Social Media needn't be overwhelming!

Back in the good ol’ days of the web (circa 2004), it was so easy for businesses to market via the internet; all that was necessary was a functional website. But the advent of social media has made a dramatic impact with online marketing— and in a good way. Social media is, for the most part, free, saving many marketing dollars. But just because it is free, doesn’t make it easy or cost-free, if your time is valuable. So before you jump into the social media frenzy, do your research and discover where your time and resources are best spent. A little research on the front end will save you a lot on the back end.

Use the Freebies

1. Use the free sites. Free, online networking services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great marketing vehicles to post significant news, offers, promotions, and events for your business. For example, a seafood restaurant can promote $1 oysters and ½ price margaritas to loyal Twitter followers and Facebook fans.

Measure results, focus your efforts

2. Track your social media program. See which of the free social media sites are delivering results worthy of your continued efforts and focus; abandon those not measuring up to your goals.

Search Engine Optimization — It really does matter

3. Social media can also improve rankings on Google and other major search engines by building inbound links to content on your website. Learn how to optimize your website to improve how your website ranking, or hire a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professional to do the job for you. Be sure they know how to integrate social media into your SEO program. Many times you can learn some great tips by seeing what your competition is doing and what’s working for them. Google your competition — if they appear on the search engine before you do, check out their site and compare what they are doing and you’re not.

Customers are greedy – Give them what they want

4. Customers are self-centered; they want to know: ‘what’s in it for me?’  Use social media to give customers expert advice, great links, and share valuable information. Don’t hype your business; instead create a dialogue by connecting with the customer. If you have something interesting to say, say it. Create a blog, webinar, or YouTube video to share what you know with your clients and potential clients.

Blogging is bragging!

5. Blogging helps customers find you. Comments on blogs don’t necessarily happen overnight, but your information will come up in an online search which potential clients will read, then click on to check out your website. Twittering and micro-blogging are popular now, but whichever you decide, do it regularly. Consistency wins out over content every time. Post on a regular basis; you may not necessarily get read, but your customers will see you’re out there and are current. And when they need you, you’ll be top of mind as someone to call.

Many have heard the marketing term U.S.P. or Unique Selling Proposition, but I would wager most don’t have a clue to its inherent value when marketing your business.

The term Unique Selling Proposition was originally developed in the 1940s by marketing guru Rosser Reeves, which he defined as the ability to communicate a distinct and unique benefit a product offers a consumer which only that specific product or service or brand can provide.

Business owners, often just assume their customers will understand what makes their business different or better than the competitors, and overlook the USP. When carefully nurtured, however, an U.S.P. will provide your company a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Rosser Reeves maintained an effective U.S.P. needed to accomplish the following four objectives:

1. It must make a specific proposition to the customer: “buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”
2. The proposition must be unique or “perceived unique” by your customers – something your competitors don’t have or offer and would not be able to imitate easily.
3. It should be so compelling and relevant to your ideal customers that it entices them to try your product or service because it addresses their needs, fears, frustrations, or desires.
4. It must be simple and easy to articulate and communicate so your customers quickly understand that your product or service offers them unique benefits.

An excellent example of an effective USP is the famous “Got Milk.” The campaign repositioned milk, a universal staple in practically all households which had been maligned as an unhealthy, antibiotics-filled food to avoid, to the opposite: comforting scenarios of milk and cookies, as well as a nutritional drink appropriate at anytime.

The campaign stuck in the customer’s minds and was carried into the grocery store aisles while milk consumption rose dramatically. Genius!

The fact that the campaign fostered numerous copycats with Got Fish? Got Fleas? and Got Freud? only added to effectiveness of the original USP. Even President Obama’s campaign slogan of “Got Hope” mimics the original.

A strong USP (or lack thereof) for your business can be the driving force behind the success and failure. Is that really something you want to leave up to assumption? To occur haphazardly? Or instead, will you take a proactive, deliberate approach ensuring correct positioning of your product or service exactly where it needs to be for future success.

The days of paying a huge monthly cable bill for a pre-packaged bundle of shows you don’t watch may soon be over, and just about everybody realizes it except for the cable companies.

Consumers no longer need to be at the mercy of cable companies, paying for stations and programming they don’t watch. It’s time for cable companies to realize that their business model has been rendered obsolete by a company that is renown for putting the entertainment industry on its head; Apple.

With the iPad, Apple may soon revolutionize how TV is delivered, much like it did with the music industry. Apple is promoting content through its iPad bookstore where publishers can use it as storefront to deliver content. This approach is similar to Amazon’s Kindle, but goes far beyond Kindle’s limited scope as a single use tool for reading. Through the iPad, consumers will not only be able to download books, but also movies and TV programming.

Cable companies are no longer the only source of on-demand content, as in years past. With the advent high-speed wireless delivery, consumers can find the programming they want, when they want it, through a variety of VOD (video on demand) services. The Wall Street Journal reports Hulu, YouTube, iTunes, are just some options consumers are navigating. Netflix is staying abreast of the changing dynamic of content delivery. They changed the video rental business by not adopting a bricks and mortar business model to compete with Blockbuster, which is close to becoming bankrupt, but instead incorporating a low-cost, convenient mail/internet process.  Interestingly, Netflix is also moving away from physical delivery of DVDs by mail to streaming movies and video directly to game consoles and devices, bypassing cable boxes entirely. In addition, the video provided includes a depth of content (director interviews, plot analyses, criticism, reviews) not available through cable access.

The issue isn’t content, but delivery. The days of must-buy bundles delivered by cable companies is on the wane. Victim of the new kid on the block iPad, whose flexible, portable, interactive access to broadband web, provides a far richer experience. The Harvard Business Review notes the iPad and a good internet connection is all the consumer needs for their entertainment.

Can the cable companies reinvent their business model and remain relevant to in this dynamic industry? Or are they doomed to go the way of music industry, where fans took advantage to purchase — or steal — one hit single off an otherwise mediocre album. Why buy the whole package when you can get only what you want, when you want it?

Avoiding a case of “sticker shock.”
As a marketing consultant, many times I work with businesses that are new to marketing. Invariably, I need to prepare them for a strong case of “sticker shock.” A fair part of my initial consulting work is in educating clients as to the real cost of doing marketing if they truly want to achieve the results they seek. Often the client may need to rethink their business goals to one that best fits their marketing budget. One of my most important responsibilities is to ensure clients know exactly what they can get for how much.

Get your budget in place before you start marketing.
Developing a realistic budget before one begins marketing is a critical factor of marketing success. Too often a company will dive right into marketing efforts, and realize too late it did not adequately plan to have the financial resources available to sustain success.

Know the costs associated with your marketplace.
One of the things that drive costs is location. Here, outside of New York City, we are easily overwhelmed by one of the world’s largest media centers. For example, WCBS-AM radio effectively reaches a very large business audience. But if your market is located primarily in Fairfield County, CT, you’ll be paying a lot of money to reach only a sliver of WCBS’s audience. Many business owners are surprised at the cost of advertising to reach their demographic and geographic markets, but are still unwilling to budget appropriately. This is like trying to fly across the Atlantic on a half tank of fuel. Sure you’ll make progress, but you won’t reach your destination. This is a recurring theme with educating clients as to the return-on-investment to their marketing dollars, but one that must be overcome if their business is to prosper.

Don’t worry about spending too much, worry about spending too little.
Recently, I was retained by an established, $6 million business in the document management industry. We create a five-year marketing plan with the goal to grow the business to $20 million in sales. I established an initial marketing budget of $65,000, which represented just 1% of gross sales. Sensitive to the fact they had not done much marketing prior, I felt confident we could do an effective job promoting their business with this budget amount. The program included advertising, direct mail, website development, and a PR campaign, and specifically detailed where every dollar was allocated.

Surprisingly, the owner thought it was much too expensive and could not justify such an expenditure on marketing.

When a $6 million company resists allocating 1% of gross sales for marketing, a major disconnect exists between what marketing actually costs and what clients think it should cost. And that’s a problem. It is impossible to grow a $6 million company to $20 million with a minuscule marketing budget.

Have you ever been in such a situation? You expect something to cost a certain amount, but it costs much more. You’re frustrated, the client’s frustrated, but there are expenses to make marketing happen; it doesn’t happen in a vacuum and it doesn’t happen all by itself.

In the era of Google, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, there is still irrefutable value in the good old fashioned card. Business cards, arguably one of the oldest and most important marketing tools, have been in the marketing news as of late and deserve our attention, as well they should. The business card is an essential part of your marketing strategy and should never be overlooked.

MSNBC has recently been quoted to say business cards are becoming obsolete, being replaced with complete profiles on LinkedIn and digital cards with mobile applications. Some believe this is necessary new technology, but I’m not quite convinced. Don’t overlook your business card as part of your overall marketing strategy as it plays a key role in your business image.

I am confident technology will never replace the business card as the first brand representation of yourself, other than your physical being. In many situations, business cards are the first presentation of your brand image other than your physical being. Inc.com did a story on creative, innovative, business cards, but there is no need to be that extravagant. Your card needs to carry the necessary information so a prospective client can easily contact you.

Don’t chintz on developing a quality business card—use a quality, heavyweight cardstock. Consider hiring a graphic designer. Are the business card elements consistent with your company brand image? Is your  logo and slogan included along with all your phone numbers, address, email and other pertinent information? Don’t underestimate your business card, this marketing tool has power: the power to sell your brand — how you want others to perceive you.

As antiquated as it may seem, sharing a quality business card is also a remembrance of a more civil time, pre-DUB era. (DUB is the abbreviation of DubMeNow, an electronic business card application said to be replacing physical business cards.)

A personable time when face-to-face contact concluded with, “Do you have a card?” And how nice it is that this has endured.

Roger Bannister’s name may not be a household name, but still turns heads at road races and track and field events as the first man to break the 4-minute-mile barrier way back in 1954.

Why should we lowly marketing gurus care about a 4-minute-mile?  Because they told him it couldn’t be done. They – doctors and scientists and even his fans – said it was impossible. To which Roger Bannister said, ‘I don’t think so.’

Actually, I don’t know exactly what he said, because I was barely walking, let alone running, in 1954. But as a small business owner and a consultant, advisor, marketer, and cheerleader for countless others, I know what happens in the pit of my stomach and to the hair on the back of my neck when they tell me something I want to do is impossible. I turn defiantly away and figure out how — exactly how — I can get the job done, on time and on budget. And so should you.

Do the work. Then do some more. Research, reinvent, reduce, remake and realize your impossibilities. Visualize your success. This is not new-age hogwash: it’s science.

Roger Bannister was systematic and methodical in his approach to achieving the impossible. He devoted countless hours to research, theory and practice. He immersed himself in the study of human physiology. And where he took his physical being, his mind followed. He used mental imagery to visualize success, and in doing so, reached his goal of being the first to break a 4-minute-mile.

What’s your business goal? Do you have a strategic plan to reach it? Or did someone, somewhere, tell you it was impossible?

The end of 2009 brought the end of the commuter New York Water Taxi that ferried commuters down the Hudson from Yonkers City Pier to Manhattan, docking at the World Financial Center and Wall Street, and last summer, mid-town too.

Hailed as both a tourist draw and a comfortable and believe-it-or-not, “cozy” alternative to being stuck bumper-to-bumper on the Hutch, Sawmill, 95 or pavement or rail of choice, this little-known service had been hailed by commuters, one going so far to say, “It cradles you in the morning and comforts you in the evening.”

Wait just one marketing-minute. With the cost comparable ($10 more per 10-trip vs. MetroNorth), and the trip calm, pleasant and conversational – even for New Yorkers – then what’s up? What went wrong?

Simple. Nobody knew. And you can’t sell a good thing if no-one knows about it.

Operational since May 2007 with initially four morning runs from Yonkers to World Financial District, but this year down to two, the service averaged about 75 riders daily during the summer, and 90 in the fall.  In April 2008, the one-day fare was lowered to $10, and ridership increased 40 percent – that day. According to company spokesman, ridership peaked at 3,650 in July 2008.

Last summer, NYC and parent company New York Water Taxi added a midtown Manhattan stop, with free connector shuttle bus service.  At the time, officials said they planned a geared up, major marketing campaign, going so far to claim: “some unconventional ways, guerilla marketing,” according to David Simpson, spokesman for Yonkers Mayor Philip Amicone.

Excuse me? What was the plan: ESP?

The campaign was to include television and internet marketing, drive-time radio spots, direct mail and direct outreach to big time Manhattan corporations with high percentage of Westchester-ites trekking into NYC daily. What happened?

Seeing that I live here, work here and there and everywhere, and am, it’s been said, “in-the-know” marketing wise, I hadn’t heard or seen sight or sound of the ferry. Nada. Nothing. Not a banner ad. Not a tweet. Not a billboard. Nothing shoved under my windshield wiper at the commuter lot. NOTHING.

If you market the pants off the service and it flops, well, then you’ve got nothing to sell. But this was (and remains) a viable, marketable, cost-efficient, environmentally and tourist-friendly unique service. How about sharing that information with the market anxiously awaiting it?

Recently, I was looking to get some work done on my house. Google all you want, but reputation is the only reason people buy — or don’t buy — anything. Ever.

It doesn’t really matter what a company says about itself; it’s what the customers say about the company. And when customers have good things to say, that alone will sell to other customers.

The contractor that caught my eye had a customer letter posted on their website. As a business owner, I know if a client takes the time to write a glowing letter filled with specifics, the company has to deliver. This testimonial had details on the day-to-day expectations, the quality of work, and the timeline. A bit skeptical, I asked for another testimonial. This, too, was a glowing review of recent work the company had done. These former customers were very appreciative and it showed.

From testimonials, I learned this company over-delivered, going above and beyond what was expected. They even did things that didn’t make additional money: like cleaning up each evening and taking home their own garbage. One customer wrote that they even brought their garbage cans to the curb! They just thought it was important to do to keep their customers happy and writing rave reviews.

The competition I had considered also had testimonials, but they were one or two sentences with no details, consisting of “they did a good job” and “very professional,” with a five-star rating attached. Ultimately, I went with the company with testimonials that didn’t look like generic, eBay feedback.

That’s what potential customers are looking for: in-depth, non-canned, honest testimonials. Get that and your reputation will do the rest.

JetBlue is getting very, very friendly!

JetBlue, long considered the social media maven with nearly 1.5 million followers on Twitter…but what’s this? A measly 60k on Facebook??? This can’t be! So what’s the popular airline kid to do when they have no friends?

Easy, bribe them!

JetBlue is doing just so, and dang it, everyone is wishing they did it first, but will undoubtedly follow suit. Sooner rather than later, but we, the wannabes frantically friending JetBlue will end up the winners regardless.

Here’s the deal: JetBlue Facebook wants more friends, and to get them, they’re offering a carefully engineered campaign to add more – a lot more, quickly and with as much PR as possible.

A fan focused campaign, named buffet-style All-You-Can-Jet Fan Sweepstakes thrives on the age old gimmick of FREE STUFF. What’s old is new again!

Become a facebook fan and you can win free round-trip tickets, comped airfaire and a vacation for you and — get this — three friends for 5 days and 4 nights. Or, the grand prize of unlimited free travel on JetBlue for a year. A YEAR!

Simple and easy: a marketing dream come true. Become a fan of JetBlue and submit a ballot via the JetBlue Sweeps Page tab (read more).

JetBlue gets the friends they’re looking for, and we get the chance to dream a little dream of traveling on someone else’s dime.

Hey, that’s what friends are for, right? (Up to 73k at this posting…and counting!)

The consensus of Westchester County business leaders is that — no surprise here — 2009 is a year best left behind.

So says the Business Council of Westchester (BCW), arguably the largest and most influential business organization when they released results (Click Here) of the fourth quarter 2009 economic survey, which tracks local business trends and overall confidence rating.

BCW member DataKey Consulting, LLC conducted the research and analysis, providing the results of nearly 150 local CEOs and business leaders on the state of the local economy, citing 68% of responding companies project flat to mostly declining sales for 2009 vs. 2008.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The slide has stopped with 71% of respondents expecting their revenue to either remain the same or increase over the next six months compared to last quarter. Of those who anticipate growth, 53% have enhanced customer service, 53% reduced expenses, and 22% introduced new and improved products to battle the recession.

“Marketing and advertising are important,” said one business owner who projects growth. “I invest more wisely now than ever before, but delivering high quality output and focusing on customer satisfaction will lead to positive word of mouth, and can be the very best advertising possible.”

Since when is a 52 a good grade?

Overall business confidence has doubled since December ‘08. Out of a possible 100, the Westchester Business Confidence Index for the fourth quarter of 2009 scored a 52 (with 50 being equal number of businesses optimistic as pessimistic). Last year at this time, the confidence score was a dismal 27. In comparison, that 52 is looking better and better.

Recession? What Recession?

Here at InSight Marketing, believe it or not, we’ve seen a significant increase in business. Mostly new businesses ready to direct their marketing dollars wisely. Times are tough, so we offer excellent value; great, if not excellent, word-of-mouth marketing; and teach clients to harness the good in their local economy, which can only bode well for clients, and subsequently our local economy.

Now in shaky economic times, these businesses understand the need to aggressively market to keep their business stable, and more importantly, to be well-positioned for the significant growth when the economy turns around. And it will! Promise.