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.