Get Your Own Free Marketing Case Study:

Would you like some free marketing ideas for your small business?

The Idea Spot blogs is now taking requests for marketing case studies. If you are a small business in the United States, with under $3 million in annual revenue, you are eligible to get some free marketing ideas to build your marketing plan.

There is no obligation on your part to participate. This is not a sales pitch. We will only use this information as material for this blog.

Here's how it works:

1. You fill out the request form here: Idea Spot Request Form

• Be as descriptive as possible about your current marketing situation. What are you doing now? What are your problems areas? What would you like to accomplish with your marketing advice.
• Indicate only one of four categories in which you would like marketing advice: Branding, Customer Experience, Word of Mouth, Advertising. These are the four categories that comprise the 4-Spot Marketing Model at our firm: The Marketing Spot.
• Make sure you include your contact information. If you do not include contact information, we will not consider your request.

2. If we select your business as a case study, we will then contact you by phone and conduct
an interview. This interview will take aproximately 30 minutes of your time and is
completely confidential.

3. Our team will then brainstorm marketing ideas specifically for your business, based on your
situation.

4. We will write your case study and post it on this blog. We will then notify you that your case
study is live. There are usually additional ideas not included in the case study which we will
send to you separately.

5. You implement the ideas into your marketing plan and enjoy the benefits for free,
professional marketing advice!

Check out some of previous case studies here: Idea Spot Marketing Case Studies.

The Idea Spot small business marketing blog is maintained by: The Marketing Spot
Our other small business marketing advice blog is: The Marketing Spot Blog

Create A Catalog for Your Website

Here's an idea to make your top-selling inventory available on the web to anyone who wants to buy. You don't need to have an online store and you don't need to pay a web developer thousands of dollars to build a complicated data base.

Instead, just create a catalog with all your merchandise on your own computer and then offer it as a pdf download from your website.

In many ways, a pdf catalog is better than an actual printed catalog. There are no printing or mailing costs, and customers can save it to their computer for future reference.

DO IT YOURSELF
It may take a little time, but a catalog is not that difficult to create. You can do it with Word as long as you are comfortable working with tables and graphics in Word. Find Word tutorials here: Word 2007 Courses

Lay out your complete catalog including a cover page, table of contents, product information, and ordering instructions. Be sure to include an order form that may be faxed or mailed to you. When creating your catalog, include as much color as you can and include as many product pictures as you can.

When you are finished with the creation of your catalog, proof read it carefully. Now you're ready to convert the entire catalog from Word into a pdf document. You may already have the pdf conversion software on your computer, or you may have pdf driver installed in your printing options. If so, try those first and examine the results.

If that's not working, use this free online pdf converter: doc2pdf (donations accepted). I've found it to be very quick and completely accurate.

Once you've created the pdf document of your catalog, save it to your computer. Then send the file to your web developer and add it to the website. Make sure you prominently promote the "New Colorful Catalog" now available online.

EXAMPLES
Here are a couple of examples of some catalogs (all pdf file links):
Huetter Mill & Cabinet Molding and Stair Parts
Classic Cuisine Catering Catalog
Schlueter Dairy Technologies Catalog

When you do finish your catalog, be sure to send me a link to jay-at-themarketingspot-dot-com. If you already have a catalog, please let me know so that I can link to it as an example.


For more information on our company: www.themarketingspot.com
Read our other blog on small business marketing: The Marketing Spot

Clothing Website Experience

Case Study: HIZwear.com

Idea Wanted: Enhance the website experience

Challenge: Give customers a more involved experience at the website without cluttering its simple, effective design.

Background: Three friends decided to turn their passion into a business. Six months later they had HIZWear.com, a site that sells inspirational, scriptural-based t-shirts for women. Now that's a niche!

Advice: Here's a website that has a great lesson for small business owners: You don't have to be complicated and flashy to be effective. HIZwear is a simple website that sells what it sells without overburdening the visitor. Our advice is to give visitors a chance to connect a little more with the website in ways other than buying a shirt.

Ideas:

1. The “Our Story” portion is good; it's an honest, personal story that reveals something interesting about the business. However it appears to all run together. It might be a little easier to read if it were broken into some paragraphs. That may make it necessary to do a little editing, but it would also make it more readable. Also, when you have several paragraphs in a story, use subheadlines to break it up and keep the reader interested.
   
2. To make the site more personal; under the “3 Girlz Picture” include a caption identifying who is whom. The picture is great, because it shows that HIZwear is not a corportation, just three friends following their call from God.
   
3. To create a future customer base, include a link for visitors to sign up to be notified when a new t-shirt is released. Releasing a couple of new models every two months or so, will keep customers involved and coming back for more. For example, in November, release some long-sleeve T's and send an announcement to the email list that winter models are now available.
   
4. Create a suggestion box and let visitors suggest new t-shirt ideas. There may be some inappropriate suggestions but this idea would also create repeat traffic and build a community of believers who are hungry for ways to express their faith. Plus, the suggestions will probably yield some pretty good ideas.
   
5. Consider putting men’s models right next to the female shirts for a hiz & herz package. It would be perfect timing for Christmas shopping.
   
6. Add the signature to the website: Clothed in the Word of God. We love the signature, but only learned about it in email exchanges with one of the owners, Leisa Gay. It appears nowhere on the website. Add it just the below logo (which we also like).

The Lesson: When you have a product that fundamentally speaks to your customer's life values, you have to give them an opportunity to connect emotionally with you. Give customers the opportunity to be part of your company by engaging them and soliciting feedback. Create a community of customers who share common beliefs and you will foster word of mouth and customer loyalty.

If you would like free marketing ideas for your small business, fill out this form: Request for Ideas
For small business marketing advice, see our other blog: The Marketing Spot

Seed Your Existing Customers' Next Purchase

Businesses are often caught up into trying to get new customers to spend new money with them. But don't forget your existing customers. Show them a little love and prevent them from becoming someone else's new customers.

Here's an idea to reward them, and nudge them along to their next purchase. Give them a seed. Not a literal plant seed, but a figurative one. A free small item that will be appreciated by the customer, yet at the same time cause them to want to buy more from you.

For example, if you have a tree trimming service, give all your good customers a small seedling to plant in their yard or give to someone else in their neighborhood. Along with the seedling, remind your customers to schedule a trimming before the busy seasons starts.

If you are an accountant or you have book keeping service, send desk calendars to your clients with the important tax days marked. Also, on each important tax day, promote an additional service you offer that the customer could use.

How else could you see your customers? Think about and watch your existing customers grow.

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

The Idea Spotters

Lest you think all these ideas come from me, here's a little love to the rest of the idea team that makes all these ideas possible. Our case studies are a collaborative effort. We get together every Wednesday morning at The Marketing Spot to brainstorm ideas for our case studies.

Lindsey Elliott
Lindsey is recently betrothed to the lucky Johnny Elliott, an officer in the Army. She has communications degree from the University of Alabama Huntsville.

Lindsey is very athletic; she was on track scholarship at UAH as hurdler, long-jumper and triple jumper.

Her greatest passion, after her husband, is her dog, Bailey, a wirehaired pointing griffon.

Lindsey's primary responsibility is marketing assistant with one of our clients: King's Daughters Clinic in Temple, Texas. She also serves as an assistant coach for another client: Montgomery Chiropractic in Belton, Texas. During our brainstormers, she gives us a much-needed female perspective getting us to think in the real world, applying our ideas to everyday life experiences.

Jason Pickrell
Jason is still single, ladies. He has an advertising degree from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Jason is also athletic; he played tennis at Tyler Junior College.

He is also a musician, singer, songwriter, using his gifts to glorify God through spiritual music. He even has his own CD! Get a taste of Jason's music at his MySpace page.

Jason's has several responsibilities, but his two major functions are as our graphics and video guru, and as operations manager for the Waco Real Estate Source, a free real estate magazine we publish in Waco, Texas. During our brainstormers, Jason is known to throw in ideas that seem to come from "left field," getting us to think in different directions.

Jay Ehret
This is me. I have been married for 8 years to my lovely wife, Carol, a pharmaceutical sales rep for Novartis. I have a financial services and planning degree from Baylor University.

I am not as athletically gifted as my young teammates, although I love to play basketball at a lunchtime businessman's pick-up game at the Waco Family Y.

In addition to my wife, my passions are serving the Lord, wine, and travel.

My primary responsibility is as chief steward of The Marketing Spot. I also serve as the Marketing Director for two of our clients: King's Daughters Clinic and Sykora Family Ford, and as coach to Cody Malone, Pro Bass Angler and Montgomery Chiropractic. I also serve as associate publisher for The Waco Real Estate Source.

We are blessed at The Marketing Spot to have a young (not including me) and creative Idea Spotting team. Our Wednesday morning brainstormers are the most fun part of the week. We enjoy the opportunity to put together practical and usable marketing ideas for small businesses all across the country.

If you would like a some free marketing ideas from our team; first read this post on our 4-Spot Marketing Model, then fill out the Idea Spot request form here.

Send Emails to Your Customers

If you have a retail business and a healthy customer list you should consider sending out emails to your customers. Email marketing is often touted as giving one of the best ROI's of any marketing activity.


Why do email marketing?

1. Remind your customers to do business with you. Sometimes customers just need a little prodding. Whenever I get a personal email from one of my favorite wineries asking if I want to order anything, I almost always say yes.
2. Keep them involved with your business. Maybe you have the type of business where customers purchase infrequently. Remind them who you are between purchases.
3. Create word of mouth opportunities. When you send out important information to your customers, it gives them the opportunity to forward the email on to their friends.
4. Introduce promotions, new products or services. Get people excited if this month is "Bring a Friend Free" month.
5. Keep your customers informed. Let them know if you are now open Saturday mornings, or that you've hired a key individual. My wife recently called to confirm her appointment for her annual check up and they told her, "we're glad you called, because we've moved." Luckily she called.
6. It's cost effective. If you had to personally call all your customers or send a letter, how much would that cost?

Use a web-based system to send your emails. There are several great on-line services that allow you to send out colorful, spiffy-looking emails while only requiring you to know how to click a mouse and string some sentences together. You'll be able to send out the same email to hundreds of customers, yet it will also be personalized. Using a web-based email service also prevents you from clogging up your own computer or losing everything if your system crashes.

Which should you use? Check out this list here: Email Service Providers. I have used Constant Contact in the past, but there are cheaper services. Your cost will be determined by the number of emails you send out per month. Most services will offer you a free trial period. Pick a couple and test them out.

For some basics of email marketing, see this reference list.

Have you had success with email marketing? Share your story.

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

Change Your Name

Marketing Idea Category: Word of Mouth

Want to create some talk about your business? Change your name. Seriously.

Read this example of how Rouge, a Seattle women’s clothing boutique , changed their name and leveraged some great publicity, including this additional article (and our blog).

People love new things and new places to shop and this idea can gain you new attention. Obviously, this is not the tactic for every business but here are the standards under which you might consider changing your business name:

1. You have very little brand equity: Your name recognition in the community is low and people generally don't know who you are or what you do.


2. Your name has no personality or is generic: "The Clothing Corner" "The Coffee House"


3. Your market has shifted: As in the Rouge example above, they began appealing to a younger demographic and carrying different brands.


4. Your business name has a bad connotation in the community: You received some bad publicity from the misdeeds of an employee or previous owner.

Changing your name may not be cheap to do, so consider the costs involved in changing your name. After you do change your name, make sure you leverage your new name to get some well-deserved publicity.

1. Send out press releases and contact your local media personally.


2. Have a ribbon cutting with your local chamber of commerce.


3. Have a "Grand Unveiling" event. Use your mailing list and email list send an invitation to all your previous customers.


4. Invite a local celebrity to cut the ribbon on your store and be the very first customer of your newly named business.

We followed up with Stephanie Duryea, who says the change was worth it, but it was a lot of hard work. She offers this advice if you decide to take the big leap:

"Make sure it's what you want to do and be committed. Make sure it fits."

Word of warning: Good marketing cannot save a bad business. If you have internal problems and operational deficiencies, a name change will not be of help. But, if your business simply has the blues, this may be a way to get the music playing again.

Coming tomorrow: Case study in The Customer Experience
For more marketing advice and lessons: The Marketing Spot
Our company website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/

Welcome Inc. Readers

Many of you are visiting this blog for the first time because The Idea Spot was recently featured in an online article at Inc.com.

First, if you want a free idea, please go to the online form at our company website and submit a request. We have received many requests during the past week, so we cannot guarantee that every submission will receive an idea. We can usually only post one case study per week. Those requests we cannot feature on the blog, will usually receive at least an email reply with some ideas..

Here's how the process works: Our team at The Marketing Spot will review request forms submitted and choose one for a case study. We will then most likely contact the business to ask a few more in-depth questions. Each Wednesday morning we then lock ourselves in the Idea Vault and brainstorm ideas for the request. We then turn those ideas into a report and develop a case study, which is then posted on The Idea Spot.

My name is Jay Ehret and I founded The Marketing Spot in October of 2001 to work specifically with locally owned medium-sized and small businesses. I have developed a marketing model that I call the 4-Spot marketing process featured here in this post on our other blog: The Marketing Spot.

The Marketing Spot is a marketing consulting firm in Waco, Texas. We offer three different services: We are a marketing director for hire by contract and handle complete marketing functions for companies that need more than just advice, we offer marketing coaching for smaller businesses that want to market more effectively but don't have the need for a full-time marketing director, and we conduct seminars and online learning for small and micro businesses.

Thanks for visiting, please consider subscribing using the button in the right-hand column of the blog.

Free Marketing Ideas and Tips

The Marketing Spot will begin offering free marketing ideas and tips for small businesses on Thursday, July 26th. Please check back weekly.

See our website: http://www.themarketingspot.com/ or check out our blog on small business marketing advice: The Marketing Spot