Marketing For Small Business — It’s All About Common Sense
Identifying the right marketing tools to reach your target customers is a challenge for every small-business owner. While going through all the critical steps to get to the point where you can open for business, many entrepreneurs don’t think ahead about how they’re going to get customers or clients to come through the door. It’s not as simple as announcing to the world that you’re open for business. Initially, a few people may trickle in, but how will you drive the volume of business you need to be successful? When it comes to formulating a marketing strategy, use the “MACS” principle: massive amounts of common sense. By using common sense and taking advantage of the excellent, inexpensive marketing tools available today, a small business can build considerable brand buzz and ramp up its revenues. “Marketing” is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of functions, including sales, branding, public relations, brochures, logo development, direct mail, advertising, internet strategy, newsletters, and merchandising. Marketing is so complex that unless you’re a marketing professional it’s impossible to understand all the nuances involved with each discipline. As your business grows, you should consider working with a marketing professional to develop appropriate strategies for your brand development; but initially, there’s much you can accomplish on your own. Once you know who your target customers are, you can focus on strategies to best reach them. Mass media outlets such as radio, television, and newspaper advertisements are rarely the appropriate answer for a start-up. Why? For one thing, they are expensive. Also, you’re essentially paying to reach a lot of people who in most cases will never be interested in buying your product or service. Remember: massive amounts of common sense! Unfortunately, many new business owners get lured into believing they have to make a big splash with their marketing in order to get the word out. Entrepreneurs frequently email me wanting to know how to get capital so they can run a television campaign, which they believe will solve all their marketing problems. Before they know it, they’ve invested a load of money, and yet they either have nothing to show for it or they’re not equipped to support the level of business this kind of advertising drives. Let me give you example of what I mean. Do you remember the popular sock-puppet television ads for Pets.com? The site was launched in February 1999, and it sold pet supplies to retail customers. Its high-profile marketing campaign featuring the sock puppet quickly made it a widely recognized brand. In fact, the sock-puppet spokesperson was interviewed by People magazine and appeared on Good Morning America. Unfortunately, the infrastructure of the business could not support the overwhelming attention and sales the marketing campaign drove. As a result, the company lost money and was out of business by November 2000. Not the outcome you want for you want for your small business. So as you develop your marketing strategy — remember it’s all about common sense....
read moreAs the Cupcake Crumbles — What Small Businesses Can Learn.
I don’t know whether I’m happy or sad. One of my favorite bakeries, Crumbs, is closing its doors. I’m sad because I enjoyed stopping by one of its stores near my Manhattan apartment to pick up cupcakes to give as a thank you gift or a special recognition for someone with whom I worked. But I’m happy because each one of those decadent cupcakes packed about 600 calories. It takes a lot of exercise to cancel one of those puppies out. Crumbs Bake Shop opened its first store in March 2003 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan during the beginning of what many refer to as the cupcake craze. Cupcakes had been a staple at children’s birthday parties and PTA bake sales for decades. But someone decided to give the old faithful cupcake a serious make-over and it re-emerged as the hottest new desert trend. Riding the cupcake wave, Crumbs became an iconic brand offering its signature 4-inch cupcakes with think layers of frosting in myriad flavors including cookie dough, carrot cake and red velvet cheesecake. And customers paid a hefty price for the sugary indulgences — each cupcake cost as much as $4.50. That’s a far cry from the community bake sale prices. Three years ago, Wall Street embraced cupcakes when Crumbs went public and the company grew quickly. In its heyday, the brand had 78 locations in 12 US states and the District of Columbia. But its success was short lived. Customers soon tired of the tasty treats and business slowed. The company experienced several years of financial losses caused in part by its rapid expansion. Last year, Crumbs posted a loss of $18.2 million. It’s stock which reached a high of $13 per share, tumbled to less than 30 cents resulting in the Nasdaq suspending the company from the exchange and Crumbs defaulting on millions in loans. There is an important lesson to be learned for all of us in small businesses. You don’t want to be a one trick pony because eventually customers will tire of the same old, same old and move on. You may hang on for a while, but most likely if you don’t diversify your offering and keep up with market trends, your business will fail. Crumbs CEO Ed Slezak noted in an interview with CNBC that the cupcake is “too narrow of an assortment” and “too tight a niche to attract a sufficient number of people.” He added, “At the heart of it, I think that cupcakes by themselves do not attract enough people every day any longer.” he added. Perhaps, if Crumbs had broadened its product offerings it would have been sustainable. But as Kevin Burke, managing partner of Trinity Capital, LLC, a Los Angeles investment banking firm noted, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, “The novelty has worn off.” Crumbs was a one trick pony. So as the cupcake crumbles, make sure your business product or service is sustainable. There will always be trends and fads in business, that’s why it’s imperative to pay attention to market trends. Diversify your business so your success is not dependent on one product or...
read more7 Hot Ideas To Boost Summer Sales
We all love the summer, but it can be a rough time for business—they don’t call them the “dog days of summer” for nothing. With kids out of school and families going on vacation, the world of commerce becomes less predictable. To help you fight back, here are seven ideas to heat up your warm weather sales. Some will give your bottom line an immediate boost; others will help improve your brand recognition and loyalty. The summer of social media. Create a thread that will carry through your social media campaigns. You might use a “road trip” theme on Facebook, for example. As you “travel” to different states, highlight something about the state that relates to your product or service. If you are a retail establishment, create killer displays in your windows and throughout your store that are totally Pinteresting. Find ways to dovetail summer visuals with your business. Nostalgia is what it used to be! Summertime is nostalgia time. We all think about summer family vacations. Have a sale with throwback prices. Again, grab the visuals of a previous generation’s summer memories. Vacation and recreation giveaways. If you can swing it, have a summer vacation sweepstakes. If you need to scale that idea down, try tickets to a nearby summer hangout, like a water park or the county fair. How about a drawing for a summer picnic basket complete with food? Go where your customers go. Summertime is a season of festivals, community events, Little League games and more. Be there, or be square. If you can’t set up a booth, be a sponsor and hang a banner. If you can’t sell, hand out information. Temp up, prices down. To get people out of their homes when the heat wave hits, try offering a $10 discount on purchases over $100 when the mercury hits the 100-degree mark—double it if the humidity also hits 100 percent! Take me out to the ballpark. Entertain your best clients by treating them to a classic summer event, like a warm evening at the ballpark. Another option would be to rent a pontoon or houseboat for a day of cruising and barbecuing. Celebrate special days. There is a “day” for everything, check out this calendar of special days. Find some fun days that you can transform into a “hook” to get people to your business. One cousin eats free on Cousins Day, for example. BTW, I’m celebrating Penuche Fudge Day on July 22 whether or not your small business figures out a way to take advantage of it… The bottom line with all of these ideas is to associate your business with the season on some level of customer consciousness. That will tend to help maintain the flow of people to your establishment and you should then be better able to afford your own summer vacation! Image: Vintage Postcard – North Ave Beach Chicago, by Dave, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike...
read moreFight Higher Fuel Prices With Street Smarts
It’s no secret that gas prices are on their way up significantly again. Upward pressures due to global demand and unrest in the Middle East always seem to trump increased domestic production. I’m certain the neither of us like it, but there’s nothing we can do about it, except incorporate strategies to reduce our consumption. Small businesses do not have as much ability to absorb these price hikes as large corporations, so that means SMBs need to play all the angles. These “street smart” tips should get your started: Route planning. There are a number of good apps available today that allow you to find the most fuel-efficient way to drive between Point A and Point B. Many are free. See if they take traffic into consideration. For small businesses that need to make deliveries or the solopreneur who calls on a variety of clients, a fee-based app like Route4Me is worth considering. You can get the ideal route for multiple stops. I need to mention one more thing before moving on: not only does efficient route planning save on fuel, it saves on your time as well as all the maintenance associated with keeping vehicles in good condition. Scheduling. Virtually every metropolitan area has distinct traffic flows associated with the morning and evening commute hours. Sitting in traffic is a huge waste of fuel and time even if you’re navigating the most efficient route. Can you make some creative schedule adjustments that would keep your drivers out of the heavy commute traffic? Perhaps stationing a company delivery vehicle off site to allow a route to begin from a more favorable position could be arranged. Maybe starting earlier or later would be a strategy that works for you. Maintain your vehicles. Dirty air filters, under-inflated tires and other maintenance items can erode fuel efficiency. You might want to move up to higher performance air intakes and other upgrades when you have the opportunity. If you have a fleet of vehicles, you could use one to test various upgrades and see if the changes would be worth making to the others. Also, get unnecessary junk out of and off of your vehicle; extra weight costs MPGs. Promote efficient driving habits. Some folks are into “hypermiling” which promotes a wide range of driving tactics to maximize fuel efficiency. Most are not suited for business, however one of the biggest principles behind hypermiling is: go slower and steadier. Here are 100 driving tips—from the ridiculous to the very practical—and if you want to see how the Mythbusters increased their mileage by 30 percent as they held a steady speed of 45 mph, check out the video of the experiment and the after-show. Weigh in on proposed gas tax hike. You need to know that Congress is beginning to consider a proposal to increase the federal tax on gasoline by 12 cents and then index it to inflation. They promise to offset the increase by reinstating some tax breaks. Check out the proposal and let your representatives in DC know if your for it, or against it. Finally, remember that higher fuel prices hit your employees personally as well. More flexible scheduling and telecommuting might work for your business and help increase loyalty among your...
read moreHow to Successfully Crowdsource Anything for Your Small Business
Most of us have heard the legendary question medieval theologians asked, “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” A modern day version of that might be, “How many people can you fit into your office who are willing to help you with funding, projects and brainstorming?” The answer would be thousands from all around the world. That’s the power of crowdsourcing. Think of crowdsourcing as a kind of Internet dating approach to finding your small business the capital, creativity, help and ideas it needs to take it to the next level. And just as there been an explosion in Internet dating sights, there’s been a boom in crowdsourcing sites. There are some standard categories into which these sites fall. Different sites specialize in these categories. Some won’t be of much interest to small businesses, I’ll cover the ones you’re more likely to use. Crowdfunding This is perhaps the most well known application of crowdsourcing. Within this category there is great specialization. Here are some of the major players: * Kickstarter. If you have a creative project—movies, games, art, and more—this may be your best bet. Although smaller, IndieGoGo is worth a look. Tech products are also included in this group. * EarlyShares. For many small businesses with a solid idea and sound management team, this site can be an excellent source of funds. You are offering equity when you go this route. Think of it as your source of micro-angels as well as a way to involve family and friends. Fundable is similar. Crowdsource tasks There are crowds waiting to help with you all kinds of tasks you need to complete, from those that require a lot of talent to those that just take time. We’ll start with the second group. * Mechanical turk. This is an Amazon.com enterprise that connects people who need a lot of small, receptive tasks completed. If you had 1,000 pictures of products that needed to be classified, this would work for you. MicroWorkers is similar. * Creative designs. For logos, websites, banner ads or anything that requires design skills, 99Designs is currently at the head of the pack. You post a project. The designers essentially see it as a contest and propose design ideas. You pick the one you like best. CrowdSpring is another option. Elance, and oDesk are moving into freelancer territory, but you do draw a “crowd” of possible providers when you list your jobs at these sites. Crowdsource ideas Occasionally we read about NASA posing a problem and asking for ideas. You can do the same thing today. Need some killer new menu items for your restaurant, or the best way to market your new product? Try Idea Bounty. You post a brief and how much you’re willing to pay and the ideas start rolling in. You select the winner. I have one more resource for you, Crowdsourcing.org. You’ll find a directory of crowdsourcing sites here, a great blog and other useful crowdsourcing information. Any other great suggestions? Share them with us...
read moreDos and Don’ts for Your Vacation Auto-Response Email
It’s now officially summer and hopefully for many of you that means it’s time for a summer vacation. Unless you plan on responding to emails during your time out of the office which defeats the purpose of taking a vacation, then you need to create an auto-response message. An auto-response message lets your customers, clients, vendors and business associates know that you are out of the office and not simply ignoring their emails. Your response should state when you’ll return and whether you plan to check in occasionally or if you’ll be completely unavailable. Be sure to include emergency contact information in case an immediate response is necessary. While it’s important to share pertinent information, getting carried away can be damaging. Here are some things you should avoid. 1. Don’t Brag. I recently got an auto-response from a woman who went on and on about vacationing in the South of France while everyone was slaving away at work. Who cares? Save that for your friends, not your business messages. 2. Keep it Simple. One alternate contact is sufficient. For example — you don’t want to be a show-off by listing your executive assistant, assistant executive assistant and the assist to the executive assistants. The same is true about the audiences with which you work. Too many choices is confusing. 3. Avoid Humor. Lots of people like to add humor to their auto-response messages. First, humor doesn’t always translate well in an email. And secondly, goes back to my point about keeping it simple. Stick to the facts as they say. 4. Security concerns. Providing too much information in your auto-response puts your safety and security at risk. Instead of telling the world your traveling for vacation, simply stating your out of the office is all the information that is necessary. Less is best....
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