Epiphany Marketing's Strategic Marketing Blog

Recently, I was talking with a client who was reluctant to set up a profile on Google Places for his business.

“What if people leave negative reviews?,” he asked. “You can’t do anything about it, can you?”

A valid point. Unlike a WordPress blog or even a Facebook page, profiles in Google Places (and many other business listings locations around the web) do not permit the business owner to remove negative comments. Most of the time, a concern like this isn’t because the business is in the habit of disappointing the majority of its customers — usually businesses are worried about more insidious scenarios such as competitors working to gain advantage by leaving false reviews.

I shared with this particular client what I share with all of our other clients and trainees: monitor your listings and respond. It’s unrealistic for any customer to expect that you’ve never disappointed anyone or that other customers of yours haven’t ever had a bad experience. Every business does it, even with the very best of intentions.

What is far worse than seeing negative comments on a business listing (or Facebook page, Twitter account, Foursquare Venue, etc.) is seeing unresponded-to negative comments.

When you don’t respond, future customers are left to reach their own conclusions without your input. Did you try to resolve the issue? Was it a real customer? Do you care?

If you don’t respond… they are right to assume the worst.

If you do respond, you have the opportunity to show what you’re made of, and what it means to your business when a customer has a bad experience.

Consider the person who was running a video camera when this FedEx employee tossed (yes… tossed) his new computer monitor:

It doesn’t get much worse than that. FedEx mishandled his package… and there was proof! (Even if this were a malicious smear campaign, would’ve been nearly impossible to fake.)

Many brands have famously had terrible mishaps right out in the open — and in the age of blogs, social media and YouTube, it can be hard for even the most determined businesses to cover up their mistakes. With this one… no way. There are nearly 3 million views on the video after only 2 days.

So how did FedEx handle the situation? By responding with a YouTube video of their own:

The company also published a blog post to match. Was the video highly rehearsed? Was it sanitized through a few layers of PR and other consultants? Probably so. Nevertheless, FedEx did was was critical to do: communicate their regret over their customer’s very real negative experience, talk about what happened and how it contradicts their intentions and policies, explain that the issue has been resolved to the customer’s satisfaction… and even hint about some consequences for the at-fault employee.

Nicely done.

Can you do the same? Hopefully, your business will never be proven to have done something this contradictory to your intentions. But even if it were to happen… you can respond. People respect someone who can admit their mistakes and talk about plans to avoid repeat occurrences. And your customers — both present and future — will too.

H/T: Mashable

According to Google:

97% of consumers search for local businesses online.

If you don’t have a solid plan for creating visibility for your business, those people looking for your products and services will find someone else instead of you.

So what can you do that doesn’t cost a fortune?

Many businesses that we work with are surprised to find out that a great many of the most effective tools you can use today to get visibility for your business are free! Some of the others are either relatively inexpensive or can be set up in a way that you’re only paying when you’re getting results.

Here’s a Great Example of Something You Can Do for Free

You have probably noticed by now that in the last year or so, Google began rolling out a change to the way local search results work. Instead of having a separate map showing up on the results page, the map listings have been merged with organic search results on many local searches.

For example, in the picture here, I’ve run a search for a car wash in the city where we’re located. Google tries to show me relevant results from organic search as always.

What’s different now is that they are also giving me the locations of some of these businesses using the map on the right and “pins” with corresponding letters in the search results. We’ll refer to these as the “merged” listings, because the results are based on 2 things:

• the natural organic position of the website corresponding to the business on the map (based on relevance to my search terms)
• the rank of the map listing for the business based upon a variety of factors (including proximity, keywords, reviews, and more)

What makes this different is that you need to pay attention to your map listing because it is now affecting the rank of your website! Google may have already placed your business on the map using information they’ve gathered from other sources. If you haven’t already done so, it’s a good idea to claim your listing so that you can correct any inaccurate information and also provide additional details to help make the listing more relevant.

Here’s what to do:

1. Find your business listing on the map by searching for it at www.google.com/maps

2. If you find it there, click on the name of your business in the list on the left side of the map view.

3. Click “Edit This Place” on the right-hand side above the map

If you don’t find your business already listed, then go here:

www.google.com/local/add

Either way, from there you’ll need to login to your Google account or create a Google account. Then you can follow the instructions to edit the information in your listing.

The steps above don’t cost you anything, take only a few minutes, and can make a big difference in your visibility.

The frustrating thing is that you don’t know what you don’t know. And where do you turn for good solid information about what you can be doing to gain visibility through:

• search engine rankings
• Facebook, Twitter & social media
• mobile geo-targeted services like Foursquare, Facebook Places and even Google Maps
• and other means?

Well… we’re here for you. In fact, that’s why we created this webinar taking place today at 1pm Eastern (replay available here). In fact, on the webinar we’ll be showing additional free options for promoting your business as well as some important strategy to increase your effectiveness! There are still a few spots left so you may still be able to get in if you register right away. Everyone who attends will be automatically entered into a drawing for $100 in free Google advertising!

This event is absolutely free. We do these from time to time because it’s a great way to introduce you to the small business marketing training programs we offer. There are no obligations and no strings attached, so register right now watch the replay so you don’t miss out on this valuable information!

Last week we talked about someone who got ripped off by an SEO provider. And while not all SEO companies are as unscrupulous as the offender we mentioned, typically SEO isn’t the first place to start when trying to improve your marketing results.

In fact… there’s a long list of places not to start:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Email
• Yellow Pages
• Direct Mail
• Groupon
• Radio/TV/Print Advertising
• Foursquare, Google Places, Facebook Places and other GeoSocial opportunities
• Google Adwords and other PPC networks
• etc.

For the record, I’m not opposed to any of the above (including SEO). Quite the contrary, we teach the members of our small business marketing training programs specifically how to use these techniques and get results from them.

But when it comes to answering the question, “Where Do I Start?” the answer is very simple:

You need a clear, written, actionable and measurable marketing strategy that is focused on the right target market.

Very rarely do any of the businesses that approach us for marketing help already have a strategy like this in place. And this is why they can be smooth-talked by the salesperson (or sales process) for the marketing outlets above or sucked into spending hours and hours of time with very little to show for it (in the case of social media).

Without a clear strategy, we may gain successes in one area or another (such as top search engine rankings or large numbers of Facebook “likes”) but we will not be as effective at accomplishing the real point: sustainable new business coming in consistently. Building a business is not unlike building a physical building: you may be an expert at carpentry, concrete, electrical or some other element… but you won’t end up with the result you want without a set of blueprints!

Get Started Building Your Written Marketing Strategy

“OK, so I need a written marketing strategy. I get it. How do I start?”

Great question. Your marketing strategy begins and ends in one place: the customer. Who is your best prospect? How much can you possibly know about them?

In our marketing training programs, we ask our clients to think about their customer base as a target. Identify who is in your target… and then narrow down to the bullseye. As narrowly as possible, identify the common traits that your very best buyers share with one another.

Depending upon the size of your business, you may need to ask for help in answering this question. Talk to your bookkeeper or accountant. Who spends the most (or most often)? We typically know which products or services sell the best… but maybe your sales team needs to help you understand who the buyers are.

Take some time this week to understand as much as possible about your best customers. This is the essential starting point for all of your marketing efforts, and the most critical element in building an effective marketing strategy for your business.

Need some help getting started? Begin with an assessment. My team and I welcome the opportunity to be of service to you.

Also… watch your inbox for an invitation to our upcoming local marketing webinar. We’ll be talking specifically about the face of local marketing in 2011. If you are primarily selling products and services to people located near your physical location(s), then this event is for you. (We’ll have other events in the near future for those businesses that sell to non-localized markets as well).

In the meantime, get started building your written marketing strategy!

You’re reading Top Marketing Trends for 2011 from Epiphany Marketing’s Strategic Marketing blog. Subscribe: Email | Facebook | RSS.

Today we’re beginning a series on the stuff you need to be paying attention to as we head into 2011.

“What?! We’re in the middle of the holiday season… Christmas is still weeks away!”

Yeah… I know. And you’re probably not quite too late to begin thinking about what your 2011 strategy looks like, but you can’t afford to wait any further.

Begin at the Very Beginning

So… speaking of strategy, you do have one of those right? You know… a written plan that will produce growth in your business. One that identifies:

• precisely the person(s) to whom you are focusing your message
• your identity (or that of your products and services), and
• the message itself

…along with specific steps you’re going to take to attract those people, get their attention, and plug them into your sales process.

If not, this is where you must start. Otherwise, you’re going to be overwhelmed by all the stuff you could be doing. Strategy is as much about knowing what not to do as it is about knowing what to do.

2010: Monumental Shifts

And speaking of what you could be doing… looking back on 2010, I can’t recall a year ever in which so much has changed in marketing.

• Google rankings mean more and less than they used to… on the one hand, more businesses have shed their offline advertising and marketing expenses and are looking to online search to help bring in new customers. But on the other hand, the online mix must now be much more robust than ever — engaging customers (present and future) in a conversation through social media outlets
• Mobile devices continue to change the rules… and are now inventing new ones. Text messaging, Twitter, mobile browsers, maps and navigation, social media apps on the go… all of these affect how your buyers receive your messages, and this year has brought some amazing changes to this space with new devices, maturing platforms (particularly Android and iOS), and high adoption rates. People spend more time “connected” on the go than even I ever dreamed… and it’s going to increase.
• Local businesses have an amazing (and dizzying) array of options to reach out to customers with geo-location services like Foursquare, Google Places, Facebook places, and Gowalla. Which ones are effective? Which ones are a waste of time? Consumers are using location-based services from mobile devices in record numbers. Are you missing out on the opportunity?

These are just a few of the major shifts we’re watching from 2010. How do they affect your business in 2011? What else should you be paying attention to? We’ll be tackling these questions and showing off some pretty nifty stuff over our next few posts.

Stay tuned!

Can You Grow Your Sales Quickly?

One of the most common questions I get asked when speaking to audiences of small business owners and salespeople who earn commissions is:

What can I do that will rapidly produce results for my business?

Now, I’ll be honest with you: I’m not usually a “quick fix” guy. I believe in strategy… and particularly, in consistently executing strategy over time to get results.

But sometimes, a business or salesperson finds itself needing new prospects or customers quickly. Yes… a well-formed, consistent strategy is great, but sometimes you need sales quickly so you can make it long enough to create and implement a longer-term strategy.

The truth is… I understand completely. I’ve created and owned multiple businesses, and sometimes you just find yourself in a tight spot.  I’ve been there.

When that happens, you know that with a bigger budget (or more time), you’d do some other things. But sometimes you just need to do something that gets results so you can create the budget (or time) to do more.

And that’s why I put together Fast Ideas to Skyrocket Your Profits & Sales Now.

Check out the details here.

This is something that’s especially designed for you, and it starts this week. To get on board in time, you’ll need to respond right away.

I’m looking forward to being in touch!

Committed to Growing Your Business,

David G. Johnson, Founder
Epiphany Marketing, LLC

Growing a small business can be a wild mix of challenges.

Your website’s contact form is — if it’s anything like mine — constantly bombarded with SPAM from SEO companies (“We noticed your website doesn’t rank very well in search engines,” or “We can get you to the top of Google.”).

Obviously, today there’s Facebook, Twitter… and now Foursquare. We’ve had e-mail for decades now, but it seems that many small businesses still haven’t figured out how to use it effectively for marketing purposes.

It can be downright overwhelming.

And if you’ve even got a small perfectionist streak (full disclosure: I’ve got a big perfectionist streak), you hesitate to step out because you’re convinced that you’re not doing it correctly.

But… I’m reminded today of the words of one of my favorite mentors, “It doesn’t have to be perfect… it just has to be!”

Get started. If you’re already moving… keep going. As Seth Godin recently pointed out, doing marketing is a powerful way to learn it.

And if you find yourself needing guidance, then get some! But by all means… get started! Today!

Waste of Time?

You or your company have probably already grappled with the question at some level or another:

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!

We’ve already tackled the question about YouTube for Marketers recently, and I’ve been a big believer in it for a number of years. In fact, business owners and entrepreneurs in our 21st-Century Strategic Marketing Program have heard me beat the drum of not just YouTube, but also social media outlets (including Facebook and Twitter) since the program’s inception in early 2008.

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.

One of the points that anyone marketing in the 21st-Century will reach is the moment known as “writer’s block.”

We know that we need to be creating great content and pushing it out — whether online, via e-mail or print newsletter, or through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. But what happens when you start running out of ideas for content? It’s that moment when you approach the blank screen, the blank sheet of paper, etc.

We save our very best ideas for the members of our Strategic Marketing Program (who also receive mentoring, coaching and accountability for taking action), but let me throw out some real gems for you quickly:

1. Get to know (and then write about) the changing needs of your customers. As if the faster-than-ever changes in society and business that came with the 21st-Century weren’t enough, this economic climate has produced an even faster rate of change for your present and future customers. Note that this content is focused on their needs… not just on how you and your business can help.
2. Tell the story of your recent customer/client interactions. What were their unique needs? What problem(s) were they trying to solve? How did your team/staff/product/solution change their situation? If necessary, change names to protect the innocent (or guilty, as the case may be ).  But remember that the purpose of search engines is to serve up relevant information to the searcher… who just might be your next customer. (Not to mention that your newsletter subscribers & social media networkers are more apt to read a story than your marketing blather.)
3. Make a list of the top questions that your customers ask… and answer them. And don’t just put them on that FAQs page of your site. Tackle each one with a separate, unique piece of content… and make it interesting! Train your staff (or yourself, if appropriate) to make note of the new, interesting or unusual misunderstandings your customers have about your product or service. Chances are, you’ll learn something about what your prospects need (or more importantly, want) to know!

Bonus Tips

One concept we constantly drive home is… overdeliver! Exceed expectations! So… now that I’ve given you 3, here are some more!

1. In case you missed it, overdeliver.
2. Model what you hope to convey. The folks over at sitepronews.com published a great piece on content for social media in which they mentioned making numbered lists. Since they didn’t number theirs, let me summarize it for you:
3. Write compelling stories
4. Interview an industry expert
5. Spark a debate
6. Share your own knowledge to help others
7. Write numbered lists.

Hope you found this useful! If so… consider subscribing (or grabbing our RSS feed)… and use the “Share & Enjoy” buttons to Digg, Stumble, Tweet, Facebook, etc. to your networks!