Express Marketing Memo

What Makes Blogging Worth It For You?

Posted by Shari Voigt | Filed under Blogging

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Have you noticed that when you lose touch with old friends, it can be really hard to reconnect? I’m finding that when I step away from blogging momentarily to focus on urgent, priority projects, that it’s also hard to get back into blogging mode. Granted, this has been more than a momentary lapse, but it was necessary to truly focus on some client projects. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

I’m frequently asked if blogging makes any difference to the small business owner - if it’s worth the time commitment. My experience is that YES, it’s definitely worth it on a couple of different levels. For one thing, it’s a growth experience for the blogger. It forces you to constantly try to get inside the head of your audience … what will you find valuable and interesting? What have I just learned that I can share with you? Who just wrote an insightful post that would benefit my readers? These are good questions for any business owner to ponder!

On a completely different level, blogging is good for business because it increases your online presence. Search engines still love blogs because they’re continually updated with fresh, hopefully relevant content. They’re fun to promote. We’ll go into detail on that in a future post, but for now, I’ll just say that it’s a joy to find truly interesting writing. When you leave a comment on an interesting post, you’ve created a backlink to your site. Yes, there’s more to it than that, but in a nutshell and for the sake of brevity that’s the basic idea.

It took about three months of consistent writing, commenting, and cross-linking with my other blogs to notice business-building results from my efforts. This blog has already helped me gain copywriting assignments and web site development projects, in addition to serving as a resource for my customers.

The other side of that coin is that blogging isn’t for everyone. It’s time consuming. Once-a-month posting won’t get the job done. You need to have something to say, be willing to reach out to other bloggers, and enjoy writing.

OK bloggers … I need your help. Do you blog for business or pleasure? What results are you seeing from your blogging efforts? How long did it take to see those results? Do you feel it’s worth the time commitment?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: Blogging, business building

Holistic Small Business Marketing

Posted by Shari Voigt | Filed under Marketing

An elderly relative was diagnosed with diabetes after enduring an astounding battery of tests and inaccurate diagnosis by three different specialists. After recounting her misadventure, she said “No one ever even tested me for diabetes. A General Practitioner would have figured it out on the first visit.” Her nephew who had first-hand experience, but no medical training solved the riddle of her symptoms.

The field of medicine has a plethora of specialists, many of whom are very good at what they do. Likewise, the field of small business marketing is filled with an abundance of talented specialists. But in both instances, it’s better to at least begin with a holistic approach.

Just like you wouldn’t visit a brain surgeon for a belly ache, or a psychiatrist for a pain in your big toe, should you base all of your marketing efforts on the advice or your website designer or the ad rep trying to sell you ad space or air time? No, in each case you’d be wiser to engage in some self-education and/or ask the advice of someone you could count on to look at the big picture.

Holistic small business marketing considers the overall business, not just one segment at a time. The web site designer, the copywriter, the account rep for each form of media … these are each specialists with a thorough understanding of their particular segment. But what is effective marketing for YOUR business? What are the most effective avenues to reach YOUR customer?

Holistic small business marketing:

1. starts with a marketing plan,
2. proceeds with a marketing strategy,
3. integrates marketing efforts throughout the company and across multiple forms of media,
4. utilizes marketing consulting, website design, SEO, copywriting, and media specialists as determined by points 1, 2 and 3,
5. returns documented results for your marketing investment.

Begin with a wide focus, one that looks carefully at your overall business goals … just as in the field of medicine, this is the role of the general practitioner. Identify areas of opportunity and areas of weakness, then draft a plan of attack. Even then, don’t just accept whatever you’re told. Do enough research of your own to feel confident that any advice you’re given is taking you down the right track.

Once you know where you’re going, and you know how you’re going to get there … call in the specialists.

Now because you’ve done your homework, you know that website design is not just about an attractive site. You know your website has a job to do and you’ll look for a specialist that can get that job done.

You’ll understand that sending out a postcard to let people know about your business is not enough. Again, the postcard has a job to do … you’ll choose a copywriter who understands how to get the most out of direct mail.

Likewise, you’ll know when and if TV or radio advertising is a good fit for your business. Wouldn’t that be a good thing to know before the media rep tells you how much money you can save with this month’s promotion?

When you take a holistic approach to marketing your small business, you stay in the driver’s seat. It’s more time-intensive at the outset, but saves you time and money in the long run.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: holistic marketing, marketing plan

Consistency and caring - keys to quality customer service

Posted by Shari Voigt | Filed under Customer Service

We’ve been Nextel customers for ages … switched over to them years ago because their local customer service was phenomenal. I met with a Nextel rep over coffee and she sent demo phones home with me – one for my husband and one for me. We tried them out, loved the direct connect feature and signed a contract the next day. They even bought out our old cell phone contract with another company. We were thrilled and we told everybody who would listen about this wonderful new (to us) cell phone company! Our parents and a few friends signed up for service as a result.

Times have changed. Nextel has become Sprint and local customer service representatives are a distant memory. Still, that’s not a problem, or at least it wasn’t until they lost their consistency. Two customer service incidents this week have convinced me that the company has lost its edge.

In the first incident, we were overbilled and not by just a little bit. We’re talking over $100 worth of overcharges on my husband’s phone. It didn’t add up. He hadn’t talked more than our plan allowed. So he called customer service and was given totally bogus information … basically that he didn’t know what he was talking about and that he had no recourse … pay up.

Since I had arranged the contracts to begin with, I followed up with a phone call to customer service. My customer service rep apologized for their error, fixed the obvious mistake in our plan, credited us for the amount we should never have been charged and explained everything clearly. Same company … but this time we had reached someone who cared.

She also explained that we’d qualify for a substantial discount when we renewed our plans, plus a discount for each phone upgrade – even checked to be sure we’d really qualify for their “best” discount. Make sure you request the renewal first, she cautioned, because if we upgraded our phone before requesting the renewal discount, it would no longer be available.

So today I called back, with every intention of renewing our service contracts for another two years and planning to purchase two new phones.

But today’s rep was a guy with a thick foreign accent who countered the information I was provided yesterday. That plan renewal thing is handled separately by another department, but he could get them on the other line to “ease my mind.”

And that “best” discount we qualified for was the exact same discount available to everyone else ordering by phone or online.

I said “no, thank you.” Apparently I’m on an authenticity kick, but I’m tired of dealing with different people from the same company who give out entirely different answers. And don’t tell me that we qualify for a special deal when it doesn’t really exist! Just lay it on the line … show me the real value … tell me the real cost, and allow me the dignity of a real decision.

They’ve probably just lost a customer and it wasn’t because of a poor quality product or poor reception. Rather, it’s because they’ve forgotten that they’re not the only company on my radar. My contract is up. I was ready to sign on the dotted line … right up until I stopped and asked myself if I wanted to do business with a company who can’t give me a straight answer from one phone call to the next. Not likely … goodbye, Sprint!

Photo Credit: ninjapoodles on Flickr (Creative Commons)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: Customer Service

What were they thinking?

Posted by Shari Voigt | Filed under Direct Mail, Marketing

I received a direct mail piece today that left me scratching my head. It’s an oversized, folded, full-color postcard for a company that I’ve never heard of.

The address panel says, “Congratulations, Shari – You’re a preferred quilter!” So far – so good. They got my name right. I’m a wannabe quilter. But who’s sending this to me and what’s the offer?

It’s from a company with a non-descript name and the product it’s touting is “Blank Quilting Fabric.” What?

The other side of the still closed card offers (in big block letters) a FREE TOTE* AND $10.00 in fabric savings inside! Note the asterisk. More on that in a moment.

The photo of the tote looks nice and although I have no idea at this point why I’d want to purchase a Blank anything, I’m really curious as to where this shop is located. After all, I’m a preferred quilter!

So I open the card, find FREE this and SAVE that, accompanied by an abundance of exclamation marks and disclaimers, but where’s the store?

* The “Blank Quilting Tote” is FREE with any Blank purchase to the first 24 visitors to their shop who show this ad (while supplies last).

$10.00 in fabric savings accrues by having seven thimbles punched out of a coupon at a rate of one thimble punch per yard of Blank Quilting fabric.

Wait, there’s the address – in a size 12 font, smack dab in the middle of the coupon for “Bland fabric” that I’m supposed to cut out of the postcard and carry with me to a store that I’ve never heard of, in a city 45 minutes away.

And yes, you read that right … not only was the brand “Blank Quilting,” but the coupon had a typo and it wound up as just “Bland.”

Now maybe I’d better offer my own disclaimer and repeat that I’m unfamiliar with Blank Quilting fabric. Its tagline is “the fabric of inspiration,” and it might be just that. But the image it brings to mind is of a bland, blank canvas. As a wannabe quilter, I want color and texture. Quilting fabric correlates to paint ON a canvas.

Missed Opportunities

To begin with, this was an expensive piece to produce and mail. We’re talking four-color process, digitally imprinted with the store name, recipient name and address. Why spend all that money to send out a card without …

• a real offer?

• a prominent physical address? Better yet, with a tiny map?

• a web site URL?

• a phone number so that I could find out their hours, if I was so inclined?

• telling me, or better yet, showing me what’s so great about Blank Quilting fabrics?

• proofing every single word so that your brand doesn’t show up as “Bland?”

I don’t want to see two photos of the same tote that will only be available to whoever might show up before me … and newsflash … I’m not going to drive 45 minutes to be one of the first 24 people in line for a tote.

What would have hooked this wannabe quilter? Those very same missed opportunities, especially a web site, where I could have had all of my questions answered. I’d have gone to the trouble to look up their web site.

Once there, I’d have signed up for a newsletter, if they had one … maybe one offering tips for the beginning quilter. Tie those tips in with a product that I can order online, and I might just do so. Provide quality content and quality products with good customer service, and the next time I’m in your fair city, I’ll probably pay you a visit.

If this mailing had directed recipients to a specific landing page on that web site, the retailer would be able to track response to the mailing. Each of the next steps could be easily tracked and analyzed and the retailer could adjust his marketing strategy, test new ideas, repeat the profitable ones and discard the rest.

As small business owners, it’s vital to our survival that we make wise use of our marketing dollars.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: advertising, Direct Mail, local optimization, small business marketing

Spin Marketing vs. Authenticity

Posted by Shari Voigt | Filed under Marketing

I’m not a fan of “spinning a story.” Ask any of my former colleagues … the very term makes me bristle. Spin implies not telling all the facts, glossing over the things we don’t want others to know, adding fictional elements to improve how an organization, a person or a product is perceived, and outright blatant deception.

Webster’s definition is a bit more refined: to make or produce in a way suggestive of spinning (to spin a tale)” and/or “a particular emphasis or slant imparted to information in order to create a desired effect, such as a favorable public image for a politician.”

Of course, being in an election year in the US means we’re bombarded with spin from all sides. Then there’s the daily pharmaceutical spin and the economic crisis spin. Let’s face it … it’s spin overload! Where can you turn for information you can trust?

I’m not the only consumer frustrated by a lack of authenticity in the political landscape and the marketplace. It’s a hot topic right now because we’re all more than a little tired of being lied to. A Google blog search brings back 2,752,935 results on the topic of authenticity.

Although we have little, if any control over the spin coming at us, we do have complete control over what we disseminate.

Valeria at Conversation Agent defines authentic marketing as “the expression of a company culture through marketing communication in human speak. A simple digest of complex information of what the company helps you do that makes it interesting. More storytelling and appreciative inquiry than positioning.” She goes on to translate this idea to authentic internal communications and public relations. It’s an interesting article enhanced by some great comments from her readers.

Our customers are looking for the real deal. We know that people buy from people they trust, so how can we be more authentic in our marketing materials? Again, according to Valeria, “if we approached telling the story of the organization/product/service in an appreciative inquiry format, we would be talking about what it does well. We would then go back and do more of that, making the product even better.”

I like that! Authenticity not only cuts through the clutter, but it helps us create a better product/service for our customers. Imagine what our world could be like if our politicians, pharmaceutical companies, and economic prognosticators stopped the spin cycle and focused on the truth. No, I won’t hold my breath waiting for that to happen, but it does impact how I market my own business and how I approach marketing for my client base. As Mahatma Ghandi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

Photo Credit: Viewmaker (Creative Commons)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: authenticity, spin, trust