Small Business Marketing Ideas for 2013

Here comes the new year! And, of course, it is a great time to plan for the coming 12 months and figure out how to market your small business. If you happen to be one of those small businesses that does not have a lot of money for marketing, here are a few ideas for you to consider in 2013:

1. Set aside a small budget for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising each month if you can. This is especially critical if you have an online store, but it can be a great way to drive traffic to any website. You don't have to spend a lot of money, even $50, $75 or $100 a month will create results. You can buy search ads on Google, Bing/Yahoo and other sites, as well as place ads on Facebook. Twitter is planning to introduce this service soon, too.
2. Use social media regularly. Post every day if you can to keep your name "top of mind" among customers. Make sure you invite your customers to "like" you on Facebook and "follow" you on Twitter. Google+ is another growing social media site where people can share information about your business. Set up Foursquare and encourage people to check in at your location, if you have a retail business.
3. Use press releases to share news about your company. Local newspapers, radio stations and TV stations are hungry for local news. Just be sure it IS news - a new service you provide, a new location you have opened, etc. Write a brief news release and send it out to the editors of your local media. It is OK to follow up if you like, but don't make repeated calls or e-mail contacts.
4. Think about direct mail. This tactic is still effective even in this digital age. You can target individual neighborhoods using either the US Postal Service or a mail house. It can be an inexpensive way to get your name in front of potential customers, but make sure you have a compelling piece that will grab attention.
5. Take advantage of your local Chamber of Commerce events and other networking opportunities. After hours events, expos and luncheons can all be excellent opportunities to tell others about your business and generate referrals. 

Making sure you have a plan for your marketing is also very important. I have developed a guide that helps small businesses create a marketing plan that is available at no charge. Just E-mail your request for "Marketing Plan Guide" to Kim@DeppeCommunications.com

Do it Yourself?

We live in a DIY (do-it-yourself) age, a time when entire cable TV channels are dedicated to helping you fix stuff, bake stuff, make stuff, paint stuff and re-arrange stuff without the help of an experienced professional. Big box retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's are pretty much located in every town and staffed with people to help guide you with your projects.

So it is easier than ever for us to think that we can pretty much do anything ourselves. There is so much help and information available on the internet and on TV that we can learn many things. But that doesn't mean we still don't need professionals to help us sometimes. As one of my small business colleagues likes to say, electrical work is not a hobby.

And neither is Marketing. Those of us in the field not only have specialized education and training, but plenty of in-the-field experience learning what works and, more importantly, what doesn't. But it can be tough to sell a small business owner on the value of spending their money to hire a marketing professional. After all, people are crawling out of the woodwork to help them for free.

Yes, the local newspaper sales rep will get your ad designed for free. The cable TV folks will do a 30-second commercial for you at no charge when you buy the airtime. Radio ads can be scripted and recorded at no charge by the station when you buy the spots. It goes on and on. So what's not to like?

Well, the truth is that you almost always get what you pay for. In this example, you would end up with a hodge-podge of messages, designs and what we call "look and feel" to support your brand. Without a coordinated approach, there won't be any consistency to your marketing and then you might as well be throwing money out the window.

Harsh? Yup. But the truth is that letting sales people determine your marketing message and design is like handing over the keys to your car to a complete stranger. It might come back safely, but you just don't know. That's why hiring a marketing consultant, ad agency or PR firm is a great move for small business owners. Small business marketing is just like other kinds of marketing, just using a smaller budget. It doesn't mean the strategies or tactics are any different. Marketing that works for a large, multi-specialty medical practice also works for a one-woman practice. As my father used to say, "it's the same thing, only different."

When you think about how you are going to market your small business, I encourage you to think about your overall budget first. What are you willing to spend, and what can you afford? Then, talk to a consultant or agency and see if they can help you while staying within that budget. If it's the right firm, I know the answer will be yes.

How a sandwich inspires brand loyalty

I live pretty far from the place I grew up, the South Jersey coast or "down the shore" as we say. So whenever I come home for a visit, there are a few things I really like to do and most of them have to do with eating foods I cannot get where I live now. First among those is the cheesesteak sub followed closely by Tastykake lemon pies and Manco & Manco's pizza from the Ocean City boardwalk.

I don't want just any cheesesteak sub, either. I want one from Vic's Subs in Absecon, NJ. Just a few houses down from the house where I lived as a child there is a small sub shop known for its tasty subs. I always go there first.

So this got me to thinking this morning as I am sipping coffee in the early morning Jersey sun, why is it that more brands don't inspire that same kind of loyalty? I literally drive past dozens of sub shops to get to Vic's. I don't even consider going anywhere else. Why? Because I am loyal to their brand. And why is that? Because I have an emotional connection to Vic's that I don't have with those other sub shops.

For me, Vic's brings back fond memories of big pickle barrels where you could reach in with long metal tongs and pluck out a huge dill pickle, then slip it into a wax paper bag to carry home. It is the place my little brother and I used to walk to when I was just 5, holding hands and gripping our dimes so we could buy popsicles. Or the smell of frying onions when you drive by with the windows open. The place connects with me through memories and smells and, of course, a great product fairly priced.

The lemon pies are the same. I can buy lemon pies made by other companies where I live in Florida, but I don't. They might taste good, but they won't taste the same as the Tastykake pies because I have lifetime of memories and emotional connections with that brand.

So how do you command the same kind of loyalty with your customers? It isn't easy to create an emotional connection that lasts for years, but it can be done. The thing to remember is that it doesn't and can't, by definition, happen suddenly. You must consistently deliver excellent product with excellent service. Then do something memorable. Make it special for your customers, a place or a product that they will want to return to over and over again.

A few months ago, I was here in Jersey and shocked to learn that my favorite pizza place had changed its name from Mack & Manco's to Manco & Manco's. I am not sure what happened to Mack, but I worried if the product would be the same. Would the cheese and the sauce and the big, steaming pies still taste like "home" to me? Well, thankfully, the recipe is secure and my experience there this week was nothing short of memorable. We waited in line to get in and I wouldn't even think of eating at any of the other pizza places that line the boardwalk. And that is brand loyalty we can all hope for from our own customers.

Last Things First

Recently, the world lost Steven Covey, a remarkable writer who is famous for authoring "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." I remember picking it up on audiotape and listening to it during my commute time. I marveled at the simplicity and common sense messages he packaged so neatly. He really had a way of getting to the nuggets of truth inside human behavior and teasing out simple strategies for making us more effective people.

Among those habits was "Start with the End in Mind." I like this one the best because, as a marketing strategist, it is a mantra I have always promoted with my employers and, today, my clients. Whenever someone comes to me and says "I need a brochure" or "I need a marketing plan," my first question is always "what is your goal?"

By starting with the end in mind, we can save ourselves a lot of time chasing down rabbit trails that will take us nowhere. If I know that I want to increase my sales of widget A by 10% in the next 90 days, then I have a nice, specific target to go after. It refines my thinking. It keeps me on task.

Whether you are creating a new website or a business card, try starting with the end in mind. You will get a better result just by thinking through what you hope to accomplish. Because another favorite saying of mine is "if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there."

Common Sense SEO

There has been a fair amount of confusion across the internet about what works in the wake of Google Penguin's changes to search engine optimization and search engine results. I have seen any number of suggested steps to take that promise to reverse the effects of Penguin. For websites that took a serious kick from the update, I am sure that any kind of quick fix looks attractive, but it is probably a bad idea. Because I believe those kind of quick fixes it what prompted the changes in the first place.

I have a lot of respect for the Google model. I think they have the best interest of the searchers in mind, mostly, with a healthy dose of looking out for their own interests mixed in. They are pretty up front about that, so I don't get heartburn when the Google Plus posts show up higher than other items. Like me, Google is in business to make money.

But trying to constantly find ways around the Google algorithm changes will probably land your website in a circular path of constantly having to react to more changes. With somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 changes a year, Google doesn't exactly sit around twiddling thumbs. If you are trying to out-maneuver all of those changes, you are wasting a lot of time.

How much easier to just get in there and provide good content for your customers. Make sure the basics are in place and then just do the same thing over and over. You know, slow and steady wins the race. Basic blocking and tackling. Choose your favorite allegory and run with it, but if you are talking to your customers in a way that makes sense to them, well you should be attracting the right kind of attention.

Need some help with that? Contact me, I will be happy to write, edit or help you develop ideas for your website. 

How to write a Marketing Plan

A lot of businesses are wary of the “Marketing Plan.” Too often, they envision it as a big binder stuffed full of useless data collected to impress people. In this vision, there is a complicated chart filled with dates, names of responsible people, milestones and gibberish about CPM, gross ratings points and Nielsen ratings. They dismiss the need for a plan because they have a few sitting on the shelf collecting a thick cover of dust.

So I developed a more streamlined version - one that takes up just 2 or 3 pages and is made up of bullet points. No charts, no spreadsheets, no executive summary. For me, and for my clients, it is a far more useful and workable document that quickly outlines where we are going and what we are going to do to get there. 

Here is a brief rundown of what goes in to the average marketing plan:

Background summary - this is a one paragraph description of why we are doing this. It includes a brief history of the situation and why the plan is being created.

Goals - it is imperative to list out what you are hoping to achieve. Be specific, create those SMART goals that will keep you accountable.

Target Audiences - who is it that you are trying to get to take action? Are there internal audiences, too? Think about vendors and any stakeholder that should be considered.

Key Messages - what are the 2 or 3 things that you want your audiences to know and remember.

Strategies - in a broad way, how are you going to approach this and reach your goals. Are you going to create a series of events, or create a website or develop a multimedia campaign? Think 30,000 foot level here. Make sure your strategies link directly to your goals and that you have at least one strategy for each goal.

Tactics - what specific things are you going to do to achieve your goals. Here is where most people start, unfortunately - but this is where things like print ad campaigns, podcasts and brochures belong. Make sure you have developed at least one tactic for each strategy, although typically you will have several. This is the task list and it really isn’t possible to create it until you’ve done the other things first.

Budget - how much are you planning to spend? How do you want to apportion that among the strategies.

Measurement and Evaluation - how, specifically, will you track results? How will you keep you and your team accountable for results? Will you do a survey, count noses at a special event, track media coverage?

That’s it. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours to think through it if it is your own business. But if you need some help, just contact me and I would be happy to work with you to create your business marketing plan. E-mail me at Kim@DeppeCommunications.com.

Public relations is still a good marketing tool

I love marketing online for a lot of reasons, but especially because it is so cost effective for many of my clients. I like the immediate feedback you can see with analytics programs and the ability to make changes quickly if things are working. But good, old-fashioned PR is still a great tool for many companies and equally cost effective. Case in point: I recently helped a local company create an event to raise awareness of the new business. By holding a grand opening event and creating a compelling story, the press releases got immediate media attention and generated a wonderful Sunday story. The result was not only that the business got great coverage, but there were people waiting in line when she opened her doors that very day. Immediate feedback, immediate sales. The great part is the lingering effect that the event will have. People who were there will tell others. The newspaper story will be out on the internet for a long, long time. I have shared the coverage and the photos through my social media sites and people are talking about it days later. Public Relations is a powerful tool in your marketing tool belt, and it works.

If you would like to learn more about the Black Horse Winery in Orange Park, FL, visit my Facebook site: www.facebook.com/DeppeCommunications.