Why Do Small Businesses Outsource Marketing?

Small businesses today have to watch the bottom line closer than ever. Expenses are going up and it is difficult to raise their prices in the current economy. Business owners try to do everything themselves to not have to pay someone else. However, there are many aspects to operating a business and the business owner cannot be great at all of them. A business owner has chosen the industry because they have the education, knowledge and passion for the business. Successful business owners realize their strengths and weaknesses – they use their strengths and outsource to overcome their weaknesses.

All businesses are constantly facing change and it is difficult for the small business owner to keep up with the changes in their respective industry, much less the changes in taxes, marketing, legal system, insurance and other aspects of owning a business. This is why outsourcing can become one of the most important issues a business owner encounters.

Marketing for small businesses is changing on a daily basis. It is next to impossible for small business owners to keep up with the changes and operate their business.

The internet and social media have drastically changed the scope of small business marketing. It has changed from the old traditional marketing of purchasing an ad and letting it go – to internet marketing that is all about interaction and communication. There is a lot more time involved in today’s small business marketing.

Word of mouth is still the strongest marketing tool for small business; however, today’s word of mouth is a lot stronger. I am not sure where I heard this first, but the quote “Social Media is word of mouth on Steroids” is right on!!!

As strong as social media can be to build your business, it can take a business down just as fast. Bad reviews and poor word of mouth is poison for a business. A small business owner must know what is being said about their business on the internet and monitoring the internet takes time. They must respond to good and bad comments in a timely manner, or the bad comments could spread like wild fire on a dry windy day.

So, do small business owners have the time to blog, post on social media, keep up with SEO, monitor social media, monitor online directories and respond to all of this? NO!! The problem is they cannot afford to pay an employee to do all of this. This is where outsourcing the marketing is the most logical solution.

The small business owner will pay for what they get – they don’t have all the HR expenses of an employee – they have an expert providing a professional service – and they can spend time on running their business.

The key is to find a local marketing expert that has experience in successful small business ownership. These individuals understand small business ownership and will partner with a small business to grow with them and create a successful team.

Is Website Optimization Necessary for Local Internet Marketing Success?

The answer is……Let’s talk about what are the components of a successful local internet marketing plan. As I have mentioned in the previous blog, there are certain components that are part of a successful local marketing plan. However, after attending a very good webinar on How to become a Local Marketing Expert presented by Hubspot, I have added a few new techniques.

Prior to this informative event, I would not have considered these ideas as being necessary or even effective in local internet marketing. However, when you integrate all of the different tools, you have a very successful local internet marketing plan that will allow a small businesses to compete with big business!!

Here is the list from the previous blog. If you want more information on these, see Local Marketing – Are You Sure?

1. Local Opportunities
2. Email Marketing
3. Long Tail Keywords
4. On-line Directories
5. Google and Bing Places
6. Social Media
7. Blog

Here are the additions:

1. Add Yahoo Places – this is another search engine I inadvertently omitted. Also in places, some businesses will want to consider tags and advertising. It will make your places listing stand out with a special tag on Google and get you placed higher in Yahoo. You are also able to offer special deals through the tags and upgrades. Monitoring is key with places and all other online directories.

2. Facebook Places – You still need the business page, however, every business should have a places page. The page allows you to show up in certain location searches on Facebook and allows customers to check-in to your business on Facebook, sharing it with all their friends. FREE advertising.

3. Foursquare – I have not been a fan of Foursquare up until now. I still do not think it is for all businesses. Businesses that have a lot of walk-in traffic and potential repeat customers, should use Foursquare. There are 6 million users on Foursquare. It reaches out to mobile users, makes visiting your business fun and builds brand loyalty.

4. Online group buying – Here is another marketing tool that I was not a fan until now. I still don’t think it is wise for a local small business to partner with a national company such as Groupon. However, if there is a local online group buying company that fits your demographics, then I encourage you to consider this tool. Be sure you offer a great deal, but don’t offer a deal that has the potential to harm your business.

You take all of the components listed above and any local small business can compete with big business.

So my answer is – NO – website optimization is not necessary to have a successful local internet marketing plan.

Local Marketing - Are You Sure?

Most locally owned small businesses think they are focusing on local marketing. Here are 7 things you must do to have a successful local marketing plan.

1. Local opportunities – Every community is different in what marketing opportunities are available for small businesses. Most communities have a Chamber of Commerce, local newspaper, local radio, billboards, etc. Business owners should research each local opportunity and gather the demographic information for each, before making a decision on where to spend their money. Remember - inbound marketing is more successful than outbound marketing. Make choices wisely.

2. Email Marketing – Every local business can be successful with email marketing. The type of email marketing will depend on the industry. A properly planned email marketing program will grow the business and build a loyal customer base.

3. Long Tail Keywords – One of the most effective ways to target locally when performing SEO, is to use long tail keyword phrases with the name of the location targeting. Some examples – ‘seafood Destin FL’ or ‘residential painter in Atlanta’.

4. On-line directories – This is another way for your business to be seen in internet searches. These directories are also used for customer comments. Not only should you be listed in these directories, you should be monitoring the directories for positive and negative comments. Respond to all comments in public. Some of the top online directories are Merchant Circle, Yelp, Manta and Local.com. There are others you may need to consider depending on your industry.

5. Google and Bing Places – Reserve your name and place on the major search engines. When someone types in a city to search for a specific business, the search engines will give you a map with the locations highlighted for your search results. A must for all businesses!!

6. Social Media – This has become known as “Word of Mouth on Steroids” and the foundation for most locally owned businesses marketing is word of mouth. Facebook has become the most powerful social media tool on the internet today. Start a business page and begin connecting and communicating with your customers and others. Offering deals, posting interesting information, commenting on local events, etc. will have people to ‘Like’ your page to see what you have to offer.

7. Blog – The latest statistic I heard about blogging was – businesses with an active blog receive 55% more traffic to their website than those that do not blog – this coming from Hubspot. Blogging adds new content to your website, pages to your website, increases traffic to your website and increases links to your website – all of these will increase your ranking with search engines.

Do you have anything to add to the list?

9 Ways to Create the Right Customer 'Experience'

Why do some customers spend money with you and others don’t? Why do some customers come back again and some don’t? You could really increase your profits if you could get them to spend money the first time and get them to return. Return shoppers provide a larger profit margin because you did not spend as much to get them to come back as you did to get them to purchase the first time. Here are some things to do:

Customer service is about the ‘experience’ not the sale
The customers ‘experience’ is what you are trying to create. When sales people appear uncaring and/or unhelpful you lose a lot of potential sales. Create a company policy on interacting with each and every customer that comes in the store. For ecommerce, interact with live chat, FAQ’s and follow up from visiting the site. Also have strategies to prevent communication breakdowns with customer and how to settle customer disputes.

Shopper Education
The general public has become much more savy in shopping these days. They will search online for the best price and customer reviews. You must provide information in the store as well as online for today’s shoppers. If they can find more information about another product, there is a greater chance you will lose the sale. In store and online you can provide fact sheets, video, publications and reviews.

Male vs Female
Women account for 60% - 80% of buying decisions in today’s market. Understanding how men and women shop is a must. Many industries have not embraced the fact that the majority of the buying decisions are made by women. Your store set-up and website design should appeal more to women – don’t ignore the men – but remember 60-80%!

Create an atmosphere to maximize potential
Customers will spend more money the longer they are in your store or on your website. In store – create an area for men and women to sit and relax – provide coffee or water – use video to educate and entertain. Online – design an entertaining and educational experience that will draw them to different products. Remember – relaxing, fresh, visually stimulating and of course clean.

Available and Open
It is a must to be available and open to customers. Not just being in the store – be with the customer assisting them in their shopping ‘experience’. Online – make it very easy and obvious how to connect with a live person via chat or phone. This will lead to increased sales and increased return purchases. Remember – the experience is more important than the sale.

Layout/Design to increase sales
Know where to put what merchandise in your store and have related products on the page for your ecommerce store. Place the sale items in a store in the middle to back of the store with visible signage to attract the customer. Online – always have related sale items on the page.

Create an environment that expresses emotion and product related
Your in store environment should be one that causes the customer to react emotionally. Appeal to the target market. The look and features of your website should do the same. If you sale sporting goods – create a competitive atmosphere with action photos of popular athletes and sport video games. This will maximize your sales and create enthusiastic customers.

Show your trust and ethical business
A study (www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog) has shown that saying “trust us” will increase the customer’s perception of fair price, caring, fair treatment, quality and competency in your business. Create an atmosphere and reputation of high morals and ethics will attract consumers. Display in your store and online any involvement in community and charitable organizations.

Create an environment for feedback
Ask for your customers opinion. You will build a larger loyal customer base by asking and implementing ideas from your customers. You don’t know what they want or if they had a ‘great experience’ unless you ask.

You may not think these topics are related to marketing – I strongly disagree – anything that is related to increasing leads or sales is marketing. Customer service is marketing and the ‘experience’ you create for your customer will make or break your business.

Email Marketing = Lead Generation

Why are people blasting email marketing today? It has proven to have a great ROI. I just think the new guys on the block want to be the one to come up with something new. The biggest new, that is actually not so new, is lead generation. I have read that email marketing is just a small piece of lead generation. I strongly disagree. It is a significant piece of the lead generation pie. Don't misunderstand, I also believe you must be performing several other lead generating processes along with email.

A big factor in lead generation with email marketing is what type of email are you sending? One, a newsletter is the better lead generator. Two, product/service sales email should create more immediate sales by having the customer purchase online or have them come into the store. There are a 3 factors that you must consider to make your email campaign a lead generator.

First, you must have the appropriate email system that provides you with the information you need to develop leads. Just sending out mass emails from you personal email will not give you the information you need and will probably get your email shut down. The email management system should be able to provide you with the number and email addresses of opens, unique clicks and other information. There are several email management systems on the market and I have looked at them all and some are better than others.

Second, content in the email is very important. It must be seen as a value to the recipient. Depending on the type of industry will determine what is valuable content for your recipients. The content should also correlate to a product or service you provide. By providing valuable content that correlates to a product or service you provide - you determine which recipients are interested in that product or service by who clicks on that content.

Third, links are direct ways to determine the interests of the recipient. Providing links to the products and services you offer does two things. One, reminds the recipient of everything you offer. Two, gives the recipient the opportunity to get more information about any of your products or services. Links will generate the majority of your leads.

Taking the list of recipients that clicked on the unique links will provide you with a list of leads. If you don't get any clicks on your email, then your content or links are not a value to your recipients. It is now up to you to turn that lead into a customer.

Email marketing is not dead and is a lead generator!!!

Marketing Opportunities - Online Directories

If you are not utilizing online directories, your business is missing out on a great opportunity to be seen and heard.  Most online directories are free. There are a few out there that charge to place your listing and you should determine whether your company should list with that directory. Many of the free directories offer paid upgrades that will give you more options and benefits, however, the upgrades are not a necessity to be successful.

The online directories are not just to list your buiness. They are for people to read positive reviews about your business. How? You ask your cutomers to write a recommendation for your business on the directory. Sometime during their buying process, provide them with the web address to write a recommendation on the directories. If you utilize more than one directory, give them options. Just like product reviews on retail ecommerce sites, individuals are using online directories for reviews on businesses.

Here are a few free online directories with the link to my listing:

Merchant Circle
http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Davis.Marketing.Professionals.LLC.770-540-7441

Yelp
http://www.yelp.com/biz/davis-marketing-professionals-buford

Google Places
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=marketing+in+buford+ga&fb=1&gl=us&hq=marketing&hnear=Buford,+GA&ei=6oiPTODyOcOblgfy_Nm8Dw&sqi=2&ved=0CC8QtgMwAA&iwloc=8901288723039125281&mid=1284475150

Insider Pages
http://www.insiderpages.com/b/15253492921/davis-marketing-professionals-buford

If you are not listed on these directories, you are missing out on opportunities to be seen and heard - and missing out on potential customers.

7 Inexpensive and Effective Marketing Tools

If you're a business owner, you are probably looking for ways to promote your business without having to spend a lot of money. No matter what size business you own, you probably aren't taking full advantage of the many opportunities you have for marketing your business in basic ways that cost little or nothing to implement.

Some of these marketing tools that you can utilize include:

1. Business Cards. All businesses should have business cards. This is one of the most cost efficient marketing tools. It should be viewed as a virtual billboard that promotes your business. Don’t just put your logo and contact information – include what you do. The back of business cards is one of the least utilized marketing tools today. Special offers and discounts are good for the back of a business card. Place information on the back that will give the customer a reason to have your business card handy at all times.

2. Emails. A business that does not ask me for my email address does not want my future business. Consumers are very willing to give their email address to a business as long as they perceive they will benefit from the emails they receive. Have an email marketing plan that will benefit your customers and give them reasons to come back. B2B companies should offer valuable information to their customers via email. B2C companies should provide special offers via email. Customers that are satisfied with your products and services will forward these emails to their friends. Nothing is as strong as word-of-mouth.

3. Word-of-Mouth Referrals. A business can be built on word-of-mouth referrals. There is no better marketing tool than a friend’s recommendation. You could not afford a sales force the size of all your satisfied customers and friends. The strongest referral is one from a friend. A satisfied customer is one that received what they expected not just treated nicely. The customers experience when they have encountered your products and/or services, will either build or destroy the power of word-of-mouth. In order to create the type of satisfied customer that will work like a salesman – you must provide a WOW experience.

4. WOW Experience. Customer service is a very important issue for all businesses. The question is – do you provide great customer service or just customer service with a smile? Great customer service can separate you from your competition. It can create or stop a sale. It is who you are!!! Creating a WOW experience for your customers will keep them coming back. Check out this book “Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service” by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. It has a pretty good formula for creating a WOW experience.

5. Invoices/Receipts. You either send a customer an invoice or give them a receipt. Use this opportunity to promote your business or a specific product or service. It is also a great way to say ‘Thank You’ to your customers – you can never say thank you enough. Messages promoting your website, email newsletter, special event or upcoming sale will cross promote all your marketing tools.

6. Thank You Notes. A lost and forgotten art is the hand written thank you note. If you ship products – drop a hand written ‘thank you’ in the package. If you send invoices by mail – place a hand written ‘thank you’ on the invoice. Any time you send or hand a customer a sheet of paper – it is an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ in writing. This simple gesture will go a long way in building a long lasting loyal relationship with your customers.

7. Online Business Directories. The majority of the world is using the internet to search for products and services. Along with trying to find products and services, people are searching for who has the BEST products and services. The online business directories provide you with the opportunity to list your business with a description of what you offer and it provides a review section for your customers to tell everyone about their experience. The majority of the online directories are free with upgrades that include minimal costs. Your business can appear in internet searches without having a website or landing page when you are listed in the online business directories.

Marketing doesn't have to be expensive to be effective. You have resources in your business you are not utilizing to the fullest extent. These 7 methods are simple and effective for any business no matter the size or industry. Implement some or all of these and see the power of inexpensive marketing.

http://www.davismarketingpros.com/

3 Important Points in Website Design

When designing a website there are 3 things that you must decide before starting. If you start the process of designing before determining the answers to these three questions - you will waste alot of time and money. These issues are the foundation of the website.

A couple of things to remember - Your website is the center of all your marketing arms. Every marketing tool you have should direct the customer to your website. Consistency in presenting your brand is a major key to effective advertising. Visually all of your advertising and marketing should have some consistency with your website.

With those points out of the way - here are the 3 questions to answer.

1. Are you selling or answering? What I mean is are you a B2C or a B2B business? B2C will sell their products and services to their customers. Many times having an ecommerce site is a large part of the revenues. Presenting all of the products with descriptions and prices gives the customer the ability to make the decision online. B2B will provide the solutions to the customers problems. You are not selling a product or service you are selling a solution. Present the information in a way to answer the customers questions that solve their problems. They are not looking for a particular product or service - they are looking for a solution to their need.

Here is a good B2B website:

2. Layout - text vs graphic? Everyone wants pictures and video on their website. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it depends on your industry and who is your target market. The younger the target market the more likely video will be effective. If you have an ecommerce site then you must have pictures of the products and video can enhance the customers experience and will increase the chance of the customer purchasing. For B2B a video can be used to introduce the company and the individuals that work at the company. Remember - text is king in search engine optimization. You can optimize the pictures and videos with tags for SEO.

3. Color scheme? This should be the easiest one to answer unless you are completely re-branding your business. Consistency with color is one of the rules for branding. So when choosing a color scheme you must think about all the possible marketing mediums you will use and if the colors work with print, video, billboard, email, blog, etc. You do not have to come up with a color scheme that is unique. There are reasons some color schemes are popular. The color of the text on the background must be easy to read!!

These 3 questions are only the beginning of the process of designing a website. Once you have answered these - you are just getting started. However, you just made the process easier and more cost effective.

Take a look at some of the websites our designers have developed. http://www.davismarketingpros.com/portfolio/websites.php

Don't Touch That Marketing Budget

I am encountering and hearing of businesses making cuts to their budgets. Whether it is staffing, capital purchases, benefits, marketing and many others; they want to cut expenses and increase revenue. Most are not successful increasing revenues. Just because you cut expenses does not automatically increase revenue.

This chart to the left, provided by Laurie McCabe, a Partner and Analyst at the SMB Group through HubSpot Blog, shows that companies with increasing reveues are more likely to view marketing strategically, and invest more in marketing than their counterparts with flat or declining revenues.

Marketing is one area that a company can not expect to cut and also increase revenue. I know there are exceptions to every rule, however, the majority of businesses that decrease their marketing budget will see revenues flat or decrease. Small businesses find this more challenging than larger businesses.

For small businesses the internet and social media can be the answer. Web-based marketing and social media tools are usually less expensive than traditional marketing. It can be easier to use and more effective than traditional marketing. This is also true for larger businesses.

Using internet and social media marketing does not require you to commit to long term contracts and tie you into a stationery marketing strategy. A continually adjusting and changing marketing strategy is more relevant and effective. You are able to try different approaches with out making changes to a long term agreement. Trying different messages at the same time to determine which is effective is a common strategy.

In order to be effective in internet and social media marketing, you must have a plan. Now that is another blog for another time. It will not take a long term contractural agreement, however, it will take time to be effective.

If you are going to decrease your marketing budget, you must have a marketing strategy that will continue to reach your target market. Internet and social media marketing may be the answer.