Marketing with Moxie Blog

Make a Referral Week. I challenge you to make a referral!

2010-03-08T13:13:26Z

I’m pledging to make a referral to a business I want to help as part of a national campaign to make 1000 referrals March 8-12. What a great small business stimulus plan – won’t you join me?

Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small business economy one referred business at a time. The goal for the week is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars in new business. Small business is the lifeblood and job-creating engine of the economy and merits the positive attention so often saved for corporate bailout stories.

The goal of the week long event – in its second year – is simple: To provide 1,000 referrals to 1,000 deserving small businesses across the country. And yes, the event hit its goal last year.

Do your part to stimulate the economy by telling your world about making referrals and Make a Referral Week – you’ll be in good company.

Here's the cool part. Tell the world about your referral, and be sure the company you're referring does the same for you.

Check out the latest edition of the Marketing Maxims Newsletter for more tips and resources.

Stuck on What to Write for Your Blog? Comment on Someone Else's Blog Post!

2010-02-25T07:04:39Z

While speaking to groups and clients about the value of blogging for business to draw prospects to their web site, there is always a point in the conversation when about half of the audience suddenly gets a look of panic or fear on their face -- or their eyes simply begin to glaze over. It's not that they don't get the value of blogging, or understand how to technically get a blog article posted, or realize that search engine spiders love information-packed blogs.

The yellow blog stripe they feel crawling up their back is being fueled by fear. Fear that they'll never be able to write something that people will actually want to read. The invisible thought bubbles above their heads are practically shouting, "What will I say? Who will care? I don't have time for that. Can't I pay someone to do that for me?" The answer to that last question is, yes you can. But if you're the owner or top manager of a small business, you're missing an opportunity to engage your customers in a way that was never possible back in the days before the Internet.

So, what to do? There are countless articles on how to write effective blog content. It can be daunting just sifting through blog posts about writing blogs. It's a blog world gone crazy. I finally found an article on the Small Business Trends Blog that made sense. But before you click here to read it, consider this: God didn't give everyone the gift of writing. And there is a lot of great content already out there that you can comment on and share with your readers. Just like I just did by including that link. You're an expert in your field. If you're not feeling inspired to write, search other blogs in your industry and post a comment there. Link and comment about them on your blog too. Rave or rant. Start a conversation. Your readers will probably jump right in, and before you know it, you'll have blog post with more than 350 words like I do right now. There. See? I'm done with my blog!

Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun

2010-02-11T19:37:30Z

Are you having any fun in your work life? Home life? Married life? Single life? Have you heard about the Eight Irresistable Principles of Fun? Click on the image on the right and watch the movie. It'll take a few minutes but you'll feel refreshed after you watch it. Working on your marketing plan or a project right now and feeling stuck or overwhelmed? Stressed or tired?

Feed your brain. Relax. Have fun. You'll be more creative and people will like you better.

What's your favorite principle? I like number 8.

iPad: Another Reason for Small Businesses to Harness the Internet

2010-01-27T23:51:49Z

Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty | Source: New York TimesSteve Jobs unveiled the much-anticipated iPad today, basically an iPhone on steroids. It's sleek. It's cool and it's not as expensive as some people expected. Woo hoo!

The early reviews from gadget-heads are mixed. Check out this review from Gadget Hound Ben Peterson. While the opinions of techno-prognosticators will matter to Apple and it's marketing efforts, for small business owners the most telling and important "quote of the day" (according to Time Magazine) comes from Apple's Steve Jobs, "It's phenomenal to hold the Internet in your hands."

So whether or not you run out to buy one of these hot new gadgets to run your business, the important takeaway from a marketing perspective is that now more than ever, you need an internet marketing strategy. Think of this device as a Yellow Pages for George Jetson. No more paper. The world will be at your customers' fingertips where ever they go and I expect that the iPad will spawn many competitors.

Need to find a reputable financial planner? There's an app for that. Looking for advice on how to get approved for a loan? There's an app for that. Need a plumber? There's an app for that.

Yes, the digital information age has arrived and what you say about your company on your website matters now more than ever. It's about content. Your website can no longer be a pretty digital brochure with flattering pictures and descriptions of your product or service. Frankly, no one cares about your product or service. They care about what it does for them or their business. For customer's to find you on the iPad, you'll need dynamic content that targets your niche market and explains what makes your business unique - and a social media strategy to get found - from a blog to Facebook, Twitter and more.

Apple knows this. This product will make people feel smarter, cooler and more productive. It will entertain them and their friends.

Are you and your business ready? Do you have an app for that?

Should a Customer be Your BFF? Why Not?

2010-01-07T16:28:01Z

I gave a marketing workshop this morning to a group of small business owners and one of our topics was how to identify an "ideal customer." I asked the group to describe what they think is their ideal customer. "Well, they're kind of like me," Deanna Mueller of Fetch! Pet Care in Austin said. "I mean, they like what I like, they think like me. They are kind of like a best friend." What a great perspective!

So, should a customer be your BFF -- your " best friend forever?" Within the context of a business relationship, absolutely! You want customers to know, like and trust you, right? If you're delivering a great product and high quality service -- if you're helping your customer succeed in their business, meet a need or solve a problem, it's natural that you'll connect with them on some sort of BFF level. If you're a man reading this, don't worry; I'm not talking about going shopping with your customers. But if you are focusing on getting more ideal customers, it will help to think about them like a close friend. You know what makes them tick. You have an honest conversation with them. You laugh. You cry. You send a kind note, share a new discovery or just listen to their problems. You even ignore some of their annoying character traits because you know they're not perfect -- no one is.

In my last post, I encouraged you to take a client inventory to see who you might fire and to identify your ideal clients and "hire" more like them. So go through that list again. Look for potential BFFs and create a profile that describes them. List their type of business, their demographics and what they like and value. That's a target market you should grow. But don't stop there. A BFF relationship involves giving and receiving. Your BFF is very likely to tell others about you, so ask them to be a referral partner.

Give them talking points about your target market, your unique difference and any special offer you might have. Print up some customized promotional cards they can hand to their clients, or create a custom landing page on your website to which they can refer their customers. It should offer something of value -- a free consultation or a discount that will make them look good too. It can say something like "As a valued customer, we're pleased to offer you this special program to help improve your business."

If you don't have any BFF-like clients on your customer list, what can you change about the way you treat your customers to get some?

To Your Success in 2010: Fire Your Customers!

2009-12-28T13:57:17Z

This is the time of year that most people take to reflect and look back on the year gone by and resolve to do something better in the new year. It's also a very slow time for business.

You're not likely to close any sales this week, so why not take a few minutes to take a close look at your customer list and see if you should fire any of them?

Take stock in your customer relationships over the past year. Are there any that have turned out to be disappointing, annoying, or cause you to lose money? Do they always pay you late? Do you find that they don't appreciate you or your business - that you regularly have to work harder to please them? Unless you can identify something you've done to make them unhappy, pull a Donald Trump and say, "You're fired." Why? You want customers that know, like and trust you, right? The kind that will refer business to you and value your product or service. Unless their receivables are essential to keeping your doors open, you'll be better off in the long run to let them go. You might not be able to do this right away but you can work towards it by getting more "ideal customers."

So, who's your ideal customer? Go down your current list of customers and look for the ones that appreciate you and regularly refer you. Check out their demographics. Are they in a market segment that has a need you can fill? What do you know about their attitudes and values? Importantly can you find more like them? Use this week to think about ways to narrow and focus your target market and make a plan to develop that market in 2010. As you think more about that ideal customer and that target market, you'll probably be more willing to fire those customers that don't fit the profile.

Now that you have a few ideal customers in mind, dig a little deeper and ask them why they like you. Get a testimonial you can use in your marketing materials and on your web site. Does that make you a little nervous? You should get over that. Most people feel honored when you ask them for a testimonial or recommendation. It makes them feel smart that they've chosen to work with a person or company that helps them grow their business. It doesn't have to be anything formal or well-written. You're not asking for a big case study. The next time you see them, ask them to do you a little favor and jot a few sentences on the back of their business card about why they like doing business with you. It will help them keep their comments short and do it right away. I like to use Linked In to ask people for a testimonial. It can be done quickly and allows people some flexibility in finding a moment to recommend you. Go to your LinkedIn profile page and find the "Get Recommended" section. See this tutorial from LinkedIn. If you're not on LinkedIn, you should be. You can get connected with more ideal clients and prospects there.

Oh, and if you find the client on LinkedIn that you need to fire, it'll be best to avoid asking them to "join your network." Duh.

Seven Simple Truths of Social Media Marketing

2009-12-26T16:42:30Z

1) Listening is the best way to develop strategy

Everyone knows they should develop a social media strategy before diving into to every network they can. The problem is, few can tell you how to do this because any real marketing strategy is highly personal and involves your customers, market, competitors, suppliers, products and services. The best way to approach discovering a strategy for your social media participation, and perhaps all of your communications, is to listen really, really well. Social media is one of the greatest listening tools on the planet. Your customers are telling you about their fears and hopes, they’re telling about what they like about your products and dislike about the competition, they’re telling you what they wish someone would make – and now you can hear it. If you do nothing but set-up listening stations, using free tools like Google Alerts and Twitter Search, you can get an enormous return on your time invested.

Once you spend time listening to your market, understanding how people use blogs and just what seems to work and not work onLinkedIn you may be more prepared to develop a marketing strategy, once that based on achieving marketing objectives, than ever. Don’t skip this step for tactics!

2) Nobody really wants to read another blog

I’m fond of telling anyone that will listen that every small business should have a blog. I don’t say that because I think your customers are itching to grab a cup of green tea and fire up what you wrote in your blog today. In fact, if you polled most of your customers and inquired as to whether you should write a blog, most would tell you no. But, those same customers go to search engines like Google andBing every second of every day looking for answers to questions, suppliers in their town, and ways to solve pressing problems. And when they do, guess what most of them find, that’s right, blog content!

I’m not saying you shouldn’t write incredible stuff, with a long term goal of attracting lots of readers – when these readers start linking back to that content your search results will soar – what I am saying is, write what people search in your market and your town, educate with your posts and you blog will pay off faster than any other online play.

And it that weren’t enough blog software, like WordPress, is so user simple and feature rich that it’s the best way to run your entire web presence.

3) It’s kind of a real estate game

While I started this post off talking about the virtues of a solid strategy, there is a bit of a real estate grab that comes on the front end of getting value from social media. There are many profiles that you can claim and optimize, even if you don’t quite yet know what your development strategy is, and you should claim them. Creating spokes of branded and optimized content in sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Slideshare and YouTube has become standard SEO practice, but don’t forget about taking the time to build very rich profiles on sites like Biznik, BusinessWeek’s Exchange, OPENForum, and BizSugar. (Disclosure: I write for OpenForum)

Your profiles in these outposts will serve as content real estate that you control and can help fill in the gaps when someone Google’s You.

4) Sell awareness and the money will follow

A lot of people will tell you, and perhaps you’ve experienced it first hand, that you can’t sell using social media sites. Let me ask you this, have you ever really have much luck selling anything to anyone just because they happened to be standing in front of you. The only difference is social media makes it easier to stand in front of someone. You can’t really sell anything to anyone until you’ve built trust. The most effective way to build trust in any setting is to show someone how to get what they want and allow them to come to the conclusion that you have something they might want to buy.

Social media, just like the most effective advertising, is a great place to build awareness about your content: blog, white paper, seminar, workbook. If you do that, and your content builds trust, social media is a great place to make money – think of it as another version of 2-step advertising.

5) Networking hasn’t really changed

I really believe that effective networking on social media sites like Biznik, Facebook, or LinkedIn greatly resembles that of effective networking at in person Chamber or Association events. The key difference being one of a style of engagement and perhaps a different set of follow-up steps.

Before you do, act, or respond in any manner on a social media site, ask yourself if it would be an effective response to a prospect you’ve just met at an business event? You know, you wouldn’t go shirtless, with beer in hand to an association meet and greet, why would you post the same on your Facebook profile? This varies to some degree, but not that much.

6) It makes your offline play stronger

One of the things I don’t hear enough people talking about is how much social media can impact your offline efforts. Most business is still done across a desk, but starting relationships on LinkedIn and then building them much deeper over lunch is the killerest combination.

Social media also allows you to more easily and more consistently stay on top of what’s going on in your customer’s world. A growing number of CRM tools, such as ACT2010! and BatchBook make social media activity a part of a contact’s record.

7) A system is the solution

A well run business is a collection of systems. Marketing is a system and one of the best ways to keep social media participation from becoming your full time job is to create systems and process for how you participate.

I know you see people that spend their entire day on Twitter, but you must understand that they fall into two camps a) people who make a living teaching people how to use Twitter, b) people getting ready to go out of business.

It may seem a bit robotic to talk about social media and engagement as a process, but scheduling routines for your blog posting, commenting, tweeting, fanning and friending is a must, just as scheduling the appropriate time for selling, training employees and meeting strategic partners.

--Guest Blog post by John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing

Getting the Gist of Social Media

2009-12-02T11:30:27Z

I don't often say "wow" out loud when I read about a new social media gadget, but today I did when I spotted Contrad Hall's blog post on Technorati about "Gist,"

As they say on their "About" page, "Gist is an online service that helps you build stronger relationships. By connecting your inbox to the web, you get business-critical information about key people and companies." These Seattle boys and girls are being kind of modest. This is a jaw-dropping online service that allows you to see how your contacts fit into the social media world, and how you connect to each other. I signed up and took a test drive. Say I want to know what you've been up to lately. After I enter you as a contact, I click on your name on my Gist dashboard. It shows recent content about you, including news, blogs, twitter... automatically collected, ranked and grouped. Here's where my jaw kind of dropped. You can also sync Gist with your Outlook or Google account, and it will record every email and attachment we've exchanged. It also links to SalesForce online CRM software and you can download a plug-in for Outlook so you don't have to go to the Gist website. It's all right there in Outlook.

Imagine what having this kind of information will do to help build and manage your business relationships. "Hey Bill, I just saw the online news post a few minutes ago about your promotion. Way to go!" Think of the value in not having to sift through reams of emails to find that document attachment Bill sent you five months ago.

Give Gist a try. Maybe I'll see you there.

Social Media is a Marketing Essential, but What is it?

2009-11-24T13:22:12Z

A recent survey of small businesses by Vertical Response, an email marketing service provider, indicates that (surprise) a vast majority of small businesses will turn to email as a primary marketing tactic. The survey of 831 small businesses of under 500 employees, showed that 74.1% of respondents plan to increase their use email marketing. And social media is running neck and neck. The results indicated that 68.3% will increase their use of social media in 2010.

The study also indicated small businesses won't be spending their money on banner advertising or radio and TV. There's no mention of how other marketing tactics such as print advertising, direct mail or referral marketing stack up, but it's pretty safe to conclude that social media is a marketing essential.

The report concludes, "The most important tool for small businesses to succeed in 2010: Search engine marketing, email marketing, public relations and social media cited as crucial for success."

But what the heck IS social media? I like John Jantsch's explanation of a Social Media Hierarchy in his new online course at Duct Tape University, Social Media Pro.

Blogging is the foundation for a social media strategy, and at the bottom of the pyramid. Read blogs, comment on blogs, write your own blog. Next, aggregate and filter content around subjects and use RSS technology as a tool to help you repurpose, republish and create content. Moving up, participate and manage your reputation with social search making sure your business pops up on Yahoo Local or Google Maps. Check out the competition there too. Social bookmarking – tagging content to and participating in social bookmarking communities can be a great way to open up more channels to your business. Step up to social networking on sites such as Facebook, Biznik or Linked In. Not sure where to start? Pick one platform and do it right. Don't spread yourself too thin. Micro blogging (twitter and all its varied tools) is at the top of the pyramid for a reason, it can be confusing and hard to see results. Those who are successful seem to have achieved a kind of social media nirvana.

I'll be posting a series of articles over the next several weeks, excerpting highlights from Social Media Pro. If you'd like to sign up for the full course, let me know. We can unravel the mystery of social media together.

Pass the Duct Tape. We've Got Some Marketing to do!

2009-11-19T00:03:10Z

I like duct tape. Don't you? It's just one of those essentials that everyone agrees should be in your toolbox. It's a band aid for stuffed animals, fixes a broken tool handle, makes a swell wallet or purse and can even save lives. Like it did for the Apollo 13 astronauts who used it to build a temporary carbon dioxide filter to return to earth from the dark side of the moon. It has been around since WWII where soldiers used it to fix jeeps, patch up weapons and seal ammo boxes. Why does duct tape work so well? It's sticky. And it lasts.

It's also the namesake for one of the world's best marketing systems. Duct Tape Marketing, invented by small business marketing guru John Jantsch of Kansas City. I'm attending a training intensive in Kansas City to become an authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach. As John said to me in an email before coming, "I think you'll find that this is one of the best business decisions you've made."

I'm certain John is right. My copy of his book is dog-eared, coffee-stained and full of exclamatory notes in the margins and yellow highlighter marks. It's chock-full of affordable and effective marketing advice that just makes sense. I'm excited about helping my clients and you dear reader by becoming an authorized coach.

Watch this space in the days ahead. We're sure to discover some great ways to apply sticky marketing ideas to your business.