THE REPORT BLOG

Extra Step Boosts Advertising ROIs

Today I spoke with an attorney who is going to run an ad campaign with us. As we discussed the "creative," which includes the text in the ad, I asked him about his goals of the campaign. As he specializes in employment law (which is a very hot topic these days because of government employment audits and termination related lawsuits), he said he would like to drive awareness and hopefully catch the attention of a business owner who is dealing with these issues (who would then call him). I asked him about those readers that might be intrigued with the topic, but don't have a need right now.

I suggested that he gives a compelling reason to encourage someone to sign up for his email newsletter or a white paper. This way, his firm would have the reader's contact info and could regularly send relevant communications to the reader. When the business owner faced an employment related legal issue, his firm would be top of mind. I call this a two step marketing process. Use the ad (or direct mail) to capture a prospect's information and then use your marketing programs (emails, calls, etc.) to keep in touch. As I said to him at the end of the call, "this way you don't need to keep paying me to reach readers who are interested, but not ready to buy." Of course, if the campaign continues to produce, it might make sense to continue to advertise.

For more cost-effective marketing tips to up your ROI and increase prospects, read NY Report contributor Philip Courtney's article, "Whaddya Mean Lucky?"

Sales Down? Change Your Offer

Drue Sanders, founder of Albany-based Drue Sanders Custom Jewelers, stocked up on more silver inventory than gold in response to her gold sales drastically dropping during the 2008 holiday season. Since silver prices are starkly cheaper than gold or platinum, Sanders was able to sell merchandise at a considerably lower price - something not only benefiting her customers' needs, but Sanders' needs as well, since moving greater volume helped compensate for a decrease in big-ticket sales. The recent Wall Street Journal article, "Smart Ways to Cut Prices," proves that flexibility is crucial for maintaining consistent profit margins.

A few months ago, many of our readers echoed this sentiment in our annual Success Guide. Mardy Sitzer, president of Bumblebee Design & Marketing, found success in a down economy with a similar strategy. 

"We've eliminated services that were cumbersome and no longer profitable and focused on what our core business really is about. When we started 15 years ago, the ratio of print media to Web was the reverse of what it is today. We provided a lot of production services to accommodate direct mail and other print and fulfillment requirements for our clients. As things began to more toward more digital and less print, it no longer paid for us to maintain the equipment and staff to support production, which was eroding our profitability. As the numbers began to tell the story, we had to cut and move on. Interestingly enough, the cuts made room for us to grow faster in other departments."

Has flexibility in your product or service offering generated revenue for your business? I want to hear about it.

Lowering Price Without Discounting

Today I had lunch with the owner of a successful catering company. One of the things we discussed was how his company is accepting smaller jobs than he would have considered taking on less than 12 months ago. While he certainly does not make the same profit as he does with larger jobs, at least he is still making a profit. More importantly, he looks at each engagement as an opportunity to drum up new business - either repeat business from the people who hired him who may give him bigger jobs in the future or from the event's attendees.

I think many of us are in similar positions where we might be taking on smaller projects that we would have turned down last year. That's ok. When it comes to driving revenue in a tough economy, in many cases taking smaller jobs is a better alternative to discounting.

Using Twitter to Generate Revenue

Here’s an entrepreneur who got it right! Kogi Korean BBQ To-Go is a Los Angeles based vendor that sells $2 tacos filled with Korean BBQ out of a truck. Although the truck is always moving and sets up camp at various nighttime hotspots around LA, there is always a crowd of hungry fans eagerly waiting for their fusion tacos.

How do they do it? They simply use Twitter to send a message to their patrons telling them of the truck’s next location. An article from the Wall Street Journal states that the truck serves about 400 customers per night. Of course the food must be really good or there wouldn’t be a cult following behind it. But the owners of Kogi knew from the get-go that social networking will play a role in their business’ growth and have included having a person in charge of social networking in their marketing plan. For those interested, you can check out their Tweet here.

Here in NYC, the Rickshaw Dumpling Truck also uses Twitter to alert customers of its whereabouts, but they don’t seem to have the same hoopla surrounding them. Dumpling fans in the City can check out their Tweet here.

If anyone out there has used Twitter or any other social networking medium to generate revenue, I’d love to hear about it.

Who Cares About You? (hint: more people than you might think)

Your company isn’t run by robots, pretty looking models or animated avatars. It’s run by people- real people who do real work. And I think more companies need to show who the real people behind the scenes are. When I go to a company’s website, I am there to validate a company.  More specifically, when going to the “About Us” page I want to know that I will be doing business with real people, not some anonymous person behind an ambiguous “sales@company.com” email. At least give us a name if not a bio.

The Answer is Yes, Now What’s the Question?

During Tuesday’s NY Report webinar, “The 10 Customer Service Commandments,” best selling author and customer service expert John DiJulius shared some of his secrets for achieving world-class service. One Commandment that immediately resonated with me was to never say “no” to a customer.

Sounds impossible, right? How could you say “yes” to a customer asking for, let’s say, free service? If you started giving away free services you’d be out of business.

While it may not be possible to always say yes, it is possible to never say “no.” DiJulius trains his staff on the following edict: “The answer is YES. Now what is the question?” Challenge your employees to think positively and think of solutions rather than just giving your clients a concrete “no.” What can you do to help the client? Let's go back to that client asking for a free service: instead of saying “no,” ask how you can help them. Without giving them an outright “no,” offer other ways you might be able to help that are within your means. Telling a customer “no” should require approval from management.

Remember, in this economy your competition might be hungry – desperate even – and they may say yes.           

By the way, this edict can apply to internal service as well. Just as frustrating as it is for your clients to hear “no,” it’s equally as frustrating for you and your employees to hear it from your co-workers. Encouraging your employees to say “yes” to each other and to you will promote innovation and collaboration.

Turn Your Worries into Sales

Here we are in the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes - many of us can’t help but worry about survival and growth. These days it’s hard not to worry about something. But no matter the extent of your worries, there’s a time when you can’t show any signs of worrying- and that’s when you’re selling something.  If you seem worried during a sales meeting, your chances of success have already greatly diminished before you even walk through their door. First of all, people buy from confident people, and confidence can only be faked to a certain degree. Second, if you are worried, you are focusing on your own problems and not on your customer's problems. Remember, you are there to fix their problems. They are worrying too. The question is, how can you help them? 

Make sure your salespeople are on the same page (thinking about your client's bottom line and not their commissions). This applies to both sales phone calls and face to face meetings. 

How to Reach a Billion in Sales - Tips from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (Pt 2)

In my last post I talked about the Zappos' focus on providing outstanding customer service. One example Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, shared with the group at the recent Entrepreneurs’ Organization event is not only a touching story on a human level, but also serves as a great example of a small step one person took to get many clients for life.

It starts with a woman who finally found a pair of boots on Zappos to give to her husband as a birthday gift (after searching for weeks). A short while after she received the boots, she called Zappos to return the shoes. It turns out that her husband had passed away before his birthday and she never had a chance to give him the gift. The customer service rep she spoke with explained how to return the boots and then, without needing to speak to management, sent the customer flowers. Turns out the customer, while giving the eulogy at her husband’s funeral, mentioned the generosity that Zappos’ staff had extended to her. Although the funeral was small, with only about 30 guests, she called Zappos after the funeral to tell them that many people there told her that they were so moved that they planned on shopping at Zappos. Tony said that the rep sent the flowers because he thought it was the right thing to do.  What I took away from this was that this incident was really a result of Zappos' dedication to hiring the right (empathetic) people and instilling an amazing customer service culture.

Stay tuned for more tips from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. You can click here to see the actual presentation Tony used in his lecture. You can also find part one of my blog on Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh here.

How This Salesperson Kept Me as a Customer

Our account rep at our reprint company called me the other day to discuss her marketing plan for 2009, which really impressed me because no one has ever done that before. Not only did she proactively come up with the plan on her own, she called and walked me through each step of the process and asked for my feedback. Her proactive approach gave me a high level of comfort and really made me want to continue working with her and her company.

I think this is a great reminder to make sure you are well in tune with your clients. Call them, even if they aren’t up for renewal anytime soon and you don’t have anything to sell them, and reassure your clients that they are on your radar. Remember- your clients are your best prospects.

Is Paid Search Right for Small Business?

I read an article on BtoB regarding how small businesses are slow to embrace paid search marketing. They cite a recent study by Kelton Research which polled 400 small business owners and found that 60% of small businesses with websites do not currently use paid search marketing. But to me, the fact that 40% of small businesses are using paid search marketing is phenomenal (to the point that I’m slightly doubtful it’s even that high a percentage).

Paid search marketing can be very beneficial for small businesses, but it’s also extremely resource intensive. With factors like dynamic keywords, fluctuating prices and rapidly changing trends you need to keep up to date on, it can be hard for small businesses to effectively use paid search. Even with the tools available from Google and Microsoft adCenter, it can still be a daunting task.

Those of you interested in starting, or are about to start, a paid search marketing campaign may want to read “5 Creative Ways to Avoid Mistakes with Paid Search.” Even those of you who are already comfortably utilizing paid search might find a few good tips.

Don’t Get Caught Competing On Price

When the economy picks up again, some of the budget-minded business practices we’ve adopted during this recession should now be a part of our best practice. Case in point – beefing up customer service. According to a recent Kiplinger Letter article about the changing U.S. retail landscape, more retailers have concluded that competing on price alone is a losing battle and have instead decided to focus on building customer loyalty, improving rewards programs, offering personalized products and generally going the extra mile for repeat customers.

For more information on how to make price irrelevant to your customers, check out this archived article here.

Are You Telling Your Customers to F*** Off?

The DiJulius Group’s recent newsletter has a great tip for business owners. It discusses the damaging effects that “negative cues” can bring to your businesses; signs such as “STOP- All visitors MUST register with the receptionist,” and “We will NOT wait on you if you’re on a cell phone.” These signs can, at the very least, send mixed messages to your customers (there are nicer ways to ask your customers to register) and can even turn customers off completely. Make sure you’re not giving your customers negative cues about your business.

In February of 2009, NY Report will be hosting a free webinar led by customer service guru John DiJulius, as well as an event in March, where John will be the featured presenter. Both events will focus on the many aspects of improving your business, such as how to provide world-class customer service and gain repeat customers.

For more information on our free webinar, click here.
For more information on our “Driving Incremental Revenue with Outstanding Service,” click here.

Keeping Up a World-Class Website

Earlier this month I blogged about an article that discussed the key elements that all good websites need to have (link). Here’s a good follow up to that article, which details more of the maintenance aspect of keeping up a world-class website after the design process. Check out “11 Ways to improve Your Website.” 

Quick Website Checklist

15 Key Elements All Top Web Sites Should Have is a great short read on what you should incorporate into your website.  Check out the comments as well.

Should Your Clients Be Committed?

I had an interesting discussion last week with a marketing professional. We were trying to figure out how we can work together and I asked her "how could I help you."  She said that she was "looking for committed clients". I thought that this was one of the coolest and most powerful things I had heard in a long time. Think of what it implies...

1) She only wants to work with clients that will really appreciate her work and be engaged and,
2) She has enough work that she can pick and choose who she wants to work with.
 
With respect to #2, I don't know if it is true. Maybe she has plenty of business, maybe she doesn't. Clearly, she is open to more business. But that statement implies a lot of confidence, and confidence sells.

Is Your Address Important?

One of our new advertisers sent over an ad that will debut in an upcoming issue of NY Report. On the bottom of the ad, they put their address (which, by the way, was in midtown Manhattan) and I urged them to take it out, which they did.

Why did I urge them to take it out? Two reasons:

1) It could hurt your objective. As they are a service company, they could easily serve companies throughout the tri-state area. In fact, they have clients in Europe. But you don't know if the Manhattan address would make someone on Long Island or Passaic County think twice about hiring them.

2) One goal in any marketing material (ad, website, letter, etc) is to be as brief as possible. And in an ad, you want to have as much white space as possible. I have a saying that the less text in your ad, the more likely it is to be read.

So unless you are in a retail business where you address is crucial, leave it out. Want to take it a step further? Get an 800 number.

Build (Don't Blow) Your Brand

Daria, our editor, forwarded me a link of a book review for OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder, a book on branding gone overboard. I believe Lucas Conley, the author, feels that companies (and he is alluding to large, well known brands) are spending too much on branding and not enough on product development. While there may be some truth to this (think McDonald's), branding is crucial to all businesses - especially those that are in highly competitive or commoditized markets.

First, let me give a really quick definition of branding. A brand is the image that comes to someone's mind when they hear a company name. So, as an example, some might feel that when they hear or see "Starbucks" they think of good (and expensive) coffee and perhaps a place where they actually don't mind waiting on   line. In fact, they may think of a store where they can hang out for an hour to check email or read the paper.  Many business owners think of themselves as being "too small" to have a brand because they don’t have millions of dollars for advertising. WRONG!  They already have a brand. It’s what their prospects, customers and others think of when they hear their name.  So, for example, an accounting firm has a brand. It might be a very bland one, meaning that they are just thought of as an accounting firm. For some, this is ok. Others want to create a professional service firm that’s really perceived differently. This starts by defining what your business does differently (think, over the top service, but really over the top service, or servicing a particular niche like fast growing businesses), then ensuring that everyone in your company understands your brand. Then, it comes down to marketing your brand. The first step is delivering on your brand promises (we had a great article on this here). Finally, a company can then conduct different marketing strategies such as advertising, public relations, trade shows, etc. 

What are the benefits of building a branded small business? Well, assuming the brand has positive connotations, it means less negotiations on price, more respect from customers, easier sales-cycles and probably a nice premium when exiting the business.

So I agree with Conley that some brands invest too much in the sizzle and not enough in the steak.  However, branding is crucial for businesses of all sizes. In fact, branding can often differentiate two companies that deliver equal quality services. The company that has created a positive brand in the eyes of its constituents and markets themselves correctly will often win out.

One final note - this  blog entry is not a book review. This is a discussion based on a review of a book. The reason I wanted to blog about this was because much of what we read in the media is related to big companies. So if you interpret what you read and try to figure out how it applies to your small business, you may often find that these article are somewhat misleading, if not outright wrong, in terms of small businesses.

Cold Calling While the Boss is Out

While I was on vacation, my sales staff came up with a great idea – a cold calling contest. Dubbed “The First Annual Boss-Is-Out Cold Calling Contest,” each sales member pitched in $10 to the pot (I was so excited, I put in $50 myself) and whoever made the most number of calls between the specified time won the pot.

A few great things came out of this contest. The sales staff noted that they had called a lot of new prospects- some of whom they would have never called had it not been for the contest. Also, the contest was based solely on the number of calls made (as opposed to sales made), so it was based on results that can be controlled and there was a "line-of-sight" between the actions and reward.

The contest also boosted the energy level of the entire office (at least one other employee contributed to the pot) and got people from other departments involved in the sales process.

Congratulations to everyone involved! I think I should go on vacation more often.

It's All in the Follow Through

As many of you may know, we are getting close to our annual Small Business Awards (September 17th). Every year before the event I like to ask sponsors of the Awards if they would like to discuss how to make best use of their investment. I’m not there to sell (they’ve already bought), I’m just there to make sure they get the best bang for their buck. 

This type of post-sale follow up is a great way to build on existing relationships, but I don’t think it’s practiced as much as I feel it should be. It doesn’t take much effort or time, and it gives your clients the sense that you’ll go out of your way to make sure they’re completely satisfied. And remember, it’s always easier to sell to existing (and happy) clients than it is to new ones.

Small Videos for Small Businesses?

I stumbled upon an article the other day about a recent study conducted by The Kelsey Group. According to the article, small and mid sized businesses are projected to take advantage of online video advertising at a very fast adoption rate (projected to grow from $10.9 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion by the end of 2012).

This got me thinking – larger companies have utilized online video advertising for years, and I think small businesses can benefit greatly from targeted online videos. But the obvious question is how are companies who don’t have the budget to hire an interactive agency going to shoot and edit these videos? There aren’t too many production companies that take on smaller projects (below $3,500).

One possible answer might lie in viral videos. Viral videos don’t necessarily have to have the expensive, professional production value of, say, BMW’s The Hire series of videos. But to get the video viral you need to have a great or entertaining premise that people will want to share with others, all without losing touch with your brand (think of Blendtec’s “Will it Blend?” series).

If you’ve got a great idea for how small business can utilize online video advertising, I’d love to hear it, and I’m sure many NY Report readers will as well.