Small Business Marketing Ideas from the Big Brands

As a marketer, do you dream of having a big brand and the budget that goes along with it? Well, you may be surprised how much you can take from major companies and their tactics to improve the results for your marketing at a small company.

To set the stage, the top trends for 2014 predicted by Forbes are:

• Content marketing continues to grow. Marketing to the masses through techniques like ads on TV or radio is becoming less effective. Producing valuable, engaging content designed for specific audiences yields better results.
• Diversity is important to social media marketing. New sites are introduced constantly. Brands have to operate on several to reach the most potential customers, increasing overall complexity.
• Images and visuals perform best. Many of the emerging social media sites are visual. Furthermore, most blog posts that are shared extensively incorporate arresting images. Infographics have become more common.
• Less is more. As a result of our hyper-connectivity and highly-digitized lives, consumers are craving simpler campaigns and messaging. The most successful ads and content are likely to be the ones that are easy to digest.

• 

  The newest Duracell commercial features Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman, who triumphed over his hearing impairment

  Mobile-friendly content is essential. Forbes notes that “87 percent of connected devices sold by 2017 will be tablets and smartphones.” It is important to provide an acceptable experience to users on these devices.

• SEO and social work together. The goal of search engines is to provide the most relevant and high-quality content, so Google and others factor in the social shares that content gets when delivering organic search rankings. That is why many companies are including social share plugins and encouraging visitors to share content.

Considering the trends and priorities, there is some general advice small businesses should follow:

2014 Small Business Marketing Trends–Infographic

It’s a new year and everyone has opinions on what 2014 will mean for marketers. Here’s our take on the trends along with some statistics you may find useful for decision making. Let’s hope we’re all toasting our success as December rolls around!

In the meantime, what trends are you betting on?

Many thanks to the sources of the statistics above: Emarketer, Small Business Trends, Secret W Business, Marketing Charts, Masterful Marketing, Social Media Today.

Marketing Resolutions for the New Year

As I get ready to take a few days off around the holidays, I was thinking about 2014 and what I want to do differently to continually challenge myself. Plus, I am in the process of welcoming a new team member and saying goodbye to one who has become a terrific asset and friend. So I created a list of marketing resolutions to capitalize on what has changed and developed in 2013.

• Enhance and leverage the brand. We used a strategy agency to help us hone our plans for the next three to five years in terms of new markets and services. Not every company has the resources to do this and it was a first for Affinity Express as well. But that means we have an excellent opportunity to make sure we are completely integrated. We can reorient everything we do around our brand and the promise it carries. As Marketing Thingy suggests, marketers should go beyond advertising to every communication piece, the structure of our offices, the forms we use and programs we develop. The point is to use the brand like a lens to view everything we do. Even if you didn’t revisit your strategy like we did, you can still focus on integrating your brand.
• Produce great content. We have been deep into content marketing for a while now but I’d like to broaden to more formats and increase visual marketing this year. There is a good rationale as nearly 40% of U.S. companies use blogs for marketing purposes and companies that blog have 55% more website visitors. On top of that, 90% of companies market with custom content today. Content marketing is less expensive and more effective than traditional mass marketing and it is more appropriate for the digital era. If you are seen as an expert on relevant topics, you will build a larger following. The components of a content marketing plan are:

Small Business Holiday Greetings

According to a Constant Contact holiday survey, 31% of small businesses say winter is their busiest season, 65% expect 2013 revenues to exceed those of 2012 and 52% say holiday customers become repeat, loyal customers. With this data in mind, why wouldn’t you use holiday greetings to thank customers and prospects while building relationships, increasing sales and acquiring new customers?

The custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese, who exchanged messages of good will for the new year, as noted by the Greeting Card Association. The early Egyptians shared greetings on papyrus scrolls. The first published Christmas cards appeared in London in 1843, when Sir Henry Cole hired the artist John Calcott Horsley to design a card that could be sent to friends.

Every year, Affinity Express selects a famous painting to interpret in embroidery and creates a small number of cards. For the 2012 card, we featured van Gogh’s “The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum” and won a Golden Needle Award from Stitches Magazine!

Holiday cards for businesses should include:

• Logo and slogan or tagline
• Contact information
• Social media profiles
• Website address

Your greeting should be generic to avoid offending anyone’s beliefs but you do want to stand out in the pile of messages your customers and prospects receive. Ruff Haus Design has some advice on crafting holiday sentiments:

1. Save time by ordering pre-printed cards. Standard greetings are okay, but sign cards and, if possible, address them by hand.
2. Tailor your approach. You should spend more time adding a personal note for the best customers.
3. Leverage email. It is acceptable to send email greetings, although it is better to make the salutation specific to the person rather than “Dear Customer”.

Some examples of wording that businesses can use are as follows:

• Thank you for being our valued customer. We wish you a beautiful holiday season and blissful year’s end.
• Sending you warm wishes of gratitude this holiday season for your ongoing business, support and referrals. Happy Holidays!
• Best wishes for a happy holiday season and our sincere thanks for your loyalty and goodwill throughout the year.

Facetivus is the offering from Iris Worldwide, which featured videos of staffers getting eggnog, pies and various other items thrown at their faces in the name of charity. For each video play racked up, the agency donated a dollar to Hurricane Sandy relief.

Holiday cards can be created cost effectively and professionally at these websites:

• 123print.com
• BusinesscardStar.com
• Moo.com
• Overnight Prints
• Deluxe.com
• DeGraeve.com (free)
• VistaPrint

This is one of the many options available from VistaPrint for printing.

Since the major cost in ordering cards is in the set-up, the Small Business Advisor notes that you will probably find that adding another 50 or 100 is a nominal cost, especially compared to placing a second new order later. And you never know when a card will break through and generate a sale.

During the holidays, you shouldn’t limit yourself to reaching customers through greeting cards. You can also write letters to give thanks for whatever your clients did for you in the past year, describe plans or aspirations for the next year, include some news about your company or the year’s activities and provide an invitation or other call to action (e.g., test a product, receive a free gift or sample, get new information, etc.).

It is even better to reach out in multiple ways to stay top-of-mind. Build on printed cards with:

• Ecards. Keep greetings brief (30 to 60 seconds at most) and engaging for best results. You could show images or video of your offices or stores and employees.

DraftFCB deserved some recognition for their innovative holiday greeting in 2011. If you typed your address into a snow globe, a picture of your house appeared. Then it would snow in front of your home!

• Enewsletters. Offer suggestions on how to use your products to solve problems or improve enjoyment of the holidays (e.g., wrapping tips, recipes, shipping deadlines, etc.). For example, if your products make great last-minute gifts, reinforce how stress is reduced by having them on-hand.
• Gifts. It is not critical to spend a lot on items as long as they are perceived as valuable to customers and/or tie in with your business. For example, if you are selling festive apparel for the holidays, an “emergency kit” of safety pins, bandages, stain remover and more that women can stash in their purses could work.
• Coupons/discounts. Along with your thank-you messages, send out encouragement for future purchases. If you distribute offers via email, be sure to share them on social media as well. You can encourage people to share the promotions with their family and friends.
• Social media greetings. Tweet and post on all your profiles. You can show a personal side with photos of employee holiday parties or customers using your products. If you can publish tips for the holidays, your will position yourself as a resource for customers.
• Mobile greetings. Happy holiday messages can be sent with last-minute gift ideas or solutions, as well as images of new product releases and special savings that can be redeemed using smartphones.

Western Carolina University created a long-form greeting that paints a wonderful picture of the culture and campus.

• In-store and invoices. Hand out greeting cards at the checkout with discounts for post-holiday shopping to show your gratitude for purchases. If you print and mail invoices, you can include cards and coupons in the same envelope.
• In-store events. Host a gathering for your customers. To make it even more attractive, offer babysitting and free gift-wrapping. Depending on the time of day, you can serve wine or hot cider and finger foods. A hair salon could offer discounts on products and reward points for booking hair and spa appointments for the future.

How do you thank customers and spread holiday cheer at this time of the year? How has this changed from print to digital or multichannel formats?

Affinity Express emails a digital card every year to express our gratitude while showing what we can do for clients.

Video for Small Business Marketing: Costs and Tools

Video is a powerful way to increase the visibility of your company and gain new customers. It is the fastest-growing segment of the internet and more than half of all web traffic is now video because people prefer viewing this kind of content to reading text online. In terms of numbers, there are 13 million Vine users on Twitter, social video platform Vimeo announced 14 million members, YouTube has a viewership in the billions and it is the second most used search engine. In fact, more than four billion hours of video are viewed each month.

But using video to promote your business is difficult, time consuming and expensive, right? Wrong! Video marketing is possible for every budget. You can improve your Google rank, turn your visitors into customers and increase the amount of sales from your marketing spend.

Type of Content

Because videos grab attention, people are more likely to click on them than to read text. Furthermore, they are more likely to share video on Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon and other social channels, leading to more views and potentially more revenue. The type of content that works well in video format is:

• A physical product or service so it can be shown or demonstrated. This allows you to illustrate benefits and skills. Video is especially effective if you have an interesting or novel product.
• Instructions on how to use or do something. These videos let customers make an immediate connection and see how your product helps them.
• Creative or funny topics. When you make viewers smile or laugh, it is more likely the association with your brand will be positive.
• More detail on a news story with statistics and information. If you add your own spin or angle, you build authority and credibility.
• Coverage of live events. This is a way to make your company more relevant.

But instead of creating video commercials, you should concentrate on providing value. For example, if you are a restaurant, think about sharing cooking tips or bringing signature recipes to life. This is a great way to educate your prospects and customers. You can also show a different side of your business, such as how products are made, how team members are trained or special features of stores. Testimonials are also more compelling in video format.

Tips

1. Focus on viewer needs. The best way to approach your videos is to consider your target audience, the main features that will interest them or questions they need answered, and the most effective way to convey that information.
2. Keep videos brief. The ideal length for a video is under four minutes. You have about 50 seconds to capture viewers before they are likely to skip a video. If you have an involved, detailed topic, consider a series of videos as an alternative to long and in-depth content.
3. Show your personality. Videos should spotlight your company’s culture and personality in a genuine way.
4. Tell a story. There should be a narrative curve to your videos, including climaxes and resolutions, even if you are selling products.
5. Use hotspots. Embed links to additional content, quizzes, contests or other interactive features for viewers. Just be careful not to overload your videos with these.
6. Choose your cover image wisely. No one will click on videos to watch if the images are boring or blurry.
7. Choose your video style and music carefully. Typically, upbeat music works best.
8. Add a call-to-action button. You message should be simple and direct.
9. Analyze what works and doesn’t work. Google Analytics, Salesforce and Optimizely highlight where in videos people stop watching, which sections are most effective eliciting responses and when people share videos.

Costs

According to the 2013 Advertisers Survey from placemedia (commissioned from uSAMP), when it comes to small businesses, 95 percent of advertising executives felt that video advertisements on cable or broadcast TV are highly effective, with 66 percent of the respondents stating they introduce products to people in the surrounding areas. Nearly half said video advertisements on cable or television make small businesses look as big as national brands, followed by 36 percent who said these advertisements provide a local call to action.

However, 97% of respondents believe the reasons keeping small businesses from buying video ads for broadcast or cable include cost (89 percent) and that videos are too difficult to produce (42 percent).

But it is now possible for small companies to create video that looks and sounds as great as what major brands produced for millions of dollars just a few years ago. High-quality cameras cost just a few hundred dollars and there are many free tools. You can use photos and screen captures of your website along with simple transitions to give your video an animated look. Depending on the effect you want, you can also use low-cost options for editing software, voice overs and hosting (see next section on tools).

If you don’t want to produce videos yourself, there are services available through publishers, local media and specialty providers at a range of costs. For example, your local cable TV station may produce videos for an additional fee if you buy air time. This article provides some good perspective on what you can expect to spend, depending on your requirements.

Tools

• YouTube. Take advantage of free uploading, extended video length options and powerful editing tools. By adding a keyword rich title and description, along with tags associated with the video content, videos can rank high in search results. An added benefit of YouTube videos is that Facebook converts them to they play inline right in the Facebook News Feed, so people are not getting bounced somewhere else to view. Videos can be embedded into websites and shared on other social media with YouTube tools. This is how to embed a YouTube video montage.
• Facebook Video. Facebook allows videos to play in the News Feed, offers free video hosting space and has easy social sharing tools. Videos can be embedded on websites and blogs. Plus, videos can drive high volumes of Likes, comments and shares to extend the reach and visibility of your company.
• Instagram. This mobile app has features for quick and easy video creation and sharing, offering up to 15 seconds of video recording on mobile devices, social media sharing and more. You can create videos anytime and anywhere because you use your mobile phone. The videos can be embedded on websites.
• Vine. This is another mobile app, which enables you to introduce products and demonstrate them. Videos are six seconds and automatically loop. This can be used to show your company culture, event excerpts, testimonials and more. Videos can be embedded on websites and shared on other social media.
• GoAnimate. This tool offers numerous templates, characters, backgrounds and music tracks. You can add special effects and the videos are hosted for you. Not only is it easy to learn to use GoAnimate, there is one-click publishing to YouTube. Pricing starts at $25 per month (billed annually).
• Animoto. Get high-quality background and motion formats. You can also drop in video and still images, select music from the library and produce professional videos. There is a free plan and a pro level for $39 per month.
• Screencast. Many companies use Screencast for tutorials and software demos because this simple format lets you create videos by taking screen shots and adding voice-overs. A free account provides 2 GB of storage and 2 GB monthly bandwidth.
• Camtasia. This screencasting tool lets you capture the action on your computer and will record your voice narration if you want. This can be helpful when you want to demonstrate software, share slides, or use photos or camera video. Rather than provide long manuals, conduct telephone training or host expensive in-person demonstrations, you can cost-effectively employ video. Camtasia enables you to edit the videos for polished final footage. You can also use themes, graphics, clickable links and other elements. It also integrates with YouTube for one-step uploads. The license is $299, but there is a free trial to test it out.
• Bravo. You can conveniently let customers record, review and send their videos to you. Then you approve and place them on your website, blog, YouTube or other channels. The starter plan is $24 per month and a free trial is available.
• VoiceBunny. You can get professional voice overs in a few ways. 1) Search the database of choices and book talent directly. 2) Post a casting call and evaluate the responses. 3) Let the system match you with an appropriate professional. A wide variety of voices and accents in more than 50 languages are available. Rates start from $.04 per minute and pricing is provided upfront.
• Wistia. You can host your video and customize it with social sharing buttons and clickable calls to actions. You can also collect viewers’ emails to add to your database. Flash and HTML5 versions are encoded automatically at multiple resolutions. The videos are Twitter-friendly and can be played within a tweet. The analytics package includes a heat map for every view, showing when individuals watched videos, what parts were skipped or repeated and what they previously viewed. There are a variety of packages including a basic free plan that includes hosting for up to three videos.

Here is some additional data to consider. EMarketer found that 64 percent of survey respondents said they planned to use more video content in marketing. ComScore found that people who view videos online are 64 percent more likely to complete purchases than other visitors. Stacksandstacks.com found that customers who viewed product videos were 144% more likely to add products to their carts than those who didn’t watch. Zappos discovered that products with videos outsell those without videos by 35 percent. As Forrester Research notes, “One minute of video is worth up to 1.8 million words.”

The final words of advice to small businesses: keep your videos short, engaging, searchable and sharable.

Are you inspired to start using video to market your company? What type of video content do you think would best engage customers and drive revenue?

B2B Sales Proposals that Increase Revenue

Sales proposals vary based on your industry, solutions and prospects and can be extremely brief or thousands of pages. Good proposals have to meet several objectives. They answer customers’ questions, address hot buttons and issues and provide clear solutions for each. For prospects, they make it easy to decide, explain to others why your company is the best choice and articulate the benefits they will enjoy from your partnership. And for your company, proposals establish your credibility, understanding and focus on the customer.

Here are some tips for marketers on developing or enhancing a proposal template for your company. Keep in mind that, although it helps to have a template, every document must be customized.

Preparation

The basis for strong proposals is preparation. If you don’t have a solid foundation from meetings with prospects, you won’t know what is important to them. Prospects have to know that they have been heard, whether information was provided in requests for proposals or verbally. Sue Barrett suggests that, whenever possible, salespeople ask clear questions (versus leading ones) to get to the heart of issues, priorities and needs. They should take detailed notes. And if they can quote exact words, it demonstrates that they have really listened to prospects.

Before leaving meetings, sales should verify they understand what prospects want. Setting expectations about what they are going to do in terms of timelines, proposal preparation, follow-up and so on is critical.

Put the prospects’ priorities first in the proposal. You should not begin with a bunch of details about your company. Until you establish you understand the goals and pain points, no one will care about your expertise, capabilities, features, etc.

With the help of sales, collaborate with customers to build proposals that include all the information they require. You should also help them address the questions the rest of the decision-making team will have. Successful proposals must be easy to elevate for the contacts to streamline the approval process.

Organization

There are two options to organizing your documents:

1. The way the prospects requested
2. In order of importance to the prospects

The reality is that if prospects can’t find the information they need, they won’t spend the time to look for it. If the proposals are more complex and have multiple sections, set up response matrices. These are tables that detail how your documents address specific requirements and requests. You indicate where in the proposals answers are provided for each question. This is a helpful tool to those evaluating different options during the review process.

Proposal Contents

• Executive summary. Some decision makers might read this section only, so hone in on their interests and desired results. If customers read nothing else, they should be sold by this section.
• Requirements summary. These can be lifted from a request for information/quotation/proposal or a summary of what sales has heard from the account contacts.
• Solution overview. Provide specific details about your recommended solution and how it will work for the prospects. Be sure to explain what makes your solution unique in the market.
• Materials, equipment and personnel. Address how the solution fit into the prospects’ environments. Talk about the components and the interfaces. Illustrate what is not working today and how it will be fixed. At Affinity Express, our clients are always concerned about business continuity. We are part of their revenue streams and any service interruption impacts their bottom lines. As a result, we explain in our proposals how we have redundant operations and data centers. Fortunately, we don’t know of any competitors with multiple locations in different geographies so this also differentiates us.
• Quality standards. Explain how you measure and assure quality in the products and services you provide.
• Costs. It can be effective to include a range of investments and options. Try to go beyond stating costs to illustrate value. Capture the reasons for making an investment.
• Benefits. Include detail on how they will be measured, assumptions and key project activities to realize the results.
  • Hard benefits. Projected positive financial outcomes, such as cost savings, cash inflow and increased profits. Provide ranges and identify who helped frame and validate those ranges.
  • Soft benefits (non-financial terms). Improved customer satisfaction, reduced risk, improved branding, and improved service delivery are all desirable despite the difficulty of assigning financial values.
  • Stakeholder value. Discuss how the features and advantages will result in benefits for different stakeholders.
  • Business case for investment. Provide the background and numbers around costs, benefits, impact and timing. Cite the prospects’ buying vision for your solution.
• Implementation plan. Jeanne Buchanan recommends that you explain how you will implement, how long it will take and what resources you need. Include staff training, product testing and any other components that show value you bring with the solution. This is another area where Affinity Express spends time to paint a picture for  prospects. We have to show which team members will spend time onsite with clients to train and transition them to our marketing production and media solutions. To do this, we use a calendar chart, a table with milestones and a list of next steps in our proposals.
• Timing. Provide schedules linking the major cost elements and showing significant external influences that could affect the schedules. Indicate how long each option will be fully operational and deliver the planned benefits. Incorporate reasons to buy now so that you build urgency.
• Terms and conditions. If necessary for your industry, include governance guidelines such as milestones or key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess progress.
• Company advantages. Talk about why prospects should choose your company. Detail your credentials and provide references. If you can discuss what sets your company apart in terms of how it also serves prospects, that’s even better.

Additional Tips

• Limit paragraph length.
• Use 10- to 12-point font sizes for readability.
• Use section headings as theme statements. This helps “skimmers” to easily scan the documents, as well as reinforces major themes you are advancing.
• Define all terms and avoid jargon and acronyms.
• Incorporate visuals. Lists, charts, graphics, photographs, diagrams and sketches all make important points in small spaces. Include captions and ensure readers can understand the messages for each within ten seconds.
• Allow white space.
• Cite the customer’s name throughout and much more frequently than your company name.
• Mention your customer before you mention your business in each paragraph.
• Dedicate more space to benefits than your solution’s features.

Spending time onto develop and improve your proposal template will not only enable you to respond quickly and efficiently with a custom document for each new opportunity, it will increase your revenue. The best advice of all is to write a proposal that satisfies your prospects’ needs, not one that sells your services.

What other elements do you recommend B2B companies include in their proposals?

Plan Today to Market Your Small Business in 2014

Don’t you hate when the Christmas decorations are in stores before Halloween even rolls around? Me too! But there are some areas in which it pays to be early and plan ahead. When it comes to marketing, the tighter your budget and the smaller your team, the more lead time you need. So go ahead and be mad at me for talking about 2014 in October . . . but you will thank me later.

With that in mind, here are some important activities to complete now to ring in a positive and profitable new year!

• Examine your target market. Take a look at what happened to the local and regional market your customers come from and think about what changes are expected in the coming year. For example, if you sell high-end apparel, you need to gauge if consumers are starting to open their wallets more or if they still fixated on saving money in a tight economy. Other factors to consider can be the local unemployment rate, the economic recovery rate or the population rate.
• Revisit your ideal customer profile. Has anything happened in your business or industry that suggests changes should be made to your customer profile? Before you make changes to any marketing materials, spend some time validating that this information is up-to-date.

10 Money Saving Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses

Most small businesses have to scrutinize every expense and, when you think about the time, energy and money required, the total cost of marketing campaigns can be daunting. But owners realize that marketing is necessary to increase sales and boost profits. The good news is that you can spread the word about your business in a smart and cost-effective way. Setting marketing priorities is the key to making the most of small business budgets and time management.

Here are 10 tactics to try that will save you money.

1. Become an expert. Your website should be the place where prospects and customers can find the answers they need related to your products and the industry. Give advice, post good articles and report on industry trends. By keeping people coming back, you increase the chances prospects will think of you rather than a competitor when they have a need for your offering. Best of all, you don’t have to spend money to be an expert in your field.

Make sure visitors can find you by using terms on your website that are relevant and important to your business and submit your sitemap to all the major search engines and online business directories. Another way to make your expertise visible is to pitch local newspaper, television and radio reporters with the topics you can handle and questions you can answer, especially if you can relate them to current events. For example, if a marathon is taking place in your town and you run an exercise studio, offer training tips for race participants.

2. Practice content marketing. Straight advertising–whether on TV, radio, or in newspapers, magazines or websites—is expensive and often requires a commitment over time to achieve results (most people need to see and hear a message three to seven times before they will buy). A better approach for small businesses is to use content marketing: creating and sharing valuable information and insight that engages prospective customers and makes them aware of your products. This is much more effective than targeting everyone with a general message. If you had a plumbing business, one idea would be to write a series of how-to articles to fix simple home problems and promote them in emails with links to your website so those interested can download the content and you can track success. By investing a little time, you can a loyal following.

How to Sell Marketing Services to Small Businesses

Small businesses are responsible for 70% of the U.S. economy and employment. It is a potential $40 billion market for companies selling marketing services, yet very fragmented. Companies such as Groupon have attempted to capitalize by hiring thousands of salespeople but that model is not sustainable or scalable without significant investments. And the average spend is marketing spend is $300 to $400 a month, which means companies targeting these owners have to figure out how to deliver enough value to warrant the price.

Groupon hopes to move from an email-based daily deals platform to a searchable deals database ideal for mobile browsing. The company is touting its mobile audience to small business owners, as more than 45% of all North American Groupon transactions were conducted via mobile devices in first quarter 2013, up from 30% a year earlier (http://goo.gl/3z0Jnm).

When it comes to small business marketing, in the past owners could simply buy space in the Yellow pages and take out newspaper ads to reach customers. Now there a numerous channels from search engines to social networks to business listings boards. But most owners don’t understand which are best for them, let alone have the time to become proficient.

In a survey of 400 small business owners, 21 percent cited a lack of responsiveness as their top frustration with marketing partners. Furthermore, 17 percent of owners accused partners of not understanding their business, while 12 percent said poor customer service was their major complaint. This means that 44 percent of brand marketing money from these companies is being wasted in attempts to reach small businesses. The problem is that the brands don’t really understand the owners’ true needs, so the messages are not resonating.

A recent study of nearly 1,200 small businesses, “The American Dream: What Really Motivates Small Business Owners,” revealed four distinct types of small business sales and marketing buyers.

1. Maximizers invest more time on sales and marketing than other types, with 61 percent spending over $1,000 per month. They have the most diverse platform reach, with 49 percent using Facebook, 36 percent using Twitter and 31 percent using YouTube. However, 60 percent said they need help building marketing tools and 61% said they need assistance in evaluating effective marketing content.
2. Strivers look for help overcoming their sales and marketing challenges, moving beyond their existing capabilities and supporting the growth of their businesses. The problem is that they often lack the time and resources to fully use their technology and end up dissatisfied with it.

Do-It-Yourself Marketing for Small Companies is Risky Business

Marketing today is overwhelming and confusing. Small businesses are a diverse group but tend to have one thing in common: a modest level of marketing expertise and technological know-how, according to an eMarketer report, “Small Businesses as tough B2B Customers: Shaky in Their Own Marketing, Critical of Marketing Aimed at Them.”

They know they need to get the word out and promote their products and services. In fact, what keeps 76% small business owners up at night is “how to attract new customers,” based on a 2012 survey by Constant Contact.

Owners often don’t know where to start because they don’t know the basics of a good website, social media, blogging or search engine optimization. That’s probably why three in ten small businesses still do not have websites (Ad-ology research). The reality is that, unless you have a large staff that can help you tackle all of the important areas of marketing effectively, trying to do it all yourself is likely to be a waste of time and money.

Wow, that is an interesting business–offering bus tours but expecting the customers to provide the buses!

Here are the reasons why most small business marketing efforts fail:

• Lack of clear objectives. If you don’t have a destination in mind, how will you know you’ve arrived? Decide whether you want to acquire new customers, generate leads or drive new revenue—whatever the goal, describe how you will know when your marketing is successful.
• No marketing strategy. This is how you plan to achieve the objectives above and the tactics you’ll use. Will you conduct email campaigns, go to trade shows, network with an industry association, sponsor race cars, etc.? Map it out with the steps you will take.
• Missing metrics and measurements. What results will justify the time, energy and expense of the marketing effort? The outcome you expect will vary based on the investment but, if you don’t determine this, you will never learn the best tactics for your business and might end up throwing money away.
• The wrong kind of help. if you have decided to get help, you might not have the basis to judge whether you hired the right provider. Use references and referrals at minimum and get clear commitments of deliverables.
• A do-it-yourself approach. Outside marketing help seems expensive when there are no guarantees. But well-defined programs should pay for themselves and generate profits.

Whether it is developing a strategy or implementing a campaign with copy and design, marketing may look from the outside like a game anyone can play. Marketing is perceived as fun and everyone wants to be involved. People know “good” creative when they see it and assume they can do it just as well.

If your drivers are skimming from the dishes before delivering them, I don’t think you want to publicize it.

But it takes highly-skilled and experienced experts to do it well. Savvy companies understand that you can’t pretend to be a marketer any more than you can pretend to be an accountant. Both disciplines require specific skills and the context that comes from experience. Dave Thomas, president and CEO of ThomasArts, notes: “When people mess around with their marketing dollars, they don’t understand that they’re playing with their revenue, not an expense.”

However, there is no shortage of business owners deciding to whip up websites, create direct marketing pieces, dash off email campaigns and design brochures with absolutely no background in these practices. They take the leap because they fall into one or both of these traps:

1. No one knows my business better than me
2. I don’t have money to spend on outside help

It is hard to staff writers, designers and marketing strategists in-house, outsourcing costs money and the economic slowdown made homespun marketing more enticing. But in a era when anyone can sell products and services from anywhere, the intangible asset known as brand, identity or image is best left in the hands of experts.

The specific areas you should avoid taking on yourself are:

• Don’t develop your own marketing strategy. Do-it-yourself marketers often fail to cover the basics: who will buy, where to I find the highest concentration of those people and what do they need to know or hear about my product to prefer them over alternatives. They should hire agencies to develop strategic marketing because, without sound plans, any tactics will be hit or miss.
• Don’t do your own media buying. With “easy” options on Google and Facebook, the lure of playing marketer and creating ad campaigns is more compelling than ever. But it is more complicated than in the past because the old standbys of television, radio, print and outdoor are now joined by digital media. Mastering the language, requirements, strengths and weaknesses of all of these media is a full-time job, not a hobby.
• Don’t write your own ad copy. It seems so simple and intuitive when it works that a second grader could do it, right? And if you’ve written business plans, proposals, emails and other longer forms of content, you probably think you can master ad copy quickly. The reality is that it takes a special skill and quite a bit of practice to drill down to a few words that communicate.
• Don’t do your own creative work. The proliferation of software has made a designer out of everyone. But it is harder to hide bad design than even bad copy. The purpose of marketing design is to evoke emotion that causes action. If it is substandard, it will be lost among all the other noise in the marketplace. Good design requires an artistic sense as well as technical skill. Shoddy work will negatively impact your brand and a lack of consistency means it will not resonate with customers.

Ultimately, if you are building a permanent asset like a website, a video or a landing page, or if the asset represents your business in any kind of meaningful way, you should hire someone else to do it. There is peace of mind that comes with using professionals who do all of these things: guarantee results, implement their own expertise, capture your voice, trade/barter for ancillary services and finish projects on time.

Even big companies can make mistakes. This Target ad featured a man with three arms.

If what I’ve said so far is not convincing enough, here are five reasons why do-it-yourself marketing can actually hurt your business.

1. You don’t know what you don’t know. Reading a couple of books or attending a one-day conference does not compare to working with a qualified team or a consultant with significant experience. Without intending it, you might create a tagline that sends the wrong message or you might produce a video that is so unprofessional that it works against you.
2. Business owners can’t be objective. You may think your complete absorption in your business is an advantage to marketing it but a degree of objectivity is important to think about customer problems and aspirations versus pushing the features of your business.
3. The best marketing is not about a system or formula. There are numerous companies, tools and gurus online with exorbitant claims. But every business is different and a cookie-cutter approach is not the best way to market.
4. Great marketing requires talent. As Kriti has noted, marketing is science combined with art. Successful professionals are rare but they understand both to effectively communicate messages and persuade.
5. Do-it-yourself doesn’t really save money. It’s not what you spend but your return on investment that counts. Solid marketing delivers far more than the committed budget. Plus, you should consider what your time is worth and the opportunity cost of what you are not doing all those hours while you are dabbling in marketing (e.g., overseeing service delivery, selling new accounts, raising capital, etc.).

“Business success is all about finding the right outside service providers and using them wisely. You can’t do it all yourself,” says Anita Campbell, Founder of Small Business Trends.

Another big company made a misstep when they used a symbol of female empowerment (Rosie the Riveter) to sell cleaning products.

We can all understand why entrepreneurs and small business owners would try to do the marketing themselves. Small business owners don’t tap lines in institutional budgets. Instead, “When they spend money for their businesses, it’s like pulling money right out of their own pocketbook,” as noted by Mark Schmulen, general manager of social media for Constant Contact. But it takes time to learn the wide variety of concepts and even longer to master them (let’s not even talk about how fast things change in marketing today). Using experts will get you invaluable assistance and guidance from experienced marketers.

What examples of bad do-it-yourself marketing have you witnessed?

Improving the Image of Marketing

Back in June, I attended Hubspot’s Executive Playbook to Inbound Marketing & Sales and it was an interesting morning of sessions that was kicked off by Jessica Meher, the company’s head of enterprise. She pointed out that marketers have a huge image problem. She shared research that indicated 75% of CEOs do not think marketing generates revenue or sales opportunities for their businesses. A Gallup poll that asked consumers to evaluate the honesty and ethics of different professions revealed that advertising practitioners rank below lawyers and stockbrokers (and just above members of congress and car salespeople).

Why People Hate Marketing

The way we live has changed, including the hours/where we work, our use of the internet, how we learn about products, the buying process and more. Marketers need to adapt. People have many more demands on their time. On top of that, digital video recorders, caller ID, spam filters and other technology make it difficult to get the attention of buyers. Customers are in control and 70% of the buying process happens before consumers engage with sales (Revenue Disruption by Phil Fernandez). No one wakes up and says I want to see an ad. But marketers wake up and say “Let’s make an ad”.

As a result, we need to change the way we market. The old marketing playbook is broken and cold calling, email blasts, traditional advertising and direct mail aren’t as effective anymore. There are 221 million people on the national do not call registry, 44% of direct mail is never opened, 91% have unsubscribed from opt-in marketing emails and 86% skip television ads. The world has changed so we have to evolve.

We are still marketing to people like it is the 1970s. Kevin Daum writes: “We marketers have to take responsibility. We inundate the public with print and electronic media, screaming at them to Buy! Buy! Buy! We have created a general malaise of marketing fatigue.”

There are three reasons most people hate marketers and opportunities to change our approach.

1. Lack of empathy. Don’t just assume everyone wants or needs what you have to offer and target everyone the same way. Use online tools like HubSpot and FanBridge to help narrow the pitch and reach those targets that can benefit from your products and services.
2. Lack of authenticity. Some marketers have to represent bad products or substandard services. It happens. But you can still push to improve the offerings so you have something worth promoting.
3. Proliferation of boredom and mediocrity. Time is the most valuable commodity for people but we usurp it with useless or dull information. Instead, we can take every opportunity to intrigue and entertain so, even if our targeting is off, we create positive impressions with our brand.

Why CEOs Hate Marketing

There are numerous definitions of marketing from marcomm to analytics to strategic marketing and everybody has a different view of its purpose. The most damaging impact of this state of affairs is that marketing is failing to get a seat at the board room table, meaning that insights and business intelligence inherent to the marketing discipline are not being integrated. This is costing hundreds of millions in lost revenue, equity value and higher spending, as noted by ProMotion. The core problem is that marketing often speaks the language of the process and not the language of business strategy and results.

What marketers need to do is:

• Speak the language of business, not the language of marketing—it’s a subtle but important difference.
• Measure what matters, not what is easy to measure—determine how customers are created and connect programs to influence touch points along the way.
• Admit uncertainty, not all marketing is science and there is guesswork from time to time—have plans to adjust to surprises.
• Understand financials, not just the need to spend money—speak to the financial implications of decisions in order to balance the influence of CFOs and the inclination of companies to become cost- rather than results-focused.

Why Marketers Hate Marketing

There are two big reasons why there is some self-loathing going on today, according to Cassie Nolan:

1)      It feels shady. We can use certain words, deliver a message in a specific way and display content that produces the action we want. That seems wrong on some level and manipulative.

2)      It feels unnatural. Most of us want to be honest and helpful without screaming to get attention for ourselves. Marketing runs counter to this tendency.

The reality is you do have to capture attention and let people know your company and products but it doesn’t have go against your conscience. That is the beauty of inbound marketing. Instead of pushing your message on people, you pull them in with valuable content such as blog posts, how-to guides, checklists and more. Prospects come to you as a resource. Then they begin to trust you and eventually purchase. In other words, if you give people the information and guidance they seek, the selling takes care of itself and everybody wins!

Inbound Marketing

Not convinced yet? Consider this: inbound leads cost two thirds less than those generated from outbound tactics and social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. Here are three tips for making inbound marketing work for you.

• Think about content like a media company

Content attracts people to your business. Building assets is different from traditional marketing, where you are essentially renting something from somebody versus owning it. For example, if you use Google AdWords or other paid media, as soon as you stop paying, the traffic goes away. This is a long-term change in strategy and equity must be built over time with blogs, interactive tools, photos and infographics, videos and podcasts, presentations and eBooks. It’s about creating content people want, not about your business.

The content is the foundation for your communications strategy. You can use it to power social media, emails, website content and so on. But instead of thinking about how to reach people on a channel, you should think about what the consumers want first then adapt the content to the channel.

Ultimately, we should not interrupt what people want to consume. We should strive to become what they want to consume.

• Respect the context

Context is personal to every visitor and shows the status of the relationship you have with them. When you visit Amazon, you get personalized recommendations of what you might like to buy based on your history. Websites need to recognize existing relationships and provide content in context.

All it takes is the slightest bit of personalization to show you know visitors (e.g., age, industry, position in funnel, etc.). Ironically, there are major companies spending millions on TV ads rather than the comparably small price to recognize returning visitors to their website!

• Market at every touch point

Have you mapped out every interaction with your customers and prospects online and offline (e.g., email signatures, printed invoices, recorded phone messages, etc.)? There are probably several places you can enhance the branding, engage and even entertain. Groupon used their unsubscribe page to enable visitors to “Punish Derrick.” He is “the guy who thought you would enjoy receiving the daily Groupon email.” This amusing feature is unlikely to make many people change their minds about unsubscribing but it neutralizes any annoyance, reinforces the brand’s personality and might even produce a few smiles.

Affinity Express does the same thing with our 404 error page.

Today, content is an instrumental part of any marketer’s inbound strategy. It builds brand awareness and establishes you as a thought leader. It also plays a prominent role in SEO rankings to enable you to be found for a variety of key terms related to your industry. Best of all, it is a genuine, transparent way to provide value that drives revenue and customer loyalty. Who knows, before long marketers might improve the perception of our honesty and ethics so we can join nurses, pharmacists and doctors at the top of the scale!

Do you have any favorite campaigns or examples of marketing that make you proud to be in the profession?

Putting Visual Marketing to Work for You

In our fast-paced, multi-tasking world, our attention spans have been dramatically reduced. We are bombarded with so much information that often the easiest way to reach consumers and cut through the clutter is with visual marketing. This is the strategy of using visual aids to communicate, increase authority and be more memorable. Photos, videos, infographics, memes, slide shows and the like often make it easier to express data and complex ideas.

According to David Langton and Anita Campbell, authors of Visual Marketing: 99 Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design (a book the Affinity Express Marketing Team consumed last year!), “Well done infographics allow businesses to communicate powerful brand stories through compelling graphics. The best infographics have an element of entertainment to them and people tend to share infographics, when they might not share the same information presented as text.” This is also true of other forms of visual content.

Here is why businesses large and small are turning to visual marketing:

• Using visuals on your website can increase your monthly unique visitors by 200 to 300 percent.
• By using images on your website, it is possible to improve your conversion rate.
• Blog posts with images can boost traffic more than plain text posts.
• Customers who view product videos are 85% more likely to buy products.

This is an example of what you could create using Memegenerator.net

The best place to begin adding visual marketing elements is your website.

• Make sure that every page of your website and business blog has relevant and interesting images attached to it.
• Create your own images that represent your content and ideas instead of using generic stock photos.
• Create video demonstrations of your products and services rather than text reviews and descriptions.
• Make data and statistics more appealing and “sharable” with infographics.
• Share and link your visuals across your social media networks.

Tips for Using Visual Marketing:

• Choose colors wisely: Be intentional about the colors you choose to represent your business, as this will impact sales.
• Replace words with visuals: Wherever possible use visuals to share your message and tell your story.
• Paint the town: Make sure your logo, colors, and visuals are an integral part of your marketing communication. Your visual assets need to become synonymous with the perception of your organization to improve recognition.

Some examples of how business use visual are MailChimp, which features a mailman monkey and DropBox, which relies on childlike illustrations to differentiate themselves from other storage services.

The best news is that you don’t need a huge budget or team to get started with visual marketing. There are a wide variety of resources for a low or no cost.

Infographics

• Piktochart Infographic Creator. This is a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) infographic creator for free. It has themes and graphics.
• Visual.ly. Develop infographics and connect to social media accounts–free! Access Google Analytics through the site to track the effectiveness of your creations (or even create infographics from your website’s Google Analytics report).

* By the way, Slideshare announced yesterday that users can now easily upload, view, embed and share include optimized infographics.

25 Great Resources for Small Business Marketing

Most small business marketers wear many hats and have limited resources, making it difficult to cover all the bases. The good news is that there are a wide variety of free and low-cost tools, as well as informative resources, that can improve your efficiency so you make the most of your marketing efforts.

In case you want to drill down to what is working for other companies, a recent survey by Constant Contact of small business owners discovered that the top five tools respondents use for attracting new business are as follows:

• Daily deals: 53%
• Internet ads: 51%
• Web listing sites: 38%
• Social media ads: 37%
• Online coupons: 29%

That being said, here are 25 small business marketing resources we either use at Affinity Express or for which we have heard good reviews from our contacts.

Website

1. WordPress. Offers a great solution for small websites and blogging platforms (free version).

2. Google Analytics. Gives you vital traffic and user interaction data for your website, enabling you to make useful business decisions (free).

3. Bravo Video. Offers an easy way to capture customer testimonial videos that can be shared on your website, as well as your blog and social media channels.

4. Pixlr. Enables editing of images (e.g., resizing, cropping, filtering, enhancing, etc.) for your website, marketing materials and more without the need to invest in expensive software.

The SMB Marketing Opportunity for Mother’s Day

Last year, consumers spent an average of $140 each on Mother’s Day gifts for moms, wives, daughters, aunts and other special women. That was an increase of more than 10 percent over the previous year. As a publisher or marketing service provider, how do you drive more advertising revenue while helping your small- to medium-sized business customers capitalize on spending for the holiday? We have some great ideas. You might be able to try a few this year but have plenty of lead time to make the most of the holiday in 2014!

The overarching theme is that advertising has to do more than just tell people how great product and services are. It has to offer consumers something of value. When building marketing campaigns around Mother’s Day, there is an opportunity to thank mothers but also to give them discounts and other incentives. And don’t forget grandmothers—advertising can drive additional purchases for a second generation!

Here are some categories of advertisers for you to target that can tie in with Mother’s Day.

• Traditional Gifts and Cards: Encourage businesses in this category to count down to Mother’s Day, feature a variety of products and services and remind consumers to prepare for the holiday.
• Restaurants: Along the same lines, restaurants can use advertising to suggest people make reservations for the holiday. This is probably a good idea considering that approximately 80 million of the adults in the U.S. will be going out to eat on Sunday (about one third!).
• Salons/Spas: This category has really jumped on the Mother’s Day bandwagon. When advising local businesses, suggest they create “special experiences” for mothers. For example, package services that have never been bundled together before like a “mother-daughter” treatment or a massage, facial and pedicure for the ultimate pampering. Or they can provide discounts like “free $15 products with every treatment”.
• Dentists: Mothers’ might take advantage of specials on teeth whitening and free electronic toothbrushes when coming in for cleanings or even discounted Invisalign packages.
• Automotive: With the need to take kids to school, sports, conferences and doctor appointments, motherhood tends to involve a lot of driving. You can target mechanics or garages to offer discounted oil changes or tire rotations. It would also be appealing to provide free car washes with maintenance over a certain dollar amount spent.
• Optometrists: Tap eye care stores to offer mothers discount prices on name-brand frames that will help them feel good about themselves. With summer almost here, stores can also offer discounts on prescription sunglasses or buy one, get one deals.
• Chiropractors: Help chiropractic offices promote packages of treatments or discounts, free massages with treatments or sample packs of products such as homeopathic remedies and mothers will feel healthier for the tough job they have.
• Veterinarians: Most people think of pets as members of their family. Veterinarians might want to offer discounts to mothers who bring in their pets before Mother’s Day. If they offer accessories or other goods, they can provide free items when pets are brought in for their grooming or shots. Giving away bags of treats are also effective.
• Non-Traditional Gifts: Depending on the mother, some might love gift certificates for piercings, sets of power tools or briefcases. Advertising unexpected products’ suitability for Mother’s Day can open up a broad opportunity for new revenue and attract mothers who appreciate a fresh, un-stereotypical approach from your advertisers.
• Post-Holiday: Advertisers can reach any mothers who might feel forgotten or who didn’t get quite what they wanted, and invite them women to pamper themselves. And you have the opportunity to sell more ads by extending the holiday timeframe!

It’s not easy to come up with a new and effective approach to Mother’s Day, but PS Print has some ideas on how you can offer a unique perspective.

• Show Animal Moms and Babies: this works well, especially if you can include something related to the businesses featured in ads. If possible, try to go unusual rather than the standard kittens and puppies.
• Pathways. Mothers help their children overcome obstacles as they grow, so pathways work as a theme in Mother’s Day designs.
• Market to Sub-Segments: Mothers are a diverse group. Some cook, some are athletic and some are both. Identify target audiences as specifically as possible. If there are hobbies, professions, or pursuits shared by your advertisers’ audiences, then you can create designs to meet their needs. The more targeted the campaigns and the designs, the more revenue they will drive.
• Condolences: If you can tie your products into an understanding of how much mothers have to endure with as they raise their children, you can establish a humorous slant. In this ad, the same effect is achieved but directed toward the children buying the gifts.

Ultimately, on Mother’s Day the key to success for advertisers and their target audiences is to remember the holiday, according to Hotcards! That’s why there are three core points to stress in marketing copy:

1. Mothers are important and underappreciated
2. The day will be here before you know it
3. If you forget, the consequences will be highly unfavorable

Beyond remembering Mother’s Day, you can provide these recommendations from 365 Days of Marketing to your advertisers to help them successfully leverage the holiday.

1. Make sure you know what women want. Find out what the women in your target markets or the wives and mothers of your customers actually want. Survey customers about their favorite Mother’s Day gifts or what they plan to purchase for their own moms this year. Use social media to gather information. Use a poll to solicit customer and reader feedback but also to make specific Mother’s Day gift suggestions by listing ideas in the choices for poll questions.
2. Make it very, very easy for people to buy Mother’s Day gifts and easier to buy from you than anyone else. Use email newsletters to make gift suggestions with one-click ordering. Allow ordering ahead for store pickup or include wrapping, gift cards and delivery services. Make specific suggestions that would be appropriate for the different women in their lives (e.g., moms, daughters, aunts, etc.). Provide last-minute creative gift options. Pre-package gift baskets with themes, such as outdoor lovers, exercise lovers, food lovers, movie lovers, makeup or pampering products, etc.
3. Drive repeat business. Create Mother’s Day gifts that come with a good reason for the recipients or the buyers to come back to your business again soon. For example, a spa could offer a promotional price on a massage and a 20% discount for the next massage booked.
4. Take advantage of the opportunity. Use Mother’s Day to target customers who might not normally buy from you but need gifts for their wives, mothers, etc. Think about giving them an incentive to come back for Father’s Day or another sale or event. Ask them to subscribe to your newsletter, follow you on social media or add to your direct mail list to receive future promotions. Set up an online survey form and invite them to rate their experience. And you can extend special offers via landing pages on your website or emails thanking them for their business.
5. Conduct cooperative campaigns to reach the gift buyers. If you cater mostly to women, then your challenge is to get the word out to men about the great gifts you offer. Create strategic partnerships with businesses that target men, such as clubs at golf courses, recreational or outdoor sports facilities. For companies that target men, get them to swap: they promote your offering, while you promote theirs for Father’s Day. You can also conduct cooperative email or direct mail campaigns. Work with restaurants, bars or clubs that have high percentages of male patrons to place signage or table tents describing your products.

Have you seen any unusual and memorable Mother’s Day ads this season? What innovative approaches have you taken with  your advertisers and their products and services to set them apart during a cluttered advertising season?

Helping SMBs Market: the 12 Questions You Should Ask

Today, a diverse array of companies target small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to provide marketing services and take advantage of their large sales forces, existing retail locations or related products to drive sales. We see this trend among publishers, financial services companies, office supply stores, printers, shipping franchises and many other categories. For example, there is a trend in recent years for newspapers to offer print and digital services and take on the role of digital agency for their local advertisers.

One of the challenges to launching successful campaigns and generating results for SMBs is getting a clear understanding upfront of goals, products and budgets. Sales teams have to sell high volumes of SMBs and gather critical information quickly for designers, copywriters and others to execute. Plus, their SMBs contacts might have limited marketing knowledge.

With this in mind, we’ve created a list of the essential questions to ask SMBs so you can build comprehensive marketing services programs that will deliver.

1. What does your business do?

When you know the scope of the business, the marketing plan can be focused rather than too broad and inefficient, according to Alex Burke of Demand Media. This is a good opportunity to learn about important industry terms that best describe the business, which can be used as keywords in various marketing channels. Plus, if there any legal requirements for advertising and other marketing materials, this is the time to find out.

2. Describe your products or services and the problems they solve.

Talk about the products and their features and benefits with your client. It can also be helpful to discuss the size of the market for each product and the client’s current market share, says Ian Linton of Demand Media. And just because you have a client in an established category doesn’t mean you automatically know what they want to sell and what is profitable for them (e.g., a cosmetic surgeon may be more interested in selling non-surgical procedures like Botox because they are more profitable). You should also ask about the biggest benefits products provide.

3. Who are your customers and what are their most pressing issues and concerns?

It is impossible to build a campaign to reach everyone. That’s why the best marketing plans are built on a clear understanding of ideal buyer profile, whether that means focusing on an industry segment like real estate agents or demographics such as young, single career women in urban areas. Another consideration is the most important decision makers. There are the actual buyers and the influencers. Food products tend to focus on women in their mid-30s as the main decision makers, but a happy family is featured as the end result of buying the products, notes Entrepreneur Magazine.

4. How long is the sales cycle?

Different marketing approaches support different buying timeframes. Fast food relies on quick sale volume and aggressive techniques, but selling financial services is a gradual process of establishing reputation and building trust over time. This affects the media and the tactics used.

5. What are the buying triggers?

For some companies, purchases are seasonal (e.g., accountants and software during income tax season) or they could be everyday occurrences like groceries. The circumstances influence what consumers want in solutions. In other words, you have to consider if fast and cheap are the major concern or if the audience wants quality that will last. Entrepreneur Magazine indicates that, by identifying the circumstances and key buying criteria, you get a list of traits to emphasize in marketing materials.

6. What are the geographic targets for your business?

You want to help the client focus efforts where they can do the most good, rather than casting a wide net. Take the time to delve into the locations where the client is selling now and where can they ship. Find out if they are focused on expansion and if they can handle a high response rate (if not, you might want to recommend a phased campaign).

7. Who are your competitors and what makes your company different?

Knowing the competitors enables designers to research how, when and where they advertise, in addition to structuring the client’s plan to better capture the target audience. Discuss how strong your client’s competitive advantage is and how the products compare with those of competitors. If the client has proof that his or her business is better (e.g., testimonials, case studies, etc.), it can be incorporated into materials to strengthen them and build credibility.

8. What is your pricing strategy?

Messaging, images and tactics will change based on the pricing strategy. A high-end, expensive brand will focus more on image compared to the low-priced leader, who will sell based on cost and need to drive volume. See the comparison between these two ads for Neiman-Marcus and Dollar General.

9. What factors affect your industry?

There are seasonal peaks and valleys, along with holidays, that can affect marketing programs and the placement of ads. Mother’s Day promotions are in full swing right now and the ads for florists and spas, candy companies and restaurants are common. It’s also a high-visibility time for home improvement companies because of the spring planting season. For some businesses, offering incentives might be important when sales volumes are typically low.

10. What do you want to accomplish?

What are the marketing objectives of the client? You need to understand what he or she is trying to achieve, whether that is market leadership or entering a new market where the company is unknown, suggests Ian Linton. The client may want to launch a new product or increase sales of existing products to new customers. Wherever possible, it is helpful to quantify so that proof of return on investment becomes easier. Targeting 1,000 website visitors per day or getting 10,000 sign-ups to a newsletter is easier to measure than “brand recognition” and helps you ensure the plan is relevant and focused.

11.   How do you market today?

Learn about what has and has not worked for the client. You can also gauge where there are gaps in the marketing approach and create a plan to fill them with the services you offer. Be sure to inquire about printed marketing collateral, print ads, direct mail, websites, online ads, emails and e-newsletters, deals of the day and social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, etc.

12.   What is the budget and time frame for the marketing program?

It’s not the easiest question to ask but you have to know how much the client is willing to spend. Furthermore, the combination of the goals and the budget tells you whether the expectations are realistic (Allan Pollett). You can also provide guidance on what additional tactics fit into the budget or what would have to be spent to leverage other approaches.

If you serve SMBs with marketing services, what other questions do you ask your contacts? Which of these do you believe are the most critical to achieving success for clients? Do you have another means for gathering this kind of information?

Happy World Communication Design Day

World Communication Design Day has been celebrated on April 27^th since 1995. The International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA) designated the day to recognize the role of communication design and the graphic design profession around the world.

Though graphic design is often thought about in relation to advertising and marketing, the uses are extensive. The fields of administration, education, entertainment and many others use graphic design on various levels to convey information. Graphic design affects our understanding and opinions and shapes our actions and decisions. It determines the impact of information, whether it be through color, form or type; including the smallest street sign, the websites we browse, the products we purchase and the books we read.

Graphic Design

Graphic Design is an interdisciplinary, problem-solving activity which combines visual sensitivity with skill and knowledge in areas of communications, technology and business. Graphic design practitioners specialize in the structuring and organizing of visual information to aid communication and orientation.

—The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario

Graphic Design Process

The graphic design process is a problem-solving process, one that requires substantial creativity, innovation and technical expertise. An understanding of a client’s product or service and goals, their competitors and the target audience is translated into a visual solution created from the manipulation, combination and utilization of shape, color, imagery, typography and space.

—Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA), Profile/Purpose

World Communication Design Day is an important occasion for Affinity Express and our more than 1,500 employees. We salute our team for their hard work for clients and their commitment to delivering high quality work on time, day in and day out!

What does graphic design mean to you? If you submit pictures of online or offline designs that have affected you in some way, we’ll share the best entries in our next blog post.

How to Engage Retail Customers with a Good Blog

“The next five years will bring more change to retail than the past 100 years. In the next 10 years we will not recognize retail as we know it” (Daily Chronicle, August 15, 2012).

The way people get and share information, communicate, transact business and even socialize is changing at a rapid pace. We have started using tools and technologies to capture information, communicate and conduct transactions regardless of the time or place. I now use phones and bar codes to shop for my kitchen and I am sure many consumers like me are doing the same.

We are in a new era of shopping by using gadgets

These are savvy, skilled shoppers, who put a high level of importance on individualism, self-fulfillment and personal involvement. This presents an opportunity as well as a challenge for small- and medium-size retailers who have personal relationships with many of their customers but also face the daunting task of using technology to increase their reach. In such a climate, every opportunity to interact with the customer becomes crucial.

Why would potential customers be more interested in reading a blog than going to a website? It’s the same reason why people prefer entertaining/educational articles over ads. “Roughly six times as many people read the average article as the average advertisement” (Ogilvy on Advertising, David Ogilvy). Online customers trust blogs as they are more personal, with consumers sharing their experiences. Shoppers also use blogs to connect, discover, find, filter and try the next new thing in the market. Thus, a blog becomes a powerful platform to connect with shoppers on a one-to-one basis.

Social Media Marketing at Ad-Tech

Some quick notes from yesterday at ad-tech. We stayed in the social media track, because there were interesting topics up, and I was excited to see Chris Brogan, whose blog I read religiously, in person!

David Fischer, the Vice President of Advertising and Global Operations at Facebook, revealed that if you reach out to your fans and their friends, you get 81 times the distribution. Nielsen statistics also indicate that 68% are more likely to remember an ad with social context, twice as likely to remember the message and four times as likely to buy.

So how do you build your brand on Facebook?

1. Connect
2. Engage
3. Inspire

Well, that sounds easy! Also remember, your social media strategy is really your people strategy. Create personalized experiences and let people share them.

The Potential of Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses

Small businesses seem to agree that social media marketing is effective.

• “Creating a profile on a social network” was named the most effective marketing or advertising tactic. (MerchantCircle survey, 2011)
• 34% of respondents who had used social media said it helped them reach new potential customers and 15% said it increased sales. (Deluxe Corp survey, 2011)

via eMarketer

However, they are yet to explore the full potential of social media.

• 1/3 are not yet using Facebook
• Roughly half of SMBs have not used Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn.  
• Roughly 3 in 4 SMBs have not used Groupon, Yelp, LivingSocial, or Foursquare.

This should soon change: 83% small businesses plan to use social media for business. Yet social media is far from being indispensable: only 4% small businesses can’t do without it.

Designing Multiple Pieces of Marketing Collateral for a Brand

When Affinity Express first became a sponsor of Go Red For Women, we offered our design services free of charge and thought we might help the organization with invitations or maybe a flyer or two. Little did we know that we would ultimately produce more than 100 pieces! We started in November by updating educational materials to demonstrate our capabilities and ended by providing all of the local support for the big annual event on February 25, 2011 to complement materials provided by the national organization. In fact, during the week before the luncheon, we completed approximately 40 designs.

 

The fundraising efforts were a tremendous success (the campaign total to date is just over $900,000), but what made our contributions effective was the way we took an established logo and national design requirements, and built upon them to set the Chicago chapter of Go Red for Women apart. It is an excellent example of how to create materials for your clients that are true to their brand while increasing effectiveness and satisfaction by interpreting that style in new and innovative ways.

 

Affinity Express Senior Designer for Marketing Mel Fernandez was responsible for all of these designs and has advice for designers who need to develop and execute these types of campaigns (and providers who want to grow beyond delivering individual products to capture a greater share of business from clients).