Small Business Blog

I recently sent an email to a client responding to a nonurgent question. It was run-of-the mill stuff and I was not expecting a response. I was pleasantly surprised to get the following automated email:

“Thanks for your email. I’ll be out of the office facilitating the amazing Leadership BootCamp (TM) all this week. I will reply as soon as I am back in the office on Monday, March 17.”

Doesn’t that make you curious about what Leadership Bootcamp(TM) is and why it is so amazing? What a great little piece of marketing in a very standard piece of business communication!

When you have to be out of the office for a seminar, workshop, or event, why not make it an opportunity to promote that continuing education or business success to the people who want to communicate with you?

Oh, and if you are curious about Leadership Bootcamp(TM) you can contact Sylvia Taylor to hear all about it. I’ll be calling her myself on Monday when she returns.

Seth Godin has a great post on the concept of “free” today.

“The interaction you seek as a marketer often disappears when something is free. The fascinating thing is that it often doesn’t matter if you’re paying or being paid… it’s the transaction either way that changes the posture of the person you’re working with.”

Seattle’s own Cathy Goodwin, copywriter extraordinaire, first sold me on the idea that money makes a relationship more productive on both sides and inspired a change in the way I do business. When I stopped having all those free coffee dates my income went up and my interactions were more meaningful.

The same is true when asking for something from your customers. About a year ago I did a targeted marketing survey and offered a donation to a local charity to the participants who chose to give me their feedback. I got valuable information from a hard-to-reach segment of my business and they got a donation to something they believe in. If I had just called out of the blue asking for free help I do not think I would have had the same response.

Seth’s point is right on: a “free” product or service does not have the same perceived value as even a nominally priced item.

So when you offer your next “free”special report, seminar, or service, keep this in mind. Payment can come in many forms - a refundable deposit, information, publicity, a case study - but you should always have some form of payment to make it a true transaction.

Many small businesses operate under the assumption that any customer is good for business. It is only after a bad match or an unprofitable stretch that they begin to reconsider this approach.

Think about one of your difficult customers for a moment.

• Why did the relationship not work out?
• How did that relationship impact your business and your ability to work with other customers?
• Did the amount of money you made offset the time and effort you spent on the client?

If you are like most people who accept the wrong type of customer, the relationship does not work out, or it takes such an incredible amount of effort from you that it is more like working with 2 or 3 customers for the revenue of 1. In addition, working with a client who is not appropriate drains you of the energy and resources you need to maintain your good customers and attract others.

So, how do you avoid working with the wrong type of customer? By knowing your ideal customer and how to reach her.

Being all things to all people is not possible, or even desirable in most instances. Honing in on who you want to work with and how you want to work with them will transform your business. Narrowing your focus will expand your possibilities.

What does your ideal customer look like?

• Where does she live and shop?
• How does she make buying decisions?
• What is her age range and education level?
• Is she a mother or a wife?
• What need does your product or service fill for her?

Once you determine these things about your ideal client (and as many other questions as you can answer) you can then begin speaking to her in your marketing campaigns, your blog, your elevator pitch, and in how you structure your products and services. If you build it, she will come.

If you continue speaking generally in hopes of capturing as much business as you can you will continue speaking to no one and feel obligated to take whatever business comes your way, good or bad. And the energy you spend working with a client who is not a good fit for you will keep you finding your ideal customer.

In my business, I have an ideal client profile and seek to make an 80% match. There have been a few times that I did not follow this “red velvet rope” policy and every single time I regretted the decision (what can I say? I’m a slow learner). So I can say with quite a bit of confidence that turning away the wrong fit will open you up to accepting the right kind of customer for you, the kind that will energize you and remind you every day why you went into business. Accepting the wrong fit will make you question every day why you went into business.

It’s not a matter of getting customers, because you can do that either way. It is a matter of getting the right kind of customers so you can do your best work.

The Internet has made the world a much smaller place, but it can still seem overwhelming to monitor what is being said about you and your business. No matter what industry you are in, you will eventually have a disgruntled customer. Many will also have to contend with competitors who try to boost their own reputations by attacking others.

To monitor your name, I recommend Googling yourself. This will remind you of what people see when they look for you. If you have pictures of a racy Cancun vacation on your MySpace page, this might be the time to set that to private if you are developing an online business reputation. Then when you make a great contact you can be confident they will find the professional image you are cultivating when they Google you to find out more information (because they will!).

If you have a somewhat common name, odds are that people will have to determine which information belongs to you. There are a couple of strategies around this:

• Use your picture in profiles, articles and websites to clarify your identity
• Buy your name domain (www.betsytalbot.com) even if you do not choose to do anything with it now. For a mere $10/year you can make sure that a porn star or sleazy politician with the same name as you doesn’t steal your online thunder, or even insure that a competitor can’t buy your name and redirect it to their site.

Setting Up Alerts

Often when something is said about you it may not end up on page 1, which means you won’t see it until it has gained enough traction to make it to page 1. If you have a lot of time and a great memory you could Google your name and keywords every single day and scroll through all the pages (I hope your name isn’t Jane Smith!), but I am sure this is not the best use of your time. Whether you are monitoring who is talking about you or want to know how many times your product or service is mentioned online, Google Alerts is the easiest, cheapest solution for you.

How do you set up a Google alert?

• Go to www.google.com and sign in (if you don’t have an account, set one up take advantage of all of Google’s services - it is free!)
• Click “More” at the top left side of the screen and then “even More” from the dropdown list.
• Click on “Alerts”
• Type in the word or phrase you want to search for
  Use quotes around phrases to be more specific (i.e., “betsy talbot” instead of betsy talbot - without quotes always returns results on any mention of “betsy” or “talbot” on the internet - too many alerts!)
• Select Comprehensive as the type and choose how often you want the report
• Confirm the email address.

It is really that simple! On the time schedule you choose, you will receive an alert every time your word or phrase is used. You can use this to monitor your name, company name, suite of products or services, or even to keep up with the news on industry terms important to you. You can even follow news on your favorite author or business guru.

Monitoring your online reputation is a wise business move, and one that takes little effort and zero dollars.

Do you wish you had a virtual business card? One that had your picture or logo? If you work virtually, or if you network a lot like I do, having an online business card with a picture is a great idea. It reinforces who you are to your contact and helps personalize electronic communication.

Hyplet is a free service that allows you to build virtual business cards and banner advertising for your email signature, blog, or website. It is really easy to use - just click “create” to get started.

Below is my latest creation, which is basic and used as my email signature.  I started with a blank template, but there are many designs to choose from.  Make a banner advertisement for your services, a contact form for your website, or use it as an email signature like I have.

Set up your own Hyplet and “hype” yourself in the comments section!

Looking for a little advice for your small business but don’t have the time or money to consult an expert?

Check out the Microsoft Small Business Summit on March 24-27 for a virtual seminar on topics of interest to you.  The seminar is free and has some top-name experts I’m interested in, like John Jantsch from Duct-Tape Marketing.  Each day has 4 hours of live speakers you can access right from your computer.

Click here to register for the free event, then sit back and get some expert help from the comfort of your own office.  “See” you there!

Promotional products are not marketing - they are an added piece of emphasis to your regular marketing. If you think of your marketing message as a sentence, the promotional product would be the punctuation.

I recently met Dwyane Faux at a local Biznik event and he made some excellent points about using promotional products in small business.

First, what is a promotional product? It can be any product that contains your company information and also serves another purpose. Most people think of pens, calendars, t-shirts, etc., but there is no price or size limit on a promotional product, and your product or service may be expensive enough to justify a larger item.

Advertising gurus state that a customer needs to see your ad 20-30 times before deciding to buy. Dwyane’s take on this is that they see your ad many times but do not choose to notice until they NEED to, and that is when your promotional product is best placed to get you a sale. By offering something your potential customer will use often, you increase your chances they will come to you when they need your services.

You can distribute your marketing materials as giveaways at trade shows and in direct mail campaigns, but something I never considered was using them as part of your regular networking. Dwyane has a great point about this: if you are in a fairly common industry like real estate or skin care, providing a promotional product as you meet people will make you stand out from your competition. When you make your followup contact, you can always refresh their memory by reminding them you gave them the small tube of lotion or handy tip chart.

Do you know other professionals who share your target market? Consider a group promotion to be handed out by all participants. Dwyane set this up for a home repair group (plumber, painter, carpet cleaner, etc.) and it was hugely successful. Each service professional left behind a magnet with the other home specialists listed, so each of them were always advertising for everyone in the group. This would be a great option for a real estate centered group or a nutrition/fitness group or a medical services group.

Dwyane works as a promotional product consultant, meaning you get his consultative services when you buy products. He will advise on what works best for you and your market as well as analyze the results of your campaign with you. If you are interested in talking with Dwyane about his services, give him a call at 206.444.9100 or email him at dwyane@topbananaevents.com. Oh, and ask him what his title is while you’re at it. I’ll bet he’s the first “Director of Sesquinpedintary” you have ever met!

Have you ever thought of starting an online business? Many of us like the idea of “money while we sleep” but few make the leap. Sometimes we don’t know how to start, and sometimes we don’t have a great product to sell.

I recently met Alexis Meisel, owner of ZookHooks Quality Purse Hangers, at an eWomen event. These nifty little gadgets keep your purse, diaper bag, or briefcase off the floor and safely in sight when dining at a restaurant or when seated at a table anywhere in public. They are an attractive and inexpensive way to keep your bag clean and safe.

Because most of my clients are service-based professionals, I was intrigued to find out how Alexis got into this business and what she did to become so successful.

• Locate a product that is a little bit hard to find and has a special niche. When she first discovered purse hangers in a gift shop, she had no idea this would become her business. But as people kept asking her about it and where they could buy one, an idea started forming. She went back to the gift shop and they no longer carried them. Alexis says she could have sold her original purchase 100 times over, and it was a fairly plain model. The lesson? Find a product you like and do your own market research among your friends and family.
• Research the competition. It is okay to find a product that is already out there, just make sure the market is not saturated. Alexis and her husband, an e-commerce pro, researched the competition and found that the selection was poor and most sites were very hard to use. Some even required a customer to call in for an order. They knew they could make an attractive, easy-to-use site and offer a better selection of products.
• Go straight to the manufacturers. After checking out the competition, Alexis started searching online for manufacturers. She uses a variety of manufacturers in order to get the best designs possible. She has even designed a few herself.
• Think about fulfillment. This is the tough part of product-based sales. You have to store your product and package and ship. Alexis is currently fulfilling herself, but she has a store on Amazon.com and may be using them in the near future to fulfill orders for her. She advises anyone starting out to consider an Amazon store along with their fulfillment services to make the process as easy as possible.
• Make it easy for customers to do business with you. Alexis had the benefit of a husband who is an e-commerce pro, but her advice is applicable to anyone. Buy full e-commerce software instead of patching together a website with online payment capability. You will get your money’s worth, and most of them come with templates you can customize to make your website attractive to consumers. Don’t scrimp on this step. If you don’t know anything about website customization you can pay a developer for a couple of hours of work to do this for you and still come out ahead.

Alexis has developed a fan following of her product - people send in pictures of how they are using ZookHooks as well as testimonials. She is not the first one to offer purse hangers, but she is in a small enough niche that she is making a great living selling something she believes in. Think about this success story as you are out shopping and keep your eyes open for ideas to start your own e-commerce site.

To see the latest purse hooks and take advantage of Valentine’s Day specials, go to www.zookhooks.com. (what a great idea for a client appreciation gift!)

Do you advertise just like your competitors do?  If you do, you have to hope that you are the first ad they see or most convenient option for your intended audience or else you won’t get the business.

This week I took the Metro bus to a seminar in downtown Seattle.   While walking to the bus stop afterward I noticed a large, burly homeless man holding a sign that said “Former Supermodel - Need Money for Wine.”  Strangers were stopping to give him money, smile at his wit, and some even to take his picture.  I had to wait about 10 minutes for my bus, so I was able to observe him for some time.

This guy is smart.

• He knows how to stand out from the other homeless people in the area looking for contributions
• Pedestrians are wary of homeless people and made himself more approachable with the sign
• He continued to smile and laugh in a hearty way, making everyone feel good about giving him money

As I watched him I thought of my own business.  How do I stand out from people with a similar business as mine?  How do I overcome their objections to working with me (price/commitment/control)?  How do YOU?

We can’t all be former supermodels, but this is a great example of making a positive impression and overcoming customer objections to get to the sale.   

Attention all authors, wannabe authors, and people who dream of someday writing a book. Cathy Goodwin - author, copywriter, and marketing guru - will be hosting a free teleseminar for you on Thursday, January 24 at 5 p.m. Pacific/8 p.m. Eastern.

She will be discussing the single biggest reason books miss best-selling status and 5-star reviews and how you can avoid this pitfall. Yours truly will be the guinea pig of the call as she coaches me through this process.

I am a little nervous to have my book critiqued, as most people would be, but I know Cathy and she really knows her stuff. If you want to become an author you will be reviewed at some point - wouldn’t it be better to have it happen before you write instead of after it is printed so you can make the necessary changes?

If you can’t make the call at the scheduled time go ahead and sign up anyway - you will get a link afterward to listen to the recording. Hope to “see” you there!