Five Great Ways to Say Thanks to Your Customers
Here we are in the midst of the holiday season, and many small business owners, myself included, are searching for ways to say thanks to our customers and clients. Making the right choice is often difficult, particularly with tight budgets. How much should you spend? What’s appropriate and what’s not? To help you make a positive impression, I’ve put together some great ways to say thanks this holiday season. 1. Give a Gift. Start off by establishing a budget for your holiday gifting. Think about how much you can afford per client. Of course, if they’ve spent a significant amount this year, you may want to spend a little more. Keep in mind, however, if you have corporate clients there’s generally a limit on how much they can accept so check with their HR department. Some of the best gifts are things that can be shared with their team members or families. For example, my company sent over-sized chocolate bars with our company logo one year. The goal is to make your customers feel special and appreciated. One of the restaurants I frequent in New York always gives me a bottle of wine during the holidays which I look forward to. So it doesn’t have to be a big, expensive gift. As they say, it’s the thought that counts. 2. Send a card. I’m not a fan of snail mail paper cards because I don’t think we need to kill trees to communicate. However, whether it’s a paper product or a digital greeting, a card is a nice way to say thank you during the holidays. If you’re sending cards, be creative. Instead of using the standard “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings” craft a special message, unique to your business, to include with your holiday cheers. If you’re using a digital version, you can add photos of your team or perhaps include a fun holiday video. Whatever you send should remain consistent with your branding messages. 3. Give Back. One of my favorite ways to show thanks during the holidays is to donate to a charity in honor of my customers. Once when I was a partner in an advertising agency where most of our clients were corporate, we decided to donate playground equipment to a local children’s shelter in their behalf. We ordered the equipment and when it was arrived, we visited the shelter and took a group picture in our Santa hats sitting on the swings and slide. Then we turned that photo into a card with a note that the children were now enjoying playtime because of our customers, and we thanked them for their continued support. (This was before digital media.) We had an overwhelmingly positive response. Whether it’s a local charity, an industry foundation or even a scholarship fund, you’re clients will appreciate your philanthropic efforts in their honor. Edit Edit date and time 4. Special Promotion. We know that customers are price sensitive in today’s market. Everyone is looking for a “deal”. So a special discount or promotion just for your top customers could be a big hit. Send them a gift certificate for a future service or a product. Offer a nice discount on business they do with you in December. Be careful not to make it look as though it’s business...
read moreFive Cool Sites You Need to Know for 2015
As a small business owner, you know some things better than anyone else on the planet. You know: What you do well, What your passions are, and What’s important for your business success. Sometimes what you would list for the first two items I mentioned above, don’t always correspond to the third item. In other words, there are some things required for business success that fall outside of your strengths and passions. I might also add that there are some things required for success that many business owners have a hard time finding the time to accomplish. Check out these five websites and what they offer. You may find that they can help you strengthen some areas where your small business needs a little help. MarketMeSuite So much is written today about social media marketing. It’s a sprawling, amorphous topic and many small businesses end up with a social media marketing strategy that is equally as sprawling and amorphous. The fact is that social media marketing only works when it is focused. MarketMeSuite lets small business owners easily bring the focus they need to their social media marketing efforts. This is accomplished in several different ways, but let me just mention a few. First, as a small business owner, it allows you to handle virtually all your social media through a convenient email-like interface. Also, it has powerful geo-targeting built in that allows local businesses to easily connect to their most important prospects. Before I move on, I’ll also mention that it makes posting to all of your social media sites or pages, incredibly easy. Spend some time on the website to see all the features and dig into them more deeply. Alignable There is power in numbers and this is especially true for local businesses. You may even be a member of your local chamber or other business organization. As good as those groups are, they lack the power of the Internet. Alignable is the social network for local businesses. More than once I’ve advised local businesses to partner up, share strengths and do some cross marketing. Alignable takes those kinds of strategies and makes then practical and easy to implement. That’s just one example of what can be accomplished when local businesses join forces. Fundera We’ve had the ups and downs of small business lending and financing under our microscope for the last couple of years. Fundera brings some sense and organization to this difficult topic. No matter what kind of loan you need or what you intend to use the money for, you’ll be able to apply quickly and get a fast answer via Fundera. The site bills itself as the “Kayak” of small business loans. That gives you a good sense of what they are. AT&T Business Circle From how-to articles, to first-person success stories, to live events with experts, AT&T Business Circle is a rich resource for any small business owner. I’ve been working with AT&T for quite a while and they recently sponsored my Outrageous Success tour; they are truly dedicated to helping you grow your business – even when it doesn’t involved your phone system! Spend some time on the site and explore the resources. I know you’ll find information and tips you will use immediately. BlogMutt We started today’s article discussing...
read moreSecrets For Creating a Great Plan for 2015
Did you know that December is National Write a Business Plan Month? Maybe they picked December to counterbalance all the good vibes associated with Christmas, but that’s merely speculation… I have met a few people who relish planning, but I think those who dislike it or are indifferent to planning are probably in the majority. Further, quite a few successful businesses get started by folks who are flying by the seat of their pants. However, it’s just about impossible to manage any serious growth that way. Back in the days of original The A-Team television show, George Peppard’s character, John “Hannibal” Smith had a famous line: “I love it when a plan comes together!” This can be the key for those of us who aren’t ecstatic at the thought of doing some serious planning; when you experience a successful plan a few times, you begin to create an affinity for the process. Back to your roots The waning days of 2014 are the ideal time to draft some plans for the upcoming year and review previous plans. Do you have your original business plan after which this month is dedicated? If you do, dig it up and look it over. First, this exercise allows you to relive some of the energy and enthusiasm you had when you started your business. It also gives you a chance to re-experience your original vision. How would you judge where you are today against where you thought you were going when you started out? Is there anything in your earlier plan(s) that you have overlooked? Maybe with additional experience and knowledge, an earlier failed and abandoned dimension of your business can be pursued once again. Manage your marketing The major currents in digital marketing won’t change much next year, they are: Content marketing, Social media marketing, Mobile marketing, and Email marketing. These overlap a lot and that might be one of the most important things to consider as you plan for next year. For example, if you do a lot of email marketing, are your emails easy to read on mobile devices? If they include links, are the landing pages optimized for mobile? With content marketing, some of your content will be articles, others will be media, such as graphics and videos. How do those formats dovetail with your social media presence? Look at my list above and consider all the permutations of these digital marketing strategies and channels. Create your targets Finally, set measurable goals for yourself. Put these in two categories. The first category is what you commit to doing. You might promise yourself that one third of all your tweets next year will include a graphic (they draw more attention), or that you will post two blogs each week. Or your goal might be increased click-throughs that can be measured via your email provider, such as Constant Contact. The second category is increased business. This can be measured by counting new clients/customers and adding up your sales. Working with the right CRM system, you can find out where you’re having success and where you’re falling flat. One final word of advice. Always keep the 80/20 principle in mind. It says that 20 percent of your activities will produce 80 percent of your income. Once you understand this and identify your...
read moreSeason’s Greetings Highly Valued Customer!
Dear [$firstname $lastname], Has it been a year already? Here at Acme Inc. it seems like just yesterday we were bothering the one person in our office who knows how to do a mail merge to get our holiday cards printed out and in the mail! We all want to thank you for the relationship we have been able to build together in 2014, except for those of you who we haven’t seen at all. And if that’s you, you can be sure that as soon as the person doing the mail merge is finished, we’re going to get her working on our new CRM software – so you should be hearing from us again…soon! In any case, we wish you, your families and everyone on your team a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous 2015! Sincerely, [$accountrep($lastname)] • • • Hopefully you never send out a holiday card as bad as what I’ve created above, but I’m exaggerating for a reason: messing up the “niceties” can be worse than doing nothing. For instance, over the years I’ve had my name messed up so many ways – and how hard is it to spell Susan?! No, I’m kidding. It’s Solovic that takes the abuse. I’ve seen everything from Solovick to Solovitz. There are some things you must get right, and a person’s name is at the top of the list. We live our entire lives with our names, they are our most “personal” piece of property. Be certain you get it right, and that includes whether or not a person goes by a shortened version of their first name. If your biggest client is Bob Smith and you call him Robert in your greeting card, you have immediately eliminated any personal message you were trying to express. (I am never Sue, by the way.) Here are some more guidelines: Don’t use a greeting card to push sales. You may seem like you’re being a really great company by also offering 15 percent off, but don’t fall into that trap. If you want to offer a holiday special, do it under separate cover. Make your card reflect your company. Does your company have a personality? Try to express that. If nothing else, a photo card of your staff can be a good call. Cards pulled off the sale table at Walgreens don’t cut it. Include lower level employees. Don’t over look receptionists, assistants and associates. These are the people your employees deal with on a daily basis. They do a lot of the hard work; show them the respect they deserve. Don’t be late; in fact, be early. See if you’re like me: I always remember the first business holiday greeting card I get each year. It’s hard to notice those that arrive accompanied by 20 others in the mail each day throughout the last week before Christmas. Tackle your holiday card project like you should be doing everything else in your business: Do it right or don’t do it at...
read moreTo Swag or Not to Swag – That Is the Question
Sometimes I feel like I should be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for attending the most seminars and conferences, especially when it’s the end of the day or of the event and I’m toting around a bag of “swag.” I hear that the swag bag they give participants in the Oscar awards show is really something to behold. However, for your garden variety business event, often the swag is of little to no use. I think it’s worthwhile to consider why you might want to invest in swag. And once we really understand why, it leads to a discussion of what kinds of items make good swag. The motivation Let me start by stating the obvious: In business you hand out a freebie hoping that somehow it leads to a sale someday. However, let’s unpack that just a little. In all good and lasting business relationships, there is a level of interpersonal connection. With swag, you’re hoping to begin to establish, or reaffirm, that personal connection. Consider this parallel example: When someone does you a favor, you experience personal gratitude and somewhere in your brain a balance sheet pops up and you make a note that you “owe” this person a good turn. In my example, the two people, over the years, engage in helping one another out. Frankly, that’s the ideal picture of an ongoing business relationship. By their continued engagement, both parties benefit. Thoughtfully selected and valuable swag – although not always “valuable” in the monetary sense –can prime the pump of that relationship. But just as importantly, poorly selected and worthless swag can short circuit that relationship. With those observations, let’s look at some guidelines. Good swag, bad swag Consider who should receive your swag. If your budget is limited it is far wiser to present your most important prospects with some valuable swag rather than give everyone a ball point pen. As I said earlier, your swag may go existing customers with the hope of strengthening your relationships even more. In that case, you should know the recipients well enough to select some great swag. Gourmet food items are never wasted. I end up leaving a large percentage of the swag I receive in my hotel rooms. But during busy conferences, when you’re on your feet all day, a delicious treat is always appreciated. Avoid cheap items and items that are too heavy or big to carry easily. You may think that by handing out the biggest stuffed animal at the conference that you’re setting yourself apart from the crowd. Well, that’s true, but not in a good way. Books relevant to a person’s business make excellent swag. However, a puff piece book about the athlete or celebrity you hired to sit at your booth for three hours is a waste of your money. Anything that communicates value is a smart choice. Some items that don’t cost a lot of money nonetheless evoke the feeling of value. Moleskines, for example. They are merely small notebooks, but they are well made and send a far different message than a cheap spiral bound notepad, although in virtually every way they perform the same function. One year my company gave away slim, folding, lint brushes. They were a big hit because you could easily carry...
read moreDid Small Business Saturday Make a Big Impact?
I’m wondering if Shakespeare wrote “Much Ado About Nothing” with Small Business Saturday in mind. Yes, the Bard was a genius, but I doubt that even he could have anticipated the American Express promotion back in 1598. For the week leading up to Small Business Saturday, virtually every story written about “small business” was about Small Business Saturday. And although I’m sure there were exceptions, I think most local merchants share the opinion of restaurant owner Nick Bari who told Bloomberg Businessweek, “I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal one way or another. It’s more of a gesture than anything else.” Or, as Shakespeare would say, “Much Ado About Nothing.” All the world’s a stage But there may be another parallel between the Shakespeare comedy and Small Business Saturday. Mistaken and hidden identities are major elements of the play and they play a big role in Small Business Saturday too. While it is disguised to look like a local small business movement, it’s just as much a promotion for American Express. Further, much of our core of small businesses can’t participate. Although most merchants can get the promotional materials after going through an application process, much of the heart of American small businesses can’t participate, such as home-based businesses and many ecommerce sites. When the hoopla dies down If your business seemed to benefit from the event this year, that’s great. Further, I’ve written about and promoted other local shopping movements on these pages. I think they are especially admirable when they are done at the local level. The “cash mob” movement comes to mind. But there is a reality that local merchants need to understand and embrace: For continued success, they can’t depend on the good will of local shoppers, they have to offer unique selling points that give them an advantage over the national chains. When events such as Small Business Saturday introduce a new shopper or diner to your establishment, it’s a good thing. However, you need to be ready to show these folks why they should come back. If Small Business Saturday merely moves some sales volume from one day to another, then it’s really not accomplishing anything of merit. Purchase considerations It is very true that local merchants keep more money in their communities and are pillars of support for local charities and improvement projects, but unfortunately those are attributes most consumers fail to weigh when they are making a purchase decision. The perceived value needs to be more directly associated with the product, price and shopping experience. Fortunately, there are many successful local small business merchants who are doing it right. They will continue to be successful whether or not they participate in an event such as Small Business Saturday. Is that you? If it is, how about sharing some of the strategies that have enabled you to have success despite competition from some bigger...
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