Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

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What the heck, the phone’s not ringing like it was this time last year, something must be up. In good times it’s easy to get lazy and one of the first things to go is that genuine, I really appreciate your business and want to see how I can make your life better, approach to serving customers.

Okay, so customers are getting a little pickier with how they spend their money. Now is the time to reach out and get closer to those customers and let them know you are in it with them right now.

We all know we should be doing this kind of action systematically, good times and bad, so take your renewed customer focus and set-up processes that make sure you never lose it again.

Call 5/day and thank them

Go through your customer list and call 5 per day and thank them for their business. Get in the habit of calling customers and asking what more you could do - send hand-written notes. Apologize for ignoring them if you have!

Admit you’re slower

Address the slow-down in business and openly talk about ways to create win-win buying situations and offers.

Segment them

Not all customers are created equal, so treat them that way. Your most profitable, referring customers should get VIP treatment. You don’t have to downgrade anyone, just make sure your best customers know who they are.

Bring them together

Often your customers are peers and might enjoy the opportunity to commiserate with a group of peers, or at least network, over lunch.

Create a marketing board

Your best customers are probably advocates for your business, whether you know it or not. Create an informal board of your most involved customers and ask for their input and accountability in the development of your marketing strategies and tactics.

Get out from behind the computer and go out there in your customer’s world and get a better understanding of what they are going through and you can create loyalty that will bond you beyond price shopping.

Posted by: John Jantsch on Jan 05, 09 | 9:09 am
Category: Marketing Coach, Marketing Plans, Marketing Strategy | Tags:

“Markets are conversations - talk is cheap, silence is fatal” - from the cluetrain manifesto - Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger

The statement above embodies for many the changed landscape of marketing. Bigco started to embrace this over the course of the last few years and now it’s time for Smallco to aggressively do the same.

This year’s next position for many small business should be a conversation officer - someone in charge of the story.

That officer could be employed to create, curate and sometimes manipulate the conversations that must be coming from your company. In the broad sense the duties of this position should include

Content - this one is pretty simple - full fledged blogger, article publisher, white paper creator and education based marketing materials and webinar creator.

Context - this one is a little trickier, but your conversation officer should employ RSS technology to aggregate and filter the content and conversations going on in every online and offline corner and package it to make it more useful for your organization and your prospects.

Connection - your CCO should be in charge of developing ways to include your customers and partners in the building of your business for mutual benefit. Your CCO should be in charge of the conversations your customers are having after they buy, as they decide to buy more and in the process of becoming a referral source.

Community - your conversations must eventually come together as community. You must facilitate conversation among your prospects and customers, introduce partners and find ways to co-create value. Intentionally hosting the conversation your customers are having with each other is a must.

The primary toolset for this new position is indeed social media, but don’t neglect traditional forms of conversation as well. twitter, Facebook, blogging and RSS must supplement phone calls, lunch and handwritten notes to produce the ultimate, full-bodied, authentic, value-based conversation.

Perhaps you can’t yet invest in a full-time employee to carry out this position, add it to the org chart and start developing the position, because it’s no longer an optional function.

Posted by: John Jantsch on Jan 02, 09 | 7:07 am
Category: Branding, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Marketing Strategy, Social Media | Tags: , Marketing

Nothing earth shattering today, but a nice little new year item for your web site.

Many web pages carry copyright notice that reflects the creation date of some or all of the content - Copyright 2003-2009 for example.

This is great until the year changes and you need to go back and update all your web pages. You can and should make this function easier with the use of footer library files or SSIs, so you only need to update once place and have it cross all your pages. But, you can even take it a step further and have the date change automatically.

Most blog themes have this function using a simple PHP call - Copyright © 2003-< ?php echo date('Y'); ?> - this would produce Copyright 2003-2009, and change to 2010 automatically next year.

You can also accomplish this with a simple javascript command placed in a footer file or anywhere on a web page where you want your copyright notice to show up.


Copyright © xxxx
script language="JavaScript"
var d=new Date();
yr=d.getFullYear();
if (yr!=xxxx)
document.write("- "+yr);
/script

Add <> around script language=”JavaScript” and /script

Replace the xxxx in both places with the year you would like to publish as the start year and then the script will take care of the rest. So for me it’s 1999 and looks like this Copyright © 1999 - 2009. Again, this will change to 2010 next year at this time without any effort on my part.

I’m sure there are a dozen other ways to get this done, but now you know it’s possible!

Posted by: John Jantsch on Jan 01, 09 | 8:08 am
Category: Web design | Tags: , copyright notice

This is part two of a two course helping of snack sized small business marketing advice for 2009. Find the 1st course here.

With 2009 just around the corner I thought it would be fun to collect the thoughts of some of the leading marketing folks around the web, but do so in what I am calling snack size fashion - so welcome to Snackfest 2009.

In keeping with the current trend in social media for small bites of info, think twitter sized responses - Plain and simple I asked some thought leaders this question:

2009 will be the year for small businesses to . . .

Want to play along? Here’s how, post your comment answer to the same question, comment on the snack answer of each expert and tweet your thoughts using #snack09. - Follow the Twitter Stream on this here

Here’s how some thought leaders responded to my question.
Guy Kawasaki, author of Reality Check said . . .Stop believing that Wall Street and investment bankers are any smarter than they are. - Twitter ID

Ann Handley, chief content officer for Marketing Profs said . . .Swell in ranks. Corporate downsizing spawns a host of new businesses. Many decide to cut their own path, as traditional paths close up. - Twitter ID

Clate Mask, CEO of Infusionsoft said . . . market to prospects and customers without increasing marketing expenses or staff size. - Twitter ID

Bob Burg, author of the Go-Giver said . . .focus on adding even more value to existing and future relationships and being truly authentic. - Twitter ID

Laura Lake, Guide of About.com/Marketing said . . . make a major shift into social marketing and online relationship building. It’s no longer an option, it’s vital. - Twitter ID

Scott Allen, author of The Virtual Handshake said . . . get funded. Cap gain tax cuts & revitalization of SBA = available equity & credit $$$. It’s time to make a big move that needs big capital. - Twitter ID

Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Blogware said . . . take advantage of their inherent advantage in local SEO. Targeted business blogging empowers small business to control their own destiny and win the online battle. - Twitter ID

Anita Campbell, editor of Small Business Trends said . . . Get serious about making money! When times get tough, tough business owners get going. 2009’s economy means no fooling around. - Twitter ID

Rich Sloan, co-author of StartUpNation said . . . Home-Based businesses will be launched at unprecedented rates. Attrition will decrease as people use tools like email marketing. - Twitter ID

Jim Gilmore, co-author of The Experience Economy said . . . act boldly and take sales from retrenching big businesses.

Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing said . . . Stand up and say “Happy customers are our greatest advertisers. We’re going to find a million ways to make people happy. - Twitter ID

Ken Yancey, CEO of SCORE said . . . get back to the true managerial basics of running their businesses. Businesses that were marginal in previous years will really struggle and well run businesses will survive and hopefully thrive.

Lee Odden, publisher of TopRank blog said . . . stop wasting time on tactics du jour, and start looking their online marketing holistically to find the right mix of measurable marketing efforts that generate sales and build value over time. - Twitter ID

Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large, Inc. Magazine said . . . take advantage of the opportunities for growth in a recession. - Twitter ID

So, what do you have to say?

Posted by: John Jantsch on Dec 30, 08 | 5:05 am
Category: Entrepreneur, Small Business, Small Business Marketing, Social Marketing | Tags: , Anita Campbell, ann handley, bo burlingham, Bob Burg, chris baggott, clate mask, Guy Kawasaki, jim gilmore, ken yancey, laura lake, lee odden, rich sloan, scott allen

Search on twitter is a great way to find people based on content. The type of search that’s long gone missing though is a search based on a person’s name.

Last week search by name came back and works very well. Here’s a search for John on twitter - I find I’m in the #8 spot (ranked by followers) right behind John McCain, whom I suspect I’m gaining on!

Posted by: John Jantsch on Dec 29, 08 | 7:07 am
Category: Social Media | Tags: , twitter

With 2009 just around the corner I thought it would be fun to collect the thoughts of some of the leading marketing folks around the web, but do so in what I am calling snack size fashion - so welcome to Snackfest 2009.

In keeping with the current trend in social media for small bites of info, think twitter sized responses - Plain and simple, I asked some thought leaders this question:

2009 will be the year for small businesses to . . .

Want to play along? Here’s how, post your comment answer to the same question, comment on the snack answer of each expert and tweet your thoughts using #snack09. (Follow the Twitter thread)

Here’s how some thought leaders responded to my question.
Seth Godin, author of Tribes said . . Run/grow/compete like mad because the big bad companies that have been slowing you down are in such disarray.
Seth Godin - Sqidoo page

Aaron Wall, author of SEOBook said. . .buy great domain names, as their perceived value drops due to an ad slowdown and browsers eating type in traffic.
Aaron Wall - Twitter ID

Alan Weiss, author of Million Dollar Consulting said . . . to assertively reinvent their relationships with customers and prospects, because you can’t grow by cutting back, can’t improve if you’re afraid, and can’t lead from the back.

John Battelle, founder of Federated Media said . . . get closer to its best customers, add value to their lives, and build new business from that value. Twitter ID

Andy Beal, author of Radically Transparent said . . . take their head out of the sand and start listening to the social media conversations customers, employees, and other stakeholders are having about their brand. Twitter ID

Tim Ferriss, author of the Four-Hour Workweek said . . . get advertising at 70-90% off. Recessions mean budget cuts for larger corporations, which means advertising cancellations, just as in 2001 and 2002. There will be fire sales on remnant advertising, whether print, TV, radio, or online. - Twitter ID

Dan Pink, author of Whole New Mind said . . . think boldly and push frontiers while the big guys run scared and retreat to safety. Twitter ID

Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software said . . . refocus on fundamentals: core strategy of identity, market, and focus, plus specific metrics and milestones, basic numbers, and planning as management, with review and revisions. Twitter ID

Bob Bly, author of Persuasive Presentations for Business said . . . prove their unique value to their customers and earn rather than expect repeat orders. Twitter ID

David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR said . . . stop spending $$ on marketing. Instead create interesting information people WANT to consume. - Twitter ID

Chris Brogan, publisher of ChrisBrogan.com said . . . demystify the business effects of social tools, and bring real projects to light. - Twitter ID

Bryan Eisenberg, co-author of Waiting for Your Cat to Bark said . . . stop waiting for a magic bullet and realize the magic comes from hard work they do. - Twitter ID

Look for another helping of expert snacks tomorrow - Snackfest - a second helping!

Posted by: John Jantsch on Dec 29, 08 | 6:06 am
Category: Duct Tape Marketing, Entrepreneur, Marketing Strategy | Tags: , aaron wall, Alan Weiss, andy beal, bob bly, bryan eisenberg, chris brogan, dan pink, David Meerman Scott, john battelle, Seth Godin, Tim Berry, Tim Ferriss

The title of this post is one of my three marketing rules to live by, so from time to time I like to make reference to examples, good and bad. (Full rule list: Don’t be rude, don’t be boring, give to get)

I rarely rant on this blog, but I just can’t take it anymore. I like LinkedIn and think it’s a great place for businesses to network - it’s worth the work it takes to get a return on time spent.

But, and this is the part that irks me, when you send out requests to connect with folks - never, ever, ever use the default - I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. This is very much like saying - I don’t really care about you enough to write something personal and by the way, I’m really boring and unoriginal. (OK, I know some people don’t even realize they can change the default message, so this is your wake-up call.)

I accept most every connection invitation I get, but I can tell you this, I rarely pay any attention to the one’s that are not personalized.

If you want to stand out using a tool like LinkedIn take the time to craft something personal, or at least something halfway witty. This goes for any network or networking you employ.

Posted by: John Jantsch on Dec 27, 08 | 7:07 am
Category: Social Media | Tags: , LinkedIn

As part of my work as a publisher and podcaster I get to read lots of books and interview some great authors. The following three books somehow made my top three list for the year, although ask me on another day and the list could change.

Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely - Gets at the heart of why we do what we do. Fascinating marketing stuff inside this book.

The Art of Learning - Josh Waitzkin - Taught me a bit about the way people master things - great story too. (Josh on Duct Tape Podcast)

Harmonic Wealth - James Aurthur Ray - Good approach to the art of attracting wealth.

So, what were your favorite business books this year. Any surprises?

Posted by: John Jantsch on Dec 26, 08 | 7:07 am
Category: Business Books | Tags: