Posts Tagged ‘marketing’
Social Media: Is It Right for Your Business?
Understanding whether or not your business needs to be using social media is a critical component in the development of a strategic marketing and public relations plan. To make this decision, you need to understand who your customers are by segment and then comprehend where they place their attention and how or if they use social media.
Do they use SM?
Not every business’s customers are using social media or are spending the majority of their time there. As an example, I don’t believe a wholesale lumber yard’s customers (who are general contractors and homebuilders) are spending time engaged in social media. But research can tell you whether or not they do.
Flowtown posted a blog article that makes the point eloquently:
Not everyone has the patience for the cultivation and care social media marketing requires to do it well. They look for short cuts because they are fixated on the wrong numbers and placing value on the wrong things. For those with patience there are rewards, though: There are many case studies out there to prove that social media marketing can be a valuable addition to a company’s marketing mix; it can enhance and amplify their traditional and online marketing efforts and can have a positive impact on a company’s brand, customer service capabilities and, eventually, sales.
In the race to social media and the rapid adoption in the past years, many have “jumped on the bandwagon” who mistake the reasons to be involved in social media.
Social Media Truth
Social media is not about saving money, using free tools or broadcasting messages. It is about creating a positive relationship where one receives permission to converse and share interesting content, ideas, and thoughts. Sometimes those are about our core business, and sometimes they are about where to find the best priced business lunch.
*Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons user Intersection Consulting
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Why Multicultural Marketing?
The Connection Maven continues a series of guest blogger posts from a few of our more connected colleagues.
This guest post is from the desk of Anne Brumbaugh who is a marketing guru if I ever met one. When it comes to marketing know-how, Anne is one of the best. Anne’s speciality is multicultural marketing. In this first of a series of blog posts, she clues us all in to the five reasons we must market multi-culturally. In the coming days, we’ll share Anne’s tips on how to implement multicultural marketing.
Why Multicultural Marketing?
The terms “multicultural marketing” and “marketplace diversity” strike fear in the hearts of many marketing managers who have been wildly successful in targeting mainstream customers but who are now facing an increasingly diverse body of consumers and little experience to serve them. Their fear is well founded because they don’t know why, how, who, or what to do about it.
First things first. Why consider multicultural segmentation and marketing? Absolutely not because it’s the feel-good flavor-of-the-day and the “right thing to do.” Poppycock. Here are five reasons why it’s going to be good for your bottom line.
Why #1: It’s where the customers are going.
The 2000 census projected that white non-Hispanic Americans would become a minority majority (i.e., plurality) by 2040 or 2050. Newsflash: I predict that will be more like 2030 as more people intermarry, have children, travel and work here and abroad, and choose to identify with more than one ethnoracial group on the census and other polls. Some white non-Hispanics seem to be on the edge of panic that this day will be some cultural Armageddon. Again, poppycock. It will simply be one more day in a long, inexorable trend that started back when our forefathers (may of whom were ethnic minority outcasts themselves, for the record) came to this land and will be as glorious and full of opportunity (business, marketing, or otherwise) as ever. Embrace it, or at least get over it. If you don’t, your customer base will shrink.
Why #2: It’s where the money is going.
Ethnoracial minority groups that have, for one reason or another, fallen into the lower tail of the socioeconomic distribution are making great strides. Not only will there be more consumers of diverse backgrounds (see Why #1), but they will have more money. No, they will not be buying the upscale homes and fancy sports cars with extra piles of money that wealthy white non-Hispanic Americans (allegedly) have, but they will be buying more and buying better than they ever have in the past. And they remember companies that targeted them with respectful, value-added offerings on the way up.
Why #3: It’s where your competition is going.
Both nature and business abhor a vacuum, and underserved markets will not remain underserved for long. If you don’t get with the program and learn how to target diverse consumers, your competition will. It may not be your biggest, closest competitor, but rather a small shop that’s willing to end run you but good with a little extra effort, creativity, and heart. The customers are there and the money is there. Go for them before someone else does.
Why #4: It’s where the mainstream mindset is going.
Have no fear – white non-Hispanic consumers will remain the largest ethnoracial group even after becoming a “minority.” The problem is, some of them will be gaining an appreciation for the range of ideas, assortment of goods and services, and spice of life that a more diverse America brings to them, and they will want to patronize firms that embrace that. Terms like the “New Mainstream,” “Cultural Creatives,” and “Diversity Seekers” reflect an evolving ethos among current majority white non-Hispanic consumers who value diversity in their lives. Companies that don’t update their appeals to be more inclusive toward everyone may lose these folks as well.
Why #5: It’s where your opportunity to differentiate will be.
It’s Economics and Marketing 101. If all your consumers are the same, seeking the same source of value for the same reasons, you can’t differentiate and you end up playing a price game in a commodity market. On the other hand, the more diverse your consumers are, the more opportunity you have to differentiate – do more, do different, and do better than your competition in the eyes of your consumers. Unfortunately, it’s going to take more money, more knowledge, and more effort than it has in the past, but if misery loves company, at least everyone’s in the same boat. If you can figure out how a particular consumer segment is different, cater to that point of difference, and then deliver on it, you’re going to thrive in this new, multicultural marketplace.
Anne M. Brumbaugh is the founder and owner of Anne Brumbaugh Marketing, a marketing consultancy in Charleston, SC, specializing in marketing research, marketplace diversity, and marketing analysis and planning. Dr. Brumbaugh is also an Associate Professor of Marketing at the School of Business, College of Charleston, and holds an MBA with a specialization in marketing and a PhD in business and consumer behavior.
*Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons user Ray_from_LA
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If You Want to Grow Your Business, Ask the Right Questions
Over the last year I’ve come to admire and respect the work of Positus Consulting. They have provided spot-0n advice that works for our business. Because we respect her advice so much, we’ve asked her to share a bit of wisdom with us.
A guest post from Andra Watkins of Positus Consulting.
You DO want to grow your business
You want to grow your business. It’s what everyone wants, regardless of the season, ebb and flow of the economy or challenges presented by pesky competitors.
One of the keys to growing any business is knowing how and when to ask the right questions of key people. Sometimes, a focus group is the only way to get the biggest group of participants, but at POSITUS, we like to conduct individual interviews whenever possible.
By hiring a third party to individually ask a customer, vendor or employee key questions about your business, you are communicating several things to them that matter. Let’s take a look at each one of them.
Ask!
Your input is important to me. It is so important to you as a business owner that you hired someone to contact people individually to get that feedback. You’re conveying that the interviewee matters to your business by underscoring the crucial nature of their opinions and insights.
Your time is valuable. Individual interviews can often be conducted by telephone, and they can be timed for the convenience of the interviewee. By taking this approach, you’re communicating that time is precious; that you want to make giving feedback as simple as possible for the participant.
Your confidentiality matters. Lots of folks won’t participate in focus groups because they’re intimidated or they feel they cannot reasonably convey what they have to offer in front of a group. As a research tool, individual interviews with a third party allow each participant to speak freely and candidly in a completely confidential setting.
All of your comments are welcome – even the critical ones. By giving a participant a one-on-one forum with an impartial third party, you are underscoring that you want all relevant feedback – the good; the bad; and the ugly. The beauty of a third party is that the information can then be distilled and worded into relevant, meaningful input for dynamic business change.
I want to keep your business. Customers always like to feel special, and seeking out their opinions one-on-one is an ideal way to underscore that you want to keep their business for the long-term. With key customers, individual interviewing can be the key to keeping them in the “key” position for the life of your business.
You have been an instrument of change in my business. Getting one-on-one feedback is worthless without follow up. Once the information has been reviewed and crafted into specific strategies for growth and change, show people AND tell people how their input made a difference. Announce the changes you’ve made. Thank people personally. Be transparent about what you’re doing, helping everyone to see the value of their individual contributions.
Research is like concentrated dynamite
In every case where POSITUS has helped a client achieve double or triple digit growth, individual interviews have been a non-negotiable component of the strategic process. They are more affordable than a focus group, and the input gleaned is like concentrated dynamite. On more than one occasion, we’ve taken an entirely different strategic growth stance based solely on individual feedback, and that information is what helped the business explode with new growth.
And, isn’t that where you really want your business to be?
*flickr Creative Commons image courtesy of Steve SnodgrassRelated Posts:
Contests and Competitions
There are a number of well known tactics in public relations and marketing that allow you to gain attention and set your business apart.
You’re the winner!
One of the most beloved of all time is the contest. Some contests are sweepstakes where a winner is selected at random after you “enter” a pool of qualified customers. The most famous of these is Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes. Others are simple fishbowl lotteries of all entrants, such as the drawing of a business card at your local business networking group meeting. Still others are contests where entrants must comply with a set of rules. The most famous one of these that comes to mind is the Pillsbury Bake Off.
Marketing contests for small businesses
While these examples are associated with large corporations, there are many ways small businesses can implement these same concepts.
Charleston Magazine's Get Cooking Charleston contest requires entrants to use ingredients from Charleston
In Charleston for example, our local magazine just announced their Get Cooking Charleston! competition, a recipe contest and cook-off. The qualifications require all entrants to use ingredients that are either historically or geographically tied to Charleston. One of the sponsors is Piggly Wiggly Carolina whose marketing always makes the connection to Charleston’s culture and way of life. It’s smart of them to sponsor this competition. It supports their brand and positioning in the market. Same for Charleston Magazine.
Contest must be aligned with products & positioning
Your small business can do this too. If you are the maker of a product such as hand painted note cards hold an old fashioned letter writing contest. Perhaps you are a bar, you could hold a competition for the next new menu item or specialty cocktail.
Partnerships extend your reach
When you set up your contest, seek partners who may extend your reach into a new demographic, but perhaps have not yet reached. The classic example is a restaurant who wishes to reach wine aficionados and partners with a local or regional winery. You can share expenses, accomplish a common goal and cross market to each others lists.
Your company’s vendors can be your contest co-sponsors and larger vendors often have partnership marketing dollars that they can share with your small business. Homebuilders do this with their vendors quite frequently.
Enter rather than sponsor
However, you don’t have to hold the competition, you can enter a competition! The Get Cooking Charleston competition is a wonderful opportunity for businesses in the food and beverage industry segment. Want to enter? Begin to look for local, regional and national competitions. You can enter them as an individual or as a representative of your business as Charleston entrepreneur Margaret Bjork of Private Eyes Undies did when she entered the “I am Free Enterprise” contest or just as Charleston singer Amanda L. did when she entered the Folger’s jingle contest.
Enter to win
If you enter a contest, enter to win; advice offered by internationally renowned opera singer Shirley Verrett during an opera master class. She said, “Don’t just try, bring your very best! Believe you’ll win and do everything you can to be the winner.” Do your business and your self proud.
And remember the advice of Thomas Jefferson: “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
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Posted in marketing, public relations | 
Tags: competitions, contests, marketing, PR, promotions, public relations, small business marketing, sweepstakes
Keeping your marketing communications current
Lessons learned
I’ve recently “moved houses” as our British friends say. In doing so, I’ve touched every piece of stuff that I own and have come to the conclusion that there is too much of it. The other realization that crystallized during this process is that some of the stuff should have been ditched long ago. Some items that I’d been keeping for sentimental reasons no longer have value, or function as they should, so they have been purged or donated to others who can use them.
It occurs to me that it’s the same with a company’s marketing, public relations and advertising. Every so often, we need to evaluate to determine if the things we’ve kept have any use, purpose or even if they are functioning for our firm.
5 Steps to Stay Current
So here are my recommendations:
- Annually review your advertising placements and determine which ones have actually served your firm. For example, are you still using the printed Yellow Pages? If so, determine how many new customers you received from this expense.
- Annually review your website for functionality. Digital technology changes so fast and so often that a website designed and coded 3 years ago may now be out of date functionally.
- Monthly (or weekly) review your website for updated content. Search engines regularly scan websites and index fresh content. As a matter of fact, they have a preference for fresh content. Blogging, project photos, recent honors and awards, client testimonials and reviews are all ways to add freshness to your site.
- Every 5 years review your branding. Your branding should be something that will be relevant for many years so while you may not need rebranding it may need freshening up. In the last few years, brands such as Wal-Mart and ATT have revised their identities and messaging to be more contemporary. Your firm should do the same.
- Annually review your financial allocations for marketing, public relations and promotions. If the competitive space in which your company performs is crowded, you may need to step up your game in order to stand out. You might do this by adding new activities, placements, or marketing personnel. You may not need to add anything to your budget; you may just need to shift your priorities. But, you won’t know until you evaluate.
Be proactive for better results
If you undertake these five items, you can be sure you won’t be in the position that I was when I moved and can be assured that your marketing communications will be more current.
photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons image from ARTS
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Posted in advertising, marketing, public relations |
Tags: advertising, communications, marketing, public relations
Communication is marketing
Today I had to call a provider of service that I’d hired for some work to inquire about a date for service. The sales rep, said, “Oh, I asked the operations office to call you. They haven’t?” I couldn’t believe that for a very expensive customer transaction he’d not called me himself. Sure he must have been busy, but as someone about to spend several thousand dollars with him, he certainly could pick up the phone.
Marketing begins with communication
Marketing begins with our customer service communications. It’s very easy to lose a customer due to poor communication. I’ve never heard of someone who lost a customer due to over communication.
We all know that e-mail is the most frequently used business communications tool these days. Fast on its heels is texting. But neither of these communications methods carries my tone, inflection or feeling. Some people resort to using smilies, but I’m still not fond of them in professional communication, even though I’ve used them from time to time.
E-mail can get lost
E-mail does have the advantage of providing a written record of communication, but I can’t assume that my e-mail always arrives at it’s intended destination. E-mail can vanish into the ether. I can request “Read Receipts” from recipients of my e-mail, but not all browsers or mail clients support them. I’ve quit using Read Receipts and now call to be sure someone has received my e-mail. Is this double the work? Perhaps it is. But it does allow another touch point for communications.
Face to face meetings may take time, but are when client relationships are established.
We must remind ourselves that the phone is better than e-mail, but face to face is still better. As we all get siloed, we need to remember that our facial expressions and our body language give our clients the entire message.
Face to face meetings
While a face to face meeting takes time, it is often the precise thing to reinforce or build a good client relationship. It’s very easy for me to be lazy and think of the time involved traveling to another location, but when the client is investing significantly in my and my services, they deserve a face to face meeting. But I can also request that they meet me or offer to host a meeting, especially if we need technology that is only in my office.
If I don’t have time to drive across town, or my client is in another state, I can use Skype or other web cam video to have a face to face. If my client isn’t geographically close and they aren’t tech savvy or prefer not to use a web cam, at least I can use the phone.
Communication preferences
Each customer has a communications preference too. It’s good to learn early on which style my client prefers. Then I can be sure I’m getting their attention when I communicate with them in that channel.
We each want to feel important and respected. Communication done right provides those intangibles to my clients.
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Market research leads to success for solopreneurs
Who has money to burn in 2010?
As a solopreneur or startup in 2010 you must know this: Insightful, well planned and conducted market research is as important as the product you wish to sell. Your tight budget has little room to waste money developing a product that your assumed target won’t purchase. Some assume the cost of research is cost prohibitive; however, actually the opposite is true. Wasting money on an undesired product is cost prohibitive. In real estate or corporate mergers it’s called due diligence and it should be the first step after you have the idea to create a product, extend a line or launch a new business.
Yesterday a colleague and I agreed that we see hesitancy among some businesses to conduct market research. Insights gained as a result of research allow for fine tuning of a successful product and positive message creation. SCORE (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) offers this advice in their Business Plan for a Start Up Business:
No matter how good your product and your service, the venture cannot succeed without effective marketing. And this begins with careful, systematic research. It is very dangerous to assume that you already know about your intended market. You need to do market research to make sure you’re on track. Use the business planning process as your opportunity to uncover data and to question your marketing efforts. Your time will be well spent.”
You should conduct qualitative as well as quantitative research. One on one focus groups conducted by a skilled interviewer yield significant understanding which can be analyzed in light of detailed research conducted by online surveys or pencil and paper surveys.
Businesses that use sound research are far and away more successful than those who make assumptions without data.
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Ten spot-on ways to develop articles for your business blog
If you are writing a blog for your business, you need to stay focused on the goals you set when you decided to begin. Was it to demonstrate your firm’s experience and capabilities or was it to help search engine results by providing keyword rich posts that also demonstrate your businesses’ knowledge?
Hopefully the later is your goal. So here you are, committed or not to the blog and you are short of ideas. These ten ideas will help you write interesting blog posts even when your creative muse has gone on vacation.
- Look to the news of the day; are there any major news items that impact some aspect of your businesses core competencies? If so, write about how and why. Google News has a robust search feature which allows you to hone in on your most significant keywords.
- Look to your interactions with your clients. Did you have any “teachable moments” or interactions in the past few days that you feel are common and which, when shared, can provide learning opportunities? If yes, write about those moments; be sure to keep the names of those you mention and identifying comments discrete. You don’t want to embarrass your clients or yourself.
- Write about some of the “basics” of your business. It is always good to refresh yourself on core competencies and share fresh insights as to why these basics are so important.
- Write about management issues affecting your business. Each business has issues that are common to them all and often generalize to others in the industry.
- Look to trends in your industry and analyze how one of them may affect clients in your industry.
- If your blog is client facing, write about new developments that are sure to produce results for them. Tell why.
- Invite another industry / sector expert to be a guest blogger. They can write about their insights into key issues in your industry.
- Share a client success story (with permission of course.) Tell why they succeeded and if you were a part of that success, help readers see how and why the client succeeded.
- Share a major learning experience; an Ah-ha moment. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be bullet proof…just healed. So say how and why you got insight that helped you redirect.
- Share information about your colleagues or employees or even new staff member news, awards and competencies. I would even suggest having one of your employees write a guest post. Invite them to share some of their personality and talents they bring to working with you.
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Posted in marketing, public relations |
Tags: Blogs, business, business blogging, marketing, promotion
Social media conversationalists
Forrester Research publishers of one of my favorite business books, Groundswell, released research that quantifies a new category of those active in social media. Dubbed conversationalists, these users are active and influential.
According to Forrester, Conversationalists are,
56% female, more than any other group in the ladder. While they’re among the youngest of the groups, 70% are still 30 and up.”
Recently I was a presenter with Shauna Heathman of Makenzie Image Consulting at the Columbia, SC National Association of Women Business Owners discussing personal branding whenone of the attendees asked others at the meeting, “Do you read blogs?” Her question stimulated discussion about of who reads and publishes blogs. Only a few did not regularly read and comment on blogs. However only 2 attendees maintain and write a blog. Earlier in the presentation the majority of the women recounted using their Facebook profiles to support their businesses’ marketing. Forrester’s more scientific research confirms my “woman on the street” first-hand knowledge.
If you want to reach the customers (and I mean women) who make 85% of brand purchasing decisions, you need to be active in social media. Eight-six percent US women now have a profile on at least 1 social networking site a 48% increase. (Up from 58% in 2008.)
Women are conversationalists. Our brains are wired that way and data show how we have leveraged our innate ability into a powerful force.
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Marketing Communications Trends for 2010
Over this last year, we’ve seen the explosion of social media onto the “big screen” of businesses. Many have scrambled to create Facebook pages and put their customer service online while hearing constantly of the death of print media. Lots of businesses have pulled their traditional advertising to the point where many print media have folded, shrunk or downsized. We seen the complete acceptance of wireless / mobile devices and understand that there is no message downtime.
As the dust settles on this year we see the frantic scramble to get into social media normalizing. More businesses understand the new conversation channels or are at least trying to incorporate them in their mix. We understand that television and print media while changing will not go away. We understand that there is a conversation and that the customer truly owns the brand.
What do you see in your crystal ball for 2010?
We recognize that the U.S. is composed of a diverse population, with 38% of us being over 44 years of age; 37.4% of us being 18-44 years of age and the remainder under 17 years of age.
As marketing and business communications professionals, this means we comprehend each audience segment has preferred information channels. As we promote our services and products, we understand that a 21 year old will get their news from Google reader and that at 58 year old from most probably from either TV or print media. That there are some of us who, while in the older segments, use new technology, embracing mobile media as much as the younger generations. We also understand that not only younger generations care about social responsibility; that social responsibility is a required part of being in business. That when it comes to media relations, the media are just as stressed as other business segments and are trying to do as much with fewer resources. That our job is to work in tandem with them by supplying truly interesting information and sources to help them do their jobs.
2010 promises to be rich with opportunity for small businesses to act like big corporations when it comes to reaching customers through all the channels with a straight to consumer approach that is more about what the customer wants in their lives.
In summary:
- Marketing Communications
- More segmentation of message—We’ll use Twitter, Facebook, the local newspaper as well as television, and increasingly, mobile technology.
- Social media acceptance as one of the major message delivery vehicles
- Social responsibility as a requirement of doing business
- Blurring of the difference between advertising and public relations
- For PR
- Video pitching
- Social media acceptance as one of the major message delivery vehicles to media contacts and the consumer
- Increasing message delivery direct to the consumer
- We’ll turn more to multi media releases, using the power of video sharing, and pod casts to enrich press releases
- Public relations professionals as major advisors for not only publicity but for advertising and marketing messages.
Share your prognostications with us. We look forward to learning from everyone how they see the new year shaping up for them.
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Posted in marketing, public relations |
Tags: 2010, business, Facebook, marketing, PR, public relations, social networking, Twitter
