Small Business Talk with MDzyn

Recent survey of 304 owners and senior managers of small businesses, conducted by Hiscox, report that small business owners still rank word of mouth (WOM) their top marketing channel and the one they “couldn’t do without”. About half of those surveyed say they utilize some form of social media, but don’t believe it is a “must” for the growth of their business. Of course each business and industry is different, but I continue to impress upon small business clientele, that the foundation of a strong brand identity and the tools that support it must come long before and continue throughout any social media initiatives. It is also imperative that a small, or large for that matter, business understands and is prepared to deal with the unique challenges that a social media campaign can bring to the table. Policies and procedures must be understood and in place. Employees must understand and respect their roles in helping to build and support the companies brand and how each and every tweet is a reflection on that company if there is in deed a written connection.

So, define your company’s brand identity. Know what you’re customers’ experience is. Know what your unique selling points are. Then, from a marketing promotions perspective, make sure EVERYTHING you design, print and communicate supports that foundation. This includes logo, website, collateral materials, online marketing initiatives, direct mail, vehicle signage, etc.

Whether you consider WOM or FaceBook to be your most important marketing venue, a solid brand identity will make you more successful.

In this digital age, social media has not only taken off, but some feel it has taken over. Those of us in the marketing field agree and disagree. It’s true it’s taken off, but it really shouldn’t be taking over. The old adage of having a “mix” to your efforts still holds true. Actually more than ever!

With new technology and new approaches, new questions seem to constantly arise. Like, how will tablets and eReaders impact marketing communications. How do blogs affect your brand and how they can be best utilized to increase brand awareness. Not to mention podcasting, mobile media marketing, viral marketing, DVD ads, YouTube videos, etc. Which of these avenues will best help your company achieve brand loyalty among your target customer base.

Why use the shotgun or guessing game approach at some of these new opportunities? Instead, a better approach is to ask your existing customers how they want to be communicated to. In the past, you’ve might have done surveys that ask them questions and you’ve learned that they will let you know exactly what they want from your company; if your sales and marketing efforts are successful and welcomed; how they feel about your latest product or service offering, if you are indeed fulfilling their expectations, etc. Now, why not ask them some targeted questions that will help you define your mixed marketing strategy:

Ask them:
-How they want to be communicated to
-Which media outlets they prefer to be contacted through (then list some options)
-What the best way for you to “cut through their clutter” is
-What would capture their attention
-How often do they want to be contacted
-Which media do they most frequently use to communicate with friends, family and colleagues

Your customers hold valuable insights into what motivates them to make a purchase and/or remain a loyal customer. Which in turn, also probably mirrors those companies that you’re trying to turn from prospect to actual customer.

Give it a shot! And, if you need help, contact MDzyn Solutions and we’ll help you figure it out.

WordPress has become a great option for website development and content management. It is now a viable tool for much more than a blog. However, it’s not the end all, be all either. There are many factors that influence a decision as to what environment and approach to take for a new website:

1) Will the site include a blog?

Although I highly recommended including a blog because it’s a great tool to create interest and activity around your subject or business, if you don’t have the time or resources to maintain it and keep it at list minimally fresh, it’s probably better to skip it. Blogs that do not contain fresh posts are not frequently re-visited and sort of a waste of time.

2) Do you have the time and/or resources to dedicate to keeping your site’s content fresh and current? Or will your site be launched and then hardly ever changed?

Best practice is to dedicate the time and resources to keep your site fresh. If this is the case, it may make sense to have a fairly simple way of making the changes yourself. WordPress shines here and may be a great development solution. If on the other hand, maybe you’re a start-up and just need a website so that your business cards have a web address and make you look like a viable business, then it may be a better choice to build your website in another fashion and simply call your developer to make infrequent content changes for you.

3) Will you be happy with a template-based look and feel for your site? Or, do you want something completely custom that in no way resembles another site or structure?

There are thousands of WP templates out there, but there’s a huge difference in the quality of them as well. You have to be careful as some contain sloppy and/or malicious code and other bad qualities. If a quality template serves as your starting point, and it’s one that’s highly customizable, then your brand can be applied at a high level and the result can be “almost custom”. Starting from scratch and building a completely custom site requires more budget but also results in the exact result you desire in terms of look and feel.

4) How many “bells and whistles” will your site require?

This is another area where WordPress saves time and money because there are so many pre-developed tools that can be implemented  into your site without major development time. For example: social media links and tools, scheduling calendar, blog archives, etc.

To recap, the decision as to how your site will be developed, what environment it will be developed in, and the associated costs to design and build your site have many variables. MDzyn Solutions would be happy to help you determine the best plan for your site and design and build it for you at a great value.

Hello and Happy New Year a little late. One of my 2011 resolutions is to do more blog posts. It’s a nice release and a great way to share my thoughts with friends, clients and prospective clients, collegues and those of you that found your way to the information by way of a search engine.

I wonder if and when we’ll see a return from electronic media and online marketing, back to traditional/paper-based approaches? Will people eventually tire of staring at computers, smart phones and televisions? Some still say that “printing” is the foundation of our information infrastructure. After all, it records progress, chronicles history, delivers information and news, supports learning and provides entertainment. It also can be personal — it can be delivered to your door or mailbox and becomes part of your landscape. It seems nothing creates a deep connection like print. I love print design, but as time has passed, and out of necessity, I’ve honed my skills and learned to embrace the design and strategies of “paperless” communications. There is no question that online marketing and communication has changed the way the world interacts, stays informed, researches products and services, and ultimately makes a decision/purchase.

Print still works. Statistics show that 80% read or skim direct mail; 82% of consumers polled like getting catalogs in the mail from the stores they patronize; consumers that receive a printed catalog are twice as likely to buy online than those who do not receive a printed catalog; and, 67% of online actions are driven by offline messaging. And now, with social media being the “be-all end-all” to many people and businesses, the goal is to meld the two — print and online — into a perfect match. Experience has proven that choosing either print OR online tactics does not work. At least not as well as an integrated strategy.  A coordinated campaign of print and online initiatives does indeed increase marketing results.

There are many print and web-based tools that are business necessities. These tools must be addressed well before any true marketing initiatives are even talked about. These tools include: a professional logo; business card; website; and probably a brochure that is printed and also provided in digital form. My company, MDzyn Solutions, specializes in these types of products and provides incredible customer service. I would love to help you define, design and promote your company with print and online tools and marketing promotions.

There are several things to consider if you’re a small business contemplating an e-marketing campaign:

- It’s not a magic bullet. However it can be a very powerful marketing tool! As with other forms of marketing promotions and advertising, it requires an investment in dollars. E-marketing’s unique requirements include consistent deployment, targeted messaging, and a clean and viable list. You should not expect results with a short term campaign strategy. Unless you’re lucky, sending one or two messages simply won’t return positive results. Plan to send a monthly message if possible, or at a minimum, a quarterly e-news type of message if you intend to improve your existing customer relations and/or gain new business.

- Consistency in look and feel to support your brand identity is very important.

- Fresh, relevant content is critical. You must provide value to your customers and/or prospects. If they find value in the message, they will continue to pay attention to future messages as well.

- Encourage customers to act by including an “offer”, “coupon” or “discount”. Give them a reason to contact you or buy your product!

When designing and composing content for your message, consider these three things:

1) How can you add value to your product or service? Instead of lowering your price, consider offering a free upgrade or value add with their purchase; or you might offer a free consultation or free quote to move them into a more serious buying mode.

2) How can you make it easier for them to take action or get clarification on a product or purchase? Make sure your contact information is visible and in a prominent area of your message, and include an email link and/or form.

3) Your objective with e-marketing is to convert the user that is viewing your message into a customer or a sale. Do your research or do trial and error with different tactics, i.e. offer a risk free trial, or a money back guarantee, or have quotes from happy customers that love what they purchased from you, etc. It depends what your selling of course what tactic might work, but don’t be afraid to try different approaches.

If you need help with an on-line marketing campaign or want to explore a 6 or 12 month e-newsletter initiative, contact me and we can discuss how to move forward and what the involved costs are.

If you’re a business owner that likes to try and do everything yourself, I suggest that you go to MDzyn’s/Constant Contact site and sign up for a free trial or an account and give e-marketing a try. It really is a very powerful tool.

Seems many small businesses are still  in the mindset that there just isn’t any money for marketing initiatives. I know things have been tough, I own and operate a small business myself and certainly have felt the pain of the tough economy over the past year and a half. However, at some point, we must get back to good business savvy that you have to spend money to make money. You have to represent your business in a professional manner in order to maintain and expand your customer base. That means your website, online and printed promotions need the utmost attention to quality and detail. This costs money. As a good designer, professional businesswoman, and advocate of small businesses in general, I encourage other small businesses to take at least a baby step in regaining the value that they once had for my services. Because times are tough doesn’t mean it takes any less talent or any less time to create or maintain a solid, professional and successful identity for your business.

I have done my best to come up with creative ways and out-of-the-box thinking to accommodate my customers’ shoe-string budgets, but come on folks…this turnip has no more blood.

I’m ready for more positive and successful times for everyone!

Whether you’re selling widgets or services (like me), customers vary widely in their wants, needs and budgets. Your offerings should accommodate as many options as possible so that whatever their scenario, you have something to fit or can offer a customized solution that fits.

To that point, some customers are simply not willing to pay the asking price for your product or service, or are more interested in pricing than in quality. You can avoid losing sales to many of these customers by offering a smaller or stripped down version of your product or service at a lower price. Or, like mentioned earlier, bend your product or service lines to fit their need with a customized solution.

For the customers that do “get it”, meaning they do understand the value of the product or service you provide, or for those looking for quality and are willing to pay for it, offer a “premium version”.

Take this advice and apply it to your particular business model. For MDzyn Solutions, the answer is that nothing is cookie cutter these days, but for those small businesses concerned with start-up or small budgets, we simply work closely with them to define a win-win situation.

In my mind, a small job is better than no job at all. The egos of 2007 and 2008 should be tossed aside to discover, rebuild and/or sustain valuable customer relationships.

This recession – said by many to be ending, and said by some to be preparing itself for an ugly return – is positioning many small businesses for a very positive result. The law of “natural selection” means basically that the strong survive and the weak demise. The same happens in the world of business as in nature, and small businesses are even more susceptible.

Right now, the excesses of greed and stupidity are being cleansed. And many savvy small businesses are benefiting from this cleansing. During good times, inadequacies and a lack of ethics and/or good judgement is easier to hide. But, in a struggling economy, these shortcomings are much harder to camouflage and eventually dig a deep enough hole that cannot be scaled by those shops, restaurants and stores that should probably have never been started in the first place.

What’s left, are the smart small businesses that have lived through this challenging time. They will have learned how important it is to reduce prices and/or add value to their products and services.

As an entrepreneur and small business owner myself, I can vouch for the struggles I’ve faced this year, and can also proudly claim myself as a survivor. My company – MDzyn Solutions – helps small businesses define, design and promote their identities. My intention with the brighter future staring at us, is to implement the lessons learned by offering even greater value to my clients, and making sure that they know how much I appreciate their business.

Let the fun begin!

A fine artist may paint a picture with sheer creativity and no expectations, and really no strategy or plan. They just move the paint brush to fit their mood and ideas. Building and promoting a company brand is a bit different. It’s not based on creativity and color, but rather a collection of experiences and associations connected with a service, a person or entity. A brand is more than a logo, or the colors you choose to use on a brochure. Those things may be part of your “brand identity”, but they are not your brand.

Branding is one of the most important aspects of any business. An effective brand strategy gives you an edge in a competitive market — it differentiates you from your competitors. Your brand is your promise to your customers and conveys what they can expect from your products and/or services.

When you think about defining your brand, think about who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. It’s a lot of work and can be a time consuming process, but in the end, it’s one of the most important things you can do for your business.

So, go ahead and start the process of defining your brand, then be true to that brand and build everything around it.