Thursday, December 31, 2009
New Years Lag: 3 To Dos
Monday, December 14, 2009
Keds: Marketing Works Featured Company
Keds, the shoe manufacturer is using social media and shoe customization to build brand loyalty. They are now allowing custom designs for your own pair of shoes. If the design passes Keds approval you will then be allowed to create your own entrepreneurial store and connect it with the Keds website. The potential to build hundreds to thousands of people individually selling their customized shoe styles to their friends and relatives through social media networking is a great possibility.Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Book Review: Never Eat Alone
Keith Ferrazzi’s book “Never Eat Alone” is a good resource for marketing with an emphasis on networking. This is a great tool for companies (or individuals) that need to get back to the basics of product selling. “Being a connector is not about managing transactions, but about managing relationships.”This book tells you how you can join the club...the club of successful people. Because, successful people think alike. Keith concludes that “the key to success can be summed up in one word: generosity.” Although, the difficulty lies with your willingness to ask for help, not your willingness to give it.
The book gives tips from his own personal experience on building a referral business. Keith does not cold call. He always uses a referral for his phone calls. You can also learn strategies to approach others with a plan and transform what could be a forgettable encounter into a blossoming friendship. If you have trouble connecting your personal and business life, this book is a must read. More and more, the economy that we live in is reverting back to business built on trust. Who better to trust than your friends?
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
"The 29% Solution" Book Review
This book simplifies the process to giving. And if you are giving to others the law of reciprocity should follow. This law of reciprocity means what you do for others will be returned back to you. This idea can work at any level of a relationship, for instance, ask someone a question that you would like him to ask in return. It is very easy to say but a lot harder to put this into practice. But, this book laid it out in a “question and answer” type fashion that allowed me to really grasp how to accomplish this personally. I learned how to be proactive in pursuing networking opportunities, how to determine the difference between potential reciprocal relationships and relationships of no real value to anyone. After this book (and some helpful guidance from Dana Barfield, a friend and mentor) I am confident how to build valuable and long lasting business relationships and therefore this is a must read!Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Book Review: The Time Trap by Alec Mackenzie
The book begins with a great pull, asking the reader what he would do with 1 hour more to focus on a goal that you have? If you had an hour more every day available for pursuing your own life goals, how much more productive and beneficial/rewarding would your life be?
If you realize the importance of productivity in your work and day to day life but need some practical advice from experienced professionals, this book is a must for you.A few points that I found particularly helpful:
1) First was their focus on goals/priorities/objectives which is something I had been doing in my own personal organization but it was good to have this reiterated by experienced professionals.
2) Big Three Priorities/tasks for the day:
This idea is that you should start your day determining 3 things that you MUST accomplish no matter what else you plan to do. Set this out first before you do anything in the day so you know the amount of time to be spent on these tasks.
3) Pareto Law – 20% of your tasks yield 80% of your results:
You need to read the book for the examples but the idea is to clear a lot of the small stuff at various points of your schedule in order to have prime focus on the big stuff.
4) The RED ZONE:
This was my favorite suggestion. The idea stems from the hustle and bustle of today. We are inundated with emails and small pesky interruptions all day long. A lot of interruptions are good. In the past before internet and cell phones people could plan their day from front to back without much variation from their objectives. Today, we usually have different priorities that move in and out of our schedule based on urgency and validity. So, it is important to have time during the day when you are available. But, the RED ZONE concept is to use approx. 2 hours of time per day to be totally focused on a project that you need to get done. Turn your phone off, tell your secretary that you shouldn’t be interrupted for your time in the RED ZONE. This will allow you maximum focus to get the big tasks completed without interruptions. It doesn’t have to be the FIRST part of your day, it needs to be the BEST time of your day.
Read the book for more great suggestions.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
What to Do With Your Website
I would suggest for you to go one of two directions with your website design. Your first option would be to “keep it simple stupid”. In other words, place just the essential information on the website and nothing more. Remember, websites are not a marketing tool. They are a source of information and it will be most effective and you can get it done at a reasonable price because you can’t very well screw up bare bones website unless your incompetent, ha. The second option would be to “do it up”. If you plan to use your website for a lot of traffic and have a lot of 2 way interaction going on at the website, then you want to get an experienced web designer that knows how to create good navigation and an effective design. If you try to go cheap on a project of large magnitude you will most likely suffer in retaining web users from some malfunction in your website, which will cost you more in the long run than it would if you had just paid for the great service up front. You need a good designer and a good bit of site testing to measure the effectiveness. If you don’t test an extensive site, you won’t be able to measure how solid the site is. Only then should you present it to the public. Don’t make a large scale website investment without knowing who and how to address problems once the website is up and running. Because, there will be issues that need to be resolved on extensive sites, hopefully less than more.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Monday, November 16, 2009
What Not to Do With Your Website
• Learning about a product or service
• To get support for products already purchased
• Obtain financial and business information about a company
• Communicate with the company
• Learn about job openings
• Scout out ideas for their own use
• Play games/have fun/waste time
For a small business that is focused on creating value and addressing customers needs quickly and efficiently, this should echo in your website design. Don’t think of your website as a marketing tool, instead, think of it as a way to present information. It is not a marketing method because those that come to your page are mainly those that have been directed there, they already know what they’re looking for or are there to further investigate a referral they’ve been given. The biggest problems for website visitors are: (1) complex website navigation (2) design extravagance and (3) overload of information.
First, if you have lots of information to put on the website or want to use a website as a tool for 2 way interaction with customers, it is very important that navigation is simple to follow. If customers can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, then, they are likely to get frustrated and leave. Remember, the internet is a place for interested customers to retrieve information about your product or service. If they feel you’re wasting their time they will leave and won’t come back. People don’t want to feel stupid or inept. They will go somewhere else where navigation isn’t as difficult.
I have seen some websites that were extremely creative, and that is cool for expressing your creativity, but sometimes people don’t interpret your creativity and this is failure on your part. Understand that I’m not talking about a little color or showing your brand on the website, I’m talking about getting extravagant with your pages. Making navigation a game or putting a whole bunch of “glitter” up that isn’t conducive to giving people what they are there for is costly and if done incorrectly is ineffective.
Finally, a website should have a max of 8 featured items per web page. Some people cram too much information on a page, don’t be one of them. This is equally frustrating to a web user. Overloading a first timer with an overabundance of information is most likely intimidating. When you do have lots of info, be sure to break it up into sections so people can pick and choose what is really important to them.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
How SC Marketing Solutions Can Help You
SC Marketing Solutions is a marketing and advertising professional acting as an Independent Marketing Manager who speaks both creative and business languages. I want to help small business owners effectively reach their target market without overcharging. Well-placed time, effort, and initiative is what the advertising agencies have forgotten. While agencies focus on design aspects, I know that developing new relationship to create new business prospects requires a lot more. I will create advertising design that is vital to infiltrating new markets but the focus will remain on creating more prospects. I will handle your marketing jobs singlehandedly or coordinate larger jobs among my network of highly skilled creative professionals, but you can trust that your marketing is in good hands.
My process is to consult with businesses on how to effectively market for new business prospects in a 3-part process:
1) Assessing current business plan and pinpointing the company’s distinct competitive advantage(s).
2) With this information, I use my experience and resources to research and determine cost effective methods and approaches to marketing and advertising to reach your target market.
3) You and I then create short-term and long-term marketing and advertising goals and objectives in line with your company’s direction. With your approval, I create and implement marketing systems and processes that will develop brand recognition among your target market(s) and work to drive more business to you.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Outsourcing Advertising to Contractors (Series Article 7)
There are many options available for customization of your project. When a company doesn’t have the time or money to invest in choosing the right advertising option they often resort to an inadequate solution, one that could have major consequences to their brand’s development. Their resolution will probably look something like one of these:
First, if money isn’t an issue, they will contact an advertising agency. This will hurt their opportunity to make more profit with other more cost effective and just as powerful advertising solutions.
Second, they will consult a designer to create a point of purchase brochure or flyer without taking time to determine if this is in line with the company’s goals and objectives. There can be many things wrong with this approach. It takes time and often educating the designer of these objectives. Any number of communication barriers can cause incorrect application of a goal and result in inadequate design and therefore actually detract from the purpose that ideally defines the company and is consistent with previous advertising in order to emit brand recognition at a glance. Even a nice design can communicate an undesired message.
Third, they may hire in-house professionals and although this may seem like a good option, this requires you offering more benefits and often limits your flexibility if you decide this person isn’t the best option. This may be a good option for a lot of companies but most likely small businesses don’t have enough work for keeping these individuals busy or motivated. You need this individual to be constantly thinking and developing your brand. Giving these individuals 8-5 time slots and guaranteeing them a paycheck regardless of their results probably isn’t the best option.
In order to develop a brand image that over time becomes recognizable to the buying market it is important to hire professionals willing to know and understand your company’s brand in addition to creating good design. Consistently capturing the brand’s essence in each and every advertising piece is going to make a big difference in recognition from consumers. Continuing to tap into cost effective solutions and thinking pro-actively for your brand will make the biggest difference on your bottom line of time and money. Advertising to this effect will capture your target market and broaden your reach. Having advertisers on a short leash (on contract) keeps professionals aware of their need to produce solutions rather than just fill an 8-5 time slot.
So, you might be asking, what about my investment of time in selecting the right consultant and how do I know I can develop trust with them?
What the right consultant looks like:
You need a designer that speaks not only creative but business language also. There are many designers that doesn’t understand the bottom line or how to communicate outside of their own creative universe. You need a designer that understands the importance of goals and objectives in implementing and fulfilling successful strategies. They must be able to do this while keeping the creative juices flowing and maintaining focus on a company’s competitive advantage. This individual should also understand the different methods available for advertisement. This individual should also have a network of other professionals that have expertise in other areas that are outside his or her own capabilities.
Developing trust:
Trust is something that must be earned. You may or may not trust the individual in the beginning. But, the cost advantages of taking a chance on contracting with an individual as opposed to the other options mentioned above will have much less risk. You can always break your ties without significant financial investment.
SWCMarketing:
SC Marketing is a marketing and advertising professional acting as an Independent Marketing Manager who speaks both creative and business languages. I want to help small business owners effectively reach their target market without overcharging. Well-placed time, effort, and initiative is what the advertising agencies have forgotten. While agencies focus on design aspects, I know that developing new relationship to create new business prospects requires a lot more. I will create advertising design that is vital to infiltrating new markets but the focus will remain on creating more prospects. I will handle your marketing jobs singlehandedly or coordinate larger jobs among my network of highly skilled creative professionals, but you can trust that your marketing is in good hands.
Shoot me an email and we can discuss how to develop and implement your greater competitive advantage. Depending on the scope of your project, I can put together a plan personally or work with my network of creative professionals to help propose your best advertising solutions and how to create a brand with lasting impact that will work for years to come.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Marketing and Advertising In-House (Series Article 7)
There are a couple of negatives with hiring in house. The individual has to be disciplined, self-motivated, and proactive to continue doing their best work. Also, there is always more that can be done in marketing but not all of it is beneficial. The trick is hiring someone who knows the best value of their time and knows how to prioritize based on the company’s goals and objectives. You must hire someone who is aware of this keeping a working environment that doesn’t stifle their creativity.
As a small business, you may not have a need for 40 hours a week worth of advertising and marketing. Since advertising is more subjective, you also may not know how much advertising you really need to be effective. You need a knowledgeable and creative expert to be honest and help you with a good plan and solid direction for the future while keeping cost and time at the forefront of their mind.
There is one more advertising option for a tight economy that will be discussed tomorrow and that is outsourcing to individuals by contract. Come back for the conclusion!
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Advertising Agencies and the need for a Brand (Series Article 6)
Hiring creatives to implement an advertising campaign or to create a brand for your company is a necessity in creating competitive advantage and differentiation from your competition. Your brand is an association with your company that consumers perceive, something that creates value (or diminishes it) that ideally resembles what your company is about. It is important to create this brand and be consistent with it in order to build recognition of your brand among consumers. You may need to find some right-brained experts to help with this. Your first thought may be to contact an advertising agency. There are different kinds of advertising agencies but most of them consist of premium rates. My experience with advertising agencies is that they are rich on ideas and are so good at creating that people will pay an arm and a leg for them. They are definitely great at laying out very detailed advertising programs to perfection.
The funny thing about this is although the ad agency is most likely giving you GREAT creative options there are MANY smaller companies or even freelance individuals who can give you creative options that are just as effective and help you grab the attention of your niche market. You also get charged much less. Going with the ad agency is basically a luxury that could be considered over indulgence. The problem is that people tend to put more value on what they pay more for and whomever they believe are “the experts”. The catch is that if you understand basic concepts of marketing and advertising you can spot money waste in this area.
For a small business concerned with value and spreading your money as far as possible advertising agencies with large costs are most likely not your best option. You should atleast consider your other options before dropping big bucks on advertising if the name of your game is value for your dollar and return on investment.
Be practical. You can now higher creatives who work with much less overhead and have a small number of employees (or have a network of experts that they team up with) that can therefore afford to charge less for great service while creating just as much “reach” to the public as the big guys.
Tomorrow: more advertising options.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Customer Retention (Series Article 5)
You may ask, why should we be so concerned about retaining customers after completion of the business or transaction? Satisfied customers are your best resource in that they speak highly of the product. Some will be referrals to your product or service. Others will simply speak well of you and your company. In either case, any opportunity to have a contact that is appreciative of your product or service is a free sales representative. They are a face for your company and will speak above and beyond your own personal sales pitch.
If you are a service based company, there is nothing better than a written thank you card. Email responses are never going to be received in the same manner or appreciated in the same way. The time put into writing a short thank you card and mailing it speaks volumes over your verbal thank yous. Anyone that has given you valuable advice and you want to say thank you above just a verbal thank you shows them that you appreciate them. Most people aren’t necessarily looking for pay but everyone appreciates recognition. These people will be more likely to help you in the future if they realize that you do really appreciate their help.
Secondly, people tend to expect more in regard to technical support than they used to. Or, maybe it’s that they are getting tired of automated phone services. Either way, quickly taking care of their concerns in regard to technical support or customer service is important. Also, having a “live” person to communicate with is a major plus. One company that does this extremely well is Apple. I can call anytime and have a highly competent person not only assist me but give me great advice. This is invaluable. Try to offer this. The more automated steps you have for customers to go through, the more likely it is for them to get confused and frustrated. Make it as simple as possible.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Networking (Series Article 4)
My main suggestion in networking would be to observe others that are really good with people. Find someone that is good and watch them and try to copy what they do. This may sound weird but it is very important. You, of course, cannot copy genuine concern from other people. But, you can learn ways to show care and concern in an outward fashion. Some people are better at it than others. Be a good observer, listen, and learn.
The second thing I might suggest is get involved in a business or community organization. Each industry has an organization that you can be apart of. Go to their events and take your business cards.
Finally, make time and put effort toward networking. You must often create opportunities to meet new people. One thing that I believe can be a big help here is to think and look outside yourself to get to know other people. If you are always concerned about yourself and not interested in knowing about others you are not going to be too successful. Develop an interest in others.
I am currently studying networking tips. One of the books I’ve picked up is The 29% Solution by Ivan R. Misner. It basically helps you act on networking. A lot of the skill of networking is just getting out and doing it. So, go for it. If you need help in that area, check out that book. Maybe in a few months after reading a few resources on networking and trying a few of them out I will get back with you on other ways to network.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Social Network Media Marketing (Series Article 3)
Social Networking has taken on many various forms with the internet as a media outlet for networking. There are numerous opportunities to network personally as well as professionally from LinkedIn as a professional individual and Facebook for personal networking. As a small business, your connections on and off the job are your greatest assets. Being visible in these aspects is a free opportunity to be available if a friend needs you or if you need your friends. The greatest advantage of this is for those friends that were at one in your current circle of influence but are no longer. Having access to them in order to just stay knowledgeable about old friends can be a big benefit for all aspects that you are involved in. Everyone wants a trusted friend’s help. Keep at least one of these online networking tools with updated information on you to stay visible. This can also be viewed as a very simplistic form of inbound marketing.My suggestions for your small business social media marketing would depend on the type of product or service that you have. Free social networking will continue to improve and be more expansive in the future. It is important for you to have a basic understanding of the benefits of each to make an educated decision on what would work best for your company. Twitter is also great for product awareness and giving those that want constant information possibly in the form of coupons. Twitter is discussed in the Online Inbound Marketing article more.
Using online social media, your ability to keep up on a more personal level increases simply by keeping your page up to date and you can feasibly stay connected with double and sometimes triple what you could without it.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Email Inbound Marketing (Series Article 2)
Your current customers or previous buyers are your best advertising tools. Capture their information in order to send them honest tips or suggestions. DO NOT use this information and give it to someone else. Also, DO NOT send your customers useless information. This will only irritate them in the long run. Only send them information that they would find helpful and be purposeful in the timing of the emails as opposed to swarming them with emails. Being purposeful and limiting your amount will help your happy client to notice your email when it comes and not delete it automatically when it enters their inbox. The amount you solicit them of course depends on how much they are wanting it or not. If you are not sure, then go with the purposeful and limited amount.
The cheapest version of tracking the information of your customers would be through an email database such as Constant Contact as long
as you are in the building stage of your contacts and don’t have over 500. This is by far the cheapest form of gathering contact info and soliciting with emails. If you have over 500, Constant Contact charges $30 per month and in my opinion you can get it cheaper if you go ahead and create your own custom database. If you do it right the first time and you plan on your company being around for a while you will save in the long run. If you are unsure of your exact needs then it would be good to start with Constant Contact or get some creative consultation on what might be best in creating a strong inbound marketing scheme that you can pay for upfront and not be wishing for a change two years down the road.To create a custom database you can hire a web designer with strong coding skills and he can create a database for you. Make sure that he makes it user friendly so you can easily retrieve information without having to navigate through his code language. Usually this is accomplished through some sort of Customer Relationship Management System. You should be able to get someone to create a database like this for no more than $2000 assuming you are simply wanting basic contact info and the capability of emailing them from your database.
I recommended to one of my clients a database with basic contact info, name/phone/email in addition to the zipcode. The product was a traveling act that needed an easy way to spread the word when they were coming through town. At a moment’s notice the act can contact his or her fans in a region and have them spread the word.
As you can see, Inbound Marketing can be a very effective tool when done correctly and when you are in a market where there is a need to capture and retain customers (WHICH IS EVERYBODY!!). Just don’t overdo the contacts, you want your customers to continue to love you for years to come.
Know someone that needs to hear this information, please pass this along. If you need assistance getting leads, prospects, and clients cost effectively, please contact me:
Your confidentiality will not be compromised.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Online Inbound Marketing- (Series Article 1)
We will first start with online inbound marketing.
You may already have heard of Hubspot, one of the several companies focusing in inbound marketing. Hubspot is a great resource for companies that are looking to maximize their opportunity to contact prospects over cold calling. The only problem with Hubspot is the never ending resource of information. You may
need two people to take advantage of all the resources and really maximize your investment and return for the price of the service. For a small business and specifically in an economy where time is money, this may not be the version for you. There is now a small business model that is more affordable than the service than I am familiar with. I would be hesitant to invest in the small business version unless it is substantially better than the google analytics version. Maybe I will post on my research on that in the future! There is a proven success record for inbound marketing in converting consumers into sales leads.One thing that you do want to take advantage of with Hubspot is the inbound marketing training made available FOR FREE.
The small business version that I prefer is Google Analytics.

The most helpful information I find from these inbound marketing tools is the hits and the links. These analytics will tell you where your website hits are coming from and how many. This is a way you can track your websites success and prospect. And this version is absolutely free!
In this tight economy, monitoring and interpreting your traffic is vital for a website. A website in it’s nature is a source of information and not a marketing tool in and of itself. Getting the full advantage of having a website is the traffic that comes along to know your prospective customer. These people are already aware of your brand or product and have come to get more information. So, now that you have their attention, you can prospect those clients with more confidence. Forget the endless hours of searching randomly for work. Move over cold calling…prospecting is now the name of the game.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Advertising in a Tight Economy Series
As a small business owner your ROI is the bottom line. Companies should seriously consider several cost effective approaches to spreading the word about their product or service. In the next few days we will address each one of these more specifically and how to be most effective in these methods:
Social Networking
Inbound Marketing
Retention of Current Customers
Doing Marketing and Advertising In-House.
Outsourcing to a "One Stop" Advertising Outfit.