This week in small business: Got intelligence?
Intelligence. You just can’t get enough of it. And, among this week’s nuggets of golden content from around the Internet, you’ll find some good insights on how to boost your natural intelligence and also how to take advantage of artificial intelligence. Leadership, management, and productivity Success is a catalyst for failure. Agree? Before you say anything, read Benjamin P. Hardy’s article, “How to go from successful to very successful (and why most people can’t do it.) In this profile by Kandia Johnson, she relates how Jessica Smith, a business counselor at the Women’s Business Center of Northern Virginia, says that women in business can help other women break barriers. Elle Kaplan gives us seven brain hacks (ouch!) that she says will dramatically improve our intelligence and success. Are you failing fast enough? Daniel Newman says that the secret to digital transformation success is to fail fast in order to innovate faster. Marketing and sales If your social media marketing depends on clickbait, you need to read Tamar Weinberg’s article on Facebook guidance for publishers. John Nemo discusses a new LinkedIn feature that he says might change the game for B2B marketing. Writing for the Forbes website, R.L. Adams offers his definitive guide to affiliate marketing. A.J. Agrawal makes a good case that artificial intelligence is changing SEO and points out the danger of falling behind. John Swanciger also checks in on the topic in “Why small business should be paying attention to artificial intelligence.” If Khuram Zaman is right, the future is going to be fun. He says that game playing is the future of e-commerce. Larry Alton explores an important question in his article, “Should you specialize in one online marketplace or all of them?” Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation Robin Bruce kicks off her three-part #IfIOnlyKnew series with, “How To Learn Entrepreneurship: Closing The Gap Between Theory and Real World Experience.” Continuing on the learning theme, Alex Krause’s “Why the Study of Entrepreneurship Improves Outcomes for Startups” is a good read. This advice from Manar Al Hinai is incredibly sound: Do not base your entire business model on a trend. And if you catch Jay Kim’s message, you’ll understand that entrepreneurship isn’t what you think – its 100 percent about serving others. There’s a difference between being childish and childlike, and having a childlike curiosity can inspire the entrepreneurial mindset, says Rachel Hentsch. Brian Rashid profiles Tami Fricks who went from mom to entrepreneur and disrupted the wine industry on the way with her Sassy Bitch label. Four successful founders share how they effectively transitioned from employee to entrepreneur in this article by Rhonesha Byng....
read more3 examples of niche marketing vs differentiation
The riches are in the niches. That’s a truism I often cover in great depth when I’m doing a keynote presentation for an industry group or business conference. I also discuss the importance of differentiation. Niche marketing and differentiation are closely related, but not the same, and to mistake one for the other can be disastrous to your business plan, so let’s look at some examples to help you get a feel for how they diverge. From the mobile phone world Consider a mobile phone with an edge display vs mobile phone with oversized buttons and simple operating system. These are products that currently exist in the marketplace. The first – the phone with the cool display that goes around the phone’s edges – might be purchased by almost anyone. It’s just a matter of personal preference and affordability. However, there are other expensive phones on the market; in this case the display makes it different from most of its competitors. This is differentiation. The second phone is designed for senior citizens who want a phone that is easy to understand and operate. This group is definitely a niche market. You can easily see how understanding each of these mobile phones in relationship to marketing is critical. A company could market the edge display phone almost anywhere other phones are being marketed. However, the phone for the senior market would benefit from a much more targeted and specialized approach. From the banking world If you live in an area that has a major sports franchise there is probably a bank in the area that offers a credit card with the team’s logo on it. The interest rate and fee for the card is probably identical or about the same as any other standard consumer credit card. The pro-sports-team graphics help differentiate it from other cards. It gives the bank a “hook” to use in advertising and marketing materials – but those materials would be suitable to use anywhere credit cards are generally marketed. However, the Ritz-Carlton Rewards Credit Card is a different animal. It comes with a hefty yearly fee of some $400, but if you stay in that hotel chain (a lot!) it offers some excellent rewards. This product is certainly geared to a niche market. The company would never advertise this card alongside general consumer-level credit cards. From the food industry Several years ago, we may have considered gluten-free foods to be a niche market, and compared to all food sales, it probably still is. However, it has grown so much that many of the global food brands are now marketing gluten-free products. If you’re selling packaged food, it is no longer a niche market. If you’re a local bakery, offering and promoting gluten-free items would help differentiate your operation. But let’s not give up on finding a gluten-free niche market. I would suggest that gluten-free kosher products or gluten-free “soul food,” would offer niche marketing opportunities. If I were featuring your product or service here, where would it go? Does it appeal to a specific niche, or does it have some features that allow you to differentiate it from more “generic”...
read moreWhich bottom-line booster is right for you: Upsale or Upscale?
The sales strategy of upselling is fundamental to business, and there are various ways it can be accomplished. When a customer is making a purchase, the sales rep can suggest additional items that would complement the core purchase. Another common approach is to find a more expensive item that better fits the customer’s requirements. Any of these strategies would fall under the category of the upsale. But, in addition to this, there is another way to upsell and it can go beyond the incremental upsale. I’m talking about “upscaling” your offerings. This merchandising and marketing strategy has many applications. In the classic upsale setting, you could suggest a better-known, more upscale brand to your customer. This would increase the size of your tickets and pump more dollars to your bottom line. The upscale strategy Upscaling your offerings can be a more generalized strategy, and it applies to virtually any business – from vacuum cleaner stores to coffee shops. In this setting, the idea is to feature or deal exclusively in the upscale, more desirable brands. To go back to my examples, the vacuum cleaner store might specialize in Miele vacuums, the coffee shop might offer Cinnabon rolls instead of generic pastries. By carving out a business with a more upscale focus, you do two things: You piggy back on the upscale company’s marketing and you make it easier to define and find your customers. I doubt I’ve touched on your industry, so ask yourself this question, “Who makes the Cadillac of (whatever you sell)?” Many of you are probably thinking that you need to offer a wide variety of price points to satisfy the needs of your customers. Don’t accept that logic without careful examination. Specialization always leads to higher margins. Trying to satisfy everyone can be very frustrating. How do you market yourself when you want to appeal to virtually the entire world? The marketing advantage Let me elaborate on one part of this strategy: Taking advantage of a well-known brand’s marketing. Hunt Brothers Pizza is mostly sold in convenience stores in the Southeast and Midwest. The company does a lot of advertising and is often featured at professional sports venues and broadcasts. Adding a high-profile brand like this to your lineup will lead to additional sales. In this example – a convenience store – adding pizza is doing the opposite of specialization, but after all, that’s really what a convenience store is all about. The point I want to make is that some of the risk of adding an upscale offering is lessened when the offering has already established a good reputation for itself. Finally, remember that upselling isn’t merely a technique to teach your sales staff, it is something that can be accomplished by upscaling the products and services that you...
read moreThe essentials: What is a content agency and do you need one?
Unless you’ve been living a Rip Van Winkle existence the last decade or more, you know the importance of content marketing for competitive success. But you can’t approach content marketing in a haphazard fashion. You have to give it thought, devise a strategy, and implement your strategy over the long term. Faithful follow through is where so many small business owners fall down. This is where understanding the full implications of the answer to the “What is a content agency?” question is important. We’ll start our overview of what a contact agency is by discussing the services offered by the bigger players in the business. Content agency services A full-service contact agency can take care of virtually all aspects of your content marketing program. It would help you: Devise a strategy, Define keywords, Create content, Handle social media marketing, Do email marketing, Oversee website SEO, and more Major content agencies may be part of a larger advertising agency. They may have in-house talent, including graphic designers, or they may work with contractors. However, you may only need a small slice of those services. Smaller versions of the content agency specialize in more targeted areas. For example, you can find companies that will do your social media marketing for you, or create blog content. Frankly, for the small business owner, maintaining some level of personal involvement in your content marketing program is essential. You may not have the time to do all of it, but you need to continue to express your personality and thoughts through your published content. The small business advantage The singular advantage small businesses have over larger operations is their ability to create almost personal relationships with their customers or clients. Donald Trump is a good example of this. Whether you love him or hate him, you must recognize that his Tweets are his personal expression. Compare this to other politicians who have their social media posts prepared by a committee of advisors – they never develop the relationships nor do their posts carry much weight. A quick web search for “companies that write blogs” or “companies that do social media marketing” will give you smaller companies. They might be able to help you by providing additional content you can use along with what you create in-house. Find a freelance professional Another good alternative to the full-blown content agency is to find a freelancer who knows content creation and content marketing. A freelancer experienced in marketing and content creation can do as much or as little as you require. You can pick from a menu like this: Keyword research and recommendations, Blog writing, Social media posting, Newsletter creation, Editing, and Training on any of these tasks. It’s not a bad idea to explore the question of what is a content agency and see what the cost would be. That will give you a quick idea of the “top end” in terms of services and costs. Then you can decide which services you really need so you can begin to find the right fit for your small business and your...
read moreThe essentials: Understanding the difference between sales and marketing
It’s important to understand the difference between sales and marketing and it’s even more important to understand that you need to be doing both marketing and selling at the same time. That may seem like a “no-brainer,” but in a small business it’s often the same person or people who are responsible for both sales and marketing. When that’s the case, it’s easy to tip too far in one direction to the detriment of the other. For example, if your sales team is paid largely by commission, it’s easy to see how they would want to spend almost all of their time selling…but I’m getting slightly ahead of myself. Let’s examine the important differences between sales and marketing. Marketing Marketing is a “big picture” enterprise. Marketing strategies convince buyers that your company is the right company to do business with; it works to bring buyers and sellers closer together. Marketing draws a picture of the market today and looks ahead to see what buyers will want or need in the future. Success is measured via general trends. Sales Sales persuades individual prospects that your product or service is right for them today. It measures success via incremental sales. Sales builds and maintains relationships with specific buyers. The sales and marketing balance As I was saying above, problems can arise if you fail to strike a balance between sales and marketing. Closely tied to this question are the talents and inclinations of your team. It’s extremely important that you have the right people slotted for sales and marketing positions. If you have someone who is a top earning salesperson, you may not want to burden that individual with marketing responsibilities, and the reverse is true as well. Since sales is demonstrably feeding the top line, it can be tempting to let marketing slide. However, if you do this you open the door for a competitor to come in and start out performing you in the medium-term future. Always be looking forward and task your marketing team with “preparing the soil for next year’s...
read more