Take Ten is a new service rolling out today. As I meet with small business owners the same challenge keeps coming up - “there are so many marketing choices out there, where do I start and what works best.” To help answer this challenge I created Take Ten. It is a marketing and business building tool to give you marketing ideas that are easy to understand and easy to implement.
Breaking down ideas and tasks in to a small manageable list makes it easy to execute. That is the theory behind Take Ten - take just 10 things - to learn, to try, to experiment or execute. Take Ten a week and work through the ones that fit your needs.
The Take Ten plans are filled with marketing tips, business building ideas, steps on how to try new marketing tools, ideas and inspirations.
I look forward to sharing these with you. Maggie
I went out for breakfast last weekend in La Jolla and was excited to see the restaurant’s new promotion for their Facebook Fan Page. Being passionate about Social Media and always looking for creative ways restaurants are using the different tools I couldn’t wait to join in and follow their progress.
They are having a server showdown.
“Our servers at Brockton Villa are in a showdown to see who can get the most mentions on our Facebook page. Their competition means you win too!
Mention your server by name on our Facebook page, and you’ll get to pick something out of our Brockton Villa Grab Bag. Plus, you’ll be entered into a random drawing for 2 front row tickets to Brockton Villa’s July 4th dinner service! (Only 1 mention per customer, and customer must be a fan of Brockton Villa on Facebook.”) For more details visit their Facebook page
What a great way to engage your employees and your customers and have fun doing it.
If you are a local business with a website you can increase traffic to your store and website by submitting your business listing to:
1. Google Local Business Center - (google.com/local/add)
2. Yahoo Local (http://local.yahoo.com)
3. Microsoft Bing (http://www.bing.com/maps/)
Important tips for the best results:
When you submit your business listing make sure you include the full URL for your website, your correct address and a local phone number. Make sure the location of your business on the map is correct.
Putting your marketing in silos can limit your success and returns. It is an easy trap to fall in to by thinking- this is my direct mail campaign, this is my social networking program and this is my online ad program. When combining all of the programs into one focus and integrated campaign you can leverage your impact.
Studies are showing increased success with using an integrated model. A recent study released by Nielsen shows the increased return when combining a Facebook Ad with “earned media”
“ Facebook’s Ads Work Pretty Well…”
One major takeaway from the research is that paid and earned media work together in ways that could have implications well beyond Facebook, said Jon Gibbs, VP-media analytics at Nielsen. “The market has been talking very much about how to buy paid media and earn earned media, but there’s been very little attention to the types of hybrid impressions and hybrid experience that blends these two,” Mr. Gibbs said. Read full article here: http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=14338…
I came across a good article on the www.internetretailer.com site sharing their latest findings on shopping trends. “Shoppers seeking product information go online more than they head to any other single resource such as stores and catalogs, says a new survey. About 70% of respondents reported using at least two of those information sources before deciding on a purchase, and 43% said they have called companies for further product information after failing to find complete information on the company’s site.”
The take-away from this study shows the importance of having your web site up-to-date with all the information needed to purchase your product. This includes good product images or photos, clear descriptions of your products and services. Shoppers rely on what other people say so including testimonials from prior customers helps to start building trust with your potential customer.
A quick check for how your web site stands up to meeting potential shopper’s needs is to ask 10 people to go on your web site and answer these questions.
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What do you do?
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What is your main service or product?
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What is your phone number and address?
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Look for details on your product or service?
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Start one action - if an e-commerce site have them try to purchase an item (up to the shopping cart check out step)
After they complete the five steps ask for their input. Was it easy and quick to get their answers? What were their frustrations?
Women
As you build your 2010 Marketing Plan remember to include networking. Networking is still a key strategy to start conversations with other professionals, industry experts and potential customers.
- Research local networking events based on 3 focus areas: professionals in your business, industry experts and potential customers
- Set up a networking calendar for the next 3 months
- Create a networking follow-up plan
1. After you have identified your 3 focus areas research sources for current events and association event listings. Your local Chamber of Commerce is a good place to start. Also look online for industry groups and forums.
2. When you start to set up your networking calendar decide on a goal for each networking event. Do you want to: meet potential customers, talk with other industry professionals to learn new industry updates or do you want to be seen as an industry leader. Going to a networking event with a predefined goal will help you make the most of your time spent. It will also help you prepare for the event. If you want to be seen as an industry leader you could research a new article on your industry to share at the event when you are talking with others. As you exchange business cards write down the event name, date and a quick note about the person who gave you their card. This will help you with following up in a more personalized manner.
3. Creating a follow-up plan will help you maximize your efforts. Before you attend the event if you already have a follow-up letter outlined you can easily send a thank-you, or enjoyed meeting you follow-up note, card or e-mail the next morning.
At the Orange County Cool Twitter Conference on November 5th they will be doing a Twitter crowdsourcing project to help a non-profit find solutions to their four major challenges. The non-profit is HomeBase Kids After School Program out of Anchorage, Alaska.
The selected project is The HomeBase Kids film project, a documentary film HomeBase is producing to document the stories from their journey to Ghana Africa. The unique learning experience, the cultural exchanges and the friendships they made are a powerful story they want to share.
Follow along as our Twitter community helps find solutions to their challenges so they can keep this project moving along and the film produced. You will be able to follow along using the Twitter #homebasekids or you can visit the CTC website
An interesting case study to follow is the Huddle House restaurant chain. Over the last six months they have been aggressively moving in to the online space. With a target market more comfortable in the digital communication arena they realized they needed to bring their message to the preferred communication tools.
Focus: Target market – Gen Xers, Gen Y & and Tech-savvy baby boomers
Listen: The identified preferred method of communication is Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook
Share: Huddled created a presence on the social network sites and started building relationships through conversations, videos and contests. Examples – I Love Huddle House Video contest
Grow: The results are coming in… They have 1,762 fans on Facebook and 2,259 followers on Twitter.
What happens when companies participate and listen to the various social media networks? They gain customers and more importantly they gain loyalty and word of mouth marketing. A good example was posted on Zig Ziglar’s Blog. He talked about his experience at the Chicago O’Hare airport and his difficulty with www.Boingo.com to find the local hotspot . After some frustration in not being able to connect he tweeted his frustrations. Within 10 minutes he received a direct message,DM, on Twitter from Boingo asking him to call the number and they would hook him up.
Their timely response has definetly created a strong relationship between Boingo and this customer. Personal focus and quick action is valued by today’s consumer. When you value your customer this much it shows - quickly addressing their concerns will produce a story that will be stronger than any “canned” marketing message. For the full story
An important step to duplicate this type of customer service is to keep a close ear to the conversations taking place on social networks regarding your company. There are many tools available to follow conversations - You can set up Google Alerts for your company, you can search your company name or products on search.twitter.com, you can do a search on blogs using Google’s blog search.
Best Buy is currently running a television commercial with their @twelpforce Twitter account URL showing at the bottom of the ad. This is an example of bringing together different marketing channels and increasing the potential reach of each message. By showing the @twelpforce on the ad they provided users with a place to go for more information. The advantage of having the ad direct traffic to Twitter is the live conversations and two-way communication opportunities. Best Buy now can talk with their customers and learn from them, answer their questions and share new promotions.
Best Buy started @twelpforce in June and already has over 7,400 followers.
