Posts Tagged ‘small business 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
Related Posts:
How Multicultural Marketing?
This is the second in a series of posts on the why and how of multicultural marketing. The first on why you should “do” multicultural marketing is fine reading. Anne Brumbaugh is our esteemed guest contributor. Anne knows multicultural marketing and she’d be delighted to work with you. Read on for some very instructive information.
Start on the right foot.
Once you’ve come to the realization that you need to consider multicultural marketing – targeting different consumer segments on the basis of ethnic, racial, or cultural group membership – you need to figure out how to get ready to do it. If you want to do a mediocre job, simply read an oversimplified demographic profile of your target group on the internet, reinforce marketing stereotypes that may or may not hold true for the group, replace a few white characters in your ads with members of that group, and translate directly your existing communications into their language
On the other hand, if you want to know how to do a really good job – one that resonates with your subcultural target and has a positive ROI – you need to do a little background work first. Here are five things to do as you consider how you are going to do multicultural marketing.
How #1: Assume nothing, research everything.
As members of the dominant culture, we white Anglos have a difficult time knowing if, when, and how the beliefs, values, and behaviors of other cultural groups differ from ours. (The converse is not so, but that’s for another post.) We may erroneously assume that members of another culture behave just like we do, or that they behave completely differently from how we do. Successful multicultural marketing starts by checking both types of assumptions at the door. Research, particularly qualitative, is absolutely essential for understanding the consumer beliefs about, motivations toward, uses of, and propensity for different product categories and brands among diverse cultural segments of which we are not members.
How #2: Learn the culture of your target.
Not learn about the culture of your target market, learn the culture itself. Read the literature of your target – be sure to include a biography or two, fiction, and non-fiction of different historical periods. Take a history, sociology, or anthropology course about your target to learn the culture’s ethos – what makes its people tick. Identify what popular media your target consumes (television shows, online content, magazines, radio, news, etc.) and consume them yourself to learn what current issues within the community are. You’re doing all this not to learn how to market to them per se, but rather to understand their values and beliefs (see How #1 above).
How #3: Diversify your capabilities.
Marketing to diverse consumers requires a diversity of thought, and you get this diversity of thought from having diverse employees. That doesn’t necessarily mean that if you would like to target subcultural segments X, Y, and Z, you have to have employees from subcultural segments X, Y, and Z (though it doesn’t hurt). It does mean, however, that you have to have different types of people in your firm with a diversity of experiences and backgrounds so that they can question assumptions (see How #1), tap into a broad network of connections and resources that a narrow employee base might not have, and generate more, better ideas than a homogenous group could.
How #4. Understand diversity within diversity.
There is substantial heterogeneity within any segment, and failure to acknowledge it could be disastrous. An African American mom with three kids and a minivan is probably more like her white soccer mom counterpart than she is like a black Caribbean hip hop artist when it comes to purchasing an SUV, and a fifteen year old Hispanic boy is probably more like that same hip hop artist than he is like his own Mexican grandfather when it comes to choosing clothing. Individuals in ethnoracial subcultures differ substantially with regard to how much they identify with their subcultural groups, and these differences influence how they respond to targeted marketing efforts.
How #5: Commit money and talent.
Too often when firms decided to target a particular cultural subsegment, they name someone within their organization of that same subsegment to lead the effort (without regard to his marketing acumen), fund the effort from ad hoc sources (without regard to how much money it will require), and expect immediate results (without regard to how long it will take). Though firms seem reluctant to redeploy their best assets on cultivating a new, unknown, smaller, riskier subsegment than they are used to, successful multicultural marketing requires that they do so. If you’re not going to commit these resources to the effort, you may not yet be ready for multicultural marketing.
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 Credit: Image courtesy of foundphotoslj on Flickr Creative Commons
Related 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.”
Related Posts:
Posted in marketing, public relations | 
Tags: competitions, contests, marketing, PR, promotions, public relations, small business marketing, sweepstakes
E-mail newsletters
Does your business use e-mail newsletters? If you do, are yours well designed and do they use a template that controls how it appears in the recipient’s e-mail client or HTML e-mail? Do you send a text only e-mail to those who opt to receive only text or whose e-mail clients block images? Do you have permission from all your recipients to send them your newsletter? Do you offer an easy opt out for those who decide they’d no longer like to receive your updates?
E-mail marketing is so common these days, that many business owners forget the point of it: To engage and provide information that causes the customer to transact business with your company.
Your e-mail newsletter should:
- Be CAN-SPAM compliant. You say, “What’s that? I don’t spam.” Well, if you add people to your mailing list and then send them your latest news updates without their permission, you are in violation of the most important part of the law. From the FTC:
…the CAN-SPAM Act doesn’t apply just to bulk email. It covers all commercial messages, which the law defines as “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,” including email that promotes content on commercial websites. The law makes no exception for business-to-business email. That means all email – for example, a message to former customers announcing a new product line – must comply with the law.
Assuming that you are compliant with the law, what is next on the list of important information about your e-mail marketing?
- Be visually appealing. There is a reason good design works. The brain assimilates information in a particular order. A professionally
designed template (most commercial e-mail marketing services offer them and you can customize them to suit your needs) is important to use. Don’t use 5 fonts in every version (bold, italic, all caps—in fact avoid all caps like the plague.) Don’t make your newsletter look like a bad church newsletter. - Offer information that in keeping with your brand’s message and which is of interest to the reader. It is better to avoid sending a newsletter than send one with information that is not of interest to the reader. If you don’t know what to write about, ask your customers what is important to them and then write about that.
- Make sure it is well written. Check your use of pronouns as well as subject and verb agreement.
- Use photos. Remember a picture tells a story and is worth a thousand words is not just all hyperbole.
- Have a call to action. Request your customer’s interaction.
- Monitor and test subject lines. Not all subject lines are of interest. Most e-mail programs allow you to test your subjects to see which produce quicker opens and higher open rates.
- Monitor open rates. So you know who is reading your newsletter and when. With fine tuning you can get your open rates higher by monitoring how soon after receiving readers open or what time of the day gets the most opens.
Related Posts:
Posted in marketing |
Tags: CAN-SPAM law, e-mail marketing, e-mail newsletters, good design, small business marketing
Tips for using Twitter to promote your business
As Twitter has matured, many small business owners have joined the conversation. However, there are those out there who have tried it and don’t understand how it works. Or they have “looked into it” and are not sure where to begin.
Recently I’ve discussed social media with several groups. There are so many who feel that the whole Twitter world is going to swamp them. And there are those who are afraid of appearing silly. My number one tip is to remember that this is social media. Your goal is to be social. Your task is to engage, learn about your neighbors and develop community.
If you’re having issues trying to determine how to tweet, what to tweet or when, this post from Mark Hayward on Twitip will help you understand some of the fundamentals.
Related Posts:
Public relations tactics that work
When we were children, we may have avidly collected cereal box tops or points in order to enter a contest. We also may have colored a picture to send to the local weather broadcast hoping to be selected the “Weather Picture of the Week.”
Related Posts:
Posted in public relations |
Tags: PR tactics, public relations, small business marketing, strategies
Developing a corporate identity
This week we met with several clients who need a corporate identity. Each of them has been using some form of marketing materials to identify themselves and their companies. In most cases they’ve been using clip art and stock computer fonts in their business cards and logo.
While this may work for some, in the long run, you lack an iconographic presence that speaks for you when you are not there to speak about your company. In short, you lack a distinct, compelling way of communicating your brand message.
If you are establishing your business today, you need every advantage to set you apart.
No doubt you’ve crafted a strong position for your business or service; you’ve researched your competitors; you’ve researched what the market needs and then you use stock materials to present your company? You can understand the disconnect here.
There are a number of ways to have a corporate identity created. Some people are using internet based sites where for a very low price you can get a logo. But you don’t get the interaction with experienced marketing professionals who know your community, market and understand your USP.
We recommend you work with an experienced marketing professional who will assist you in bringing together all the insight you’ve gathered for your company, their professional experience in crafting successful brands and join it with compelling graphic design.
One of the clients with whom we met wondered what’s involved in creating a corporate identity. She couldn’t understand the cost / time involved and needed to actually see examples of how, for one prior client, we begin brain storming ideas, sketching up concepts, studying type, and then joining it all in ideas to present to the client.
A simple analogy is that of going to a custom tailor or couture fashion designer and asking for a bespoke creation. The result is a garment made for you, your measurements, with quality fabrics, excellence of cut, design and fit. When wearing such an item of clothing, you know you look good.
The same applies to creating your corporate identity. If it’s made to fit, to measure and just for you with the highest standards it is something that you know makes you look good, you stand taller, are more confident and are emboldened to do business, knowing your message is speaking without you having to open your mouth.
Related Posts:
Harnessing your desire to be an entrepreneur
Yesterday we received an e-mail from someone who wrote, “I am looking for assistance in developing and marketing a video concept. I have the idea, but I am clueless on where to start.”
Also yesterday we met with a prospective new client who is planning to bring a new service to the Charleston, SC area. When asked to define the service and what the user would get in return for the fee, the prospective client had some but not all of the user benefits worked out. They had not completed their pricing structure and did not have a solid understanding of their costs as related to delivering the service.
What both of these people have in common is a good idea that may be highly marketable. What they need is research to learn about their prospective buyers, the market and how they will make money and manage their business.
If you are an entrepreneur who wants to offer a new product or service, starting with an idea is great, but then do your homework.
Define your target market. Who is your target customer? And as I was told many years ago, “The world is NOT your customer.” Your customer is some subset of people with unique characteristics. What do they need/want in their lives? Where do they live, what is their educational background? What drives them? How much do they earn? How often do they purchase goods or services in the segment that you want to enter?
Write a buyer profile that will help focus your thinking for your customer. Learn what your potential customers have to say about similar products and services. Read blog comments and user reviews in blogs or in the evaluation/comment sections of online stores. Get into your buyers’ head and know what makes them part with their hard earned dollars.
If you know that you will have more than one type of customer, segment your customers and create a buyer profile for each segment.
Undertake an environmental scan of what others (with similar good and services) are offering in your marketing region (both geographically and if you will be a web based only product, then on the web.) Learn as much as you can about their products, pricing and the benefits to the user.
Use your insights to guide you in further conceptualizing your service or product. You need a unique selling proposition (USP) which will distinguish you from your competition and which will resonate most clearly to your target market.
Begin to think like your target customer. If they don’t want what you’re selling, it does not matter what you say or how you say it, they won’t buy. Clearly define the benefits to your user. Will this make their lives easier, cheaper, faster, more simple? How? That is your key USP. Just because you think your idea is a good one is not a reason to go into business.
And speaking of business, create a business plan. This is your road map to guide you in the development of your product/service. This process is made easier if you undertake it with support and assistance. There are many who are available to do this including SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) who offer their services in many communities. Some people may find a business coach helpful. Don’t overlook The Small Business Administration (SBA) Business Information Center which is co-located with SCORE. Another small business resource is the The Frank Roddy SC Small Business Development Center of SC with centers around the state.
Develop a management plan. Who will keep your books? What systems will you use? How will you bill? Collect monies? Where will you be located? Will you need employees? Who will sell your products? Do you need to be web only or do you need a bricks and mortar location?
Begin with an idea, but then do the work to test your idea, create a plan so you know where to go with your idea and create a structure that will give you the support you need to build a business. And if you need help when you’ve undertaken these steps and are ready to bring your product to market, call me.
Related Posts:
Twitter an effective tool to build & shape brands
Twitter is hard for many to grasp. The idea of sharing online what are seemingly inane comments about your life and work mixed-in with thoughts about your business or products seems like a waste of time. But remember the old adage? “People buy from people?” Well, that’s true here.
Used well, Twitter humanizes people in corporations and behind brands. Just ask the folks @Zappos shoes.
Twitter is a very effective tool to shape brand perceptions. There are a crop of articles and examples of how Twitter is helping PR pros and companies.
MediaBistro which is a great resource for publicists and writers posted an interview with Robert Quigley, Austin American-Statesman Internet Editor that includes how he has used Twitter to increase audience and develop new audiences for that publication.
AdAge has a great article from @TomMartin regarding how he demonstrated the ability of Twitter to reshape perceptions of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. His research before and after his Tweets regarding the festival demonstrated attudinal change.
Closer to home @webprgirl
Lyn Mettler is using Twitter to promote a virtual Myrtle Beach Blast. Not only will she reshape awareness for the participating hotels, she will plant the idea of Myrtle Beach in the minds of people at the right booking time in the year. It will be interesting to compare and track bookings at each hotel before and after the event.
Tweet on! I’m @Cheryl_Smithem on Twitter and I look forward to learning about your business and how you use Twitter. Share your experience. Write up how your company is using Twitter and I’ll post with your byline.
Related Posts:
The value of PR to your brand
While putting on make-up, I reflected on the Maybelline mascara tube in my hand, “this is a really good mascara. It has a smooth consistency and goes on in nice even coats.” Two years ago I purchased my first tube after reading about it in a woman’s publication while cycling at the gym. I, like most consumers, trust more what third parties say about products and services. People weight what we call earned media more highly than advertising.
In a report out studying how brand value is supported by earned media, we learn that certain product segments gain substantially from earned media. Particularly striking is the finding that product purchases that depend on research before purchase receive higher value from earned media.
“Findings from the study reveal that that industries that sell high involvement products – where a buyer invests time and effort in deciding what to buy – have much higher correlations between media prominence and brand value than industries selling low involvement products, which are more likely to be bought on impulse.”
As a small business owner, if you sell products that require consumer evaluation prior to purchase (appliances, HVAC systems, automobiles, wedding planning to name a few) you can advance your business over your competitors’ business by embracing a public relations plan that puts emphasis on gaining earned media. And by the way, that no longer is limited solely only print media, but also includes electronic media, the Internet and social media.
Electronic media have a half life that is probably equivalent to that of radioactive elements. Just ask those whose businesses have been dissed or dumped in cyberspace. OR ask their competitors whose products have been featured in editorial space. What shows up when you Google your company? Stories from bloggers in your area? Newspaper articles helping readers learn how to plan their wedding? Who is being quoted or cited as an expert? It it’s not your company, it’s probably your competitor. You can impact what consumers learn about your company and its products.
How did they get there? They budgeted, developed and implemented a strategically designed publicity/media relations plan. Many have the time to do it themselves, others use PR pros. Either way requires time and money. It should be part of your regular marketing expense plan.
Don’t wait until you have a negative situation to implement a media relations plan that involves developing relationships with key media voices for your audience.
Research which sources carry the most weight and develop relationships with the right people behind the blog or by-line. Share news and information that would be of interest to the audience for each media source. Learn what stories are in the works or forthcoming. Set your company apart or your CEO apart as the expert in their field.
Provide the information in the most usable way. Stay on top of consumer trends and social change. Think of what is important to the consumer and provide information from your company to key media contacts that helps solve a consumer’s problem or issue. That will gain earned media and increase the value of your brand.
Also, don’t overlook the power of positive WOM (word of mouth.) It’s always been one of the primary deciding factors in all product purchases. In a small market like ours, WOM is more critical than earned media for services (doctor, lawyer, Realtor, financial advisor.) We trust who our friends say we can trust.
WOM has gone cyber too with the prevalence of sites like Angie’s List and The Little Black Book. Wal-Mart and Target provide online product critiques from consumers. You can buy a bed and rate it. Buy a sofa and rate it.
Provide a vehicle for and include consumer comments in your website so your customers can share their candid reviews of products and services.
The most up to date sites are built using content management systems. Small businesses can use the power of WordPress to build sites. WordPress comes with all the tools to allow comments, ratings, subscriptions to comments that a small business needs.
Worried about negative reviews and comments? Show them and turn them around with proactive monitoring and interaction in the comments. Post what you did to turn the negative into a positive. Transparency wins.
And so does your business with the power of earned media and WOM. Budget for it. Plan for it. Do it.
Related Posts:
Posted in public relations |
Tags: marketing, PR, public relations, small business marketing, social media
