Digital media: danger zone for small business marketers

It’s a small business marketers’ dream world. Digital media gives us immediate access to customers and prospects. We can e-mail, podcast, Facebook and RSS them. Now we can Twitter and Plurk them.

But from a marketing standpoint, there’s a dark side. Just because the technology is available (and fun and cool), doesn’t mean it is right for your company. Far too many businesses are using digital media tools without thinking through the strategy behind them. Equally alarming, many businesses overlook or ignore the basics in favor of adding more digital media capabilities. Three clients we met with recently have Web sites that are woefully out of date. They have no organized way of reviewing and updating, and even worse, no one in house or outsourced who is set up to quickly and efficiently make updates.

We’re not saying you shouldn’t use new media, just that you need to use it with the same thought and carefully analysis you would use with any other marketing tools. Read the whole article.

Don't End 2007 without Some Strategic Goal Setting

Remember when 2007 was still bright and shiny and you were full of optimism about how much you would get done this year? What was on your to-do list (besides losing 5 pounds)?

If you're like many small business or nonprofit marketers, your list is largely untouched. And you may have even have items left over from 2006 that still aren't complete. Problem is there are not enough hours in the day to get it all done. It's not that you weren't busy - thousands of tasks cross your desk each and every day - but it may not have left you much time for some bigger-picture thinking. Don't let your unfinished business cause you to throw up your hands and throw out your hopes for 2008. Instead, as we rocket toward December 31, scan our enewsletter for tips to zero in on realistic goals that will have you celebrating your success at the end of the coming year.

Shortcuts to Calculating your Marketing Budget

Your CEO has asked you for the 2008 marketing budget. Yuck. Why does budgeting time seem to creep up on you each and every year? And we know you'd like to find someone to do the work for you or maybe just provide a few estimates of what you'll need for marketing (with a nice little increase over last year), get it approved and call it a day.

But that doesn't work (if it does, please let us know how or where!). Instead, you will likely be asked to justify each and every red cent you want to spend and what it will generate in terms of revenue. Even worse, you may be handed a budget figure based on some arbitrary formula that doesn't take your goals and objectives into consideration.

What to do? How do you come up with a workable budget - and get it approved? Start by reading our free enewsletter on this very subject!

Mid Year Marketing Check: Are You Making Good Grades?

If you had to grade your marketing for the first half of 2007, how would you do? "A" for effort, but short on results? "C-" for being stuck in a rut, doing the same things but not reaching the goals you set?

This mid-year point is a great time to take a hard, close look at what you're doing: what's working and what's not. It's a time to be brutally honest in your assessments and fearless in looking at new and better ways to create the marketing organization you want. Read our July e-newsletter to find the right questions to ask in order to answer whether you are right on course, or need to change your direction.

Product Differentiation Without a Difference

I think we've gone product proliferation crazy. That is companies are spitting out new and improved products without any real product enhancements or a true difference that can offer a benefit. I understand the importance of growing market share. I understand niche marketing and trying to make customers happy. But versions of every product with miniscule differences that do nothing but require more shelf space and confuse consumers? Give me a break. I just can’t get the value of 15 kinds of toothpaste and 62 choices of detergent within a brand family.

Here’s another one that should get an award for unnecessary product development. This one goes to York for its Affinity series of furnaces and air conditioners (sorry, that should be “heating and cooling solutions.”)

You can now order a York system with your favorite team logo on the side and in custom colors. I live in Baton Rouge, LA -- home of the LSU tigers. I understand team fanaticism. But, last time I checked, the ac unit is hdiding outside in the bushes. Who’s going to see it? And do you really need to cheer on your beloved __________ (fill in your favorite team name here) with your air conditioning system? My husband may say "absolutely" -- I say "no way."

I will give York credit for a nice job displaying the product on their web site. You can choose your school or color, the background color of your house, and the site will show you how your new unit would look.

But wouldn’t the money they spent figuring out how to put the University of Georgia logo on the side of the unit and market it have been better spent on real product enhancements like making their units more energy efficient or quieter or smaller?

Have another take? Please, throw it out there. I’d love to hear it.

Best Marketing Planning by Taking Your Show on the Road!

Great advice today for nonprofit organizations and small business marketers from Donor Power Blog. When you are stuck for answers, take your show on the road. We recommend this to clients and friends as the best way to put their strategic marketing planning into high gear. Planning takes your and your team's full attention. When the phone is ringing, and colleagues casually drop by your office for a chat, the hard work of planning often gets put aside for another day. So schedule time with your team out of the office. Find a well-lit venue that will allow you to use a conference room for the better part of the day. (HINT: Often companies and foundations will loan conference room space for no cost to non profits --so ask around!) Bring a white board, lots of paper, order in lunch and go to work. It's amazing how your ideas will flow!

Market Your Reputation: Your Credibility Will Go Straight to Your Bottom Line

Did you hear about the former MIT Dean of Admissions? She has worked at MIT for 28 years before being caught for lying regarding her qualifications! How ironic and how incredibly sad!

Whether you are working with donors or customers, whatever your business, be honest! Your reputation depends on it. You know that feeling when you see that great, big sign in the window of your favorite store that reads "50 % OFF SALE!" and you walk in the store and find just one rack of outdated items at that price.You feel cheated. Make sure you are not promising more that you can deliver.

Our job is to get your customer in the door or the client on the phone. That doesn't mean we should stop at nothing in order to do so. Your business will do better over the long haul if you are credible in your product or service claims. In fact, your reputation is the best advertisement you could possibly have.

We just came back from the WOMMA conference. Stay tuned for the May eNewsletter! We'll share tips in re: word-of-mouth marketing that will keep your customers buzzing.

In Marketing and Life, Think Strategy Before You Jump!

Several weeks ago we posed the question, when is it OK for small business marketers or nonprofit organization NOT to blog? I was delighted to see Elizabeth Holmes' article in today's Enterprise section of the Wall Street Journal tackling this issue too.

Remember when your mother asked you "would you jump off the Brooklyn Bridge if all the other kids were doing it?" Well no. And you shouldn't jump into blogging or on line marketing just because everyone else is doing it either. Bottom line, it's only appropriate to blog, or have a website, or advertise or engage in any one particular kind of communication strategy when it fits your STRATEGY!

We see so many entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations working hard on all fronts, including their marketing. But often what gets overlooked is strategic marketing planning. Taking the time to think about what communications strategies will best connect YOUR products and services with YOUR target audiences will undoubtedly give you better results than investing precious dollars on promotional strategies that don't make any sense.

So, do you need a website? Maybe. Do you need a blog? Maybe. Do you need to advertise? Maybe. Do you need a strategic marketing plan? YES -- ALWAYS!

If you need help with your strategic marketing planning, log on to our website for lots of free tools or contact us!

Word of Mouth at WOMMA, Featured Blog and More

Technology, new media, social marketing - we're all abuzz with all the latest. And that goes for both nonprofit marketers and small businesses. I'm not budging off our foundation and steadfast belief in solid strategic planning, critical thinking and implementing tools based on strategy - as discussed in our missive earlier this week. But it is wonderful to have so many new tools and channels to work with.

Spending some time at the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) conference in New Orleans this week, I was wowed with the creative ways people are using social networking, technology - and some old-fashioned strategies to boot - to generate great buzz. And if you are feeling a little behind, not to worry. Some of the national players at this conference didn't have it figured out either! In the next couple of weeks, I'll be passing along some of what I learned and some examples of success stories. (You won't believe the success some people have had in generating business through with very little in the way of traditional advertising support!)

And speaking of buzz, we were honored this week to be a featured blog on TypePad, where we were cited as a "castle of contemporary marketing wisdom with room after room of tools and resources for your perusal." You can still check out the profile. 

Happy marketing - social, traditional, e-based and otherwise!

Crisis Communication – You Better Be Ready Before it Happens

Like everyone watching the images and information play out in Virginia over the last couple of days, we are saddened by the sudden loss of so many lives. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Virginia Tech community.

It also gives us at FixYourMarketing.com an opportunity to remind all of you nonprofit marketers and small business marketers of the critical need for crisis planning – BEFORE there is a crisis.

Virginia Tech clearly had a plan in place. They had spokespeople, e-mails, press conferences, news releases, and their website allowing them to distribute critical information to families, students and the community. But it’s also clear that they hadn’t thought through all the variables.

Crisis communication takes time and out of the box thinking. To get you started, here are our top tips:

1. Have a plan in place and practiced before you need it!

2. Take care of people – Do everything you need to do to take care of the people in the situation. (That means everything from medical care in the case of an accident to taking care of people stuck in a plane on a runway for hours.) This may seem basic, but think about how many times companies have overlooked this basic fact in the midst of a crisis – most notable from recent times, the JetBlue debacle.

3. Consider communication logistics – Have plans and back up plans to contact staff members, employees, customers/clients and vendors. And, don’t forget about the lessons of Hurricane Katrina when the phone grid went down! Use new technology to your benefit (i.e. web pages, text messaging, myspace.com, etc.)

4. Who will talk? – Who answers the phone? Who is outside the building – where they might be in contact with reporters or bystanders? Decide who will talk, when, from what place. Then make sure all your employees know it.

5. Get the facts right -- During a crisis it’s more important than ever to get out facts clearly, as parents, family members and the media are reporting on the fly and need accurate information they can quickly get to readers and listeners.

6. What to say – Regardless of what the crisis is you need to communicate concern and communicate a dogged determination to discover the cause of the situation.

7. Say as much as you can – but be candid and be careful. Share the latest information you have, but don’t give out information that isn’t confirmed.

8. Talk only when you are ready -- Take care of your people first and then get your facts. If you have haven't done these two things, let the media know when you will have a statement or more information.

9. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” – There is nothing wrong with not having information. Never say "no comment." Instead use, "I'll find out, it’s not available yet, we have to clarify facts."

This is such an important subject and there is so much to say that we will feature crisis communication in an upcoming eNewsletter. So stay tuned!