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How to Use Marketing to Grow Your Business in Any Economy

June 4th, 2011 by bstoller

Marketing your small business is very confusing to most small business owners and advertising managers. How much should I spend? WHERE should I spend it? Should I not spend anything and only work on social media? So many questions about the changing face of marketing that many businesses have forgotten that there is more to marketing than simply spending money to attract traffic.

The essence of effective marketing is the ability to attract the customers attention and once having attracted it, to deliver an experience that will assure you that they will come back to repeat it again and again.

From my experience with many business owners, there are many who have simply forgotten this rule. Many believe that simply getting people to their doors is all it takes. The truth of the matter is that you have competitors who DO understand this rule and are probably going to end up with some of your customers at some point.

There's more to marketing than spending money

Unless….

You go back to the principle and and brush up on your business strategy for keeping your most profitable customers and having a process to handle incoming new customers (or potential customers) from your advertising programs.

Too many times I have seen where businesses have the belief that more customers will equal more profit. Some of that time, it is correct. However, if you continually gain more customers only to have them visit you once and never come back, you are probably going backwards.

Your marketing dollars should factor in not just the advertising expense, but also factor in the system to handle new customers.

If you have a hair salon, for example, a first time visitor is probably going to have a lot of questions. Some questions they will ask, but many will be simply questions like, “Do I feel comfortable here?… Are these people going to be able to listen to my hair care wants and desires?” …. and so on.

As a business owner, it is up to you to climb into the mind of your customers and figure out what questions they are going to have during their first visit to your store. You must take care of those questions and concerns or your first time visitor will not be a second time visitor!

Once you have determine the questions and concerns you believe your first time visitors may have, then your second step is to design a system for your business to handle them. Even if your business is typically not a high repeat business, let’s say a real estate business, by taking the time to understand what your customer wants and needs you will have another form of repeat business – referrals.

I hope this makes sense – marketing is not just getting people to your door. It’s the entire system that your business uses to process potential customers without alienating your most profitable ones you already have.

If reading this stimulates a little thought or questions, please visit our Facebook Page, become a fan, and post any questions or ideas you may have that could help others.

Categories : Marketing Strategies
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Four Square – The Next Twitter for Local Marketing??

August 16th, 2010 by bstoller

Foursquare: Is This the Next Twitter for Local Business Advertising?

I recently ran across a new social media that calls itself a location based service (LBS) that has the look and feel of Twitter – with a few unique items. I instantly see the potential of this service to local businesses as a great way to get the word out – free of charge!

Mashable.com has touted Four Square “While no service is likely to achieve the same scale as Twitter in the coming months, Foursquare has all the right ingredients to be one of this year’s big hits.

Here’s how Location Based Services work:

Through the use of mobile applications with the i-Phone, Android, Blackberry and a few others, LBS uses the geo technology in your phone (the way your new smartphone uses GPS to guide you on a trip), to hone in on businesses in the area. Of course, businesses are going to need to get on board!

Foursquare is pretty much in the same position as Twitter was a couple of years ago. The big difference is that it is primarily location based and people are starting to use it now. People can “check in” at a local business and then give tips on their favorite dish reviews on their service. The top visitors become “mayors” of that particular business. Businesses should encourage special treatment for the mayor if they want to get good press!

The interesting thing about Foursquare is that it connects to Twitter and Facebook – businesses can get even MORE press. This is good and bad, as this press can be both positive and negative. This is why you want to offer rewards to the mayor!! Keep the good word rolling!!

Besides the “mayor’s influence”, there’s more. With Foursquare, people “check in” to your place of business which actually means something.

Foursquare stats

The stats themselves are also quite interesting. On one level you’re competing against just your immediate circle of Foursquare friends, on another you’re competing against everyone in your city on a weekly basis. The stats reset to zero on Sunday night so everyone, even the noobs, has a fair playing ground come Monday morning.

Tips and To-Dos: This is important for local businesses. As a user, you can add tips to locales to tell your friends and the general public about the key things they need to know about a venue. Say for example the restaurant has a discount every Tuesday night, you’d add that info into Foursquare, and then anyone nearby can see the tip and save it as a to-do to on their personal check list. If you don’t add in the special, however, no one is going to know about it. Saavy business owners can become the first in their community to embrace this and they will reap the rewards and a local following!

Foursquare is in a position to be a windfall for businesses. In the same way that savvy business owners can tap into the Yelp (Yelp) community to promote and encourage reviews, they can tap into Foursquare check-ins to get people talking about their establishment and rewarding them for their patronage. The key for business owners is to embrace and encourage comments.

I encourage all business owners to get signed up on Four Square and to start promoting Foursquare to your customers. If you offer your customers a little incentive, they will sell your business for you!

Click here for the Foursquare site

Categories : Marketing Strategies
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Internet Marketing Strategies for Small Business

June 30th, 2010 by bstoller

Business owners often struggle with internet marketing for small business. They especially struggle when trying to reach an audience that distrusts marketing messages. Even tougher when they dislike talking to salespeople.

The solution: Give the prospects the resources and education they need so they can make their own decision. This will allow the prospects to choose when they want to talk to you.

It all starts with knowing the customer – the customer profile

If the business owner or marketing manager must segment the different customers in his/her organization. Each customer group needs to be addressed differently. Some customers are purely impulsive, and will buy when they are presented an idea or product right away. If they don’t buy now, they may never buy. Other customers, as is the case for this example, don’t want to talk to anyone, and they need information before they make their decision to buy.

For this article, we’re going to focus on the difficult prospect who is resistant to marketing. Here are the steps that we should consider for the marketing plan:

1) Design website to mirror the customer profile

You need to find out what makes this customer “tick”. What do they like? Dislike? Do they like “boring information” or do they prefer to be entertained with humorous video?? The website needs to fit the customers, not the business owner.

2) Create web content for different stages of the buying process

Informational Stage – this stage represents the earliest stage of the buying process. People want to research about your product or service, so they need informative articles, blog posts, etc. If they don’t get the information from you, they will continue to search elsewhere until they find someone who DOES give them the information.

The company that controls the information stage is the one who gains the initial loyalty of the prospect and will usually end up with the sale when the customer is ready to buy.

Free Items

This stage progresses the “researcher” to take some form of action that doesn’t involve the prospect to spend any money. Each business is different, of course, but this could merely be some free trial, an e-book on the various types of services that the person can read about right away, a trial membership, etc. There must be a perceived value for this free item. The value needs to be placed on the high side of reality. $500 value for a movie ticket, for example, is outrageous and will counter act the benefit you wish to recieve. A $50 value for a complimentary dinner is more in line. I think you get the idea. Another idea could be to offer a “free” membership into your companies “preferred readers’ program that is limited and has a value of $50 monthly. You could simply give them a password to have access to articles and your newsletter that you would probably have given to them anyways.

Consideration Stage

Once you have the prospects trust and loyalty, you can offer them a free trial for your product or service. Price quotes are also an area where prospects can request from an online form.

3) Drive Traffic to your site through multiple channels

In order to maximize your leads, you want to make sure you have more than one avenue to driver your traffic. If you only utlize one website and hope to have people “find you”, you are only kidding yourself. The saying “If you build it they will come”, does not apply to marketing on the internet. Multiple blogs, press releases, etc. must be done if you are to be successful.

Categories : Marketing Strategies
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