This week’s book review on Small Business Trends is on “Creating Competitive Advantage” by Jaynie L. Smith.   You can see a summary of the book review as a feature video as well.  It’s one thing to read the book, get the principles and think that it’s a great idea, it’s quite another to sit yourself down and start comping up with a real competitive advantage that you can use to actually increase your sales. (more…)

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In this particular conversation, we were talking about working a structured referral strategy. What I mean by structured is that you are actively “working” referral relationships and NOT to makeing them this wonderful surprise! Referrals are a result of your customers and contacts selling for you. Read more…

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Today marks exactly the 33rd time this month I’ve told someone to get their brand online.  That’s an average of once a day that I have this conversation.  It all starts with how to connect with a targeted audience.  Then it moves on to the inevitable cost of marketing and finally ends with my asking how much time and effort they’ve spent in giving themselves, their name, their company name and brand — online.

Getting online USED to just mean having a web site.  But a web site is not enough.  You need a web site, a blog, a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.  And there is so much more.

Check out my latest article on HPs Small Business Marketing Guide Blog for a detailed to-do list on how to give your brand a better presence online and get more, better, profitable customers as a result.

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The biggest challenge any organization has is finding out what sets it apart from other alternatives; DIFFERENTIATION.

A great differentiator is a great profit generator.  But how do you figure that out?  If you haven’t read “Blue Ocean Strategy” then get your hands on that book right now and see if you can go through some of the differentiation discovery tools they offer.

How did you find your differentiator?

What strategies do you use to set yourself apart from others?

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Have You Seen The Hashtags? (it looks like a number sign or the pound key)

If you’ve been using Twitter lately, you may have noticed tweets with hashtags in them.  They look something like this: #sbbuzz, #DIYMKTG, #brandchat, etc.  Don’t be alarmed, there’s nothing wrong with your computer.  

 The Birth of the Hashtag

 The use of the hashtag on Twitter started on September 18, 2008.  It was created by journalists in St. Louis who were looking for a way to group the tweets about the Vice Presidential debate.  They started using #vpdebate as part of their tweets. 

Since then, the hashtag has grown exponentially in popularity; mostly as a keyword tag so that people who are at a shared event can ultimately group these conversations together.

Tweet Up, Chat, Discuss and Brainstorm — Here’s How

I’ve been invited to lots of local Tweet-Ups.  I’ve been to some, but it’s often tough to fit in a drive across town either in the morning or the evening.  Now, you can get together with a group for a virtual party using th hashtag and your choice of third-party Twitter tools such as TweetChat or TweetGrid.  Here’s how to pull it together.

1. Decide on a hashtag (tag, keyword) #DIYMKT is one I created for our DIYMarketers community.
2. Head over to http://twitter.com/hashtags and follow them. (If you currently don’t have a twitter account, just go to www.twitter.com and click on “join the conversation.”  Create your profile and you’re ready to go.
3. I would also recommend that you create a blog page as a summary of your Tweet Ups and updates for the group.  Here is the example I’m following: http://sbbuzz.biz/ Notice how they’ve done a terrific job in giving you a real flavor for what their group is about and also wonderful instructions as to how to join and participate.
4. The next thing you want to do is head over to www.tweetchat.com where you can create a chat room with your designated hashtag.  They will ask you for your twitter name and password.  It will take you to a page that looks just like your Twitter home page.  It will ask you for the “room to enter”  this is where you put in your hashtag i.e. #DIYMKT.
5. Another option is to use TweetGrid.  TweetGrid allows you to follow multiple hastag’s and accounts all on one screen.  It’s a terrific way to manage and participate in several conversations.
6. Now it’s time to promote.  Nothing big and fancy necessary here – simply invite a few friends, give them the hashtag and tell them to tell their friends and so on.  You may not have a huge audience at first, but give it time.
7. Rinse and repeat.  The power of these tweet chats and virtual parties is in having them regularly, because not everyone can come all the time and your community will grow over time.

Be on the lookout for #DIYMKT chat coming your way next week.  Start a chat of your own and leave the details as a comment on this post.

What other chats are your favorites?  Tell us here.

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If you don’t do or “get” segmentation, your business is really missing out on dollars and opportunities.  Segmentation is the secret weapon of any effective marketing program.  In it’s simplest form, segmentation basically involves putting your customers into “like” groups; women or men, for example.   Ever wondered why we segment or how someone decided on segmenting?

Segmentation came out of the need to communicate more efficiently with customers.  One-to-one communication is the ideal, but as markets grew beyond the “village” that became inefficient and expensive.  So marketers moved to mass communication.  But then, the messages applied to some customers and not others.  Finally, marketers started grouping people into segments that reacted similarly to their message.  And today, as the world shrinks through the internet, segmentation is even more critical as we once again come around to one-to-one marketing.

Not every group is worthy of being its own segment.   There are some rules that have to be followed.

1. Mutually Exclusive.  Your segments cannot be overlapping and your customer shouldn’t be a member of two segments at the same time.
2. Substantial.  There have to be enough members of a segment so that you can take advantage of the economies of scale in communicating with them.  So, a segment of 3 low-volume customers wouldn’t justify a whole segment.  It has to be big enough either in terms of members or dollars.
3. Homogenous.  A workable market segment has members that are similar enough to react the same way to your marketing message or offer.  They need to value the same things, do similar things or interact with your product or service in a similar way for your segmentation strategy to work.

How to Start Segmenting

1. Take a Customer/Product Inventory.  The best place to start is to literally pull out a list of your customers and what they buy from you.  You can even use your customer files or a sales report by customer, by product and in descending profit margins.
2. Create a Demographic Profile. Now simply identify the visible characteristics of these customers. Gender, Age, City, State, Country, Products Purchased, Volume, Education level, etc. Basic demographic information is what you can see and document about the client.
3. Look for deeper segments. Most people stop at step #2.  but the ones who persevere to this step can really hit pay dirt.  Here are some other segmenting opportunities: Product usage – how do they use your product, in what applications?  This is a great segmentation tool for Business to Business marketers or for industrial markets.  Psychographic or Lifestyle segments; what are their attitudes about life, themselves and how they live?  There are some fabulous tools out there for PRIZM is a lifestyle database that groups people into zip code communities.  It’s an ideal resource if you’re selling to consumers or in retail.  Another resource is VALS 2 which separates people into 8 values and lifestyles groups.

You should be running at least two segmentation schemas at any time; the basic demographic profile (because you have to know who you’re selling to, what you’re selling and where it’s going.)  But don’t stop there, move on to these more sophisticated segmentation options because this is where the real profit opporunities are.

• High Usage Segments.  Do you have customers that purchase high volumes frequently?  You can put them on a “retainer” or contract that saves them time, effort and money and assures you of their constant order.
• On-Demand Segments.  Do you have customers that always order at the last minute and want it now — no matter what the cost?  Set up an overnigh or emergency on-demand offering at a much higher price.
• Hand Holders.  How about customers that requires a lot of service and hand holding?  They may be willing to pay more for your attention.

Those are just three easy examples of benefit segments that can and will increase the profitability and loyalty of your customers.  Not only that, but it will set you apart from other providers who haven’t caught on.

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Regardless of what your product, service or offering is — the best way to get and keep loyal customers is by direct marketing to a list.

It’s not about the number of people you have on your list that will determine the success or failure of your campaign, it’s the relevance of your offer to the people on the list coupled with how much they trust and value your recommendations.

High Conversion = Relevance of the offer + Trust level in the Referrer

A really good source for this type of list is LinkedIn.  Because the relationships on LinkedIn are presumed (that’s a key word) to be real and based on some level of experience with the contact, they have a higher probability of converting to your offer.  But you really have to be careful with this.  So many people are treating LinkedIn like a numbers game, with no respect for the relationship to the list.  This just makes those LinkedIn contacts watered down and useless.  This is not a quantity game, it’s a quality game.

Here is how to get the most out of your LinkedIn Contacts.

1. Build your reputation by giving and helping contacts and groups.  The reciprocity and relationship building principles are key.  Yes, it takes time to go into groups, read questions, provide insightful and useful answers, but if building a responsive and targeted list is important, you will do it.
2. Leave Endorsements.  Spend a few minutes every week leaving endorsements for people you have worked with and for.
3. Join relevant groups.  Take time to join the groups that are relevant to your specialty and then take time every day or at least a couple times a week to help and contribute.  Also leave content that is helpful and not self-promoting all the time.
4. Ask and answer questions.  You literally promote yourself and your expertise by asking and answering questions.  Take time to do this a couple of times a week.
5. Connect other people.  Don’t just digitally connect, volunteer to put together people who can benefit each other.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool.  In fact, I prefer the free version because it forces you to talk to more people to connect to the ones you want.

Here’s a how-to tip you can use from fellow DIYMarketer, Jenni Cox has over 20,000 members in her National Network if Embroidery Professionals.  When she sends her lists information, they respond.  She earned that response the quality, hard way by:

1. Joining groups on embroidery(Yahoo and others)
2. She created an Outlook file for these groups.  Then she created a rule that sends all the discussions to that file.  Every day she glances through the list and answers a handful of questions.  She makes sure that she contributes helpful hints and content to every group at least once every two weeks.
3. From this process she gains  a handful of new trusting, responding members every week.

What’s your quality list building tip?  Tell me all about it and I’ll feature you in a future post!

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I’ve never been one of these people who gets all passionate about causes.  Don’t get me wrong; I care about the environment, I care about animals and little children all over the world — I just don’t have that special tug at the heart and mind that inspires me to get on a soapbox about that and commit time and money to the project.

UNTIL NOW!  I’ve Found my Cause and….

IT’S YOU and YOUR Business Success in 2009!

It dawned on me when I was putting together the press release for the DIYMarketers and Toilet Paper Entrepreneur 3-Sheet Strategy Workshop (Which I’m sure you’ve registered for already — I mean at $49 for having your strategy DONE for 2009 — killer deal).

I didn’t want to promote this thing as “Register for MY workshop—”  Because — I realized it wasn’t really ABOUT ME and the success of the workshop — it was really about YOU!  I’m not just saying that either.  Of course I want to be successful in my business — so do you.  But NONE of us can succeed if we all lay down in this economy.  We can’t succeed if we’re still running the same marketing process and strategy — because the environment has changed.  LOTS of things have changed in the last year.  Government has turned over; what was important last year isn’t important this year.

YOU CAN’T BE RUNNING THE SAME STRATEGY – so don’t even think about it.  If that’s the case – then WHAT?

That brings me right back around to my cause – which I would appreciate if you’d spread around (only if you feel the same way).

I’m looking for anywhere from 50 to 100 businesses who want to be heroes in this economy.  If you’re saying that can’t be you – well then it won’t be and Mike Michalowicz (Donnie Deutsch’s small biz expert — yeah, you read that right)  and I will be featuring someone else.

Let me talk about how I envision this project:

1. Register for the site and download the 3-Sheet Strategy Worksheet.  This is freakin’ FREE – so download the sheet and give it a try.  If you’re like me and feel lonely through this process – well, then join us for the TPE 3-Sheet Strategy Sessions.
2. Small Businesses register for the 3-Sheet Strategy.  To have a crack at this, you have to register for this session.  It’s a 3-hour tele-seminar on Feb 6.  It costs $49 (and if you use “DIYM” in the promo code you’ll get another $5 off.  You’ll have a strategy and plan done in 3 hours.  But forget all that — you’ll be networked in with a community of people who will want to help you – we will work together we will help each other — straight from the heart.  A_holes need not apply – we don’t want you.  We want people who are committed to growing their business and sharing their ideas with others.
3. Join the 1 on 1 coaching sessions - that’s 30 days of 1 on 1 coaching with Mike, Ivana and anyone else we think you might need to talk to. (pssst – take a look at the right hand margin of this page – — see it?)  CLICK.  Once you have your plan – we will actually help you work it, hold you hand, kick your ass — whatever is required to make you successful.  As far as Mike and I are concerned failure is NOT an option.  Once you commit to this process – we are here for you.
4. Implement your marketing plan on DIYMarketers. The next step will be to implement your plan on DIYMarketers.  I have a forum all set up for the people who hear the same calling of success in 2009.  I’ve got vendors and resources (my special friends) that have a stake in your success as well.

Now comes the fun part of my vision…You guys know I’m a guest expert on Small Business Trends. I write book reviews, I pull together DIY Marketing articles for the Marketing Tips Section sponsored by HP and I’m also a guest expert via SmallBizTrends on the AMEX open Forum blog.  All of these blogs need CONTENT and stories about businesses that are doing it right.  Business owners all over the world want to know what works, what you’re doing, why and HOW.

Why shouldn’t those stories be about YOU?  I don’t know – but the only way they CAN be about YOU is if you let me know who you are!  So this is my call to action for those of you that want to OPT OUT of this economy -

Pass this post on – tell your business buddies – register, participate and play the most exciting game of all – the one where you, your business, your friends and family have a kick ass successful and fun 2009!

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Most marketers are taught that you should first pick the market to go after and then literally alter yourself to become appealing to them as a choice. Believe me, I’ve tried and found that it’s just too hard and too expensive for most small businesses.
My preference is to build a brand from the inside out. When I say “brand” it doesn’t have to be this big multi-million dollar recognizable logo – I mean a recognizable and desirable promise that you make to your customers about the experience they’re going to have with you and your offering.

But where do you begin with something like that?

Here is my recommendation:

Your first goal is to clearly understand what an experience with your organization PROMISES. The best way to do this is to identify what your strengths are and what you do well.

1. If your organization is heavily influenced by the owner: Get the book “Strengths Finder 2.0.” The owner should take the assessment to find out what his or her natural strengths are, and how these strengths differentiate them from others. Not only will you get a clear and concise explanation of what sets you apart, you will actually get words that you can use in your marketing materials.
2. Review and debrief any and every job that you’ve had and keep asking yourself the question “WHY did I do these things?” For example, if your job was to do competitive research, why did you do that? What were you hoping to find and why?

Work with this information to identify what your mission and purpose in the business is. WHAT DO YOU DO AND WHY?

The next thing to do is take the interview guide I’m offering below and ask every employee these questions. Your goal is to identify what sets them apart and what they provide NATURALLY to the business.

inside-interview-guide

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Wabi Sabi is the Japanese term for finding beauty in imperfection. This kind of philosophy is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to doing marketing on a budget.

With the recent success of cinema verite commercials like the Burger Kind “We’ve discontinued the Whopper” commercials, and the scads of “low budget” You Tube videos out there actually put together by big-and-deep-pocketed corporations. It should be clear to you by now – that it’s not about big-budget design. It’s about content and connection to your ideal customer.

So, as I move forward pulling together this DIY Marketers site – I’ve made the decision that this is strictly going to be LOW-BUDGET marketing. That means that you’ll see marketing techniques using every day items i.e. videos taken with my Fuji Finepix and the 1gigabyte card that’s in there.

This site as all about working together and helping each other get CHOSEN by our ideal customer – and NOT about showing how techy and glitzy we can be.

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