Cultivate Your Customers

A great way to create word of mouth is to help your customer grow. A better way to create word of mouth is to help them grow for free.

To cultivate your customer look for some of your most valuable information, and then give it away free. Why would you want to do that?

Because:
People like to feel important
People like to help other people
People like businesses that help them without obligation.

When you give information that makes your potential customer more knowledgeable, more informed, or teaches them something that makes them better, they will take that information and talk about it to other potential customers.

How do you do that?
First, ask yourself the question: What is the most valuable thing I could teach someone to make them better (related to your industry)?

Then, ask yourself: How can I best give this information to potential customers for free?

Let's say you are a health and fitness trainer. You can get your clients to attend the workout, you just can't get them to eat properly. The problem, you find, begins in the grocery store. People just don't know what to buy.

To cultivate your customer, you produce a grocery shopping list and guidelines that people can take with them to the grocery store. Then you have it printed and laminated (with your web address and contact information) to give out, plus you convert it to a pdf document and load it on to your website as a free download.

You have now made your customers better for knowing you. You have cultivated them.

How do you cultivate your customer? Give them free information or tools that will make them better.


For more small business marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot
For more about our company, see our website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

We Give Thanks

We here at The Marketing Spot will be taking the next two days off to give thanks for the many favors granted to us by God. We are thankful for for all His blessings. May you be blessed this Thanksgiving and have a safe weekend. We'll be back blogging in a couple of days.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Childrens Furniture Advertising

Case Study: Punkin Patch, brick and mortar and online, upscale children's furniture and baby boutique.

Idea Wanted: New ways to advertise a new website with little to no budget.

Challenge: Get a new website noticed with virtually no money.

Background: Toks Aruoture purchased Punkin Patch, a children's furniture and baby decor boutique, in Atlanta 18 months ago. During that time they have hired 2 web designers to create an ecommerce website with the aim of selling baby furniture nationwide. After some disappointments their new website finally went live in the past week. However, during that time they made a significant investment in a year-long magazine advertising contract to promote a new website that was not ready. Add that total to the money they spent on web design and their budget is depleted.

Advice:

Punkin Patch caters to the affluent. This actually works to our advantage in trying to minimize expenditure while maximizing return on dollars spent. For Punkin Patch, we advise that they combine geographic and demographic targeting. While Punkin Patch may sell and ship to anywhere in the continental U.S. affluent consumers with more than $100,000 annual income don't just live anywhere in the continental U.S. They tend to live close to each other in particular neighborhoods.

We also advise that Punkin-Patch develop an advertising strategy that mixes both online and traditional forms of media. So let's get started.

Ideas:

1. Free press releases. Yes, we've made this recommendation before, because works. First use this press release generation tool to help you structure the press release. To give the press release more bite, other than "we sell baby furniture" we suggest that Punkin Patch offer a premium with the first order. We like the idea of a personalized burp big, but it can be just about anything baby related.
   
   After you've written your press release check this list of free press release distribution sites and begin the submission process. But hold on, don't submit to every one of them. Three is enough for right now. Then in another month choose another three...and so forth. We also suggest that Punkin Patch consider some higher level paid press release services to get a little broader coverage.
   
2. Use Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing to get ads placed in searches. Here's how it works. You choose keywords for your ads. When those keywords show up in searches, your ad appears in the sponsored links section. The best part of keyword search marketing is that you get to choose your budget. You pay on a per-click basis and when all your budget is used up, then you stop getting clicks. It allows you to test the waters before going whole hog.
   
   First, you choose your keywords using this keyword tool from Google. The key is to cross-reference keywords that have as minimal competition (keywords are priced on supply and demand) with as high a search volume as possible. We have already done this analysis for Punkin-Patch and recommended five search terms.
   
3. Send post cards offering free burp cloth with purchase. How in the world can we recommend direct mail with a national website? Two ways. First, as I mentioned earlier, affluent Americans don't live just any old place. You can target zip codes, even neighborhoods where the people make a lot of money. Second, whenever Punkin Patch gets an order, they now have all of that customer's data. If that customer is typical of the ideal buyer profile, mail postcards to their neighborhood declaring that their friend down the street has discovered Punkin-Patch.com, why don't you? We'll even give you a personalized burp bib with your first purchase.
   
   We are fond of postcards, especially for websites, because they are relatively inexpensive to print and mail. There's no opening of envelopes and if the postcard is properly designed, the consumer can't help but see your message. Even if the consumer intends to throw it in the trash.
   
4. Team up with Amazon. Toks has already been approached by Amazon to add Punkin Patch to their website. Because she has had some difficulties getting her own website running the way she wants, we advise her to proceed once she has read the agreement thoroughly. She also should call a couple of references who already have an Amazon storefront. There is no direct advertising expenditure here, however Toks will have to pay a percentage of the sale to Amazon. In return, Amazon provides the exposure to its expansive customer base and it absorbs all the credit card fees.
   
5. Email marketing. This method is often maligned because of the spam implications. However, we have talked to businesses who have used email with some success. The key is to deal with a list broker that has an opt-in or permission list. People have actually given permission (whether they knew it or not) to be on this email list. Be aware, however, that these lists can still have a high degree of inaccuracy. Take the total numbers with a degree of scepticism. To buy a list, you will pay $X per thousand addresses. You also have to put together your own ad using some html. We recommend that you create the message, but have a professional put the ad together.
   
6. Women's issues blogs. here you are going to have to use some good old-fashioned internet shoe leather. Surf all the women's blogs you can find. Search Technorati and Ice Rocket to find them. Look for ones that fit the affluent female profile. Participate in the conversation by commenting on the blogs. Contact the blog author and ask for a review of your website. There may be some that you might actually want to sponsor with a banner ad. Check the blog's popularity with Technorati, and ask for the blog author's feed stats (actual subscribers). A blogger who's on top of her game will be able to tell you how many subscribers she has and is probably using a service like Feedburner.

The Lesson:
The first lesson that Toks learned, the hard way, is don't start advertising until you are absolutely ready for business. Especially when you are depending on a website for your sales. I have not yet ever seen a website go up on schedule...ever. Did I mention that I've never seen a website go up on schedule? Ever?

If you do find yourself with little to no money to advertise and you know you need to advertise, all hope is not lost. Fortunately for you, the internet still has some anarchy and you can conquer little parts of it. Work hard to find the spots where you can leverage you message for free or practically free.

Finally, before advertising, go to our other blog, The Marketing Spot and read some of our lessons on branding and advertising. You can maximize the return on any advertising investment you make by maximizing the message you communicate.

If you have any additional ideas for Toks Aruoture and Punkin Patch, please add your thoughts by clicking the comments link below.

For more information on our company, see our website: www.themarketingspot.com

Christmas Sales Ideas for Small Business

The Christmas holiday sales season can make or break the year for a small business, whether online, or brick & mortar.

1. Reward early buyers. I know we all hate Christmas displays going up too early. But you can attract extra business by giving early shopper bonuses without being too commercial about the holiday itself. Try to shy away from big price discounts as this will not attract customers who will remain loyal after the sale.
   


2. Share some of your profits. When donating, use these two criteria: donate to a cause with which you can be important, and donate to a cause for which you are passionate. Everybody does Toys for Tots and Food for Families, but there are many more deserving charities that would love your attention.
   
   


3. Make your Web site holiday-friendly. Or more appropriately, make your store & website Christmas-friendly. It is chic these days to say the world 'holiday' instead of 'Christmas'. Instead you should be all about Christmas. There may be one or two PC'ers out that you will offend (like I likely just did), but you will definitely set yourself apart from the mass of light-stepping retailers who have no backbone.
   
   


4. Offer perks or discounts. Go light on the discounts and heavier on the perks. Remember discounting your price does not encourage loyalty, only one-time purchases. Always tie perks and discounts in to a higher level of purchase. Don't offer bonuses for normal business. Reward customers for a larger, or more frequent, purchase.
   
   


5. Partner with other retailers. Always a great idea if you can team up with complimentary, non-competitive businesses. Look for businesses that sell a related product, or businesses that sell to the same demographic as you.
   
   


6. Go the extra mile. This should be standard business policy, so I would rephrase to say 'go the extra Christmas mile.' What's something extra you could do because it's Christmas? The season is all about giving and not receiving. Don't just try to sell, figure out how you can give.
   
   


7. Play to win as the season revs up. The closer you get to Christmas, the more you ratchet up the efforts. How can you do promotions or rewards with lowering the price? Maybe you host a choir or a kids play from the local church to come sing carols the week before Christmas. Get creative.

Got any more ideas to liven things up for the Christmas retail season? Feel free to add them through a comment.


For more marketing advice and lessons, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot
To learn about our company, see our website: www.themarketingspot.com

Small Business Ideas Podcast

Wow, has it really been 12 days since our last idea post? It's time to get cranked up again.

I spent last week at BlogWorld Expo and came back with a ton of ideas. Check back frequently during the next month.

Coming this week we'll have two new case studies for you. Until we get those up, I thought I would share one of my favorite idea generating podcasts with you: The Wall Street Journal Small Business report.

This particular episode covers Finding Sales in a Slow Economy, Forums for Entrepreneurs, and faxing.

Click on the link below and it will take you the mp3 podcast file. It should start playing if you have any time of audio player on your computer. If not, right click on the link below and download the file to play on Windows Media Player, Quicktime, or iTunes.

Here's the link: Wall Street Journal Small Business Report











And...if you've been thinking about blogging, check out the latest entries on our other blog: The Marketing Spot. I go over some of the reasons small businesses should blog.


For more information on our company, check out www.themarketingspot.com