Marketing

If “The Most Wonderful Time of Year” is behind us, what does January bring?  For some, there are those nasty post-holiday blues.  But for many, we design our New Year’s Resolution chart to plaster around the house.

For small business, you can do the same thing, too.  Let’s take 7 of the most common resolutions and apply them to your business.  Even as we face a long road ahead, we find renewed vision to start off right!

1.  EXERCISE
The most successful weight-loss strategies typically involve muscle building.  Businesses engage in strength training by first assessing their talent base.  Look for ways to rotate some employees to various positions in your company.  Give them exposure to new areas of responsibility.  It’s easier to let everyone stick to what they do best, but by strengthening across the board, you eliminate the vacuum that remains if one employee leaves her post or if one guy just happens to be sick for a week.  Learning other jobs also broadens the employee’s perspective and usually improves morale as employees learn to walk in one another’s shoes. A team with greater diversity of understanding and experience makes for a strong force when times are lean.

2.  EAT BETTER
Small business must consume healthier options.  The most demoralizing product your employees consume is the feast of silence from the top.  Our human nature gravitates to boss-bashing, quarreling with other co-workers, and griping about wages.  This is a buffet of disaster and makes businesses sluggish.  Feed your employees praise and positive reinforcement.  Acknowledge the good efforts and don’t just criticize the mistakes.  Provide opportunities to learn new skills. There are many low-cost webinars that can empower and encourage.  Don’t forget the power of surprise rewards, the unexpected financial recognition that every employee loves.  Even year-end bonuses over time become expected and lose their intended purpose (just ask Clark Griswold of “Christmas Vacation”).

3.  STOP HARMFUL HABITS
Many commit personally to quit smoking or stop excessive drinking.  But what about those harmful habits destructive to our business?  One of the grossest areas of abuse is in the area of self-promotion.  Yes, that’s right, quit promoting your services and products!  The most common marketing error is saying, “if they only knew more about X, they’d buy it!”  People don’t care about your products, but they do care about how those products will benefit them.  read more

It seems that everywhere you look today, companies are going out of business.  I believe that a lot of these business failures have to do with one thing … discipline, or more accurately, the lack of it.

There are four areas where small business owners must have a high level of discipline if they are going to experience extraordinary success.

Planning

Many small business owners, myself included, have an entrepreneurial spirit and tend to fly by the seat of their pants.  They do something well, so they start a business.  They pick up a few clients here and there but never really make the kind of strides they had hoped for.

By actually taking time to sit down and write out a business plan and a marketing plan, you have just moved into the ranks of an elite group of business owners who begin to regularly experience monumental successes. read more

I have come to understand that the various social media tools can be used in both social and business cases. But I can’t help but wonder when some of the social tools will generate money?

If you are not very familiar with social media, I recommend that you stop right now, and have a look at Common Craft’s instructional videos which deal with social media and social networks.

It seems as if businesses are finding ways to use social media (usually without paying anything). One high-profile example of a business which has taken up social media is Zappos. This is an extract from Sarah Milstein’s article in the New York Times, How Twitter can help at Work, where she points to one way to use Twitter: read more

A few years ago, I wrote on my blog about an interesting dilemma at “The New York Daily News.” What is more commonly known in New York as the “Daily News” is one of the most popular NYC Subway papers. On a weekly basis, the Daily News holds a “scratch and win game” with up to $100,000 in prizes. On on Saturday in March a few years ago, there were hundreds - or perhaps thousands - of ecstatic people throughout Manhattan. Unfortunately, due to a printing error, there were a few thousand too many winners. And they were angry.

I can only imagine the editor’s concern and fear as hundreds of protesters showed up to collect their winnings. Luckily, the agency that conducted the prize had some fine-print that protected the newspaper’s liability. However, the embarrassment and a number of irate readers remained.

Rather than duck or move on quickly, the leaders at the Daily News made a surprising decision, they decided to run with it. They ran a front page article on Monday morning proclaiming, “News offers $1 Million to Say Sorry, Folks.” read more

Much of what is written about the economic downturn focuses on the harsh realities of cutbacks, layoffs and even bankruptcy. There is no doubt many businesses have been adversely affected already and I suspect more will be as 2009 unfolds.

However, the silver lining in all of this bad economic news is that opportunities for long-term growth are also being created. Now, I’m not one to suggest business owners prey on the misfortunes of others, but there is no question that many nimble small businesses can benefit from the current state of the economy in several very tangible ways.

Acquire your competitors

When the market roars along, even shaky businesses can seem healthy. When business slows and customers start to hold on to their money, weaker competitors often fold up and send their customers fleeing for more stable providers.

Upgrade your staff

It’s no secret that many very talented folks are being shown the door at large corporations across the land. Some of those very talented, very experienced folks will turn to small businesses as a healthy alternative. An unprecedented pool of talent is available and eager to join the ranks of the small business. read more

As companies large and small wrestle with the realities of a challenging economy, I think it’s the perfect time to be a small business.

Small businesses possess certain natural advantages in economic downturns that make them much more flexible and able to survive and thrive in slow markets. In addition, I think 2009 will be the year of the small business. The market is hungry to connect with companies and products that are more personal and real.

In recognition of this coming trend I’ve listed what I believe are natural competitive advantages that will give small businesses the opportunity to thrive in the coming year.

1. Focus - In order to survive, most small businesses must adopt a narrow market focus. In doing so, they can develop a premium reputation for serving that narrow market.

2. Reach - Small business owners are so close to their markets they can experience what their market experiences. They can deliver CEO-level experience to any size client who can connect with a client better a 25-year veteran and author of two books on the industry or two 20-something whiz kids from McKenzie?

3. Nurture - Small businesses can grow with customer needs. Often, they can create products and services that address highly personalized requests at a moments notice. read more

What are the three biggest marketing mistakes small- and mid-sized business make in a downturn?
Cutting your sales force or service levels, dropping prices without a clear plan for making up the lost revenue, and not understanding how much you make on each product — so you know what to push and what to pull - are leading contenders.  Cash flow is the crucial gauge for monitoring all of this, and when it starts to flat-line it’s usually because of bad marketing decisions.

Learn how to avoid the three biggest marketing pitfalls in a downturn from Knowledge@Wharton, the Wharton School’s online business journal, in this conversation with Wharton marketing professor Eric Bradlow.

The biggest pitfall, he says, is a knee-jerk drop in price: “A lot of firms, shockingly, don’t know how much money they make on each product line. Let’s just remember that a bigger number multiplied by a negative number is a bigger negative number,” Professor Bradlow says. “So a lot of people drop price on product lines that are already not making money on a per unit basis.”

 

 Avoid the Three Biggest Marketing Mistakes in a Downturn - Eric Bradlow [6:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Remember the old adage about marketing - only 50 percent of your marketing works, you just do not know which 50 percent? Many marketers are still under that philosophy.

Today’s companies are innovative and focuses on waste reduction, improved lead time, maximized flexibility and upgraded quality using lean principles. But few are transferring these principles to their marketing practice.

Some marketers still believe a system will stunt their creativity, but it has been proved time and time again that a system will stimulate creativity. Applying lean principles to your marketing will lead to more creative ideas that your customer truly wants rather than just another cute campaign. Do you believe Microsoft customers wanted Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfield? Do you even think they wanted, “I am a PC?”

Increasing competition demands a continuous focus on minimal costs, maximum customer options, fast delivery and high-quality products and services. read more