Save Your Advertising Dollars by Saying "No"

As small business owners, so many of us have fallen prey to the smooth talking media sales reps.  The minute you open your doors for business, sales reps from the TV stations, newspapers and radio stations are the first ones in your door.  In their hands they have what I like to call “the deal of the week”.  You know you need to market your business, especially when you’re just starting out, so you sign up for these promotions because they’re “a limited-time promotion” and “you’ll never get a better deal”.

I have a client who, when I first met her, had spent over $15,000 in advertising the previous year.  Her comment to me was “I’m not sure if any of it worked.”  This was a very clear example of someone who had been too nice to say, “No, thank you” to the sales reps.  I understand that sales reps need to make a living.  I get that.  What I’m saying is that you need to be smart about where you’re spending your money.

Before the sales reps ever come walking through your door, here are some things you need to do to save yourself a lot of money.

1. Know your customers very, very well.  I don’t just mean your existing customers, but who your ideal customer is.  Who do you want to communicate with?
2. Know where your customers are.  Do they read a physical newspaper or do they read an online newspaper?  Maybe they don’t read a newspaper at all.  Maybe they follow their favourite media online and get updates through social media.  You can’t communicate effectively to your customers if you’re not sure where they are.
3. Create some marketing goals.  These goals will stem from your overarching business goals.  Do you want to attract a new demographic?  Do you want to introduce a product or service?  Decide what you want.
4. Establish some tools to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.  If you have no way of tracking what’s working and what isn’t, you’ll never know what forms of advertising to use.  This is precisely why too many business owners wind up spending way too much money on their advertising.
5. Stick to a budget.  When you develop your marketing plan for the year, you need to create a budget to work from.  Stick to that budget and don’t be afraid to tell the sales rep that this current promo doesn’t fit into your budget.

Now, every time a sales rep walks through your door with the latest “limited-time promotion” stay strong and walk away from the “deal” if it doesn’t fit into your plan.  If it does fit into your plan and budget, take advantage of the deal.  Work closely with the sales rep to make sure the ad copy addresses the campaign goals and you’ll be all set.

Exceptional Service - The Cornerstone of a Successful Business

Marketing is so much more than just advertising.  I’m going to say this until every small business owner gets that through their heads!

Marketing ≠ Advertising

Marketing is a complete set of activities working together to create a positive, memorable brand image of your company.  And one of the most important parts of that is the level of customer service that the customer perceives your company provides.  It’s not just about what level of service you actually provide; it’s about what the customer perceives to be great service.

Having worked in retail management for so long, I am probably now the pickiest customer out there.  I worked hard to create amazing teams of staff members who delivered exceptional service and went above and beyond for each and every customer.  So now, when I go into a store I automatically take note of everything going on in the store.  I pay attention to the cleanliness of the store, the visual layout, the friendliness and professionalism of the staff, and how knowledgeable and customer-oriented the staff are.

These are just a few of the things managers and business owners need to be keenly aware of.  Yes, I’m the picky customer so I notice stuff that maybe other customers wouldn’t be looking for.  But why not strive to impress even the pickiest of customers.  Even the customers who might not have paid attention to the small details will be very happy with what they perceive as “exceptional” service.  After all, who doesn’t want to feel special?

We’ve all had some bad customer service experiences in our lives and they remain stuck in our memory forever.  But fabulous, amazing customer service experiences also stand out in our mind.  One experience stands out in my mind so clearly… and it happened over 9 years ago!  My husband and I had taken our 2 boys to Ottawa to visit my brother and some friends of ours.  We decided to take the boys (who were 2 and 7 at the time) to Moxie's Restaurant for dinner.  The waitress we had that night was absolutely phenomenal.  She did everything possible to make sure our kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, which of course made the meal that much more enjoyable for my husband and I.  Now, every time I see a Moxie’s Restaurant, I associate the place with happy thoughts and fully recommend the place to all of my friends and family.

That’s what you want your customers to do.

Take an honest look at your own business.  When you take out the bias you have towards your own way of doing things and really look at things from a customer’s perspective, you may not like what you see.  So, don’t scrimp on your training budget when it comes to fully training your staff on exceptional customer service.  Remember that that memorable  image will remain in your customers’ minds for a very long time.

Abercrombie and Fitch Got It Right

Okay, so Abercrombie and Fitch has been in the news lately because of things their CEO has said about the kind of customers they want.  Their CEO, Mike Jeffries stated, “We go after the cool kids.  A lot of people don’t belong and they can’t belong.  Are we exclusionary?  Absolutely.”  By the way, did you know that he originally said this in a 2006 interview?  Only now has it gone viral.  Now, in response to the viral words of A&F’s CEO, a man by the name of Greg Karber wants to re-brand A&F by giving away their clothes to the homeless. 

Maybe I’m going to come off sounding like the bad guy here, but I think A&F has it right.  Here’s why. 

1.       First of all, they very clearly know who their target market is.  A&F has always been an elite brand.  They had decided a long time ago that their target market is the “cool kids” and that doesn’t include anyone over a size ten.  As a successful business, you can’t be everything to everybody.  A&F knows EXACTLY who their customers are and they should keep it that way.

2.       We often complain that companies are being shady or aren’t being transparent.  A&F is being completely transparent and we’re giving them crap for it!  They aren’t hiding anything and are unapologetic in their stance.  I say, good for them for being honest and true to their beliefs.  They’re not afraid to tell it like it is and they’re not just a voice hiding behind a logo.  If you want companies to be more open, don’t bash them when they do. 

3.       They insist on hiring only attractive people.  I hate to say it, but attractive people have better employment rates to begin with.  You would think that in this day and age, everyone would have equal opportunity to have a job they are qualified for.  That is not always the reality though.  Check out these articles from Workopolis that point to some of the ways more attractive people get ahead in their careers.

http://www.workopolis.com/content/advice/article/353-can-you-be-too-attractive-to-get-hired

http://www.workopolis.com/content/advice/article/2098-five-unfair-ways-that-people-make-more-money

What I’m saying here is that A&F is not the only company to hire more attractive people.  And really, when you think about it, every company uses models in their advertising.  If A&F only hires attractive people, they’ve got built in models right inside the company.

4.       All of the PR that A&F has received has probably done more for their brand awareness than any paid campaign they’ve ever done.  All of a sudden everyone knows who A&F is.  You may not agree with their ideas or you may not ever buy any of their stuff, but you certainly know who they are.

 

5.       So, going back to this initiative to donate the A&F clothes to the homeless.  I like the idea of donating clothing to people in need, but frankly do you really think a homeless guy is going to care about the brand name on the shirt that he just received?  No way.  He’s just happy that he has something clean to wear.  And I really don’t think other people pay much attention to what homeless people are wearing either.  If you walked by a homeless person on the street, would you notice if his shirt is from A&F?  Not likely.  So, trying to re-brand A&F by giving the clothing to the homeless is not really going to do much good.  Please, go ahead and donate your clothing to the less fortunate, whether it’s A&F or not.

 

I’m not saying that Mr. Jeffries is a great guy.  Heck, I’ve never met him and likely never will.  What I’m saying is that he might have chosen his words a little more carefully and frankly he does come across as offensive.  However, don’t bash the guy for something he said 7 years ago, especially when the company is just doing what it does best… effective target marketing.  You don’t have to agree with the company’s decisions and you don’t need to buy any of their products.  Just understand that from a marketing stand point, they got it right…  a defined target audience and free PR.  Exactly what every business should be doing.

 

 

5 Ways To Create Effective Advertising

Advertising is an important part of any marketing plan. But with so much focus on social media these days, you'd think that advertising isn't worth the cost. However, done right advertising can be a really important part of your marketing strategy, especially with a good mix of online and traditional advertising. If you've ever attended one of my workshops or even read some of blog posts you'll know that I am all about consistent, integrated marketing. That means that all of your marketing activities need to work together in a systematic approach to achieving your business goals. And advertising is one of those activities.

The biggest advantage that advertising has over other marketing activities is the sense of control. With proper target marketing you can control (to a point) who sees or hears your ad and you can control when your ad is run. The key to effective advertising is knowing what your objectives are and how you want to approach your campaign. 

Below are 5 elements that you should consider in order to make any form of advertising effective.

1. Advertising should have one of 3 objectives... to inform, remind or persuade your audience. Know what your goals are before you even think about writing the ad. The desired outcome will ultimately determine the look, feel, sound, and distribution of the ad. The goal of most advertising should be to start a relationship, not sell a product or service.

2. Be realistic about what an ad can do. If you are running a small online ad chances are it will be pretty unrealistic to expect a multi-thousand dollar sales achievement from 15 words and a link. When setting your advertising goals, set a realistic goal and set a ‘stretch’ goal to strive for. Also, know that advertising alone cannot be the only metric to measure your success by. There are a lot of factors that go into the buying decisions of consumers.

3. Advertising, both online and offline can be and should be targeted at a narrowly defined viewer. If a radio station that tells you that 75% of its listeners are 18-55 that isn't narrow enough. Know your ideal customer really well, what they want and how they want to communicate with you before implementing any advertising.

There are lots of resources out there to help you learn more about your ideal customer but Google AdWords is a great tool to find out what your customers are looking for. Group your Google AdWords into very tightly crafted keyword groups to target people looking for very specific things. You can also find geo targeted mailing lists and then cross them with lists of people that buy a similar product.

4. Measure everything

The most successful business owners, managers and marketers can tell you exactly how every element of their marketing is performing and why. It takes a great deal of work to get serious about things like analytics and tracking, but you won’t really succeed until you do. By taking the time to create a process that allows you to measure every aspect of your advertising you can see what's working and what isn't, allowing you to make necessary changes and further improve on what is working all the while staying tuned in to what your market wants more of.

5. Test, test, and test again

This last element goes hand in hand with measurement, but takes it a step further. Once you have a baseline you can start to work on improving your results by simply tweaking things like headlines, calls to action, visual elements, keywords, content, publications and lists. Once you know what’s working in one place you can expand on it to test it in other places. Google AdWords is an inexpensive way to test thing out before broadcasting more widely. As for online advertising, particularly in social networks, you also might want to test out new social networks and their advertising structure to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t, providing it reaches your target audience.

So, even with the advent of social media, advertising still has its place in your marketing strategy. Advertising has changed its distribution channels over the years and that will continue for many more years to come. But no matter what distribution channel you use, whether it’s online or off ine advertising, using these tips will allow you to create advertising that resonates with your customers.

Create a Marketing Strategy in 3 Easy Steps

I just came to the realization that all of my blog posts just dance around the topic I am the most passionate about.  And that’s strategy.  I’ve written about integrating your marketing, 3 easy steps to creating a marketing budget and I’ve talked a lot about building a brand.  So, today I decided that I’m just going to lay it all out there, straight forward, step by step on how to develop a strategy before you even attempt to spend $1 on any of your marketing.

Developing a strategy is by far the most important step when marketing your business.  The biggest mistake small business owners make is that they know they need to market their business, but they don’t know where to start.  So, what happens is that they get roped into these “deals” from ad executives from the local newspapers, and radio and TV stations.  They wind up spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on advertising but don’t really know whether it worked or not.  Well, let me walk you through a 3-part process to help you develop a strategy so you don’t spend any more money on advertising that doesn’t work.

Part 1 – Brainstorm:

This is where you throw out every possible thought that comes to mind.  Sometimes the crazier the better.  I have found that sometimes a member of the team will throw out some weird and wild idea that ultimately we end up using some or all of that idea.  But this is also the time to define some really key things such as your intended target market, your goals and your budget.

One of the most important keys to developing a strong marketing communications plan is to determine your target market or target markets and know what they want and how they want to communicate with you.  The trick is to discover what that ideal customer looks like in the most specific way possible and then go about building an entire marketing strategy around attracting more of these ideal customers. 

Part 2 – Budget:

This is where most of my clients get the most stressed out because they haven’t allocated any specific amounts to their business activities.  They are really just “winging it.  If you don’t have a plan this is where you can get into trouble with your spending and then it really will be too expensive. 

1.       To create a marketing budget for the year, set your budget between 5 – 10% of your gross annual sales.  When you think about it, $100,000 is sales with a marketing budget of 5% only gives you $5000 to work with for the year.  This is where the creativity comes in, knowing where to best allocate those dollars.

2.       From that budget, develop marketing campaigns for the year.  Then develop a budget for each campaign based on the yearly budget you have just set for the company.

Remember that advertising doesn’t have to cost you a fortune.  Leave the big marketing budgets for the big corporations who have the money to spend on it. 

Part 3 – Metrics

Now, you need to set metrics for tracking the direct impact of each campaign on its ability to help you reach your marketing goals.  If you have nothing to measure your marketing efforts with you won’t know whether or not your marketing is actually working.  Some common metrics include number of click-throughs on an online ad, number of new sales, number of new leads or percent increase in traffic to the store.  In order to be useful, metrics need to be measurable and quantifiable.  So, make sure you define them specifically with numbers and then break them apart into tiny segments that you can work towards achieving.  Review last year's sales records so you have something to which to compare this year's sales. Here is where good record keeping is essential. 

An increase in leads or sales over last year's numbers might indicate that your current marketing campaigns are actually working but don’t make the mistake of putting all of your eggs in one basket.  One marketing activity cannot be held accountable for your total business success.  So be sure to have a variety of metrics to track.

So, now you have an idea of how to create a strategy before you actually go about spending any money on your marketing.  For more in-depth information, download the video below.  This video is from a webinar I presented a few months ago and gives you a much more detailed step by step process to creating a strategy that works.

Strategy Before Tactics

I always love hearing from small business owners to find out how you do things.  I’d love to hear your input on creating a marketing strategy.  Tell me how you created your strategic marketing plan.

 

4 Tips on Creating a Personal Brand

Note:  This blog post is an excerpt of a speech I presented on March 7, 2013 at a Women in Business Event hosted by the Timmins Chamber of Commerce.

 

When you’re at a networking event, you are marketing yourself and your company, whether you own the company or you work for it.  Essentially what you’re doing is creating a brand for yourself and you are an extension of your company brand.  Today I want to give you a quick overview of what it takes to create a memorable brand.
 

People ask me all the time, “How do I get my name out there without coming across like a pushy know-it-all?”  Developing a memorable brand takes time, but first impressions go a long way in establishing your business as credible in the eyes of consumers and in the eyes of other businesses.  Not only do you want to gain the attention of your customers, but you want to establish a good rapport with other business owners, managers and community leaders.  Here are a few tips that will help you create your own personal brand.

1.        First, be unique.   The whole idea behind branding is that you distinguish yourself in a crowded marketplace. If you try and be everything to everyone, you will be nothing to no one. Your brand has to be unique to your business, and different than other things out there. And it must also be something at which you are great.  Stepping outside the box is essential.  What do you offer that your competitors don’t?  Why do customers want to come to you?  If your only differentiating factor is price, you need to take a closer look at your offerings.  What customers really want to know is how you can solve their problem.  Providing them with a unique experience is what will set you apart.  Remember we’re trying to create a positive memorable impression.

2.        Focus on benefits.  When you go shopping for something you aren’t really buying that tangible item.  What you’re buying is the benefits you’ll get from using that product or service.  Let’s relate that to your personal brand.  When you first introduce yourself to someone, what do you say about your company?  What do you say about yourself?   Think about this for a minute.  Could you clearly and completely tell someone about you and your company in less than 25 words?  We’ve all had this same conversation with someone.  You’ve just met someone new and they ask, “So, what do you do?”    Well, since people love to talk about themselves, you might find yourself answering by saying, “I am the owner of manufacturing company called ABC Manufacturing.  We make and sell widgets to the mining industry, the forestry industry and many other industrial companies.  We have clients all over the country who just love our widgets.”  By the time, you got to “we make and sell widgets...” the other guy has tuned you out.  All he wanted to know was what you have to offer. So think about developing what’s called an elevator pitch.  Focus on the benefits to other person in 25 words or less.

3.       Consistency is the one thing I stress the most when it comes to marketing.  In the consumer’s mind, advertising messages from different media and different promotional approaches all become part of a single message about the company.  Building a brand requires a lot of work and consistency in every single way you communicate to the public.  I want to reinforce this one more time.  The brand that you develop for your company is the unique vision that the public has of you. The way you communicate with your customers is absolutely vital in developing that positive impression.  Take a second to think about all of the levels of communication you distribute throughout the day.  You post on your business Facebook wall, you send out emails to current clients and to prospects, you send out email newsletters.  Have you ever given much thought as to how your communication sounds and looks?  Make sure that your emails reflect a positive, professional image of your company and are not filled with spelling and grammatical errors.  Anyone in your company who is going to interact with customers—from the receptionist through to the collections department—has to understand the importance of creating a positive interaction with the customer.  All I’m saying here is that you need to keep in mind the image that you are trying to project.  Potential customers may get the impression that either you don’t know how to spell or that you’re too lazy to take the time to correct it.  What kind of impression do you want to make?

4.       A quality brand must also deliver on its promise.   Your brand must be based in reality. What I mean is that it must be linked to the culture, style, product and service of your business and that extends to you as well. Your brand has to be, well, organic. There must be integrity in your brand and what you promise must be a close approximation of what you deliver. 

Finally, remember that your brand is an integrated effort.   A quality brand is reinforced by everything you do; where your business is located, your prices, your customer service, as well as your advertising and promotional activities.  So remember that you are an extension of your company brand.  Remember to be unique, focus on your benefits, stay consistent and deliver on what you promise.  When you use these tips you’ll be sure that you are on the right track to creating that positive memorable brand experience. 

What You Need to Know Before Launching a New Product

I hear people all the time saying that they have developed a new product or service that they know is going to be a hit.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone say, “It`s going to sell!  It`s going to make money!”  Well, maybe it will, but don`t make the mistake of getting tunnel vision with your own product.  You’ve developed this product and put your heart and soul into it.  This is your baby so of course you want the world to know how fantastic it is.  But before you spend even $1 of your marketing budget on promotion you need to do some research.

 

Some of the basic things you need to know before launching a new product, service or business are:

1.       Is there a market for your product?

2.       Who is most likely to purchase the product?

3.       What kinds of similar products are already on the market?

4.       Would your customers recommend the product to a friend?

5.       What do consumers like and dislike about the product?
 

Getting access to in-depth market research databases can be both time-consuming and costly.  And unless you understand how to read and analyze the information you may not be getting a true picture.  However, there are a few ways you can at least get some basic information without breaking the bank.  And at least this way you can customize your research to your specific product.

1.       Implement market surveys.  These can be done by phone, by email, through social media or in person.  Make sure the questions you ask are:

a.       relevant to your product

b.      not overly lengthy or complicated, and

c.       not skewed towards a positive outcome

2.       Hold focus groups.

3.       Do a product test launch

4.       Host a free promotional event where you let people sample your product.  Ask people for their honest opinion by giving them a short (3-5 multiple choice/yes or no questions) questionnaire.  The more feedback you get the better.

The information gathered will help you narrow down your target market, make appropriate changes to the product, and give you a starting point to developing your marketing strategy.  Now that you have a better understanding of what your customers want, you can go about giving them exactly what they want.

However, all of this research might show that there really isn’t a market for your product.  If that’s the case, find out why.  If you’re still convinced that this new product needs to be on the market, find out what concerns your potential customers have with the product.  This information will give you a better insight into what changes you can make that might make the product more marketable.  But if your research indicates that there isn’t much of a market for your product right now, that’s okay.  It just means that you will have saved a lot of money on the promotion of a new product only to have it sit on store shelves.

So, before you spend any money on promotion, be sure to allocate some money to research.  It’s just as important, if not more important than your advertising spending.  Get your head out of the clouds and really look at things from the consumer’s point of view.  It will be well worth it.

 

Decision Making 101 for Entrepreneurs - Taking Accountability

One of the most important things that I expect of people (any myself) is accountability.  We’ve all gone through ups and downs in our lives, both personally and professionally.  We’ve all made mistakes and said and done things that maybe weren’t the wisest choices.  But how can you expect to learn from those decisions if you don’t own up to them in the first place?

As a business owner, you make decisions all day, every day.  It’s sometimes hard to know what decisions are the “right” decisions because sometimes there is no “right” or “wrong” choice, just a subjective choice.  Here are some tips on how to make decisions that you can feel confident about and will be able to own up to no matter the outcome.

1.       Make your decisions based on your key core principles.  For me, if I am questioned about the decisions I have made, I want to know that the decision I made was based on honesty, accountability, and responsibility.  If my choices don’t fit those criteria, then I need to keep thinking until a decision can be reached that will fit those criteria.

2.       Keep other people in mind.  If you have the responsibility of being the final decision maker on an issue, think about who will ultimately be affected by this decision.  Is it a change to a process that will affect customer service?  If it is, then you’ll need to keep in mind how the customers will feel about the change and take into consideration your front line staff who will have to implement this change.

3.       Don’t worry about what other people think.  I know this sounds contradictory to what I just said, but let me explain.  Every decision you make in life will not only affect you, but everyone around you.  However, not everyone is going to agree with your decision or support it.  You will never be able to please everybody.  I know it’s hard to hear people tell you that you’re wrong or that you screwed up.  Everyone is going to have their opinions but as long as you are confident with your final decisions, not everyone’s opinions are going to matter.

4.       It’s okay to change your mind.  People make mistakes.  If you see that the choice you made was a wrong choice, don’t let your pride get in the way of making a better choice.  Too often people hold onto their decisions out of sheer stubbornness.  But this is where some of your accountability comes in.  If you made a mistake, own up to it, apologize if need be, make a different choice, learn from it, and move on.

Strong leaders are people who can make important decisions on the fly but are also confident enough in themselves and their abilities to be held accountable for their decisions.  They don’t let pride or stubbornness or greed get in the way of making decisions that have a positive impact on their organizations.  So, as you go about your day today, making decisions all day long, keep these points in mind.  Remember that you are a role model for your staff.  Be accountable to that.

3 Easy Steps to Creating a Marketing Budget

Setting budgets is so critical to any business, big or small.  But I often see so many small business owners just winging it, not really knowing where all of their money is going.  I’m not an accountant but staying on budget is crucial to my job.  Everything I do is based on a budget.  Without a budget or a plan, a business runs the risk of spending more money than it is taking in or, conversely, not spending enough money to grow the business and compete. We all know that we need to spend money to make money and we want to save as much money on those expenses whenever possible.  But how do you determine how much to spend on marketing your business?

Creating, monitoring and managing a budget does not have to be a scary, overwhelming thing.  Even if you have no accounting experience or if you don’t think you have enough time in a day to do it, it really is imperative that you take the time to do it… and do it well.   It will allow you to allocate resources where they are needed. You simply need to work out what you are likely to earn and spend in the budget period.  Here is an easy 3 step plan for creating a marketing budget that works.

Step 1:

Start by creating budgets for the entire year. Be realistic about your projected sales for the budget period.  If you overestimate, it will cause you problems in the future.   Develop separate budgets for marketing, inventory, payroll, and anything else that you will be required to spend money on.  Continuously check to make sure your budget balances and that your numbers make sense.   

Don’t forget to work in a salary for yourself.  I see this happen all the time, where the business owner sinks so much money into the business that they don’t bother paying themselves. 

Step 2:

To create a marketing budget for the year, set your budget between 5 and 10% of your gross annual sales.  When you think about it, if you only have $100,000 in sales with a marketing budget of 5% that means you only have $5000 to work with for the year. Choose a number that you are comfortable with but a substantial amount of money to achieve all of your marketing objectives.  In step 3, you will need to use your creativity to know where best to allocate those dollars. 

Step 3:

From the budget amount you determined in step 2, develop your individual marketing campaigns for the year.  Determine a budget for each campaign based on the yearly marketing budget you have just set for the company.  Make sure you align your marketing goals and objectives with your campaign planning and spending.  You may need to put more money into marketing activities in one or two months in the year, especially if you’re running a strong campaign or if you run a seasonal business, and less in other months.  Just really take a look at your marketing goals and make sure you’ve budgeted enough money for each of those activities.  If that 5% you allocated in step 2 isn’t enough, go back and adjust your numbers. 

Remember that advertising doesn’t have to cost you a fortune.  Leave the big marketing budgets for the big corporations who have the money to spend on it.

It’s going to take some time to play with your numbers to make everything balance.   That is ultimately the goal… to make sure you’re not in the red.   Stick to your budget as closely as possible, but review and revise it as needed. Remember it’s a plan, a guide to your business finances.  It’s not set in stone, but constant review of it is essential to make sure you know where your business stands.