Smartypants boss from the classic Office Space

I thought this was funny, we’ve all worked for someone like this!

When I take a long time… I am slow.
When my boss takes a long time… he is thorough.

When I don’t do it… I am lazy.
When my boss doesn’t do it… he is too busy.

When I do something without being told… I am over-stepping my boundaries.
When my boss does the same thing… that is initiative.

When I take a stand… I am stubborn.
When my boss does it… he is being firm.

When I overlook a rule of etiquette… I am rude.
When my boss slips a few rules… he is being original.

When I please my boss… I am apple polishing.
When my boss pleases his boss… he is co-operating.

When I get ahead… I am lucky.
When my boss gets ahead… that’s hard work.

Griffin spends hours watching Chuggaaconroy and NintendoCapriSun narrate their console game exploits relatd to Pikmin, Zelda and Super Mario. There’s actually a name for it. It’s called “Let’s Play.” G probably does it as much as he plays the actual console games.

Half the time, we make him watch them without sound. Especially Chuggaaconroy, because he can drop some language. Never an f-bomb, but G is still G, not PG-13, you know?

Still, I’m jealous of these nerds. As much as we small business owners wish for social media presences, we got nothing on these Let’s Play dudes.

Chuggaconroy has 382,766 YouTube subscribers and over 61million channel views! He also has 37,342 Twitter followers and 80,582 Facebok likes with 2,534 people talking about his Facebook page.

NintendoCapriSun has 167,228 YouTube subscribers and 99, 487,462 channel views. Nearly 100milion! On Twitter he has 10, 573 followers. His Facebook numbers are quite modest however, only 604 likes.

What is the lesson to be learned here? I think it’s personality.

These twenty-something guys make a living by layering entertainment on top of entertainment kind of like MSTK3000 (that’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 to the unhip). The inject their personality into what’s ostensibly tips, techniques and cheats. The videos highlight their gameplay skill, the voiceovers provide a steady stream of tips, commentary, complete with screams of agony and ecstacy depending upon how things are going.

For the average small business owner this translates into the important “Never Be Boring Lesson.” It’s easy to separate yourself from your competitors when you take aggressive steps brand yourself as Mr. Insurance or Mrs. Nails in your marketplace.

You do this by demonstrating excellent technical chops and mixing in with a healthy dose of personality and fun. Technical skill is the ante. You have to have this first and then build from it. Marketing-wise, this means you adopt media like PR and public speaking, and also visual media like web videos (you DO have your own YouTube Channel, right?) so people can see your eyes and see you entertain and inform. If you do direct mail, you create fun, outrageous offers. If you do a newsletter, you have fun with it. One of the top newsletters for Dentists is actually an activity book for the toilet. That’s right, it’s sold to dentist’s by a third party and it licenses top content from national newspaper and magazine columnists and includes crosswords and sudokus and has nothing to do with dentistry! And it’s terrifically successful.

The thing with newsletters is that people seem compelled to fill them with boring industry info. Let’s keep that in trade rags and account statements, shall we? The real reason to send a newsletter is three-fold. First to keep in touch. Second to build a relationship (you do that with personality and fun and by sharing). Last, to make a sales offer. Nothing industry- or product-related required!

What steps could you take to brand your business with your personality to competitve advantage? If you’re struggling for ideas, give me a jingle!

If there is a foundational concept behind the SmallBizWithKids blog, “only three ways to grow your business” would be it.

But I will add two more for the sake of being different. Here they are:
1) Get more new customers (most companies focus too much on this)

2) Sell more to existing customers (most companies don’t do enough of this)

3) Increase the average transaction size\unit of sale (achieved variously through premium pricing, product and price ascension, slack adjusters) and
4) Cut costs (freeing up working capital to invest in 1, 2 and 3)
5) Firing bad customers/prospects (freeing up time and energy to focus on 1, 2 and 3)

OK, so cost cutting and firing bad customers are operations functions and not sales and marketing, but their net effect is still revenue growth.

The secret is to do these tasks so they have a multiplier effect on your business. Ramping up new customer acquisition and implement drip campaigns to sell more to your existing customers is an example of how this is done.

Usability is especially important for seniors

Just today I was responding to an email from a gentleman interested in meeting with me. In preparation for my response I visited his company web site. They deal with the senior market.

I was impressed they had a video tutorial describing their program and process step by step. The narrator’s voice sounds more mature to me, and I liked the attention to detail there.

Thing is, they are using white captions. While the use of captions shows attention to usability details, but the use of white captions is hard to read. Check out the screen capture below.

Note the use of white captions and how hard they are to read

Now I’m only 44, and have 20/20 vision and I find the captions hard to red. I’m positive more elderly viewers will have trouble reading the captions. Note how the captions are especially hard to read when they are super-imposed on other images or where the background fades towards white.

Usability Poorly executed is as bad as no usability at all!

I’d recommended to the gentleman that he request that his company HQ redo the peice using black captions. I am sensitive to this because I just read a great book by Steve Cone called Steal These Ideas! Marketing Secrets That Will Make You A Star.  Here is a quote from page 43: “Small type is the enemy. Sans serif type is the enemy. Reverse type is the enemy.”  White captions is reverse type. I found the book funny, informative and overall one of the better marketing books I’ve read in a while.

Below are some tips on usability for seniors.

I developed this list for a presentation I gave to a group in the senior industry.

The number one usability tip for seniors: When talking to seniors, online text must be readable.

Progression in age brings changes in our vision making it more difficult to see and read from a computer screen. The first step is to make your text as legible as possible for seniors. Here’s how:

• Use either 12- or 14-point type size, and provide a text enlarger on every page of the site where it can easily be found.
• The background and text color must be in contrast with each other. Ideally, a dark text should be used against a light background. Avoid using yellow, green and blue in close proximity. Better yet, go for colors that are viewable on a black and white monitor.
• Don’t ever use white type over a black background. This is difficult for web users of ALL ages to read.
• Use a sans serif typeface such as Arial, Univers, Helvetica and News Gothic for your on-page text – unless it is part of a graphic element and is used for aesthetic value
• Avoid using all caps.
• If you want to use italics, use it only in headlines.
• Reserve the underlines only to indicate active links.

An example of a senior-oriented site with good usability

I found a site featuring great senior-oriented usability, Adelaide Place. They really deserve some praise. Below is a screen shot.

Senior-focused site with great usability

Note how the site uses large type, lots of white space. Large icons and a enlarger for the accomodations photos.

Note too, how prominently the phone number is displayed. This usability detail recognizes that for some demographics, it’s not all about texting and twitter. Yes, some generations still prefer the phone and in person!

Take a look at your site. Do you cater to a usability-sensitive consumer? If so, where could you make some improvements? I’ve given you a list to start with.

What other usability tips to know of? Please share!

Go ahead and see how you stack up.

1. 1. Do you process Expertise or Insider knowledge about your Industry that you charge for?2. Do you perform a Service for your Clients that is Time-Consuming and therefore limits your ability to “Scale” your Business?

   3. Do you follow a step-by-step process to get results for your Clients?

   4. Do you have (or could you develop) checklists, calculators, shortcuts, quick start guides or a list of common mistakes Clients make or a list of lies that are told in your Industry?

   5. Do you have stories (proof) of how you’ve helped Clients save lots of time and lots of money?

   6. Do you like to write? You don’t have to Love to write to be a Successful Information Marketer, but you can’t hate it either.

If you answered yes to at least 3 of those questions, there is a very good chance you could be sitting on a 6-Figure Information Marketing Business. All you need now is instructions for how to mix those ingredients into a Successful Info Business…

If you are interested in building an information marketing program to your business, let me know! I can help.

They are too damn cheap!

That’s right. In most cases, across every industry, businesses try to  acquire valuable new customers without giving the customer a compelling reason to provide contact information.  At it’s most basic, think about the hundreds of websites you’ve visited where  they ask you to sign up for their Enewsletter but do not give you a real reason or something of value to sign up.  How often do you sign up? Or if you do, pay the Enewsletter any attention? I thought so.

Sadly, these business owners are wasting time, energy and money on advertising. They are also not capitalizing on traffic created to either to their website, phone or business.  Many never even ask for any personal information and therefore can not follow up for future offers!

Here’s What You Need To Do To Increase Lead Generation Effectiveness:

Sit down for 10 minutes and think about the type of customers you are trying to attract to your business.  Then create and irresistible offer – something of real value that will get those interested in your product or service to raise their hand and say I want more information or the great gift you are providing for giving up their personal information.

Don’ t be cheap on this!  Figure out what the lifetime value of a new customer is to your business and spend more to get them than your competition. You’ll find that you’ll grow your list of prospects very fast.

So there’s two lessons here:

#1) offer something of value in order to get leads. Focus on what the customer values, not you. There’s a difference. People who get this, get sales.

#2) Spend appropriately. Do your customer lifetime value math. You can differentiate by spending more to acquire your most ideal customers. Do it.

Funny and true story on spending appropriately for lead generation:

The biggest customer of a company I know well accounts for about 30% of revenue annually. That’s $1,500,000 give or take. This customer was acquired by several four figure trips to strip clubs. I am not going to comment on the morality or business ethics of this, just the numbers. One $1,000,000 purchase order followed a $6,000 tab at the strip club. The ROI? Good enough don’t you think?

In fact, most CFOs figure 10% of customer lifetime value is a good number to spend in acquiring a customer. In the example above, the $6,000 was less than that for the initial order. That’s great!

I asked the senior management of this firm why they didn’t spend over $100,000 to land an ideal customer given that the customer lifetime value is in excess of several million dollars. They had no answer and the idea went over like a fart in church.  Needless to say they remain a fringe player.

What are examples of spending in this way to acquire an ideal customer lead?

• Targeting doctors and dentists with a B2B offer at their home address is one example. The list costs more.
• Using “lumpy mail” to get your direct mail opened.
• Optimizing “gift with appointment” using appropriately expensive and alluring gifts such as autographed baseball bats.
• Even sales force design: investing by hiring experienced sales reps with Rolodexs and industry relationships and then placing them in territories the field, compared to an inside sales team cold calling.

What are some of your lead generation successes and challenges? I’d love to hear about them so I can write additional posts on the topic!

This year, I want you to do something about January. I want you to use this month to evaluate your business from top to bottom and save and make money.

Go over 2011′s results and 2012′s  goals. Ask for ways to fix problems and new ideas for sales. Tell them your team about your project for January. And then celebrate the business and them with a special toast to start the New Year. Maybe give awards too.

Now, I’m a marketing guy, but we also need to look at some operations issues. I have some thoughts for you. Use what you can or want to.

Deliveries and Inventories: Are you being as efficient as possible in getting your deliveries and in your inventory and stocking procedures? This can cause cash flow problems if you have too much in stock.

Pricing: Is volume, value or premium your game? Can you expand into another pricing sphere with new products and services?

Marketing Plan: Look over your advertising, promotions and public relations plans (you do have a plan all mapped out on your annual marketing calendar, right?). If you don’t have a plan, don’t do anything else until you make one (if you want help, call me!). And if you don’t do anything else, at least run “suggestive sells” aka “Do you want fries with that?”

Couponing: Know the number of coupons that are redeemed and what the add-on to each is. Ask customers redeeming coupons how often they come in. If your coupon program is only discounting to current, regular customers, you’ll probably want to try something else.

Groupon and other daily deals: If you are product based, don’t! If you are service based, do, but only with careful consideration. If you need butts in seats to make a living, it’s worth a shot if done right, with the proper back end marketing approach in place. That’s the piece that small business owners miss 99% of the time! There are things you need to know about Groupon before you get started.

Brand Image: If you have any control, define your brand image and personality. Give your own personality to your business and\or store. Become Mr. Insurance or Mrs. Nails in your community. Study your competition and emulate their successes with your own special touch and avoid their mistakes.

Social Media: Take a deep breath and start to converse with your customers and prospects. Too often newbies to social media broadcast. Heck, I do it. The dialogue is key, not announcements. Use PR for announcements. Use social media to be social, converse, share. If you want to establish your social media presence quickly and with a minimum investment in time and money, check out my Universal Listing Service where we claim over 350 local, mobile, blog and social media sites for your business for you.

Customers: Know your customers. Take a long, hard look at them. How can you expand your customer base, add additional purchases and increase the frequency of use? That’s how you increase sales and profits. You don’t need an ad agency or ad salesman to figure that out.

So take January and analyze your business. Work on it more than in it. Look for ways to save money and to make money. Brainstorm with peers, suppliers and vendors. It’s worth a free lunch or pot of coffee.

Looking for more inspriation? Check out my small business marketing free resources page! If you don’t see what you need, give me a shout and I can put something together for everyone.

Here’s to a successful 2012! Good luck!

Focus for Marketing Success

It has been said that the number one is the worst number in business. Especially when it comes to customers. In this sense, one exposes you to risk.

In the sense of focus, one is an absolute godsend. But if we all know that focus is helpful, why then do so many self-employed and small business owners suffer from “shiny object syndrome, flitting from one thing to another, often without finishing what we’ve already started?” (Visit here for a funny story on shiny object syndrome.)

Here’s how focus helps you grow your business.

1. Take one Product.
2. Find one way to convert or sell your leads\prospects.
3. Find one way to generate those leads\prospects.
4. Take one year to improve your lead generation and converstion process.
5. Take another year to scale up the optimized process.

Clay Collins of The Marketing Show fame uses this model to generate seven-figure product lines. So it’s proven to work. Can you make it work for yourself?

I think so. The beauty is that rather than just scratching the surface attempting a number of things (those pesky shiny objects), you dig deep with focus.

With this method you really become knowledgable about one thing at a time before you move on to the next thing. I think it’s wonderful advice.

Do you think this approach would benefit your marketing efforts and sales success? Why or why not? Please share!

While most small business owners and self-employed people have a system for keeping track of their schedules, their meeting agendas, to-do lists and daily calls, very few have a marketing calendar that helps them systematically drive their business forward on a daily basis—by planning and recording progress on new profit centers they want to launch, cash-flow strategies they want to implement, future promotions they want to conduct, and more.

Think about your own business for a moment…

Are your income-generation activities planned week-by-week in advance? Do you constantly track your goals, numbers, people, research and other elements that make your business cash-flow centered Do you check off these daily to-do items as you accomplish them? Do you have a system for easily delegating various aspects of marketing implementation to your staff and outsource vendors?

Or do you find yourself constantly scrambling for emergency cash?

What can be found on a typical annual marketing calendar?

Let’s take a look:

New Customer Activites — Perhaps the most important revenue activity you will conduct in your business, generating new customers insures not only revenue from current sales, but ongoing revenue later from re-selling, upselling and cross-selling past buyers into other products and services. Just some of the new-customer campaigns you’ll find on a typical calendar include:

Newspaper & magazine advertising
Radio spots
Preview workshops
Trade shows
Direct mail
Speaking engagements
Marketing-oriented teleseminars
Referrals from endorsers

Special Offers for Current Customers — People who have already purchased from you in the past should be targeted with unique offers just for them. Perhaps it’s advance notice of a special sale (or a special customer-only selection or sale day)…or access to obsolete inventory at reduced prices…or offers on special equipment or services that go along with something they’ve already purchased. These scheduled campaigns — whether via email, postal mail or telephone — should speak in language that will appeal specifically to past buyers rather than prospects who haven’t purchased yet.

Internet Marketing and Email Campaigns — Once you have a website that’s designed to attract visitors, capture their email address and sell them products and services, you can begin to schedule: (1) Pay-per-click activity or endorsements that drive traffic to your website, (2) product launch campaigns that substantially boost the size of your email list, and (3) email campaigns to the email addresses you currently have. Over 90 days’ time, you should be able to launch a basic website, begin capturing names, and sell these visitors an entry-level product or service.

New Business Development — While the business owner isn’t necessarily the one doing the work of recruiting new accounts, new referral contacts and other sources of new business, he or she should certainly schedule these activities for a staff person to accomplish. What kinds of new business efforts do we typically see on an annual calendar?

Recruiting joint venture partners & endorsers
Developing more distributors/dealers
Recruiting non-traditional salespeople
Establishing a professional consortium
Finding unique retail outlets
Locating other businesses for which your product can be an add-on
Finding outside products/services to sell to your customers and prospects

Publicity & Media Relations — One of the most overlooked areas of marketing (and one of the easiest to implement), publicity and media relations should be scheduled and pursued as a low-cost marketing effort. Consider scheduling campaigns like:

Monthly or bi-weekly press releases distributed over the Internet (read my blog post
about local press release distribution here)
Contacting a list of radio talk-show hosts and producers prior to a new product release
or as a follow-up to a sensational news item
Announcing a new technology or methodology, a new book, a new service or a new
market approach

So there’s a great primer on why you need an annual marketing calendar and what goes into a marketing calendar. Go get started!

There are two big benefits to press release distribution for local businesses.

The first is SEO. Yes, you can and should, do SEO on your press releases. The PR sites are all rated highly by Google, Bing and Yahoo and your release will get indexed almost immediately. In fact, I have a method for getting to #1 on Google News using SEO. I’ve achieved #1 everytime I’ve done it and so can you.

The trick in using PR for SEO is to regularly send out press releases. I recommend creating 3 or 4 with your core story or message and once you’ve released them, tweak each slightly and re-release them. Rinse and repeat.

And you don’t have to break the bank using fee-based PR sites. You can get decent results with free sites and excellent results with $20 sites. I use a $20 site for my #1 on Google News trick.

The other benefit to using press releases in your marekting plan is that your release may actually get picked up by an editor or producer and either a) run as a story or b) more likely, get a call from the journalist who will rework it slightly or c) get you a gig on the radio or tv. How cool would that be? Of course should you land a gig, you’ll want to submit a press release about the upcoming radio or tv interview.

So what do you talk about in a press release for a local business?

Let me ask you a question. Can you talk about:

1. New product releases
2. Solutions to negative news stories
3. Controversial/contrarian opinions in your field
4. Yourself positioned as an industry ‘go-to’ expert
5. Recognition of you or your company by a publication, news outlet or national authority
6. Launching a website
7. Announcing free information available (lead generation)
8. Sponsoring a workshop or seminar
9. Meeting some kind of new challenge or rising above adversity or industry average
10. Forming a new strategic partnership or alliance
11. Grand opening, opening of a branch or satellite office plus other special events at your location
12. Awards you or the business have received
13. Awards your business has given out
14. New equipment purchases or installation
15. Newsletters now available to the public
16. Starting a new business
17. Introducing a new product
18. Announcing a new partnership or merger
19. Issuing a statement of position regarding a local, regional or national issue
20. Announcing a public appearance on television, radio or in person or announcing a major new marketing effort has been covered in the press
21. Introducing a unique strategy or approach
22. You solve a common problem/pain/goal
23. A unique story behind your product/service
24. Ways in which you are a local hero
25. Something you do differently from other businesses in your category
26. Setting up a customer advisory group
27. Announcing results of research or a survey
28. Establishing a unique vendor agreement
29. Making public statements on future trends or business conditions
30. Obtaining a new, significant customer
31. Expanding or renovating the business in some way, including remodeling your store
32. Contests for employees
33. Contests for your customers and prospects
34. Announcing a restructuring of the business
35. Receiving an appointment
36. Announcing you’ve reached a milestone
37. Celebrating a business anniversary
38. Participating in a philanthropic event/effort
39. Announcing you’re available to speak on specific topics related to your industry
40. Announcing that an individual in your business has been named to a leadership position in the community

That’s a very long list. I did that on purpose. As you can see, there are many ways to be locally newsworthy or newsworthy within your industry or category.

PR is an effective way to get noticed. Go ahead and add PR to your marketing mix. I promise you won’t be disappointed if you stick with it!