Duct Tape Marketing: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide – 2nd Edition.
The Referral Engine – Teaching Your Business to Market Itself – by John Jantsch.
The title to this post is one of my small business marketing mantras and the topic of an interview I did recently with Stacy Perman at BusinessWeek.
Create the system, work the system, go to the bank. Okay, I skipped few steps, but you’ve got to get out of the “idea of the week” rut or plan to spend the rest of your life making up the next great marketing idea.
When a prospect shuts you down with a no, some think that’s the end of the game. In some cases, it’s just the beginning – the beginning of the puzzle that is.
When a qualified prospect (you caught the word qualified, right?) says no, it can actually mean many things. Your job is to figure out what no really means – do that and you may turn the deal around. I’m not advocating the probe for more pain and listen for buying signals kind of thing, I’m saying if you can better understand no today, you’ll hear less of it tomorrow.
And now for some tips: Educate – don’t sell, ask questions about goals, offer proof, spell out the value, be yourself, and above all, don’t take anything personal. There that should let you solve the puzzle.
I suspect that women entrepreneurs already do rule the world, but they’re allowing our male egos to think differently for the moment.
I live with five women and have worked with countless women business owners over the years and they just have an unfair advantage.
Want to know what I think it is?
The women business owners I have worked with are wired to give and giving is one of the most attractive marketing tactics in the world. So, when I say rule the world, it’s not in the typical male, Pinky and the Brain kind of way, I mean in an intuitively practical, ultimately profitable manner that works for all.
As I watch my own daughters lurching towards something called real life, I am witnessing this from a renewed perspective.
On the surface these sites may seem focused on the needs of women entrepreneurs. Of course, as they teach marketers like me how to market to and with women, their reach become pretty darn universal doesn’t it?.
So, gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?
I find the entire category of local search fascinating. The fact that people are increasingly turning to the Internet to hunt down businesses around the block makes this trend one that you can’t afford to sit out. When someone wants to find a local shoe store they type something like South Dallas Shoe store kids. Your business needs to be able to rank well for searches like that or else!
I’ve created a product that I think will be help local businesses compete in the local search game. I call it a Duct Tape Marketing Local Search Engine Profile.
For an annual fee, small business can complete a simple form that builds a local profile page (see example) and automatically submits this profile data to most of the local search engines and directories.
In addition, the profile is housed on the high traffic, highly ranked Duct Tape Marketing site and offers the small business a chance to get an almost unfair advantage over competitors for key local search terms.
I created listings for a number of my local clients. The results so far are pretty interesting.
An accounting and investment firm
Google search for “Kansas City CPAs” – rank #4
Google search for “Kansas City Investment Advisors” – rank #1
A computer network services firm
Google search for “Kansas City computer network service†– rank #5
Google search for “Kansas city network security†– rank #3
Google search for “Kansas city network maintenance†– rank #3
A remodeling contractor
Google search for “Kansas City remodeling contractor†– rank #4
Google search for “Kansas city bath remodeling†– rank #2
Google search for “Kansas City house remodeling†– rank #1
Come and get your local search engine profile while they’re hot!
I like reading TechCrunch but if I read about another online social network start-up I’m going to throw up.
Here’s my belief on this fad – online social networking is neither social or networking. Hey, I’m as up on the whole Web 2.0 thing as anybody, but social networking, over a computer, for a business can be a grand waste of time and a crutch that allows you to stay behind the monitor when in fact you should be picking up the phone, taking someone to lunch, writing a hand-written note or shaking some hands.
I don’t have anything against the LinkedIns and Ryzes of the world I just don’t think they hold much real value for the small business owner because of the amount of work it takes to make connections that are real.
I’m certain that some folks have made these work for them, but real networking is hard work. Really discovering how you can help someone takes looking them in the eye. It’s a scary thing to do sometimes, but it takes contact to connect.
This week’s marketing podcast features an interview with Dr. Ivan Misner, PhD, founder of Business Network International (BNI)
BNI is a business and professional networking organization that allows only one person per professional classification or specialty to join a chapter. There are BNI chapters in corner of the United States and a growing number of countries worldwide.
According to Misner, last year, members of BNI passed over two million referrals that generated over a billion dollars’ (U.S.) worth of business for the members!
You already know what a big fan I am of referrals. BNI just might be a good option for your referral marketing system.
Visit the BNI site to find a chapter near you.
I delivered the keynote address for the Association of Idependent Information Professionals annual conference in Miami this week and the subject was Building Customer Loyalty
My charge was to give the attendees some tips and tools to help them do more business, more frequently with their existing clients.
This topic gave me a chance to present one of my primary marketing beliefs. Earning your second sale with a client has as much to do with the way you generated the lead, presented your value proposition and converted the prospect to a client as it does with some technique your employ after the sale.
Customer loyalty is a natural by-product of targeting the right client, with right need and setting and exceeding their expectations. The rest is just details
This of course assumes that you have a strategy to serve a narrowly focused market and can articulate what it is that makes your firm unique. If you can’t do that, know that creating loyal customers will always be a mystery.
I had my eyes opened recently to an email marketing point that I was having trouble determining an answer to.
Should you require double opt-in or verification of an email address when someone subscribes to an online newsletter or offer? One side of me fought this idea with the thinking that it just adds another hoop for someone to jump through.
After a conversation with AWeber’s CEO Tom Kulzer, (my list and autoresponder service provider) I’ve become a firm believer in the necessity for double opt-in.
The argument that turned my head was the fact that when you don’t require verification, a person can fill any name and email in and then, when you unknowingly mail that address, guess who the spammer is – you!
Tom tells me that on all their various lists the name bob@aol.com shows up about 80 times an hour.
I think double opt-in is a much more professional approach for the small business to take as well. After all, it’s what the big guys do. With Aweber setting double opt-in up is like flipping a switch.
Bottom line, with double opt-in your subscriber lists will be much more responsive, you won’t be sending (even though innocently) spam and your subscribers will thank you for making the world a better place to live.
