Marketing

Just a quick note to say that I’ll be at the upcoming New York Times Small Business Summit on November 17, 2008 .

The agenda looks great. The day features two keynotes: Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stoneyfield Farm, and Liz Lange, Founder of Liz Lange Maternity. Then there are breakout sessions covering: strategies for growth in a tough economy, empowering your team, and the new marketing landscape. You can wander through the vendor fair and check out offerings to help you run your business. There will be speed networking, too, which is always fun and worthwhile. And a cocktail reception for more relaxed networking caps the day.

I hope you will stop in and say “hi” — I’ll be in the American Express OPEN Advice Center. I’ll be there to answer your questions. Anything you want to know about, anything you think I might be able to help with, I will be happy to try to assist you.

I understand they are setting me up with a plasma screen hooked to my laptop, so that we can talk about social media sites, for instance. Be happy to show you some of the neat little tricks I’ve learned about how to use social media sites for low-cost marketing without having social media take over your life.

When: November 17, 2008 from 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM

Where: Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers, 811 7th Avenue (at the corner of 53rd Street), New York, NY 10019

Find out more: Visit the New York Times Small Business Summit website.

Hope to see you there!

Avoid trying to time the market(ing). Buy low, sell high. Ever hear that advice before?  We all would like to be able to do it, but we know that it’s not possible to do. Even the seasoned investor is unable to do this. We know one of the best strategies is dollar cost averaging, though few of us do it.

Good marketing advice would be to avoid trying to time the market. Many people and organizations market around events, product launches, seasons, and many other  single occurrences.  But my advice to you is to do a little marketing each day. And if you do that, your single events and your marketing will be a much greater success.

Marketing needs to emphasize client relationships based on trust and knowledge.  This approach is not necessarily unique, but it’s never been more vital than today.  So here’s a few simple steps that I would advise you to try: read more

It’s November and, whether you realize it or not, the 2008 holiday shopping season is already upon us. And in light of the never-ending, dismal economic headlines entertaining us lately, it’s more important than ever for small business retailers to plan for a tight spending season.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) forecasts a 2.2% increase in sales this year. This, they are quick to point out, is about half the average holiday sales growth over the last ten years but, what they don’t point out is that it is not much less than the 2.4% growth in sales during the 2007 holiday shopping season.

Consumers anticipate spending about $830, on average, this holiday season. That figure represents a 10% decrease from last year’s average holiday spending, and includes gifts for family, friends and colleagues, decorations, flowers, candy and food, cards and postage. It also includes an expected average of $120 each on non-gift purchases made for themselves or their households by sharp-eyed consumers on the lookout for holiday sale prices.

So, what can the small business retailer do to maximize the season for their bottom line in an economic climate like this, when they really can’t compete on price? read more

Rap Reiplinger, a famous comedian from Hawaii, created a popular radio sketch involving a room service attendant who repeatedly confirms a hotel guest’s dinner order: “You sure? Positive? You sure you sure?” It turns out, we’re not sure we’re sure according to the classic 1973 study by Goethals and Reckman.In the study, researchers invited high schoolers to discuss their opinions on an issue—in this case, school segregation and whether bussing would help racial integration. Some time later, study participants returned for another discussion. This time, however, they were divided into pro and con groups. Inside each separated groups, Goethals and Reckman placed a “confederate,” a person armed with arguments for the opposing viewpoint. The goal was to reverse the groups’ outlook.In the end, both confederates successfully reversed the groups’ opinions. What’s more, the people in the groups couldn’t accurately recall their original position. Many claimed their previous beliefs were less definite than researchers originally observed. Bussing supporters even thought they were against the issue from the beginning—this was not true at all.An article called “Our Secret Attitude Changes” provides several explanations if this phenomenon.

 
1. Participants didn’t anticipate being persuaded, thus they weren’t aware that they were changing their own positions. When asked about their old beliefs, they simply thought of their current ones.

  

2. In order to ease the conflict between their old and new perspectives, study subjects unconsciously integrated the two, so that it made sense.

  

3. The high school participants may not have been emotionally invested in the bussing issue.
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If you’ve cracked a newspaper or turned on the news lately, it’s all doom and gloom about the economy, market volatility and outlooks on business.  The continuing financial crisis has left business owners on edge, causing many to do just the opposite of what they should be doing.  Hopefully, you are not one of those frightened ones … making emotional versus rational, practical decisions to propel your business forward in any economy.

Looming financial questions have negatively impacted economies around the world.  No country or region has been completely isolated from the financial storm.  Here at home, companies large and small are scrapping plans to introduce new products.  Cutbacks on marketing are some of the first considered.  This is exactly the wrong thing to do. Now is the time to be bold and take action to grow your business — especially small businesses.  This economy demands that you become known, liked and trusted enough for people to buy from you.  Trusted enough for them to allow you to become their solution.

Now is the time, more than ever, to have an actual marketing plan to ensure this is the case.  And then work the daylights out of that plan.  Think about it.  When are your prospects more likely to see and respond to your marketing?  In boom times, when they’re being bombarded with advertising and promotions from all of your competitors … or, in lean times when your competitors stop contacting them? Now is the best time to grow your business. read more

I’m married to my high school sweetheart… We dated six years before tying the knot several years back.

I’ll have to confirm this with my beloved bride, but I’m pretty certain if on Day 1 I said, “You seem like a nice gal… I’m a nice guy. Want to get married?” Things would have turned out quite differently…

That’s cute Kyle – get to the point.

Here’s the point: If you are advertising to prospects in a “shotgun” manner such as this:

“You don’t really know our business, but here’s a bit about us. Give us a call and let’s do business!”

Your advertising is going to flop. Response will be low. Folks won’t notice you and few will call.

Duct Tape Marketing teaches us that we need to build Know, Like & Trust with a prospect before any business will take place.

One of the ways we do this is by using a 2-step approach in your advertising – an approach that concentrates on “dating” vs. “let’s get married!”

A couple examples of a 2-step approach:

“Ten Key Accounting Tips for Small Businesses. Visit this website for your free report.”

“Call for your Self-Employed Tax Reduction Toolkit”

We aren’t going from “don’t know ya” to “tying the knot.” We are instead building Know, Like & Trust with our prospect… “let’s date…let’s get to know each other…here’s some free information…”

This 2-step approach leads to higher response, more measurable results and certainly a great shot at the second date…

***

Kyle Hunt is the founder of Your Marketing Guy and a Duct Tape Marketing Coach located near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Find more information online at www.YourMarketingGuy.com

As a small business owner, you need to understand how technology is changing the customer experience. The folks at Razorfish wrote a report called “FEED: The Razorfish Consumer Experience Report” to help people understand these change and to explore the coming trends.

According to Razorfish, “…today’s consumer is more technically adept, open for experimentation and—most importantly—active than ever before.” Its recommendations include:

1. “Act more like publishers, entertainment companies, or even party planners, than advertisers.”
2. “Create content that engages and ‘reaches’ consumers across channels, provide valuable services over mere advertising, and master an increasingly complicated and expansive content distribution model.”
3. “Rethink the way they create relationships (or conversations) with consumers before it’s too late.”

The report also examines the impact of widgets, RSS feeds, “advertising as a service,” Twitter, online video, iPhones, and new design standards. In short, this is something you should read to stay on top of Web technology and digital content. You can get it before your competitor by clicking here.

Search expert Danny Sullivan has written a great piece on small business and local search, echoing my own words here on the Open Forum blog. From his post:

I spent the past 12 years living in a small English village, where there was little need to turn to search engines if I needed help with my home. Everyone in the village knew who the plumber was, the two people who painted homes or that if you wanted a meal delivered, only one little Chinese food place would make the trip out. Dominos Pizza? Forget it.

Now I’ve just moved back to where I’m originally from, suburban Southern California. Getting my new house in order has sent me to search engines again and again, leaving me almost in shock at the mess I find out there.