Marketing 101

There are many reasons for doing market research…

To establish WHO your target market is.
Surprisingly, many businesses never do this and simply go on “coping and hoping.” They try to promote to anyone and everyone instead of finding out what identifiable market segment would give them the best bang for their buck.

I mean you wouldn’t want to try and sell Hyundai’s in Beverly Hills. Or the obvious classic, refrigerators to Eskimos.

To make sure the message you are putting out is working for you.

You could be promoting a message to your prospects that is close to what they want to hear, but not right on the mark. Result? Fewer responses, leads or customers.

Or maybe your message IS what prospects want to hear, but they don’t believe it’s actually possible to have or get what you are offering. In other words, they’d like to believe you, but they don’t. So they don’t respond.

To make sure you are offering exactly what is wanted.
You think your customers are looking for ABC merchandise so you stock up on it, when, really, they want XYZ merchandise. Result? Marked down goods, sold for much less than you thought they would bring.

All of these are needed to succeed. OK, got it. Makes sense. Market Research is a good thing. “But why should I pay someone else to do that for me when I can do it myself, I did this course and learned all about that.” Or “I read this book and it had all sorts of stuff about Market Research and Surveys.”

Look at it this way,

I know how to do an oil change and I can change a tire. I can also put in a car battery and put new break shoes on, as well as do a tune up. I know how to check and add all the fluids to my car as well as how to change gaskets. I also know what that ominous knocking coming from my engine signifies, and what will happen if I let it continue.

Now, I know how to do all these things to a car. In fact I did do them, of course some of it was in a school setting, with a teacher standing over me and ready to help if needed. (By the way why don’t they teach auto mechanics in high school anymore?) Anyway, I did do them, so why shouldn’t I just rebuild that engine myself? Why should I give some guy a bunch of money to do what I know I could do myself?

If I had the time…and the tools…
…and maybe a book to refer back to when I got stuck.

But what kind of product will I have when it’s done?

Will I know that everything got put together right?
Will I know that my car is running at its optimum?

Will it be a Professional job?…

I think I’ll take my car in on Monday.

pro•fes•sion•al
adjective, Definitions:
3. businesslike: conforming to the standards of skill, competence, or character normally expected of a properly qualified and experienced person in a work environment
professional attitude
4. very competent: showing a high degree of skill or competence.

The opposite of professional is amateur. Do you want to leave the future of your business to an amateur?

Posted by Vanessa Steele at 10:18 AM | Permalink

I bring this up because of a recent incident with a client, not to point fingers at one person but this happens often with new clients. This just happens to be the preverbal last straw.

I should first clarify what I mean by an “Electronic Filing System”...

I am not talking about some software program that is a “must” have. I am talking about the way you file your documents and such within your computer. Specifically photographs and promotional pieces you have or are using for your company.

Most medium to small business owners will just file their photos and promotional pieces in a folder, or multiple folders, that make sense to them. For example: brochure final copy or brochure final, (this along with several other folders labeled very similar was exactly what I got from a client recently). Each folder held data for that particular brochure he wanted us to update; unfortunately none of them were the current one in use.

While it might make sense at the time to just quickly label folders, files, docs and pictures this way remember that your goal is to grow your business and that means eventually someone else will need to use these files. So here is a simple way to keep your files user friendly. (as well as keeping your Marketing Agent sane).

Have several folders within folders, the main folder can be named “Promotional Material”. This folder would then hold several folders named, “Direct Mail”, “Tri Fold Brochure” and “Sales Sheets” or something like that. Then each of those folders would have folders. Let’s take the Tri Fold Brochure, since that was the most recent problem I had. Within the folder you would then have folders that are dated, Tri Fold Brochure 021503. This folder would contain everything needed to recreate the Brochure. All pictures all text docs all logos, everything.

Now when you want to do any changes, or have your designer do any changes or updates you can copy this folder and give him all the data he needs. When you get the new or updated Brochure file then make another folder labeled with the date and this would be a new folder within the Tri fold Brochure folder. Again it would contain everything used to create this current brochure. If you reuse docs or pictures from the first brochure just copy them and put them in this folder. This way you or your designer will not have to hunt for something later.

Example:
(folder) Tri Fold Brochure
(folder) Tri Fold Brochure 021503
(file) owner picture 020303 pdf
(file) carnivals are us 021003 word doc
(file) balloon logo 120802 pdf
(folder) Tri Fold Brochure 072805
(file) owner picture 051805 pdf
(file) carnivals are us 042505 word doc
(file) balloon logo 120802 pdf

Posted by Vanessa Steele at 01:52 PM | Permalink

The choice of font (typeface) in a website or print or video piece can make a BIG difference in the impact or effectiveness. Fonts communicate emotion and style, are easier or more difficult to read, stand out or not.

But you're limited in the use of fonts in websites because of the way websites work.

When you "go" to a website on your computer, you are connecting with a computer ("website hosting server") where that website is stored and connects to the Internet. The server sends to your computer, not the page, but instructions to your computer on how to build and display that page on your screen.

The instructions are in a language called HTML which is supposed to be universal to computers around the world. And, for the most part, that is true. Your computer will interpret those instructions the same way as another computer halfway around the world, built by a different manufacturer, running different software.

As best they can.

Because for text, for one thing, the instructions tell your computer what font to display it in. What if your computer doesn't have that font installed on it? There are only perhaps a dozen fonts that can pretty much be counted on to be on English speaking computers everywhere. Even then, websites usually offer your computer a choice of at least a couple of similar fonts, in case you only have one or another. PCs usually have "Arial", Macs usually have "Helvetica" - similar but not identical fonts.

If you want to use a less common font in your website, you have to use a picture that has the text in the font you want. That's more work, it has disadvantages for search engine optimization, it makes for a "heavier" website (larger file sizes, so slower).

There are other issues, even if the computer at the receiving end has the font you want. There is a big difference between how the "same size" text looks on a 15 inch monitor and a 23" monitor. On one it might be difficult for a senior citizen to read. On the other it might be so large as to be "horsy" (large or clumsy looking).

You probably didn't know there was so much to just the choice of fonts in text, eh? We like to think of it as another good reason why website design is best done by professionals.

Posted by Richard R. Byrd at 10:00 AM | Permalink

One of our favorite "tricks" for Internet marketing is to work "click ads" (paid search ads) and website search engine optimization back and forth.

Click ads can be great but every time someone clicks through to your website, you're paying maybe $1.50. That can get expensive fast. In a lot of cases it can be a big winner. It also is a way to generate immediate traffic to your website since it usually takes a while to build up your "natural" search engine rankings.

Google, Yahoo and other companies that sell click ads give you a lot of feedback that tells you how many searches are occuring for the various search terms, how many click through to your site. If you also track how many of those turn into prospects or sales, you REALLY know what search terms to push in optimizing your site.

Similarly you can use how people are finding your site through natural (free) searches to suggest key words you may want to buy clicks for. And, as your natural search traffic volume increases, you may want to or be able to cut down on your click ad budget.

Think of natural and paid searches as integrated parts of your overall Internet marketing effort - along with publicity, and free and paid directory listings.

Posted by Richard R. Byrd at 10:49 AM | Permalink

Alka-Seltzer added to a spherical water drop in space.

Posted by Richard R. Byrd at 01:33 PM | Permalink

There's a great rule of thumb for whether or not you are marketing effectively:

Is anyone complaining?

Of course the number one rule of thumb is "Is the phone ringing."

But It's a fact that if no one is complaining about your marketing, probably no one is noticing it.

Marketing that no one notices is not going to be effective. Duh.

So you could say if you are going to do marketing, you need a bit of a thick skin.

After many years in this business, I am convinced that there are people just waiting for an opportunity to give someone a hard time. You might say it is a mild form of sociopathy - just not enough to get someone arrested or committed. These are people mad at the world, and if your postcard, TV commercial, or whatever reaches them, they sort of mentally rub their hands in glee over the thought they might be able to make someone else's day as miserable as theirs.

I am far from a pessimist. In fact, studies have shown I'm one of the most optimistic people you will ever meet. So this is far from meant to discourage you! Quite the contrary! Ignore the tiny percentage of complaints you get, and if you aren't getting any complaints at all - consider increasing the volume of marketing outflow, or changing your imagery or copy to make your promotional items more noticeable, more outrageous, wittier or more startling.

Dull marketing is bad marketing.

Low volume marketing is poor marketing.

Posted by Richard R. Byrd at 04:39 PM | Permalink