3 Things You Can Do To Market Your Business Today

By Kim Deppe

Marketing does not have to involve a lot of money, time and effort. In fact, just about everyone knows that word-of-mouth advertising is the best kind. So today, I'm offering suggestions for 3 things you can do to market your business that cost little or nothing, but will help build your brand and your reputation.

1. Say Thank You. Seems simple, right? But do you really stop and thank your customers for choosing you? Instead of just saying "thank you" to everyone today, take an extra moment and really thank them. Say "I really appreciate you choosing us to do business with. I enjoy helping you and I hope you will come back again soon. Please let your friends and family know about us, too."

2. Make a Good First Impression. If you have a retail location, spend time walking through it and around it. Pick up trash, wipe fingerprints off the door, remove dead plants from the parking lot, make sure the shelves are tidy. Check the restrooms - often a place that gets forgotten but where your customers will make real judgments about your dedication to the business. Speak to people when they come in the door or call on the phone and make an effort to be friendly, upbeat and pleasant. Saying "hello, it's nice to see you today" is a lot better than "hi there."

3. Do Something Extra. Go above and beyond today and do something unexpected for your customers. Offer them coffee or cookies, put chocolates on your reception desk, give out coupons for their next visit or hand out trinkets to children who come in with their parents. Customers remember the extra special touches they experience and it will set you apart from your competition.

There you have it - 3 things you can do today to market your business without spending a fortune or taking a lot of time. Here's hoping you have a prosperous day! And, if you want more marketing ideas, please visit my website at www.DeppeCommunications.com.

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. With over 25 years corporate executive marketing experience, Kim Deppe brings a unique combination of strategic marketing experience and online marketing know-how to her clients. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.

PR Mistakes

By Kim Deppe

I have been watching with interest as Subway tries to climb out of the "Footlong" public relations disaster. Clearly, they are in crisis mode now trying to mop up a mess they made when they first responded to the posting of photos on the internet showing their "footlong" sub was only about 11 inches long. The company's initial missteps are causing them to spend a lot of time, and money, trying to repair their brand. There are a few lessons here that any company can learn from.

1. Bad PR can happen to anyone. Yes, even organizations like the Red Cross have had their share of bad PR. Sometimes it has nothing to do with the company itself but rather one person in the organization. A VP can get arrested for DUI, or worse, and suddenly the entire company is under scrutiny.

2. Bad PR is temporary usually. Treat it that way. There is a good reason people refer to newspapers as fish wrappers - they are here today and gone tomorrow. Yes, things on the internet have a much longer life. But the public, especially the American public, has a short memory and they move on to the next bad news story quickly. There is usually only one reason for a bad story to grow legs - a dumb response from the company.

3. For goodness' sake, think through your first response. Subway's first response was something like (and I paraphrase here) "Footlong is a marketing term and doesn't really have anything to do with the size of the sub." Dumb, dumb, dumb. Who believes that? They named it the "footlong" for the precise reason that it was 12-inches long. They advertised it that way. But somewhere along the way during the midst of their crisis communications, some dumb cluck was allowed to put that statement out to the press. The company has been spending great effort to walk that back ever since. The most reasonable, and genuinely believable answer should have been a discussion about the variation in size due to baking.

3. Bad PR can be repaired, but it can take a long time and it can be difficult in the interim. Speaking as someone who had to put out statements that were in serious conflict with what I knew to be best, somedays you just have to suck it up. PR professionals are required to give their best advice, and it is not unusual for CEOs and lawyers to ignore that advice. Ultimately, though, the CEO must make the call and some days that will not line up with what the PR staff has advised.

4. Bad PR can almost always be overcome. While there are certainly examples of companies that never overcame the crisis, certainly some do.The Red Cross did a good job of making changes in the wake of allegations it was paying top executives too much. Subway, too, will get past this as long as they don't do anything else dumb.

5. Turn bad PR around. Subway has an opportunity here to make fun of the company by holding "is it 12 inches? campaigns. Think how much fun it would be to have scores of third graders come into the store, waving their rulers, and letting them do some measuring. Bring in al kinds of things the kids could measure that day. Fun for the kids, a chance for Subway staff to do some community volunteering, and a way to build real good will.

6. Have a crisis communications plan. If Subway had one, then it needs to be fixed because clearly a response went out to the media that was not well thought through. A crisis team must include not only the CEO and legal folks, but the head of PR, HR, Security, and operations. They will all have important issues to contribute as you craft a response.  Without a concrete plan, you may miss critical issues. Practice your crisis communications plan at least annually. And with any major PR issue, the CEO needs to be the spokesperson.  If he/she is pushing it down to PR, then there is a problem and you need to understand why immediately.

Kim Deppe is President of Deppe Communications, an outsource marketing firm located in the Jacksonville, FL area. Deppe Communications provides marketing consulting, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, public relations and advertising services to small and medium size businesses across the U.S. With over 25 years corporate executive marketing experience, Kim Deppe brings a unique combination of strategic marketing experience and online marketing know-how to her clients. For more information, visit www.DeppeCommunications.com, call 904.524.0170 or E-mail Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.

Not A Social Media Believer? Read on!

I still run into small business owners who tell me they don’t have any interest in being on social media. They don’t see any use for it, and they see it as something that either their kids or their wives use for talking to their friends. Because they are not participating in any kind of social media, they just don’t see a value to it. That’s kind of like saying “I don’t listen to the radio, so I don’t think it is a good way to advertise my business.”

I want to share some fresh statistics with you about social media that might influence your decision whether to start using it for your business:

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Why "We Care" is the Wrong Advertising Message

I spent more than 20 years in the healthcare marketing world and if there is one tenet I learned, it is that running ads that say "we care" is a tremendous waste of money. Why? Because when it comes to hospitals, doctors, surgical centers or other healthcare providers, "caring" is something that patients assume you will do or be. Really, do anyone ever expect their healthcare provider to NOT be caring? It is such an assumed part of what you provide to your customers, that it is silly to waste your money talking about it. So why do so many do it?

But I would extend that tenet beyond the healthcare industry and say that "we care" - or similar expressions of basic service - is a waste of your money. Here are some examples:

- Quality or High Quality
- Excellent Service
- Treat You Like Family
- We're the Best
- Lowest Price


There are many more, but the point here is that these are all things that your customers probably assume about you before they even decide to do business with you. Why would they ever do business with a retailer who didn't provide great service, or low prices, or good quality? Besides, a lot of customers don't really believe those claims, anyway - especially the younger Gen Y customers who are tremendously cynical about this sort of thing.

Yet, when it comes time to create advertising and marketing messages, many companies zero in on these phrases and want to pack in as many as they can into their ads. The problem is that when you do that, your ad becomes generic, and you begin to blend in with all of your competitors who are claiming the same thing.

So, what should you do? Find your UVP - Unique Value Proposition - and exploit it. Figure out what IS different about your company that customers will actually believe. Create a message that communicates that difference loud and clear. Make sure your employees know it, believe it, and can articulate it to your customers. Then put it in your advertising. And leave the "we care" stuff to the amateurs.