Is Your Small Business Marketing Moonstruck?

As Loretta Castorini would say, Snap out of it!

If you are throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, relying solely on free methods and spare time, you are not marketing. Without a plan, budget and dedicated resources (labor and time), “Moonstruck” may better describe your marketing efforts than the title of an award-winning film.

Most small businesses spend 20 hour per week on marketing (Source: smallbiztrends.com) and exceed the SBA recommendation of allocating seven to eight percent of their budgets to marketing (Source: HartfordBusiness.com). They realize that a strong competitive environment requires an investment. In previous posts, we have underscored the importance of a marketing plan, shared how to make marketing a line-item budget priority and revealed a few secrets of social advertising. In Content Marketing for Local Businesses: Get Creative & Pay to Play, Will Scott, a guest author for SearchEngineLand.com, provides an excellent overview on how small businesses can capitalize on creative content. Here are a few highlights.

Now, search engines like Google have become even more sophisticated, rewarding content that is of real interest or value to consumers. In a world littered with information, small, local businesses must be ever more sophisticated about the content they create and where and how it gets distributed.

Even small businesses face strong competition to get attention for their content on social media, for example, is getting fierce. Some 40 million small businesses have a Facebook page, according to The Wall Street Journal. In late February, Facebook released its latest active advertisers statistics, which rose to 2 million from 1.5 million in July 2014. And guess what? The lion’s share of those active advertisers are small and medium-sized businesses.

Those Facebook figures illustrate the point perfectly: In the crowded space of the Internet and social media, where everyone seems to be hawking their message, getting in front of the target consumer means a local business must first secure good content then pay for inclusion or promotion in the right outlets.

Sorry, it’s not all available for free in a content-littered world. With so much great content flowing online — through numerous, constantly-updating information avenues — it can be a struggle to get noticed. Getting traction for good content is now a matter of paying to play.

Pay-to-play is a hard reality when sharing content on social media platforms (like Facebook, for example) in order to get near the reach a small business needs. But with a little bit of social media seeding, small businesses today can make sure this kind of good content reaches the people who are interested. So it comes as no surprise that small businesses spend an estimated $5 to $50 a day on promoted posts and ads on Facebook, according to Reuters.

Read the article at searchengineland.com.

Is your small business committed to marketing or simply Moonstruck? Feel free to share your thoughts and advice for the SMB community in the comments section of this post.

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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.

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

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.

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It’s Not Easy to be Green – Cause Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

It’s not easy to be green, or, for that matter, pink, purple, blue or red. These colors represent leading causes consumers care about: the environment, breast cancer, domestic violence, diabetes and heart disease; causes marketed by for-profit and nonprofit organizations alike. Hence, the term Cause Marketing, aligning business and nonprofit efforts for mutual benefit. Cause marketing is good business and for good reason. According to the 2013 Cone Communications Social Impact Study, nearly all U.S. consumers say that when a company supports a cause, they have a more positive image of the company. Cause marketing is a strategy and requires a thoughtful approach, plan, budget, tactics, monitoring and evaluation. It is more than donning a ribbon or making a donation. It’s about setting realistic goals, objectives and expectations, generating a return on investment and delivering meaningful value to internal and external stakeholders. Too many businesses get cause marketing all wrong. Here’s how your small business can get it right.

In 3 Keys to Authentic Cause Marketing, Benjamin Wald suggests the following:

• Seek Resonance with Consumers. Often, companies are tempted to try to align themselves with the cause that appeals to the most people, without attempting to find any real resonance with their particular consumers, brand or products. In this situation companies are playing the wrong numbers game.
• Create Alignment with Your Core Business.  The social mission you choose has to be aligned with your companies’ solution to the need in the market you address.
• Partner. Donating products or profits isn’t a bad start, but it’s not enough. What sort of world could we create if more businesses were to partner with social entrepreneurs-;the experts in blending profits with purpose?

Read the original article at Inc.com

In 4 Things Cause Marketing Can’t Do (and What your Campaign Should), Alan Robinson’s suggestions resonate loud and clear for small businesses. Two in particular:

• Support your overall marketing efforts with cause marketing tactics, fueled by your predeveloped consumer base. Integrating cause marketing into a general marketing strategy means keeping each strategy distinct, but codependent. Long-term cause-minded companies continue to promote their products and services while communicating their commitment to social and environmental sustainability, using the gains from one campaign to perpetually boost the other.
• Demonstrate authenticity. …Be transparent with your audience about how you give back, and you’ll garner more backers willing to support your cause, and your brand.

Read the original article at cafegive.com

In Common Cause Marketing Mistakes, Joe Waters and Joanna Macdonald have these words of caution:

• Companies that fail to choose the right nonprofit for their cause marketing campaign run the risk of building their program on a weak foundation.
• While cause marketing certainly has a philanthropic objective, giving is not its primary focus. Companies engage in cause marketing to enhance their favorability with existing and potential customers. If their goals were strictly philanthropic, they could donate the money to causes and be done with it.

Read the original article at dummies.com

Is cause marketing a strategy you find effective for your small business? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post. In the meantime, we could not resist this ode to green from a favorite frog.

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9 Groovy Listening Tips to Maximize Your Small Business Marketing Momentum

[Image via Flickr]

Now and then, we like to escape the purple haze of high tech marketing research apps, platforms and gizmos. We are in a 70s flow, taking a back to basics trip to emphasize an invaluable marketing tool within the reach of every small business, listening. It is, perhaps, the most overlooked and underrated skill keeping many out of touch with existing and potential customers/clients and prospects. Whether online or off, to uncover insight, to target products, services and content and to build company credibility, get in the groove of listening.

In the white paper, To See Clearly, Listen Up: The Best Secret Marketing Tools are Your Eyes and Ears, LGK marketing strategist Nancy L. Hohns offers a few suggestions.

1. Make notes. Always carry tools to jot down your observations: pen, pencil or stylus, along with your notepad or PDA!

2. Stretch your comfort zone, mingle! In order to observe public behavior, you need to be in the public: places and events where people congregate.

3. Browse the blogs, search the feeds or Google information on a product, service or subject.

4. Inquire. One person’s response may reflect the sentiment of many.

5. Shift your paradigm. Empathic listening allows you to get inside another person’s frame of reference. Reposition yourself on the other side of the desk, phone or monitor in order to fully diagnose before you prescribe or pursue a course of action.

Download a free copy of the white paper here.

In another article, Why Listening Communities Belong in Your Marketing Strategy, Vanessa DiMauro provides an excellent perspective for listening online. Here are four more tips you will find incredibly helpful.

6. Marketers considering a listening approach must beware of the impulse to focus too much on quantity metrics (e.g., number of conversations, articles, or members). A community with a seemingly high number of likes, for example, may not generate the kind of thoughtful exchanges that support a brand’s content marketing strategy. Instead, examine whether your community provides deeper insights, such as a case study worth sharing, an insight worth pursuing in a long-format report, or an idea around which to build a new product.

7. Don’t stifle disagreements, disputes, or complaints. Online communities are an early warning system for product and service issues — and, sometimes, the next big thing that could transform your firm. Redirect or resolve problematic discussions through engagement rather than censorship.

8. Sustaining the flow of ideas and insights from the community is a marathon, not a sprint. A long-term marketing strategy for member engagement should attract new members and reward long-time contributors.

9. Empowering members may mean respecting their privacy and sheltering their discussions from public view — especially for executives, established experts, and others with confidentiality concerns. Creating private peer-to-peer networks can encourage more candid conversations.

Read Vanessa’s article at Content Marketing Institute.

Do you have any groovy listening tips to add to the list? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post. In the meantime, one last 70s trip and tip, courtesy of the fictional band, Spinal Tap: Listen to what the [flower] people say, it’s getting truer every day.

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

Small Biz Data Intervention – Strike a Balance to Make Sound Decisions

Photo credit: neeravbhatt via Flickr under Creative Commons license

Big Data has become an obsession for businesses large and small. And why not? The technology, speed, volume and variety allow unprecedented and immediate access to customer insights and behaviors, allowing you to switch gears at the drop of a dime. But if you are making decisions based on data alone, you are in need of an intervention, for the beauty of data is all about striking a balance between information and intuition.

In his blog, Kaan Turnali, a business intelligence expert for SAP’s Global Customer Operations (GCO) Reporting & Analytics Platform and an adjunct professor at Wilmington University, provides a number of reasons why more data is not a guarantee for better decisions. Here are a few highlights:

Data Is the Raw Material for Better-Informed Decisions—Not Necessarily Better Decisions

The concept of “better-informed” decisions is distinctly different than the concept of “better” decisions. Better-informed leaders don’t always make better decisions, but better decisions almost always start with better-informed leaders. …History is filled with examples of leaders making “bad” decisions even in light of ample amounts of data to support the decision-making process.

When It Comes to Data, Quality Comes Before Quantity

We seem to take quality for granted. …It’s true that as quantity increases we can achieve greater depth and perspective. But by the same token, data for the sake of data doesn’t help us either. Data quality (a field on its own) is fundamental for driving consistency and relevancy when it comes to making better-informed decisions.

Technology Alone Can’t Deliver Better Decisions

Coupled with the right technology, design, and implementation, analytics platforms can deliver on all three pillars of business intelligence: insight into the right data, for the right role, and at the right time. …But technology alone won’t guarantee a successful outcome. Our teams’ talent plays a more pivotal role. Their passion, regardless of the challenges they face or the resources available to them, will be the determining factor.

If It Can’t Be Trusted, People Won’t Use It

Untrustworthy data is a frustration that’s prevalent in small, mid-size, and Fortune 500 businesses. The issues that arise from a lack of trust in data are not just limited to leadership roles but affect everyone in the enterprise regardless of their roles or position. …The journey to promoting a culture of data-driven decision makers must start with making data quality a top priority for key data assets and decision engines. Above all, it demands a mindset to see data as a strategic asset. When the data quality is consistently excellent, then it becomes trustworthy.

More Data Is Useless if We Aren’t Asking the Right Questions

Having all the data and more of it doesn’t do much good if we aren’t asking the right business questions or simply don’t understand our assumptions. And most important is critical thinking—a skill we must demand in business.

Each of the …reasons I’ve covered prove one key point—more data should be guarded with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Read 5 Reasons Why More Data Doesn’t Guarantee Better Decisions and 5 More Reasons Why More Data Doesn’t Guarantee Better Decisions. 

In an article posted on data-driven-marketing.net, we picked up this piece of good advice:

You don’t go from data to decisions and actions. You have data -> information -> insights -> decisions/actions -> business value.

Do you allow data to drive your decision-making? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post and tune in to the live episode (9-17-14, 1pm ET) of The Marketing Mojo Show to discuss your big data dilemmas with Nancy L. Hohns, author of the LGK white paper, In the Thick of It: Big Data versus Gut Instinct. Download your complimentary copy here and read our previous posts on big data.

• A Mindset to Maximize Your Small Business Approach to Big Data
• Small Business Primer for Success in the Era of Data Democracy
• The Uncertainty of Big Data – Guidance for Small Businesses

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

Small Business Basics for Owned, Earned and Paid Media

If the marketing strategies of owned, earned and paid media have you spinning in circles, think of it this way: who controls your content, who shares your content and how much are you willing to pay (e.g., advertising, sponsorship, etc.) to leverage your content to reach target customers and clients? These strategies are not mutually exclusive – in fact many contend that earned media is an outcome and not really a strategy. A wise marketer would do well to combine (in marketing speak, that would be “converge”) all three. While paid media is self-explanatory, all come with a price tag, which underscores why having a marketing budget is extremely important. In an article for smallbiztrends.com, Anita Campbell clears up a couple of myths and provides examples of converged media in action. Here are a few highlights:

• Myth: All you need is owned media.  It’s important to have channels and content you own – for sure. But they alone are not enough. What many small businesses lack with their owned channels is reach and scale.  … To be successful, you need to amplify and scale your owned media channels.
• Myth: Paid media is more expensive than any other kind of media. Recognize that there’s a cost to every channel — time, money or both.
• The best practice today is to use a combination of “owned, earned, paid media.”  Use one media channel to amplify or extend another type.  They need to work hand in hand.
• Here are …examples of ways to combine owned, earned and paid media, in a small business context — and make for more powerful marketing:
  • Create content on your blog [owned]. Share it on Facebook [to generate earned]. However, you only reach about 10% of your fan base, according to statistics.  To extend your reach,  make it a Sponsored Post for $40 or $60 [paid] to get wider visibility for it.
  • Crowdsource some advice and tips from your customers or loyal community members, for an ebook on your website [owned]. Then share it on your company channel on Slideshare.  And reach out individually by email to send a copy of the ebook to each community member who submitted a tip.  Most will share the ebook with their social networks, as they will be proud of their contribution [and you generate more earned mentions].
  • Create special Facebook-only discounts [paid]. To take advantage of them, people must Like your page.  Studies show that discounts are a primary reason people follow and interact with brands on social media.  When they Like your page, you have their attention. That also means you now have the start of a relationship with them [leading potentially to earned media].

Read the article at smallbiztrends.com

This video, courtesy of Digital Health Daily, does a great job of breaking down the basics of owned, earned and paid media.

How do you leverage owned, earned and paid media to maximize your marketing momentum? 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.

A Mindset to Maximize Your Small Business Approach to Big Data

Well-before big data became a buzzword, American writer Gertrude Stein hit the nail on the head: Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. As technology affords more precise and real-time access, information and insight, applying a common sense approach to big data is challenging for most small business owners and marketers. We found this summary of a Forrester Research Study on the big data phenomenon to be quite helpful in developing a mindset for big data. Here are a few highlights:

It’s not the amount of data, it’s what you do with it. Big data provides a high-definition view of your business and your customers’ behavior and lets you deliver personalized experiences at scale. Big data is finally making data a strategic asset — so what is your firm doing to build on it? How are you going to use this new asset to delight customers and squeeze competitors?

Big data success requires overcoming any momentum in the wrong direction — such as executives’ tendency to hoard data or lack business curiosity about what quantitative insights are possible. …

Big data gives your firm the power to understand customers in ways not before possible. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should. …

… The Vs [volume, variety, velocity] of big data have run their course; they were useful when we knew little about big data, but they no longer inspire action. Instead, refocus your change effort on keeping the three Cs in balance: a data-driven culture; the competency to leverage data that is more diverse, messier, and larger than you’re used to; and the technical capabilities to put the right insights into the hands of your customers and employees.

Read the article at Forrester.com

More small businesses are tackling big data with a mindset that allows them to mine their information successfully to improve operational efficiencies, customer engagement and service and the bottom line. A ClickZ profile of small businesses tapping into the power of big data explains how online retailer ThinkGeek leveraged its social media insight.

ThinkGeek successfully tracked its social metrics and compiled all its data to discover the best frequency, time of day, day of the week, and kind of content for posts on all its social channels. The company then used this data to tailor frequency and content to its users’ behavior. The results? ThinkGeek now drives 48 percent of its revenue from its social channels.

How can you do this? Start tracking mentions, comments, replies, clicks, and image views to measure engagement rates and traffic peaks (this will vary by social channel). Also, track site visits, page views, orders, and revenue that come from your social channels in order to track conversion and revenue. Then, just like ThinkGeek, tailor your content to your users’ behavior by posting, retweeting, repinning, etc. at peak hours and at the frequency preferred by your followers.

Read the article at ClickZ.com

What is your company’s approach to big data? Do you have the time, resources and tools to take a meaningful approach to analyzing the organization’s data? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

Obtain a complimentary download of the LGK white paper, In the Thick of It: Big Data versus Gut Instinct, here and read our previous posts on big data.

• Small Business Primer for Success in the Era of Data Democracy
• The Uncertainty of Big Data -Guidance for Small Businesses

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

Photo credit: bionicteaching/Flickr under Creative Commons license

The Uncertainty of Big Data – Guidance for Small Businesses

Photo credit: Infocux via Flickr under Creative Commons license

If big data buzz, hype and the glut of vendor-sponsored content have your small business in a ball of confusion, you are not alone. In fact, many large and medium-sized companies are straddling between the benefits and dangers of the data explosion as Elizabeth Dwoskin reports in a recent Wall Street Journal article, which summarizes a Forrester Research study on the big data phenomenon.

In a survey of 259 marketing and business-development executives at large and medium-sized retailers, financial-services companies and consumer-products companies, Forrester found a lot of uncertainty about big data. Roughly one-third of the respondents said the term big data was “very confusing.”…

The report highlights companies in traditional industries that have used data to change business practices or increase revenue. Clorox, for example, attributed a sales increase in early 2013 in part to mining social media for flu-trend data, and using the information to decide where to stock products. Farm-equipment maker John Deere and biotechnology company Monsanto are analyzing data from seeds, satellites, and tractors to help farmers them decide what and when to plant, and how to distribute seeds.

At the same time, Forrester warns that companies amassing large caches of data about consumers likely will face pressure from individuals and regulators over privacy, security and the ways they collect and manage the data. It cites, for example, a 2013 settlement between the Federal Trade Commission and the social network Path for collecting user contacts from minors without their parents’ knowledge or consent. The social network paid $800,000 to settle the charges, without admitting wrongdoing.

Read the article at WallStreetJournal.com

In Small Business Primer for Success in the Data Democracy, a previous post on big data’s impact, we encourage small business owners and marketers to take inventory of internal discoveries, balancing information with intuition. Use analytics in conjunction with the business and marketing plans to guide and evaluate strategies, engagement and decisions. Take a thoughtful approach to data to maximize your marketing momentum. Do not succumb to the hype or you’ll be dancing to a Motown hit and bottom line disaster.

How are you using data in your marketing strategies and tactics? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.

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Marketing Audio Memo with Susan Baroncini-Moe, Strategist and Author

LGK Marketing Memo: Marketing on Your Own Terms

As you settle in for the week, spend a few moments with your favorite Morning Joe and this take on the debate of accomplishing tasks versus achieving results with Susan Baroncini-Moe, marketing and business strategist and author of Business in Blue Jeans: How to Have a Successful Business on Your Own Terms, in Your Own Style.

Now, take a moment to bootstrap the basics and revisit your marketing plan. What’s your measure of success? Is it productivity, effectiveness, or constructiveness? Is it short-term or process oriented? What advice would you like to share with fellow small business owners? 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.