Knowledge, experience and the ability to put it together into some meaningful thought is well beyond the capacity of most would be authors. They don’t let incompetence keep them down. Here is the secret used by most business authors and reporters that know less than you, but make themselves look like freaking geniuses every day. Follow these simple steps and you’ll find yourself in the Harvard Business Review next month.
Step 1 – Come up with something completely obvious. Let’s try this...
The world of computer-mediated communication is fresh and exciting as it changes every day and is constantly offering new approaches to social interaction, especially through the internet. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are constantly increasing in popularity and are used by people all over the globe. In fact, according to Digital Buzz Blog, statistics from January 2012 showed that Facebook now has more than 800 million active users, and Twitter 100 million active users. Furth...
Building a marketing campaign that is sure to be effective and accomplish your goals is not that hard if you follow some very easy steps along the way. A killer campaign is one that has a defined goal, minimizes risk and has a high ROI. It is usually part of a planned flow of related campaigns and not a distinct event. Being part of a progression of activity and being a segue into the next campaign, containing multiple promotional tools and designed with achieving a return commensurate with its ...
Every once in while you need to step back and look at the big picture to accelerate your business growth. All of the day-to-day demands of running a small business draw you away from that 20 thousand foot view of your business. That’s where real progress can be made in better defining your value proposition, adding clarity to your marketing message and standing out in the crowd.
Here are 5 simple ways to help gain traction in the market place.
Sometimes eliminating what something is not helps provide clarity to what in fact it is. Such is the case with marketing. So much has changed in the landscape of marketing that it is not uncommon for people in business to be totally confused as to what marketing is and if they are doing it at all, much less correctly. Many small business owners I have talked to and worked with are horrified that they are not.
So let’s start with a list of the 10 things marketing is not:
Promotion is where the vast majority of change has taken place. The change in promotion is at least equal to the change brought on by the advent of printing, mail, radio and television. While some very entertaining videos would have us believe it is bigger than all of those combined, when adjusted for changes in GNP, population and whatever else, we believe it is as revolutionary as any of these events on the world of marketing.
Forrester Research and Shopping.org
With the change in pl...
Place has most certainly changed and extraordinarily so. Marketing strategy decisions regarding Type/Location of Stores must now include a company website with e-commerce capability. There was once the dominance of the brick and mortar store and perhaps a call center for catalog sales. Service providers, both B2C and B2B, were call-in businesses. Find the number on your Rolodex or phone book and call in your request or order. Now a growing number of businesses have a web presence as shown in the...
Other than the obvious change in cost structure in some web-based distribution models, pricing fundamentals too, have not changed. Price is set to maximize profitability in concert with corporate strategy regarding:
Corporate strategy regarding its selection of differentiation, cost leadership or focus plays a key role in pricing of course, but what has changed is the influence of changes in distribution on pricing flexibility. Compared to bric...
Product
Corporate strategy would typically define in some reasonably broad parameter product and place. Unless you’re in a web based business or a web substitute (more on that later) there has not been an appreciable change in product since Al Gore invented the internet. Yes, many products have become web enabled, but that’s a matter of product differentiation, not typically corporate strategy. There are also a plethora of products that would not exist if not for the web.
Pity poor Blockbu...
Fundamentals of Company Strategy The foundation of any marketing strategy has got to be a company strategy that defines the parameters of the business that you’re in. Among other things, it defines the scope of the product or service offering, target market, sales and distribution strategy. This is all based on a strategic analysis and strategic plan as depicted below in Michael Porter’s Wheel of Competitive Strategy.
Strategy has always shared a lot more sex appeal in corporate man...
The internet has not changed the fundamentals of marketing. The internet has not created a new “silver bullet” of marketing, but introduced many new considerations and an enormous number of new tools to be employed. All too often people are confusing internet savvy, website design and SEO skills with marketing and it’s not. These skills are important parts of online promotion techniques and campaigns and important elements of most marketers’ tool kits. Marketing, however, needs to be app...
Small businesses rank their Marketing and Innovation lowest in a recent survey of the components of their competitive health. This is not surprising given the confusion generated by the proliferation of new online marketing tools. So called and self-proclaimed “marketing gurus” confuse knowledge of a couple of internet tricks with marketing.
Small businesses are disappointed with their marketing effectiveness as a result of having lost sight of the bigger picture while chasing inapprop...
The Board of Directors of The Greater Issaquah Chamber of Commerce has elected Richard Gabel to be the Treaurer of the Chamber this coming year. As Treasurer he will be a member of the Executive Committee of the Board. Gabel is serving his second 3-year term as a Director. He has also served previously as the Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee and Co-Chair of the Membership Committee.
We encourage all of you to join your local Chambers of Commerce. If you are interested in joi...
I recently published an article, "Facebook and Twitter are Stupid", with the intent of drawing out people's concerns regarding the use of social media as a serious tool in marketing. I recognized that the article would also draw the ire of social media addicts that would do anything to insure their next Twitter fix and to suck the next naive and willing spirit into their unholy social media haze of sensory deprivation where all problems, particularly marketing, can be remedied by just one ...
Issaquah, Washington based American Mobile Power Systems (AMPS) is expanding its staff and has named Richard Gabel as Director of Marketing. At the same time AMPS also named Stephen Meldrum Director of Sales and Licensing. Gabel and Meldrum will be working closely together in establishing AMPS international position in the green energy market.
AMPS is a systems integrator of custom mobile power delivery systems for commercial applications. AMPS provides the battery chemistry a...
Audrey Slade gave a great presentation on networking/connecting and social media today at Meadow Creek's Tenant Talks brown bag lunch session. There was a great discussion on connecting with people, the importance of connecting to growing your business and using social media to extend and communicate with your connections.
Nine people attended. Check our events calendar for the next Tenant Talks.
It doesn't need to cost a fortune. This is a guerrilla marketing tactic, not a way to go broke. Pick up a flip camera for under $150 and you are in business. Video is easy to edit on free programs like Microsoft...
The sad state of the economy hasn't made it easy for the entrepreneur or small business owner to grow over the last couple of years. The winners in this environment are the ones that don't give up and keep giving it all they've got. The problem is how to give all you've got. It's not an issue of finding more hours in the day, it's how to make yourself more productive.
Productivity is about focusing your efforts on the things that matter most, working on the things that only you can do, minimizi...
Mobile computing is the new growth engine for computing devices and is the hottest thing in online promotion. If you aren't prepared to leverage this phenomonon, it's time to get started. Smart phones and tablets are taking over the world. Smart phone unit sales have exceeded those of cell phones, gaming devices and notebooks in there first 5 years from introduction. Tablets are on track to exceed smart phones.
Mobile computing is all about content consumption. ...
Launching a marketing campaign can create an exciting burst of creativity, excitement and enthusiasm. Every new campaign holds with it an anticipation of phenomenal business growth. The instinctive action is to pour your heart and soul into and make sure it’s done right. The old adage of “you have to spend money to make money” rings in your ears as you spare no expense to pull it off in style.
I hate to be a kill joy, but stop right there. You just can’t get away...
In my corporate days, there was a hackneyed phrase about not working harder, but working smarter. This was a brilliant comment thrown out to a group of business heads when corporate or we had collectively decided that headcount needed to be cut in the face of a deteriorating economic climate. It was usually made by the controller that didn't want to spend the time to allocate reductions based on where a business was relative to plan and simply wanted everyone to take out 10% o...
Let's face it, not too many people go into business for the pleasure of finding clients and customers. People go into business because they have a unique idea for a product or service that they feel there's a need for. Their pleasure is in delivering the product or service and seeing the results. Developing market awareness, drawing prospects into a store or website, delivering the call to action and closing the sale, not so much.
Same thing for small businesses. The foc...
I’ve seen a lot ways in which people have priced products and services. Some are incredibly well thought out and others leave something to be desired. Here’s a short list of pricing techniques commonly employed today:
Price to market
Price to closest competitor
Price to achieve a specific margin
Price to achieve a certain personal or corporate net income
Price at an X% premium or discount to market
Price at the same level as last year and where that price came from, who kno...
Ask most small business owners these days about marketing and you’ll hear a litany of comments about their website, blog and social media. The remainder will say they don’t need marketing; they get all their business through referrals, but they would like more. Marketing for small business means nothing more than promotion these days, promotion being exclusively web-based.
This is very unfortunate for small businesses struggling in our great recession economy. The time, en...
Anyone that has been in sales and marketing or played a support role in the process has probably gone through a few awkward moments and a couple of really, really bad experiences in the process. Most of these experiences age well and you can actually laugh about them with the passage of time. Others, we keep locked up in the dark recesses of our minds, only rearing their ugly heads when we wake-up at 3:00 in the morning with night terrors.
Enough time has passed that any pers...
Small businesses make some common mistakes when it comes to marketing often leading to sluggish sales or leaving money on the table. A couple of quick fixes can energize revenue and pump up the bottom line. It doesn’t take an expert or a lot of work to make it happen. Just apply some common sense to the fundamentals and you’ll be on your way to marketing stardom.
Each one of these points I have run into repeatedly and it’s frustrating to think of the opportunity lost. Here they are in no ...
What has your office business center done for you lately? Other than provide you office space, internet service and a phone? Probably not much, particularly if you're in a corporately owned facility. You'll get what you pay for and you'll pay for every last thing you get. That's not what I had in mind when I created the Meadow Creek Business Center in Issaquah, Washington.
I've never really been in the real estate business and never had the urge...
No matter if you are an entrepreneur, small business owner or an executive of a large corporation, you should be a member of your local chamber of commerce. Chambers of commerce are advocates for business in a community, they partner with local and state government to promote economic growth and job creation and they create opportunities for businesses to network, learn and benefit from being a member of a larger group of individuals with common interests and needs.
All businesses need to...
If you’ve survived the recession, you are probably eager to start growing your business again. Hopefully, you’ve taken the opportunity to get you marketing side of the business in order so that when the business begins to flow you’re positioned to take a larger share. If not, it’s not too late to make it happen.
Small business owners generally spend 16 hours per week on the “administration” of their business and less than half that amount of time growing their business.&...
Yesterday afternoon my mail was dropped off at my desk. I just got around to opening it. The first thing that fell out of the large padded envelope was a box of matches. Next a tubed Romeo Y Julieta Verona's Court cigar. Thank you God, I'll enjoy myself tonight. Next, I fished out a gold colored hard envelope holding an invitation printed on lexan. Wow! Someone is really trying to buy me, in style of course. There was the invitiation, I was b...
If you have been keeping up with my articles and blogs, you already knew the recovery would be under way and this summer would be a welcome relief from the agony of the past year. If you have not, then the recent economic news and pronouncements of the end being in sight by people in high places may have come as something of a surprise given all of their negative thinking, lowering of expectations and blame gaming we’ve been subjected to for the past year. Unfortunately, our leader...
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Faced with disastrous near term prospects, you could join the rest of the herd and cut costs wherever you can, hunker down and wait for good times to return. An alternative I would suggest is to take advantage of your competition while they are hibernating. More than likely, they've cut advertising losing the mind share of existing and potential customers, cut back in other areas costing them in quality and customer service and possibly in sales al...
It was on Good Friday. My wife informed me that we were not going to be eating meat, but she wanted to stop in and get some fast food while we were out. I saw a sign for Skipper's in South Everett, Washington and pulled in. I regretted doing so almost as soon as I had done it. The place looked run down and there weren't many cars in the lot, although we were a little early for the lunch time crowd. As I got out of my car, an older, disheveled looking man was pu...
Stay Informed On Changes In Washington State That Effect Your Business!
