Anonymous Ad Guy

Fine Tune Your Marketing Program Now.

As an ad guy, I'd love to say that the key to effective marketing in a downturn is to spend more. And with some of my larger clients with heaps of cash reserves, that actually can be a smart strategy. Think about it-- the competition, dealing with the same economy as you, is in retreat, doing less to bring in customers. Which makes this the perfect time to advance your own position and grab market share. Provided a business has the resources to make such a move, times like these provide terrific opportunities to position for future growth. It's how Macy's is doing it right now, even though they're hurting.

But chances are, that's not you.

More than likely, you don't have the reserves to just throw money at the marketplace. Let's assume that, as with most small businesses, sales are down and clients are slow to settle accounts. The revenue isn't coming in as reliably as you'd like, and you've got bills to pay. Odds are, you're going to be forced to spend less on everything, marketing included.

The question is, can you actually make your marketing program better even as you're cutting costs? The answer is a big fat happy yes.

When the economy is solid and the money's rolling in, most businesses tend to get comfortable with the way they market, no matter how effective the program actually is. Only in a downturn do we realize that our marketing campaigns are far from bulletproof, and indeed may not be doing nearly enough to drive business and provide a healthy return.

Let's say your marketing campaign has over the past few years driven a 3 to 1 ROI-- for every dollar you've invested in marketing, you've gotten three back in revenue-- and it's worked just fine, so you've stuck with it. But now that revenue is down, you've got to cut marketing costs, making that ROI an impossibility, right? Wrong. In fact, now might just be the time to boost it even higher.

Here are a few ways to increase effectiveness even as you trim budgets.

Start From Zero.
I don't care how good things are, how much dough is rolling in the door, every truly great marketing platform starts with those things that don't cost a thing. And number one on that list is word-of-mouth. Get your customers to sell for you by making sure they're happy with what you provide. I touched on this subject last week in my article Two Magics Word For Dealing With Customers: Serve Them. And I cannot stress it enough. The single greatest marketing weapon any business has is a satisfied customer.

Explore Free Media.
If you're not doing something that's news worthy to somebody, then you're not doing enough. If you're a neighborhood business, what can you do to get noticed by the community press? If you're a BtoB, what can you do to get the attention of the trade publications? Remember that all news outlets need tons of content. What can you give them about your business that's timely and of genuine value? This stuff isn't easy, so take a look at your total marketing budget and consider shifting more money to PR-- even reach out to a freelance PR person and negotiate a month-by-month deal. Having a smart, connected PR specialist on your side can pay back handsomely.

Optimize Everything Digital.
That's the beauty of marketing on the net-- everything you do can be tracked and evaluated. Now's the time to do it. Start with a hard audit of your website and make sure it's doing its share of the work. Research best practices for websites in your category, or if you can swing it, bring in a specialist. Again, think of it as an investment. Minor tweaks to a site can can lead to major bumps in conversions. Next go through all your paid and organic placements, and make sure you're getting all you can from your top performers. Accept no mediocre conversion rates; put as much as you can into the things that you know are working. I've seen click-through rates increase ten-fold through smart optimization-- meaning you can explode traffic and spend less all at once.

Use Digital Learning In Your Traditional Media.
Your customer's brain works the same whether they're reading a banner or a print ad. If a message is resonating online, it'll work for you offline, too. This will help you keep your overall message consistent and relevant-- which will help your campaign work even harder.

Remember The Magic Words For Marketing In A Bad Economy. Consistency, care, and value. Enough said.

Stay Focused. Stay Aggressive.
One of the worst mistakes you can make is to make little cuts across the board in your marketing mix. That will only spread your message thin and render it ineffective to everyone it touches. Better to concentrate your efforts on the targets with the most potential, and save the secondary markets for another day. Rest assured, that day will come.

Keep An Eye On The Competition.
They're in the same situation as you. Hungry for business and watching every penny. They're also apt to make mistakes. Most likely, in their own efforts to control costs, they'll cede a portion of the market. Be ready to pounce when they do. Remember, marketing is ultimately about gaining and advancing a position. And the easiest position to gain is the one that your enemy has surrendered.

Got any other thoughts on how to do more woth less? I'd love to hear them, so chime in.

Get More From Your Marketing While Spending Less.

Yeah, I know. It sounds like the beginning of some bogus sales pitch. Next thing you know, I'll be inviting everyone to a can't-miss seminar in some airport Marriott conference room where, for the low price of $1495.00, one of my fully-trained Anonycoaches will reveal the mystical secret tricks to magical marketing! It practically pays for itself! Send a check to reserve your seat now!!!

The fact is that most businesses waste some amount of money on marketing. In boom times, you can throw the money around like down pillows at a Junior High slumber party. But the party, for the foreseeable future anyway, is over.

As the Financial Times points out in this terrific article about building brands on tighter budgets, the simple truth is that when less revenue is coming in, businesses have less to invest in marketing. And while that's hardly ideal, it also forces good marketers to focus on what works. In other words, you know that cost-cutting initiative you've had on the back burner for so long? Time to bring it to the front.

So this will be the big topic for next week. We'll explore ways to fine-tune a marketing program to make sure that every penny is accounted for. That results are measurable. And that your marketing budget continues to be an effective investment, and not just another business expense.

In the meantime, if you feel yourself tempted by some pie in the sky get-rich-now pitch, check this out instead. My favorite quote from his new book, Don't Be Needy, Be Succeedy-- "76% of what we do can be put down to our behaviors."

And yes, it is very much a joke site. Have a killer weekend.

Two Magic Words For Dealing With Customers: Serve Them.

I'm a sucker for stating the obvious, and that headline should rank up there with the finest of my "gee, no kidding" tips. But customer service is one of the more hazy, abstract parts of running a small business, and you need look no further than your own daily encounters in shops, or on the phone, or at restaurants, to know that genuinely good customer service is far rarer than it should be.

I just returned from a long weekend in Key West. Took the wife to a wedding. We flew, we ate out, we stayed in a little B&B. You can see why customer service might be on my mind. And let me tell you, I got the full range over the past five days. Great, good, bad, ugly, and mind-numbingly wretched.

Not to worry. This isn't going to turn into another blog-based screed about airlines losing my luggage (which they did) or lazy, slack-jawed waiters who don't fill up water glasses and screw up the check (yep). Tons of hotheaded rants like that get published online every day-- just google "service sucks" for a window into that angry, fist-shaking world.

But this trip did serve as a reminder of the simple power of taking care of your customers.

Any successful small business has, at its core, two things: a loyal base of regular customers, and employees who know how to keep them that way. Reliable customers mean reliable revenue-- the lifeblood of every business.

Here are are a few simple rules for getting, and keeping, a dependable base of satisfied customers.

Manage expectations.
It starts with one of the fundamental rules of effective marketing-- make sure you aren't making promises your product can't keep. The quickest way to turn off customers is to create false expectations. The quickest way to turn them into regulars is to make a compelling claim, and then fulfill it. That builds trust.

Surprise them.
Ask yourself, what can I do to enrich the experience of doing business with me? Consider the inn owner who greets her arriving guests with a chilled glass of champagne. The business-to-business service provider who send his clients personal thank-you notes. The restaurateur who makes special Mickey Mouse pancakes for the kids (like they do at my favorite breakfast joint). These are the little, special touches that endear people to your business, and that help separate you from the competition in the minds of potential customers. They don't have to cost a lot (work them into the marketing budget), but they can pay of richly.

Incentivise loyalty.
Rewards programs aren't just for airlines anymore. There's hardly a business out there that can't offer a "buy four, get one free" deal. What happens? They buy four and become repeat customers. And you want as many of those as possible. Just make sure you offer them something good. And keep it simple. A rewards program needs to actually be rewarding in order for it to work.

Learn all you can from your loyalists.
Loyal customers are valued for more than just the money they blow. They are your number one source for good customers research. So talk to them. Survey them. Know everything they like and dislike about dealing with you. In most cases, you'll find them eager and willing to talk. Create demographic profiles of where they live and who they are as people. You may well find interesting patterns in the types of people most likely to do business with you. Then focus your marketing on finding more just like them.

Empower your employees.
Customer service begins and ends with the people who deal with your customers. So make sure you've got employees who not only know the deal, but believe in it. Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines said that one of the ways he'd evaluate a potential pilot is by watching how he treated the receptionist. If the pilot was rude to her, odds were pretty strong that he'd be rude to customers, too. Herb wanted good-hearted people, and he empowered them with the authority to make things right for the customers. He encouraged laughter and smiles, which don't cost a penny but (especially in the hellish world of airlines) are invaluable. The customers loved this, and guess what? So did the employees.

Eliminate the trouble makers.
It's often said that businesses spend 80% of the time dealing with 20% of their customers. In my business, ad agencies often get saddled with clients that force them to operate at a loss to service their business. Crazy as it sounds, some agencies do it, hoping that they'll be able to make it profitable down the road. It rarely works. In order for a small business to thrive and grow it simply can't afford to do it that way. Always keep your eyes open for those customers that cause more harm than good, and steer them in a new direction. Then spend your time taking care of the customers who do your business good.

Use your loyal customers to help spread the word.
There's no marketing tool, no form of advertising in the world more effective than word-of-mouth. And there's really only one way for you to effect how it spreads: treat your customers well. If you take good care of them, they'll happily take good care of you. And the more they're out there, evangelizing in your name, the less you'll have to spend on other forms of marketing.

I'll leave you with this. there's a little B&B in Key West I'd gladly recommend to anyone. It wasn't perfect, none really is, but it lived up to our expectations. Little things, like fresh baked pumpkin bread, made a big difference. And above all else, they were just plain nice to us. We felt, the entire time, like we were welcome, that we were appreciated, that we mattered. No wonder they're booked months in advance.

That's how great businesses treat customers.

The Ad Guy Is Taking A Few Days Off.

I'll be out of pocket for the next few days, attending a wedding and romancing the wife. But I'll be back online next week. Just went through a fascinating rebrand with a company, and the lessons learned apply to small business. So stay tuned, stay smart, and keep building those businesses.

We've got lots to talk about.

AG

Why Did Obama Win? It's Simple.

Quick, can you name one word that defined the message of the Obama campaign? Of course you can-- change.  No matter what side of the political spectrum you fall on, it's easy to whittle Obama's core message down to that one little word. It became the essence of his brand, and of the strategy that informed his entire campaign. Through the ups and downs of the last two years, his campaign stuck by its brand religiously, re-enforcing it whenever they could. Change was on yard signs and bumper stickers. It was on the podium when he gave a speech, and even painted on the side of his campaign plane. But most important of all, it was in the mouths of most everyone who came to support him. "Why do I support Obama? We need change."

So simple.

Now, how about one word to describe McCain's message? You could make the case for maverick, though that was really just a way to describe McCain's style, not his message. So, how about one phrase? Country First was a solid slogan when they introduced it at the convention. At a time when people were eager to push beyond partisanship, there was something quite compelling there.

But there was something fundamental missing. There was no core strategy. After the convention, the strategist in me wanted to see McCain take Country First and build a case for himself from it. Instead, the campaign bounced from tactic to tactic trying to make something stick. They didn't let Country First build over time (in truth, it was introduced way, way too late-- he should've been hitting that back in the primaries).

In the end, our rather distracted electorate, many of whom really only started paying attention in the final six weeks, did what all consumers do. They moved towards the message that connected with them the best.

A simple, relevant message, repeated often, until it becomes a part of the consumer's own psyche-- that is textbook brand marketing. In election after election, from the president right down to the most localized ballot initiative, the winner tends to be the one who does this the best.

And it's exactly the same for you.

There's a reason why political consultants always preach the importance of staying on message. There's a reason why they believe it's a mistake to respond to everything the opponent does. If it re-enforces the brand's message, do it. If it distracts from the brand's message, don't do it. Simple as that.

Obama started with Change and built an entire movement around it. McCain started late with Country First, but didn't use it to form a cohesive, consistent message that people could connect with. And that cost him.

Let's take it back to my posting from back in early September, Meet The Brandidates. In it, we discussed the key factors for successful branding in a campaign: consistency of message, relevance of message, fulfilling the brand promise, and brand image. Obama won the election, in part, because he won in all these basic marketing categories.

So, what can the small business person learn from this?

1. Keep your message simple, consistent, and relevant.

2. Stand for something that inspires people.

3. Be aware of the image you project, and who you're projecting it to.

4. And always live up to the promise of the brand you create.

Obama nailed the top three. Time will tell how he does with number four, but I'm hopeful.

Just keep it simple, and the customers will come more simply, too.

Marketing Food For Thought: November 10, 2008

Back to business, people.

The election is over, the world is still spinning on its axis, and the sky has yet to fall. After to speaking to several small business owners over the past week (plus a couple of CEOs  and CMOs from the big business side) the focus is still the same: how to position your business for growth and success in a down economy. So that's our focus today.

Tomorrow, I'll bring you all in on what occupied me last week: the marketing of the presidential candidates. I've run advertising on a couple smaller campaigns over the years (with mixed results), and had to prep for a couple of trade interviews on the subject, so it's been heavy on my mind. There's plenty for small business folks to learn from the election, so tomorrow we'll take off our partisan hats and slap on our thinking caps.

Until then, Biz Journals has this look at how small business groups are assessing the outcome of the election.

From way up in the Great White North, the Globe and Mail chimes in with what you can do do protect your brand when it gets into the hands of others. Oh, it'll happen.

The Motley Fool's UK site offers up a handy five point small business survival guide.

Marketwatch reports on how Cisco is betting big on small business as a future driver for it's own success.

And from The Chicago Tribune, a tribute to Studs Terkel, the writer and interviewer, who died just over a week ago. What's it got to do with marketing a small business? Not much. Studs was a quiet legend, lived and worked in an uncomprimising manner we can all learn from. He was a brand of sorts, I guess. So read it because... well, just because.

What a Week.

It's been a wild one. Lots of client stuff to tend to, and just a little distraction on Tuesday. I'll be back in action next week with a marketing-eye view of the election, plus lots more good stuff.

Back to work, now...

Marketing Food For Thought: November 3, 2008

Yes, it's still the economy, and cost cutting is all the rage. Here's a nice bit of advice from Newsday on how small businesses can trim expenses. For anyone who just can't get enough of plumbers with first names, The Chicago Tribune offers this look at how small business is effecting the election. And from the Florida Times-Union, some thoughts turning the slow economy to your advantage. Very pro-active, Sun Tzu-type stuff, I must say.

And finally, from the great Scott Burns, this piece about the real change needed in American economics (hint-- simply voting for either guy won't get us there).

Me? I still say the real issue isn't taxes, it's the credit crunch and the broader economy. The candidates are splitting hairs with their tax plans; the differences are far slighter than either campaign would have you believe. You need to stay focused one thing: keeping your small business strong. And that's not up to the government or any politician. That's up to you.