Sales and Marketing

Using Social Media to Grow Your Business

SBOCTeam — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:30:00 GMT

By Rieva Lesonsky

There's a good reason why social media is the hottest buzzword on every business owner's lips these days. For smart small business owners, using social media correctly is a great way to build your business-without investing anything but your time and effort. That's good news at a time when we're all trying to tighten our belts and increase our sales.

Here's a quick rundown of the top social media tools out there today and how to use them in your business.

LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com): For entrepreneurs, LinkedIn's edge is the fact that it's tailored for businesspeople, unlike other social networking sites that also attract a great number of general users. You can use LinkedIn to network, find employees and more.

Creating a profile on LinkedIn is free, and you can include as much or as little information as you want. More is better, but keep it professional. On LinkedIn, you can only "connect" to someone if you have a mutual acquaintance in common. See who your connections have in their networks, and if there's someone you want to be introduced to, ask. You can get introduced to possible clients, employees, or business partners this way.

One of LinkedIn's most useful features for raising your business's profile is LinkedIn Answers. Users ask questions that anyone can answer. Answering questions relevant to your business is a good way to become known as an expert in your industry. Make sure not to do a "hard sell;" if your answers are blatantly plugging your business, you'll turn people off.

Check out the various LinkedIn Groups, or consider starting a Group of your own. Being part of a Group relevant to your industry is another way to build your reputation as an expert and to find people who can help you build your business.

Facebook (www.facebook.com): Thousands of companies big and small successfully use Facebook to build their brands and create communities of fans. A business's Facebook page will be different than an individual's page. For your business, you'll want to create a free Fan Page that enables Facebook members to become "Fans" of your company. (Check out my page here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Rieva-Lesonsky/65219367122?ref=ts) On your Fan Page, you can post news and updates about your business, including photos, videos and links. Fan Pages enable you to post and start discussions with your fans. If you'd like to interact with potential customers even further, start a Group, which offers more sophisticated tools.

Facebook works best for companies that have frequent updates, photos, and videos that other Facebook users will want to check out. It's also more of a "fun" site than LinkedIn, so if you own, say, a CPA firm, this may not be the social media venue for you. On the other hand, if you've got a product or service that users are likely to become fans of and want to share info about-maybe a spa, restaurant or a T-shirt design company-Facebook is a great way to help your company's message spread virally over the Internet.

Twitter (www.twitter.com): Twitter, the newest and hottest social media tool right now, lets users post messages ("Tweets") of up to 140 characters. "Following" someone on Twitter means that you get their Tweets; if you forward a Tweet to your followers, that's called "reTweeting." Everyone from regular people to movie stars to politicians are on Twitter. So what's the business application?

Twitter can accomplish several business goals: to become known as an expert (by commenting on current events or issues that relate to your industry), to attract more customers (by building a following so that more people find out about you through their friends) and to spread up-to-the-minute news about your product or service. For instance, if you own a clothing boutique, you might "Tweet" about a new shipment from a popular designer. If you are an attorney, you could comment on some legal aspect of Michael Jackson's will. Just as with other social media tools, Twitter users frown on a hard sell-so don't blatantly market your company.

Twitter can be overwhelming because of the sheer volume of Tweets. Ask fellow small business owners who use it what tools they like for managing Twitter. There are many free third-party Twitter apps that help you better manage, organize and streamline your Tweets. Personally, I like TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/) for the desktop and UberTwitter (http://www.ubertwitter.com/) for my Blackberry. Other popular apps include Seesmic (http://www.seesmic.com/), Tweetie (http://www.tweetie.com/), HootSuite (http://www.hootsuite.com/), People Browser (http://www.peoplebrowsr.com/) and TwitterBerry (http://www.twitterberry.com/).

Blogs: With newer social media tools getting so much buzz today, some people are starting to forget the power of blogs. This is a big mistake. One mention in a popular blog can be all it takes to focus the world's attention on your business.

If you've already got a Web site, consider adding your own blog to it. You can have a blog up and running in a matter of hours with easy-to-use tools such as WordPress (http://www.wordpress.org/).

If you don't have the time--or the writing skills--to start your own blog, don't despair. Being mentioned in other people's blogs can do even more for your business and requires less time. Regularly read the most popular blogs that are relevant to your industry (check http://www.technorati.com/ to determine this). When appropriate, post a comment. Again, you don't want to hard-sell your business here, so resist the urge to comment every day and include your business name in all-capital letters. And, wait until you have something useful to say.

Once you've become familiar with what bloggers in your industry write about, start updating them on your company's newsworthy events. Send them relevant and interesting information about your business. Do you have new statistics or survey data they might be interested in? Bloggers are starved for good topics to write about, so if you can become a trusted source of info for a blogger, you're likely to get lots of publicity.

Putting It All Together

Let's look at how a hypothetical restaurant owner specializing in gourmet burgers and microbrews might use all four of these tools. On LinkedIn, he could join a group for restaurant owners and contribute to discussions among beer distributors. He could network with potential suppliers. On Facebook, he could create a Fan page, announce special events at the restaurant, post photos from a recent beer tasting event, start a discussion about what makes the best burger, and e-mail discount coupons to Fans. On Twitter, he could Tweet about the new buffalo burger he's adding to the restaurant menu, today's lunch special, or a great article on BeerAdvocate.com. He could blog about a recent beer tasting event at the restaurant on his own blog, and send the news to food and beverage industry bloggers.

Social media benefits from personalities, and your advantage as a small business owner is that you, yourself, can be the one behind your Tweets, Facebook page and LinkedIn page. All you have to give it is some time. Plan to devote at least one hour a day to social media, possibly more.

To get started, I recommend you try all four of these tools for three to six months and see what kind of ROI you get. As time goes on, you will see which tool is working best for you, and you'll probably want to devote most of your social media time there.

To make the most of social media, make sure to link your various "personas." Your business Web site, Facebook page and Twitter page should all link to each other, and your LinkedIn page should link to all of them as well. The more ways potential customers can find out about your business, the better. Social media is all about spreading the word.

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media (www.growbizmedia.com), a content and consulting company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rieva

How to Attract New Customers

CommunityTeam — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:40:00 GMT

By Max Berry

A faltering economy may not seem like the ideal environment for attracting new customers. But, even when consumer confidence is low, there is plenty a small business owner can do to instill faith in his existing customers and court the attention of those looking for a business to believe in. The secret, as always, comes down to the golden rule: Be good to them and they'll be good to you.

Back To Basics
"If it's not essential to your business, don't do it," says Ed Hess, Professor of Business Administration & Batten Executive-in-Residence at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business. "You have more leeway in the good times, more cushion for mistakes, more room to experiment."

According to Hess, when the economy takes a serious turn south, experimentation is one of the first things to which a small business owner should bid adieu. Dreaming up innovative services and marketing strategies may earn an entrepreneur big business in a time when consumers are looking for the next big thing. But when they, like you, are just struggling to get by, they'll appreciate a straightforward approach. "The closer you are to basic, fundamental needs, the better chance you've got [of attracting new business]," says Hess.

This strict reliance on the fundamentals-which Hess identifies as quality of product, caring customer service, and strong cash flow-is also a cautious way to proceed in unpredictable times. "Even if your business is doing well," Hess advises, "you need to operate as if [the economic downturn] will last a long time or might get worse before it gets better."

But beyond keeping you safe rather than sorry, returning to the fundamentals may actually reacquaint you with the most basic-and valuable-tenets of entrepreneurship. As Hess points out, "Hard times focus the mentality of a small business owner back to the fundamentals of customer service and customer acquisitions."

Target the Right Customers
The first step to attracting new customers in any economic climate is pleasing your regulars. "Get close to your regular customers," advises Hess. "Those are relationships that will pay off in the good times." Moreover, the word-of-mouth buzz you gain from them will be a huge boon in attracting new business.

Getting close to your regular customers in an economy that is tough for both of you may involve offering longer warranties and easier return policies on products, or special deals and discounts for your most valued patrons. Your customers have to bear with bad economic times just as much as you do. Let them know you're in it together by reaching out to them and making your relationship as hassle-free as possible. Show some empathy and you'll receive it in return.

Even so, when times are tough, you can't give too much away. "Certain customers you bend with," says Hess. "Others, you can't. It has to be a strategic decision, not global and across the board." Not every customer who patronizes your business should benefit from special offers or discounts. Get in touch with your most loyal customers and offer them an exclusive deal. The fact that you're remembering them in particular, rather than throwing up a sign in the window that says "Sale!" will go a long way toward building that empathy.

Target new customers just as carefully. Look at the demographics of your usual patrons and don't waste resources trying to attract an entirely different set of customers. "Small business owners need to be more tactical and focused in hard economic times," says Hess. "[A manager] should not use broad-based marketing. You have to think, ‘Who are my customers and who will keep spending?' It's like a rifle shot, not spraying a field."

A Silver Lining
Believe it or not, an economic downturn offers its own kind of opportunities to America's small business owners, if they know how to take advantage of them. "Now is an opportunistic time," says Hess.

While the professor stops short of positing that, disaffected by major corporations, consumers will run to the open arms of America's small business owners ("That's soap opera stuff," he says), he does see an upside to down times: "Other businesses are getting in trouble and their customers have to go somewhere."

Hess makes a compelling point. The most sustainable businesses, the ones providing the best value and customer service, will endure while others fail. And those that survive, naturally, will pick up business from those that don't. The trick is to strive toward running the kind of business that can last. "The economy is out of your control," says Hess. "Focus on what you can control and be very, very proactive."

How do you get your money�s worth for PR?

SBOCTeam — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:38:00 GMT

by PR_Boston

Business owners large and small are looking for ways to cut expenses. So the question arises: Do I need PR? Here are a few reasons why you should say yes and feel good about the expense.

PR is a cost effective alternative to advertising. Even though web ads can cost 25% of those in old-line media, advertising is expensive. And, there are so many ads you have to wonder which ones really stick. People are exposed to thousands of messages everyday: in the supermarket line, at the gas station, on websites-not to mention the ads on the radio, in the newspaper and on TV. We are faced with ad fatigue.

PR provides third party validation. When someone else-an independent person-- writes about you and places that article in a public place, it has intrinsic value. That's why companies want to be featured in the media whether it's in the town paper or on the Today Show. A good PR plan includes strategies for promoting your story to the right media.

Many people think PR is expensive. It doesn't have to be. If you're a small business consider working with a small PR firm. A small business owner is used to being the point person and could be frustrated dealing with a junior level executive at a large firm. Plus, small firms are cheaper.

In PR, unlike in advertising, spending less doesn't mean you get less. Cutting an ad budget means you lose your reach and frequency and that can undermine a good ad. But, cutting your PR budget and signing on with a smaller, more nimble firm can still result in an effective media placement. Similarly, opting for a black and white ad instead of color means you could fail to attract enough eyeballs to get the ad noticed. But working with a PR firm on a project basis as opposed to a costly monthly retainer can still get you featured on TV. In the end it comes down to how well your PR pro develops your message and leverages it with the media.

In today's economy, ROI is more critical than ever. While PR is never a guarantee, it can be a cost effective way to get you message to the right people, and if you can still throw some money behind advertising-that's even better.

Podcast Marketing � How to Promote Your Biz Using Podcasts

SBOCTeam — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:48:00 GMT

by ZekeLL

Podcasting is blogging with audio instead of text. Essentially, you post an MP3 file instead of an article.

5 Reasons Why Podcasts Are Great

An increasing number of people are downloading new podcasts every day.
Unlike TV, podcast can be played whenever the listener wants.
People can listen to them in their cars on their way to work or when they go for a run. You will get their full attention.
There is a lot less competition in the podcast market than there is in the article market.
Podcasting is a lot easier and less time-consuming than blogging and getting your articles published.

5 Steps to Producing a Podcast

Download Audacity at#### http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/#### or any other audio editing tool.
Get a good microphone.
Write the script (so the podcast doesn't sound improvised and amateurish).
Record it in a noise-free environment.
Apply the noise-reduction filter in your audio editing software and save the podcast file.

Where You Can Submit Your Podcast
PodOMatic - http://www.podomatic.com/
Podcast Alley - http://www.podcastalley.com/index.php
iTunes - http://www.itunes.com/
Yahoo Podcasts - http://podcasts.yahoo.com/
Digg Podcasts - http://digg.com/podcasts
Podcast Directory - http://www.podcastdirectory.com/
Podcast Pickle - http://www.podcastpickle.com/
PodFeed - http://www.podfeed.net/
Odeo - http://www.odeo.com/
Digital Podcast - http://www.digitalpodcast.com/
Podcast.net - http://www.podcast.net/
Singing Fish - http://search.singingfish.com/sfw/home.jsp
Blog Universe - http://www.bloguniverse.com/
All Podcasts - http://www.allpodcasts.com/
Big Contact - http://www.bigcontact.com/
Collectik - http://collectik.net/collectik/
PodNova - http://www.podnova.com/
PodTech - http://www.podtech.net/home/

How to Save a Lot of Time When You Submit Your Podcast

I absolutely love these two tools because they submit your podcasts to the major podcast directories for free and they save you a lot of time.

PodPusher - http://www.podpusher.com/
Pod Submitter - http://www.podsubmitter.com/submit

Zeke Camusio is a serial entrepreneur. The Outsourcing Company, his 6th endeavor, is a creative web design and Internet marketing agency with offices in Aspen, CO and New York.

Zeke writes Let's Do It!, one of the most prestigious and popular entrepreneurship and Internet marketing blog. Check it out: www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog.

Video Marketing � How to Promote Your Business Using Videos

SBOCTeam — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:20:00 GMT

by ZekeLL

Video marketing is a fairly new term. It means producing videos and posting them to several video sharing websites to boost your website traffic and get your name out there.

5 Reasons Why Video Marketing Is Great

Google is showing more and more videos in the search results.
Producing a video is very inexpensive and posting it is free.
Most video sharing services such as YouTube have several tools to help people spread the word. Think about it. People actually market your videos for you.
Millions of people promote their websites using articles, but just a small percentage of them use videos. The competition is a lot less fierce.
Video communities are a lot more active than article communities. It is not uncommon to post a video on YouTube and get 1,000 comments in a month!

5 Steps to Producing a Video

Decide what kind of video you want to record (talking head, based on a PowerPoint presentation, from your computer screen, interview, etc.)
Get a good microphone and a camera. It doesn't have to be a professional camera. Sometimes a simple digital camera is enough.
Write the script or prepare the content. Do a practice run first.
Record it.
Do some minor editing using free software such as Windows Movie Maker. You will probably need to trim out the end and the beginning, and add a watermark with the URL of your website.

Where You Can Submit Your Video
YouTube - http://www.YouTube.com
Google Video - http://video.google.com/
Yahoo Video - http://video.yahoo.com/
FlickLife - http://www.veoh.com/
Blip - http://blip.tv/
Crackle - http://crackle.com/
Flurl - http://www.flurl.com/
BoFunk - http://www.bofunk.com/
Vimeo - http://vimeo.com/
Flixya - http://www.flixya.com/

A Case Study
In case you are still not 100% convinced that video marketing is an amazing tool to drive massive traffic to your website, listen to this. Last month we recorded four videos for a client and distributed them to the services mentioned above.

We used some tricks, picked the right keywords, and created some backlinks to them. Then we social bookmarked them, submitted their RSSs to some RSS search engines, and we finally pinged all the pages that we created. All this took us 4 hours. In 6 days, our client's videos had 150,000 views! Do you realize what that means? 150,000 people discovered our client's company in less than 6 days. He got 1,746 visits and $11,235 in revenues from that campaign. His investment was $215. Are you a video marketing believer now?

Zeke Camusio is a serial entrepreneur. The Outsourcing Company, his 6th endeavor, is a creative web design and Internet marketing agency with offices in Aspen, CO and New York.

Zeke writes Let's Do It!, one of the most prestigious and popular entrepreneurship and Internet marketing blog. Check it out: http://www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog.

Internet Advertising

SBOCTeam — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:21:00 GMT

When does it make sense for small businesses?

By Christopher Freeburn

The Internet has been a great leveling technology, evening the playing field between small and large businesses by giving small companies easy and cheap access to a worldwide marketplace. The Internet has also provided unprecedented advertising opportunities for small business, permitting not only access to a global marketplace, but the ability to target and alert potential customers on a local, regional, national, or global scale for a fraction of what traditional marketing programs would cost.

The Growing Online Ad Market
Internet advertising totaled over $21 billion in 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), putting it far behind television, close to magazines, and ahead of radio as an advertising medium, based on ad revenues. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than 32 million Americans have made an online purchase after clicking on an online advertisement. Social networking web sites, which boast more than 86 million users are almost exclusively run on advertising revenue.

In testimony before Congress in June, Randall Rothenberg, president of the IAB, noted that Internet advertising is particularly advantageous for small businesses. "Online advertising has created regional markets out of local markets, and national markets out of regional markets. Items once sold in local garage sales and pawn shops are now available nationally and internationally via advertised interactive auctions, in which some 40 million Americans participate annually," he said. "Importantly, the online networks not only enable small businesses to communicate to niche communities through small sites; they allow large brand marketers to reach narrow communities as well, contributing to an unprecedented democratization of the media landscape."

So, how do you get your company's ads on the web?

Advertising options
Before selecting a particular type of online ad, you must determine what works best for your business and suits your level of online capabilities.

Search Engine Advertisements
These ads are posted on search engines' web sites. Since most people begin their Internet browsing with a visit to a search engine, advertising on these sites is often a logical place for a small business to place its ads. The two largest search engines, Google and Yahoo, have created advertising programs tailored for small businesses that want to advertise on their sites. The ads usually appear as links to your business, highlighted and set apart from the other links generated by the search. The ads appear whenever a user searches for specific keywords or phrases in the search engine. These keywords or phrases will be related to the sort of product or service your business offers. So, for instance, if you run a business providing surfboards, you ads would appear whenever someone searches for information on surfing. Other search engines offer similar programs.

The cost of these advertisements varies and is often dependent on how many people actually click on the ad and visit the advertisers web site. Each time a potential customer clicks with their mouse on the ad and visits the advertiser's web site, the advertiser must pay a "click fee" to the search engine. Such fees are usually pennies per click, depending on the search engine hosting the ads.

Search Engine Optimization
Search engine use is so popular, and the traffic generated by search engines so considerable, that in addition to posting "pay-per-click" ads on search engine web sites, many businesses seek to "optimize" where their web site will appear during a keyword search. Search engines scan millions of web sites every day, tagging them according to key words and phrases that appear on the web site. When a user searches for a word or phrase, the search engine lists web sites whose content has been tagged with that word or phrase.

In order to improve the number of hits your website receives from search engine queries, a number of online media firms will "optimize" your web site's content. These services start by examining the type of customers who comprise the market for your products or services and will adjust your web sites content and language so that the programs that scan and tag web sites will be more likely to list your web site near the top of lists generated for a given keyword or phrase. Fees for this service vary among search engine optimization firms.

Banner Ads
Usually appearing as rectangular patches or horizontal bars containing text, pictures, animation, or company logos at the top or bottom of web sites, banner ads date back almost to the beginning of commercial Internet use. Internet users who are interested by the ad will be directed to your company web site when they click on it. Most banner ads use simple HTML code to convey text or pictures, but more complicated ads can be created using popular multimedia applications like Java and Flash. The latter, while more eye-catching, are considered somewhat risky since many browsers do not come with Java or Flash software built in, and consumers are not likely to wait to download and install such software just to view your ad.

Banner ads are deployed on other web sites either by direct agreement with that web site for a specific consideration (you pay another web site owner to host your advertisement, or agree to host his or her banner ad in exchange), or by paying a banner network company (such as DirectClick or Flycast) that will post your banner ad on a number of web sites for a specific fee.

Pop-Up Ads
A Pop-Up ad is a paid advertisement that automatically causes a user's browser to open a new window when visiting a particular web site. The new window, which is
generally small and opens in front of the page the user intended to open, contains the advertisement. Unfortunately, while eye-catching, numerous surveys of Internet users indicate that most people find them highly irritating, and many browsers now come with features to disable pop-up windows. Thus, pop-ups have declined significantly in popularity and are now considered a poor advertising choice.

Radical Sales And Marketing For Your Small Business

SBOCTeam — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:30:00 GMT

The meaning of the adjective radical is "not bound by traditional ways or beliefs." Here are the "must dos" of a seasoned business unit's radical salesperson and marketer.

By Profit_Repair

No stone goes unturned in your search for new leads and clients; no sales idea is too silly or stupid to try; you sell to everyone, every day, no matter what their size; you sell more than you market; you utilize yield management techniques; you just do not leave collateral, you collect a database for follow-up; you go down swinging and then get back up for another round; you are always in "selling mode;" you network, not just talk to people; you are "it," no one but you can make it happen; when you fail, you succeed by learning from it; you start your day with a goal and focus on its achievement; you look for ways to sell to prospects that others are not; you carry your business cards with you everywhere; wherever you go you see a future client; no matter how many no's they have given you, you write down phone numbers from passing businesses on the street; you see customer obstacles as an opportunity to get testimonial referrals from them by meeting their expectations; you work on the probability theory; you radiate confidence and bring direction to clients; you take ownership of your sales 100%; you are out finding new revenue generation that your competition never knew existed and selling to them before they do; you see doors of opportunities, not slammed ones in your face; you are asking for the sale every time, in all possible ways, with each client you communicate with; you are a relentless "door knocker" and grass roots marketer; you look at your sales reports for new business that purchased from you; you drive the desire and passion for each sale with every presentation; you fight tooth and nail to retain a client and make new ones every day when you come into work; you smile until it hurts just to go to bed and wake up to attack your business leads all over again tomorrow.

Are you ready for the challenge? Are you ready to become a radical salesperson and marketer for your business unit? Why not? Are you afraid to get a little emotional about your sales and marketing? Only emotional selling sells to clients on a regular basis with consistency. No one wants an order taker in their sales department; your product line is not that special to afford you that luxury. If you are not emotional about the product line that you represent, your sales will never reach full capacity.

Keep it (sales and marketing campaigns) simple (KIS theory) for the biggest bang with the fewest bucks! Oh, by the way, the above sentence is the longest sentence in this blog. Do you know the reason why? Because it is aggressive and unconventional and "not bound by traditional ways or beliefs," just like what a radical sales and marketer for your business unit needs to be.

Go be radical today!

http://theprofitrepairman.com/

Dedicated to the Mission!

Tom Marquardt, The Profit Repairman®
(239) 561-2591
(239) 561-3589 (fax)
tomm@theprofitrepairman.com
http://www.theprofitrepairman.com

Green-ward To Success

SBOCTeam — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

There are more resources than ever available to America's eco-friendly entrepreneurs. Take advantage and help your green business stand out from the pack.

By Max Berry

It's common knowledge among small business owners that going green has a positive effect on the environment. Perhaps less known is how to successfully manage your green business in a world where more and more entrepreneurs are laying claim to the word. The secret may lie in the acknowledgement that words alone will only get you so far. "Anyone can say they're green," says Joel Makower, Executive Editor of Greenbiz.com. "These days, to gain marketing penetration to a significant level, you have to have a system as well as a standard."

Indeed, with so many businesses branding themselves as green, simply wearing the color is no longer enough for those looking to stand out. You need to prove, to your employees and associates as well as your customers, that the green you wear is more than just fashion.

The first step to success in any business, green or otherwise, is a devoted team. And a little green never hurt morale. "[Going green] is valuable when it comes to attracting talent," says Makower. "People want to work for a ‘good' company, and they can get frustrated if their employer isn't doing all that they can." Doing all that you can is one of the surest ways to earn the loyalty and respect of your employees. It's also a way to build a valuable network of connections in your field.

Green Networking

Whether you're new to the world of green business or a seasoned pro, making yourself known to your eco-business brethren is never a bad idea. There are countless industry-specific associations committed to introducing, educating, and uniting green business owners. The Organic Trade Association (ota.com) bills itself as an "association for all sectors of the organic industry, from farm to retail, and for all other types of products." The International Ecotourism Society (ecotourism.org) is a non-profit organization providing similar services for the most eco-conscious members of the travel industry.

There are also more general resources available for those with earth-conscious business models. Green Options Media (greenoptions.com) provides a network of blogs focused on sustainable businesses in all industries. Makower's own Greenbiz.com offers blogs, case studies, and environmental news for all forms of green businesses.

Taking advantage of services like these-or taking part in any other activity that helps you stay in touch with like-minded entrepreneurs and keep abreast of the latest green innovations and trends-will supply you with ideas to help you maintain your own patch of ground on the green landscape.

Getting to the Customer

Once you've surrounded yourself with a reliable network of cohorts and colleagues, the next order of business is the customer. And there are just as many resources available for green-minded consumers as there are for eco-friendly entrepreneurs. Green J (greenj.org) and Eco Firms (ecofirms.org) are search engines designed to connect consumers interested in greener products and services with the businesses they seek. Also available are similar industry-specific services. Eco Hotels of the World (ecohotelsoftheworld.com) is, as the name would suggest, a database of the world's greenest hotels. Green Home Guide (greenhomeguide.com) provides the same service for those looking for eco-friendly home and garden products. Registering your business with a consumer service like this will make it easier for the green-minded customers you're after to find you. Taking the time to associate your business with this sort of network will also be an indication to consumers that you are serious about your commitment to sustainable business.

B2B: Consider Certification

Business-to-business firms face even more pressure to prove their commitment to sustainable business practices, as their clients, considering the needs of their own end consumers, are becoming more aware of the demand for environmentally safe goods and services. "In some industries, being green is table stakes, says Makower. "It's the price of entry, so you have to say it. But in a B to B, you have to prove it."

The problem then becomes how to go about proving it. As Makower concedes, "We don't have a definition of green business. We don't have an answer for how good is good enough."

One way to assure your buyers of the ecological integrity of your product or service may be to have it certified as environmentally sound. OneCert (onecert.net) is a certification service, accredited by the USDA, which gives an official stamp of approval to qualifying organic agricultural products. This kind of federal certification does not exist for every industry, but many local governments offer similar certification programs for green businesses. As Makower points out, all nine of California's San Francisco Bay Area counties offer certification programs for sustainable businesses.

As a nation, we have not yet reached the point where this type of certification is federally and comprehensively regulated. But seeking some form of certification (greenj.org offers a list of certifiers) will, in the worst case, show you ways in which your business can do more to help the environment. And bearing the endorsement of an outside agency will demonstrate to customers that you are serious enough about your commitment to greener business to invest the time in proving it.

Fwd: to Sales

SBOCTeam — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:11:00 GMT

Using promotional emails and newsletters to market your small business

By Chris Freeburn

Few technologies have yielded as much benefit to small business owners as the Internet. Beyond the obvious benefits of e-commerce and professionally designed websites that can make a small business look like a big player in its industry, the Internet permits small businesses an unprecedented opportunity to use email to sidestep expensive marketing campaigns and stay in touch with customers long after a sale is made at a tiny fraction of the cost of traditional mail or advertising campaigns.

Indeed, according to a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing campaigns returned as much as $57.25 for each dollar spent, compared to $22.52 for each dollar spent on non-email internet marketing campaigns and just $7.09 for each dollar spent on printed catalogs.

Email marketing is one of the strongest potential tools in your small business's marketing arsenal. It offers a cost-effective way to keep your business securely in your customer's minds even when they are not considering a purchase. Using email, you can advise customers of new products, promotions, sales and discounts, or company news, for just pennies per message. Your business can reap the value of email marketing campaigns regardless of whether your company conducts ecommerce or not. An email marketing campaign can also permit you to gather demographic information about your customers for far less than the cost of hiring a marketing firm to do that for you.

Determining the fit

"Including email in your marketing mix isn't as simple as transferring traditional message formats into electronic formats or abandoning more expensive mediums in favor of email delivery," warns John Arnold, author of E-Mail Marketing for Dummies. Determining how email marketing best fits into your business's overall marketing strategy, and how well it compares against other parts of that strategy requires a certain amount of trial and error, Arnold says. "Delivering your messages by combining different mediums is an effective way to market your business, but you'll probably find it more affordable to lean on a few communication mediums where delivering your message results in the highest return."

It is important to consider each of the marketing elements in your current campaign to determine how email can compliment them. Obviously, email cannot completely supplant other advertising mediums, like print or even Internet advertising, which are important for drawing new customers to your business. Email campaigns are best used to target existing customers and to build and enhance brand loyalty to your firm by fostering a personal relationship with your customers.

Putting together your email list

In order to use email effectively, your customers must provide their email addresses and allow you to send them email. Sending unsolicited commercial emails is illegal, and is known as spamming (CAN SPAM Act). Be sure to seek legal council to ensure that you're in compliance with this law. Getting your customers to part with their email addresses, and perhaps a little demographic information, can be relatively easy.

Create a form on your website that allows customers to sign up to receive promotional emails.
Offer something to induce customers to provide their email addresses - a small discount on products or services, or a free sample or item.
Try to collect more than just the email address. Ask for names, zip codes, gender, and age range. This is important demographic information that can be used to aid your entire marketing effort. But keep the questions general and few in number. Don't ask for too much information, or for highly personal information, like exact ages, since that may annoy some customers, causing them to abandon the effort. Also offer customers the option to skip the questions altogether, which will likely result in more actual email addresses obtained.
Offer value. Let your customers know that signing up to receive your emails will give them something useful, like special discounts, or early notice of events, or sales at your business.
Allow subscribers to your company emails to easily unsubscribe from your list. A stream of unwanted emails will alienate potential return customers, and anti-spamming laws require you to remove people who no longer wish to receive your company's emails from your email list.

Beyond simple selling: E-Newsletters

Company e-newsletters are a good way to promote your business while providing useful information about a subject your customers are already interested in. An e-newsletter differs from a standard promotional email by offering news, advice, or information that isn't strictly sales related. Customers are more likely to read something that they believe is providing useful information instead of just trying to sell them a product or service.

A garden supply company, for instance, might offer a quarterly e-newsletter with seasonal tips on planting and gardening. While this may require more effort to create than a simple promotional email, it will go a long way toward cementing the relationship between your business and your customers. If customers come to see your business as a source of helpful information, it will help build brand loyalty and encourage repeat business.

Things to keep in mind

Before your launch your company's promotional email or e-newsletter campaign, make sure to follow a few guidelines:

Make sure your company's name is part of the email address from which the email is sent. For instance, mike@mikesautorepair.com. Many people receive a lot of email every day and have developed a habit of simply glancing at the sender's email address and deleting emails from source they do not instantly recognize.
Make sure your company name is in the subject line and clearly visible in the text of the email. This also insures that customers receiving your email will easily identify you as the sender and associate your company with the email.
Use the same company logo in your email or e-newsletters as you do on other promotional materials, like business cards, printed brochures, print ads, receipts, mailings, invoices, or your company's website. Consistent use of your company's logo reinforces your brand.
Make sure that your email or e-newsletters use consistent fonts and layouts that are easily readable.

Fighting For Sales

SBOCTeam — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:57:00 GMT

Did last year's sales lag behind your projections? Here is some solid advice to get you going in 2008

BY MICHAELA CAVALLARO

When Jennifer Younge joined New York City marketing communication and design firm Ross, Culbert & Lavery Inc. in late 2001, the company had a long established method of drumming up sales: It sent prospects a portfolio of work it had done for other clients. The message, says Younge, was simple: "Look what we did for this company; we can do something even better for you." That method worked well when the economy was humming. But in the downturn after Sept. 11, the portfolios lost their magic. In part, Younge says, that's because the approach was essentially passive. "Once a potential client has the package in their hand," she says, "they have no reason to meet with you." The downturn was obviously bad news for the newly hired Younge, not to mention the company's owners and staff. Desperate for a more active way of engaging prospects, Younge began cold calling the professional services firms that were Ross, Culbert & Lavery's target. The problem? "I had no clue what I was doing," Younge says, laughing.

That's where Wendy Weiss came in. Weiss, a New York sales trainer who specializes in what she prefers to describe as "introductory" calling, bills herself as the Queen of Cold Calling. "Most people know how to talk on the phone to friends, but they don't know how to get a perfect stranger's attention on the telephone," she says. "Selling is a very specific communication skill. The more skilled you are, the better your results will be." Younge worked with Weiss to construct a new strategy for contacting potential customers. Younge now uses cold calls to set appointments for introductory meetings, and she's made a crucial mental shift: Rather than assuming that she's interrupting or bothering prospects, Younge acts and speaks as though she's helping them do their jobs better. "Even if they don't hire us, it's still in their best interest to know what's going on in the marketplace and what their competitors are doing," she says. "People pick up on that authority and confidence in my voice and conclude that they want to hear what I have to say." The result?
Today, the majority of the firm's clients come from Younge's cold calls a vast improvement over the send a portfolio and cross your fingers days. More efficient cold calls are only one way to drive sales and boost a company's bottom line. We asked sales experts both consultants and entrepreneurs to tell us what they've learned about how to approach sales. Here's what they told us:

Believe in what you're selling.
Many entrepreneurs worry that they will come across as a stereotypically pushy salesman who won't take no for an answer. But, says Weiss, "If you've got that in your head, you've got to get it out, because it's going to make you ineffective."
Take a cue from Younge and shift your mental picture:
Rather than worrying that you're manipulating people or asking them to do something they don't want to, consider the ways in which your product or service will help them, professionally or personally.
Don't try to be everything to everyone.
Many small business owners are reluctant to define their best customers, or their most profitable markets, for fear of turning away paying customers. But it's difficult to focus your sales effort if you don't define your market. Ardath Albee founded Einsof, a small Minneapolis firm that develops online marketing and sales portals, in 2000. Albee believed she needed to define the industries Einsof served but she was afraid to rule any industries out. As a result, the company's sales effort was haphazard and unfocused. In addition, turnover among the sales staff was high, meaning that Albee had to devote more of her already scarce time to hiring and to managing existing customers' accounts during the transitions. Those results were ironic, considering that the firm aims to help clients improve their own marketing and sales efforts. More recently, Albee has come to realize that the defining factor in choosing her clients should be a potential client's needs, which might not be determined by its industry. A solid prospect, she says, posts annual revenues of $80 million to $100 million, has already worked with a Web developer, has a functional website, and needs a better website that enables two way communication with customers. Of course, defining the market in this fashion makes sales reps' jobs initially a little harder than, say, simply calling all of the health care companies in the Yellow Pages. There is no directory of firms pondering a move from static to interactive websites. Still, the extra work is worth it. "We've closed far more clients so far this year than we have in any other year," Albee says.
Hire sales reps that fit your business model, are confident, and love to sell.
For Albee, defining her best prospects also helped clarify the characteristics required of a successful Einsof sales person: "We need sales reps that can call in at the VP and director of sales level," she says. "They have to be self starters. We need people who can organize themselves, work a network, and get themselves in the door." As Albee's example attests, your sales reps may need skills specific to your industry or your company's mission. Beyond that, successful sales people share self confidence and a positive outlook. "Passion is the single hardest thing to teach," says Bob Waks, president of The Training Center for Sales & Business Development in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania. "If a rep doesn't have that desire to sell, they're unlikely to develop it within your company or in a class."
Develop a sales methodology.
For many companies, this means starting with your goal and working backwards. Let's say you want to produce $1 million in annual sales. You will need to know how much revenue a typical contract brings in. If that typical contract is $50,000, then you need to sign 20 contracts a year, or roughly one every two and a half weeks. You'll also want to build in room for error, in case a client unexpectedly goes under or the economy goes into a tailspin. Let's say you typically have to meet with five qualified prospects in order to get one signed contract. Now you know that you'll need to have 100 meetings (five prospects multiplied by 20 contracts) over the course of the year, or about two a week. And if you usually have to talk to six prospects in order to get one that's qualified, that means you need to have 600 conversations a year, or about 11 a week, in order to keep your pipeline filled. "This is the stuff nobody wants to talk about," says Waks. "But it's the discipline you need."
Don't discount the power of referrals.
"A prospect who comes to you by referral or recommendation from somebody who knows you is infinitely more likely to actually become your customer than someone who comes to you from any other source," says CJ Hayden, whose San Francisco firm, Wings Business Coaching, specializes in sales and marketing strategy. That doesn't mean you have to sit around waiting for referrals to roll in; quite the contrary. Hayden recommends actively building word of mouth about your business by networking with other business people who are likely to know when someone needs your product or service. One of Hayden's clients was able to use this technique as she started a graphic design firm whose primary target was other startups. The designer thought systematically about what other professional services startups need attorneys, printers, accountants, bankers, and so on and set about getting to know competent and reputable people in those categories. She started with the professionals she knew and trusted, then asked friends and colleagues for the names of professionals they would recommend. Ideally, she would ask the professionals to refer clients to her, and if she felt comfortable doing so she would agree to do the same for them. In the end, the exercise helped the designer get her business off the ground and develop her own sales process. "Now my client knew where to network, who to approach, and how to go about prospecting," Hayden says.
Remember the value of the personal touch.
Ralph Roberts, a real estate broker in Warren, Michigan, is the author of Walk Like a Giant, Sell +Like a Madman and 52 Weeks of Sales Success. He's a firm believer in the shotgun approach: Make sure everyone you meet knows what you do, and pass your business cards out everywhere you go. "If you're out to eat, leave a card for the waiter along with the tip and a note that says, ‘Thanks for the food and great service,'" Roberts says, joking that if the meal was lousy, you can just leave the card. Roberts also swears by handwritten thank you notes, which he sends after hearing from a prospect by phone or in person, and he is all for gimmicky tactics like buying a box of old 45s and sending them to clients with a handwritten note that incorporates the title of the song. "It suits my personality," he says. You'll want to come up with your own gimmicks, of course. A good rule of thumb: If you wouldn't feel comfortable using a particular sales tactic on a friend, then find another way to approach your clients.
Don't overemphasize closing...
"The sale does not begin at the end, when you're asking for the business," says Hayden. "It begins back at the beginning, when you first interact with the client." Hayden doesn't advocate the "always be closing" style of sales made famous in movies like Glengarry Glen Ross. Instead, she and other experts favor a more consultative approach that involves asking potential clients lots of questions about their needs. "All the focus should be on the client and his or her problem," says Bob Waks. In practice, that means you first need to be sure that you're talking to a person authorized to make a decision about buying your product or service. Your conversations should focus on gaining a thorough understanding of exactly what the potential client's problem is. You also need to determine, fairly early on, whether the prospect's firm has the funds available to invest in a solution. "By the time you get to the point where you would normally make a big presentation, the sale should pretty much be done," Waks says.
...but don't forget to come right out and ask for the sale.
You can forgo the contract signing ceremony with the fancy pens but at some point you do need to get your prospect's commitment to doing business together. "When you think the time has come, you might want to summarize where you are and see if that's where the other person thinks they are, too," says CJ Hayden. Whatever response you get from your prospects is fine, because it gives you information. If they want to see more samples of your work, provide them. If they're ready to do business with you, then go ahead and get to work.

The David and Goliath Approach

Small companies often gaze wistfully at the names on the Fortune 500 list, pondering how great it would be to get a piece of that business. Yet most small companies never even try to fulfill that dream and that's a mistake, according to Jill Konrath, founder of St. Paul, Minnesota based SellingtoBigCompanies.com. That said, getting in the door at a multibillion dollar corporation isn't easy and it may require tactics different from those you use to sell to small firms. Here are a few of Konrath's tips for breaking into the big time:
Be persistent. Getting through to corporate decision makers takes multiple attempts. Most people, says Konrath, give up after five tries, but it's not at all uncommon that you'll need to make contact likely via a combination of phone, e-mail and snail mail 10 or more times before you get a response.
Think small. Don't necessarily start with the corporate purchasing office. "The best way to get into the corporate market is get a client in a department of a division of a business unit of the enterprise," Konrath says. Finding the right person will take some work, but your prospect may have a bit more time to entertain your pitch than her counterpart in the corporate office.
Still, understand that the biggest obstacle to your success is the status quo. "Corporate decision makers are so busy that the mere thought of change is painful," says Konrath. "They will stay with vendors or systems that aren't perfect just so they don't have to change." That means your sales message should spell out in precise and appealing terms the business results you can provide. For example, when pitching her own services to a corporate client, Konrath's message is "I help companies shorten time to revenue on new product introductions" rather than "I do sales training."
Spin your company's size as an asset rather than a liability. This can be as simple as pointing out that your firm's low overhead makes your prices more reasonable. It might also be worth noting that since the contract would represent a significant portion of your annual revenue, you will have the incentive to provide top notch customer service.

Michaela Cavallaro is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Down East, Mainebiz, and the Industry Standard's Grok Newsletter.

Giving Away The Store

SBOCTeam — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:13:00 GMT

If your customers find your products or services antiquated, why don't you?
By Reed Richardson

Last fall, retail giant Wal-Mart announced it would end its 46-year-old layaway service for its customers. Once a popular way of buying big-ticket items, layaway was now costing Wal-Mart more than it was worth, tying up precious warehouse space for months while forcing stores to track small, often infrequent, payments. In addition, executive vice president for Wal-Mart store operations, Pat Curran, noted that in an era when nearly everyone can get approved for a credit card of some kind, "demand for layaway service has declined steadily." In fact, many other retailers long ago abandoned their expensive and under-utilized layaway services. So the real question might be: What took Wal-Mart so long?

To be fair, Wal-Mart is by no means alone. Many businesses, both big and small, often fall victim to a kind of business version of Newton's First Law: A service or product line on sale tends to stay on sale, no matter what the customer wants. But succumbing to this inertia, either by ignoring flagging sales or by not being attentive to consumers' evolving habits, can end up costing your small business time, energy, and resources. So, instead of waiting until your small business runs off the cliff of obsolescence, consider these five tips to ensure your goods and services don't fall victim to the blahs.

1. Measure true value. If it's a product, analyze its production and marketing costs versus its sales revenues to determine if it's really adding to your bottom line. If it's a service, include it on a survey to see whether your customers value it, ignore it, or hate it.

For decades, both national and local banks alike took the time to mail back every original check to their customers, despite the fact that many customers saw little value in this service and some even considered it a nuisance. Years after the technology existed to efficiently mail scanned copies of checks or, cheaper yet, electronic copies via email, banks continued to stick with this tradition. It wasn't until two years ago that banks finally realized that this "service" wasn't earning much, if any, loyalty from their customers and they stopped it, thus saving an estimated $2 billion a year in sorting and mailing costs.

2. Watch your competition. There's rarely a good outcome for a business if it is the last in its market segment to accept a significant change. Keep up with industry best practices and any changes in your competitors' marketing and advertising.

3. Stay on top of technological changes. If a new product comes on the market that could make yours obsolete or a new service becomes available that could render yours quaint, it might be better to accept the change early on-by either upgrading or phasing out your product or service-rather than cling to an old-fashioned technology that could cause your business to lose market share in more promising areas.

By 2002, DVD players were far outpacing VCRs in U.S. consumer sales and it was evident this new, more versatile technology would supplant the VCR. Despite this, and the fact that the price point on DVD players quickly equaled if not undercut VCRs, companies like Pioneer and Philips continued to build stand-alone VCRs through 2004, selling many of the units at little or no profit and dedicating valuable production time in their factories to a rapidly dying technology.

4. Be attuned to changes in customer behavior. If more of your hotel guests are asking where to find the nearest Wi-Fi connection than the closest shoe shine stand or post office, its time to ditch the old electric shoe buffers and hotel stationery from each room and instead install high-speed Internet access.

5. Send the right message to the right customers. Carefully examine what kinds of signals your products and services are sending to consumers. If they're geared toward a market or demographic your business is moving away from, you might be better off making a clean break rather than muddying your brand by trying to squeeze out a few more quarters worth of diminishing sales.

Another reason Wal-Mart dropped its layaway program was that the change fit in with its ongoing brand restructuring program. Buffered by claims that its products were of increasingly poor quality and lacked cachet-Wal-Mart shoppers have an average household income of $30,000 to $35,000 a year, while customers from one of its main competitors, Target, have an average household income of between $50,000 to $60,000 a year-the retail giant has begun moving more aggressively to court customers with a higher income and more readily available access to credit.

Reed Richardson is managing editor for Business 24/7 magazine.