The Small Business Owner's Daily Mantra: People Pay for Outcomes and Value

Yes, this probably isn't the first time that you've read the advice below, but it's a great reminder for all of us to check ourselves on a daily basis....

Remember that people pay for outcomes and value.  Fall back and focus on what you do for people and how it makes their lives better.  Focus on how you’ve helped people in the past.  Make a list of the ways you’ve added value, and keep it in front of you.  Remind yourself you have something worth paying for.

Don’t focus on you, and your image, and what people might think of you.  Instead, broadcast your results, and let that do the selling.

An excerpt from the article How to Stop Feeding the Fears that Paralyze Your Business.

Loading mentions Retweet

Trend Shows Steady Gains in Blogging for Marketing Purposes - eMarketer

via emarketer.com

Blogging is an extremely effective way for companies to spread the word about news, products and events. But it also has a second advantage; it's a way for a person or company to create a dialogue with its target demographic.

We're staunch advocates of blogging (even though some weeks we struggle to find the time to pen a quick post). We use a platform called Posterous, which is incredibly versatile and easily "skinned" to match the look and feel of most websites. It's a hosted solution, so it requires no investment in internal architecture—just a quick change to your company's DNS record.

If you have questions about how to begin effectively blogging on behalf of your business, drop us a line using the contact information at the top of the page. We'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thanks for reading.

—Jason @ Ideavise

Loading mentions Retweet

Quotable Leadership and Management Advice from Kleiner Perkins Partner, Randy Komisar

Loading mentions Retweet

5 Easy Web Tools Your Small Business Should be Using

"If you don't do ______, then you're going to be out of business by this time next year."

This, or something like it, is what many businesses are told by a variety of companies peddling services every day. I've heard it from the yellow pages salesman, an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company, a direct-mail service—the list goes on and on. When I was in retail many years ago, nary a day went by when there wasn't someone telling us that we were doing it wrong, or weren't doing enough.

Unfortunately, as I sit here many years wiser—there is an ironic (for me, at least) ring of truth to some of it. Many businesses aren't doing enough. Sometimes it's due to lack of time or lack of resources—and believe me, I certainly get that. But I don't want it to be for lack of awareness. As such, I'm sharing several web tools below—some of which are free—that EVERY small business should be using to maximize their advantage in today's electronic marketplace.

1. Claim Your Google Places Listing - Visit http://places.google.com or do a search for your business on http://maps.google.com. At the top of the page directly below the search box you'll see a link titled, "Business Owner?". Click that button and you'll claim your business in Google's version of the yellow pages. Select the button to edit your information, and click continue. This is where the magic begins. Check through the address and contact information listed to be sure that it's correct, then add your business website URL (if you have one), add a brief description of the company and validate the categories in which you'd like your business to appear (you get to pick up to 5 categories). Lastly, verify the hours that you're open, the payment types that you accept and the brands that you carry (if applicable). Hit the "Submit" button at the bottom. Lastly, Google will use an automated service to call the phone number listed for your business and provide a PIN number to verify the information. Once you get the call, return to Google Places, enter the PIN number and verify the listing. Now you're done! In less than five minutes, you now have a verified, accurate, searchable presence on the web!
2. Use a Custom, Domain-Based Email Address - This is an important one, as the image that you present reflects on the brand. If you own a company named John's Widgets, but you're using an email address that reads rockinginthefreeworld@hotmail.com, it doesn't exactly reinforce your widget company when you publish your contact information or send your customers an email. Instead, consider buying the a custom domain (usually around $10-15) for your business and create a mail record for the domain. While it isn't quite as straight forward as claiming your Google Places listing, it's not hard, and there are a number of professionals that are willing to help you do it for less than you'd probably think (Ideavise offers this service). As a customer, getting an email from john@johnswidgets.com is far more professional than a seemingly random Hotmail address. It tells the customer that you're serious about your business and adds a little credibility as well.
3. Set up Google Alerts - Google's search spiders crawl the web constantly, looking for new content to add to the myriads of data that is scoured during a Google search inquiry. And, if you know how, you can put those spiders to work for you. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts. If you have a gMail email address (if you don't, create one now, it's free and will be required to use the service) you can enter a name or phrase and have Google send you alerts any time a new instance of that name or phrase is found on the web. To revisit our friend John and his widget shop, if he entered John's Widgets into the search terms, Google would send him a notification any time his name appears in a new listing on the web. This includes social networking sites like Twitter as well, and allows John to keep up with what people are saying about his business or maybe do a little damage control if misinformation is being spread.
4. Start Using Social Networking; Facebook, Twitter, Yelp - While they're important, I've put these lower on the list for a reason. They have many benefits, increased web presence, interacting with your customers where they are, getting involved with and staying abreast of news and changes within your industry. BUT, like any marketing avenue, it requires time and effort. It's called SOCIAL networking for a reason, and if you don't have the time to spend reading and interacting, you may be better off avoiding these avenues all together. I'd propose that a Facebook account with zero new posts for the last two years is more damaging than not having one at all. Not having an account gives the impression that you may just not have found Facebook yet, having a dormant account leaves one to wonder if you're still in business. A lot of people don't understand the purpose of Twitter. But whether you understand the purpose for it or not, Twitter has a great search feature and is great for keeping up with trends. We have our blog set up to autopost to our Twitter account as well, and have attracted followers based on what we post here. Lastly, Yelp is similar to Google Places in that it is a local business "yellow pages" type listing, but adds in the functionality of allowing users to rank and discuss the service that they've received. Despite some of the controversy surrounding Yelp over the past few years, it's still my go-to site for restaurant recommendations (among other things) when I'm traveling in an area that I don't know very well. I've found some REALLY good restaurants via Yelp that I never would have found on my own. Bonus: as a registered business owner, Yelp allows you to review and respond to customers publicly and privately using their service. This can be a helpful way to add to conversations with your patrons or correct misinformation about your products or services.
5. Create an Inexpensive "Business-Card" Style Website - I've sat across the table from clients who's eyes get as big as dinner plates when they hear about the myriad of options involved in setting up a website. It can be an overwhelming process, but it doesn't have to be. If you're short on free time or finances (or both), sometimes a simple "business-card" style website will get you started. Let me be clear on this. Your clients ARE searching for you on the web. If they don't find anything, then they're probably moving on to the next company. If you've already taken the plunge in step #2 above and purchased a custom URL for your business email, then you're already part of the way there. When I refer to a "business-card" website, I'm talking about a single page website that has nothing more than basic information about your company name, your logo and how to contact you. For as little as a few hundred dollars, you can have a searchable presence on the web and a URL to add to your Google Places and Yelp listings. Is this ideal? No. This site isn't going to detail your products or services, tell you customers about your company or relay any glowing testimonials from past clients. BUT, if you're on a budget and short on time, it's a great place to start and it's better than nothing.

These are the recommendations that we use as a starting point with all of our new clients. I hope that you've found this list useful. Do you have questions about the information above. Are you unsure of where to start? As a full-service creative agency, we can help. And there's never a cost to ask questions. Drop us a line at info@ideavise.com or call (719) 355-3579.

Thanks for reading!

—Jason @ Ideavise

Loading mentions Retweet

More Businesses Finding Customers on Social Sites - eMarketer

Smaller companies most successful at social acquisition.

While many marketers struggle with how to measure social media marketing return on investment, some businesses are finding at least one hard metric where their efforts have paid off—customer acquisition.

According to a February–March 2010 survey from office services firm Regus, smaller companies see the most success, with nearly half of small businesses around the world having acquired a customer through social networks. Large companies were less successful, but more than a quarter had seen social success through customer acquisition. This was despite large companies being more likely to devote budgets to social marketing.

“While the most popular function of these networks remains that of keeping in touch with contacts, businesses are also successfully acquiring new customers, supporting their retention efforts and interacting with customer groups,” said Sande Golgart, vice president at Regus, in a statement. “Organizations who have not yet ventured into the world of social networking may be missing out on sizeable business opportunities.”

In January 2010, Hubspot found that more than 40% of companies using social media marketing had acquired a customer through the channel. The Regus survey, which was not limited to businesses using social marketing, suggests that number may be slowly climbing.

via emarketer.com

Loading mentions Retweet

Tom Peters' Leadership Thoughts: Listening

Loading mentions Retweet

Your Questions Answered :: How to Start Strong Using Social Media Marketing

Reader Robert Justin writes:

Loading mentions Retweet

"...And Now We'll Open the Floor for Questions"

I get a sense from our customers (and people that we talk with around town), that there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding digital marketing, web strategy, social media and whether or not it's a good time to be spending money on such things. This is normal. At one point or another, we all have questions about our businesses (whether you own it, or just work in it). It's good to have a network of people that you can rely on to bounce questions and ideas off of.

One of the roles that we routinely fill for our clients is one of advisor or consultant. This service costs money, and can range from a one-time meeting to an ongoing monthly retainer-type agreement. But what if you could ask questions about the process and get a straight answer WITHOUT the cost or structured agreement? Would you do it?

Here's what I'm proposing:

If you have a question about business—specifically something related to design, marketing, technology, brand development, websites, social media, etc., post it in the comments section after this post or on our Ideavise Facebook page. Chances are that you're not the only person wondering, and we'd like to help get those questions answered.

Another thing; we're straight shooters. We've been around the block and we've got a lot of experience. But if we don't know the answer to a particular question, we'll tell you that we don't know and we'll make a few phone calls to try and find out. We know people. Smart people.

In a nutshell, our goal is to help you make infomed decisions about how to market your business. That's what we do.

So let's hear it. What questions can we answer for you?

—Jason @ Ideavise

Loading mentions Retweet

Frustration + Observation = Opportunity

I'm frustrated with my chosen profession. No, it's not because of my job, our clients, the company, my business partner, or any other internal source. I'm frustrated because there seems to be a conspicuous downward trend among service providers in the small-business space.

To wit: After a really good meeting last week, our client expressed a great deal of frustration regarding a vendor who had previously handled their web projects. In this case, the client and vendor discussed and agreed upon a timeline with regard to a specific project, and the vendor proceeded to drop the ball in a big, big way. In this instance, he wasn't a few days off, or even a few weeks. They were a full month late, resulting in not only lost revenue for the client, but an immeasurable loss of respect for the brand.

Unfortunately, this client isn't alone. In the past few months, I've talked to many clients that share the same frustration. Some of them have actually paid sizable deposits to their vendors in advance, only to be left with an unfinished project, a diminished bank account and a contempt for web-marketing agencies. I can't say that I blame them—I've been on that side of the desk too. It's no fun.

Brian and I founded Ideavise almost two years ago to address what we perceived to be a underserved portion of the marketplace. We've worked with many different vendors over the years, and felt that there was room for a different kind of company that was focused on small business as its primary market. Like many of our clients, we're passionate about entrepreneurship and passionate about serving the needs of small-businesses—people just like us. We avoid the hard sell and hate fine print. We value our reputations (and yours) and believe that there are very few things in business more important than a person's word.

If you've had or are having problems with a service provider, I'd encourage you to view it as an opportunity to find someone who understands your needs. And if you find yourself looking, we'd love the chance to earn your business the good, old-fashioned way—with a smile and a handshake, true to our word, with respect for you and your timeline.

Thanks for reading.

—Jason @ Ideavise

Loading mentions Retweet

Seven Easy Ways to Boost Your Marketing Copy

Print or web. Catalog copy or corporate blog post. The right words in the wrong order (and visa versa) can have a dramatic impact on your marketing efforts. Here are seven easy ways to improve the effectiveness of your marketing copy:

1. Avoid vague, bloated language. Many times it can obfuscate your point and reduce the efficacy of any value-added synergies (see what I did there?). Instead, speak plainly—drawing on words that you'd use when talking with a friend or co-worker.
2. Speak to people, not at people. Try phrasing sentences in a way that invites the customer to open up a dialogue about your company, product or service.
3. Educate your reader. Penning a list of product features only tells half of the story (and sometimes much less). Make sure that your copy communicates the value of the product or service, as well as how the customer's life will be positively impacted by their purchase.
4. Be consistent. If you're telling the company story through a first-person account, the chances are good that you'll want to use the same voice in your descriptive copy as well. There are some exceptions to this, but largely it's considered to be a good rule-of-thumb.
5. Make yourself available. Unfortunately, due to spam emails a lot of companies have chosen to hide their email addresses behind contact forms. But email isn't the only way to reach out. Post your phone number conspicuously on your site (and blog), and invite your viewing audience to use it. Encourage comments and responses to your blog posts. Budget a little bit of time each day to answer questions and respond to customer concerns.
6. Be Authentic. By addressing customer comments in a public forum, you're projecting an image that says, "I have nothing to hide." Yes, there may be issues that you end up resolving offline, but by keeping most things out in the open—even complaints—you're giving every customer (and potential customers) a glimpse of your standards and how you operate. Provided that you manage it well, this is probably the single most effective way to create trust for you and your brand.
7. Invite the Customer to Take Action. A simple call-to-action is one of the most basic, yet underutilized tools in small-business marketing copy. Once you've armed your customer with the information that they need to make an informed decision, invite them to take action. It can be as simple as "Learn More" or "Contact Us", or as detailed as "Call 831-887-0111 to set up a free consultation."

Thanks for reading! I hope that these simple tips will help you to improve the impact of your marketing copy. If you have questions about this post or want to talk about improving your company's direct marketing efforts, I invite you to leave a comment below or call us at 831.887.0111.

—Jason @ Ideavise

Loading mentions Retweet