Idea Spot

Get a Unique Business Card

2009-07-23T13:21:00.001-07:00

John Moore of Brand Autopsy likes to say that your marketing should "earn an opinion." One of the easiest ways to earn an opinion in a new relationship is with your business card. Get creative and make your card unique.

For example, John Moore's business card is a toe tag,

Waco, Texas real estate broker Andy Sheehy fashioned his over-sized business card after a sporting event ticket.

For my own business card, I decided to make it look like my logo icon and went with a round business card. It costs a little bit more, but it earns an opinion every time I give one.

When making your business card unique, think about using both sides of the card. Make a statement on the front, put the important contact information on the back.

How can you earn an opinion with your business card?

Need marketing ideas specific for your business? My company is The Marketing Spot and I help entrepreneurs and small business owners develop marketing plans and strategies. See my website for more details or give me a call: 254-399-8093

For more small business marketing advice, please see my small business marketing strategy blog: The Marketing Spot. You can also listen to my podcast: Power to the Small Business, where I discuss strategy and tactics with some of the brightest minds in marketing.

A Different Way to Do Door Hangers

2009-07-12T05:43:00.001-07:00

Using door hangers as a marketing tactic is an intrusion, there's no way around it. It's like saying, "I just intruded on your space to get you to buy my stuff." Instead of gaining customers, you might actually drive them away. Why not do it a little differently? Help your customers get smarter.

For example, let's say you own a nursery and landscaping company. Distribute a list of the 10 Flowers That Best Withstand the Summer Heat. Or 7 Tips to Keep Your Lawn Green. Or Three Landscaping Ideas That Won't Break the Bank. You get the picture. Help your customers, don't just try to sell them stuff.

Once you've helped the customer, you now have the right to ask them for business. End with a call to action or a discount. At the bottom of door hanger place a coupon related to the tips. You might also create a special page on your website with the helpful information and print that web address on the door hanger.

How to do get your door hanger:

I recommend that you use a local graphic designer to design your piece. This should cost between $100-$200.
Use an online printer, they're much cheaper than local printers. You can print 500 door hangers for as little as $125, including shipping, at online printers such as Print Place.
Diligently keep track of your results. Count the exact number of coupons that get redeemed. Ask people how they learned about you.
If it works, use the tactic regularly, but no more than once per month. Each time you do, change the helpful information with new advice.

Marketing Migration

2008-09-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

Rather than trying to keep up with two blogs, I have migrated all posts over to The Marketing Spot. Please check it out for small business marketing advice here: The Marketing Spot blog.

It's easy to let future articles from The Marketing Spot come to you: Receive by Email or Get The Marketing Spot in a blog reader

Guerrilla Marketing Time Machine: Advertising Specialties

2008-02-16T04:17:00.000-08:00

Note: We are in a series examining "Old School" marketing techniques to see if they still have oomph. Jay Conrad Levinson's 1993 edition of Guerilla Marketing is our reference book.

Ad specialties don't get much love from professional marketers. I searched the 47 marketing blogs to which I subscribe and only came up with one entry specifically about advertising specialties.

Before we get into what Levinson thinks about ad specialties, let's get a definition: Promotional products that can be customized with a company's logo or slogan. (Eg, pens, t-shirts, cups/mugs, matches)

Levinson, in the '93 edition of Guerrilla Marketing, thought that ad specilties could be used to gain awareness of your business, but the tactic should only be part of your marketing mix.

"Consider these specialties ot be the equivalent of billboards. That means they are great for reminder advertising. They are usually terrible as your only marketing medium. They do, however, put your name in front of prospective customers."

According to Levinson, ad specialties were good sales door openers, and items with a high perceived value created "a sense of unconscious obligation." However, he much preferred free samples.

Best Uses
There are five primary considerations when deciding to use ad specialties.

The Item -Exactly what are you going to give away?
It's tempting to buy the cheap pens so that you can have something to give away. But don't do it. Save your money instead. Make it something out of the ordinary. If your are going to give away a pen, do something like a folding carabiner pen. It's functional and it's unique. In a drawer full of free pens, this one stands out.

We did this type of pen for a medical clinic I consult and gave them out during patient appreciation day. They were a big hit with patients and staff alike. The nurses started wearing them around their necks.
The Customer - Who's getting your freebie?
Match your item to your audience. Don't just buy a bunch of stuff that you will give away to everyone. For example don't buy a bunch of memory sticks and then give them away to the over 55 crowd. When the same medical clinic mentioned above did a health fair for senior citizens, we gave away ruler/magnifier.
The Objective - What are you trying to accomplish?
If your objective is to just put your name in front of customers, then save your money. Have a specific purpose in mind when you buy your specialty. With the medical clinic, we did big refrigerator magnets listing all our medical specialties and the appointment phone number.

Our main objective was to educate patients that we were multi-specialty and not just primary care. In addition, we wanted to give them easy access to our appointment phone number. And because they hold little Suzie's homework up on the frig, they're always visible. People loved them.
Your Business - Is your business right for ad specialties?
Remember that the objective is not just to get your name out there. I don't think ad specialties work that well for businesses such as carpet stores. People don't buy carpet that often. And when they do, it's a major purchase. It's unlikely that your free key chain is going to have an impact on their buying decision. The same goes for car dealers.

I think ad specialties work best for businesses whose products are frequently bought and and widely used by a large percentage of the population. I think realtors overuse ad specialties. Restaurants, however, probably underuse them. How often do people wonder what they're going to do for lunch?
The Setting - Where are you giving away your item?
Does your freebie seem out of place? Consider how your item will be perceived when you give it away. Giving away calendars at a county fair would seem out of place. However, giving away caps at a golf tournament would be well received.

The best ad specialty we did for our medical clinic client did not even have our logo on it. We ordered some yellow ribbon pins (support the troops) and gave them away on Memorial Day. Almost everyone wanted one, and put them on while they were still in the clinic. It created a lot of good will with our patients and made the staff feel proud.

Where to Buy
Competition is fierce in the ad specialties world. You can purchase them easily online and there are probably several dealers in your town. Shop around and compare. I have ordered directly online and I have used a local rep. The more complicated the project, the more you need to use a local rep. Sometimes they are even price competitive with internet re-sellers. If you are going to need help with your artwork, local companies who specialize in ad specialties (not the ones that do it on the side) can be a big help.

Try to find a good local rep, especially if you order several times a year. They can be useful in suggesting items that you might not have considered. They can also save you time by doing order placement and keeping track of production.

Get a few price quotes from local reps and compare them with prices online. Keep in mind that the company you are dealing with is not the manufacturer. Just about all ad specialty companies order from the same set of manufacturers. If one company has a specific item, then you get bet just about everyone has that item.

Guerrilla Marketing Tactic?
Ad specialties are indeed a guerrilla marketing tactic, but not the primary one. Use it only as an additional marketing support weapon.

Have you used ad specialties successfully? If so, please share them here.

Small Business Marketing Seminar - Get a marketing plan for your business! DIY Marketing for Small businesses is coming to Temple, Texas on February 28. For details and registration information see our website: The Marketing Spot.

Guerrilla Marketing Time Machine: Direct Mail Marketing

2008-02-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Note: We are in a series examining "Old School" marketing techniques to see if they still have oomph. Jay Conrad Levinson's 1993 edition of Guerilla Marketing is our reference book.

Ok, sorry for the delay between posts. Been working on a Starbucks re-experience project over on The Marketing Spot.

"Direct marketing is where it's at. Direct marketing is the name of your game."
- Jay Conrad Levinson - Guerilla Marketing

I have to agree with JCL on this one. Direct Mail can be a very effective marketing tool for small businesses, and very cost efficient.

Levinson cites these advantages of direct mail:

It's easier to track results
You can zero in on almost any target audience.
You can personalize your marketing like crazy.
You can compete with, even beat, the giants.

Levinson's rules of thumb for using direct mail:

The most important element is the right list.
Make it easy for the recipient to take action.
Testimonials improve response rates.
Test your results and keep good records

Tips for Getting a Maximum Response Rate

Always tell the person what to do next - Make a phone call, go to the website, come to the showroom.
The four most important elements in direct mail are the list, the offer, the copy, the graphics. Pay close attention to each.
Direct mail success comes from the cumulative effect of repeat mailing. Make them repetitive, yet different from one another.

I frequently use direct mail for clients, and for my own business, because of its versatility and cost effectiveness. Direct mail allows you to specifically target who you want to receive your mail. You can target by almost any category and combination of categories you can conceive. Some examples of targeting are geographic, demographic, income, family size, employment category, or any combination of the above.

Accuracy of the list is very important. Make sure you check the age of you list with the list broker. The list should be no more than 12-18 months old. And remember, you want to mail to a person, and not to a title. My advice is to eliminate titles from your list because they are often inaccurate and they are often truncated. Truncated titles like "Pres" and "Treas" damage your credibility. This is why you need to establish a relationship with a good mailing house.

The Most Important Thing
What do you want to accomplish with your mailing? Yes, you should use all marketing to advance your brand promise and image. However, if you are going to use direct mail, you need a stronger purpose.

Before you mail, decide the action you want the customer to take. Call for an appointment? Redeem a coupon? Visit your website? Then transform this goal into a prominent call to action on the direct mail piece.

Your Partner in Mailing
Do not try to mail things yourself. A dirty little secret is that you don't have to pay full price on postage if you sort things the right way. But you don't have to do the sorting. Find a good mail house with which to work. They can give you invaluable advice and save you money on postage, enough to justify the cost of using them. Many of them will also print your materials for you.

The key is finding a mail house you can trust and one that will give you good advice. The internet can set you up with just about any mail house in the country. I recommend going local if you can. Sometimes, you need to be able to sit across the desk from someone so that they understand your business is important. In Central Texas, I use MailMax Direct

Consider Using Postcards
Postcards are cheaper to print and cheaper to mail than letters or the fancy pieces direct mail marketers will try to sell you. More importantly, postcards are more visible. There's no envelope to open. The customer has to touch your mail piece when in arrives in their mailbox. There is no way that they can avoid looking at your message.

If you are going to use postcards, your call to action or your brand promise has to be immediately visible. And because you have less space to write, your copy has to be concise and powerful.

Tips on Using Postcards

Use large format postcards (8.5" x 5.5"). The cost to print them is not that much more and they stand out prominently in the mailbox.
To reduce printing costs don't use bleed (printing to the edge of the sheet), and print your piece in two colors rather than four color (this takes a skilled graphics designer).
Don't stick mailing labels on your postcard, have your mailhouse inkjet the names. This can actually be cheaper to do sometimes.

Brad over at Branding Strategy Insider has a great a great Direct Marketing Guide which you should bookmark as your reference tool.

Guerrilla Marketing Tactic?
Direct mail may be an even more effective marketing tool than it was when Levinson wrote the first edition of Guerrilla Marketing. Many big companies sink a lot of money into flooding your email box, leaving more space in your conventional mailbox to stand out.

Check out our other small business marketing blog: The Marketing Spot
Our company website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

Guerilla Marketing Time Machine: Magazines

2008-01-24T14:24:00.000-08:00

Note: We are in a series examining "Old School" marketing techniques to see if they still have oomph. Jay Conrad Levinson's 1993 edition of Guerilla Marketing is our reference book.

Magazines

From Chapter 17 of Guerrilla Marketing:

"A properly produced magazine ad, preferably of the full-page variety, gives a small business more credibility than any other mass marketing medium."

That's quite a bold statement. But it also holds a lot of validity. Levinson further explains his strategy:

"Consumer confidence will not necessarily be gained from one exposure to
your magazine ad. But if you run the ad one time, you can use the reprints
of that ad forever."

Levinson's suggested strategy was to run a single regional ad in only a single issue of a national magazine such as Time. Now that's a pretty huge suggestion given that a full page ad in a Time can cost around $30,000. That's a lot of money, especially in the guerrilla marketing jungle. Why would you do this?

Magazines have evolved through technology and necessity. To combat declining national advertising revenue, the top magazines now print many different regional editions and even local editions for major metropolitan areas.

For example, Reader's Digest, America's largest circulation magazine (not counting AARP's mag) offers 10 regional editions and 10 major market editions. A full-page color ad in the national edition would run you $251,000. However, a full page color ad in the southern regional edition is just $87,000 and only $16,000 in the Dallas/Ft. Worth edition.

The key is the use of reprints to establish credibility. Even if you spend $16,000 instead of $251,000 to be in Reader's Digest, you still get to say on your reprint: "As seen in Reader's Digest." And that was Levinson's point on credibility.

Using Reprints

Reprints of your ad could then be distributed as newspaper inserts, direct mail pieces, or large posters in your store window.

I have to say this idea somewhat intrigues me. But I don't believe you need to go that far to establish credibility.

From time to time we have recommended local magazine ads for some of our clients. One of the primary reasons for doing so was credibility. Yes, we are an increasingly online society. And yes, marketers love to taught the new media. But the old media still maintains a credibility edge according to this survey from Nielsen.

Local Magazines

In Waco, we have two high-quality, widely-distributed community magazines, including the Wacoan. It has a polished presentation and the ads well-constructed. Unfortunately, you can't see the magazine online yet (hint, hint to publishers Robert & Michelle, who live about a block away from me).

If you have a magazine of this type in your community, you should consider using it for credibility. In fact many people pick up our Wacoan magazine just to look at the ads. Your primary considerations are presentation, distribution and ad cost.

How To Use Magazines
To use magazines, I suggest you use a tactic from new media and integrate it into your old media magazine ad. Advertise in a local magazine, but don't advertise. What I'm saying is give something of value instead of an advertisement.

I encourage you to listen to episode #4 of my Power to the Small Business podcast with guest Steven Van Yoder. We talk about how it's time to stop trying to sell stuff and start giving people something of value. This is the tactic that establishes credibility: it's what I call cultivating your customer.

Take a look at your local newspaper or magazine today and read the ads. You will see that the two primary uses of these ads are selling or branding. Odds are, you will not see one single ad that is providing useful information that makes the reader better. And that's good for you.

Put together an ad that provides something of value to your customer: helpful tips, timely product news, industry insight. Or you can reprint your full page ad "as seen in Reader's Digest."

Guerrilla Tactic?
Whether or not you want to drop 16 grand on Reader's Digest to test Levinson's theory is up to you. But if you use local magazine advertising, do it like a guerrilla marketer and not like everyone else.

Have you been a local guerrilla marketer lately?

Our company website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/
Our other marketing blog: The Marketing Spot

Guerrilla Marketing Time Machine: Yellow Pages

2008-01-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

Note: This week we are examining "Old School" marketing techniques to see if they still have oomph. Jay Conrad Levinson's 1993 edition of Guerilla Marketing is our reference book.

Yellow Pages
All the yellow pages reps in Central Texas love me! (sarcasm intended) The thing is, except in rare occasions, I just don't think that yellow pages advertising is a wise investment of your marketing kitty. Let's look at what Levinson says, and then I'll add my rant.

In Chapter 15 of Guerrilla Marketing, Levinson says that you can turn yellow pages into gold. In fairness, he does say that not all businesses can benefit from yellow pages. My take is that most businesses cannot benefit from yellow pages advertising. I'll explain why shortly.

How To Do Yellow Pages
If you do have to advertise in the Yellow Pages, Levinson gives this advice:

Determine the geographic make-up of your customer base and decide whether or not you need to be in more than one directory.

You will probably need to list yourself in more than one category.

Don't use your other advertising to direct customers to your yellow pages ad unless you have the biggest ad.

When readers go to the yellow pages, they are in a buying mood. You should be selling.

Ask a "say yes" question in your ad.

Jay vs. The Yellow Pages
So what's my beef with yellow pages? Besides being the most difficult media to purchase, it's just not as effective as it used to be.

The culprit? Google, and the other search engines. Let's face it. It's much more convenient to use Google than it is to use the yellow pages. That point is illustrated beautifully by Newt Barrett over at Content Marketing Today.

Newt's done some great research on the declining relevance of yellow pages advertising, including this well-researched piece: Is It Time to Abandon Your Yellow Pages Advertising?

There is a local business (sorry can't give his name away) who spends $50 a month on Google AdWords and he gets more response that most businesses get with their $500+ per month yellow pages ad. $50 a month!

No Longer A Guerrilla Tactic
So this is one guerrilla marketing tactic that didn't survive the new millennium. Small businesses would be better served to invest money in basic search engine optimization and Google AdWords than yellow pages.

I will ad this one plug for yellow pages. Just one. The older the demographic, the more likely they will use yellow pages to search for local businesses. So if your customers are old or they are not internet savvy, they you might consider yellow pages.

If I wake up in the morning and my house is TP'd, I'll know it was a yellow pages rep.

Our company website: http://www.TheMarketingSpot.com/
Our other Blog: The Marketing Spot

Guerrilla Marketing Time Machine: Personal Letters

2008-01-21T15:26:00.000-08:00

"simple, personal letters -- is one of the most effective, easy, inexpensive, and overlooked methods of marketing."

In the age of email, I would have to agree. It seems what goes around, comes around. Virtually no one sends personal letters any more. No one even talks about sending personal letters any more. I did a quick internet search and couldn't find one solid article or blog post on personal letters.

This sounds to me to be a terrific new, old guerrilla marketing technique. Personal letters allow you to communicate truly personal feelings. And with everyone sending emails, you can reach a special place in the mind of the reader.

How To Do Personal Letters
Here are Levinson's instructions on personal letters:

Include as much personal data as possible - Not just the person's name, but mention things about the person's life, business, car, home...etc.

Write another personal letter within two weeks, then call the prospect on the telephone - Your second letter should contain new information, then use the phone to develop a relationship.

Have a clear idea of your prospects "leading appeal" - What factors will influence the buyer's purchase decisions?

Make sure the letter is personal and not "personalized" - Personalized letters are impersonal letters with the person's name and salutation in the body of the letter. The same letter is sent to many people.

Make it unnecessary for your prospect to respond - Whet your reader's appetite, but tell them you will be telephoning them within a week to set up an appointment or firm up a sale.

The letter should be about the reader and not about you - It should be in the reader's terms, about the reader's life or business.

Levinson's technical advice for personal letters:

Keep your letter to one page.
Keep your paragraphs short.
Indent your paragraphs.
Don't overdo underlining, caps, or writing in the margins.
Keep your letter from looking like a printed piece.
Sign your letter in a different-colored ink than it is typed in.
Include a P.S. and have it contain your most important point and a sense of urgency.

So are you ready to give traditional, personal letter writing a try?

Try our other blog: The Marketing Spot
Our company website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

Guerrilla Marketing Series: Going Back in Time

2008-01-21T04:28:00.000-08:00

I know that new marketing is the rage. Heck, I'm a participant. But is there still room for "Old School" marketing?

Perusing my book case this past week, I spotted my old copy of Guerrilla Marketing: Secrets for making big profits from your small business, (the 90's version) by Jay Conrad Levinson. My well-worn copy hadn't been used in years.

It got me wondering; Will this stuff still work? Have we so evolved that traditional guerrilla marketing tactics are no longer applicable?

Still Fighting the Guerrilla Marketing Fight
Levinson is still going strong in the New Millenium and the 4th edition of his book was published last year. Guerrilla marketing was always about keeping up so it's no surprise that Levinson has followed his own advice. There is a 92 page "New Media" section in the latest edition of the book.

But this week, we fire up the Idea Spot time machine for a look backward. Hey, if everyone else is using new media, maybe Old School Marketing is just what you need to stand apart from the crowd.

Stay tuned this week for five Guerrilla Marketing ideas...

Get Your Own Free Marketing Case Study:

2008-01-15T14:51:00.000-08:00

Would you like some free marketing ideas for your small business?

The Idea Spot blogs is now taking requests for marketing case studies. If you are a small business in the United States, with under $3 million in annual revenue, you are eligible to get some free marketing ideas to build your marketing plan.

There is no obligation on your part to participate. This is not a sales pitch. We will only use this information as material for this blog.

Here's how it works:

1. You fill out the request form here: Idea Spot Request Form

Be as descriptive as possible about your current marketing situation. What are you doing now? What are your problems areas? What would you like to accomplish with your marketing advice.
Indicate only one of four categories in which you would like marketing advice: Branding, Customer Experience, Word of Mouth, Advertising. These are the four categories that comprise the 4-Spot Marketing Model at our firm: The Marketing Spot.
Make sure you include your contact information. If you do not include contact information, we will not consider your request.

2. If we select your business as a case study, we will then contact you by phone and conduct
an interview. This interview will take aproximately 30 minutes of your time and is
completely confidential.

3. Our team will then brainstorm marketing ideas specifically for your business, based on your
situation.

4. We will write your case study and post it on this blog. We will then notify you that your case
study is live. There are usually additional ideas not included in the case study which we will
send to you separately.

5. You implement the ideas into your marketing plan and enjoy the benefits for free,
professional marketing advice!

Check out some of previous case studies here: Idea Spot Marketing Case Studies.

The Idea Spot small business marketing blog is maintained by: The Marketing Spot
Our other small business marketing advice blog is: The Marketing Spot Blog

Create A Catalog for Your Website

2007-12-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here's an idea to make your top-selling inventory available on the web to anyone who wants to buy. You don't need to have an online store and you don't need to pay a web developer thousands of dollars to build a complicated data base.

Instead, just create a catalog with all your merchandise on your own computer and then offer it as a pdf download from your website.

In many ways, a pdf catalog is better than an actual printed catalog. There are no printing or mailing costs, and customers can save it to their computer for future reference.

DO IT YOURSELF
It may take a little time, but a catalog is not that difficult to create. You can do it with Word as long as you are comfortable working with tables and graphics in Word. Find Word tutorials here: Word 2007 Courses

Lay out your complete catalog including a cover page, table of contents, product information, and ordering instructions. Be sure to include an order form that may be faxed or mailed to you. When creating your catalog, include as much color as you can and include as many product pictures as you can.

When you are finished with the creation of your catalog, proof read it carefully. Now you're ready to convert the entire catalog from Word into a pdf document. You may already have the pdf conversion software on your computer, or you may have pdf driver installed in your printing options. If so, try those first and examine the results.

If that's not working, use this free online pdf converter: doc2pdf (donations accepted). I've found it to be very quick and completely accurate.

Once you've created the pdf document of your catalog, save it to your computer. Then send the file to your web developer and add it to the website. Make sure you prominently promote the "New Colorful Catalog" now available online.

EXAMPLES
Here are a couple of examples of some catalogs (all pdf file links):
Huetter Mill & Cabinet Molding and Stair Parts
Classic Cuisine Catering Catalog
Schlueter Dairy Technologies Catalog

When you do finish your catalog, be sure to send me a link to jay-at-themarketingspot-dot-com. If you already have a catalog, please let me know so that I can link to it as an example.

For more information on our company: www.themarketingspot.com
Read our other blog on small business marketing: The Marketing Spot

May Your Christmas Be Blessed

2007-12-24T11:07:00.000-08:00

May the Spirit of the season and the joy of our Savior enter your heart this Christmas.

The Idea Spot will be back after Christmas with new case studies and practical marketing ideas.

Merry Christmas!

Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah! 13 Questions to Ask Yourself to Get Unique

2007-12-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

Ben Bernie was an orchestra leader in the 1930's, who used to sign off his radio program with "Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah." It was his trademark and he became famous for that saying. Why? Because it was unique.

If you are struggling to build perceived value in your business then it's time to look at your uniqueness. The larger the sale you have to make with your business, the more you need to build up your perceived value. The key is to find that one unique feature on which you can hang all of your marketing materials.

Here's How You Do It
Start asking yourself some questions and start with these:

Who are the customers or my audience?

What should people feel when they come in contact with my offering?

What are my top three business values, other than honesty and quality?

What unique resources do I have that my competitors don't?

What do I aspire to accomplish for my customers?

If the sky were the limit, what might be possible with my business?

Do I have a unique model, system or process by which I operate?

What's my biggest weakness and how could that be my biggest strength?

What could be the potential risks, costs, or consequences to my customers by not doing business with me?

What are the top 5 questions asked by my potential customers?

What do my customers think must be done in order for them to be totally satisfied?

How does my offering give my customers momentum?

What is it my customers think I cannot do?

After asking these questions, you will most assuredly have jotted a list of multiple unique features about your business. Now compare that list with what your competitors are saying. Eliminate anything that sounds anything close to what they are saying.

Of the remaining items on the list, which one inspires you and would inspire your customers? There's your uniqueness. Now put that on all your marketing materials and never lead with anything else. This is what you are going to use to build perceived value in your business.

Note:
Thanks to Gerald Haman of Solution People for the inspiration of these questions. Gerald has created a truly unique pocket innovation tool call the KnowBrainer, which I use to help my clients devise unique solutions.

For more help on finding your uniqueness, see Connect the Dots: Building a True Brand, on our other blog: The Marketing Spot.

Related Posts:

For more information on our company: www.themarketingspot.com

Surprise Your Customers

2007-12-13T05:24:00.000-08:00

Rick Spence, at the Financial Post tells us how he got pleasantly surprised by a hotel and the marketing lightbulb came on.

From the article:

"People get jaded fast," he says. "People have seen it all, and they expect it all. They expect that product quality, service and the experience will all be right. And the only way to please people who expect it all is to give them something they don't expect."

Are you surprising your customers? For more ideas, read the article here: Rick Spence: Surprise marketing tactics endear.

For more marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot.
Our company website is: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

Branding an Office Space

2007-12-05T18:41:00.000-08:00

Case Study: New Haven Legal Centre

Idea Wanted: Re-brand an existing office space business.

Challenge: Take an existing local office space business national, and at the same time, change the vision of the business.

Background: 25 year old President Jonathan Arabolos has a passion to reinvent office space. Jon and his mother operate the New Haven Legal Centre in New Haven, Connecticut, an office building where over 90% of the clients are legal associated practices. But Jon has an enthusiasm to serve new businesses and entrepreneurs and he want to combine that enthusiasm with his passion and into a new office space concept. He also wants to expand his reach and take the concept national.

Advice: Branding is about being different in the mind of the consumer. But it's not just about saying your different, it's also about being different. Jon needs to take his values, his passion, and his vision and turn it into a business that's real. When you have a real business that's different, you can have a brand that stands out from the crowd. We are going to advise Jon to focus on being a different kind of office space for small businesses.

Ideas:

The Mission. The first step to branding is to identify your mission, based on your values. Jon's top three business values are flexibility, optimism and passion*. Now those values need to be turned into a mission that will have merit with the target client: small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs. The mission we identified in working with Jon is to "To be a fertilizing ground where businesses grow."
*For the record: We do not allow clients to give us the value of honesty when going through the branding process. Honesty is assumed as a starting point for doing business long term. This rule also applies to quality. Never use honesty or quality in your marketing materials.
The Brand Promise. After a mission statement is developed, the next step is to develop a brand promise based on the vision Jon has for the company. Jon's big hairy vision is to brand office space nationwide. He wants to set up a network of entrepreneurs and be a hub for small businesses through office space. To accomplish this vision potential clients will have to see Jon as a resource. Our recommended Brand Promise for the re-branded company is for Jon to "Be the resource you need to make your office space successful."
Proving the Brand. Branding is not about constructing a make believe image. Real branding that lasts cannot be done with smoke, mirrors and pretty words. Sooner or later you have to prove your promise. Jon wants to be a resource. We believe the best way to do this is to assemble a hub of services that most small businesses need but don't necessarily know how to get.

These essential services can include: Bookkeeping, legal help, office supplies, printing, computer repair. Jon would have approved company providers for each of these services and more. He could check references and negotiate rates up front. Then when a tenant needs some printing work, rather than wasting time calling around and getting bids, they just call the "company printer" and order what they want.

Another value-added service he could offer is a free logo when you sign a lease for a designated term. New businesses rarely have a logo when they start, so they can get a logo and an office in one transaction. There are logo shops that provide logos for as little as $250.
New Name. Obviously New Haven Legal Centre is not going to cut it as a name for the newly re-branded national business. There are a million business naming theories out there, but my favorite is probably Seth Godin's Naming a Business. We did a little creative thinking to come up with a couple of different names:

Maple Office Centers - We got the inspiration from Jon's name, Arabolos, which is close to the Spanish word for trees. A maple tree is a fast-growing strong tree with a good visual presence. It's easy to spell and pronounce and we think it has nice ring.
Harvest Business Centers - This name has an obvious relationship to Jon's mission of being a 'fertilizing ground' for small businesses. It also has a positive connotation, is easy to spell and pronounce.

Get a Signature. With a Brand Promise and a new name, we need a signature. Most people call this a tag line or a slogan. But signatures have meaning and they are personal. A slogan is a clever saying, but a signature is personal. Good signatures should tie in nicely with the name of the business and give a clear indication of what a business offers.

We think the signature here is obvious: 'The Fertilizing Ground for Businesses,' taken from Jon's mission. Now we connect the business name with the signature and we get:
Maple Office Center - The Fertilizing Ground for Businesses

Key Visual. To put the finishing touch on this brand we need a key visual. Not talking about a logo here, you can learn more about that chore here: The Importance of a Logo in Branding.

Key visuals provide a consistent theme throughout all your marketing materials. The key visual is the continuity of your communication with the customer. We think the new brand's key visual needs to revolve around a hub. John wants to build a network of entrepreneurs and be a hub for them so the hub visual seems natural.

If name of the business is Maple Office Center, use a maple tree as the center of the hub and extend spokes out to icons that reference the different resources. You can visualize what it might look like by applying your imagination to the this computer network graphic (sorry, we're not going to show you the graphic we would do).

The Lesson: Why go through the whole mission, vision, brand promise exercise? Lasting brands are built on values and passion, they are what we call 'True Brands.' You can see the process we went through for Jonathan Arabolos and his quest for a new brand. When we identified his values, mission, vision and brand promise up front, the rest of the process really became quite easy. That's because we didn't have to make things up. We were building a true brand.

To learn more about this process and branding your small business, we highly recommend Microbranding: Build a Powerful Personal Brand and Beat Your Competition, by Scott Gross.

For more small business marketing lessons and advice, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot
To learn more about our company, see our website: www.themarketingspot.com

Cultivate Your Customers

2007-11-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

A great way to create word of mouth is to help your customer grow. A better way to create word of mouth is to help them grow for free.

To cultivate your customer look for some of your most valuable information, and then give it away free. Why would you want to do that?

Because:
People like to feel important
People like to help other people
People like businesses that help them without obligation.

When you give information that makes your potential customer more knowledgeable, more informed, or teaches them something that makes them better, they will take that information and talk about it to other potential customers.

How do you do that?
First, ask yourself the question: What is the most valuable thing I could teach someone to make them better (related to your industry)?

Then, ask yourself: How can I best give this information to potential customers for free?

Let's say you are a health and fitness trainer. You can get your clients to attend the workout, you just can't get them to eat properly. The problem, you find, begins in the grocery store. People just don't know what to buy.

To cultivate your customer, you produce a grocery shopping list and guidelines that people can take with them to the grocery store. Then you have it printed and laminated (with your web address and contact information) to give out, plus you convert it to a pdf document and load it on to your website as a free download.

You have now made your customers better for knowing you. You have cultivated them.

How do you cultivate your customer? Give them free information or tools that will make them better.

For more small business marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot
For more about our company, see our website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

We Give Thanks

2007-11-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

We here at The Marketing Spot will be taking the next two days off to give thanks for the many favors granted to us by God. We are thankful for for all His blessings. May you be blessed this Thanksgiving and have a safe weekend. We'll be back blogging in a couple of days.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Childrens Furniture Advertising

2007-11-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

Case Study: Punkin Patch, brick and mortar and online, upscale children's furniture and baby boutique.

Idea Wanted: New ways to advertise a new website with little to no budget.

Challenge: Get a new website noticed with virtually no money.

Background: Toks Aruoture purchased Punkin Patch, a children's furniture and baby decor boutique, in Atlanta 18 months ago. During that time they have hired 2 web designers to create an ecommerce website with the aim of selling baby furniture nationwide. After some disappointments their new website finally went live in the past week. However, during that time they made a significant investment in a year-long magazine advertising contract to promote a new website that was not ready. Add that total to the money they spent on web design and their budget is depleted.

Advice:

Punkin Patch caters to the affluent. This actually works to our advantage in trying to minimize expenditure while maximizing return on dollars spent. For Punkin Patch, we advise that they combine geographic and demographic targeting. While Punkin Patch may sell and ship to anywhere in the continental U.S. affluent consumers with more than $100,000 annual income don't just live anywhere in the continental U.S. They tend to live close to each other in particular neighborhoods.

We also advise that Punkin-Patch develop an advertising strategy that mixes both online and traditional forms of media. So let's get started.

Ideas:

Free press releases. Yes, we've made this recommendation before, because works. First use this press release generation tool to help you structure the press release. To give the press release more bite, other than "we sell baby furniture" we suggest that Punkin Patch offer a premium with the first order. We like the idea of a personalized burp big, but it can be just about anything baby related.

After you've written your press release check this list of free press release distribution sites and begin the submission process. But hold on, don't submit to every one of them. Three is enough for right now. Then in another month choose another three...and so forth. We also suggest that Punkin Patch consider some higher level paid press release services to get a little broader coverage.
Use Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing to get ads placed in searches. Here's how it works. You choose keywords for your ads. When those keywords show up in searches, your ad appears in the sponsored links section. The best part of keyword search marketing is that you get to choose your budget. You pay on a per-click basis and when all your budget is used up, then you stop getting clicks. It allows you to test the waters before going whole hog.

First, you choose your keywords using this keyword tool from Google. The key is to cross-reference keywords that have as minimal competition (keywords are priced on supply and demand) with as high a search volume as possible. We have already done this analysis for Punkin-Patch and recommended five search terms.
Send post cards offering free burp cloth with purchase. How in the world can we recommend direct mail with a national website? Two ways. First, as I mentioned earlier, affluent Americans don't live just any old place. You can target zip codes, even neighborhoods where the people make a lot of money. Second, whenever Punkin Patch gets an order, they now have all of that customer's data. If that customer is typical of the ideal buyer profile, mail postcards to their neighborhood declaring that their friend down the street has discovered Punkin-Patch.com, why don't you? We'll even give you a personalized burp bib with your first purchase.

We are fond of postcards, especially for websites, because they are relatively inexpensive to print and mail. There's no opening of envelopes and if the postcard is properly designed, the consumer can't help but see your message. Even if the consumer intends to throw it in the trash.
Team up with Amazon. Toks has already been approached by Amazon to add Punkin Patch to their website. Because she has had some difficulties getting her own website running the way she wants, we advise her to proceed once she has read the agreement thoroughly. She also should call a couple of references who already have an Amazon storefront. There is no direct advertising expenditure here, however Toks will have to pay a percentage of the sale to Amazon. In return, Amazon provides the exposure to its expansive customer base and it absorbs all the credit card fees.
Email marketing. This method is often maligned because of the spam implications. However, we have talked to businesses who have used email with some success. The key is to deal with a list broker that has an opt-in or permission list. People have actually given permission (whether they knew it or not) to be on this email list. Be aware, however, that these lists can still have a high degree of inaccuracy. Take the total numbers with a degree of scepticism. To buy a list, you will pay $X per thousand addresses. You also have to put together your own ad using some html. We recommend that you create the message, but have a professional put the ad together.
Women's issues blogs. here you are going to have to use some good old-fashioned internet shoe leather. Surf all the women's blogs you can find. Search Technorati and Ice Rocket to find them. Look for ones that fit the affluent female profile. Participate in the conversation by commenting on the blogs. Contact the blog author and ask for a review of your website. There may be some that you might actually want to sponsor with a banner ad. Check the blog's popularity with Technorati, and ask for the blog author's feed stats (actual subscribers). A blogger who's on top of her game will be able to tell you how many subscribers she has and is probably using a service like Feedburner.

The Lesson:
The first lesson that Toks learned, the hard way, is don't start advertising until you are absolutely ready for business. Especially when you are depending on a website for your sales. I have not yet ever seen a website go up on schedule...ever. Did I mention that I've never seen a website go up on schedule? Ever?

If you do find yourself with little to no money to advertise and you know you need to advertise, all hope is not lost. Fortunately for you, the internet still has some anarchy and you can conquer little parts of it. Work hard to find the spots where you can leverage you message for free or practically free.

Finally, before advertising, go to our other blog, The Marketing Spot and read some of our lessons on branding and advertising. You can maximize the return on any advertising investment you make by maximizing the message you communicate.

If you have any additional ideas for Toks Aruoture and Punkin Patch, please add your thoughts by clicking the comments link below.

For more information on our company, see our website: www.themarketingspot.com

Christmas Sales Ideas for Small Business

2007-11-14T04:31:00.000-08:00

The Christmas holiday sales season can make or break the year for a small business, whether online, or brick & mortar.

Reward early buyers. I know we all hate Christmas displays going up too early. But you can attract extra business by giving early shopper bonuses without being too commercial about the holiday itself. Try to shy away from big price discounts as this will not attract customers who will remain loyal after the sale.

Share some of your profits. When donating, use these two criteria: donate to a cause with which you can be important, and donate to a cause for which you are passionate. Everybody does Toys for Tots and Food for Families, but there are many more deserving charities that would love your attention.

Make your Web site holiday-friendly. Or more appropriately, make your store & website Christmas-friendly. It is chic these days to say the world 'holiday' instead of 'Christmas'. Instead you should be all about Christmas. There may be one or two PC'ers out that you will offend (like I likely just did), but you will definitely set yourself apart from the mass of light-stepping retailers who have no backbone.

Offer perks or discounts. Go light on the discounts and heavier on the perks. Remember discounting your price does not encourage loyalty, only one-time purchases. Always tie perks and discounts in to a higher level of purchase. Don't offer bonuses for normal business. Reward customers for a larger, or more frequent, purchase.

Partner with other retailers. Always a great idea if you can team up with complimentary, non-competitive businesses. Look for businesses that sell a related product, or businesses that sell to the same demographic as you.

Go the extra mile. This should be standard business policy, so I would rephrase to say 'go the extra Christmas mile.' What's something extra you could do because it's Christmas? The season is all about giving and not receiving. Don't just try to sell, figure out how you can give.

Play to win as the season revs up. The closer you get to Christmas, the more you ratchet up the efforts. How can you do promotions or rewards with lowering the price? Maybe you host a choir or a kids play from the local church to come sing carols the week before Christmas. Get creative.

Got any more ideas to liven things up for the Christmas retail season? Feel free to add them through a comment.

For more marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot
To learn about our company, see our website: www.themarketingspot.com

Small Business Ideas Podcast

2007-11-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

Wow, has it really been 12 days since our last idea post? It's time to get cranked up again.

I spent last week at BlogWorld Expo and came back with a ton of ideas. Check back frequently during the next month.

Coming this week we'll have two new case studies for you. Until we get those up, I thought I would share one of my favorite idea generating podcasts with you: The Wall Street Journal Small Business report.

This particular episode covers Finding Sales in a Slow Economy, Forums for Entrepreneurs, and faxing.

Click on the link below and it will take you the mp3 podcast file. It should start playing if you have any time of audio player on your computer. If not, right click on the link below and download the file to play on Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or iTunes.

Here's the link: Wall Street Journal Small Business Report

And...if you've been thinking about blogging, check out the latest entries on our other blog: The Marketing Spot. I go over some of the reasons small businesses should blog.

For more information on our company, check out www.themarketingspot.com

Form a Strategic Partnership

2007-10-31T15:13:00.000-07:00

Lindsay Polson of the stuff4business blog has a great idea, team up with another business and form a strategic alliance. To see his idea, click here.

In Lindsay's example, one business hands out appreciation coupons for a free coffee at a nearby coffee house. The business handing out the coupons pays for the printing of the coupon, the coffee house pays for the coffee. Both businesses create good will with the customer.

But it doesn't have to stop there. You can form strategic alliances to save money on advertising. For example, team up with a nearby business and purchase a billboard together. One of you takes the left side, the other takes the right side. This works well if you use the board for giving directions and both business are near each other.

There are almost limitless ideas on how to maximize marketing partnerships. Hey, who says you can't share websites?

If you have another idea, feel free to share.

For small business marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot

Our company website is www.themarketingspot.com

Send Out a Press Release

2007-10-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

Press releases can bring you unbiased publicity that can't be bought. Here's a real-life example of how to do it right.

We consult a young pro bass angler named Cody Malone, who is managed by his mother, Tina. Last week, we got the news that Cody qualified for the FLW STREN Championship as a rookie on the pro tour. We thought this would be a good opportunity to get some press.

Tina asked me to do the press release and I thought it would be better if she did it. Why? Because it's personal, and the press release would be coming from her and not from a marketing company. Tina went to this site, a press release generation tool, generated the release, then she let loose the hounds.

After calling everyone in town, here's what her efforts yielded:

A live interview on the KWTX-TV morning news program.
A feature on the KXXV-TV sportscast.
A story in the Waco Tribune Herald sports section, with the promise of a tournament update story.
An interview on the local sports talk radio station, KRZI.
The promise of substantial coverage in a upcoming issue of a local magazine.

The Keys to Success:

Your press release topic must be interesting and have value to the media outlet. Don't be self-serving.
Use personal contact.

Before you send the press release, call and speak to the person to whom you are sending the release. Ask their preferred method of receiving the release. Let them know who you are, and that you are the owner of the business.
Then send the press release via email, fax or snail mail (note: don't do all three).
Follow-up with a personal phone call to ask if they received it.
Then ask if they would like to cover the story. Don't for get to ask for coverage!

3. Be timely. When something happens worth talking about, act immediately.

Note: If you're wondering what's the big deal about a local fishing story, you should know that pro bass fishing is big business. Big sponsorship dollars are at stake. Cody Malone, Pro Bass Angler, is a small business with big aspirations. For an example, see Kevin Van Dam and check back with Cody's website in a couple of months.

For more small business marketing lessons and advice. See our other blog: The Marketing Spot, recently name one of the Top 100 Business Blogs.

Our company website is http://www.themarketingspot.com/

Clothing Website Experience

2007-10-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Case Study: HIZwear.com

Idea Wanted: Enhance the website experience

Challenge: Give customers a more involved experience at the website without cluttering its simple, effective design.

Background: Three friends decided to turn their passion into a business. Six months later they had HIZWear.com, a site that sells inspirational, scriptural-based t-shirts for women. Now that's a niche!

Advice: Here's a website that has a great lesson for small business owners: You don't have to be complicated and flashy to be effective. HIZwear is a simple website that sells what it sells without overburdening the visitor. Our advice is to give visitors a chance to connect a little more with the website in ways other than buying a shirt.

Ideas:

The “Our Story” portion is good; it's an honest, personal story that reveals something interesting about the business. However it appears to all run together. It might be a little easier to read if it were broken into some paragraphs. That may make it necessary to do a little editing, but it would also make it more readable. Also, when you have several paragraphs in a story, use subheadlines to break it up and keep the reader interested.
To make the site more personal; under the “3 Girlz Picture” include a caption identifying who is whom. The picture is great, because it shows that HIZwear is not a corportation, just three friends following their call from God.
To create a future customer base, include a link for visitors to sign up to be notified when a new t-shirt is released. Releasing a couple of new models every two months or so, will keep customers involved and coming back for more. For example, in November, release some long-sleeve T's and send an announcement to the email list that winter models are now available.
Create a suggestion box and let visitors suggest new t-shirt ideas. There may be some inappropriate suggestions but this idea would also create repeat traffic and build a community of believers who are hungry for ways to express their faith. Plus, the suggestions will probably yield some pretty good ideas.
Consider putting men’s models right next to the female shirts for a hiz & herz package. It would be perfect timing for Christmas shopping.
Add the signature to the website: Clothed in the Word of God. We love the signature, but only learned about it in email exchanges with one of the owners, Leisa Gay. It appears nowhere on the website. Add it just the below logo (which we also like).

The Lesson: When you have a product that fundamentally speaks to your customer's life values, you have to give them an opportunity to connect emotionally with you. Give customers the opportunity to be part of your company by engaging them and soliciting feedback. Create a community of customers who share common beliefs and you will foster word of mouth and customer loyalty.

If you would like free marketing ideas for your small business, fill out this form: Request for Ideas
For small business marketing advice, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot

Seed Your Existing Customers' Next Purchase

2007-10-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

Businesses are often caught up into trying to get new customers to spend new money with them. But don't forget your existing customers. Show them a little love and prevent them from becoming someone else's new customers.

Here's an idea to reward them, and nudge them along to their next purchase. Give them a seed. Not a literal plant seed, but a figurative one. A free small item that will be appreciated by the customer, yet at the same time cause them to want to buy more from you.

For example, if you have a tree trimming service, give all your good customers a small seedling to plant in their yard or give to someone else in their neighborhood. Along with the seedling, remind your customers to schedule a trimming before the busy seasons starts.

If you are an accountant or you have book keeping service, send desk calendars to your clients with the important tax days marked. Also, on each important tax day, promote an additional service you offer that the customer could use.

How else could you see your customers? Think about and watch your existing customers grow.

For marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot
For more about our company, see our website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

The Idea Spotters

2007-10-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Lest you think all these ideas come from me, here's a little love to the rest of the idea team that makes all these ideas possible. Our case studies are a collaborative effort. We get together every Wednesday morning at The Marketing Spot to brainstorm ideas for our case studies.

Lindsey Elliott
Lindsey is recently betrothed to the lucky Johnny Elliott, an officer in the Army. She has communications degree from the University of Alabama Huntsville.

Lindsey is very athletic; she was on track scholarship at UAH as hurdler, long-jumper and triple jumper.

Her greatest passion, after her husband, is her dog, Bailey, a wirehaired pointing griffon.

Lindsey's primary responsibility is marketing assistant with one of our clients: King's Daughters Clinic in Temple, Texas. She also serves as an assistant coach for another client: Montgomery Chiropractic in Belton, Texas. During our brainstormers, she gives us a much-needed female perspective getting us to think in the real world, applying our ideas to everyday life experiences.

Jason Pickrell
Jason is still single, ladies. He has an advertising degree from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Jason is also athletic; he played tennis at Tyler Junior College.

He is also a musician, singer, songwriter, using his gifts to glorify God through spiritual music. He even has his own CD! Get a taste of Jason's music at his MySpace page.

Jason's has several responsibilities, but his two major functions are as our graphics and video guru, and as operations manager for the Waco Real Estate Source, a free real estate magazine we publish in Waco, Texas. During our brainstormers, Jason is known to throw in ideas that seem to come from "left field," getting us to think in different directions.

Jay Ehret
This is me. I have been married for 8 years to my lovely wife, Carol, a pharmaceutical sales rep for Novartis. I have a financial services and planning degree from Baylor University.

I am not as athletically gifted as my young teammates, although I love to play basketball at a lunchtime businessman's pick-up game at the Waco Family Y.

In addition to my wife, my passions are serving the Lord, wine, and travel.

My primary responsibility is as chief steward of The Marketing Spot. I also serve as the Marketing Director for two of our clients: King's Daughters Clinic and Sykora Family Ford, and as coach to Cody Malone, Pro Bass Angler and Montgomery Chiropractic. I also serve as associate publisher for The Waco Real Estate Source.

We are blessed at The Marketing Spot to have a young (not including me) and creative Idea Spotting team. Our Wednesday morning brainstormers are the most fun part of the week. We enjoy the opportunity to put together practical and usable marketing ideas for small businesses all across the country.

If you would like a some free marketing ideas from our team; first read this post on our 4-Spot Marketing Model, then fill out the Idea Spot request form here.