How Good is Your Service?
According to Seth Godin, what was once conidered incredible, is now run of the mill. The challenge to small business owners in a comptitive market is finding new ways to surprise and delight your customers.
My favorite eye doctor, Dr. Jeremy Ciano at Revolution-Eyes always has fresh coffee and Godiva Chocolate while you wait. Makes stopping by lots of fun.
What do you do that is exceptional?
Start-Up Strategies for the SlowDown
Rafe Needleman wrote a great post the other day, focusing his remarks on strategies for High-Tech Start ups. Much of what he said is relevant for any small business owner. He suggests companies evaluate products, be realistic about growth, cut unnecessary spending – expensive travel and entertaining, but keep their eye on the ball. Keep spending on things which count! He says:
Spend into the recession, or move. If you have a runway of funding to last out a bleak year, don’t panic. But most of all, don’t stand still. Go under the radar and build your product. Talk to your potential customers.
Talk to customers – Sometimes when things get tough, business owners turn inward. They become so focused on their own operations, they forget why they are in business – to serve their customers.
So my suggestion for the comming months – as you cut back on other things continue to invest in ways to have conversations – ( dialogues not monologues ) with your customer. Knowing where they are in the comming months will help you figure out where you need to be
Improving Your Website
Creating a productive website does not require more flash or more pictures. A great website requires simple navigation and great content.
Content that is interesting to your visitors, and eye catching for search engines. The challenge is to find a balance between the two different audiences.
Search engines like lots of copy, containing key words, repeatedly if possible. You readers, with serious attention deficit want you to get to the point quickly.
The key is to be sure you know the very best phases. One tool you can use to find a starting point for word selection in your copy is the keyword tool from Google Ad Words. Simply type in a phrase you believe clients will use when looking for your type of business and the tool will provide a series of phrases, and how often they are used when by consumers searching for you.
For example: I selected “small business marketing” and discovered “marketing strategy” was searched significantly more often – on average 201,000 times a month, and “small business ideas” a phrase I have never deliberately used, is searched more than 20,000 times a month. While not the most popular, it has a steady following, and would be interesting to add to the mix!
The lesson for you? Take the time to reserach the best key words, and include them in your writing. Don’t over do it with text which reads like this: Small business marketing strategy should include novel ideas for small business owners, which expand their current small business marketing activites. While the engines will love it, your readers won’t!
Networking is Not Just for Business Owners
I spent 20 years in corporate gigs. While there, I built a network inside my company and the industry, but didn’t make time for other networking events. That was a huge mistake! When I was ready to make a job change, or ultimately start my own business, I did not have the resources and connections to make the transition smoothly.
I wish I had known then what I know now about the importance of networking at every stage of your career. Was reminded of this fact when I read this great post from the Harvard Business Review!
1) Figure out who should be in your network. It shouldn’t be just the people who eat lunch at the same time you do. Ask yourself: Who are the people who can help you? Who knows what’s going on? Who gets around roadblocks? Who are the critical links on the supply or information chain?
2) Stick your neck out. Most people will be more receptive than you think. No one turns down a call from someone who starts the conversation with “I’m new in my job and I’m trying to get to know people who….”
3) Remember that networking is not a one-way street. When you first meet people, reciprocate by sharing information you know will be useful.
Elastic Pricing
While most small business owners underprice their services, I did enjoy a recent post by Seth Godin about how high you can raise your prices before you start to lose customers. He describes a situation with his insurance bill:
My car insurance bill has been steadily rising, year after year, despite the fact that I have a clean record. The logic, I’m sure, was, “well, let’s raise it a little and see who quits…”
If revenue increases enough to make up for the few who quit, you come out ahead. So, quarter after quarter, year after year, repeat the same process. Raise it a little, check to see if revenue rises in aggregate, and repeat
There is a point at which you will lose to many customers, and at that point, it is hard to get them back.
One alternative is to reward loyalty. Over the years, I have slowly raised my rates, for new clients. However, my long term clients, pay significantly less. They have stayed with me over the years, and allowed my to grow my business, building the skills I now sell at a higher rate. And when I do have to make a small increase, they are still paying well below the new market rate.
Another alternative is to build value as you raise your price, charge more, but give more and you will earn the right to retain that client.
Good Ideas are Worth Copying!
In marketing, there are few original ideas. Every designer or writer gets inspiration from somewhere. According to the author of Ditch the Dusty Widget every small business owner should adopt this strategy when it comes to developing their own marketing material. She suggests:
In your “Best Practices” hard file, you should collect those types of marketing tools that spark ideas for how to market your own business, or that simply grab your attention and strike you as really well done. Even if the advertisement is for a furniture store and you sell fishing gear, keep the ad if it contains imagery, style elements, a unique offer or some other clever marketing technique that you could re-purpose for your own needs.
In addition to hard copy, I recommend collecting websites as well. I have a document where i post links to sites I consider worth saving. Maybe they have a cool layout, fun headline, or maybe the site is just a great resource for inspiration and new ideas.
Save the good and the bad… whether you are going to do the creative work yourself, or turn the project over to a professional firm, knowing what you like and what you don’t like on the front end will make the process much smoother, with the end result something you are really happy with.
Need help with your first website? Ask about Roundpeg’s $950 web site special!
Entrepreneurial Behavior Can Be Learned.
In a recent post on Duct Tape Marketing, small business expert John Jansh argues:
Many of the traits that make up the entrepreneur are ingrained as habits, I suspect, knowingly or unknowingly, by our well intentioned parents and caregivers.
So this raises an interesting question. If you didn’t grow up in an entrepreneurial environment, can you be a successful entrepreneur? I think you can, but you have to recognize the skills and traits you didn’t see modeled when you are young, and find a way to model them now.
For example – i come from a family of teachers and social workers. I know how to tell a good story, and break down complex ideas into manageable bites, but I still wrestle with skills which come easily to the natural entrepreneur. So how do I compensate? I hang out with entrepreneurs who do have that background, and hang out with the, observe how they approach their business.
Deliver Relevant Content!
Jason Kintzler has written a terrific post for PR pros and amateurs alike.
He suggests when you put a pitch together, think like an editor. Write about ideas that are fresh and relevant? Include details the editor will need to turn out a solid article, such as contact information for interviews, hi-res images and links to supporting material.
If you do your job correctly, your pitch not only isn’t spam, it’s content. Read the rest of the article
Need help with your next press release? Contact Roundpeg Today! 317-69-1396
Email on the Radio
The other night, I was driving home, and heard an unusual radio advertisement for Constant Contact. What was unusual was not the advertisement itself, but the fact that my favorite email marketing tool was advertising their services on the radio.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this was brilliant. It was completely in line with what I tell my clients all the time: combine on and off-line marketing to reach a wider audience.
As a reseller of Constant Contact, and today received a note from them which proved to me it was part of a much larger, well thought out campaign. They explained:
… we launched a national radio campaign to raise awareness and create interest for email marketing. We’ve selected networks and stations around the country to reach our target SMB audience at effective times during the day.
The ad was part of a much larger strategy and with it, was encouragement to resellers like me to boost our on-line efforts to reinforce the radio commercials. Brilliant all the way around.
And this on/off line strategy can work in your business as well.
Other Posts on this subject:
On-Line and Off-Line Work Together
Move Marketing to the Top of Your To-Do List!
Written by Amy Rowe
Do you have all the business you need? This week, and in your pipeline? If the answer is yes, then you can relax, skip this blog post, and work on something else.
If not pay attention. -
- MARKETING is an important activity – It is what will feed your pipeline.
- MARKETING is not just advertising – it is networking, direct mail, email, blogging, and much more.
- MARKETING does not have to be expensive or time consuming
- if you are serious about your busienss – MARKETING is mandatory.
In a recent post on Duct Tape Marketing John Jansch says:
Marketing is and must become a habitual activity in your business. You must live by the marketing calendar or die by the lack of time available to complete the greasing of the squeaky wheel.
So what is your habit? Do you set aside time weekly to evaluate what is working, and why your phone is or ins’t ringing? He goes on to suggest:
The only way to find time for marketing is to plan for it. Create a marketing theme for every month of the year and then build marketing activities on a daily and weekly basis around the theme.
I loved this idea – It allows you to tie all the pices of your marketing together. Messages you create in blogs can be used in newsletters, and emails. A little planning goes a long way to making it easier to manage your marketing.
