So you like the idea of blogging but aren’t sure if it is worth the effort? This great post just came through my twitter stream via the @smbusinesscoach. Hubspot studied their small and medium business customers and were able to document clear business benefits of Blogging.
The data was crystal clear: Companies that blog have far better marketing results. Specifically, the average company that blogs has:
55% more visitors
The study also showed that those businesses that blogged gained 97% more incoming links than those who didn’t.
I am a strong advocate of blogging for small businesses to establish credibility in their field and connect with potential customers.
Does your business have a blog? Do you use it as a tool to build your business or as support for current customers?
When I first talk to a client about their marketing, I have a few questions I always ask. The first is “What do you want to achieve from your marketing?”, almost without fail I get the same response: More customers!
While it is the obvious response, it isn’t strictly the truth. When they ask for more customers, most businesses really want something else… More money! The assumption that more customers result in more money doesn’t always hold true.
The Problem
The problem with targeting more customers with your marketing, is that each customer costs money in the form of paperwork and staff time for customer service. Marketing to new potential customers is also expensive.
The solution is better customers
Rather than aiming for more customers, how about focusing on creating more great customers. A great customer is a heavy user of your products or services, they buy more, more often. The never complain about your prices, and best of all they brag about your business to their friends and colleagues.
A great customer is valuable to your business from a profit perspective, but they also give you the best type of marketing you can get – word of mouth testimonials. In short, they send you referrals!
Getting great customers
There are two things to keep in mind about great customers. Firstly, you already have some great customers. and secondly, your great customers think differently about your products or services than your regular customers.
In a cafe example: To a regular customer, the cafe might be a place for an occasional pick-me-up, or a casual place to meet a client out of the office. To a great customer, the cafe is their breakfast bar.
Get talking to the the great customers you already have. Find out their thoughts on your products, what is it about them that make them great customers, and why they choose you over your competitors.
Once you have an understanding of who your best customers are, and WHY they are great customers. You can use the information to:
Encourage your standard customers to become Great customers
Target your marketing at those people who are most likely to become great customers
Rather than aiming to get just more customers, your ultimate goal should be to get more GREAT customers.
Last Question:
What do you offer to your best customers to let them know how much you value them? Do they know they are a VIP to your business?
It is easy for us all to believe that creativity is some sort of magic talent, or a gift given to the lucky few at birth. I always considered creativity was the domain of artists and musicians, and was in awe of those who could pick up a pencil and draw spectacular illustrations seemingly effortlessly.
Creativity for business innovation
Artists are talented but the very best still practice for years and years to refine their natural creative abilities. Creativity in business is at the heart of innovation, whether it be for marketing campaigns or new and ground breaking products. But unlike natural born talent, it can be learned and turned into a creative system.
Tip: steal ideas!
I’m not talking about blatant plagiarism of ideas from your nearest or most successful competitor, (though it obviously happens). A much more effective and creative approach is to study other industries or market sectors. Preferably an industry entirely different from your own… If you sell bicycles, compare your business to an ice cream truck. If you’re an accountant, compare yourself to a book store.
Think about their business model? How do they market their products? How do they serve their customers? What other systems do they have? Challenge yourself to bring one idea from another industry into your business!
With this tip in mind, get into the habit of carrying a notebook with you everywhere. When you see great ideas or are inspired by something others are doing, write it down and review it later.
Another great resource for finding new ideas to re purpose for your business is Springwise.com, which gathers great innovative business ideas from around the world. Also check out their sister site trendwatching.com for upcoming consumer trends.
I found this great video on why your company should be integrating social media into your marketing and branding efforts. It gives social media vital statistics, including global usage of sites like Facebook and Twitter, as well as the speed of its growth.
Many business owners have said to me that they don’t need to be on the internet because their customers aren’t…
Your customers ARE on the internet!!!
What are they saying about your business?
What will they do if they can’t find you?
Social Media lets you build relationships and maintain contact with your customers
If your customers are the very few who are not on the internet yet, they soon will be. Doesn’t it make sense to be there first to welcome them?
What do you think? Are you tapping into the huge potential of social media with your business?
Social media is the future, START NOW!
This video was originally posted over on the Tips from the T-list blog. Go and check it out for some great tips for the tourism industry.
Maybe you don’t think much about your telephone number. I know a lot of people strive to get the easiest number to remember when connecting a new number, but that seems to be as far as most go. Lets be honest, people don’t remember your business phone number anymore, not with cell phones… there is no need. Honestly, I can’t tell you my wife’s mobile number because it is two buttons away in my cell phone.
But your phone number can say a lot about your business, and your customers notice it.
If you service a local community like Blenheim, or region such as Marlborough, a local calling number reassures your customers they are dealing with a local business and often depending on the industry, this is important to the customer.
If you provide products or services nationally, having a toll free number is telling the customers that you may be out of town, but you value their business enough to pay for their inquiry. If you have two competing businesses to contact for a product, and one is a toll call, while the other is toll free, which are you going to call first?
International business may be a combination of the two. Are you going to make an international phone call to place an order? Not likely if their is local competition. Why not have a toll free number in another country redirected to your local office?
What can you take away from this? Smaller local companies can have toll free national and international numbers, so they appear bigger than they actually are to their target customers. On the other hand, large national (or international) companies can have many local numbers to appear as though they have a local office.
What does your business phone number tell your customers?
I am always searching and reading as much as I can about marketing and branding to make sure we can keep up with the newest and best techniques people are coming up with.
Anyway, I stumbled on this post the other day. It is a short video that really gets across the point I made the other day in my paint the fence post, about the importance of a first impression.
Head over here now and check out this post… the video is only about a minute long, and totally worth a look:
A strong Brand is the most important asset a business can have. Traditionally branding has been considered a part of marketing startegy, but I consider marketing to be a part of your branding strategy. Here is a definition of branding that I really like and agree with:
“Branding is about getting people to perceive you as the only solution to their problem” Rob Frankel
So how do you build a brand like this?
Companies like Coca-cola, American express, and the Warehouse, spend literally millions of dollars to be the leaders in their markets. Advertising is an expensive way to maintain market position and branding.
The better way to become number one is to offer something that no-one else offers, Do something completely different from everybody else. If you are already in business, how can you change your industry, if others are fighting coming change, embrace it and stand up as the first and only.
Seth Godin would call this a purple cow… Something that is so different from anything else, that it gets noticed.
For a long time I’ve been interested in Real estate, it never ceases to amaze me how many people start marketing their house for sale and the front fence is run down with cracked or flaking paint (or otherwise damaged). How many people drive-by the house and never come in because of that fence? They will never get to see that the kitchen has been renovated if they never come in the front gate.
If the house looks like a doer-upper, what sort of offers do you think it will attract?
First impressions count!
Painting the front fence might only take a few hours, and it can make the house look 100x more appealing. Those drive-by’s may take the time to come in and have a closer look.
What is your customers’ first impression of your business? Does it encourage them to come and seek your products or services, or do they drive straight past to your competition?
Take an objective look at your business, what does your reception area look like? How do people react to how the phones are answered? Is your website up to date? Is your uniform getting a bit tatty?
The good news is most of these things are relatively cheap to fix.
Web 2.0 is a term that is bandied around a lot these days. It is a buzz word that is used to describe many services and applications. But I still get lots of people asking me what it means, and there seem to be many more who don’t quite understand it or the ramifications.
This is the best video explanation I have found, of what web 2.0 is. It is put together by Dr Michael Wesch, from Kansas State University. It moves quick, but explains a lot in a short amount of time (4.33 mins run time)
Did you miss something?
The main point is web 2.0 allowed ANYBODY to add information. You no longer need to be a web developer, or a programmer…. YOU can add contribute to the internet. You can comment, add photo’s, videos, opinions, comments, have conversations with friends or someone you’ve never met. I can video chat with my brother in Sweden while broadcasting a message to hundreds, or thousands of people (potentially even millions).
Can you see how powerful it can be? It is leveling the playing field and creating huge opportunities for the small guys. Your market just got bigger, you can reach a global audience from Blenheim, or Picton or even Linkwater.
Your most important customers are the ones you already have. Businesses often spend thousands of dollars per year marketing and advertising to attract new customers while ignoring, or taking for granted their current customers.
Existing customers have already chosen to do business with you, the chances they will do again is high if you look after them.
Sending your current customers something as simple as a thank you card could be the best value marketing you could do. Of course you could also give them a small gift or make them a VIP offer to encourage them back to see you.
I know one business that sends one handwritten thank you card to a different customer everyday. It is a habit that pays dividends.
To employ this idea, you need to know who your customers are. Do you have a list of customer contacts? If you don’t, you should – start building one today!
So you like the idea of blogging but aren’t sure if it is worth the effort? This great post just came through my twitter stream via the @smbusinesscoach. Hubspot studied their small and medium business customers and were able to document clear business benefits of Blogging.
