 Duct Tape Marketing (Amazon affiliate) by author and marketing consultant John Jantsch offers a ton of wonderfully easy-to-follow practical solutions for marketing your small business.
At times I could not believe the amount of actionable information that was packed into the book. If you’ve never truly thought about marketing your small business and are looking for a place to start, this book is an excellent easy-to-follow recipe book for you to get your business cooking. From understanding your business’ brand, to selling, and building a referral system of continuous business Jantsch walks you through each with a step-by-step approach. What books would you recommend? Feel free to list them in the comments of this blog. Additional recommended reading (Amazon affiliate).  Have you ever visited a really entertaining website for a service you were looking for, and it impressed you initially? You know what I’m talking about, those websites with the Flash animated intense motion graphics that initially suck you in and then transition you throughout the site with dynamic navigation.
Then when you come back to that website, because you want to reference something that you didn’t quite catch in your first visit, you become a bit annoyed with the fact that you have to wade through all that flashiness just to get to the content you’re seeking. While on your initial visit you viewed the dynamic flashy nature of the website as impressive and quite entertaining, once past that experience on a return visit the site seems less helpful as a source for pertinent content because the site design and navigation is geared toward brand new visitors and not return visitors. The ideal answer is likely a better balance of a site that has some flare to it and a site that has a clean design and functional user experience allowing the user to find what they’re looking for. However, if you’re going to err one way or another, I would suggesting erring on the side of simple, clean and functional. Flare and pizazz can always be added later, but if visitors arrive on your site and have trouble understanding the site, what your company does or how to find the information they’re seeking then no amount of entertaining motion graphics are going to convince that visitor to return and buy something from you. Keep the information on your website/blogsite clear, concise and easy to find to communicate your company’s brand messages. If you can add some flash and entertainment value, great, but be sure a solid foundation is firmly in place first.  There is a definite branding value to writing blog comments on other well-read and well-respected blogs that you follow. Chances are good that you have a blog or two that you read regularly and view their authors as experts on the topic of which they write.
It’s likely that you’re not the only one who follows a particular blog because of the value received from reading it. So add value to the blogs you follow by adding a point or two in the comments section of the blog. Or share a scenario that’s pertinent to the blog topic...something that enhances the value or creates interesting discussion surrounding the original post. The idea is that by offering comments that add value to a post by another well-known, and/or widely read blogger can not only help to enhance the blog on which you’re commenting, but expose you to that blogger and his/her audience. (Plus, for those readers interested in finding out more about you it gives them an opportunity to link back to your website.) Here are some benefits of commenting on blogs:
So write value-adding comments. Feel free to offer your comments on this post.  Many marketing folks these days consider email, and email marketing to be “traditional marketing,” as opposed to “new marketing” like social media marketing and inbound marketing.
These less salesy, yet targeted emails (without company headers and flashy graphics) can be just as effective as a phone call. In fact, in a lot of ways this type of emailing is the new phone call. I was just on an email marketing webinar yesterday, put on by BuzzBuilderPro.com, a lead generation marketing company. One great take-a-way from the webinar was using what BuzzBuilderPro called Article Marketing. Essentially, the idea is that as you nurture potential sales leads via email, send them short notes periodically with links to articles that will likely be of value to the recipient. In this model, these emails serve as a way to keep at the top of your prospect’s mind as someone offering useful value without asking for anything in return and without an offer, a sales pitch or inundating them with your sales literature. The idea is that when the prospect is ready to buy, or is simply ready to talk to your further about what you/your company have to offer, you will have built a relationship and some trust over time. A lot of people do a similar thing with Twitter tweets and their Facebook status, but the difference is that by using email you are targeting a specific audience that is more 1 to 1, rather than 1 to many--it’s more personal. Here’s an example: Hi Tom, I recently found this great article about Article Marketing that I thought you might find useful for yourself and your sales team. http://www.buzzbuilderpro.com/blog/item/article-marketing/articles-lead-nurturing -Nick It’s short, sweet and to the point, and it provides value. I guarantee the recipient will also appreciate the brevity of the email, as everyone seems to get more than their fair share of emails these days. It builds good-will and credibility for your brand. It’s a great idea to help nurture leads in a very simple way.  So, I was flipping through various radio stations as I was driving this morning, and I came across an interview with the rap/R&B/hip-hop producer and artist, Jeremih (pronounced Jer-a-my).
I’m definitely a sucker for artist interviews. I like to learn about the artist’s thoughts and intentions behind an album. Brand Association As I was listening to the interview I drew a strong parallel to blogging and business, and in some similar ways, blogging and business are just like the music industry. Here’s what I mean...Jeremih’s new album “All About You,” features other well-known artists like Ludacris, 50 Cent and others. Those big names allow Jeremih to communicate his brand with some leverage, capitalizing on the larger fan-base of those other, well-known, artists featured on Jeremih’s album. By Ludacris and 50 Cent agreeing to be featured on Jeremih’s album their fan-base is exposed to Jeremih, and essentially a positive endorsements is given for Jeremih’s album and music to the audiences of both Ludacris and 50 Cent. Blogging Buddies In blogging and business a similar thing can happen. Think about posting guest blogs from other well-known bloggers in your industry, or asking if you could write a guest post for their blog--it’s at least worth asking, and the cross-pollination of audiences can be beneficial for both parties. Referral Network This sort of thing happens in other aspects of business, too--not just in blogging. For example, when your company builds a referral network with other companies to help each other out. Say, you’re a lawyer working with small businesses and you often refer clients who need an accountant to a well-deserving accountant friend of yours who you trust and know does good work. Well, your client benefits because they’re getting a qualified referral from someone they trust, your accountant friend benefits because he/she is getting a qualified potential new client from a trusted source and you benefit by building more good-will with both your client and your accountant friend. There are definitely advantages and opportunities when you expand your network of relationships. Be on the lookout for them and build positive reciprocal relationships to capitalize on them. Learn more about Brand Communications and how to use it with your Inbound Marketing efforts  I recently read an article in the Washington Post about business cards. The article written by Michael S. Rosenwald basically talked about the fact that business cards are still the preferred method of sharing business-related contact information.
There were several reasons given in the article as to why traditional printed business cards are still winning over newer digital versions (i.e. various smartphone apps, etc.), but one that stood out to me was the impressions one can get when they receive a business card. I’m talking about the look and feel of a business card. I’m specifically referring to it being a visual extension of your brand--your personal brand or your business brand. Often a business card will tout your logo and tag line as well as your contact info. As stated in the article, you may be trying to recall a contact that you met at an event who happened to give you his/her business card, and though you cannot recall that person’s name you recall the shape of the logo or the colors used on their business card. Then as you thumb through your pile of cards you stop on the exact card you were thinking of with the contact info of the person whose name you could not recall. The logo and/or colors were memorable enough that your brain knew the exact card you were looking for in your pile of cards as soon as you saw it again. That’s brand communication at work--keeping aspects of your brand, the writing or visuals associated with your brand, on your mind enough to allow better recall of your brand with each exposure to it. A well thought out logo design and business card design is one of the simplest and most effective brand communication tools you have. Take it seriously, and use it widely. Learn more about Brand Communications and how to use it with your Inbound Marketing efforts  It’s interesting to look at the cell phone provider industry when it comes to customer loyalty. If you’ve ever looked at getting a new cell phone you may have experienced this: You’ve been with a particular cell phone provider for 10 years, you’re looking to upgrade your phone at the appropriate time when your two-year contract is up, and you discover that if you were a brand new customer to that provider you could actually get a better deal on the phone you were looking at than by being a loyal current customer of 10 years.
This makes me scratch my head. I understand that it’s harder to acquire new business than it is to keep current customers, and perhaps that’s the reason for offering better deals to new customers over current ones. However, in business it’s much easier, and less expensive, to keep current customers happy while working toward acquiring new ones. So do cell phone companies have this backwards? Or, do they just not really care about their current customers as much once they’re signed up knowing that they’ll likely remain loyal at least for the duration of their two-year contract? My thought would be that cell phone companies would want to offer similar “can’t pass up” deals to current customers that could be viewed by current customers as an equivalent great deal compared to those offered to brand new customers. Does the fact that a customer has been loyal for 10 years not hold more weight than bringing in a brand new customer? Think of the referrals a cell phone company could garner with a stellar customer loyalty program in place. That kind of program could pay off in huge dividends over brand new customers with less cost per customer acquisition. Now I’m not saying ignore brand new customers, but definitely think through how to keep current customers happy. And it’s possible that my observation is simply an isolated incident, however, from my conversations with friends and colleagues it does not seem to be. This got me thinking about how with inbound marketing the formula is the reverse: Current customers are gold, keep them happy and they’ll keep referring new business to you and retweeting your posts, and commenting on your blogs, etc., and as new business comes to you, you offer similar valuable content to nurture new prospects until they’re ready to buy. Than at that point you continue to deliver additional valuable content, which makes referrals a natural part of the loyalty process. Learn more about Brand Communications and how to use it with your Inbound Marketing efforts |
