Marketing Comet - Small Business Marketing Secrets

Bush Gets Caught Saying "Shit" on Open Mike at G8 Summit

President Bush today uttered a colorful expletive while referring to Hezbollah in what he thought was  a private conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The two were attending a lunch at a G8 summit and speaking candidly about the current situation in Israel, unaware there was an open mike in front of them.

Bush said something to the effect of, "someone needs to tell Hezbollah to stop that shit". The video is available currently on CNN.com. This is not the first time Bush has gaffed with a hot mike he thought was off. Once while speaking to Cheney, he referred to a reporter as "an asshole".

While this certainly will not end his political career or send the stock market into a plunge, it points to a very important concept. What you do in public can reflect on you and your business even if you think nobody is listening.

A business owner I know was sitting in a restaurant one time badmouthing a recent issue of a magazine. As it turns out - the publisher was right next to her. He stood up and confronted her. It goes without saying she'll never get any good publicity from him.

Do you have a corporate vehicle with your business name on it? Be careful how you drive. Be careful how you park.

Did you hand out jackets with your business name to your employees? How are they behaving while wearing your logo out in public?

My attorney related the email test to me. If you ever question whether you should send out an email, just imagine it blown up poster size in front of a jury. If you're still comfortable, push send.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Big Firm or Small Firm - The Office Test

Today's post is not about marketing, but I want to drop a bit of business wisdom on you. Hopefully I may save a few of you some serious capital.

I meet a lot of small businesses and start-ups in an average month and I'm always curious to hear what they're doing. Recently I have spoken to a couple of principals at start-ups who had gotten some funding - both were tech firms. The first one went out and hired a "marketing firm" with a retainer north of $10,000 a month. The second hired one of the biggest law firms in the city of Boston, and I don't even want to think about their retainer.

The perception here is that these big firms are going to give you the best service and make your business a ton of money. In my experience, that's rarely true.

Personally I have had the same attorney for probably 7 years. He's a one-man show and really knows his stuff. He specializes in what I need, and has actual litigation experience. He's a trusted friend and I can always get him on the phone. His billing rate is about 1/2 of the large firms, and he doesn't always bill me for every second I'm in contact with him. He is extremely responsive to my needs.

If you hire a gigantic law firm, as a small business, their goal is to bill you as much as humanly possible. They are going to kick most of your work to people fresh out of law school, who you can expect to pay $350 an hour and up. Those freshman lawyers are going to run everything they do for you past a senior associate who is going to bill you a minimum of $500 per hour. If you need anything complex, or have to go to court, a partner is going to bill you maybe $750-1000 per hour. Oh yeah, you'll have multiple people working on your case at the same time, and they'll even charge you for photocopies.

Don't get me wrong, there's a place for the gigantic firms, but small businesses that blow this much capital unnecessarily are crazy. My lawyer gave me the "office test" to check out potential firms. If you walk in and they have an opulent office with a great view - remember that you are paying for that.

I know that many start-ups get some money and go hunting for "brand-name" firms. The perception may be that you get what you pay for, and it's cool to say your lawyer is xyz LLP. Mostly, this is a mistake and simply contributes to the burn-rate of many firms.

Big marketing firms are the same way. First, most of them do not do marketing, most are PR firms that say they do everything so they can get most of your money. For your retainer, you're most likely to get handed off to some junior affiliates who don't understand marketing. This is unfortunate because there are many good small marketing firms that are great at what they do.

Before you make the leap to hire any big firm, and spend big-firm money, think twice. It doesn't matter who the firm's clients are, understand what you're getting for your money.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

When Should You Hire An Expert

My father is a carpenter. His father and his father were carpenters. It's in the blood - except it skipped me altogether. My father is more of a fine artist whose finish work is in such high demand there's usually a waiting list to get him to work on a project.

I had a problem. I had a cracked window on the second floor of my 110 year old house. The glass was diamond shaped, had been inserted from the outside, and the window was part of the framing of the wall. Someone built a house next to mine in the last 110 years, so we couldn't place a ladder to get to the window outside. in less than 30 minutes my dad disassembled the wall, pulled the window out, replaced the glass with Lexan, and put it back together again. Could I have done it myself? no way.

Can you go out and spend $90 on a software package and create your own web site without learning and HTML, CSS, or optimization strategies? Sure. You can also spend all your money on an expensive firm who will build you a whiz-bang web site, but you'll go bankrupt in the process. For most of us the solution is in the middle.

Whoever created the following diagram is a genius:

This diagram is meant to help you think about three competing priorities in any project - quality, speed, and price (good, fast, cheap). You place a dot inside the triangle to help you define your priorities and what you're willing to sacrifice.

If you place a dot all the way in the cheap corner,  you move away from good and fast. Your $90 dollar web site is going to eat up a lot of your time and still be crappy. If you place a dot close to the edge between good and fast - you know the project won't be cheap.

Again, this is about your priorities. You can still spend a lot of money and time on something and get a low quality product. There are some things that are good and cheap - but very few.

The main benefit of an expert is quality, followed by time. Experts tend to be expensive. As a marketing coach I am not cheap but, if I am able multiply my clients profits in a very short period of time - I'm worth it.

One of my clients is a lawyer who specializes in technology contract law - a very specialized field that is constantly changing. One of his clients originally hired a Harvard law student to draft a contract using all boilerplate language. It was cheap and fast, and Harvard students are no dummies. My client now has a major rewrite on his hands because the boilerplate language didn't take the many things into account that an expert would easily catch.

One thing I've learned is that you always hire a lawyer who specializes in what you need in the same way you don't go to a foot doctor when you need a cardiologist.

Small businesses always need to manage costs, but sometimes using the right expert in the beginning can help you avoid costly mistakes. I once had a summer job taking customer service calls for Sears. Most calls were for people needing service on their appliances. A good portion of the calls came from women whose husbands had disassembled some appliance to try to fix it, but had then made it worse requiring more expensive service.

Time is a commodity as well as money. I always like to consider my hourly rate when I have a task to do. For example, I had some landscaping that cost me around $200. It would have taken me all day to do it while I could have been earning many times more than $200. It just wasn't worth it for me to do the job myself.

Think about the chart above, and think about what your time is worth the next time you are considering getting an expert to help you.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

High-Profit Small Business Marketing Starts With The Right Attitude

The most important person in your small business is not you. It is not one of your employees, nor is it one of your vendors. Of course, the most important person in your business is your customer.

Your customer is the only person paying for your overhead. Your customer is paying your mortgage and feeding your kids. Without your customer - your business dies. You and your employees need to keep this in mind in every single interaction with your customers. This is the beginning of an attitude that will make your business grow. Unfortunately, many businesses need a serious attitude adjustment.

My wife and I had some business in New Hampshire yesterday. We decided to have lunch at a Bertucci's Italian restaurant - a chain we generally like. When we walked in at around 2:00, the restaurant was moderately busy but there was nobody waiting to be seated. The hostess was mid-conversation with the manager when we came in. Rather than stop the conversation, or say "excuse me I'll be right with you," she physically turned her back to ignore us to continue her conversation.

Do you enjoy it when you try to speak to someone and they literally give you their back? I found it to be incredibly rude. The three minutes that it took her to finish the discussion about her schedule with the manager seemed like 1/2 hour to me. How important do I feel to this restaurant? What are the chances that I go back to this same restaurant? Zilch.

Do you want a very inexpensive way to differentiate your business? Give service to your customers that is so good it blows them away. Treat them like gold, take a genuine interest in helping them, and always make them feel valued and important.

When I get outstanding service, I can't wait to go back to a business. I also recommend the business unreservedly. When a business makes me feel important I like that and I want to feel like that again. It's very basic human psychology.

Look at some of the marketing messages around you. How many small businesses advertise how great they are, how many years they have been in service, what awards they have won? I always have to laugh when businesses claim that they are dedicated to good service. That doesn't make you special, that describes the bare minimum effort you need to be in business.

Your marketing - everything you say or do that touches the customer - must be about them. You can talk about how great you are, but it must be in a context that describes what you're going to do for them.

This extends into strategy when you are looking at your budget. Spending money on "customer facing" things is a good idea. You might forgo getting the ping-pong table for the break-room and spend the money on fixing up your waiting area. Having a professionally designed web site, business cards, and stationary is very important. Having a clean, comfortable, and uncluttered storefront is important.

If you have employees, you must train them and set expectations for excellent customer service. You must also lead by example when you deal with customers. You may need to spend a few extra dollars to hire the right people who can and will take customer service seriously.

Look at where you can improve customer contact. Remember that, on average, every customer has a network of 50-200 people that they influence. How you deal with each customer may multiply your business or cripple it. Put your ego aside, and remember who pays your bills.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet
Technorati Tags : small+business, marketing, sales, strategy, advertising

I'm a Guest Blogger Today

Thom Singer - branding, networking, and positioning expert, and author of Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Keep and Grow Your Business Relationships, asked me to be his guest blogger today. Thom invites a guest to blog on his site every Friday for a great mix of perspectives. Click here to read what I wrote.

Tags : blogging, marketing, networking

Another Search Engine Optimization Victory For This Blog

I'm tooting my own search engine optimization horn once again. As of today - one of the pages on this blog comes up as #3 in MSN when you search on "small business marketing". I already hit #1 for "small business marketing secrets".

If you want to see the results page bigger, click on this image and the screen capture will pop open in a new window.

Technorati Tags : search+engine+optimization, seo, marketing

Advertising vs. PR in Your Small Business Marketing Strategy

A great small business marketing strategy includes a mix of tactics. Advertising and PR are two very important tools that all small business owners need to be using regularly. Many small businesses I talk to do one of the other, but don't commit to doing both. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and are complimentary to each other.

Small Business Advertising
Strengths:

• The biggest advantage with small business advertising is your complete control over the message. You get to focus on whatever you want, write the text, and choose the visuals. You ensure that your marketing message is delivered.
• You control placement. You choose the exact timing and media in which your advertising is placed. This is a huge advantage because naturally you are going to choose to place your ads where your target market is most likely to see them.
• You can repeat your messages over and over again. Effective small business marketing incorporates a high degree of repetition and consistency. Advertising can and should be run on regular schedules.
• With advertising, you (and your budget) control your marketing saturation. You can run the same ad across different publications serving the same market, run matching Internet advertising, put an ad on the radio, do cable TV, do outdoor advertising, etc. Ideally you need to be reaching your target market at least 4 different ways for them to respond.

Weaknesses

• Advertising generally costs money. Most small businesses don't have a huge budget for marketing. Sometimes being creative can help defray costs. Sometimes you can trade for advertising space. You may be able to do co-op advertising.
• Small business advertising needs to be very targeted to be effective. Sometimes the only choices you have in your community are mass-market like newspapers. You still need to advertise, but some of your marketing dollars will be spent to advertise to people who don't want or need what you're selling.
• Most small business advertising stinks. I hate to say it, but it's true. Many do-it-yourself advertisers don't understand that there are advertising fundamentals that work. A good ad will always out-pull a bad one. Here's my plug: If you can't invest the time and money to learn how advertising REALLY works, get yourself a small business marketing coach to help you build more effective campaigns. It will be money well invested.

PR
Strengths:

• It's FREE!OK, you might incur a very small charge if you hire someone to write and distribute a press release for you, but this is minimal. I think the reason why most small businesses don't do PR is that they don't know how it's done. Again, get some coaching, or pay someone to do it for you.
• Press is trusted more than advertising. If you read a review that says that a new restaurant is the best thing in town, there's some credibility there. We tend to assume that a person who is writing an article is an expert, and that they are an uninterested third party.
• You distribute PR globally. As long as what you are doing is actually interesting globally, you can distribute your press releases globally. This isn't necessarily as targeted as your advertising needs to be, but you're not paying for editorial. By the way, never pay for editorial, and don't advertise with media that promises to give you editorial as long as you advertise. This is unethical and transparent - and the credibility of the media will always be in question.

Weaknesses

• You have no control over what the press is actually going to write or say about you. They may spell your name wrong, they may get some details wrong, they may choose to focus on something you don't want to highlight. In general this isn't a big issue, as long as they are saying good things about you.
• PR tends to be single exposure. Unless circumstances are really unusual, the press is not going to run the same story over and over again. I have been involved with an exception to that. I was doing something that corresponded with a current event and the press came to me again and again over 4 weeks for TV interviews. This was pure timing. It's difficult to engineer press like that without seeming mercenary.
• There is no guarantee that you're even going to get coverage. I was called to do a TV interview once and rushed into the city to meet the reporter and photographer. On my way in,the reporter called me on my cell phone to tell me they were pulling the story because there was breaking news that they had to go cover. Depending on what's going on you may get tons of press or none at all.

You see that small business advertising and PR are different things. You need them both and you need to work at both of them consistently. They are two important tools in your small business marketing toolbox.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet

Customer Service Affects Your Bottom Line

Providing good customer service is a very inexpensive, yet highly effective way to ensure your business success. From my daily encounters with many businesses, it's quite clear this fact escapes many busines owners.

Here's some of the data: The cost of bringing a new customer in is 8-10 times that of retaining a current customer. This means that dollars you spend on customer service make a larger impact on your bottom line. After all, a customer who has already bought from you has been sold on you once. Keep them coming back for more.

A dissatisfied customer will tell around 12 people of their dissatisfaction. In fact I think this number is higher now that the Internet and blogging have increased people's ability to speak out to a larger crowd. If you tick off one customer you may have lost 12 potential customers.

I do not shop at places that give me lousy service. I remember an incident at one of the larger electronics chains where I wanted to buy something small and couldn't get a single person in the nearly empty store to wait on me. There were about 5 employees standing around in a circle chatting who got annoyed that I interrupted their chat. I even said, "look I would like to give you some of my money, would any of you like to help me give you some of my money?" Still lousy service.

Even though my purchase that day was under $100, I am an electronics junkie. I also purchase computers, software and electronics for my businesses. Since I have never been back to that business after that day I estimate that that location has probably lost $50,000 of business from me. On top of that, I will always recommend a competitor to people who ask and tell people to avoid that chain. So maybe I have cost that business hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years.

So, how would you like to lose a few tens of thousands of dollars in sales in your business? Probably not. If you do not provide excellent customer service you might as well light stacks of hundred dollar bills on fire - because you are losing that much money.

I was working with an upscale clothing boutique on a marketing piece recently. A woman came into the store while I was there and was greeted warmly by the store owner. As opposed to the pushy or snobby salespeople in many of these locations, this boutique owner was welcoming. It turned out that she did not have what this customer was looking for, so she actually recommended a couple of her competitors where the customer could find what she was looking for. So, she didn't make a sale that day, or try to push something the customer didn't want. I would bet dollars to donuts that client will be back again, and again, and again.

When sales people are forced to push things, even after you say no two or three times - it ruins the experince. I hate the electronics stores that push their expensive service policies. When I buy a new gadget I am excited and feel really good, then some salesperson comes along and tries to push something that I don't want - ugh I just want to scream. They turned my good feeling into discomfort and I won't be back. I realize that these electronics chains make huge money on these things because they almost never get used - thus they are pure profit. But they make customers like me jaded for shopping there.

A friend of mine recently bought a $30,000 home entertainment system from an upscale seller. His experience was exceptional, the sales person was consultive - steering him not towards the most profitable items, but towards what would give him the best value. The salesperson found out my friend's favorite music and even mailed him some tickets for a concert after the sale. Will my friend shop there again and spend tens of thousands of more dollars over the years? Absolutely.

I have difficult clients that sometimes I want to strangle - sure. But I know that a part of my job is to make them happy, even if it costs me a few extra bucks or reduces my profit on a transaction or two. I want them to love me and keep coming back for more.

J D Moore - Marketing Comet