Service Providers: Ten Point End of Month Review
July 31, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
At month’s end I take the time for a quick overview with each client. My list of simple questions involves several details that contribute to the overall picture of business. The first five questions reflect on the past 30-days; the second five questions look forward.
- Publicity: Did we receive any publicity or this month?
- Mentions in print?
- Mentions on the web?
- Awards?
- Did we initiate any future publicity contacts?
- What’s happening with financials?
- How does the revenue line look?
- Have you compared that to last year, last quarter and last month? What’s the trend?
- Are we profitable?
- How do Web analytics look?
- What traffic/results are we getting from the web?
- What does it mean?
- What didn’t get done this month?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the weakest and 10 being the strongest, how would we rate this month?
- Are there action items left undone to put forward this month?
- What is our prime visibility intiative for the coming month?
- Can we celebrate significant successes or employee recognitions for the past month?
- Do we have special events or announcements to consider?
- What is our top project focus for the coming month?
- What action I can take to move next month forward now?
You probably have your own list, or maybe you’ve never thought of formalizing such a thing. As a service provider, I find the monthly summary a tool to build loyalty. I can easily summarize the year, by month, at renewal time. What’s more, both the client and I know where we stand at all times in between.
Biz Development: Ongoing PR Defines Future P&L
July 29, 2009 by Mary Ellen · 2 Comments
“I did some analysis in May and realized we’d lost 67% of our 2008 business, most of that due to a company sale and a bankruptcy.
We’ve picked up several newer clients, smaller, all, than those two huge ones, but then losing anyone of them wouldn’t have the same impact either. We started a number of business development things a year or so ago that are beginning to pay off.”
True story. It might describe your company or that of someone you know.
Instinctively, as service company owners, we know NOT to put business development on hold. In a small firm, it’s particularly hard to juggle day-to-day urgencies with important long-term priorities.
Public Relations is one of those important, long-term items. There’s no time to toot your own horn when you’re busy clearing a path, right?
In a recent article for entrepreneurs, I shared five ways in which “Public Relations Puts Your Business on the Map For Free.”
- Online media room
- Local journalists
- Publications and trade magazines
- Radio
- Television
Your online media room, item number one in my list, supplements business development efforts. It’s a place to showcase current publicity and frame projects for the organization.
None of this happens by accident. If you’re contemplating maintaining an online media room, I recommend planning a quarterly theme and adding one article per month. For a textbook publisher, the third quarter calendar looks like this:
Quarterly Theme: College Prep
Month: Topic. Tactic for reader follow up.
Jul 09: National science education standards and how our company products meet them – overview of standards. Link to pdf document outlining specifics.
Aug 09: SAT test prep and how we can help. Feature about training for SAT. Link to regional schedule of test
Sept 09: Science fairs and products we offer to help you win. Outline of specific products. Link to blog post with stories highlighting different fair wins.
In addition, the online media room lets you link to published articles and mentions on the Internet. Knowing that you are what you publish, start planning your calendar today.
Net Promoter Question Sets Social Media Foundation
July 27, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
“How likely is it that you would recommend [name of company, product, service] to a friend?
This, the net promoter question, offers an easy evaluation for social media. Fred Reichheld, author of “The Ultimate Question,” the book that started the net promoter movement, divides customers into promoters, detractors and passives. The calculator process he describes is based on a simple 0 through 10 score.
Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.
To calculate your company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors
In Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, Dave Evans and Susan Bratton discuss the fundamental value the net promoter question. As they point out, the social web demands an active presence.
Social media is about influence. Your social efforts begin to pay dividends when your friends tell their friends, and so on.
Where a traditional campaign can be presented in terms of ‘millions reached,’ a social campaign is typically presented in terms of a ‘thousand influenced.’
It all comes back to the key question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [name of company, product, service] to a friend?
Old School Marketing Trumps Twitter — It’s All About the Customer
July 24, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Everyone gathered at The Bluetop Café in the morning. Coffee flowed freely and a buzz of conversation rose and fell. When a stranger sat down, the buzz faded, and then rose again. Most travelers and those new to town wanted coffee. A few brave souls introduced themselves. The old timers sat for hours and tipped a quarter when they left.
Call it Twitter – offline Twitter, or old school. Community made it so. Icons like Bluetop Gloria from Mom and Pop businesses of the past connect us to community.
In a blog post “Nonna Rosa crushes Social Media Gurus” Lewis Green elaborated:
Nonna wouldn’t have ignored the value of social media, but she wouldn’t have depended upon it for a major piece of her revenue either. She would have seen social media much like the signs in her windows and the advertising on the back of her bench–another way to reach out to people and to grow her brand.
Nevertheless, she would have used social media well. She would understand the differences between conversation, comments, subscriptions, links, clicks and sales. She would have used that information to know her best customers from those who want to stop by and chat. She would have focused on the best customers, without ignoring the potential of the chattering class. And she would learn what both groups wanted and needed and given it to them, always with an eye to revenues and profits. For while she might not focus on revenues and instead put her best efforts in making people happy, her business required income to achieve her primary mission of creating great customer experiences.
His conclusion railed against those doing social media for its own sake:
To stay in business and bring some money home, networking, socializing and sharing need to result in sales if they are to have value for either shopkeeper or consumer. In other words, simply putting a sign in the window or launching a blog do not marketing and sales make.
A headline in yesterday’s New York Times shouted community AND waved the social media flag: “Mom and Pop operators turn to Social Media.” The featured Claire Cain Miller article emphasizes Twitter and its success for small business owners across the country.
Three people brought the article to my attention, probably because of my involvement with the Albuquerque Independent Business Alliance. (Disclosure: I currently serve as board president for the non-profit organization.)
It’s hard not to envision immediate success when you add social media. The hype surrounding Twitter, the fact that its numbers continue to double every couple of months, feeds that illusion. A small business involved in AIBA may join Twitter as a result of this and similar articles. No matter.
Old school or new…it’s all about the relationships.
Social Media Snippets – Tempted to Begin? Take it one step at a time.
July 21, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
“There’s no way I want 600 students friending me,” Geri said fervently. Chair of a major university’s communications department, Geri worried about privacy issues. “I don’t have the time to even think about maintaining some other communication network like Twitter.”
“Social media helps position me and my consulting practice; I’m better known among groups in my industry as a result of efforts with Linkedin. And, I’ve been tweeting a little,” I added.
“I kind of like posting picture and keeping in touch with everyone easily,” Sally commented.”And all of Katie’s friends look at our Facebook page.”
“I don’t really even know what you’re talking about,” commented Jenny, the youngest sister.
This snippet from a real conversation during girls’ weekend lets you peek into four views of social media. Four sisters from four different states discussed the subject, offered opinions and presented no real strategy.
From everyday conversations to newspaper and magazine articles, we’re inundated with social media questions, opinions and commentary. Dozens of books discuss social media’s impact, “how-to” and place in the marketing arena.
Unless you live under a rock, you can’t escape the din. The attempt to keep up with social media developments is even more challenging. Dozens of groups and applications spring up daily. Businesses scramble to set up fan pages, build industry-related groups and sign prospective customers up for their lists.
My sisters each had different perceptions about the definition of social media, the need to consider it and the reason to participate. All social media (just as all other media) begins with the question “What do you want to achieve?”
You may find yourself replying, “It depends.” So, if you are considering social media for your business, take time to learn the basics. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, start smart. Start small. Start planning now.
Develop a strategy for your social networking. Think about the reasons you want to use it. An answer of “just to see,” is perfectly ok. How will you know you’re making progress? How will you measure your results? How will you determine if you’re complete with the experiment?
Secondly, acknowledge the reality of life and a schedule with many built-in demands. With that in mind, resolve to try only one new platform a month. For example, August might be the month you learn about Linkedin. During September, you can get familiar with Twitter. October could be Facebook month and so on. These are the big three platforms.
Find a tutorial you can relate to and access at your leisure. Then, begin.
Plumbing a Brochure – A Twist on Collateral Update
July 18, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Red Flag – Appliances:
Your dishwasher floods your kitchen. Water seeps onto the living room carpet. Your call to a plumber is tinged with hysteria and tempered with hope. You know it won’t be long now.
The plumber arrives and asks, “How old is this machine?”
“We just got it,” you complain. “They don’t make stuff like they used to.”
“It says 1994 on the side here,” he comments. “I’ll run some diagnostics, but it’s probably time to buy a new one.”
If only fixing your brochure could be so easy.
When your brochure is broken, no flood occurs. No refrigerator magnet holds a ready number to call. No plumber appears. No easy solutions present themselves.
Four red flags for your brochure:
- Your address changes. When a physical or a web address changes, an opportunity for review presents itself. Take the time to freshen everything. As mother says: “It’s a sign.”
- Personnel come/go. In one reception area a prospective customer asked, “Who is ___?” She replied, “Oh, he worked here a couple of years ago.” Clearly, updating the brochure had not been a priority. What message does that send about work efforts?
- Services differ. In the hustle/bustle of daily business, adjustments are made. Affiliations might be added or dropped. One accounting firm experienced this as they began to successfully handle more eldercare referrals. Gradually they added related offerings: conservatorship, bill paying and personal representative developed into a specialty. The previous collateral did not address these offerings with the importance they deserved.
- It’s been more than 15 years. (NOTE: The dishwasher my friend had “just gotten” had 1994 on the side.) OK. I may have stretched this time limit. Even five years is a long time in today’s world.
Instead of calling the brochure plumber, do a little self-maintenance. This generalized checklist can be your guide.
V-v-v-v-video! Go Viral, Young Woman!
July 15, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Has the hot new social media element of video landed on a website near you?
If you’ve searched on social media, Google tabulates more than 186,000,000 results in less than half a second. For many entrepreneurs, it ends right there. Overwhelm takes over.
Making sense of social media means thinking through the reasons why you want to use it. What are your goals? Where do you hope to be in six months, a year? How would that look different without a social media?
Without a plan, or at least an idea of what you hope to accomplish with social media, you’ll waste a considerable amount of time, energy and precious resources. You might even turn off some of your potential customers in the process.
Speaker and author (good friend and daring enthusiast) Cynthia Morris recently introduced video to her Journey JuJu blog with Library Juju, talked about the viral social media opportunity.
On the plus side:
According to any number of “experts” video on a website is hot, not only because it attracts viewers, but because it creates a closer connection with the potential customer. (A picture is worth 1,000 words.)
Video sharing websites like YouTube, video.google.com and ustream.tv get millions of hits. Entrepreneurs dream of being the next Susan Boyle (71 million views and counting) when their video goes viral.
Today’s video is easy: use your built-in webcam, upload and go.
On the minus side:
Instead of jumping with excitement, Cynthia ran through a myriad of fear-based questions and came up with a much longer list:
What if people think I look squirrelly?
Maybe someone who was going to hire me will be turned off by the fact that I just went for it?
What if they don’t like the background?
Should I pull it down before anyone sees it? (NOTE: She’d already passed the 50 mark on YouTube.)
How can this work on an ongoing basis for me?
Is video the right tactic for my business?
Does a series of JuJu videos that might make people giggle make sense? (Cynthia is often hired as a speaker/performer.)
How will video impact your business? Have you produced a video yet? Will you do so? What do you think of Cynthia’s?
After our discussion she found and shared with me a great link from HubSpot, an inbound marketing firm that might make your video options a bit easier. Happy shooting!
Publicity. Got any? Stop the Wheel to Get More
July 13, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Those tiny hamsters feet barely move as the creature travels the wheel. Round and round the cage it goes. From early morning to late night the hamster gives the impression of never quitting and yet never making any real progress.
It’s easier than ever to feel like the hamster as you consider your own publicity wheel. Without clear objectives and unrelenting focus on them, you may go round and round with little progress.
I explored that idea with a client early this morning and realized we’d gotten hung up on the details rather than the desired results. Let me explain.
We reviewed the publicity opportunities for the company by listing the most recent happenings and discussions:
- New product introduction. Some questions came immediately to mind. The customer list for this client includes more than 8,000 names. Merely publicizing the offering to this list could increase product purchase. In addition, I asked the client to consider these questions:
- Have you posted it in the new product section of your website?
- Is it in the online store?
- Write an article for your newsletter.
- Submit a news release for your online media room.
- Submit a “new product” news release to industry publications.
- Request an update posting to any groups.
- Add the information to fan pages for the product on Facebook. (NOTE: This involves having a fan page on Facebook.)
- Recognition by prominent industry publication.
- Begin using the promotional logo and link immediately.
- Again, be sure current customers know of the honor.
- Post the award on the website
- Discuss the award in the next newsletter.
- Twitter.
- Yes, you must explore the medium as you decide if it can work for you.
- Yes, that may mean having additional email.
- You will have to connect with those who respond to your tweets.
- If you don’t want to receive the information, then someone with information about the company and its products must be in charge.
- Email campaigns.
- Follow up purchases with an email informing the customer of other products that could be of interest.
- Trade shows.
- Develop signage and samples to add to your trade show materials.
- Invite attendees to review the new product.
- Survey attendes to determine their level of interst.
- Office personnel.
- Be sure the office personnel know of the new product, its availability and specifics on its delivery.
- Invite them to promote for you.
- General seasonal updates. In the flurry of the moment it’s easy to assume no one is interested in learning more about your company progress. Right now, for example, you might imagine everyone is more concerned with vacation than with ongong buisness. That’s the trap of the publicity wheel. Stop the wheel.
Once you stop the wheel, review your options. Connect to the larger objective and continue the trip. Instead of going around and around, you may begin to make progress as you spiral up.
Moving your publicity objectives forward means doing things simultaneously. Avoid the hamster mentality by fleshing out all the potential applications for publicity when you have a new offering or when you fall into the trap of endless travel with no progress on the publicity wheel.
Customer Loyalty, Profits and Other Taboo Topics
July 6, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
In an article about marketing on Monday June 22, 2009, the Wall Street Journal referenced the dark side of loyalty. I say dark side, because not everyone likes to look closely at their devotees. Because it matters, look again at your customers. Some of the highlights from “Why a Loyal Customer Isn’t Always a Profitable One:”
A lot of companies look at customer loyalty the wrong way.
Without question, loyalty is important. Loyal customers hang on for years, devote a larger share of their wallet to the company, and recommend the company to their friends. Customer loyalty, in short, helps drive customers.
The target audience for any company should be customers who are not only loyal in both attitude and action, but also profitable. But research consistently finds that profitable customers tend to make up only around 20% of a company’s customers. Break-even customers represent around 60%, and unprofitable customers around 20%.
Creating and nurturing real customer loyalty requires satisfying customer needs and wants at a sustainable profit. Too often, customer-loyalty experts have ignored the latter in the belief that loyalty and profitability are synonymous. Unfortunately, the marketplace has shown this is not true.
Sustainable profit may rest in the eyes of the beholder. Certainly the marketplace and its competitive profile dictate what sustainable might be. Price alone may not be the determining factor.
PeopleMetrics, a customer and employee engagement company, reports the best companies make employee care and customer care a top priority. Their 2009 Engagement Survey cites the top 10 customer engagement companies and explains why the Ritz Carlton consistently beats Motel 6.
A post from Business Briefs dissses what makes these 10 companies the best. (Hint: the focus is on customer service and employees.)
This week I discuss loyalty and why a ‘satisfied’ customer may not be your best source of future business at an AIBA Think LOCAL! luncheon event. I took the opportunity to review my own client list and invite you to think about doing the same.
Consider questions like these: How do you define loyalty in your firm? Do profits play a part in the definition? Do you consider loyalty important?
Marketing Engine Check Light Now Flashing
July 1, 2009 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Check marketing engine.
Warning. Day 182.
Check marketing engine.
Warning. 183 days left.
Like any good machine, your marketing engine works better with regular care and attention. Take the time for a little tune up.
Publicity sputtering? Review upcoming events. Consider potential angles for a story about your firm.
Shortly after I wrote about Bhava Yoga’s story, the New Mexico Business Weekly interviewed Bea Doyle and published a story about the community’s support for her business. Another blog discussed her story. Bea’s choice to share her story resulted in additional publicity.
Collateral choking? Freshen those brochures. Look at your direct mail and advertising copy. Certainly the economy changed during the past six months. Does your message reflect that?
Consider reducing clutter as you trim wordy copy.
Get rid of paragraphs that no longer accurately depict your company.
Do your pictures reveal a dated version of you or your employees? Change them.
Review trade show materials.
Change your call to action. (Don’t have one? Check marketing engine.)
Company image inconsistent? Update your company image online. This can be as simple as rearranging the information (think rearranging furniture in a room) or as complete as reproducing everything. One thing’s for certain: search algorithms change on a near-daily basis. Your attention to new content can pay big dividends for your company.
Did you add social media tools to your site?
Have you updated your company profiles in all directory listings?
Check all branding for logo/graphic /font matches and update if necessary.
Messaging ancient? Listen to telephone messaging. Is it easy and conducive to good customer care?
Referral requests lagging? If referrals are a part of your firm, be certain that your staff can easily make a referral request.
Look at the past six months. What worked? What needs to change? Where do you choose to spend your time?
Check everything. The check engine light can be disengaged with one switch but typically, it signals a long list of other checks. (The tires, the brakes, the battery, the fluids, the belts and hoses, the oil and a host of other items.)
Check marketing engine can do the same thing. Take a look around and evaluate. You have 183 days left to change your results.
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