly empowered and trained employees may be one of your company’s biggest assets in helping engage your prospects and customers. After all, do you have a person or department focused on brand management? We’ve pointed out in the past that social media is the new word of mouth. And since appropriate places to spend your marketing budget (you do have one of those, right?) are rapidly disappearing, it’s time to be effective with social media.

Frustrated employees faced with stress and dropping morale can rapidly do more harm to your business with their social media posts (during work hours or otherwise) than you can imagine. And faster than you can imagine.

What to do?

Develop a Policy and a Process

My recommendation: build a clearly-articulated, concise strategy that authentically empowers your team to help spread the appropriate message(s) about your company while permitting them to use social media sites. There is no “one size fits all” for every business, of course. But my conclusion is that you will not actually be able to stop people from using social media at work, and efforts to do so will backfire sooner or later.

Should everyone have carte blanche to abandon their work and surf the web? Of course not. But the most effective businesses are measuring (and rewarding) output rather than activity anyway.

It takes some strategy, but your business can build a policy that creates a big win for all involved. It’s time to take action.

Free Webinar - Improve Morale & Profitability: 5 Proven Methods You Can Use Right Away

Incidentally, a colleague of mine is presenting a fantastic webinar tonight: “Improve Morale & Profitability: 5 Proven Methods You Can Use Right Away.” Patrice Say & her business partner, Joe Bettley, have a fantastic operation that improves business performance in a variety of ways. I highly recommend tonight’s event to you. Reserve your spot here — do it even if you’re not sure you can make it… it will be recorded.

In the meantime… what kind of policies do you have about social media? How are they working? Leave a comment here to discuss!

Hoping for Business?

Getting fans and followers is awfully trendy right now. But if you’re like many small business people, you’re probably saying, “Yeah… but does it increase sales?”

Our clients and trainees have known for some time that it’s possible to grow your business with social media because, when approached strategically, it comes in line with one of our cardinal principles in modern-day marketing:

“He or she who engages, wins.”

Thankfully, the folks at Harvard Business Review agree with the results our real-world clients are getting. (I always like it when the academics are there to validate my numbers, don’t you?) In all seriousness, I have great respect for real scientific testing. It’s why we use it and train people to use it.

To arrive at their conclusion, the good folks at Harvard set up a Facebook fan page for a Houston, Texas café and bakery known as Dessert Gallery. The popular chain did not have a Facebook presence prior to the study. The propeller-heads at Harvard did a good job of making sure their data would be statistically valid and emailed the company’s database of approximately 13,000 customers.

Here are the Cliff’s notes of the results after 3 months of updating the Facebook fan page several times weekly. (H/T: Dr. Jeff Cornwall) Of all the customers of Dessert Gallery (DG), those who became fans on Facebook:

• Made 36 percent more visits to DG’s stores each month.
• Spent 45 percent more of their eating-out dollars at DG.
• Spent 33 percent more at DG’s stores.
• Had 14 percent higher emotional attachment to the DG brand.
• Had 41 percent greater psychological loyalty toward DG.

Clearly, if you’re in a small business that has any kind of retail presence like Dessert Gallery, you’ve got to be jumping up and down for joy.

Every business is different, of course. And… as I regularly point out to clients and students, having a fan page or Twitter account and using it strategically are 2 completely separate issues!

The bottom line: it’s time to engage with social media. We’ve been saying it for over a year now. We’ve been seeing significant ROI for even longer.

What is the True Cost?

Those who tell you that Facebook and Twitter are low cost marketing media are both right and and wrong at the same time. ROI from these activities is measured less in hard cash outlay and more in soft costs like employee time, learning curve, opportunity cost, etc.

But the fact of the matter is that in this day and age, the options for where to spend your marketing budget are quickly dwindling. And simultaneously, businesses in many industries (whether you sell to other businesses or to consumers) are facing a stronger-than-ever need to have sustainable marketing strategies that

• consistently produce new leads and/or customers,
• encourage stronger sell-through to existing customers (where applicable), and
• can be started with minimal investment of time and money.

Our focus, as a marketing consultancy that also offers lower-cost training to businesses who may not be able to afford (or be willing to invest in) our services, has been to shorten the learning curve and help businesses ramp up quickly. The goal once everything’s in place? 10 minutes per day with the right social media and the right strategy.

Get started here.

Or… join us for our webinar Tuesday, March 23rd at 1PM Eastern. We’ll be telling the story of a business owner who is experiencing dramatic results right now. We’ll also dissect what she’s doing and show you how to do the same! There are still a few slots left at this late hour, so RSVP right away!

What can you do to sustainably reach out?

You know it… and I know it. Offline marketing the way you’ve always done it doesn’t work. (Stick with me for a video clip about what is working.)

Direct mail response is down. Your hometown newspaper is quickly becoming your hometown leaflet. I’m willing to wager that more copies of your local yellow pages hit the recycling bin the day they got delivered than ever before. (And the ones that didn’t get recycled that day are proudly being used as doorstops — if they’re heavy enough!)

Most trade shows are ghost towns… and the ones that aren’t have attendees instead of buyers. Magazines and other print media have a little life left in them — especially when they’re highly niched.

So you’re in a small business. Either you own the business, or you’re responsible for marketing. It seems like you’ve barely had time to catch your breath. (Maybe you haven’t!)

What the heck are you going to do to find new prospects and customers?

How To Get Sustainable Marketing Results in Your Small Business

Recently a small business owner approached me. Nearly 2 decades ago, Becki bought an already successful florist shop from its original owner. She’s hard-working, professional, and full of ingenuity. She was referred by her hometown web designer. They had built her a functional and visually-appealing website almost 10 years ago, which they’d overhauled once since then. Every day Becki and her crew get new orders from their website.

But like you, Becki wasn’t satisfied with her results.

She was nowhere to be found in Google for the most important searches. Actually, using one of the tools in our bag of tricks, I found her site on page 112. Needless to say: no traffic from Google.

But Becki had already figured out that while she needed to solve that problem quickly, even that wasn’t going to be enough. She was astute enough to know that customers demand interaction — something that is prohibitively difficult in offline media and nearly so in most traditional websites. She recognized that she needed a Facebook presence.

Since a substantial percentage (I’m not going to share the numbers here just to protect her private business information) of her business revolved around weddings, she recognized that brides — especially the twenty-somethings — are using Facebook.

In short, here were the problems she faced:

• She needed to improve her Google rankings
• She needed to put her business on Facebook
• And perhaps most importantly… she needed a strategy and a plan to know what to do with everything to achieve sustainable ongoing results

After I met with Becki, I outlined a simple 3-step plan that would solve all of the above challenges and more. Within 2 weeks after we started working with her, her website was on page 2 of Google. We built out her Facebook presence, and she quickly began gathering fans.

Her ongoing maintenance strategy requires just minutes per week. Some weeks they even skip it completely (not something I recommend).

Just a few months later, Becki’s shop has 315 fans on Facebook. She’s received thousands of new visitors to her websites, and countless phone calls.

But Here’s the Kicker… Her Sales Have Multiplied

Becki told me yesterday that by the end of this month, she will have processed as many orders in the first 3 months of this year as she did in all of last year. Here’s what she had to say:

You can hear her whole story in a free webinar on Thursday, March 18th at 9PM US Eastern Time. Space is limited! Reserve your spot here right now. I’ll show you exactly how to do what she did!

Now… you may be saying, “I don’t sell products online.” No problem. At the very least, you can get your phone to ring (just like Becki did)… or whatever it is that you need people to do to get into your sales process.

Don’t wait! Register now even if you’re not sure you can make it. Talk to you soon!

Whoops... I Goofed.

Today I had to eat some crow.

And I know you’ve been there too, so you know it just isn’t any fun. But I had to apologize today to thousands of people for completely dropping the ball.

In hindsight, it all seems very simple. People we’ve met through webinars we’ve done, relationships we’ve built, perhaps even those who have visited this very blog… they were all supposed to be getting our content via e-mail.

As it turns out, it simply wasn’t happening. We were building huge databases of people who should’ve been hearing from us… and they were getting absolutely nothing.

As you might imagine, it’s embarrassing for this to happen to someone whose business is built around helping other people develop communication strategies.

“Deliver value! Consistently! Develop a plan to stay in touch, and implement it!”

And while we certainly have been doing that… there were huge gaps in our business where it just wasn’t happening.

So… today, I have owned up to it, taken responsibility, and apologized. And we’re fixing the business processes that weren’t working properly so that it won’t happen again.

Perhaps you got an e-mail from me. If so, thanks for visiting here. I’m looking forward to having you join us for that exclusive webinar I told you about. If you feel the need to tell me how terrible it is that we goofed up, please leave a comment. I don’t delete even the negative ones (unless you’re just a spammer). Of course, all responses are welcomed.

If you’re here and you aren’t receiving e-mails from me… well, then I encourage you to sign up today. Not only will you receive valuable information on how to grow your business in this (or any!) economy, but I’ll also make sure you’re invited to our next private webinar.

5. Make ‘Em an Offer They Can’t Refuse

In the spirit of Don Corleone (and with your best hoarse Godfather voice) think about what motivates — no, drives — them… then give ‘em something to do.

Discounts are good, but remember #4 (you gotta pass the “So What!” test). In this economic climate, your discount offer may be a bit more interesting than usual, but even then… really don’t be boring. Irresistibility counts.

Free information is good, as long as it helps them solve their biggest problems. A free trial, free sample, money-back guarantee, free report, “hidden secret,” or something else useful and interesting is key here.

Regardless of the substance of your offer, don’t make the mistake of skipping your close. You know what I’m talking about… you’ve either done it or seen it. A salesperson has a great presentation, then wimps out and doesn’t ask for the business.

In your marketing, your clear call to action needs to be (or seem) irresistible to the right person. It’s your job to know who they are and what they want (notice, I didn’t say, “what they need!”). But when you know it, think up a way to craft an offer that they simply must respond to.

For many small businesses, this means getting creative. Regardless of whether you can or should offer a discount, you can create something useful for them.

One of the more memorable examples of all time was the “Secret of the Golden Box” campaign used by Columbia Record Club when they were testing out television. The campaign was created by legendary direct marketer Lester Wunderman. He knew that just “creating awareness” or “improving brand recognition” wouldn’t maximize the return on investment for the expensive medium of television. So… he told the viewers (usually late at night when the ads were cheaper and the right audience was watching) that Columbia Record Club would send them any album of their choice from the Columbia catalog if they could find the “gold box” on the ad in Parade or TV Guide.

Who was Columbia looking for? Music addicts. What would be irresistible to a music addict? A free hit, of course.

You too can craft irresistible offers tailor-made for your ideal customers. Is it easy? No. If it were easy you would’ve done it by now. Your competition would have done it, too.

But it’s highly effective.

Now go get busy.

Clients are now asking about social media more than ever before, particularly as we help them develop comprehensive marketing and communications strategies that they in turn get busy implementing. In my opinion, the number of businesses who should not be using social media is rapidly diminishing. If you own a small business, if you are a salesperson, or if you in any way are responsible (or rewarded) for bringing customers or revenue into the company you work for, then you need to have a social media strategy.

No one has said it better than the creator of this video:

For help developing your 21st Century Marketing Strategy, or to find out more about our low cost, high ROI training programs, contact us today. You’ll be glad you did.

Free Webinar: How To Dominate Your Marketplace Using Social Media

UPDATE: Join us for a free webinar Thursday, September 10th at 9PM Eastern.

Guerrilla Social Media Strategies for the Small Business and Sales Professional

Trying to make sense of Twitter? Befuddled by Facebook? Not sure where to start?

In this informative 90-minute webinar, David G. Johnson will be talking about how to decide which social networks make the most sense for your business, how to get started, and how to ensure that your precious time and resources aren’t wasted.

Whether you’re an experienced social networker or not even sure whether to stick your toe in the waters, you can’t afford to miss this valuable educational event!

In addition to lots of great instruction, there will be a Q&A session at the end which allow you to get your questions answered by the expert!

Space is limited.
Reserve your spot here.
David G. Johnson is the founder of Epiphany Marketing, LLC and has been helping businesspeople just like you establish highly profitable, cost-effective marketing strategies that leverage technology for the past 11 years.

Bored Customer

Pass The “So What!” Test

One of the biggest contributing factors to the dismal results that small business marketing tends to get has to do with the value and sequence of your content. Again… it doesn’t matter what medium you’re using (direct mail, e-mail, print, radio, TV, etc.), your customers simply don’t care until you catch their attention and answer their question, “What’s In It For Me?!”

So… to get practical right away: Put all your best benefits right up front. You managed to get their attention with a bold promise written directly to them about them in your headline. Now keep it up.

It’s your job to prove to them that they should continue to pay attention.

Some people think you should “save the best for last” and give ‘em some great stuff at the end of your ad. The only problem with this is that the vast majority of people will never make it to the end. They already said, “so what!” and moved on.

Pretend that the reader/listener/viewer of your ad is a 5th-grader with ADD/ADHD whose Mom forgot to give ‘em their Ritalin today. This forces you to keep their attention. I’m not saying you should treat them as though they’re ignorant (or worse: stupid!), but just assume they have as much to do today as you do.

But That Takes Work!

Yes it does. This means that you need to sit down and focus your efforts on knowing enough about your prospects and customers to really understand what they care about. (Hint: there’s most likely difference between what you think they care about and what they really do, in fact, care about.)

It also means that you need to invest the energy into categorizing, prioritizing, and re-phrasing the benefits of your product or service until you’ve found a way to push the top benefits out in front of your audience first and foremost.

Remember: marketing (even in the “conversation” of Web 2.0) is largely a “broadcast” art & science. This means that you can’t pretend to be a lawyer making an argument in front of a jury and try to finish with the big key point at the end. The lawyer has the advantage of seeing the whites of the eyes of the jury and gauging their reactions and adjusting accordingly. You must come right out and play your Ace right up front.

Bottom Line: Don’t be boring. You can’t afford it.

Up next in this series, we’ll be taking a lesson from Don Corleone. Subscribe right now so you’ll get it first… and get yourself a free gift!

Hey You!

3. Write From “Me” to “You”

I have a shocking revelation for you: Your future customers don’t care about you.

That’s right. I said it. I’ll say it again.

They don’t care about you.

Why, then, is so much of our marketing material all about us?

When we put it so bluntly as this, it seems so obvious. But somehow we get stupid when it’s time to create the ad, write the e-mail, or put the content together for the website. And we make a massive blunder: we make it all about us.

Your audience only cares about themselves. They’re incredibly selfish. But who can blame them? They’re busy. They have things to think about. Stuff to do. If you don’t answer the question right off the bat:

What’s in it for me?

…you’ll lose ‘em faster than a 2-year-old watching C-SPAN.

So… one way you do it is talk to them about them. Put a picture of your best customer in front of you (a person, not a company) and write to them as if he or she were the only human being on the planet.

This means you use a lot of words like

• you,
• your, and
• yours,

and not much of

• we,
• us,
• ours,
• they,
• them, or
• theirs.

What About Writing in the 3rd Person?

If there’s a faster way to put an audience to sleep, I’m not sure what it is. So… just for the record: don’t do it.

Now of course there are exceptions to every rule. But remember: effective marketing is about starting or cultivating a relationship. This happens one person at a time. It happens one-on-one with your marketing–whether you’re speaking to an enormous crowd or sitting across your prospect’s desk. You would never talk about your company or yourself in the 3rd person while face to face, would you?

This might seem like a subtle nuance. But I guarantee you that if you keep in mind the end goal (the relationship) and you intentionally incorporate the “me to you” approach, you will get significantly better response.

Up next in this series: “So What?!”  Subscribe right now so you’ll get it first!

Should I be using YouTube as a marketing tool?

The answer is 100% “Yes!”

In fact, we recently trained the members of our Strategic Marketing Program on this very topic:

Not yet receiving valuable training on marketing your business in the 21st Century? Click here to learn more.