Small Business Marketing Tips

Have you noticed that your marketing efforts have plateaued and growth hasn’t been where you hoped? It’s not that you’re doing anything wrong. It’s just that tactics you’ve relied on may no longer resonate with your audience. So why not spice it up a bit? Here are eight fresh and exciting marketing tactics perfect for small businesses.

1. Offer rewards for referrals. 

Did you know that 82 percent of Americans seek recommendations from friends and family before making a purchase? For those between the ages of 18 and 34, that figure jumps to 92 percent 

Simply put, word-of-mouth recommendations can greatly influence purchases. But how can you encourage referrals and recommendations? 

One of the easiest ways is to simply offer discounts and deals to current customers who refer your business to friends and family.   

2. Experiment with different social channels.

Chances are you’re at least using Facebook, but why not experiment with some other social channels like LinkedIn and Twitter? Instagram and Pinterest are ideal for sharing visual content. This may not work for every business, but they could be used to share images of your products, behind-the-scenes pictures, or even for user-generated content where you ask your audience to share pics of them enjoying your product or service.  And there’s Snapchat. It’s extremely popular with millennials, and brands like Taco Bell have figured out how to tap into that popularity. 

There’s also the microblogging platform Tumblr that comes with multimedia functionality. Want to learn more about how Tumblr can help your business? 

Before committing to a new social channel, weigh the pros and cons to make sure it’s a good fit with your business and audience.  I’ve found that most clients do best with one or a combination of social channels. You just need to figure out what works best for your company.  

3. Combine email and social.

Email marketing remains your most powerful tool for gaining and retaining customers. Because social media platforms make algorithm tweaks that can limit the visibility of your content, email marketing gives you the chance to reach your customers directly. 

Combining your email marketing and social media activities using simple social sharing tools can help you find new customers as you reach out to existing ones. 

For starters, you can include a simple “share” button in your email content so your subscribers can post your message on social media. You can also convert your social media followers into email subscribers just by sharing a link to your email signup form on your various social media channels.  

And thanks to Facebook’s Custom Audience, you can target customers via their email addresses. This allows you to stay engaged with customers who have abandoned old email addresses. For example, you can retarget customers with ads for the products that they either viewed on your site or left in their shopping cart.  

4. Interact with other businesses online or build friendly rivalries. 

This can get tricky, but when done correctly, it’s definitely a unique and effective marketing idea. For instance Old Spice. The brand’s sassy tweets have engaged brands like Oreo. It’s not vicious, nor does it cross any lines. It’s lighthearted and amusing banter that keeps their audiences engaged. 

For small businesses, engaging in friendly rivalry may not work in close-knit communities. But giving them a shout-out on social media or linking their pages is an excellent way to build a mutual and beneficial online relationship. Eventually, you may even decide to team up together for contests and deals.  

5. Run contests.

Contests are an easy way to encourage your audience to engage with your brand. 

For example, you could organize a photo contest or raffle for which customers could win a prize. Just make sure the prize is something your audience actually cares about or is somewhat relevant to your brand. 

Remember, too, that you’ll need to have a clearly defined goal that benefits your business on top of that awesome prize you’ve put up for grabs. This goal could be anything from getting more visitors to your websites to building your email list or increasing your social media followers. 

And don’t forget to announce your contest or raffle on your social media channels and send out an email blast as well.  

6. Participate in small business sites and forums.

Participating in small business sites is a learning experience, as well as a viable marketing strategy. Sites like Startup Nation and /r/Entrepreneur subs can be used for business owners and marketers to discuss and exchange ideas on marketing strategies and campaigns. 

For instance, you can create a case study for one of your business projects or marketing campaigns. Because entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for tips and tactics they can use for their business, it’s an easy way to generate some buzz for your business. 

As an added bonus, you can include some links to previous blog or social posts that are relevant to the discussion to gain some traffic back to your site. That will probably help optimize your site for SEO too.  

7. Publish other content besides blog posts.

Publishing blog posts that contain valuable content for your audience is always a smart move — as long as it’s consistent and provides your audience with value.  

However, you can’t just rely on blog posts.  

Most of us are visual learners. That’s why content like inspiring pictures, infographics, or videos are so effective. They’re easy to digest and can be shared online with just a click of a button. Other content, such as case studies or white papers, prove that you’re an authority figure, while podcasts and webinars give your audience a chance to become part of the discussion.  

8. Share your community and social efforts. 

Customers are now paying attention to the social, economic, and environmental impact that businesses have. And it’s a prevalent mindset among the largest age demographic: millennials.  

One study found that “81% of millennials expect companies to make a public commitment to good corporate citizenship.” Another discovered that “more than nine in 10 millennials would switch brands to one associated with a cause (91% vs. 85% U.S. average).” 

But don’t give back just for a photo op. Giving back needs to be integrated into your brand’s identity.  

You can give back to your community by: 

  • Leading a fundraising mission for a local nonprofit. 
  • Hosting a community volunteer day. 
  • Sponsoring a Little League or high school sports program. 
  • Donating unsold items. For example, if you run a bakery, you could give food products to a local food bank. 
  • Hosting an informational service around your products or services. For instance, if you were an accountant, you could provide free tax preparation for seniors or your fellow small business owners.  

Transparency in Marketing Is Key

Why Transparency in Marketing Is Key

 

Say goodbye to gotcha marketing
One of my long-time dentist clients recently received an email from what appeared to be a staff member of a dental practice in another state. The email gave him props on his blog articles and offered to let him use a dental health-related infographic that their practice had developed. He forwarded this offer to me to check out, and while the English looked a bit odd (smacking of a possible SPAM email), there was no doubt that the attached infographic was informative about gum disease. I reached out to the author of the email offer, “Victoria”, to let her know we were writing a blog that Friday and would like to take her up on the offer to use the infographic. When I received her reply the next day, again it was written awkwardly as though maybe it was coming from another country and not the actual dentist’s office. Oh and there was an embed code to add with the graphic pointing to the dental practice who supposedly developed the graphic. As a routine part of our vetting process, I called the dental practice shown in “Victoria’s” email domain since there was no actual contact information in her email, another indicator we should probably validate the offer. When I called the practice, the front desk had never heard of “Victoria” nor the infographic.

The story goes on straight down a spiraling rabbit hole. The front desk asked me to forward Victoria’s email to them. Then start the psychotic emails from “Victoria” asking why we accused her of all sorts of crimes against humanity. Turns out that “Victoria” is just a fictitious name used by a third party marketing firm hired by the dental practice. Also turns out that in fact “Victoria” is European and while the dentist nor his office knew the tactics this third party marketing service was employing, they seemed to be okay with it once we spilled the beans.

This is trick marketing. The SEO marketer who came up with this marketing strategy knows this. While their defense was “no webmaster would return their emails if they thought they were dealing with a third-party marketing firm versus the actual dental practice”, it’s still deceptive.

Today customers have more choices than ever, and customers choose to do business with companies that are honest and transparent. We’ll pay more to do business with companies who refrain from gotcha-marketing. No one likes to feel like they’ve been bamboozled–whether that’s not being upfront about the actual person sending the offer, offering marketing tactics that don’t deliver any value, or sending out offers that make a customer look bad.

The marketer is faced with two roads. One road is paved with gimmicks and tricks that confuse customers into clicking or taking action. The other road is lined with a value-added service. We would have used that infographic and given a backlink and credit to the other dental practice had the marketer been transparent.

Moral to the story—when selecting a marketing firm, ensure they are upfront and transparent because after all, they represent YOU.

Email + Social = Engagement

Social Media Consulting OKCDeploying Social Tactics to Deepen Your Subscriber Relationship

In the ever-evolving landscape of email marketing, social media is playing a more integral role in the subscriber relationship. It’s critical that we as marketers learn to use our email marketing programs to deploy effective social tactics that respond to the customer life cycle and engage beyond the first click. In this whitepaper, we will outline five tactics to leverage in your email strategy today to drive impact from the basics of social sharing to advanced mechanics such as social shopping.

Whether it’s implementing social content in your email marketing or utilizing social channels to deepen the breadth of your customer service, it’s important to identify how your customers and prospects identify with your brand and drive tactics that facilitate immediate engagement.

Is Social Necessary?

The reality is that implementing social media tactics into your email marketing mix shouldn’t be done simply because everyone else is doing it. Depending on your business objectives, deciding how and when you will use this mix is critical. In addition, it’s imperative to ensure you have the appropriate resources. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. Do we have “share-worthy” content?
2. Can we measure the impact?
3. What kind of content/offers should we develop that give subscribers value?

After you’ve answered these questions and believe that social tactics will deepen the subscriber relationship, it’s time to begin defining how you will integrate social into your email marketing mix.

 

Read the full article at iContact.com here.

Email Marketing Tips from Constant Contact

email-frustrationConstant Contact came out with a very clever video about what drives your email readers crazy! We’ve all had one of ‘those’ emails drop into our inboxes—the kind that make steam start to come out of your ears! Well, you may be unintentionally causing the same reaction in your readers because of a few mistakes, BUT the good news is that they’re easy to correct!They narrowed it down to a top five list entitled “5 Things Your Email Readers Hate”. Must of these are common sense, but you’d be surprised how many of my own clients commit these infractions. Click on the video to watch and learn or read their blog article below.

I’ve picked out 5 of the top things that email newsletter readers hate, and how to avoid or fix the issues:

1. Receiving unsolicited emails

No one likes to find out that they’ve been added to a mailing list ‘by surprise’, and atConstant Contact we take ‘permission only’ list building very seriously.

However, sometimes even properly opted-in subscribers can forget or misunderstand why an email is being sent to them.

To prevent this make sure you do the following:

  • Use a “from” name & sending address that your audience recognises. Include your name and your brand name if you can.
  • Always use the SAME from name and email address so they know who you are.
  • Include a permission reminder and tell them why they are getting your emails. This will reduce your unsubscribe rate AND the number of spam reports you receive.
  • Use your logo and branding, so that readers instantly realise that it’s you.
  • Most importantly—always ask permission to email them.

2. Not being able to read your email on their mobile

The majority of smartphone owners read emails on their mobiles these days, so your readers need to be able to read your newsletter on their phone.

A few key factors will make all the difference:

  • Use a single column template for your email. This approach makes your content much more flexible for all screen sizes (Consulting Card and Consulting Newsletter are two good Constant Contact templates for this purpose).
  • Use fewer images in your email. No one wants to see a whole email full of big red Xs, so only use a couple of key images essential to your email.
  • Don’t embed text in images. If you have text overlaid on an image, and that image doesn’t show, then the text is lost too. So make sure that you keep images and text separate wherever possible.
  • Keep it shorty-short-short! People have short attention spans online—when they are reading on a tiny mobile phone screen, it gets even shorter! Don’t make them scroll, just share the bare essentials. It may help to think in sound-bites!

3. When it’s hard to find your contact details

I get your email and I want to take advantage of your product or offer, but wait! I can’t find your phone number or website address to go and find out more or place an order. Make sure that your contact details are included clearly on your email, so that your readers can get in touch.

4. Stupid spelling mistakes

Now that spell check is a normal part of everyday business life, readers have an even lower tolerance of spelling errors than they did before. Spelling mistakes make it look like you don’t pay attention to detail, and that’s not a good message to send to a potential customer!

Spelling is super-easy to fix though. Just run a spell check on your newsletter before you send it out (Constant Contact has one built in!)

If you want to make doubly sure—have a friend or colleague (who can spell!) proofread your newsletter before you hit send.

5. Not finding the content valuable

Your readers subscribe to your emails because they want to know what you have to say—whether that’s info about your latest offers, useful tips, or expert insight into your industry. So, you just have to remember to give them what they signed up for!

This is not hard, I promise, and the easiest way to stay on track is to ask your readers if they are getting what they want from your emails.

On a month-to-month basis, you can also keep on top of this potential issue by asking yourself two questions before you send:

  • Would my average subscriber read right to the end of this email?
  • What’s the one big thing that my reader will take away from this?

It’s not hard to avoid these problems

So go ahead and put the above tips into practice. I’m sure it will make a difference.

 

 

10 Last Minute Holiday Marketing Ideas

holiday-marketing2013December is a crunch time for retailers and many B2B businesses. Salespeople push to fill their quotas, wholesalers rush to get shipments out and retailers seek enough sales to achieve a profitable year.  Maybe you’ve been focused on the short term. But it’s November and your holiday marketing plan needs work.  It’s time to act quickly to help customers find you.  You can still reach them before they make their purchasing decisions. According to Google, for example, 70 percent of consumers wait to make holiday purchases until Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

There’s also a lasting benefit to holiday marketing.

With the right tactics, holiday growth can be a long-term deal, rather than a quarterly bump. It’s an opportunity to get customers in the door (or onto your site), and then keep them coming back.  By leveraging coupons, discounts or special bonus items during the holidays, you can become a regular destination for your new customers, generating long-term repeat business that pays for the discounts or promotions you create.
Ready to start? Your friends at Vocus, along with some industry experts, are here to pitch some tactics, tips and ideas for holiday marketing success.

Read and download the full article here by Vocus.  It’s awesome!

Holiday eMarketing Guide

Get the guide for Holiday eMarketing tips so you can build the best Holiday EVER. iContact came out with this nifty guide for their customers and we thought we’d share with you. Just click on the image below to open the PDF file and you’re on your way to a successful holiday marketing plan.

holiday-emarketing

iContact Rules

I’ve used a lot of email marketing services in my day – Fishbowl, Constant Contact and the like. When iContact first came on the scene, I was solely inspired by their pricing (much lower than the competition). Since the day I decided to open an account, I have not regretted that decision. Their customer service is great. Their templates are easy for my clients to use with no HTML or technical experience required. I love the custom HTML feature for designers. Earlier this year they developed several templates for newsletters, invitations, etc. that from a designer’s point of view, are really nice. They added linking with Social Media so that your eBlast gets posted to Facebook, Twitter, etc. without an extra step. Others must agree because they consistently won Consumer awards for best mass email app. And the best news is that they have remained very cost attractive.

icontact