Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

I recently talked to Isha Edwards of EPiC MEASURES about her business and how she helps build brands. Here is the conversation:

Bradford Shimp: Tell me a little about your business.

Isha Edwards: EPiC MEASURES (EM) is a brand-driven company, which offers a next practices approach to establishing and operating a business. Extending beyond the ordinary in purpose, promise and presentation, EM seeks to increase the profitability of individuals as well as organizations through four core services:

·        Marketing Strategy

·        Brand Management

·        Business Communications

·        Leadership Training (Seminars & Workshops)

BS: Why did you decide to get into this business?

IE: EM was established to meet an on-going demand from individuals with business communications needs. Also because of demand, services expanded to include brand-driven business consulting and leadership training for individuals and organizations.

BS: What roadblocks or delays did you run into when starting your business?

IE: Since the goal was to launch debt-free, test the business concept, and weigh market demands against sustainability, EM was soft-launched or rolled out in phases over a four-year period. This strategy limited roadblocks that would normally affect the company if it were launched “in full.”

BS: Define “brand” in terms of small business. I think many small business owners put little thought into creating a brand.

IE: A brand is a unique symbol, name, sound or identifying mark, which represents a product, an individual or organization’s story. This distinct story along with purpose and experience are what physically and emotionally engage consumers with a good or service.

Small businesses tend to focus primarily on the A part of the brand definition. Imaging, collateral materials and Web sites are created without much thought about the story or experience behind the logo.

When it comes to creating a brand, small business owners should “begin with the end in mind”. The process of creating a brand from beginning to end prior to launch will help solidify the story and the experience for customers.

BS: How can a strong brand help a small business?

IE: A well defined or established brand is a company’s most valuable, intangible asset. In addition to providing a competitive advantage, a well established brand helps to maximize earnings.

BS: If a small business has little to no money to spend on marketing, what are the best free/low cost marketing options?

IE: Word-of-mouth campaigns, volunteering service or providing product samples to prospective customers are low-cost ways to garner visibility. Find out what schools or organizations offer classes, seminars or events related to your product and target audience. Participating in events, joining organizations or in some way “hanging out” where potential customers hang out, writing or commenting on blogs are other options.

If you prefer to use social networking, then network within groups that are directly and indirectly related to your product. If you really want to stand out, purchase branded paraphernalia. Select a high-traffic day, time and location to regularly service your community with your product (doing so for 30, 60 or 90 days is ideal). Have flyers, Web site link or business cards on hand. The key is to build awareness in your natural element in a meaningful way (versus product push).

BS: Why should a small business spend money on a marketing/branding expert?

IE: Marketers are typically hired to focus on promotions and sales. An enterprising marketer or brand expert will consider product, price, placement and promotion when strategizing. They will also determine where brand value resides and align business operations with marketing strategy to retain value.

BS: How is social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, changing marketing?

IE: Social media levels the playing field between big and small business; new and established brands. Social media provides direct, inexpensive access to customers’ personal space (Facebook) and has the potential to build business credibility and awareness (Twitter) same as traditional media except exponentially.

BS: How would you convince a business owner to spend money on marketing/branding?

IS: Focusing on a business owner’s vision, mission, short and long-term goals yields a high conversion rate. When presented with a comprehensive strategy that makes the most effective use of time, money and resources and ensures set goals are met, business owners easily comply.

BS: What is your best advice for a small business owner who wants to commit more time and or money to marketing?

IE: Select three platforms to promote your product. Evaluate the results from those efforts. Replace efforts that yield low or little results. Relevancy is key as is being able to adapt early. Joining the bandwagon simply because everyone else is doing so is a sure-fire way to lose time and money plus limit results. Your strategy should be to remain ahead of each curve, which is where the greatest value lies and unique brands thrive.

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Thanks to Isha Edwards for participating in this interview. You can learn more about EPiC MEASURES at www.epicmeasures.com.

Bradford Shimp helps small businesses with web design and online presence management at BroadRiverCreative.com.

When it comes to advice on how to grow your small business, a lot of experts, including myself, will tell you that you need to increase your marketing. We’ve heard the bells of marketing peel even louder in the recession. The mantra? Increase your marketing now while your competitors are pulling back.

As I talk about success throughout this month, marketing is going to come up over and over again. I believe that small businesses simply don’t focus enough attention on it. But before I start singing the praises of marketing, perhaps I should answer the question, is more marketing really the answer?

Not a Simple Answer

As with all simple questions, this one has a complex answer. Can increased marketing lead to more success at your small business? Yes, it can. Is it a cure-all to get you out of financial funk and to profitable success? No, it is not. The short answer is that you need marketing as one part of your strategy for success. Without good marketing systems, you can never really grow your business at any kind of scale. What that means is that without marketing you have to rely on the power of one to grow your business. Whether it be one salesperson to book a sale, or one customer who just happens to tell a friend about you, or one presentation that you do at a local conference. Marketing, on the other hand, thrives on the power of many. This means your message is getting out to a group of people all at once, and perhaps even going viral within that group as they spread your message for you to many more. So you can’t ignore marketing.

Not Just Marketing, Good Marketing

At the same time, you can’t just take an ad out in your local paper and expect it to generate sales. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. You can spend a lot of money for very little to no return on investment. As a responsible small business owner, you don’t want to do that. The word marketing covers a wide swath of ideas and applications. If you are going to use marketing as part of your success strategy, you have a responsibility to find the method or methods that will bring in the most return on investment. Once you find good marketing methods, you should stick with them and invest money to improve them. For instance, if you find a direct letter works pretty well, spend some money on a copy writer to improve your letter so that it converts even better.

You Need More for Success

While good marketing will indeed bring new leads and sales to your business, that is not all you need for success. Success isn’t just measured by the number of sales you get. You also need to focus on other areas of your business. This includes having a good engine within your business to handle growth. It also includes having a focus on profit over sales. You may need to tweak things to get a maximum profit. Other success factors to consider are customer and employee satisfaction, personal satisfaction, your exit plan, and maximizing current potential.

The point is, success is a package. Marketing is a tool that helps your business grow. But you wouldn’t waste a lot of time watering your sidewalk, hoping tulips will spring up. You need a well tilled plot of land, and the seeds to make things grow. Add a good marketing plan to that, and you will see growth and be well on your way to success.

Marketing is Part of the Plan

So, marketing is not the end all and be all. But it is a part of the plan and you can’t ignore it. You need to start experimenting with marketing. Spend money on it. When you find something that works, every dollar your spend will be bringing back more than a dollar in profit. When that happens, you will want to spend as many dollars as you can. Before you do that, make sure you have the infrastructure to support real growth. Your house had better be in order before you add waves of new business. Otherwise they will bring your business crashing down around you.

What are your thoughts? How much do you rely on marketing? What has worked for you? What hasn’t?

photo credit: Dennis Goedegebuure

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Bradford Shimp helps small business create online success strategies at BroadRiverCreative.com

The best marketing that can ever take place for your business is when one friend recommends your business to another friend. That close bond of trust between two friends cannot be replicated on a large scale. Yet, you can tap into the power of that trust by using the referral.

You do this by helping spread the real stories that real people tell about your business. You can also play a big part in encouraging those stories to be told.

You have doubtless seen ads where real customers tell their stories. Even if you doubt just how real these customer are, there is a good chance that you trust what they are saying a little more because of the perception that they are real. You don’t know the people in the ad, but you can relate to them because they are real.

Why do you have an easier time relating to what a customer is saying about a product than to whatever is coming directly from the company’s marketing department? Here’s why. A marketing department often thinks from inside the company. A real person thinks about how the product or service betters his or her life. In other words, a real person thinks like you or me.

What does all of this mean for your business? Well, for starters, whenever you get the chance, shut up and let happy customers do the talking for you. They will have a very easy time connecting with other potential customers, because they have been in the exact same place. In this way, a customer can often do a better job communicating your message than you can. They speak from a place of trust and focus on the points that are going to matter most to their friends. Often, they will tell friends about you after they hear their friends complain about something or mention a need. They have a relationship and out of that they can provide a recommendation that would be worth gold if it could actually be bought.

Good referrals can’t be bought, by the way. They must be earned. I don’t mind if you offer a reward for referrals, I just don’t think its that useful. If you want consistent referrals, you need to build consistent communication with your customers. You can ask for referrals at the end of a sale if you want. But the fact of life is that people make suggestions through daily interactions. Your customer may not know anyone who needs your product today, but they may have a conversation a year from now where a referral will make perfect sense. Your job is to keep your message fresh in that customer’s mind, even if the sale happened a year ago. You do this by providing useful information via blogs, newsletters, webinars, and more.

Keeping the conversation going is probably the best way to ensure that your story is being spread. You put your effort on keeping the story alive in the minds of your customers and fans. They do the job of spreading the story, one to one.

Since asking for referrals one time is not the most effective thing (you will basically get a list of cold leads), use the capital of trust that you build up during the sale to ask for something else instead. I like to get a few things from the customer. Of those things, a testimonial is an important component. Ask your customers for testimonials that you can use in your marketing. And if you get a great testimonial, take it further by asking to sit down with the customer, record an interview and make a case study out of that relationship.

And there is one more thing that you can ask for at the end of the sale that will help spread your story. Ask your happy customers to post online reviews. Sites like Yelp, Google Maps, and Angie’s List can drive referrals and make it possible for customers to post comments and reviews about your company.

This is a better use of the after the sale ask, because that review or testimonial will be viewed by people who are considering your service. That is the magic of letting customers spread your story. Whether they do it one to many with online reviews and testimonials, or if they are doing one to one referrals, real customers can communicate with real customers and get your message across better than you could ever hope to.

photo credit: hectorir

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

How many businesses do you hear from after you make a purchase? All to few, I would bet. And the ones you do hear from are usually larger businesses and all you get from them after a sale are catalogs and advertisements.

The moments during and after a sale are when you are closest to your customer. He or she has decided to trust you enough to buy from you. You are having a meaningful interaction, one that could and should lead to a growing relationship. And then you never call until you want another sale? How rude is that?

Keep the Conversation Going

You did a lot of work to get your customer to the point of making a purchase. It took a building of trust, among other things. So why would you want to waste all of that effort by ignoring the customer after the sale?

This is the best time to start a deeper relationship with the customer. By this I mean that you can become a more important part of your customer’s life, not just a company that he or she bought something from once. This all starts right around the time that you make that sale.

You should have some kind of plan for staying in contact with your customers on a regular basis. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to do this is with an email newsletter. Invite each customer to subscribe to the newsletter at the point of sale. That way, you have an outlet to keep in touch with them regularly.

Remember to Be Personal

While email newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with a large audience, don’t ever forget that the decision of a customer to purchase from you is a personal one. Keep that connection alive. Plan on several personal connections throughout the year. This could be anything from hand-written birthday cards, to phone calls just to say hi, to regular face to face meetings (perhaps at a nearby restaurant).

By being personal, you are showing the customer that you remember them and are grateful for their business. Don’t be pushy on getting new sales on these contacts. Just be friendly. Throughout the conversations you have, you will learn the customers needs and can lead them gently to new sales.

Reap the Rewards

No customer is a one time customer. Whether or not they ever buy from you again, each customer is an extremely valuable resource for your business. There are three things that I talk about your being able to tap past customers for. They are repeat sales, testimonials, and referrals. But there is also a fourth thing that shouldn’t be ignored. That is, feedback. Each customer can help you get a better picture on how you are doing and how well you are meeting customer needs.

By staying in contact after the sale, you are giving yourself a much better shot at bringing in new business as a result of a customer.

Provide good information, consistently, and the customer will be more likely to remember to refer you to the a friend. By the way, that referral is most likely to happen when that friend is in need, which is exactly what you want. If you just ask for out of the blue referrals at sale closing, all you will get are cold leads. Stay in contact, and you are bound to get some very hot leads via referral.

Staying in contact also helps to keep your business in front of the customer, so if they are going to buy again, they are much more likely to buy from you. You already have the trust factor since you closed one sale. Now, you just need to maintain awareness. But please note, just sending postcards doesn’t cut it anymore. Provide your customers with valuable information on a regular basis.

Having the relationship also makes it possible to get honest answers from customers regarding your business. It makes asking for things like video testimonials easier, as well.

There are great depths to plumb with any old customer, and you are letting a lot of potential go to waste if you just disappear after a sale (only to reappear when you want another sale). Find ways to stay in contact. You can provide great value to your past customers. At the same time, you can gain great value from them.

photo credit: Lucy Boynton

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com

One way to keep communication healthy between your business and your customer base is to tell interesting stories. You do not have to become Stephen King or Dan Brown, but you should learn how to hold the interest of the audience.

Here’s a look at how becoming good at stories can change how you communicate.

Hey, Look at Us! Aren’t We Great?

A lot of marketing and sales focuses on the business, not on the customer. I don’t think this means that there is an undue amount of hubris among businesses. It simply means that most businesses do not know enough about their customers to tell interesting stories from their point of view.

All of your marketing and sales should focus on the customer more than on your business. Customers are interested in stories that they can relate to. So, instead of telling customers why you are the best, you need to find out customer needs and show them how your business meets those needs.

This means dropping the lists of features and all of the extra services in favor of a more personalized approach. People don’t care about your lists. They care about their own pressing needs.

Here’s a hint. Talk to some of your best customers. Interview them about why they bought from you, how you helped them solve their needs, and what their experience with you was like. Turn these interviews into case studies, blog posts, videos, and any number of marketing pieces. One story about a specific customer solving their specific need will go a lot farther than your business-focused sales pitch that lists all of your products and services.

Buy This Now

Another favorite technique of many small businesses is to do all of their marketing through specials, discounts, and buy this now advertising. Now, there is nothing wrong with this as one tool in the toolbox. But, if the only time you are getting the sale is when you offer a discount, maybe your price is just too high in the first place.

That aside, there just isn’t much to engage the customer in a buy this now approach. Either they are ready to buy now, or they aren’t.

Consider adding some story to this approach. You can talk about how buying your product will improve your customer’s life, for instance. I am a big fan of educating the customer. Spend time showing them why your product or service is essential to them. Get good at this, and you won’t have to offer that many discounts.

Here’s a hint. Instead of buying advertising to push a product, why not tell the story of that product on your blog. This could go on for several posts. Talk about where it comes from, what it does for customers, and what problems it solves. Highlight stories of actual customers using it. Also, offer free training on how to use it better.

Do You Mind If Sit Here?

Any marketer will tell you, half the battle is just keeping your message in front of the customer. There are two ways to do this. The traditional approach is with interruption marketing. This encompasses things like cold calls, direct mail, advertising, and spam.

The newer approach is to use permission based marketing. In other words, generate leads through word of mouth, search traffic, referrals, etc. and get them to sign up to receive an email newsletter from you. Or get them to regularly visit your blog, or to attend your event.

The nice thing about permission based marketing is that once you get permission, you can take your time to tell interesting stories. You can fill people in on the back story of your company, share customer success stories, tell them about how a certain product is going to make their life better, all on a regular basis. In other words, not only will you be able to keep your message in front of the customer, you can build a connection and build trust while you do it.

Here is another benefit of permission based marketing. It is much cheaper than traditional interruption based marketing.

If you think about your sales message in the context of sitting down next to a stranger and striking up a conversation, maybe it will all make sense to you. Only an absolute bore would start of a conversation with a stranger using a sales pitch. Most of us would get to know the stranger first. If the stranger mentioned some need that we were capable of helping with, then we would tell them about our solution.

Apply the basic etiquette of conversation and relationships to your sales and marketing and you won’t steer wrong.

Here’s a hint. Create a lot of helpful content. Package it it many ways, including blog posts, ebooks, speaking engagements, and videos. Give it away for free in return for permission to keep the conversation going. The more great content you provide, the more customers you will attract to hear your story.

photo credit: Torley

Recommended Reading

I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.

If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.

Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.

Get Unique Content Weekly with The All Biz Answers Insider Newsletter

–

Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com