Duct Tape Marketing Contributors

Most of you have probably heard about Twitter  [http://www.twitter.com], the social networking and micro-blogging service. It can be a great tool for building buzz, fostering community, connecting with customers… all that stuff businesses should be doing. But I’ve always thought it best suited to certain kinds of businesses over others.

Then, the other day, I got a notification from my own active Twitter account that  @TheDryCleaner [http://twitter.com/thedrycleaner] was now following me, at @marketingprofs [http:twitter.com/marketingprofs]. I found that a little curious. Wait a sec: What’s a dry cleaner doing on Twitter?

I thought of the place where I take my own clothes, a tiny little outfit staffed only by its Korean owner. As social as she is, I still had a hard time picturing her on Twitter. What would she say? “Found some gum in a jacket pocket again — EWW!” “Wondering whether I should tell his wife that I found another hotel receipt in his pants pocket? That scum!” “Wanna know the secret to removing that red wine stain? Ask me!” I think of dry cleaning as an inherently local thing, so I was intrigued by the notion of one on Twitter, a worldwide social network.

It turns out that @TheDryCleaner is Jerry Pozniak, owner of four dry-cleaning shops, and, according to his Twitter home page bio, “Dry cleaner to the stars.” Jerry has ambitious plans for his business and himself, and he talks about how Twitter figures into both here. His advice is interesting for any small business owner wondering about Twitter or how to leverage the platform to accomplish specific goals.

What follows is the exchange Jerry and I had on Skype, via instant messaging.

[3:31:03 PM] Ann Handley says: So I was so surprised to see “TheDryCleaner” follow me on Twitter today! Are you the only dry cleaner on Twitter, do you know?

[3:32:33 PM] Jerry Pozniak says: I think so, I did a search and I did not see another.

[3:32:46 PM] Ann Handley says: What made you join?

[3:33:47 PM] Jerry Pozniak says: I am working on a buzz marketing campaign and I thought it would be best to get my name around on Twitter. I also search for “dry cleaning” and try to respond to some Tweets.

[3:34:33 PM] Ann Handley says: But isn’t dry cleaning an inherently local thing? What’s the advantage for your business, on Twitter?

[3:37:05 PM] Jerry Pozniak says: I am a bit of an authority on garment care, so national exposure is a good thing. My Jeeves of Belgravia brand does shipping throughout the US.

[3:38:41 PM] Ann Handley says: So you offer a sort of valet dry cleaning throughout the US?

[3:40:44 PM] Jerry Pozniak says: Jeeves has clients all over the US for its exclusive services. When a client has a “over the top” wardrobe and wants the best possible care for her clothes she’ll ship her items to Jeeves for cleaning and return shipping. It is usually the client who cannot find that kind of garment care near where they reside. read more

I spent almost 10 years working in Benin, West Africa.  As I quickly learned, it was a storytelling culture.  But just a soon, I was told by my language coach that a good story is not necessarily based on whether it’s true or not.  A legend can be propagated because people often accept it without substantiation.  As in any culture, myths were so prevalent in Africa and it was difficult to discern fact from fiction (especially as an outsider).  In our business world, there are probably a hundred marketing myths that small business owners hear each day as well.  So let’s pick 5 popular marketing myths and test their truthfulness.

MYTH 1:  “You gotta spend money to make money.”

The truth is that if you are not investing, you’ll never claim ROI.  If I call my broker and say “how’s that stock of mine doing that I never bought?” he’d consider me a fool for expecting any returns.  You spend money on inventory, software, and of course payroll in hopes that it will turn a profit.  Why would you expect strong marketing results without putting some serious resources behind your efforts?  However, the claim of having to spend massive amounts of marketing cash has been shattered by the host of affordable and sometimes, FREE marketing tools available.  And with the rise of social media, you can engage in interactive marketing so that you trade in that cash outlay of expenses for time cultivating relationships in a variety of online forums.

MYTH 2:  “All the old ways of advertising are gone.  Everything is online now.”

There are many in my field saying that traditional methods of marketing are out.  Newspapers are dying. Phone books get recycled more than used. But you should probably give the boot to anybody on your marketing team with a dogmatic stance against conventional marketing methods.  Why?  Because it’s demonstrating that their plan is based solely on trendy copycat marketing.  Your marketing decisions have to be first based on who you are targeting.  If your target market is not online, then direct mail may be the most effective reach.  And sometimes, even for guys like me who spend hours a day on Facebook and Twitter, even the most simplistic methodology can make the connection from my need to your solution.  The picture above was taken at the intersection near my house.  I noticed it because my wife and I were wondering where we might find information about girls’ summer softball for our oldest daughter.  A few hours later, we had her registered.  All from a simple sign.
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Unlock your potential to market your business. The new rules of marketing!
Why are so many companies spending time on things that don’t work? It seems amazing to me how consistently companies keep throwing money at advertising that doesn’t work. Foolish, right! What if you had an unlimited amount of money to market your business? Well, as a small businesses that probably is not an option and it really shouldn’t even matter! Don’t believe me, guess again!

Ever Heard of Cindy Gordon?

She is the VP of marketing for Universal studios in Orlando resorts. She was responsible for launching a theme park in Orlando Universal Resort and an unlimited amount of money to promote, a ton of money , such a large amount she could of done a super bowl add, millions of mailers…..but she didn’t. Know what she did instead? She told seven people. Thats it. Seven people. Who the heck did she tell? She told the seven of the most popular bloggers about Harry Potter and took people on a secret webcast she invited top people to. Well, those seven people she told then told tens of thousands of other people and those tens of thousands of people then in turn, told thousands more. Well, mainstream media who was monitoring those blogs got a hold of the story too. Within 24 hours of telling just seven people, 350 million people knew of Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I talked with one small business owner and he had a decent business. There were clients and modest profits, but the business wasn’t growing and income was not flowing. He was in competition with everyone else, fierce competition. Everyday was a struggle. This business owner used some advertising pieces and was using the Yellow Pages at the tune of $2,000 a month and ran some ads in the paper, just like everyone else. His business was challenged .

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It is a new era. Every day we realize that in fact each day is unique and uncharted waters, truly a new era is in front of us and all around us. I can look at these words” new era” in many different ways and apply the meaning in so many different aspects of our lives. We set goals to achieve, accomplishments we want to obtain and a life we want to enjoy.For many of us small business owners, we started a business to serve our lives. A business that serves our lives enhances every goal and accomplishment and fulfills us. Our proud life. A business that serves our life is one that is dedicated to making our business function and trying to reach our goals. A life that serves our business consumes us and makes us reactive, not proactive.

The difference between business serving life and life serving business could be the difference between succeeding and not succeeding.

Gone are the days of having time to recover a business from bad decisions. Gone are the days of having the time to have a long learning curve trying to establish your business and reach your goals through trial and error. read more

Do you ever find yourself feeling like you’re business isn’t moving anywhere? You love what you are doing. You are passionate about your products / services. And you know that you have all that it takes to be a huge success. Yet, here you are frustrated because nothing seems to be happening and you’re not making any money.Your bills continue to flow in and pile up, and you know you will have a major problem unless something happens really soon.

One of the most important things we learn about is to be clear on your “why.”  Your ‘why’ is your purpose for all that you are doing. It is the profound difference you are making in your life, your family’s life, or someone else’s life. When you think about it, you feel a glow and warmth, a surge of energy unlike anything else.Your “why” is what your whole journey is all about.And, it is the single most important thing to stay connected to when you have a period that isn’t quite as productive as you want it to be. read more

      It is  easier to close a sale when a prospect has sought YOU out, rather than when you approach them. One of the reasons for this is that when a prospect approaches you, the business relationship starts out on a more equal footing.

Contrast the situation where a prospect approaches you with the built in resistance and or skepticism you encounter when the first contact is made via a cold call or unsolicited mailing.When people feel that they’ve discovered you, then you don’t encounter the resistance that can occur when you approach them.

Defenses are down, the buyer feels more in control of the communication. Instead of YOU saying, ‘Here’s how I think I can help you’ and then having to prove your claim with lots of convincing and persuading, the prospect is saying, ‘I think YOU’RE the person who can help me. Tell me how this works.’ read more

We know that there is a certain amount of risk in any business, but today it has magnified. Quality counts in today’s contracting economy and credit risk are increasing. Tight bank lending standards and slack demand has proved difficult for lower quality companies to refinance their debt. The recession and lack of liquidity has significantly increased your risk and don’t be surprised if you see payables extend and sudden cancellation of orders. Don’t try to be the bank!

Consider building a marketing model to minimize your risk by looking at your sales conversion or funnel so that lower risk companies could be rewarded and high-risk companies may have a little more stringent payment terms. Remember, most companies fail because of cash flow, not necessarily profitability. It was Will Rogers, who used to say when describing his investment strategy, “He was more interested in the return of his money, than the return on his money.”

Here are a few examples of things to consider in your marketing funnel: read more

It’s difficult not to be bombarded these days with the glowing internet trends and statistics…the bottom line is that people (read: potential customers) have and continue to flock to the internet in droves in
search of products, services and information.  A recent study estimates that 72% of all buying decisions
now involve the internet at some point during the buying cycle (researching, considering options, buying,
confirming buying decision, or post-sale information gathering).  Business pundits routinely shout the
critical importance of this medium and the need for an informative/visible web presence through books,
magazines, media appearances, conferences, etc.

And yet, the majority of small businesses continue to avoid, seemingly waiting for something
to happen that will help them better understand and harness this technology.  And that’s a problem for a
couple reasons. First, the internet is a wonderful place to exhibit products and services and do business.
It’s a virtual storefront open 24/7 and can show products/services when the owner/management is working
on other things…a dynamic that has been very profitable for some companies.  And second, without sounding too ominous, the door on visibility through search engines is slowly closing.

As a quick primer, the “Big 4″ of search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask) display the websites that are most commonly associated with related keywords.  They use a ranking system so that those websites that are most appropriate for a keyword are ranked and listed at or near the top, whereas those that aren’t commonly associated with a keyword are ranked much lower or not at all.  What some business owners
don’t realize is that most of the ranking is based upon techniques utilized within the website to rank higher.
That is, ranking higher is largely within management’s control.

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