Social media marketing – building a relationship requires time.

Are you using social media for your small business to improve your SEO performance?  If you aren’t, well then you are behind the curve according to recent findings published by SEO.com.  75% of small businesses claim to be using social media to improve their SEO results.  (Though only 27% have an SEO plan to guide their efforts.)  And 56% of the small businesses found that social media takes more time than they expected.    http://www.seo.com/blog/small-business-marketing-infographic/  (see the entire graphic below)

Social media at its foundation is about building relationships with your customers and prospects.  It is about talking to and listening to your customers.  Years ago, I worked in my family hardware store.  My mom used to bake homemade carmel rolls and serve with coffee to the local farmers who would run in to pick something up.  The baked goods, while a nice treat for the customers, gave my mom the opportunity to chat with her customers, and build a relationship with them.  I look at social media today as offering that same opportunity to chat with your customers.  Though as the survey identified, it does take time.  That time though can definitely yield rewards as also noted by the study where 63% of small businesses found that social media creates more loyal customers.

It’s time to get Mobile

We’ve been hearing for years that Mobile is going to be huge.  We’re at a point in mobile use that it is becoming easier to understand how mobile will continue to impact our lives and our businesses. 

According to Gartner research group and published in DestinationCRM.com, by 2015, tablet computers will outsell PCs by 60 percent.  ( http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/5-Hot-Marketing-Trends-79354.aspx )  If you have a tablet, it is much easier to see how the tablet market is poised to dominate.  Additionally, the majority of consumers now carry smartphones.  The level of engagement now enabled from a mobile device is where the opportunity begins for your small business. 

According to a study by Google and OTX research, the most popular mobile shopping activity is locating the nearest retailer.  When consumers find local information, 88 percent take action within a day; of this number, 61 percent call a retailer and 59 percent visit a store.   ( http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Editorial/Magazine-Features/5-Hot-Marketing-Trends-79354.aspx ) 

Now is the time to create your mobile plan.  Here are some easy tips to get you started.

1 – Get Listed.  Make sure you have set up directory listings for your business.  Also, take time to check your listings periodically to make sure they are accurate and complete. 

2- Make your website Mobile friendly.  When your prospect links to your website, make sure the site is mobile ready.  The content displayed needs to be easy to find, easy to read and easy to use. 

3- Make your mobile website, social.  Include social links on your site so your customers can easily tweet, link or checkin and share that experience with their network.

4- Consider location-based campaigns.  Foursquare campaigns can encourage check-ins to receive special offers.  Even if you don’t go as far as a check in special, make sure your business is set up on Foursquare so your customers can let their followers know that they are enjoying your service. 

With the increase in tablet use, it is time to make sure the experience your customers have on their mobile interaction with you is worth sharing.

How connected are your customers? Make Customer Experience Management a top priority.

Consumers are more than ever before truly multi-channel.  It used to be that we talked about multi-channel marketing as a way to push messages to your customers via different marketing channels, ie direct mail, email, social, etc.   But today the concept of multi-channel is taking on a new consumer-centric meaning.  Your customers are pulling information and consuming it via many different channels of their choice.  Texting has replaced calling.  Facebook has replaced sending an email to a friend.  eBooks are used instead of printed options. 

Consumers are also producing content that is important to your business and pushing that content out to their network.  When I “like” a brand on Facebook, my friends get to check it out too.  When I tweet about an interesting article, my followers can also benefit from the content I’ve previewed for them.  This consumer originated content can be a huge positive value to your business when you get positive messages being distributed for you.  It can also be a challenge when the customer experience is not so positive.  Consider how the old statistic that an upset customer would tell 10 people has changed in a multi-channel world.  I did some quick math on my network and when I post a negative review on an experience I’ve had, over 1,200 directly connected followers will get the message.  Take that a next step further to my extended network and now tens of thousands of people could get the message. 

In a multi-channel, consumer-directed social world, paying attention to the overall customer experience is critical.  Customer Experience Management should be a top priority this year for all small businesses.

Content Marketing – know your customers first

Getting started with Content Marketing can be intimidating.  How do you know what to write? What is the right tone?  How do I know if people are interested?

Here are some tips to help make getting started a bit easier. 

1.  Create customer segments.  Segmenting your customer base will help you to better understand who they are, what they are interested in and what motivates them to buy.  You should definitely have more than one segment.  I’d recommend no more than 6 as it becomes hard to manage.  3 segments is a good place to start.  Determine how you want to segment your customers.  You can segment them by profitability, loyalty, influencers, frequent buyers, etc.  The more you know the easier it will be to create segments.  You should be able to describe each segment in detail.  Create a profile that helps you visualize who they are so you can write your content to them.

2. Find real differences in your segments.  Many of us still recognize the advertising slogan from Miller Lite – “Tastes Great – Less Filling.”  It is a good example of distinct segments.  While both groups drink beer, the motivation is different and therefore the messaging that would appeal to them would also be different.  The more you dig into your customer segments, the more you will find differences that you can use to drive your content marketing program.

3.  Listen, Listen, Listen.  You need to listen to your customers from each segment to understand what motivates them.  You can also listen to your market via social media.  Follow your customers, follow your competitors and follow your industry influencers.  You’ll begin to see what conversation is trending in the social media that you can use to drive your own content.  Finally, use surveys on your website and customer service surveys to keep track of the pulse of your customers over time.

4. Let your content have personality.  Marketing used to be all about selling products with stiff, corporate marketing copy.  Now your customers are looking at their friends photos, reading your content and updating their status all at the same time.  Corporate and brand content will seem out of place.  Visualize your customers and write to them as people.  It makes it much easier to write to them and engage with them through your content. 

Most importantly, get started.  Write down topics for each of your customer segments.  Then put the topics on the calendar so you have a plan to develop and build your content throughout the year.  Once you have the content that engages your audience, you can then use it to build marketing programs.

Small Business Saturday – kickoff the holiday shopping season right

Small Business Saturday is this weekend.  Now is the time to put the finishing touches on your campaign for the weekend.  Send out a reminder to your loyal customers in your email newsletter list and remind them to come by and shop local this weekend. 

Now is also the time to plan for your follow-up holiday campaign.  Make sure to capture email addresses from new customers in your store this weekend so you can send them special offers throughout the holiday season.  If you have a blog or are active on social media, get ready for your post-event posts.  Thank your customers for their business this weekend, announce winners of any giveaways, and invite your followers to stop by during the holidays for more special events and offers.

What I like most about Small Business Saturday is that it creates awareness and momentum for shopping small.  And, even more so, it reminds us as small business marketers to build our campaigns and enthusiasm now so we make the most of the holiday shopping season.

Segmentation – an offline marketing concept emerging naturally in an online marketing world

Segmentation has long been used in offline direct marketing to better understand your customers and market to them more relevantly.   The concept of segmentation in its simplest form is understanding who your customers are and then creating clusters or cohorts based upon similar characteristics. This concept is naturally evolving as we move into more social interaction and engagement with our customers online.  The social networks have given us a new channel where our customers naturally cluster. Whether they are called Circles, Friends, Followers or Likes they are the emergence of Clusters, Cohorts and Segments   –  or put more simply, groups of people with something in common. 

What is missing from the Circles or Segments is the understanding of who those customers are based upon their needs, interests, attitudes, demographics and behaviors.  This customer understanding is still critical to your success.  The more you understand who your customers are and what they are interested in, the easier it will be to engage in conversations and meaningful interactions within social media.    Creating personas of your best customers will help you to better understand who they are and engage with them online and offline.  Social media isn’t about pushing your message out but engaging customers.  The more you know, the easier it will be for you to create content and start up the conversation with your customers.

Content – it is really about having a conversation

The term content seems to be used a lot to describe what in the past was a conversation with your customers.  With the growth of social channels and changes in how we talk to our customers, the term deserves more attention along with a little clarification.

In the past, I really didn’t think much about the ‘content’ of conversations I had with customers.  They were easy, fluid, human interactions.  The messaging, positioning, polishing and editing was left to the creative teams who put together the brochures and campaigns that led to those conversations.  I did though spend time creating the story for formal presentations and speaking events.  In those venues I always approached the presentation as telling a story that would then lead to great conversations. 

So when I started my blog I questioned whether I could actually create content.  I’m not a writer or an editor.  The more I’ve engaged in social media with customers, colleagues and friends, I realize that content isn’t about the packaging of the message.  It is about creating a conversation that is engaging and has value.  

As a small business, don’t get hung up as I did on the term “content.”  Creating content for your social media and blogs is really about starting the conversation with your customers.  Answer their questions, engage them in the conversation with you.  Content is what you know best and why your customers turn to you when they have questions or needs.  So as you engage in your social marketing, create a conversation and what you’ll have is some great content to share.

If optimism is so important, why do we dwell so much on the negative?

Runing a small business takes determination, confidence, persistence, and motivation.  I wonder though how our positive outlook and optimism impact our success?  And how does our optimism impact the world around us?

The NFIB trends and publishes a report on small business optimism.  The most recent report shows a dip for the third consecutive month.  http://www.nfib.com/research-foundation/surveys/small-business-economic-trends  We know that small businesses employ the vast majority of workers, so optimism and the ability of the small business to expand and grow impacts our economy.  Therefore we watch the optimism indexes closely for clues on what the future may hold.  As a consumer, I consider what I’m going to buy based upon how confident I am in my future, my job, etc.  And whether I spend as a consumer impacts how well small businesses are doing and growing.   And so the circle goes on.

But beyond the optimism index, do the messages that we hear everyday both positive and negative impact our reality more than we realize?  Have you ever had one of those days where you’re feeling great and then someone says to you, “wow, you don’t look good” and all of a sudden you are feeling quite as great?  I know I get out of bed with a positive outlook for the day and then turn on the news while I’m getting ready and by the time I hit the door, I’m not quite as chipper.   So if optimism is so important to our future, why do we dwell so much on the negative?   Let’s talk about the businesses that are growing, or those that have been able to sustain throughout the economic turmoil.  Let’s highlight the businesses that are making a positive impact on our world everyday.  

I’m not suggesting we walk around with rose colored glasses – maybe just pink colored glasses  at least for today.

Will you be shopping local this holiday weekend?

I love the 4th of July, but I also find myself feeling a little melancholy this weekend.  As you know from my previous posts, I was raised in a small business family.  The 4th of July was a big event weekend in my hometown.  Every year, we would make a float to include in the town parade.  After weeks of stuffing napkins into chicken wire, the entire family would end up riding on the float dressed up according to the parade theme.  I have to admit I’m still trying to block the memories of the year we road down mainstreet dressed up as flowers as I sported a cardboard cutout daisy around my face.   But supporting the local celebration was important to my mom as a member of the small business community.  And every year we were right back out there on the parade route again with mom.

This weekend, I’ll be headed with my family to downtown Huntington Beach to see the parade and support our local businesses.   I hope you all join me in shopping local this holiday weekend!

Don’t lose focus

One of the hardest things for a small business is to maintain focus.  Your business plan helped you create a focus for your business.  But over-time it is easy to get pulled in multiple directions.  As an entrepreneur, you’ve been able to prove you can take on almost anything.  And the desire to increase revenue may entice you to take on projects that are not within your business plan.  But avoid being tempted as the loss of focus often spreads your business too thin and actually hurts your overall growth.