A Need for Speed – Small Biz Social Media Efficiency and Productivity

Rev up your social media marketing engines!

I went deep stat diving today in preparation for this post on small business social media efficiency and productivity. Here’s one that will motivate you to get serious about social:

Seven out of ten consumers are more likely to use a local business if it has information available on a social media site.
Source: comScore Networks/TMP Directional Marketing

And here are two that will make you sigh, especially if you’re the chief cook, bottle washer and marketing czar of your small business:

You’re likely to spend six hours a week on social media marketing and 3.6 hours a day on social media sites.
Sources: VerticalResponse and QuickSprout

If you have a need for speed in executing your small business social media objectives, the following resources can rev up your marketing engine.

Start with a plan. Grab a free downloadable sample social media tactical plan from Marketo, a digital marketing software and solutions company. It will help you decide:

• Key objectives and action items for your blog, social networks, videos, photos, and presentations
• The number of hours your company will choose to devote to each facet of social marketing
• How your goals might differ on networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and more
• Testable metrics for your social campaigns

Hootsuite, a social media management system, offers six terrific social media templates to save literally hours of work. They include:

• Social Media Strategy Template
• Social Media Audit Template
• Editorial Calendar Template
• Social Media Content Calendar
• Bulk Upload Template
• Social Profile Image Size Guide

In full disclosure, LGK is a Hootsuite client.

Here’s a daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly social media checklist courtesy of SocialTimes by way of Sprout Social.

Lastly, courtesy of Neil Patel at QuickSprout, the infographic below is a useful resource for anyone who wants to drive traffic and engagement in a more efficient and productive manner.

Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

For more guidance, read our earlier post, 10 Really Good Tips for Small Business Social Media Marketing.

Do you have a formula for social media efficiency and productivity? Feel free to share your thoughts, tips and tricks in the comments section of this post.

GB O’Brien
LGK Principal

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.

Title graphic photo credit: Bo Nash / Foter / CC BY-SA

Oh Baby, Hot Tips and Sizzling Inspiration for Summer Email Marketing

Much like the handsome gentleman in the photo above, I am a multitasker. So, while working on a June-themed small business client eNewsletter last week, I made a couple of notes and tapped into a few resources for this post on summer email marketing. Themed email marketing is a no-brainer, but effective themed email marketing requires a bit more thought, knowledge of email best practices and a dose of creative inspiration. And, you guessed it, oh baby did I come up with hot tips and sizzling inspiration to maximize your email marketing momentum this season.

Thought

To introduce the monthly specials eNewsletter for the LGK client, a local beauty salon, the process of creating a focus and subject line took a few research and brainstorming hours. This process included a review of demographics, client (buyer) personas, along with emotional, cultural and local marketing triggers, which led us to the altar – a matrimonial approach, if you will. Here’s the subject line and first couple of sentences from the opening paragraph:

To: Jane Doe
From: XYZ Salon, Palm Beach

Subject: Say Yes to XYZ Salon’s June Specials

Dear Jane,

Who says you have to be a bride or groom to make a commitment in June? At XYZ Salon, love is in the hair!

Schools are out, and summer is in, so now is the perfect time to say yes to a month of great savings for your vacations, staycations and special celebrations.  

Within 24 hours of distribution to 500 clients, there were 200 website page views of June specials, 47 appointments booked for the upcoming week and a strong, “blissful”, indication that this themed email campaign is on track to exceed its revenue goal.

In the article, 50 Summer Subject Lines + Tips to Write Sunny Subject Lines, content marketing blogger Lisa Furgison provides summer-themed subject lines from retailers, service-based businesses, and nonprofits – a list sure to jumpstart ideas for your summer-themed emails. She also explains how best to use common summer words, summer-themed song titles or classic summer movie references in your subject line. Read Furgison’s article at verticalresponse.com.

Email Marketing Best Practices

Here are a few tips from two email service providers we periodically use for client email marketing.

The best email subject lines are short, descriptive and provide the reader with a reason to explore your message further. Splashy or cheesy phrases more often cause your email to be ignored rather than make them stand out.

Email marketers are familiar with words such as “free,” which should be avoided since it triggers spam filters. We identified innocuous words that won’t trigger a spam filter, but will negatively affect your open rates. They are: Help, Percent off, and Reminder.

Personalization, such as including a recipient’s first name or last name, didn’t significantly improve open rates. Providing localization however, such as including a city name, did improve open rates.

…you should keep your subject line to 50 characters or fewer. One exception stood out. For campaigns whose subscribers were highly targeted, the readers seemed to appreciate the additional information in the subject line.

The “From:” information can be as important as the subject line. As a best practice, the “From:” and subject line should work together. Use the “From:” line to indicate and make clear who you are as the sender.

Think about what you would like if you were the recipient. …When it comes to subject lines, don’t sell what’s inside. Tell what’s inside.

Read the entire article, Best Practices for Email Subject Lines, at MailChimp.com.

There are best practices when it comes to the subject line of a company’s email marketing campaign — these include avoiding all caps, as well as exclamation points or other unnatural symbols.

…The subject in an email campaign is not always the first thing recipients look at. It’s often times the “from” line that actually gets a reader’s attention. It’s been indicated that subject lines come in third place, behind knowing and trusting the sender and having previously opened an email from that sender, as reasons for receiving a click.

This points to the fact that trust in an email sender carries more weight than the subject line itself. As an email marketer, you need to create a good first impression with new subscribers in order to facilitate a high level of trust from the start.

What’s more, emails should always contain something of value …

…it’s also been said that a deceptive subject lines can still act as a deterrent to subscribers. The bad taste left in the recipients’ mouth may be enough for them to click the “unsubscribe” button.

Read the entire article, Trust Trumps Subject Lines, at Campaigner.com.

Creative Inspiration

Oh, baby, I always have fun with this one. In fact, when developing email marketing subject lines or blog titles, I often visit these sites to get the juices flowing.

The Portent Content Idea Generator is a nifty tool for titles.

Give this tool a try – you won’t be disappointed!

For the purposes of this blog post, I entered the phrase: Summer Email Topics. Here are a few of the many suggestions returned.

• 20 Least Favorite Summer Email Topics
• Why Summer Email Topics are the Best Things Since Sliced Bread
• Summer Email Topics in 8 Easy Steps
• You Haven’t Seen This Summer Email Topics List on Buzzfeed
• Why Summer Email Topics are the Secret Ingredient
• 18 Things About Summer Email Topics Your Kids Don’t Want You to Know
• Why Summer Email Topics Beat Peanut Butter on Pancakes
• Doing Summer Email Topics the Right Way

Try the Portent Content Idea Generator at http://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker

The HubSpot Topic Generator is another staple of my creative diet.

Who needs Mad Men’s Don Draper, when there’s HubSpot?

Using the same phrase, Summer Email Topics, here are HubSpot’s suggestions:

• How to Solve the Biggest Problems With Summer Email Topics
• The Ultimate Cheat Sheet on Summer Email Topics
• The Worst Advice We’ve Ever Heard About Summer Email Topics
• 5 Tools Everyone in the Summer Email Topics Industry Should Be Using
• What Will Summer Email Topics Be Like in 100 Years?

Try HubSpot’s Topic Generator at this link.

So what’s heating up your email marketing this summer? Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section of this post.

GB O’Brien
LGK Principal

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.

Title graphic photo credit: bengrey / Foter / CC BY-SA

Media Lists for Small Businesses – PR Friend or PR Foe?

I am moved to write this post after reading a commentary by Bob Garfield, editor-at-large of MediaPost, a respected online publication for marketing and advertising. In P.R. Wild Pitches, Spring Edition, Garfield puts a few folks on blast for their flawed public relations strategies. The outing of these professionals aside, his article shines attention on the use of media lists and directories – an important tool of the public relations trade. Many, including yours truly, use lists and directories to reach print, electronic and online contacts who can expose a message to a wider and targeted audience (operative word here is targeted). For small businesses serious about marketing, a media directory/list subscription (which is not cheap, if it is worth its weight) to execute public relations objectives is vital. All too often, however, a few rotten apples use this tool to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks, a spray and pray tactic. I encourage you to read the entire commentary at MediaPost.com for fine examples of how not to use or abuse media contacts. Here are a few highlights; some may say lowlights, of the offenders who drew Garfield’s ire. For purposes of this post, I redacted names and formatted Garfield’s take in bold.

From: [name redacted] at [company name redacted]
To: Bob Garfield
Subject: Can I book this with you?

Hi Bob

Warmer weather is on the way and women everywhere are thinking about this year’s swimsuits—and this year’s fitness routine. But how do you keep fitness fun and interesting while guaranteeing that bikini bod?

Introducing a brand new workout that’s easy, exciting and can burn 880 calories per hour…

Yes, email lists are inexpensive, so there is a certain efficiency to sending a pitch to every carbon-based organism in the universe, knowing that one of them may be on the swimsuit-body beat and so desperate to fill space that they get past the insipid first sentence of such an email — if you don’t mind the risk of alienating, say, someone who writes only about media and marketing and who will tell anybody who will listen that [individual’s name] at [company name redacted] is a nuisance.

From: [individual name redacted]
To: Bob Garfield
Subject: [Brand name redacted]Media Tour

Hi Bob,

I hope you had a great weekend! I am working on setting up a media tour in various cities and states for [client name redacted], health and wellness experts and inventors of the [brand name redacted] Body System. Are you interested in setting up an interview with them?

Hi, [name redacted]. 1) My weekend was lovely, thank you. Took my daughter and her friends to the theater for her birthday.  2) No. Or with any of your other clients. Ever.

Because, [name redacted], random blasting causes collateral damage. Which I’m guessing is okay with you and the rest of your industry. No more than 1% of pitches even begin to correspond to my areas of interest.

The use of media directories and lists, particularly for small businesses, is a costly investment, but important for building and maintaining relationships and trust. I contend that these yellow pages of industry contacts are PR’s friend rather than foe. Courtesy of PR Newswire, here are several tips to ensure that your strategy and pitch generate coverage in publications that reach your targeted audience and not Bob Garfield’s next edition of Wild Pitches.

1. Know your audience before you start. Do some research and have an understanding of who you are trying to reach. Everyone wants to see their news in The Wall Street Journal , but will your audience be looking for your information there, or are you more likely to find your audience via a regional trade publication?

2. Be creative with your searches. A good database will give you a variety of ways to search for outlets and contacts by name, subject/beat, region, circulation, etc. Do multiple searches and don’t select too many parameters in one search or you’re likely to have limited results.

3. Try a keyword search combined with a region or industry. Just like any search engine, your results are only as good as your search terms.

4. Refine your list. Don’t ever pitch everyone that came up in a search result. Good targeting, which results in media pickup requires careful screening. Start by scanning the publication names and subjects that came up. Remove contacts that are obviously not a fit. The keyword ‘cable’ might be in someone’s profile, but if it’s referring to television and your information is about a steel product, then that contact is not going to do you any good and you’ll be wasting their time. Continue scanning the data and removing contacts as needed.

5. READ. There is no shortcut to understanding what a journalist or blogger writes about. Read their work to understand their focus and style. They may write about the industry you are targeting but perhaps it’s a blog that pokes fun at industry mishaps.

6. Connect socially. A good database will provide links to a journalist or blogger’s Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ accounts. Follow journalists and bloggers that seem to be a fit and pay attention to what they are talking about and what they are interested in. What is it that currently holds their attention? Engage appropriately with thoughtful comments or by reposting/retweeting their work.

7. Understand the pitch-notes. Before sending an email or picking up the phone to call anyone on your list, arm yourself with the information in the pitch-notes and be mindful of any special instructions or requests.

Read Media Databases: A Valuable Research Tool in the Right Hands at PRNewswire.com.

In full disclosure, LGK subscribes to Marketwired’s media directory to assist small business clients and their brands execute effective public relations strategies.

Does your small business subscribe to a media directory or use a media list? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

GB O’Brien
LGK Principal

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.

Photo credit: Neal. / Source / CC BY

SEO Time Management: Got an Hour?

In the time it takes you to do these things at the office you could have already facilitated the set-up for HitTail:

• Check your daily email and voicemail messages
• Perform weekly website updates
• Attend the weekly staff meeting
• Prepare social media posts
• Eat lunch and socialize at the water cooler

So, what is HitTail?  We talked about it previously here, but, in summary, it is a service that helps businesses increase their website search traffic by pinpointing the keywords people use to find the company.  For example, did they find your men’s custom tailoring shop by searching for “tailors,” “custom tailors” or “custom tailors for men in Chicago.”  HitTail’s SEO methods will analyze the data, provide suggestions based on the long-tail keywords and allow you to create content based on real data and guide your back-end marketing based on the results.

And it only takes about an hour to set up – a real selling point in our book. This article by Ashkay Hallur, How to Do Long-Tail Keyword Research for SEO gives an alternative do-it-yourself method:

1. Find a topic to blog upon
2. Put the base keyword in Google search
3. Go for UberSuggest
4. Analyze the competition for the keywords
5. Optimize the blog post for the keyword

Source:  GoBloggingTips

It could be effective for sure, but does a small business really have time for this?  Doubtful.  In addition, it requires expertise, while not impossible to learn, might be intimidating for the everyday, multi-tasking employee.

There is another substantial advantage to HitTail we like after testing it for just a short period.  The information is in a format we can understand.  So that means no numbers of unknown origin, no indecipherable gobbledygook and no more “not provided” keyword messages.  What good is data that people don’t use or understand?  Not much, according to this Harvard University professor.

Big Data Is Not About the Data!

(Presentation from Gary King, Harvard University, about how the real value of Big Data is in the analytics)

Long-term our interest in HitTail is also to create better content that our partners, friends and potential clients can enjoy and find on the crowded Internet superhighway.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to increase web traffic and in turn generate new business. Moreover, while we are trying the subscription-based service courtesy of HitTail, it is still early in our testing phase, so we will continue to provide updates of our experience.

Leisa Chester Weir

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.

Crowdsourcing: Another Source for Content Marketing

The word crowdsourcing was only added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2011 (and still gets a squiggly red misspelled line under it in Word) and yet in just a few years it has become a defining and alternate source for content marketing.  To expand on the definition, crowdsourcing allows businesses to connect with their customers in a pointed way and to solicit opinions and yes content from their core audience.  One advantage is the cost – most customers are not compensated at all or at a rate comparable to costs paid to agencies, staff, etc.  Another advantage is the immediate response since the contributors come from massive online communities.

The phenomenon has spawned successful cousins such as crowdfunding campaigns where individuals (and companies) reach out to their social media friends and cyberspace audiences to solicit money for themselves and others for things such as medical expenses, new business ventures, emergency relief and other heart-warming situations such as the man from Detroit who walked 21 miles to work every day for 10 years.  (Read the story here.)

Coca-Cola shamelessly admitted they were out of creative steam and had no more ideas for marketing strategies when they decided to throw it out to the online masses.  They received thousands of ideas and here is one of the video finalists.

But not everyone thinks crowdsourcing is smart or even the right thing to do for content marketing, including Carl Hartman, President of Brand.gineering:

I find crowd sourcing to be offensive. They ask a thousand people to work for free and pay one. The sourcing agency makes most of the money and many are left [to] hold the bag. Put the account into review and spread the work among other agencies to see who actually is getting results, don’t expect people to work for free.  Source:  Econsultancy Blog

The Super Bowl has been a recent source of crowdsourcing campaigns for big advertisers who solicit :30 commercials from customers, produced on their own time and wallet.  Voting in most cases is done in various stages by corporate staff, professional creative types and the general public.  This year Doritos had the stage with and the winning entry showed up in the Super Bowl and in other shows and sporting events.  They clearly got a big bang for their buck in the form of ideas and also learned a lot about their consumers in the process.  You can read more about it in a previous blog post here.

Crowdsourcing isn’t just about videos and we’ll have more successful examples in a future post.

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.

 

LGK Tuesday Toolbox: HitTail

Open the marketing toolbox for a great find to help your business master the art of the keyword…

Wouldn’t it be nice to know exactly how your customers find you online?  Enter HitTail.  Their services analyze your web activity to show exactly what keywords and phrases people use to get to you.  It’s a valuable tool particularly since the backend methods are ever evolving.  For example, traditional methods for using keywords on websites, blogs, news articles, press releases and the like is to be brief and use several one-word descriptions to describe the content.  The thought is that global descriptions will maximize the audience for searches – SEO 101, right?

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

Thomas Jefferson

Well a lot has changed since the days of Thomas Jefferson and this is one place where wordiness pays because existing data shows four and five word “keywords” could be an effective SEO strategy to boost your sales and marketing efforts.  So, rather than several single all-encompassing words, several phrases of two or more words could bring better results.

In the article, Industries that Use Google Adwords the Most, Chris Gregory, Director of SEO at Dagmar Marketing and a past guest on LGK’s The Marketing Mojo Show recommends long-tail keywords as one method to stay competitive.

Long Tail Keywords – are keywords that are more obscure that might have less competition. These keywords will have less monthly searches however, they will usually be cheaper to bid on.  By targeting multiple long tail keywords you will have a better chance of ranking well and therefore increasing your CTR (Click Trough Rate), and when taken as a whole, might be a better source of leads than one of the more competitive keywords with more traffic.

Consider this example:

You are a specialty online retailer who sells handmade soaps and lotions with many unique combinations, such as grapefruit-lavender, all with a base of shea butter.  Use SOAP, LOTION and SHEA BUTTER as your website keywords and the results will be a lot different than if you use a phrase to mimic what a shopper might actually use for their search such as SHEA BUTTER HANDMADE SOAP and GRAPEFRUIT-SCENTED LOTION.  In this example, a keyword such as soap would probably not show your business in a favorable search location – you’d compete against drug stores, mall stores, grocery stores and other big stores that sell soaps.  Shea butter as your keyword might produce various definitions of what shea butter is and where it comes from, descriptions of its magical properties and a page or two of other retailers.

Another advantage to this long tail approach, according to the HitTail graphic below, is that click-through rates are higher when keywords are more specific, probably because potential customers can narrow down specifically what they want more quickly.

In full disclosure, LGK is giving this subscription based service a try courtesy of HitTail. We’ll periodically provide updates on our progress on this blog. In the meantime, have you embraced the long-tail keyword approach? Feel free to share your experience and tips in the comments section of this post.

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest. Maximize your momentum!

 

10 Really Good Tips for Small Business Social Media Marketing

As we continue to discover the endless secrets of social media marketing, we stumbled upon an article by Get Response’s Kerry Butters, which provides 10 really great tips particularly applicable to small businesses with skin in the game. In 10 Social Media Marketing Myths and Lies Debunked!, Butters puts social into perspective. Here’s a brief excerpt.

1. Whether it’s a blog, website or top of the range ecommerce online storefront, with literally millions and billions of blogs posted, page views and purchases made online everyday, without a meaningful strategy in place to market and share your content across social media channels, no one is going to be able to find your site at all. Put simply, it’s not enough to simply produce content anymore, you have to actively promote it.

2. Social media is 24/7/365. … To ensure that your marketing campaigns make a meaningful impact in the world of social media, you can never, ever switch off. And that means utilising plenty of scheduling tools…

3. Reposting the same articles and links over and over again does nothing but irritate your following. …Mix your content up and keep it interesting. Use different mediums such as images and video.

4. Any blog posts that have anything at all of interest to say are going to be at least 800 words long – that’s just the nature of article writing. And it’s only blogs that have decent content and useful information that ever get indexed by Google.

5. Some people think that the best way to avoid any public negativity is to keep away from the social side of things altogether. This is nonsense. The best way to avoid bad feedback is not to be a bad business – and that means getting on social media and promoting yourself.

6. The bigger the following, the more valuable it is -Not always. If you follow this fallacy to the letter then you will end spending a fortune on those ridiculous Twitter posts that say something like: “Buy 10,000 followers for just $5!!” If you do this, then you may very well end up suddenly with a few thousand extra followers, but they will almost definitely be from dead accounts…

7. Whatever you do, do not simply dismiss social media marketing as a means only of getting your business discovered. …it’s an unparalleled channel for customer service, not to mention crowd-sourcing, traffic building, customer relations, sales, business intelligence and identifying brand ambassadors and key influencers.

8. Social media marketing is one of the most important jobs in your business. A marketer is the portrayer, guarder and enhancer of a company’s reputation and personality. Don’t underestimate its importance.

9. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn hold the top spots, true, but don’t ever forget Instagram, Pinterest or Google+. Your following is everywhere on the internet. Go to them before your competitors do.

10. Sharing your competitors’ content does a number of things. Firstly, it shows your own followers that you are determined to deliver them the very best information – even if it doesn’t come from you. Secondly, you will probably find that your competitors start sharing your content in return – after all, just like them, you are an expert in their industry’s niche.

Read the article at GetResponse.com

We readily admit that this post is less than the recommended 800-word minimum, but for many small businesses it has plenty of meaning.  For those disappointed by the word count, we welcome your feedback and additional tips to make the grade. Feel free to share in the comments section of this post.

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.

Photo credit: giuliomarziale [www.maurizioagelli.com] / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Podcast Power Your Small Business Marketing

New York Magazine calls it a renaissance, the Washington Post describes it as resurgent, but for many small businesses and nonprofit organizations, podcasting has been and continues to be one of the most cost-efficient marketing tools around. Podcasting is an effective way to brand a business, build reputation and educate prospects, customers, donors and volunteers. If you’re sitting on the podcasting fence, we’ve compiled a few compelling reasons to get on the Internet airwaves.

Forbes.com contributor Dorie Clark underscores the opportunities of podcasting in the article, Here’s the Future of Podcasting.

… podcasting hasn’t suddenly emerged from a slumber, Harbinger [Jordan Harbinger, podcast host/producer since 2007] points out. In fact, it’s been steadily growing year-over-year. He believes it’s the adoption of the channel by traditional radio celebrities like Alex Blumberg that’s fueled a new round of hype. …“Why? That’s because it wasn’t new anymore, so nobody was talking about it. But if you look at the statistics…podcasting has been growing steadily, in great numbers.” Indeed, Rob Walch of the podcast hosting service Libsyn agrees, noting that “Smartphones, and specifically the iPhone, have really been the driver of growth the last few years” because they make podcast downloading and consumption easier.

The next frontier is your car. By next year, one industry group estimates, 50% of new cars sold will have Internet connectivity; by 2025, it will be all of them. “When that happens and there are podcasts in everybody’s car, it’s not podcasts anymore,” says Harbinger. “It’s just the radio.” At that point, the playing field has been leveled and podcasting is likely to grow dramatically, as it reaches an audience without smartphones or who haven’t yet clued into the process of downloading podcasts on their own.

Go niche. Because of the heightened competition, says Harbinger, “Stop trying to think about ways to get more listeners [overall] and think about trying to crush it in your niche.” He cites the example of one podcaster who “records a podcast in his car on his way to work on his iPhone. It sucks and it’s awful, but he has a ton of listeners” because a certain demographic is interested in his discussion… “As long as you can dominate a particular niche, it’s not too late to start a show,” says Harbinger.

Publish frequently. Two or three years ago, Harbinger decided to get serious about his podcasting schedule. He vowed to “start releasing every single week on the same day, at the same time, and my audience kind of doubled overnight.” So he decided to up the ante. “If I’m doing multiple downloads per week, maybe I’ll be keeping [listeners] engaged instead of them searching for other shows. So I started to release two times a week, and the downloads didn’t just double, they more than doubled. I was getting audience growth from more people talking about it and sharing it more frequently.”

Read the article at forbes.com.

In this episode of Podcasters’ Roundtable, you’ll find a lively discussion of 2015 trends.

If you’re ready to venture onto the Internet airwaves, check out LGK’s guide to podcast basics, Behind the Screen, Podcast Pitfalls: Planning, Preparation and Promotion. We also recommend visiting Blog Talk Radio. It is an easy-to-use and budget-friendly platform for those just starting out.

Do you have a podcast or have plans to podcast in 2015? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.

In with the Old and the New: the Best Small Business Marketing Tool for 2015

For small business marketers, there is no shortage of 2015 trends and forecasts, motivating many of us to rewrite our resolutions and re-evaluate new tools for the current year. The tools, especially those with the potential of increased productivity and enhanced lead generation, are tempting, tantalizing and well worth a review, trial and possible buy. There is one tool; however, that is both old and new. It is one that should never take a back seat to the latest CRM, CMS or SaaS. It is the best you’ve got and will ever have: Relationships.

In a previous post, we explored a few classic rules of maintaining connections and growing relationships. In the Network Solutions article from a few years ago, How Relationship Marketing is Important for Your Business, Monica Jansen underscores the importance of relationship marketing for small businesses. The following excerpts prove as relevant today as they were when the article first appeared in 2012.

Thanks to social media, marketing communications have become more interactive and personal, creating opportunities to engage in relationship marketing to build brand loyalty and increase customer satisfaction.

Relationship marketing includes social media, blogging, email marketing, direct mail and offline events. The key is to create communications that come from a place of providing service and adding value. Relationship building involves asking customers how you can help them, and not having an agenda when you communicate with them.

Businesses that excel with relationship marketing take the time to listen to their customers rather than simply talking at them. They ask customers what they need and what they would like, as it relates to their business and its services and products.

Read the article at networksolutions.com.

May these sage words of wisdom convince you to make relationships a timeless small business marketing tool.

Happy New Year!

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.

Makeover Your Small Business Image on a Shoestring Budget

Photo Credit: ldiolector via Flickr under Creative Commons license

Many small businesses stand accused of giving their image the short shrift. Are you one of them? The lack or absence of continuity in appearance and messaging influence how prospects and clients perceive the business, its products or services. Make a note to self: You do not have to be or have the budget of Nike or Nissan to establish or makeover your brand. In 7 Steps to a New Image for Your Small Business Without Spending Much, John Boitnott offers excellent advice for shoestring budgets. Here are four of Boitnott’s recommendations to get you started.

Conduct an image audit

Before you can figure out where you’re going, you must first know where you stand. Take an in-depth look at your current branding and try to see things through your customers’ eyes. Compare it side by side to brands that are reaching the goals you hope to achieve.

Rethink your colors

Data-driven design is has become an important part of branding, with businesses using proven concepts to engage audiences. Color and content placement are an essential part of successful design, as marketers have found.

But you don’t have to shell out a large sum of money to a marketing firm to learn how to design pages and logos that compel customers to take action. This starts with using colors that reflect the image you’re hoping to achieve.

Listen to your customers

Throughout the makeover process, you should be guided by analytics and customer feedback. This begins before you make any changes. Note the keywords and sources customers use to get to your site and how they interact with your site once they arrive.

Strive for consistency

As you seek to expand your customer base, be careful not to alienate existing customers. Companies like Starbucks and Target are examples of companies that have created a logo that persists despite years of slight marketing changes. If you already have a loyal customer base, only consider making only slight tweaks to your logo, if that. Work with that logo to create new marketing materials around it.

Read the article at Entrepreneur.com.

Bonus:

Read LGK’s previous post on the importance of a marketing assets inventory and obtain a handy checklist to help evaluate your image and brand. Visit this link for download instructions.

Take the Color Quiz, a nifty and free tool from Grasshopper, a virtual phone system platform for entrepreneurs. It will help you select the right color for your marketing assets (logos, websites, and collateral). Visit this link and get started.

For inspiration, motivation, kicks and giggles, check out the WebHostingBuzz infographic below to see a few famous rebrands through the years.

Do you have a cost-effective tip for an image makeover? Feel free to share your experience in the comments section of this post.

For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.