It’s not a difficult thing to do.  We teach our kids good manners every day and we use them ourselves, but it’s amazing how many business owners don’t apply the simple rules of common courtesy within their own businesses.

The fact is that gratitude is a very powerful marketing tool. Here are four ways you can grow your business, by unleashing the power of gratitude within your marketing.

1. Say thank you for referrals.

If someone refers business to you, it makes sense to say thanks, doesn’t it? You would be surprised how many businesses don’t.  One of the main reasons (apart from just not doing it) is failing to track sources of referrals.

When you know who is referring business to you, it is much easier to pick up the phone and say thanks.  So, make sure you know where your referrals are coming from and recognise those that are sending customers your way.

2. Recognise customer milestones.

Customers are the lifeblood of business, but most businesses recognise employee milestones, not customer milestones. Imagine the delight from a customer that receives recognition for being a customer for 5 years, or even just one year.

You can say thanks by providing a gift, a special offer or just pick up the phone and say thanks. It will help make sure they are a customer for another 5 years.

3.    Be grateful to those that help you.

In business, not every discussion with a supplier or customer results in a sale. Many professionals spend a lot of time and effort preparing proposals for new business that never result in any return.

In business, it’s important to recognise the effort of others that doesn’t result in a sale.  So, next time you ask someone to prepare a proposal that you do not proceed with, remember to thank them for their time.  If you do, you’ll stand out amongst a sea of businesses that don’t.

4.    Develop a gratitude strategy.

Remembering to express gratitude can be hard when things get busy.  That is why you should develop a gratitude strategy.  I am not talking about War and Peace, but a one-sheet strategy where you identify what you will do to express gratitude when certain situations occur in your business.  Some examples might be sending a thank you postcard one day after a new client meeting or even a bottle of wine to a contact who refers business to you.

Whatever it is you should identify the situation that requires gratitude and what you will do. Type it out and put it in a place where you can see it to remind you of what you need to do.

Gratitude, unfortunately, is sorely lacking in many businesses. The fact is that people refer more business to those that say thanks and implementing it within your business will help your business stand out from the crowd.

So, thanks for stopping by and reading this post. Let me know what you think by commenting below.

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Adrian Fadini, the founder of Sydney-based plumbing business, ‘Plumber to the Rescue’, (how good is that name!)

Adrian is a 3^rd generation plumber and has grown his business to a point where he is able to put down the tools and focus solely on building his business.  And build it he does!

As we chatted about business and marketing, it was refreshing to hear how much Adrian knew about marketing and the importance of it to his business.  From our chat, I wanted to highlight five things that brought a smile to my face and which Adrian can teach others about marketing their business.

1.    Bring your brand to life.

Adrian has a great brand.  His business name highlights the great benefit of using his service, but what I love is his use of the character “Plumberto” within his brand.  Plumberto is a key part  of his brand  identity and Adrian actually has a life sized character costume for Plumberto which is brought out at a variety of events, including networking events.

Plumberto helps Adrian bring his brand to life and give it personality; a great strategy for any business.

2.    Address barriers to purchase with guarantees

Plumber to the Rescue offer several guarantees.   These are:

• Plumber to the Rescue will turn up on time or take $50 off the price quoted.
• They guarantee to leave your house cleaner that when they arrive.
• All workmanship comes with a lifetime guarantee.
• They provide up-front pricing and guarantee no further charges.

What I like about these guarantees is they all address a potential objection a customer may have.  That is smart marketing.

3.    Marketing is a continual, long-term investment.

 Adrian knows there is no silver bullet in marketing and is what I call a pro-active marketer.  He doesn’t wait for business to slow down before he markets.  He markets continually and knows a consistent approach leads to more new and repeat business.

4.    It pays to invest in doing things right.

When Adrian developed his website, he mentioned that he employed a copywriter to write his website.  His exact words to me were, “I paid a copywriter to write all the words on my website. It cost me a bit but was well worth it”.  A good lesson there for any business.  Sometimes you need to invest to get a better return on your investment.

5.    Seek advice from mentors.

Adrian has a number of mentors and business professionals he seeks counsel from to build his business.  He is what I call a student of business and seeks the help of experts when developing parts of his business.

This is a good lesson for anyone. You can’t be an expert at everything, especially when you are a small business owner. Listen to others, take their advice and use it to build a better business.

Plumber to the Rescue is a great example of a small business experiencing strong growth due to the quality of their marketing.   Make sure you say hi to “Plumberto” if you see him fixing a toilet near you.

Note: Plumber to the Rescue is not a client of MarketingHQ. We just love their marketing.

With good credibility comes new clients and repeat business. If you combine it with visibility, profitability follows.

But how does one gain credibility? Here are 10 proven techniques you can use to build your credibility.

1. Champion industry market research. This technique is one of the most effective ways of establishing credibility in any market. Have you heard of the Forbes Rich List? It is the benchmark for wealth measurement worldwide and its yearly research is conducted and reported by Forbes magazine.  Forbes is actually a business magazine whose positioning is ‘for world business leaders’.   A great marketing strategy, don’t you think?  It’s a strategy the Business Review Weekly has copied here in Australia with the BRW Rich List and BRW Fast 100.

2.    Get published .  This can range from publishing a book, to guest posts on blogs and writing articles for magazines.  When someone publishes your words, it indicates a big thumbs up.

3.    Align with respected brands. There are many ways businesses can align with respected brands.  It can be achieved by joint promotions, service bundling or by establishing formal business alliances.  When you align with credible brands, some of their credibility naturally transfers to your brand.

4.    Guarantee your service.  When you offer a guarantee, it says to customers that you back the quality of your product or service 100%.  It also has the added benefit of reducing risk for the customer.

5.    Appoint a celebrity spokesperson for your brand. There is a good reason you see celebrity endorsement in advertising: it gives the product or service immediate credibility.  It can also work against you if you use the wrong celebrity so you need to make sure you choose wisely…

6.    Be interviewed by the media. Being quoted or interviewed in media articles positions you as an expert.  Consumers naturally assume that you have credibility if you are asked by the press for a comment.

7.    Speak publicly. I heard a public speaking trainer once say there is a line between an audience and a speaker on stage,  it is called the ‘line of expert’. When you speak in front of an audience, people assume you are an expert.  Of course, you need to give value when you speak, and when you do it is a powerful tool to increase your credibility.

8.    Promote your qualifications, accreditations and certifications.  In many industries qualifications are very important, but many people feel it is self-promoting to share their qualifications. If you have them, include them on your business card and on the profile of your website.

9.    Share your expertise through information products. Information products help to display your expertise and are cheap to produce.  Some examples are e-books, audio recordings, podcasts, videos and webinars. These products allow people to gain a better understanding of your expertise, without having to meet you in person.

10. Deliver on your brand promise every time. It is obvious isn’t it but it must be said. If you’re a hairdresser and you give someone a bad haircut, they won’t come back.   If you are a restaurant that produces bad food, customers won’t come back.   Deliver every time and you will build your credibility.

There are of course many other ways to build your credibility.  Feel free to share others with our readers by commenting below.

Not for the fluorescent socks or for those sexy leg warmers the girls used to get around in.

I loved the Karate Kid.  I wanted to be him.  Well, not Ralph Macchio, ‘cause he was kinda skinny and had a bad haircut.

I wanted to be a Karate champion and do the ‘crane’ -  you know, that move he did at the end of the movie to defeat his nemesis Johnny Lawrence.  You don’t remember? The move that could not be beaten!  It was awesome.

I even thought about taking up Karate.  But I didn’t ‘cause then I decided I wanted to be a fighter pilot after watching Top Gun.  Because they get all the girls, you see.

Ahh, the naïvety of youth.

But some things are better left in the ‘80s.  Sure, we had fun, but times have changed.  Marketing has changed, but I’ve come to realise some businesses are still stuck in the ‘80s.

Is your marketing stuck in the ‘80s? If you’re doing any of these 7 things, there is a fair chance it is.

1.    You just wrote a cheque in the thousands for your yearly yellow pages ad.

The yellow pages was the must-have advertising in the 80’s.  And it worked – back then.  Unfortunately, times have changed and so has the consumer.  There is so much more your business could do with the money you spend on yellow pages that will deliver far better results.

2.    You just had 1,000 promotional pens delivered with your business name on.

You know what we all didn’t have in the ‘80s? Laptops, smartphones and tablet devices like the iPad.  Sure, we still write things down, but not as much as we used to. Save your money on the pens, they might be good for your ego but they won’t bring in any business.

3.    You’ve just typed out your monthly newsletter on Word and emailed it as an attachment.

It’s great that you have a monthly newsletter, but typing it out on Word and emailing the attachment is a thing of the past. There are so many cost effective email marketing programs such as MailChimp and Aweber, amongst others. So, ditch the attachment and start using them.

4.    You still use the phrase “We need to get our name out there”.

I cringe when I hear business owners say this.  Why? Because they use it to justify bad marketing.  All too often, businesses will spend money, get no return and then justify it with “It’s helping get our name out there”.  As a small business, all your marketing should deliver are prospects to you.  Anything else is just fluff.

5.    You just came up with the tagline “Your (insert business category here) specialists”.

Taglines are used to promote the benefits of your product or service to the consumer.  Try to tell customers what they can expect from doing business with you and don’t be generic.

6.    You think your unique selling point is offering “free  quotes”.

Here’s the thing: everyone provides free quotes.  I do. So do my competitors.  I would never lead any advertising messages with it.   It does not make you unique.  It helps with conversion, but people want to know how you’ll solve their problems and won’t pick up the phone because you provide free quotes alone.

7.    You’ve bought an email list and intend to SPAM everyone on it.

In the ‘80s, not very many people had an email address.  It was new and exciting and people liked to receive emails.  We also didn’t have the SPAM laws we had today. Change your thinking to ‘building’ an email list as opposed to ‘buying’ an email list.  It will be much more effective and keep you on the right side of the law.

So it’s the 2010s now.  It’s time to trade in the Walkman for an iPod. Get rid of the Atari and upgrade to Xbox Kinect and get with the times.  Your business, your clients (and your kids) will love you for it.

I do.

It was regarded as a time-waster.  A distraction that stopped employees doing what they should be doing: their work.

Now, I can’t think of a workplace that doesn’t allow internet access.  I’m sure there are some, but they are few and far between.

The same debate occurs with access to social media. The argument goes that staff spend all their time on Facebook and not enough time doing what they are paid to do.

A recent post on Mashable highlighted this and generated lots of debate on Facebook for both sides.  Some allow it, some don’t, but the view of the article was that it should be allowed for a variety of reasons.

The post reminded me of a conversation I had with a business owner a few years back on this very issue.

Sometimes Access Is A Good Thing

You see, his business had started trying to build a presence in social media. Their ideal customers were heavy users of social media and they had young and enthusiastic employees who were very passionate about the business.

I asked the client how they were using their Facebook page and Twitter feed at the time. They had no real objectives; they were just broadcasting and not really engaging with anyone.  They were wondering if it was all really worth it.

Whilst chatting about social media, I asked if I could look at their Facebook page. As the business owner tried to log in, his request was blocked.  He then said,” Oh, Facebook is blocked apart from my computer.  We’ll have to look at it on my laptop”.

“Why do you block Facebook on your employees’ computers?” I asked. “To stop them wasting time on Facebook”, he responded.

I told him “I think I just found out one reason social media isn’t working for you”.

Look For The Marketing Opportunity In Front of You. 

This situation is common in many small businesses.  You see, my message to this business owner was that ALL of his employees should be a part of the social media team.

I told him he should encourage staff to like, comment and share anything that is posted on the businesses Facebook page and they should be able to do so during business hours.  I also said his employees should be encouraged to retweet and comment on any Twitter posts the company makes.

You see, the aim of allowing employees to do this was to broaden their social media reach.   All of his employees sat firmly within his ideal customer profile and he was missing a great opportunity to take his brand to this audience.

Set some ground rules

One thing I also did say was that he should make sure employees understand what the business wants to achieve in social media.  To set some ground rules for access, but encourage them to share, comment and support the businesses social media efforts.  In effect, he needed to develop a social media policy that outlined the expectations for access and use.

I’m glad to say the business owner did take my advice and opened up social media access to staff as well as educating them on the marketing objectives.

Now two years on, they have a social media presence that is an effective marketing channel for their business and employees that feel trusted and empowered to be a part of their success.

I don’t mean regular customers.  I mean fans that recommend you to anyone and everyone they know.

You don’t?  Well that is a shame because raving fans also do your marketing for you.  They provide referrals, promote your business and keep the money coming in by being regular, high value customers.

You’re probably thinking it’s hard to turn regular customers into raving fans.  Well, it’s not as hard as you think and here are 7 ways you can turn regular customers into raving fans:

1. Delight customers with your customer service

It is hard to differentiate a business on customer service unless you do it exceptionally well.  However, businesses that go the extra mile do create customer loyalty.  It can be as simple as providing a guarantee you will turn up on time, letting customers know if there will be a delay or even just returning phone calls when you say you will.

2. Notice the little things

When you notice the little things customers feel special.  Take notice of what your customers like when they buy from you.  If you are a bottle shop, know what sort of wine your regular customers drink.  If you are an art and craft store, take notice of the craft interests of your regular customers.  If you notice the little things and show your customers you pay attention, you will turn them into raving fans.

3. Give regulars the first look at new products

You can make customers feel special by giving them the first look at a new product.  Take a cycling shop for example: your order of a new range of top-end racing bikes has just arrived in store.  Invite your regular customers in after hours to try the new bikes.  Set them up on a wind trainer (one of those stationary rollers that attaches to the rear wheel) and give them a ride.  They will feel special and, you never know, you might sell a few bikes.

4. Turn up uninvited

Now, I don’t mean dropping round to their home uninvited – that would be weird.  What I mean is, send your top customers a sample of new products.  Send them a personal note telling them you appreciate their business and that you hope they enjoy their complimentary sample.

5. Be grateful

Customers like to know you value their business.  Sometimes all it takes is a smile and a simple thank you.  It’s amazing how many businesses don’t do this yet it costs nothing.

6. Know your customer’s name

Remembering names is hard, but it’s a very powerful marketing tool.

Let me tell you about a little business that does this very well. Many years ago I worked in Crows Nest, Sydney.  It’s fair to say it was a very competitive coffee market.  Within 50 metres of my office, I had the choice of six coffee shops.

The one that acquired my business was called Zar Bar.  The coffee was good, but all six of them had good coffee so this was not what made Zar Bar unique.  You see the owner Zar, who was also the barista, knew my name and my coffee order.

I used to walk up to the shop and she’d say, “The usual Chris?” and she started doing it after I’d ordered coffee just a few times.  It even got to the point where I did not have to say anything: she would make eye contact, I’d give her a nod and my coffee would be made.

What I found amazing was it wasn’t just me who got this service.  I was getting my coffee one day and there were 7 people ahead of me.  None of them placed a verbal order – but they all got their coffee and she knew all of their names.  It was amazing.

And how do I know this works?  I haven’t worked in Crows Nest for over 3 years, and I’ve just written about this business on my blog.  I am a classic raving fan…

7. Keep your brand promise every time

When you make a brand promise and deliver on it every time you create a strong brand.  When you fail to deliver on your brand promise, you disappoint your customers.  Strong brands that keep their promises have raving fans, it is as simple as that.

Turning regular customers into raving fans isn’t as hard as you think.  Some simple changes to the way you go about your daily business can have a big impact on your bottom line.

I’m often asked what I consider the most important element of a business website.

That’s easy – the call to action.

A call to action is when you ask the visitor on your site to interact with you. Depending on your business, it can be to buy your product, download an e-book or book a free consultation.

It can also be all the above on the one site.

A good call to action tells the website visitor what to do next and it’s amazing how many sites neglect this vital step in their sales funnel. A good call to action mean more sales – it’s that simple.

So how do you set up a call to action?  Here are 5 simple tips for improving them on your website.

1.      Put it under their nose

Your call to action must be placed in a prominent place on your website. The best place is on the front page up the top (usually on the right hand side or above the fold as they say in the web world).

Some businesses expect the client to go and search around their website to find the nuggets of gold. Forget it. They never will and for good reason. People scan websites, they don’t read them.  Make your call to action obvious.

2.     Show them the benefits

Give visitors a reason to act. Show them how their problems can be solved with your product and how you can help them move ahead.

3.     Use a carrot to drive action

A call to action is always more effective when you offer an incentive.  This can be a limited time offer, free shipping if you have a physical product or a free e-book.

4.     Get the wording right

When wording your call to action, you need to tell people what you want them to do and create a sense of urgency.  Use wording such as:

• Call us now
• Available today only.
• Register now

All of the above encourage people to take action straight away. When a reader has too much time to think it over, chances are you will lose them.

5.     Don’t ask for too much information

Asking too much information from website visitors is a common problem with business websites.  Less is definitely more in this situation so decide what information is mandatory and what is optional.

Some people are willing to give you their telephone number while others might want to know you and your business a little better before providing a phone number.  As a starting point ask for name and email address only.    Most are willing to offer this information without being turned off.

Your call to action is a key part of your business website.  If you make them prominent, create a sense of urgency and don’t ask for too much information, you can turn your business website from a brochure into a lead generating machine.

Bobby Collins is the lead web developer with BCWeb, a Sydney based website design agency. You can follow him on Twitter @bcwebs

As we go about our days, we have relationships with clients, suppliers and other networks including accountants, doctors, hairdressers and financial advisors to name a few.

Last week, I was asked a great question at a networking function that started me thinking about my relationships.

The question was how many of my relationships do I consider an investment and how many are an expense?

It was a great question and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.  You see, I’ve realised I have too many that are expenses and it’s time I turned them into investments – marketing investments.

Here is an example to illustrate my point.

Every 4-6 weeks I get a haircut.  I’ve never thought a lot about this “relationship”, because I go to the local hairdresser where I don’t need an appointment.

I just sit down and take pot luck with whichever hairdresser is available.  I have no relationship with one hairdresser, in fact they don’t even know my name and I’ve been a “client” for 3 years.

I also have a personal contact who is a hairdresser.  I met him at a local networking meeting and our kids go to the same school.

He knows I’m a marketing consultant and has told me he has mentioned me to a few of his clients – but I’ve never gone to him for a haircut.

I’ve actually chosen (for no good reason other than convenience) to go elsewhere.

So when you think about it, my contact does around 10 haircuts a day so that’s 50 haircuts a week give or take?  His client base goes into the hundreds.  He knows my name, what I do but I have not invested in his services.

In fact, I would go so far as to say he already knows, likes and trusts me.  So what is stopping him referring more of his clients to me?  It is because I’ve never made the “investment” in him.  But that is about to change.

As it will for others I give my business to.

You see I am now going to view those that I give business to as an investment.  I am going to turn my relationships into marketing investments and remove the expenses from my life where I can.

Why am I doing this?

To increase the number of referrals I get from my business and personal network.

You see I already get some good referrals from my clients, but I want to increase the referrals to receive because I am the client. 

I will invest my money, my time and make sure they understand my business and the great work we have done for our clients.

So think about this in terms of your business.

Who are you giving your business too that give you nothing in return?  What changes can you make to turn those expenses into investments?

It’s definitely something you should consider as part of your referral strategy going forward.  It’s certainly will be for me.

Food for thought…

Image Credit: Maggie-Me via Flickr

Starting a new business is hard.

It takes confidence, courage and a thick skin to get you through the first few months and years.  If you’re smart, you have your marketing plan in place, a strong brand that differentiates you – but the phone isn’t ringing, you don’t have a client yet and you’re feeling nervous.

It’s a common feeling for new small business owners – you feel the pressure to secure that all important first client.  To get that first cheque to get you on your way.

Securing that first client isn’t as hard as you think.  The secret lies in the phrase “it’s not what you know it’s who you know”.

It’s a term used to describe how you can get ahead by knowing influential people and it’s the guiding principle to the best strategy to landing your first client – marketing to people you know.

This technique is very simple and cheap – and has produced clients for every small business I know that has used it.  It also brought me my first client when I started MarketingHQ.  So here it is, three simple steps to help you land your first client.

Step 1. Make a list of the contact details of all your friends, family and former business colleagues.

Gather the contact details of all your personal contact and put them in a spreadsheet.

Step 2. Write a letter (or email) of introduction for your new business. 

The key with the letter is not to make it “salesy”.  Don’t make an offer, don’t pitch any business, just make it nice and personable with some information about your new business and your new contact details.

The letter must also be clear about the service your new business offers.  Again, don’t try and sell anything – just tell your friends and family what you are up to.

Step 3. Send the letter or email to your contact list.

After you send the letter or email – it’s likely you will get some responses either by phone or email.  It is at this point you ask for referrals.  I don’t mean asking for contact details – just politely tell them they are welcome to pass on your contact details to anyone who could be a potential customer.

One of the first responses I get when I discuss during my marketing coaching sessions is that business owners feel uncomfortable “selling” to friends and family.  My response is – get over it. You will find that with most small businesses, the first clients are often friends and family.

Your job is to make sure your friends and family know what it is that you do and make it easy for them to tell others.

The reason this technique works is simple.  These people already know, like and trust you.  You instantly overcome the first three major barriers in gaining referrals all in one hit – and now you have provided them with the tools to talk about your business.

Above all, your friends and family also want you to do well and by giving them the right information, you make it easy for them to be a part of your success.

It’s usually the first marketing tactic businesses use when they start marketing.  “Let’s make some flyers and hand them out” they say.  Yep, sounds fair enough.  And guess what usually happens – they hand them out, put them in letterboxes and nothing happens.

“Promotional flyers don’t work!” is what they start shouting from the rooftops. Then they turn on the marketing profession. “Marketing doesn’t work…..I put some flyers together and I got no response”. Boy I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said that!

When I look at the flyers, they are usually enough to send an insomniac to sleep. No pizzazz, no spunk and worst of all – they don’t follow the four basic marketing rules that will make them work.

So to save my profession from being ridiculed by the humble, promotional flyer – here are four things you must include to create a promotional flyer that actually attracts customers.

1. An attention grabbing headline and images.

Just like any advertising, you need to grab your customers attention.  And you won’t grab them with a headline “Mobile Dry Cleaning Service” or “XYZ Gardening Services” with a dodgy clip art image.  The headline is critical to your success.  Grab their attention and people will read on – if you don’t, the flyer will head for the bin.

2. Tell customers how you will solve their problems.

Most flyers (that don’t work) use snooze worthy words like:

“At XYZ Gardening services, we offer a reliable gardening service that includes; lawn mowing, rubbish removal…” Yadda yadda yadda, yeah yeah whatever, you and every other gardening service – take a number…

Tap into the reasons why people use a gardening service in the first place.  It might be a time problem, a physical problem or they just hate gardening.  Make life easy for your customers and tell them how you will fix their problems.

If you are struggling to find the right words, get a copywriter to help you.  The investment will be well worth it.

3. Make a compelling offer

Ok, I just need to say this straight up.  Providing free quotes is NOT a compelling offer.  An offer is a benefit the customer can only get from you if they call your number NOW.  It needs to be compelling, valuable and time sensitive.  And please, don’t make it a discount – offer something that adds value.

4. Have a call to action

Your promotional flyer must have a call to action.  What do you want people to do after receiving the flyer?  Do you want them to call you? Visit your website? Make an appointment?  You need to spell it out so the customer knows what to do next.  And most of all, you need to tell them how to redeem your offer

Promotional flyers can be a very effective marketing tactic from any business.  Just make sure you include these four items to make yours a success and save my profession from damnation!