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.

Super Digi-Bowl I, Small Business Video Challenge

Super Bowl kicks off in 19 days with the first outdoor, cold-weather super bowl in New Jersey. Super Bowl XLVIII will also be the first time two states, New York and New Jersey, proudly co-host the game. A 47 year tradition of NFC and AFC rivalry, Super Bowl has opened the doors to quite a few American “largest” facts including:

● Second day of highest U.S. food consumption

● Most watch television broadcast

● Most expensive commercial airtime

According to USA Today, FOX is charging around $4 million for 30 seconds of commercial time and that does not include production costs. For many small businesses, spending that much money for 30 seconds is unthinkable. Yet for companies like Coca-Cola, millions of consumers watching and the social media buzz is worth it. Small businesses are also looking to create buzz and what better way to do this than social media? So let the games begin!

Affinity Express welcomes you to the first “Small Business Digi-Bowl!” Submit  your 15-30 second commercials for your company to Affinity Express by kick-off on Super Bowl Sunday, February 2nd  and watch as we air them beginning February 10th on our NEW website and social media sites including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. You can earn the title of “Digi-Bowl Champ” and/or “Fan Favorite.”

Producing films can be done at very low cost and even from your cell phone. Here are a few tips to get you started:

        ● Get close and shoot horizontally

        ● 5 Tips for Creating Video

        ● Make Marketing Videos with your iPhone

Best of luck and we can’t wait to see what you share!

Promote Your New Website–Free!

Whether you are launching or revamping, going live with a new website is an exciting event for your business. The promotion should begin in advance of the launch and go beyond the date when the site goes live. In fact, you can get generate buzz and anticipation of the coming change and improvements as much as three months in advance and two months afterward.

Here are a few tips before you before you announce the site is up and running. 1) Test the website and ensure all the features are working, pages load properly, etc. 2) Get a fresh set of eyes to look and ensure visuals and copy are effective. 3) Set up Google Analytics to track visitors and find out what is being viewed and what visitors find valuable.

Once you have taken these steps, here are some free ways you can promote your website and drive up traffic.

• Alert your internal team. Make sure the sales and customer service teams are notified ahead of time on the details of your plan and equip them with approved communications to ensure consistency.
• Generate a press release. Distribute to your local outlets and/or any niche publications that might be interested in your company. Alert newspapers, magazines, websites, bloggers, business journals and other media. Some free press release sites are PRLog.org and PRWeb.com. These releases might get picked up by some media outlets and they can help your search engine optimization by providing links back to your site. Focus on your website’s unique selling points, why the content is relevant to visitors, the launch date and what makes it different from competitor sites.

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:

Build a Compelling Elevator Pitch for Your Business

Whether you are selling your products or services, looking for investors or simply updating your Aunt Sally on what you do at a holiday party, you need an elevator pitch. It is not a tagline or description of your industry. As Chris O’Leary states, “an effective elevator pitch is designed to give the audience just enough information that they will have a sense of what you are talking about and want to know more.”

The term comes from the concept that you might find yourself in an elevator with the perfect prospect, investor, etc., and only have the time of the journey to entice them about what you do.

The first thing to know is that, when crafting an elevator pitch, you have to write it down. And you will revise it multiple times before you are done. You should also say every new version out loud because it is supposed to be a verbal pitch and has to flow properly.

Second, the target length can vary but most experts suggest an elevator pitch should be no longer than 30 seconds.

Third, you will have to customize your elevator pitch for specific audiences, but there are certain elements you should include for an effective elevator pitch.

• Address the problem or pain that your business addresses.
• Follow up with how your solve it.
• Detail who has this challenge (i.e., the target market).
• Explain how big the market is for the solution.
• Stress the main benefit you provide.
• Figure out what makes your company different.
• Make it exciting.

The goal is to intrigue and engage, versus telling someone all there is to know about you. You can’t be everything to everyone so determine your niche and go for it. You should also have a hook (e.g., you could ask a question, “Have you ever felt held back by lack of time and wished you could clone yourself so you could get everything done, when you want it done, the way you want it done?”). Think about why you are in business and what gets you motivated and out of bed in the morning. That should be included in the elevator pitch. Another point to consider is your specific qualifications to solve the problem and/or the people behind your business such as prominent investors, board members, associations or business partners.

Here are two examples from Business Plans Kit for Dummies.

1. “I’m a health-information specialist. I produce a world-class newsletter, send email updates and establish client relationships in an effort to support health and wellness for people 50 and older. Working with individuals, HMOs, physicians and health and fitness centers, my business is a leading player in helping people maintain healthy lifestyles by providing summaries of medical advances and practical lifestyle advice, as well as access to leading medical professionals.”
2. “Our business translates medical breakthroughs into people language for the fast-growing 50-plus age group nationwide. Basically, we shrink the latest medical findings into news capsules that we feature in a monthly newsletter. Our subscribers include HMOs, clinics, and fitness centers—plus 15,000 individuals who receive targeted emails addressing specific health conditions. We’ve won advertising commitments from more than 50 marketers who want to reach our audience of health-conscious older Americans.”

The second paragraph starts with a sentence about the company’s innovative product and audience. The next sentence talks about how the business works. The third sentence refers how the company makes money and the forth illustrates the acceptance of the market. It is less self-centered and clunky (e.g., “health-information specialist”), with no jargon so it is the better option.

The Business and Entrepreneurship Center offers a template for building an elevator pitch:

1. [Name of your company] provides [name your products or services] for [describe the segment of the market you will serve] who [describe the problem this solves].
2. [Enter one sentence that tells why this business is needed and by whom.]
3. [Make a statement about the size and/or growth trend of the industry.]
4. [Write a sentence or two, no more, to address your qualifications to run the business.]
5. [Make an honest, upbeat, substantive and credible claim about the business potential in terms of sales or profitability.]

One of my pet peeves is industry lingo and complicated language. If you are a yogurt shop, don’t talk about different types of bacteria, talk about how you offer a healthy and delicious snack. Try to eliminate techno-speak and convoluted terms or you potentially alienate your audience and anyone who is not in the business. The elevator pitch should be delivered with enthusiasm and in easy-to-understand language.

You should also be specific whenever possible versus tossing around general statements such as “we’re going to take the market by storm.” Yawn.

Once you have your pitch polished, practice it constantly. You have to do this until it comes out naturally and is second nature to you.

You should also get feedback on the pitch from employees, stakeholders and others not as close to the business as you to ensure it is clear and compelling.

The final elevator pitch should be shared with all employees and reinforced constantly so there is one message for the organization. Recently, we designed business cards with our elevator pitch on the front and major service categories on the back. These were distributed at a sales meeting we had in Atlantic City with new hires and existing team members.

For more help, this YouTube video clip from Tim Berry offers tips on crafting the elevator pitch.

Ultimately, the goal of the elevator pitch is to generate interest, prompt questions and begin to develop a relationship with the listener. It helps you introduce yourself and break the ice in networking situations. You can also use your elevator pitch to clarify the target audience and business goals for your own use and become more confident in business settings.

When was the last time you polished your elevator pitch?

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.

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

Multi-Platform Marketing Strategies to Maximize Thanksgiving Sales

This year will be the shortest online shopping season with only 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. By comparison, there were six more days to shop in 2012. However, National Retail Federation expects sales in the months of November and December to marginally increase 3.9 percent to $602.1 billion, over 2012’s actual 3.5 percent holiday season sales growth. The forecast is higher than the 10-year average holiday sales growth of 3.3 percent.

Due to the short holiday season and evolving shopping habits, marketing efforts of businesses will be fiercer and will involve mobile and social media. Shoppers will be incentivized with more shopping hours on Thanksgiving Day and amazing deals available on multiple shopping channels.

Print governed by Thanksgiving ads:

This singular day marks the beginning of holiday period and can be marked as the most significant revenue event for all the industries for the entire year. It is, in fact, so important that newspapers across the country have special expanded distribution of their publications that week and Thanksgiving Day circulation is the largest circulation day of the year. A large number of consumers turn to local newspapers and advertising pre-print inserts for information on the best deals.

As shared by IBISWorld, more than two-thirds of Thanksgiving revenues come from spending on food and drink for family gatherings and festivities; this category is expected to increase 5.1 percent from last year. Celebrating the year-end holidays with loved ones remains an important tradition for many Americans, so spending on consumables is not expected to suffer much, despite poor confidence.

87.8 percent of US households are expected to celebrate Thanksgiving by having families and relatives gathered around the turkey this year. The average household will spend $52.75 on Thanksgiving dinner and $31.23 on turkey alone. Other, more discretionary expenses such as greeting cards, gifts and decorations are not anticipated to grow much this year, increasing only 0.7 percent over 2012 figures.

A few years back, NAA (Newspaper Association of America) ran this ad to remind the readers how newspapers play a big role in making special occasions even more special.

Online sales expected to rise:

The late start of holiday season this year will result in a surge in online sales growth on Thanksgiving. According to a report by Adobe, “Pent-up consumer demand will translate into strong year-over-year online sales growth on Thanksgiving, which is expected to break into the “billion-dollar-day” club with online sales up 21 percent to $1.1B. Although many retailers have announced that they will be open, very few families come out to shop as they prefer to stay home and spend time with relatives on Thanksgiving, but they surely don’t want to miss out on the deals. This makes Thanksgiving a natural online sales day for couch surfing mobile users to get a jump on their shopping. Brick-and-click retailers will benefit most from online shopping that day as they receive the lion’s share of online spend early in the season.”

Many stores and retail stores use online ads to serve as ready-to-use coupons for their customers. So, viewers can just print these ads and redeem them to avail discounts in the stores or ordering online.

Another online shopping trend that is quickly becoming the preferred option is referred to as “ship to store,” “click and pickup,” and “click-to-brick,” which allows customers to shop at their leisure on their computers, and pick up their purchases in a physical store at their convenience. This saves online shoppers both shipping time and shipping charges.

Most stores open on Thanksgiving:

As shopping appetites of young consumers grow, more and more retailers are planning to keep their stores open on Thanksgiving. Chief Industry Analyst Marshal Cohen of NPD Group says, “Online retailers had Thanksgiving all to themselves so now brick-and-mortar retailers are going to make their sales days Tuesday and Wednesday” of Thanksgiving week.

More than 100 Simon Malls will open at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. Last year, none of its malls opened that early. Target, JC Penney, Macy’s, and Kohl’s are each opening at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Gap Inc. will have approximately 1,300 stores across its brands open at various hours on Thanksgiving Day. The list also includes brands like Kmart, Walmart and Best Buy, who say they’re merely responding to consumers who would be shopping online if they didn’t have the option to hit the stores.

In this ad, Kohl’s announces their Thanksgiving store timing along with some cool discounts and offers.

Use social media to attract potential shoppers:

Social media is a parallel universe of shoppers waiting to be tapped. Advertisers need to know which customers they want to target, design the right marketing strategy, push their ads to the right place, and use the right metrics to capture ROI. The 3 tips that help in successfully utilizing this media are:

• Preparing in advance by tracking social media sites most visited by your target audiences
• Planning your campaigns to go live at the right time, thereby, capturing your prospects’ attention
• Being patient and persistent  in your social media efforts while trying varied approaches, testing variations in landing pages and constantly keeping an eye on the latest trends in the market

According to a blog post by Nanigans, Inc., A comparison of ads placed in October, November and December 2012, showed that Facebook ads placed one to three weeks before Thanksgiving attracted customers who delivered the highest ROI over time — loyal customers with consistent purchasing throughout Q4 and beyond who yielded the highest ROI contributed by lifetime revenue return.

Many businesses are using Facebook as an additional sales vehicle sharing their best deals and promotions.

Mobile and multiscreen shopping to rise:

As part of IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark revealed the following trends for Thanksgiving 2012:

• Consumer Spending Increases: Online sales on Thanksgiving grew by 17.4 percent followed by Black Friday where sales increased 20.7 percent over last year.
• Mobile Shopping: Mobile purchases soared with 24 percent of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site, up from 14.3 percent in 2011. Mobile sales exceeded 16 percent, up from 9.8 percent in 2011.
• The iPad Factor: The iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smart phone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 8.7 percent and Android 5.5 percent. The iPad dominated tablet traffic at 88.3 percent followed by the Barnes and Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent.
• Multiscreen Shopping: Consumers shopped in store, online and on mobile devices simultaneously to get the best bargains. Overall 58 percent of consumers used smartphones compared to 41 percent who used tablets to surf for bargains on Black Friday.

Since many businesses are focused on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you could consider an aggressive sale on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. While many families are busy planning their Thanksgiving meals, there are many who are starting to look for deals on their smartphones. So, this could be a good time to present them with an offer they can’t resist without waiting until Thursday or Friday. The promotion needs to be aggressive and crisp: “3 day sale” or “Save 25% if you order before Thanksgiving” to register instant responses.

“Mobile strategy also needs to consider the physical factors of the shopper. Whether they are in-store, at home or on the go, the consumer will have different experience values in each of these situations, and the mobile presence must take this into consideration to create the optimal experience.” says Derek Bonney, Managing Director of Manifest Digital.

Send emails more aggressively:

During the holiday shopping frenzy, sometimes the stores that win most customers are the ones that stay top of mind and influence buying decisions. It pays to increase your email frequency and volume during the holidays that is proportionate to the increase in your sales volumes. So, a 20 percent expected increase in sales volumes should drive you to send at least 20 percent more emails during this time. Make sure your email are optimized for mobile and assist shoppers to reach far down the purchasing path as possible. Buyers are looking for best possible deals and sales this time of year. Make sure your offers are compelling enough to draw visitors. It’s good to keep an eye on the type and frequency of competitors’ emails. Above all, take time to thank your loyal customers and offer a special holiday greeting. You could give it a personal touch by sharing pictures of your team members working behind the screens or the community service initiatives undertaken by your company.

How are you employing different media vehicles to attract buyers this Thanksgiving?

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?

How Small Businesses Can Use Big Data

“Big data” is targeted information that helps business managers and executives create specific marketing strategies. The insights enable them to plan the direction and goals for their companies and, by assimilating and processing the data, reaching potential consumers more effectively.

Here are four key benefits of using big data:

Many think Big data is useful or accessible only to large businesses and multinational conglomerates. In reality, it is a relative term and can be valuable to small businesses ranging from mom-and-pop shops to start-ups to local entrepreneurs. Mark Troester, global product marketing manager of SAS, shares this simple definition for big data: when volume, velocity and variety of data exceed an organization’s storage or computing capacity for accurate and timely decision making.

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?

Essential Traits for Successful Marketers

At a party I attended recently, I had a chance to speak to some marketing folks who had ten or fewer years of experience. They were very passionate about their jobs and we had an interesting discussion about the qualities needed to market today versus in the past. Since then, I started asking colleagues for more opinions.

The overarching message is that buyers today have different expectations. Changing behavior means we need to adapt how we market. The way we engage customers and build relationships has become more complex and we have to think differently in an unpredictable marketing environment and business world.

That’s why it is no surprise that a Forrester report revealed 97% of today’s marketers are doing things they have never done before. We have to serve as agents of change. This means being open to new skills, understanding how to collaborate and bringing original insights to the table.

Would your colleagues use these words to describe you?

• Agile. Social media might be one reason why agility has become so crucial. Brands have spent recent years figuring out how to react to Twitter and Facebook and many have gotten a handle on what works, in terms of the type of content to produce and share. The ability to react quickly on social channels is important, whether to cut off something negative or to encourage interaction and engagement. But agility can be applied to all of marketing (and it will be amplified by social media).

When the power went out in the Superdome during the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, Oreo capitalized and tweeted: “You can still dunk in the dark”. This was retweeted 10,000 within an hour. While the television commercial for Oreo cost millions to develop, the graphic and tweet was designed, captioned and approved within minutes because the company’s agency (360i) was gathered in a war room during the game.

• Technically-savvy. New technologies, tactics and methods are introduced faster than we can adopt them. Marketers must be willing to learn every day about digital tools that improve their understanding, analysis and effectiveness. We also have to understand emerging technology and applications to spot potential business opportunities and threats. This requires paying attention to developments as they happen, doing the research and applying what makes sense for your business. Instead of “best practices,” think of “next practices”.

Twitter: Who Small Business Marketers Should Follow

Because I heard of several interesting new people on Twitter, I decided it was time to update my account and who I follow. In the spirit of Kriti’s last blog post, I thought I would write about it for the Affinity Express blog. If you are not using this channel already, consider these Twitter statistics.

• 33% of people on Twitter follow a brand (46,200,000 people).
• 663% more people are requesting business recommendations in only the past two years.
• 77% of online shoppers use reviews to make purchase decisions.
• 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from brands they follow on Twitter.
• 79% of Twitter users are more likely to recommend brands they follow.

Because Twitter offers opportunities for marketers to answer questions from their customers, generate leads and position their businesses as an authority, dive in if you haven’t already!

Signing up for Twitter is just the first step in using this social media channel properly. The second step is deciding what you want from it as a small business marketer. While many tap Twitter for entertainment, celebrity news and other purposes, I am exclusively focused on getting marketing industry updates, trends and information. This is how you can build the list of who to follow if you have the same objective for Twitter as me.

A Checklist for Small Business Websites

If you have a business, you must have a website. It is as simple as that. The difficulty is in knowing which features to include so the site will professionally represent your company and products or services and help you make money. There are exceptions to rules but the odds are that your business should have every single one of these features.

1. Home page. This page should roll out the welcome mat to prospects and customers. Include basic info on what you can do or problems you can solve for your customers. You should also indicate what they can find on the site.
2. Essential information. This will change based on your business but, if you are a restaurant, include a menu. If you have a retail location, include directions. If you design websites, provide links to examples of your work. Put yourself in the shoes of someone visiting your site and include the details they need.
3. Products/services. It is useful to have a separate page for each product/service and write as much detail about each as you can. Start with a brief summary. Then provide whatever additional details are needed. Visitors should get the information to make decisions and it should be presented with the most important on top and in descending order.
4. Contact us. According to BIA/Kelsey, 66% of small- to medium-sized business websites in the U.S. don’t have a form for potential customers to submit, 60% don’t have a contact number on their home pages and 75% don’t list an email address. Place details on how to reach you in as many places as possible. You should have a Contact Us page but also phone numbers and email addresses on every page—whether in the header or footer. Make it easy for customers to contact you. If you have online scheduling, add a “Schedule Now” button. Something important to remember is that you should not include email addresses or phone numbers as parts of images. They should be clickable from the site to place the call or send the email quickly and conveniently. Another tip, don’t use a Gmail or AOL email address for your website email. Use Google Apps to set up custom email addresses through Gmail. It is free for up to ten email addresses.

Marketing Events and Campaigns for Halloween

As people prepare to celebrate Halloween, businesses brace for one of the biggest retail events of the year that generates nearly $7 billion in revenue, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). With thousands of products and shopping options to choose from, here is how retailers will inspire people to shop during this Halloween that you can try for your business.

Offer freebies with every purchase

Most Halloween promotions are likely to include discounts and other special offers. But a smart alternative is to give away free gifts with purchases. You can use low-cost products that are small and easy to ship with every Halloween order, such as pumpkin carving kits or strings of pumpkin shaped lights. These small gestures will push reluctant customers to make purchases and help regular customers feel they’re getting better deals. The product shots of these freebies will also give a holiday feel to your emails.

For example, customers can stop into participating IHOPs and get free scary pancakes for kids aged 12 and under on Halloween from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Host in-store special events

Themed events around Halloween are a great way to invite new shoppers to your store to have a great time. They are also an opportunity to improve overall traffic and get free publicity for your business. Disney is planning something similar this year with their in-store events.

The store invites everyone to come dressed in their favorite Disney costumes to enjoy crafts, treats and costume parades.

Dos and Don’ts for Improving Trade Show ROI

How do you decide whether a trade show was worth your money, time and effort? Chances are, when you follow up afterward with the team staffing your exhibit, you are told: “The show was great—we had good traffic and productive conversations.” But this level of detail does not quite satisfy after you have spent several thousand dollars or more.

Sometimes the argument is made that you have to go to a trade show because competitors exhibit or because people will think your business is suffering if you don’t.

The only good way to decide on events is to set goals, track and measure return on investment (ROI).

This is especially critical when you consider that trade shows cost an average of $10,000 per person participating, including all the show expenses plus the travel, entertainment, lodging and time away from the office.

Determine how many leads you’ll need to generate based on your close rate to justify the cost of attending the show. For example, if you will invest $40,000 on a trade show, your average sales per new customer is $10,000, your close rate is 25% on leads from trade shows and you want a minimum ROI of 100%, then you need 32 sales opportunities from the show. This means you will probably need between 250 and 350 leads.

Calculate the number of leads per hour you’ll need to generate (a general rule of thumb suggests that each person will generate three or four qualified leads each hour, but fewer for capital equipment and complex sales; more for commodity sales or where the sales cycle is short). Based on the number of attendees and show schedule, you can then determine whether the show makes sense for you to attend.

Once you’ve made the commitment, here is what you should and should not do to maximize your ROI for trade shows.

What a Certain Celebrity Can Teach Small Businesses About Marketing

Sure, I could easily newsjack to reach a young demographic, get a lot more readers for our blog and drive up likes for my post by referencing a name in the news right now. But I can’t bring myself to do it. Yet I continue to follow the daily updates on this country star because it is such a great lesson for small business marketers on how to operate in today’s media climate (and don’t even try pretending you don’t know who I’m talking about!).

This is what we small business marketers can learn from this recent (and seemingly unending) wave of publicity.

1. Promote your company. If you are invisible, you might as well give up your business. But you don’t need a multimillion dollar advertising budget or an expensive publicist. Small businesses just need to be creative when funds are limited.

One good example is Foiled Cupcakes. Mari Luangrath started the online cupcake business in 2009 but got no orders because her website didn’t work. So she went to Twitter and started chatting. In less than six weeks, she had 2,200 follower, attracted national press and beat sales targets by 600 percent.

2. Consider publicity stunts. You don’t have to be featured in a documentary about your business and have cameras follow you around all day because there are many other events and options to make people aware of your products and services.

Did you know that the Hollywood sign was originally built as a billboard for a housing development called Hollywoodland in 1923? Rather than advertise in print, radio or motion pictures, the developer created the 50-foot sign on the hills behind his homes. Today, it is one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world but it was established because the movies didn’t do a good job of generating publicity!

Check out these outrageous publicity stunts by small businesses.

How Small Businesses Can Market Events with Low Budgets

Events are a great vehicle to drive leads, build brand awareness and establish thought leadership. Here are some smart and inexpensive ways to use various media channels to market your events.

Use newspaper space wisely

When you advertise in the newspaper, you reach everyone that reads it. That means you are paying for a lot of views from people who are not your target audience. Instead of spending money on ads, look for space in the calendars of events—both the online and the print editions. You’ll reach readers who want details on events and therefore are better prospects for yours. Listings are usually free or very inexpensive.

Get featured by linking to human interest stories

Think of a local angle that would be interesting for the local newspaper to write about, such as human interest stories that connect your business with local customers or community service initiatives. Newspaper articles will get you a lot more mileage than stand-alone ads.

Here is an example of a fashion event hosted by Joan Rivers and co-chaired by Fashion-Isha. The proceeds benefited of The Jewish Kidney Foundation and the Shirat Devorah Fund. People are motivated to buy tickets for events to support such good causes.

Send email blasts to select audiences.

Be careful, as it is easy to get carried away and hit your audience too often. Send out email blasts sparingly. Take the time to ensure they are well-crafted and the messaging is customized to suit different audience profiles. Don’t forget to link to the event pages on your website where viewers can go and read all related details.

Different customers should have different frequencies for communications. If you find that open or click rates are lower for certain segments, then decrease the frequency when they tend to be inactive. You can do this by establishing a field in your database for engagement levels to monitor and understand responses to your email campaigns. Amazon uses event-triggered emails sent in response to someone browsing, searching or buying from them. You should also keep cleaning up your contact lists to avoid any crossover between them.

Use eye-catching flyers

Create simple but eye-catching flyers with headings and pictures. Be sure to only include the need-to-know info so it won’t be too cluttered. Print flyers on colorful paper and you won’t have to spend money on color printing. Post around town on bulletin boards or anywhere you think might reach your target audience, such as where pedestrians or cars stop. You can also put up signs directing people to your events. Sometimes beverage companies will donate free banners to help promote.

Many shops will display your information in their windows if you are not direct competitors. Don’t forget libraries, office noticeboards, cafes or Laundromats—basically anywhere people gather and there is a board or space for information.

Take advantage of free ad spots

Place ads on public television and cable community channels that will announce your events at no charge. Also consider community radio stations. With advance notice, they will often announce your event on air. Check out online events calendars that will allow you to post your events free. Most local councils produce very detailed bulletins telling residents what is happening and have sections on upcoming events. If you are well-organized and provide long enough lead times, you can get your events listed in publications that are delivered to all the homes in the area.

Which other low budget marketing tactics have you used for your events?

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.