I have joined this small business study group.  As you know, David and I are always reading or listening to some kind of management or self improvement book.  This seems like a great way to get more information faster.  And, we all need new ideas in this economy!

You need to make every dollar count in this economy.  When things turn bad, many businesses cut back on the “extras” and that includes their marketing.  I suggest that this is not the time to stop marketing, its the time to start marketing smarter.

First, get your website up to date and in good marketing order!   Most people pay less than $100 per months for their website, most of our clients pay less than $25!  Maybe the low price lessens the value so businesses put up a website and then ignore it.  There is NO BETTER, MORE COST EFFECTIVE marketing tool!! 

1. Look at your website design.  At first glance, does it look like your business?  Is it easily recognized as a part of your bsuiness?  If not, fix it.  You have 7 seconds to catch a visitor’s interest before they surf away.  Be sure they know that they are at the right place.
2. Is the content up to date?  Be sure there are no leftover sales or announcements that are out of date.  Fresh content helps attract search engines and visitors.
3. Do you have new features that attract attention – a blog, a video clip from YouTube, an audio clip informing visitors of your business, a picture of yourself, your store or office?   Something that makes a connection.
4. Has your site been optimized for search engines?  If it hasn’t been done in the last 6-12 months, the answer is “no” by today’s search engine strategies.
5. Do you have a “Call to Action” on at least the home page?  Do you offer a free report, free quote, newsletter or any other offer to entice your visitor to give up one of their most valuable possessions; their email address? 

These are quick ways to see if your website is working hard for you. 

Consider this: Take 10 minutes tomorrow morning and give your website the “once over.”  If you need help in getting your site in “Guerrilla” shape, give us a call.

It’s been almost 3 weeks since I last blogged.  I spent most of that time getting ready for our Open House and the last week recovering from it.  We are so happy to report that it was a huge success!  About 85 people stopped by, many staying and chatting for several hours!  To me, that’s a real success – when they don’t just “put in an appearance” but stay and enjoy themselves! 

When putting on any kind of event, planning for the number that might attend is the most nerve racking – would we have enough food, or too much; would we have enough beer (is there ever too much beer?) would we have enough door prizes or would the staff be getting early Christmas presents?  All these things ran through our minds on Monday and Tuesday when only a handful of people had responded to our mailed postcard.

Then, David sent out an audio postcard, our first try with this marketing tool and the RSVPs flew in!  Even those people who had responded before felt compelled to respond!  What a great marketing tool!  We plan to use it again and to offer it to our clients.  We can easily record messages here in out video studio and then send them out to our client’s mailing list.

Our next experiment will be with a video postcard.  David will be our first client in the new Video Studio and we’ll let you know how it works out!

Consider this:Do something unexpected in your marketing and see if you get unexpected results.  We did and we were happily surprised!

I’m getting into blogging!  It’s becoming easier and I think about articles for my blog all the time.

What’s made it easier is that I think of the blog as an email being written rather than a formal article to be published.  When I recommend to my clients that they blog, I suggest that they make it casual and friendly rather than strictly business.  The popularity of blogging, in part, comes from their ability to interact with the business by giving it more approachability.

I recently watch a seminar on Hubspot about Blogging For Business.  To access this webinar yourself, you simply have to log into to http://www.hubspot.com/internet-marketing-webinars-download and you’re able to download the entire hour long presentation.  These folks even have a blog monitoring program in their tools that they offer.  We’re clients of Hubspot ourselves to monitor our search engine standings, etc.

I’ll let you know how we are doing as we see the reports come through and what changes we are making for improvement.

Consider this: Let me suggest that you start blogging.  It’s great for the search engines and it gives you a “friendlier” line of open communication with your customers.  If you don’t have a blog set up, give us a call and we’ll set one up and get you started for only $100.

As I mentioned in my last posting, I printed out Scott Ginsberg’s list of “38 Ways to Make Your Customers GASP!” from his HelloMyNameIsScott.com website and David and went over each suggestion as we ran errands and had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory at the Plaza. 

Out of 38 on the list, we found that 10 were suggestions that we could adapt to our business.  Some of the 38 were not geared to us at all but we knew clients that might be interested so we’ve passed this list along to them, too.

One suggestion will really make clients that visit our offices GASP  and we are really excited to implement it.  That is all I’m going to say …. I’ll tell you all about it when it’s completed.

We go out to eat on a regular basis; every Sunday morning for breakfast and at least one a week for dinner.  We always notice the service that we get.  We have even followed our favorite breakfast waitress to her evening job restaurant.  Not as stalkers, as we first feared she might think, but as appreciative customers who she has made feel special with her warm and friendly way.

The waitress at the Cheesecake Factory was excellent, too.  She commented on our choices, offered suggestions and paid attention to our requests and service.  It seemed to matter to her that we were happy.

This was not so with a meal we had recently at a new, local restaurant.  The waiter was lifeless and not welcoming at all.  He never asked if we had been there before, never offered any suggestions or explainations and was lifeless in any conversation.  Needless to say, we didn’t GASP!  The food at this new restaurant was excellent and the atmosphere interesting and fun.  It was too bad that we got stuck with a dud of a  waiter.  Too bad for him, too, because we always reward outstanding service.

Consider This:  Next time you go to a restaurant, pay attention to your server.  Did they make you feel well cared for?  Customer service can make or break a business.  We are assessing ours all the time.  We do pretty good; we are always trying to do better.

Let me know about your service issues, at a restaurant and especially with us! We’re looking for ways to make you GASP!

We moved into a new, larger office a few weeks ago.  David had been wanting to improve our office situation and when this opportunity came up, we jumped at it.  Actually, David jumped. 

I “hopped” a little, both forward and backwards. 
“There goes our summer!”
“It will be great – I’ll have a much bigger office to meet with clients!”
“We have to do so much work to get it ready!”
“It will be a great, new space for our whole team!”
“Everyone has their own window!”

So, my forward “hops” were greater than the backward “hops” and we are now in our beautiful, spacious new offices.  We still have more finishing touches to do and a new service to get started – a video studio for our web clients.  It’s a big goal and we are excited about it.

David and I listen to CDs, or read about marketing our business constantly.  It’s something that we learned from our “mentor” Dr. Barry Brodil.  I’ll write more about this man who has made such a big difference in my life in a later blog.  

A recent interview that we heard with Scott Ginsberg brought me to his website and his seemingly endless lists.  Scott’s story is that he went to a seminar when he was in college and  decided not to take off his “Hello My Name Is Scott” nametag.  He has worn a “Hello My Name Is Scott” nametage every day ever since.  As of taday, that’s 2865 days and it has changed his life, given him a terrific, exciting business (No, not selling nametags – he’s an author, blogger and motivational speaker.)

Check out his website http://www.hellomynameisscott.com and sign in to read his articles.  It’s the most simple log in ever – just your email address – no password, no questionaire, no invasive anything!  Here are some of the title:
65 Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me When I First Started My Company
99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One
123 Questions Every Marketer Must Ask
20 Ways to Make Customers Feel Comfortable
52 Random Insights to Grow Your Business

As I said, the list is endless!  I’ve printed a few of these and read through them together for ideas.  We’ve got a new office and one of our new goasl is to market ourselves in new and better ways.

Consider this:  Go to Scott’s website and pick one list.  Read through it and follow through on one action.  I picked 38 Ways to Make Your Customers Gasp!  I’ll let you know which idea I take to action. 

Welcome everyone!

For almost 2 years we have been advising our web design clients that they need to blog to help them in the search engines and to give their customers and clients a reason to stop back to their website often.  Updated content keeps the customer thinking about you and possibly referring their family and friends to you and we all know that personal referrals make the very best customers – they already know about you, they are already at least half sold on your products and or services and you can spend all your energy on making them happy.

I am now taking my own good advice.  I spend a lot of time learning and studying marketing for small businesses and I’d like to pass along what I find to anyone who visits my blog.  It may be a website, book, magazine article, DVD or course that I’ve found that I think will interest and hopefully help you.

And, I’m always interested in what other people have found that works or doesn’t work and why so please feel free to write in and pass along your good advice.

I look forward to using this blog to help my clients and friends, to chatting with you and to learning from you too!

Talk to you soon,

~P