Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Six Effective Ideas to Market Your Business


Reaching your potential customers and creating a positive image for your business are two of the most important indicators of a successful marketing campaign. Sometimes associated with branding, establishing a positive business image is actually more than that; it involves the quality of your product or service, your commitment to customer satisfaction, your consistent customer outreach efforts and your involvement in the community. It also goes hand in hand with a solid marketing plan that not only guides your activities, but also indicates a certain level of professional sophistication to existing and potential customers.

Every day you should be paying attention to advancing your public image. Every day you should be proactive in your approach. In the process, don’t be afraid to experiment with new marketing tactics, but be careful it is not at the expense of your overall plan.

If you have already developed a marketing plan, you probably already know the answers to the following questions. If not, now is the time to do some important thinking and doing! 

·         Who are your customers and competitors?
·         What is your goal? Are you starting a new business or expanding an existing one?
·         Have you clearly defined your niche in the market?
·         What are your key messages…what makes you unique?
·         What are your key approaches?
·         What are your tactics within these approaches?
·         What is your timeline, and what are your benchmarks?

Once you have figured out the answers to these questions, you can begin to explore the different steps that you can take to reach your target customers. The steps below are a few of the most important ones to evaluate: 

1. Create online visibility
·         Make sure that you have a website. If you can’t hire someone to design it for you, use a company like Yola.com; SiteSell.com or HomeStead.com.
·         Set up a listing in local search engine directories using resources like Google.com/local/; Bing.com/local; and listings.local.yahoo.com/.
·         Create a business profile on social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
·         Participate in online conversations and comment on blogs related to your product or service.
·         Write your own blogs about your area of expertise or share tips that can help your target audience.

2. Develop branding tools
·         Create a logo and company slogan.
·         Design and print professional business cards and stationary.
·         Give your friends and associates your cards so that they can distribute them to their contacts.

3. Reach out to your industry
·         Attend meetings held by groups like the Chamber of Commerce or other civic associations. Be attentive to the people you meet. Develop relationships.
·         Join and be active in several membership groups. These groups often list their members and contact information on their websites.
·         Offer to speak at industry conferences.
·         Place an ad in a conference brochure.

4. Reach out to your community
·         Create goodwill by volunteering for an annual cause.
·         Sponsoring a fundraising activity.
·         Offer your service or product to a non-profit to use in their fundraising events.

5. Satisfy customers’ expectations
·         Make sure that customer satisfaction is a business priority. Anticipate their needs. Meet deadlines. Exceed their expectations whenever possible. Word travels fast.
·         Offer two versions of your product or service – one that is “premium” and one that fits their budget.
·         Always deliver a high quality product or service.
·         Communicate often with your customers.
·         Perform quality assurance surveys (hire a third party to obtain honest feedback)
·         Follow up with them periodically even after your transaction has been completed.
·         Ask them for testimonials and referrals.

 6. Explore low and moderate cost advertising:
·         Send press releases to local newspapers, TV stations and radio stations. Explore online press-release services.
·         Consider using a magnetic sign on your car advertising your business.
·         Partner with businesses that complement your business. Share leads and mail lists. Experiment with cross promotional activities.
·         If your business is minority-owned or woman-owned, consider getting certified by private or government organizations.
·         Write letters of introduction to people who may be interested in your product or service. Follow up with postcards or phone calls.

The bottom line – be constantly attentive to your business and to your customers. Engage consistently. Look for opportunities to expand your client base while also retaining your existing one. Be positive; be ethical; be sincere. Your business is an expression of who you are. Treat it with care!!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Partnerships

As the owner or manager of a small or medium-sized small business, you may sometimes feel as if you are working in isolation. The market seems increasingly competitive; money is tight; and your days are busy. It’s hard to set aside time to network, much less develop strategic alliances with other businesses. However, business alliances have been proven to strengthen companies and lead to their growth. Many companies are using this strategy to access a larger slice of their target market and also provide their customers with a wider range of complementary resources.

Whether you call it a partnership, an alliance or collaboration, this kind of arrangement can be described as a mutual agreement where participants work together to advance their common interests. Instead of spending time trying to beat their competition, business owners are embracing a more visionary approach that assumes that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” It is a great strategy that combines the resources, talents, ideas and goals of more than one business in a plan for mutual success.  If you are a small business, it is well worth taking the time to explore this strategic path.

A partnership can be a formal or informal arrangement depending on the participants and their level of mutual trust. Formal partnerships have agreements that are enforceable by civil law and usually require a signed “Articles of Partnership.” These partnerships may even involve multiple ownerships with different lines of authority and roles. Informal arrangements may simply involve a memorandum of understanding between the parties. These informal, collaborative partnerships generally provide complementary services or products in order to reach out to and service more customers and are especially popular among small businesses. 
For instance, a small company that publishes books may establish a collaborative arrangement with a marketing company and an illustrator. Rather than hiring a marketing expert and an artist to his or her staff, the publisher uses these partners to increase the quality and range of services for his customers and also have increased access to potential customers.


There are also “competitive” business collaborations where two companies offering similar products or services agree not to establish a presence in locations where their partner is already present. Whether it is formal or informal, collaborative or competive, partnerships offer the opportunity to operate on a higher level than each company can do on its own. If you are considering a business collaboration or partnership, there are five important points to keep in mind.

---Make sure that all parties have a common understanding of the objective and vision so that expectations are clear and everyone has a specific role. Write everything down. Develop a simple and clear contract or memorandum of understanding. No question should be left unaddressed. 
---Once you are in a partnership, remember that collaborative thinking is the key to success. You are no longer thinking and planning in isolation. Make room in your mind for new approaches and new ways of conducting business. Embrace change. Keep the collaborative vision a daily focus. 
---Communicate freely and often with your partners. Be open and flexible. Establish a trusting relationship. Remember that each partner has different skills to bring to the table that should be utilized and celebrated.
---Find a partner that you genuinely like as a person. You will find that there is a lot of positive energy that comes from working with someone you like. Nurture this energy! And don’t forget to have fun!
---Attend conferences; join associations; be an active member in your community. The wider your network, the more likely it will be that you will find other small businesses that will be the perfect complement to yours.

Unfortunately, not all collaborative efforts are successful. In some cases, collaborations are started with the best intentions, but will fizzle out. Each partner needs to contribute something substantial that benefits the partnership. If one partner does not do his or her share or does not live up to expectations, the relationship will become dysfunctional, productivity will be compromised, and the collaboration will not be sustainable. This is why it is so important to work with someone who shares your personal values and work ethic. As awkward as it may feel, never hesitate to dissolve a collaboration that is not living up to the shared vision.

In the end, whether it is in a depressed or thriving economy, creating and leveraging relationships is a critical element in business growth.

"Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success."
            -Henry Ford

Monday, October 1, 2012

12 TIPS for great customer service

Oh boy, I thought this was a great topic because customer service is the cornerstone of any business. How else does one survive? A great company with poor customer service will not. That's why customer service matters!

We all know that providing great customer service is the key to building lasting relationships with our customers. Our reputations are directly proportional to their level of satisfaction. Even a very sophisticated marketing plan cannot be effective if the “word on the street” is riddled with complaints. Because of that, we must never forget that each member of our customer base is a unique individual who expects to be treated with professionalism and care.

With that in mind, here are a dozen tips that will help each of your customers feel like #1!

  1. First impressions mean a lot. Whether you meet a potential customer through email, on the phone or in person, your attitude and tone will either draw a person closer to you or cause him or her to be guarded. A positive attitude is indispensable. a) If you are responding to an email, be courteous, informative and responsive. b) If you are having a phone conversation, smile even though you can’t be seen. It can be felt, believe me! c) If you are meeting someone in person, maintain eye contact and be optimistic throughout the conversation. Body language is a powerful tool. Focus. Smile. Don’t ever underestimate the “feel-good” factor.

  1. Respond to all communications within 24 hours even if it is a response (not an auto-response) indicating that you have received the message and will be in touch shortly. You don’t have to have the answer within those 24 hours, but you should always respond.

  1. Learn about a customer’s needs through active listening. This means that you do not make assumptions, you do not interrupt and you ask them open ended questions.  (i.e.: what is costing you the most time or money?) Take the time to “hear” rather than just listen and then clarify when you do not fully understand. Get into practice of summarizing and repeating what you have heard. Take notes. Some feel that taking notes is not appropriate, but I feel it’s perfectly acceptable as it helps to re-confirm what you heard and allows you to ask further questions to clarify comments. This can also help you to practice forward thinking of other ways that you can help.

  1. Once you understand a customer’s needs, provide several approaches to fulfilling them so that your customer feels some measure of autonomy. Remember that he or she wants to feel that you are providing individualized attention. Review your notes immediately following a meeting or conversation. You may think that you will remember everything…but even the smallest detail could be important. Also, send them a thank you note with two business cards, one to keep and one to give.

  1. Be thoroughly knowledgeable about your products or services. If you can’t answer a customer’s question, don’t fudge it! Just indicate that you will check into it and will let them know that you will follow up with an answer as soon as possible. Ask for his or her communication preferences and respect those preferences.

  1. When you agree on a deadline (whether it is a product or a service), do every thing you can to deliver before their deadline! Always try to exceed expectations in terms of quality and timeliness. If you cannot meet their deadline, contact them right away, be apologetic and address it with a solution. This is also the case should you have to deliver bad news. Contact them right away and offer a solution. Things happen and although it’s not their preferred outcome, your efforts to accept responsibility and respond timely will be respected.

  1. Get to know your customers personally. Ask about their families. Talk about the weather, their favorite team, their hobbies…anything to let them know that you care about them. When you ask them, make a record of those details so you can use it (for instance, send a birthday card).

  1. After you have established a trusting relationship with your customers and have inspired confidence, continue to relate to them with active listening. Set up reminders on your calendar to check in with them. Once you understand their business goals, you will begin to anticipate their needs so that they will always feel ahead of the curve… and they’ll think of you as a go-to person. When appropriate, ask them if they will give you a testimonial that you can place on your website.

  1. Never say “no.” Work with the attitude that there is always a solution. Even if don’t have the resources to fill a particular need, don’t hesitate to provide referrals to partners. Remember that referrals can generate some great two-way alliances. Establish those referrals early so you can contact an already warm connections. Partnerships and networking peers are extremely helpful

  1. Thank your customers for their business sincerely and often.  Customers thrive on being appreciated! Offer customer appreciation discounts at your company anniversary date or the date they contracted with you. Ask them if they would be willing to participate in occasional surveys to help improve your services/products.

  1. Make sure that your professional work habits are sound. Do not allow yourself to procrastinate or perform without a plan of action. Learn and practice effective priority management skills and always use goals with deadlines.

  1. And finally…in order for you to take care of your customers, you should also take care of yourself. Be sure to schedule time off for relaxation, family and friends; give yourself permission to restore your energy so that you can project a “can-do” persona to your customers. The next time a customer asks a courtesy question like, “How are you?” you will be able to reply, “Great!” and then set the tone for a great conversation.
BONUS TIP: Treat your employees well too because they are the front line to your customers. So... service starts within and penetrates out! Say thank you! Show appreciation with a surprise perk to maintain good morale.
Treating your customers & employees with care and thoughtfulness will bring you repeat business and a positive reputation…post these tips where you can see them every day!!  What helpful tips should we have added to this list? Please share!