Express Marketing Memo

Let’s Talk About Content Marketing

Shari Voigt — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:06:05 +0000

A lot of what we do here falls under the umbrella of “content marketing.” We may not always identify it as such … as in, “hey, this post is part of our content marketing strategy.” You, dear reader, might take offense at that … after all, who wants to be marketed to?

Content marketing is first and foremost about providing valuable content. It can take the shape of words, images, video, audio … your only limit is your own imagination. “Valuable” is the operative word here. Shouting “buy my stuff” across every available media is not content marketing. No, most of us consider that tactic to be “spam.”

On the other hand, when a company or an individual provides me with the information I’m looking for, I take notice. If they do so repeatedly, they become a trusted information source. If that trusted source, later on, offers me a relevant product that meets my needs, they’ll likely make the sale. This is the heart of content marketing.

Joe Pulizzi of Junta42.com defines it like this:

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Your blog and/or newsletter, your comments on other blogs, profiles on social media sites, involvement in social networking, articles published off-site, even the articles you bookmark … all of these activities are pieces to the content marketing puzzle. Each activity contributes toward the end goal of driving interested visitors to your site. None of the pieces are highly effective standing alone. But used together, they form a picture of your company (otherwise known as your brand) while providing useful, relevant information to your target audience.

For the micro-business owner, content marketing helps you establish credibility in the eyes of your customers and prospects, while driving sales of your product or service. For the organization, content marketing helps spread awareness of your cause. And for the larger business, well, many are already aware of the benefits. Put simply, it works.

So what’s holding you back? A lack of time to do it yourself? Don’t know what to write about? Don’t know how to go about it? Or are you already engaged in content marketing? (We’d love to hear your success story!

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What is Your Unique Marketing Strategy?

Shari Voigt — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Internet marketing may be the most talked about game in town, but is it the only game? Not hardly. We get so wrapped up in talking about the latest online strategy, that sometimes we forget that not everyone is tied to their computer.

Small Business Marketing is Not One-Size-Fits-All

For instance, while I do believe that nearly every business needs a website, how that website is used will vary within different market segments. Phone book advertising is another example. Is it a waste of money or money well-spent? It all depends on your market. Understanding your market is crucial to your small business success.

Learn All You Can About Your Market

This past week, I investigated the online market viability for a joint venture project. The results were disappointing, to say the least … low search traffic combined with intense competition. But at the other end of this venture is a person who’s investigated the local marketplace and her results show the opposite.

We’ve decided to move forward because we can reach this niche market using direct response marketing tactics. A search engine optimized website will be part of our marketing mix, but due to our research, we know that it’s going to take A LOT of time and effort before that website will pull its own weight, except possibly in some select local markets.

Market Understanding Drives the Strategy

So our unique marketing strategy begins with a direct mail campaign. We’ll supplement this with a couple of well-written direct response ads placed in relevant trade magazines. The website will still be center-stage, just not relied upon initially as a lead generating tool. Of course, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn will also be part of the mix.

Even in these recessionary times, opportunities abound. We’ll miss them if we are too focused on one prevailing idea. Take some time this week to think about your market. Gaining a better understanding of your market will help you identify new ways to reach it … leading to increased sales and improving your profitability. What is your unique marketing strategy? What tools are you using to promote your business?

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How Do You Treat Your Customer?

Susan Hamilton — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:42:32 +0000

Customer satisfaction, you’ve heard of it. We stand behind “the customer is always right” to the point of ridiculous on many occasions. Whether they are a pleasant, easy-going customer or the grumpy, hard to please type, we treat them with respect because they do matter to us. We have a zillion reasons they are valuable, and as difficult as some of them can be at times, we fall back on that list frequently!

they pay the bills
we need their references on our ‘Happy Customers List’
we build our portfolios on the work we do for them
they will talk of our great service and drop our names
every customer is a link to a new customer, etc.

Those are all very important, familiar reasons we put up with difficult and sometimes unfriendly customers, but even so, no one likes to be treated rudely or unfairly, ourselves included. When our customers are not-so-easy-to-please, how do we treat them in such a way that they will come back to us much easier to satisfy?

The first thing we do is recognize that they did not have to choose us, but they did.
Since they did choose us, they are worthy of the same respect another more reasonable customer would receive.
Smile. Smile when you talk on the phone, type on the keyboard, and absolutely when you are speaking face-to-face. A smile will transform how you see them, remind you to be friendly at all times, and will translate through every medium–even the phone line!
Make sure every detail is expertly thought out and executed.
Do the very best job you are capable of doing.
Present your service or product with confidence, ready to meet resistance with understanding and suggest an alternative if one exists.

Some people just won’t be satisfied. When you’ve done all you can, that’s all you can do. No matter what, don’t loose your cool.

Its not easy saying the right thing when you feel you’ve been insulted or when you’ve gotten your feathers ruffled! Having a game plan will help you to speak calmly and resolve the issue while preserving your dignity!

How do you treat your customer?

Photo Credit: chez sugi on flickr

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What Is Article Marketing?

Susan Hamilton — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:05:21 +0000

One of the most constructive ways to build credibility with your market is through article writing and submission via article submission directories. A relatively new topic for small business, this social marketing technique has been on the rise in recent years, proving beneficial to almost any market.

A standard length article is 300-750 words, and should be geared to some aspect of interest to your specific market. When your articles appear frequently on submission sites with a clear message and content value, your readers begin to view you as one to be referred to, or the expert on a given topic.

Article writing through sites such as Ezines.com (our pick), Ask.com, About.com, and others, offer free content to marketers and small to large size businesses as a way to easily provide informative documentation to their specific readership, which includes your audience. The stipulation to them is that your personal information, which you provide in a bio box, is distributed with it.

A carefully thought out bio box should include a brief, professional description of your company, a picture of yourself, and a direct link back to your website. As your work is picked up by viewers and published, your name and company develop a much larger audience than you could have achieved approaching these viewers independently. In this way they are in effect, screened, because they are searching the sites specifically for the information on your topic. Instead of authoring their own work, with all the research and time that implies, one expert will use another’s work and give him/her credit for doing so. This is a major time convenience for a news magazine or niche writer, and a win-win for everybody.

The trick is to update regularly and keep the content relevant and valuable to your readers. Make sure you’re writing beneficial insights that will make them want to come back for more, and find out more about your service or product offerings.

What’s your favorite article submission site?

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Related off-site posts: Five Steps To Success With Article Marketing

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Social Media Is Like Fitness Training

Susan Hamilton — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:10:41 +0000

I was working out this morning when it occurred to me that for the first time this year, I can start to see all my effort paying off. I’ve always worked out, but its becoming increasingly more difficult to repair after the holidays!

Social media marketing is much like that, believe it or not. When you first start working on that social media muscle, you won’t see immediate results. That’s okay. The repetition, consistency, and diligence will pay off, just not right away.

Be Diligent

Diligence is what makes you do what you don’t necessarily feel like doing, just because you know you should. Don’t just attack Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn with random, reckless abandon. Rather, knowing you should be connecting socially, create a plan of attack. If you go into a gym and work out hard on every piece of equipment without knowing what you’re doing, should you expect results or injury?

Take some time to consider how you’re going to build this muscle. How are you going to attract the people you need in your arena? What will your message be? Are you going to offer information, inspiration, or network connections? Remember, this social media muscle will take time to develop. You’re probably going to make mistakes, but if you’re diligent about this, relationships are inevitable.

Practice Repetition

You probably wouldn’t notice any shape or form if you didn’t repeat an exercise several times. Same thing with responding to comments on your blog, and leaving comments on other blogs you read. This is an important muscle because it gives you an opportunity to leave a link or trackback to your site and blog. As your community sees your repeated involvement, you become known for your friendly interaction.

Be Consistent

Working out for a month and then sitting for a month will just be a waste of your time. That’s why lifestyle changes have to happen for true fitness. You may grow tired and want to stop, but just get back out there again.

Blog. Blog. Blog. It’s the new credibility muscle, and its built with consistency. This one takes your area of expertise, and shares it with a slowly built readership base. These people will inevitably be involved in a conversation, probably online, and say,”I know where to find the answer to that, I saw it just the other day on so-and-so’s blog! Here’s the link.” That link will take them to your blog, and connect them to your website.

Social media muscle building brings your customers to you. Time to work out?

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3 Steps to Learn Almost Any Business Task

Gerald Voigt — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:13:46 +0000

Today’s post is by Gerald Voigt, my husband and business partner. He blogs regularly about business and marketing at Zero To Sixty Marketing and covers scale modeling at Hawkeye’s Squawkbox.

We all learn differently, but one thing we all have in common is the ability to learn by rote - that is, through repetition. Practice makes perfect.

Here’s a simple, but effective formula to gain working knowledge on just about any business task or topic, from copywriting to Web design to social media marketing and beyond. I call this the Triple One Method:

Watch One. Watch someone perform a task or procedure. Here’s one reason online video has taken off. Rather than simply reading about it, we can watch the task being performed. Of course, if that video is backed up with something in writing, you can watch and read, which provides you with another learning channel.

Do One. You’ve been shown how; now it’s time to do it yourself. At first, you’ll probably need some help. Make sure you have someone to turn to with questions and to review your work. Encouragement from a mentor that the job was well done, as well as constructive criticism, will help you to gain proficiency.

Teach One. Teach someone the task. This step helps you not only affirm what you were taught and have practiced, it also helps you build confidence in your abilities.

I’ve found that this systematic approach to learning helps me to more quickly make use of what I’ve learned, and provides me with greater retention of the topic. From the other end of the spectrum, it’s also an effective way to get your point across in a teaching environment.

Photo Credit: pavaranda on Stock.xchng

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Move Your Staff or Client Meetings Outdoors!

Shari Voigt — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:09:02 +0000

Twice in the past two weeks, we’ve had phenomenal outdoor meetings … the kind you always hope for, but which never quite materialize in the conference room. What’s a phenomenal meeting? One where every participant engages, where ideas flow, where one idea spawns another and you actually accomplish something. Afterward, you KNOW it was productive. In fact, you don’t quite want the meeting to end. Okay, I’m a bit of an idealist, and that’s my perfect meeting!

We don’t actually have a “staff,” but we do have a team. When Copywriter Susan Hamilton and I hashed out ideas for an e-course last week, we expected to come up with 24 lessons. We wound up with 60, while walking outdoors on a cold Wisconsin afternoon.

Zero To Sixty Marketing VP of Operations (and husband) Gerald Voigt and I had a similar experience yesterday, although the day was anything but cold. (Spring has finally arrived in Wisconsin.) We talked about how to help one specific segment of our market “get” social media marketing, about how rapidly the marketing landscape is changing, and ways to help them make the transition. I was the geek with the tiny notepad jotting down quick notes while we walked.

The details of each discussion aren’t important for the purpose of this post. My point is to get out of the office with a coworker, a client, or your whole team. Go for a walk. Exchange ideas. Notice the difference in attitude and engagement. Maybe we CAN get in shape while getting things done!

Photo Credit: Office Now on flickr

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Where Will You Be This Time Next Year?

Susan Hamilton — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:00:52 +0000

At the close of our first fiscal quarter, it’s a good time to re-evaluate the course you’re on for the year. The only difference between where any of us are right now and where we’ll be next year is what we start doing differently today. You’ve got goals and ambition, but that’s not enough to elevate and sustain your business. No, what you need more than that is a successful strategy for improvement.

What Does That Look Like?

First of all, you need to be able to see the big picture. It’s not the first time you’ve heard that. Practically every diet and multi-level business plan will tell you success depends on your ability to visualize yourself in your new situation. They often suggest a picture of the bathing suit or car you desire be taped right to the front door of your refrigerator door or bathroom mirror so that you see it and re-commit to your goals frequently. Matter of fact, after years of smoking I was eventually able to quit by writing myself lipstick messages on my bathroom mirror every day. It was actually very effective.

So, where do you want to be next year, and can you see it from here? Or are you simply going to be satisfied that your company is still in operation? Those are possibly two very different scenarios.

For those of you who are still aiming for greatness, keep your goals clearly ahead of you at all times. Here’s a few things I know from experience that work:

Look at the big picture and aim high for next year.
Break that into quarterly goals.
Communicate effectively to your team where you all must be monthly to meet those goals.
Make your weekly objectives adhere to your overall plan.

Many work at home businesses understand the value of the big picture, but fail to break it down into bite size pieces, citing the difficult nature of working out client deadline issues and paycheck variables. That’s really backward thinking.

Next quarter, instead of plugging business objectives around your clients’ needs, plug your clients into your business objectives. For instance, make sure that you’ve included all the necessary time involved for research and planning needed to fulfill your big picture when you’re processing proposals and filling your calendar. This practice will cause you to exceed your own expectations and keep you on target for the week, month, quarter, and year.

Here’s to kicking butt in 2009!

How is your company measuring up to your goals?

Photo Credit: sixty69niner on flickr

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Climbing Blog Mountain

Shari Voigt — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:51:14 +0000

When you get a few days (or a few weeks) behind on blogging, getting started again can seem a daunting task. You want to get back at it … really, really want to get back at it, but having lost your momentum, it becomes a mountain to climb. Thankfully, most of that’s just in your head (or in this case, mine).

A recent post on Remarkablogger provided inspiration and encouragement. He lists ten ways to crank out “killer” blog posts in ten minutes or less. Obviously, that’s not something I’m accustomed to, but it did provide the inspiration to get moving today. Ten minutes? I can do that!

Suggestion #1 is to pick three blogs you respect and introduce your readers to them. Ok, one down … Remarkablogger. Michael Martine provides helpful, insightful posts on blogging, and has a knack for getting his readers involved in the comments.

Kimberly Bock of Learning SEO Basics has just redesigned her blog. As her name suggests, look to her for the basics in SEO education. She spells it out in layman’s language because she cares that you understand exactly what she’s talking about. Her post on how to write title tags is a good example of what you’ll find on her blog.

Junta42 blog is all about content marketing. It’s another favorite, one I rarely miss. A recent post looked at Monster.com’s content strategy, which is directly related to their position as a trusted solutions provider for the jobs market. The lesson in this post can and should be applied to every business: “It’s too risky NOT to publish valuable content marketing information to your customers and prospects.”

In the interest of keeping this short and sweet, that’s it for today. Now it’s your turn. What are you going to quickly write about today?

Photo Credit: taquiman on flicker

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Why Pick Home-Based Service Businesses Over Larger Companies?

Susan Hamilton — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:39:07 +0000

Today’s article is the first of many by my associate and sister, Susan Hamilton. As a copywriter from the Dallas, Texas area, she has a passion for helping the home-based business owner succeed in today’s economic climate.

Often home-based businesses in the service industry mistakenly assume they’re competing with larger companies, and neglect marketing to the consumer who is actually looking for them. These smaller companies should start a recovery effort for all the bruised and broken customers left after the larger companies discard them!

There’s a growing consensus in our economy that larger companies can’t seem to provide the reliable customer service they used to be known for, and those consumers left burned have no more money to just throw away. That won’t stop the need for emergency remodeling or large appliance purchase and installation, however, and if a window is broken, it will still need to be fixed. Today’s consumers are much more cautious. Who, then, gets the business?

When customers aren’t happy with a larger company’s performance, often they feel recourse is futile. To them, customer satisfaction is more about the survey, the raise, or employee bonuses based on numbers and little else. Anyone who has dealt with problem resolution companies such as One Source, used by Sears, knows exactly what it feels like to be left hanging between two associated larger companies that offer no real resolution at all.

Small businesses just can’t compete on the same level. When we lose a customer it hurts. If we sell defective, unserviceable merchandise, we know it will cost us greatly. Companies as large as Sears and One Source, on the other hand, can find alternate ways to charge their customers for services rendered on a defected item that shouldn’t have needed repair in the first place. A personal experience aside, that’s a gamble a smaller company wouldn’t necessarily make because a non-returning or dissatisfied customer is an expensive loss to them.

What is The Customer Looking For?

Knowing what a customer is really looking for changes how small businesses must present themselves to their communities. We can’t compete with larger companies, and shouldn’t. What our customer is looking for isn’t exactly the same as what the big dog’s customer is after. Yet, both customers want to be treated fairly, a job done well, and a reasonable price.

One difference is in perceived value. One customer finds strength in larger numbers; another finds strength in a family home-based operation, usually one they’ve used before and intend to use again when needed. Another difference is proximity. Customers who regularly call on smaller, home-based businesses like the idea that the company is down the street in their neighborhood.

It’s important for small, home-based businesses to understand their situation. In this economy, they have such a large risk, but seem unaware of the credibility their years of service offer their customers. That credibility is marketing gold. When your customers truly believe that they are in better hands with you, they’re much more likely to buy your products and services. Why gamble with another company? The big company has a larger advertising budget, but given a choice, consumers will choose to do business with a company they trust.

How Do They Find You?

There aren’t extra marketing dollars just lying around to be used poorly. Doing nothing is not an option. It would be nice if you could simply rely on past reputation to bring in enough business to keep you on track financially, but that’s unrealistic given the circumstances today. Some customers are going away; who will replace them?

Is it easier to hunt for customers, or for them to find you? This is pretty basic, yet often overlooked. Making yourself known to your potential customer is not just about putting flyers on windshields or doors. Service-oriented small businesses need to tap into the goldmine that exists online if they are going to survive. If you are a home-based business in the service industry, this means you.

It’s not difficult, but it is foreign. Much has changed since the emergence of the internet presence. It’s not about the ad; it’s about the expert in the field reaching out to the consumer in a friendly, easily accessible manner. Through practice, tutorials, and competent advice, your business can learn the strategies necessary to succeed while those around you flounder. If you don’t have the time because you’re busy with your business, it is a worthwhile investment to outsource.

Get motivated, get current, and put on your survival gear. You don’t have to fail just because it’s happening all around you. The choice is most definitely yours.