This is a post in the “How to Create a 2011 Local Business Marketing Plan”* series. Some of it will be shared here on [resultsrevolution.com]. The rest will be shared via my free newsletter. Sign up now to get the newsletter so you don’t miss a single tip in the planning series.

As you look forward to 2011, if you’re a local business, here are four tips to help you embrace your inner “local” and to help your small business stand out in a BIG way this next year!

1. Be local.

You’re a local small business with a brick-and-mortar storefront in your town. Maybe you have more than one location. Maybe you’re the oldest business in town, or maybe you’re the newest one. Whether you’re small or big, you’re the only store offering your service or product in the area, or you’re in the midst of many competitors, your local edge is a brand advantage and one you should use wisely.

Don’t try to be something you’re not: a national, faceless, anonymous business. Sure, those big boys have larger budgets and more resources, but they don’t have the local roots and the local connections you do. Put a local spin on what you do. Celebrate being local, Take part in the community. Highlight local products. Promote other local businesses. Advertise in local publications. Get involved with local organizations, charities, and business groups. Meet your neighbors, both personal and business. In short, position your brand as the local business option.

Highlight your strength as a local business and use your knowledge and relationships to offer what the local people want. Embrace your local-ness – love being local and use it to your advantage in marketing and customer retention efforts!

2. Have a specialty.

How do you stand out if you’re a single, locally owned restaurant in a town with five other great local restaurants? Find your niche, your specialty, and play it up. Maybe you’re the King of Cajun Cuisine, or you have a big-city wine list in a small town. Perhaps your dessert is out of this world, or you offer great seasonal specials that highlight the local produce, or you know that customers order your soup just to get those amazing garlic breadsticks on the side. Whatever your specialty is, find it and magnify it. Make it a prominent part of what you offer. Talk about it and market it. It’s not a specialty if no one knows about it.
While we’re on the topic, here’s a great case study on niche positioning and related customer experience that might be helpful to you as you pursue this idea.

3. Give amazing service.

No matter where you are or what your product or service is, giving consistently superb customer service will cause you to stand out amongst your competitors, both local and national. When you treat customers like your friends, that’s what they will become. When problems do arise, as they inevitably will, deal with them promptly and courteously.

A key element of this tip is the word “consistent.” We’ve talked about this before, but it stands repeating. Consistency is critical – especially in customer service.

4. Offer what the box stores can’t.

Big box stores and huge, national chains have advantages over local, small businesses, sure. But local, small businesses have advantages too; as part of a locally owned small business, you can make your own policies, create personal relationships, follow up on a personal basis, set your own hours, take special orders, and do custom work. You may not have the inventory capacity of the big store down the road, but you have the small business capacity to listen to your best customers and adjust the inventory you offer to meet their needs. If you find that your busy times are in the afternoon and evening instead of morning, you can open later and stay open later. Take advantage of the freedom you do have as a small business to relate specifically to your customers.

2011 is the year for local success. Please let us know how YOU benefit from your “local-ness” in your marketing and business efforts – drop us a comment below!

Image by Cameron Cassan.

This week I have a very simple marketing tip of the week for you Make sure that in the rush of the holiday season and pushing out lots of marketing messages to meet those media deadlines that you make sure you match your marketing message with your call to action.

First off, why should the marketing message & call to action match? (And similarly, why is a call to action so critical to marketing?) Here are a few of the reasons:

1. You’ll get to your goal faster (and increase sales) by asking for what you want.

2. Your marketing will be more measurable – so if it’s not working you can quit wasting money and if it is, you’ll know where to focus.

3. Clear messages and action items are easier to share – which will expose your business virally to more new customers.

Case Study: Wrong Call to Action

We drove past a billboard last night that basically said “Losing Weight Can Start Online.”

And it displayed a phone number.

Marketing Tip of the Week: Match your marketing message with your call to action.

It’s a simple step-wise process to achieve this marketing tip:

1. Have a marketing strategy. (What is your goal? What do you want customers to do? How can you reach them and motivate them?)

2. Create a marketing message. (What marketing message will motivate folks to do what you want them to do? What can you say or offer that will inspire action?)

3. Insert a call to action. (Ask them to do what you want them to do. Don’t forget to actually HAVE a call to action – and make sure that the call to action makes sense with the message that you sent.)

Examples of Matching Messages & Calls to Actions

Marketing Message: Invitation to attend an event and RSVP for a chance to win!

Call to Action: RSVP online with an e-mail address (so even if they don’t show up, you have their contact information).

Marketing Message: Get updates on new merchandise & special offers

Call to Action: Link to sign-up for the e-mail list / URL for sign-up landing page

Marketing Message: Buy Gift Certificates for Christmas Gifts!

Call to Action: Buy Online or In-Store – include web site URL where gift certificates can be purchased and store physical address

Of course, what should have the billboard have done differently?

Of course, if weight loss starts online – then there should be a URL where I can start my weight loss. Not a phone number.

What marketing messages are you sending this holiday season? Do you have a strong and connected call to action in all of your marketing messages? What’s working well for you?

Photo By: SeeMidTN.com (aka Brent)

More and more brick-and-mortar business owners are starting to see that social networking helps business: it increases your public profile, helps you create a recognizable brand, and helps you reach people you might not otherwise reach.

But what about the benefits of social networking for reaching out locally? Can you use social networking not to “expand” into a new target market but to get more business from where you already are?

In short, absolutely. Social networking can become a huge boost and help you increase local business. Here’s how to go about it:

Create a Local Presence Online
Maybe you have a website or business blog, or you’re building up your Facebook business page and learning your way around Twitter. Use your time online to create more contact with other local folks. Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Get your profile on geo-social sites like Foursquare and Facebook Places.

These social sites are places that map local areas and then allow users to interact with those local places online. Create an account, and then claim your local business on the map; you’ll go through a brief confirmation procedure, and then you can start interacting with users on the social site. (Look for more on this in an upcoming post. We’ll walk you through it step-by-step.)

2. Find local groups and local business pages on Facebook and get involved with them.

Use Facebook’s search tool to find groups and pages from your area, then join the groups and become a fan of the pages. Interact; respond to posts, ask questions, answer questions, be friendly, and contribute. All you’re doing is expanding your local presence from the street front and physical community to the virtual street front and online community.

3. Connect with local news and review sites.

There are some national websites, such as Examiner.com, Citysearch.com, and Yelp.com, which have local branches. Browse through these and you’ll find reviews of area restaurants, articles on local events, and more. Get in touch with the news writers and offer an interview or story idea relating to your business; most of the time these folks are looking for good material, so they’ll jump on your offer. For the review sites, make sure your business is on the site, then respond to good reviews with thank you and any negative comments with an offer to help and resolve the problem. No feedback from you will come across as negative, so be proactive here.

Promote Your Social Networking Offline
Once you’ve got a Facebook page, website, blog, or other networking method in place, start telling people about it! Put a link on your business cards. Create and print a simple flyer telling people to find you on Facebook or follow you on Twitter. Put a sign in the window, a sign on your bulletin board, a link on your email signature, and a reference on any other material that goes out of your business.Local folks will not just automatically find you online; you have to tell them. And sometimes you have to tell them a few times so, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Use Social Networking to Promote Your Local Community
Now that you’ve established a local presence online and started getting local people to connect with you online, it’s time to leverage all that work into more local business. Do this by using your social network and online storefront to promote local events and provide special locally based offers. Sponsor the next charity 5K run and talk about it online. Put a local community calendar on your website. Put an events tab on your Facebook page and highlight local events as well as events as your own business.

What you’re doing is becoming a local resource, both online and offline. Expand your local value by offering special discounts, deals, and coupons to local folks but do it online. Send a special message to your Facebook followers, an email to your subscribers, or tweet out a message offering 1/2 off an item for the next 24 hours. Make your discounts significant and time-limited and offer them frequently; this motivates your local fans to follow you online so they don’t miss a special deal, and it also motivates them to share your great deal with other local folks.

The key in this strategy is to keep the focus on the local folks. What gets them excited and makes them want to come back? Figure out what that is, translate it into something you can offer or talk about online, and you’ve found the key to leverage social networking for more local business.

Photo Credit: philcampbell

Dear Traditional Advertising Agency:

Reference: See my previous post about the three key elements of a brand.

Leaving your client’s web site URL off of their print advertising does the following harm to your client and it wastes all of their money:

1. This mistake gives you nor your client any way to measure the value of the print advertising by tracking incoming traffic to the web site.

2. This mistake leaves the reader (and potential business prospect) with no real actionable place to go to learn more without making a phone call. (In 2010, we just need a URL. Period.)

3. Worst of all, this mistake leaves the impression that your client is behind the times and isn’t worth considering for important business.

Instead of allowing this sort of image torture to happen for your client, I would recommend that if you insist on pushing print advertising into your client’s budget that you at least implement the following strategies to give the ad spending the best shot at giving a return on investment:

1. Build a vanity URL (www.clientname.com/magazinename).

2. On this specific web page (within your main web site), put valuable, advertisement specific copy, images and links to a wealth of business information, testimonials, and include another call to action to the prospect into your sales funnel deeper. (How about asking them some information about them or providing them with a valuable tool for free to grow their loyalty towards your client’s business?)

3. Put a call to action in the print ad that answers the “What’s in it for me?” question for the prospect and lures them to the vanity URL you created earlier.

4. Collect the data about who visits the page including geography, what else they look at on the site, what information is working and not working and conversion to next step or other actions within your sales funnel.

5. Help your client make adjustments in their process based on this new business intelligence.

Sound simple? Well, it really is pretty simple. No matter how complex the business model, a simple strategy like this followed through to the end (with measurement and continuous improvement) will show your value to your customer as an advertising professional.

There are a million ways to kick that idea up another notch, but for now, let’s start with getting that URL onto the advertisement in the first place and having a web site that’s ready to accept traffic. That’s the first step to building credibility and brand legitimacy in 2010.

Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,
Marianna

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Tom Beck, owner and commercial photographer extraordinaire, at Beck Photographic for sharing his thoughts with us… Tom is the best in the business, check out his web site or connect with him on Twitter to get to know him better.

Why would you want your brand (advertising) photography to not look professional?  What purpose does it serve, except to make your business look unprofessional.

A good portrait photographer is not necessarily a good commercial photographer, and vice versa.   Photographers tend to have specialties, and just because one shoots great portraits doesn’t mean they can shoot products, or food.  Research who you’re hiring, and notice what photos of theirs stand out.

What does a “good enough” photo mean to your business and your ad?  If it looks blah, then it’ll get lost and forgotten in all the other ads out there.  And even if you do see results, how much better would the results be if you actually had a GREAT photo in your advertising?

When you hire a pro photographer, you’re insuring that you’re going to get great results.  Does the person you hired for $100 off of Craigslist have pro equipment?  Backup equipment?  A certificate of insurance in case they break your merchandise?  Are they going to behave professionally on the shoot?  Do they know the technical specs of what you need delivered, and will they deliver in a timely manner?  These aren’t (usually) a concern when you hire a true professional.

If you (or your graphic designer) is purchasing microstock photography (iStockphoto, Shutterstock, etc.), then your competition can too.  How embarrassing will it be to see the image you’re using being used by your competitor (and yes, it HAS happened, more times than you know)?  Also, is that image “good enough”, or does it stand out?  If the image is just “OK”, even if you didn’t pay much for it, how much is it costing you in business you COULD have had? In other words, are you getting the biggest bang for your buck?

What say you? What is your experience with good enough vs. great photography?

I’ve always said that we can learn a lot from the big boys. But then, we can do even better because, as locally owned small businesses, we can adapt and change rather quickly when we need to. Our recent travel to Oklahoma City, OK reminded me of the importance of signage in the small business marketing mix.

Bob's Lounge, Clare, Michigan

How many times have you given directions in a town, and said “Turn by the huge painted chicken” (a la Clare, Michigan)? Or “Look for the old time-y car, and hang a right.” We’ve all done it, and it’s cheaper than you may think to get a really memorable sign for your business – that will do more than spark conversation – but increase sales!

I’m often reminded of a business near my hometown that has great food, on a popular road. Yet, I’m constantly hearing from people that they didn’t know it was there. Why not?

I believe it’s because their little sign is just in the window, and it doesn’t really let you know that they serve amazing steaks and seafood. What could get them noticed by the 5000 cars a day that come through their town? Maybe a huge mounted cow, maybe subtle frosting on their upstairs windows, possibly painting their tin awning or a historic rendition of their sign. They often say (along with many other small businesses), “We can’t afford signage.”

Really? Well, I’d like to present a set of numbers.

If you spend $5000 on a sign and the sign has a life span of five years, your monthly “marketing cost” over the life of the sign is approximately $84 a month. For some GREAT marketing! If the sign lasts longer – your marketing per month just got MUCH cheaper!

Sure, you could spend a lot MORE than $5000, but you could also spend much less. Signage gets noticed. McDonald’s spends a fortune on real estate for location, but then they also spend buckets of cash on those famous Golden Arches we see so well from the interstate. Some of you have equally as valuable real estate with poor or no signage, and people don’t notice you.

I’ve priced billboards for clients along some of our Mississippi travel corridors, and billboards don’t come cheap. At best, you’ll pay a few hundred dollars a month for a billboard – much more than your own signage costs you!

Do you have the opportunity to put up a sign that is more cost effective and produces the same amount of visual traffic each day. Why haven’t you leveraged every bit of your real estate? Inside and out, vertical and horizontal…and roadway right-of-ways…you own it or your leasing it. Why not make your investment make you more money?

Signs Really Make a Difference

Is it hard to come up with the cash to get your sign looking great? Sure it is, but you know there’s a cost and reward on all of that. Get busy, and go make a great looking business sign that’s memorable and classy for your business.

Some clients have said “We don’t have people come through our downtown; they don’t know we are here.” Signage problem. Plain and simple. If you want people to know you are here, put a sign up. Get some of those travelers who come through your town every day or month and let them know your business is there – or that your entire downtown district is there. Partner with other businesses and get the traffic to your area.

Tell Us Your Sign Story

Mr. T's Pizza & Ice Cream, Chattanooga, TN

I’ve seen huge chickens, ice cream cones, trucks lifted up on top of poles and hundreds of others. Who has the coolest business sign you’ve ever seen? Leave a comment below or post a photo to our Facebook wall.

Domain Names & Signage

Finally, I’m going to tie in a couple of things Marianna talked about at the National Main Streets Conference this week in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The three primary elements of your small business or community brand are your logo, color scheme and domain name. Think about how your business can incorporate your domain name in to the signage. You’d be amazed how many people will check out your business from a smart phone when they see your domain name. Use it often.

Disclaimer: Certain cities have sign ordinances and laws regulating these signs. Check with your local laws before taking implementing any sign endeavor.

This week, I had a great experience, but I’d be willing to have it again, refer folks to do the same, purchase from a distance and more… if only the store’s branding had included their domain name or web site address. Here’s what I mean…

I love to sell, I love to network, and I love the relationship side of business. But today, I saw the sales cycle for a small business in Texas work like a charm – without the pre-sale relationship building part of the equation.

Driving I-20 East, just outside of Dallas, Texas you’ll see a lot of things. Mostly a lot of grass and trees. But in one brief oasis, we saw a billboard for FRIED PIES.

My traveling companions were instantly alert and waiting for the exit to arrive. We stopped at the Fried Pie Shoppe (an outpost of the original in Davis, Oklahoma), and our noses were treated to a couple of delightful smells. Barbecue and fried pies.

I can be a sucker for a fried pie. I was impressed even more by their great menu and their total grasp on their concept. Really good food, well displayed but nothing fancy. Their signage and experience were a home run.

I walked out with a couple of happy companions and a sack full of fried pies.

I’d probably have to say the one thing they missed with me was a domain name in their branding. I’d love to be able to remember their business name a little better than I do, and I’d love to be able to easily link back to their business. I didn’t get to taste that barbecue, but it sure did smell great. If it had been a little closer to dinner, I’d probably have had to try it. But now, it’s going to be difficult for me to stay in touch, to send customers their way or even order their proprietary products (which they had, sitting on top of their buffet line – bottled sauces and such) on-line. The missing domain name or web site address on their signage, bags, branded 20 oz. cups, menus, point of sale, receipts, etc. left money on the table – my money – and certainly that of many other happy customers.

How can you extend your experience after every sale and after the customer has “moved on down the interstate”? Probably using that URL with your logo (as part of your overall branding) on EVERYTHING would be a decent start. ALWAYS get that domain out there, extend your business past your front door and onto the web.