On Friday, I had the privilege of meeting with a favorite client of ours who is about one year deep in his social media marketing journey. He gives bold testimonial that new media and social media are his number one marketing tools – and he can say that confidently because his businesses are thriving like never before.

Last week, another client of ours closed a deal that had been in the works through social media channels for nearly four months. But what a doozey of a good deal it was – a key influencer purchased and is telling everyone about his purchase. Gold.

We get asked all the time: How quickly can social media move the needle?

There are a lot of answers to the question. Here are a few thoughts I have in the “how long does it take to move the needle” category.

1. Once you have built an engaged social media community and are providing valuable information to them through other new media channels as well (such as e-mail and website or blog), if you ring the dinner bell on social media (most typically Facebook Pages or Twitter), they’ll come. Sometimes in less than an hour. That’s quick needle-moving.

2. Rome wasn’t built in a day. That community that makes some businesses look like an overnight success – it isn’t. Sure, you can build NUMBERS in a matter of days if you know what you’re doing – but trust and engagement that lead to sales (and isn’t that what we’re after: selling more stuff) – that’s a slower hill to climb. Sales will start increasing or at least stabilize in fairly short order, but the real benefit is gained by building long-term trust and engagement with your community of customers and prospects online. That trust that makes them feel like insiders will have a mushroom effect on your business success – when that level of trust reaches critical mass you are staged for record sales numbers, massive amounts of PR, and recommendations from key influentials in your target market – regardless of the economy. The needle moving sales success that happens at this stage of the game happens after deliberate, strategic, and consistent relationship building over a series of months (but not years).

3. Social media doesn’t move the needle. Solid marketing strategy integrated throughout your business, including a wise understanding of your customers and how to use and market via new media and social media tools is what moves the needle.

4. The needle will never move if you don’t make what’s happening online and off-line cohesive and consistent. Inconsistency will leave you dead in the water. You’ll also be dead in the water if the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

5. The needle will move the wrong direction if you fail to make good on the promises you make online. If the pizza is burned, and you don’t make me happy again – the needle will undoubtedly move the wrong direction for you – probably sooner than later.

6. The needle is moving all the time whether you want it to you or not. We visited with a local restaurant manager last night that had no idea what was happening on Twitter in his area. Just because your head is in the sand, doesn’t mean that the world isn’t going on around you. The majority of brick and mortar buying decisions are made before the customer ever pulls into your parking lot – they’re looking online first. If you aren’t there – they’ll go somewhere else – and you’ll wonder where your sales are going. You will miss opportunities to grow your business.

The needle is moving, people are talking – are you listening, learning and engaging in an effort to move YOUR needle in the profitable direction – even if it takes a few months to hit one out of the park?

Photo Credit: Unhindered by Talent

For some reason, August is always like my second chance every year to course correct and get back on track with those New Year’s resolutions that fell to the wayside or to get my business’ marketing plan back on track after the lazy days of summer. It’s back to school – and with that fresh start for my kids seems to come a fresh start for me. And I know I’m not alone, because the phone is ringing off the hook with others just like me seeking help with their own fresh start.

This year has been an especially poignant one for me in the area of discipline, goal setting and goal achieving. I’ve always been a planner (I’m a recovering plan-a-holic). But this year, I’ve been learning a few things about achieving goals that I wanted to share with you:

It’s best to go towards a goal than to run away from a problem.

This year, I started running for the first time in my life. The problem was that I had gained some extra weight and had lost my father too young to a heart attack. The problem was that I was scared. But if I looked forward I could see a healthy me with lots of energy to do almost anything with my kids and who was able to live a long, happy, effective life. My goal is to live well and finish well. From a physical health perspective that meant not just losing some weight, but becoming more physically healthy. Andy and I started training for a marathon, and I’ve never run in my life. Now, that’s running towards a goal instead of away from a problem.

What about your small business? It’s probably easy to list all the problems, challenges and discouragements that you face each day. Your fears and anxieties can easily overshadow everything else, especially when it comes to the daily grind of owning a local business. But when you look into the future longingly – what do you want it to look like? Define the future – and then run towards it.

There is no time like the present to start making changes.

If you want to win, you can’t wait until next Monday to get started. Change doesn’t start next month or next year – it starts today. When you realize you aren’t doing what you should be doing, you need to set your sights on the future goal and run towards it – TODAY. It doesn’t matter how slow the pace or how short the stride – it just matters that you don’t wait – that you do something TODAY that moves you closer to your goals, whether it be in small business ownership or in life.

When you fail, focus that frustration on being better again. Not on guilt.

Here is where I confess my failures. We started training for a marathon. I could run five solid miles, and I spent Spring Break this year riding bikes and kayaking with my kids. Then we moved to a new home.

Andy and I have exercised (either swim or walk) no more than two days a week since April. We have eaten too many desserts, and I’ve been drinking soft drinks way too much. We quit spending time stretching everyday. We’ve put on a few pounds and our bodies ache again. We miss the health, and we’re going to get it back. We woke up yesterday disgusted with ourselves for letting this happen. And yesterday we started doing something about it. Soft drinks are out and healthy, life giving water is in. I stretched this morning and am looking forward to an evening walk with my hubby. We’re turning our disgust into positive, life-changing, goal-achieving energy. I’m not going to sit around and mope about my failure. I’m going to do something to make it better again.

How about your business? Have you been complacent about your marketing, customer service, store displays, community involvement, social media messages, employee training, e-mail campaigns, or web site updates? Have you let bad habits creep into your business life? Have you let your passion slide? Have you taken your eyes off of your sales goals, marketing goals, business goals, life goals? Don’t focus on the pain and consequences of your complacency and bad habits – instead focus all of your energy on achieving your goals, sharing your passion, and finding your future success.

The cliché is true: you really do eat an elephant one bite at a time.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that this all sounds well and good but your circumstance is WAY more complicated than this. You’ve got layers and layers of problems and failures and scary obstacles to overcome. I wish I could tell you but I can’t – but my health is the least of my worries. But I can also promise you this: doing nothing but throwing a pity party will not get you any closer to freedom. Don’t be overwhelmed by the big picture. It is what it is, and there’s nothing you can do to change the past. But you can change your future. You make choices every moment about how to spend your time – and what you do next will affect your future one way or another. So, with your eyes on the goals ahead, find a tiny little bite-sized piece of a task that you can do right now that will move you one tiny step closer to your goal, to your full potential for success. As you train, you’ll be able to take bigger bites and the momentum will grow and you’ll get more accomplished and the race will get easier. But today, just take a small bite. That’s all you have to do. And tomorrow, take another small bite. Keep taking bites. Until you eat the entire elephant – or achieve your small business goals…

Want some encouragement along the way? What are your goals? Share them, and we’ll stay in touch as you walk towards the future.

Photo Credit: One-Fat-Man

So I decided I’ve had it. I’m done. I’m not putting up with it any longer.  I’m quitting. What, you ask am I quitting? Whining, and hanging out with whiners…

Recently at a business function I couldn’t help but hear multiple people complaining about how bad business was. Really, I thought this was networking not a support group.

Let me be clear, I’m sure it’s harder to make a dollar right now than it was a couple of years ago. But I’m working with a lot of folks that are doing PRETTY darn well this year and I’m not going to be out there whining about how bad it is. Think about it. Who wants to do business with a guy who’s about to lose his shirt? Not me. But the guy who’s fighting, I’m gonna go out of my way to give him not only business, but a little extra if I can help it.

Your attitude is everything. If you don’t believe it, you might want to check with the facts. Complainers have fewer friends, and do less business than positive people. I’m sure I can google up a study that talks about that somewhere, but it’s common sense. No one likes a whiner.

But it’s so bad out there, haven’t you seen the numbers? Yes, I have and here’s the rest of the story.

It’s a better time to own your own business than ever before. The workforce is ripe with talent, and they’ll work cheaper and harder than you could have dreamt 4 or 5 years ago. Bright folks are waiting for good ideas. Property prices are down to record levels, and while that’s lemons to some, that’s cheap rent to those who have a little sugar and some ice… I can sit down and have a sip of that.

What about our business, we are down 50% from last year? I’m sorry to hear that. Have you changed your strategy?

What we did last year doesn’t work this year. It’s not your customers’ job for YOU to stay competitive. But I can promise you this—If you’ll dig a little deeper and talk to your customers, you can probably figure out what they NEED and turn that in to a profitable business.

Yes, it’s a jungle out there… There are loads of pitfalls and tough times and you may be having some. But keep your chin up, dig a little bit and figure out how to make someone else happy with your product or service. Some folks are having record years, and I’m not just talking about the RepoMan… There’s plenty of money circulating around here—but it’s being spent with winners, not whiners.

Your attitude rubs off a little on everyone you are around. Don’t come see me if you are going to whine.

Photo Credit: zzzack

Andy and I are privileged in our work to conduct a lot of one-time consultations with small businesses who need a push in the right direction and an action list to help them take their small business marketing to the next level and create a more remarkable and consistent customer experience.

We also have the privilege to work very closely, literally in the trenches, to develop, implement and then teach a small number of business owners how to execute marketing strategies and tactics as well as customer experiences that will grow their businesses for the long term. In these relationships, we seek to be game changers – revolutionaries – who encourage “drastic and far-reaching changes in ways of thinking and behaving” when it comes to small business marketing and small business customer experiences. (If you’ve been hanging around here a while, you’ll recognize that quote as the dictionary definition of “revolution” and the reason behind the name of this blog.)

Looking for a customer experience revolution for your small business? Here are TEN posts from the deep archives of this blog that I thought were worth a second (or third) look when it comes to helping you create a profitable customer experience. These posts are FULL of great ideas and tips for small business customer service and experience improvements. Your customer experience, after all, is the most critical element to the short and long-term success of your business. It is the linchpin to your success. Click on the tip to read a full blog post on the topic (and don’t forget to leave behind your comments and ideas on each topic!).

1. Make sure your front-line sales team knows how to do their job – and the importance of it.

2. Make keeping customers (customer retention) and getting new customer referrals from your happy customers a primary focus.

3. Don’t assume anything about your customers. They probably do NOT know what to do with your stuff.

4. It really does pay to understand your customer. Customer feedback is critical (a bonus post for this tip!).

5. Use great photography in your small business marketing.

6. Use lighting as a cheap and easy way to improve your customer experience and to market your business 24 hours a day.

7. Pay attention to the auditory aspect of your customer experience. It matters.

8. Make shopping with you more convenient for the time-crunched shopper – which is all of us.

9. Don’t forget that marketing doesn’t stop when the customer walks in the door – it’s really just beginning.

10.   Last but not least, here are a few more great ideas for improving your customer experience. A revolutionary customer experience is possible for your small business!

Want more? If you’ve been trying to figure out how to achieve that in your business or are looking for a small business revolution, community or non-profit organization, please get in touch with us – we’d love to hear from you.

Photo Credit: advencap

For all businesses and organizations, regardless of size, the experience that the customer has with your business from start to finish – from the moment they meet you via marketing or word of mouth until the moment they cease to be your customer – must be flawlessly consistent.

When small businesses pull off this hat trick of “consistency” especially well, they reap generous rewards on the bottom line. Consistency in a desired customer experience that makes your customers feel like insiders is a sure meal ticket to success – the magic formula that all businesses are looking for – and few achieve. A desired customer experience is one that is remarkably different (for a true understanding of “remarkable” – read some Seth Godin books), convenient, and most of all creates a simple, easy-to-understand and experience…well, experience.

What does consistency look like in small business?

Merriam-Webster.com defines “consistency” as “a condition of adhering together” and as an “agreement or harmony of parts or features to one another or a whole.” But this is the part I really like… Merriam-Webster says “specifically: ability to be asserted together without contradiction.”

That’s really the bottom line. Examine your business today and look for anything that might contradict the specific and remarkable customer experience that you want for your customers to get from your small business. Marketing is only one piece of that puzzle, but it is critical that everything from your social media messages (including the tone and frequency of your posts) to your visual advertising to your visual merchandising and in-store way-finding to your employees’ dress, attitudes, personalities, expertise and ability to serve the customer… to the shopping bags, the after-the-sale service and follow-up to the on-going e-mail marketing, customer loyalty and retention efforts to yes, most of all, the experience that you put forward through your 24/7 presence on-line through your web site and blog – it all must be CONSISTENT. It must go together without contradiction.

Customer experience

Are your employees confusing your customers? Does your marketing message contradict your in-store experience? Is your in-store experience confusing – do all of your sensory experiences not play together to make a “harmony of parts or features to one another or a whole” in your small business?

Then, when you’ve created a system of customer experience that is consistent – you must replicate that system of customer experience every single day. It is this repetition that will grow your business.

Set your sacred cows aside today and look at your business in an effort to banish inconsistencies and create systems and experiences that grow a consistent customer for your business. A great customer experience is not an optional exercise.

What are you doing today to improve your consistent customer experience?

Cheap or free marketing that works really does exist – especially for small business owners. Guerrilla marketing is still alive and well! In this post, several creative and marketing savvy small business owners share their top off-line marketing ideas to increase sales.

Remember these three things when applying these tips:

• Have your goals in place so that what you’re trying to accomplish with any marketing.
• Then, make sure that you have a strategy. This is the tone or slant that will make each of these tactics your own – or even dictate whether the tactics will work or not work for your business.
• Finally, remember that all marketing, even off-line marketing, works best when you use your domain name (your web site address) to extend your brand and your customer experience.

1. Print Customer Loyalty Coupons.
Adeena Mignogna, former retail store owner and author of Cute Little Store: Between the Entrepreneurial Dream and Business Reality, recalls using her own customer loyalty coupons to make the shopping experience fun and memorable while leaving customers with a strong incentive to return for another visit!

“We always had a theme to go along with the coupon. Often it would be a set of different coupons, related to the season or a major holiday coming up. We would make it a lottery and have all the coupons in a bag. At check-out time, the customer would take a coupon from the bag. Since my retail store was very kid and family focused, often the kids would pick the coupon and have a lot of fun doing it. We frequently saw these coupons come back into the store!”

2. Be an Educator.
Shel Horowitz, author of six books on marketing, including his latest, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet, says that he picks public speaking as his favorite cheap or free marketing tip.

“When you have 50 or 100 or 500 prospects in a room who are there to hear your message and learn from you, it does great things for your business!”

3. Label Stuff.
Dave Greenbaum, owner of a small computer repair business, recommends using magazines and mailing labels to market your small business. We think that this is a great concept that could be adapted for many uses. Keep in mind that most waiting rooms are known for having old, out of date magazines…

Here’s how this works:

1. Get magazine subscriptions at a discounted price.
2. Read the magazines and enjoy them, as appropriate.
3. Print a label or sticker that says “Magazine Compliments of…” and include all of your contact information (including web site address) and logo.
4. While visiting your local auto repair center, coffee shop or doctor’s office, leave behind a stack of current magazines with your label on the back (with the blessing of management at each location).
5. Reel in referrals from those who see the label and those who ask office management about “that guy that left the magazines.” “Doctor Dave” tells us that employees at each location rave and add value to the referrals.

It’s a win-win proposition on many fronts. Adapt this one creatively to your own business’ service or product offerings.

4. Take advantage of advertising “remnants.”
Bonnie Harris at Wax Marketing reminds us that “ALL traditional media sell what are called ‘remnants.’ These are open ad spaces in print magazines, outdoor vehicles (like a billboard or bus sign), radio ads” etc. that haven’t sold. She recommends knowing ahead of time what traditional media best fits your business and marketing strategy. Then “call the advertising reps and let them know that you are always interested in hearing about remnant ad deals.” Bonnie warns however, “You have to make a decision quickly. Be available to the rep and have your ad ready to go right away.”

Bonnie says that she’s gotten some incredible deals this way…including a block of drivetime radio ads on a top station for $5 per ad!

5. Wear your marketing.
Beverly Solomon, creative director at muse-solomon, a high-end art business, tells us that she loves wearing her marketing…literally. Beverly says, “I had a run of high quality knits done with our muse-solomon name on it. Yes, it is in effect a fancy t-shirt. However, I can wear it to elegant functions and openings. I also wear it for travel. We also give knits to our models and photographers.”

Name recognition and conversation starters are both key in business marketing. Instead of regular t-shirts and polos, consider a fashionable clothing run that serves you well in most environments. There are so many options out there now! Just be ready if you wear your marketing to tell your story!

6. Help customers find you again.
Kerri Halligan of Athena Creates in Jacksonville, Florida reminds small business owners to make sure your customers know how (and when) to find you if they want to do repeat business. Unfortunately, as Kerri so aptly points out, we sometimes miss some of the most obvious marketing opportunities! Kerri explains, “I get so many repeat customers that sometimes they turn a so-so day into a great sales day. My repeat customers seem to buy more than new customer initial purchases because they now have confidence in my products. I see many other businesses that transact with a customer, but they don’t provide ANYTHING that has the business name or how the customer can find them again.” What a shame, but it’s so true! Aside from great signage, here’s what Kerri does to make sure her customers can find her again:

1. All products have some sort of tag that includes the business name. (We would recommend she also include logo and URL on each of these tags if she’s not doing it already!)
2. She hands out business cards to all shoppers or tucks one into their bag at the time of purchase.
3. Her cash register is programmed to include her business name, logo and web site onto all receipts.

What say you? What are the most effective cheap or free marketing ideas for your business?
Photo Credit: ecastro

I just got done flipping through fashion “look” book produced by a local traditional media outlet. In my opinion, the tabloid is filled with mediocre photography, mediocre image advertising and absolutely no education, information or explanation as to what I’m looking at, what or where to wear the “looks” or how much said looks might cost me at the various stores. In short, the entire tabloid lured dozens of premium retailers into spending their hard-earned marketing dollars to advertise. I bet they said something like, “if you advertise, I’ll guarantee that your competition won’t be allowed to advertise” or “you have to be in this issue because your competition will all be there.” Then, each business fell into rank and file… paid their money and submitted to the “look” that a traditional media publisher suggested for their ads. So, they all look the same, no one stands out, there is NO message or value to the publication, and the only one smiling is the media outlet because they cashed out.

Now, that’s just my perception and opinion. But I just wonder what would happen if a great retail shop broke status quo and did something different…valuable…memorable with their advertising? Or what if a few retailers weren’t scared to be left out of the popularity contests that media run – and instead made decisions based on data and smart strategy?

What have you done lately that was truly different, valuable or memorable? What have you done lately that was based on data and/or smart strategy? We want to hear your story!

Photo credit: stevendepolo