George Torok, Financial Post Published: Monday, May 12, 2008
The majority of business owners could be headed for disaster this year. Small business does best when it acts like small business. It does poorly when it blindly attempts to copy big business.
The results of an Ipsos-Reid poll in March, 2008, should scare you. It found "a majority (59%) of small to medium-sized business owners have identified branding as a top priority."
If that poll found 59% of large businesses were making branding their priority I would rest easier. Because that is the only way big business can strengthen their market position. Branding is too costly for small businesses. Small businesses have a far better business building tool; relationships. That's the chemistry that makes them attractive to customers.
Enjoy this article that published in the Small Business section of the Financial Post this week. If you are a small business owner you might want to know why branding is a poor investment for you.
If your websites don't come up in the top three - you have a problem to fix. If you don't appear on the first page of Google - you better move quickly.
If you don't appear on the first three pages - you better stop answering your phone - because it might be the bank calling to call the loan.
Print this list on a postcard or flyer. Publish it on your website or blog. Memorize the list but never say all ten at one time. Tell people one or two then give them the printed list to read on their own. Reading the printed list will be more believable and convincing than you droning on. And very few people can deliver a top ten list as entertaining as Dave Letterman.
For the purpose of credibility, order your list from 1 to 10. If you count down from 10 to 1 like Letterman people will expect the list to be funny but not believable. Number 1 should be your strongest point. Number 10 should be your second strongest.
Top Ten reasons to write your top ten marketing list
1. Clearly presents ten written reasons to buy from you
2. "Top ten" implies that there are more reasons
3. Forces you to identify, organize and clarify your strengths
10. You will blow your competition out of the water
Subscribe to the Power Marketing Tips here. You will receive them every two weeks. It's free. You can unsubscribe anytime. We will respect your privacy and not share your contact information with anyone at anytime.
The funeral business has faced massive changes and pressures from within and without over the past few decades.
This article which appeared in the March issue of the Globe & Mail's Small Business magazine describes those threats and more importantly features the strategies of the winners. A good case study for every small business owner.
The traditionally family run funeral homes were challenged by the corporate ogres at the same time as changing values and expectations from customers. Add to that the price squeeze from new competitors like Costco. Inside all that crisis lies real opportunity for the new market leaders who are willing to innovate. If you face some of those challenges in your business devour this article.
----------------- In trying to personalize the services to each family, the Creans are embracing a trend that many other independents have adopted to counter the cookie-cutter offerings of the chains. The path was blazed by one Brian Parent, a funeral director in Windsor, Ontario, who, 12 years ago, decided to offer people an entirely different way to die.
When Parent opened his funeral home, he turned to the wedding industry for inspiration. Wedding spending in this country has been rising every year (today, the average wedding costs around $20,000, roughly four times the cost of a funeral). He concluded that Canadians were willing to splurge on traditional ceremonies as long as they maintained control over the details. Paul Seyler, a New Orleans marketing consultant, has been preaching just that on the funeral convention circuit for years. His renowned session, "A $30,000 Opportunity in a $5,500 World: What Weddings Should Be Teaching Funerals," has convinced numerous funeral directors to rethink their business. Traditionally, funeral homes have derived the majority of their profits from caskets, which can run to $20,000 and more, and accompanied that big-ticket purchase with a few, inflexible package options. "Wedding planners allow people to pick and choose things and decide exactly how they want to celebrate," says Parent. "They let the customer customize."
With the Families First Funeral Home & Tribute Centre, Parent turned the industry's sombre image on its head. He invested heavily in high tech: a splashy website, big-screen projectors, even a full-time graphic designer to create custom guest books and thank-you notes. When it came to planning funerals, he scrapped all the customs. For a diehard hockey fan, Parent's staff decorated a room like a hockey rink, complete with fake ice, goalie nets and skates. For a dead movie buff, they installed a popcorn maker and lined the walls with film reels.
Lots of valuable business lessons in this article including that you often need to look outside your industry to find innovation and inspiration if you want to be a market leader.
PS: Brian Parent is a client. He is innovative and bold. He presents each of his staff with a copy of the book, "Raving Fans".
All machines need regular maintenance. That keeps them reliable, predictable and cost effective. A machine is simply a set of tools and systems working together. Your marketing should run like a dependable machine.
I suggest that you tune-up your marketing at least once a year. If you do that you will save money and improve the performance of the machine. If your marketing machine is running ineffectively or inefficiently your business will cough, stall or worse, break down.
If you are overdue for your marketing tune-up don’t be embarrassed, just hurry up and get tested. You’ll feel much better after. And your business will thank you. Read on to get started with your marketing tune-up. For more help visit www.MarketingTuneUp.ca.
Here it is - the Audi car ad that leverages the Iron Man movie cross promotion. Linking to the Iron Man movie makes the Audi look hi tech, sexy and expensive.
Watch the trailer. It looks sharp. Looks like Marvel has successfully made the transition from comic book producer to movie producer. Several Marvel Comics have been transformed into movies but this is the first movie that Marvel had produced since they decided that they could do it themselves. (It's always enlightning to watch a child grow up.) Can you guess the name of the theme song for the Iron Man movie? Hint: The band is Black Sabbath.
The Iron Man movie looks like it is first class. But what is truly impressive is the cross promotion with Audi. Watch for more about this marketing collaboration in future posts on this blog.
My interest in the Iron Man movie is as a marketer and as a Marvel Comics fan. I have more than a few Iron Man comics in my basement. So I will be watching the movie for accuracy. If your question is, "Who and what is Iron Man?" The short answer is, "Iron Man is a high tech version of Batman."
I’m a runner. I have completed a couple marathons and several half and ¾ marathons. As you might imagine my running shoes are important to me. I want them to fit right, feel right and provide good cushion for my middle-aged knees
It’s not that I care much about the running shoes. I care about minimizing the aches and pains of my body and maximizing my ability to keep running.
Those two goals depend a lot on my running shoes. So the running shoes are a means to an end.
I have been buying my shoes from the Running Room for that last several years because they meet my emotional needs along with my physical needs.
The Running Room is not perfect. Recently I had to wait over one week for my shoes to arrive. And when they arrived the voice message stated that I had three days to claim my shoes. That implied threat annoyed me. I wait over a week and they are only willing to wait three days?
The sales person made the save on their behalf.
She helped me try on the shoes. And she noticed that I liked them tight. She watched how I tested the shoes. Then she commented on how I might keep them tight. I asked her to explain – so she demonstrated.
I tried the shoes again after using her tip and felt much better about the fit. And I left thinking that I had just discovered a new secret that would help my runs.
Most importantly I felt good about my shoes feeling right and continuing my running.
Her attention to my individual needs enabled her to offer me more value with her simple tip on tying my shoes differently. I left the store feeling special.
And I never asked the price of the shoes. When the price registered at over $150 I just automatically paid it.
Price doesn’t matter when your customer is emotionally satisfied.
When I first saw the name "JYSK" on the store marquee I wondered what they sold and quickly forgot the name, "J... something?"
I wondered what they sold but not enough to go in the store.
I drove and walked past the JYSK store more times. Each time I wondered what they sold. And I wondered what was the correct way to say the name. I even tired to remember the name to Google it - but always forgot.
Then one time I noticed the subtitle on the sign – Bed, bath, home.
What is personal marketing? Personal marketing means making your marketing more personal – connecting better with people. Personal is about people.
Why should you be more personal in your marketing programs? Connecting with people is the most powerful form of marketing that you can do. When you tap into the personal connection you have a loyal client.
What is the magic of personal marketing? Personal marketing is about touching personal emotions and emtions defeat logic.
Is there anything better than personal marketing? I don’t think so. What chance could impersonal marketing have against personal marketing?
Give us examples of personal marketing strategies. Personal marketing includes building relationships, building trust, and connecting with people.
Give us examples of personal marketing techniques. Know and use personal names. Say thank you. Say congratulations. Use personal testimonials. Talk directly to individuals not target groups.
What word is most important in personal marketing? When writing marketing and sales copy the most personal word you should use is “you”. Talk directly to your readers or listeners not about them and certainly about yourself.
Give us an example of personal marketing. Hillary Clinton shedding a tear - that was personal. That demonstrated that the message was personal – direct from her to the listener. You don’t need to shed a tear every time – but you need to make it personal. You need to connect with your listener.
Marketing is about sending messages. Think of all the ways you send messages – whether you intend to or not. What is most important is the unintended messages that you might be sending.
The way you look Your dress, manner and character say the most about you and your business. It is not so much how you look and sound but more importantly how people feel about how you look and sound.
Phone What message do you want your phones to say about you and your business? Now go check to see what it really says.
Your staff Your staff is a reflection of you. So if you think that you have ignorant, lazy and sloppy staff – look in the mirror.
Your material You are not your business card. But if that is all we have – you are that business card – at least in our mind. And what could be more important than the image in the mind your prospects and contacts?
Website How do people check you out? The Internet. They use their favorite search engine – Google, Yahoo or MSN.
Do they wonder why you are so hard to find; wonder why your site is so difficult to navigate; wonder why it is so cold?
Just because you are marketing does not mean you can twist or misrepresent the truth. Marketing is about telling the truth.
Marketing is about telling your message is the most positive way. But it does not mean that you can lie.
Marketing is about telling your story. In fact the more warts in your story the more believable it can be.
Please don’t tell us that you are number one – if you are not.
The best! Number one in the country! The worlds greatest!
Don’t say those things unless you can back it up. And back it up. If you were voted number one by the community paper then state that. Don’t claim to be the nation’s number one.
The heck with marketing research when you can spy on them.
If information is power - this is a must have tool for the internet marketer. It helps you spy on your competition regarding their search engine strategy and reports back real numbers. Amazing stuff. Read what they say about their product.
------------------------ SpyFu lets you see which keywords your competitors are buying and which ones they optimize their site for. Once you understand the competition, you can beat them at their own game or your can exploit their weaknesses.
We get our data directly from the source; there are no middlemen. Every month, we extract 125 million ads and search results directly... ------------------------ https://www.spyfu.com/
Be Afraid, Be very afraid of scaring your customers
This is an an excerpt from The National Post Monday Small Business Section on March 31, 2008 by George Torok.
----------------------------- The two masters of business are fear and greed. You probably know that greed fuels a bull market and fear darkens the bear. But are you aware of how important these two emotions are to your business? Business is about people and people are ruled by emotions. Fear is the most primal and powerful emotion. How do emotions affect the buying decisions of your customers? ------------------
If you are a fan or child of the sixties than you will love this website. I did. I consider myself a child of the sixties even though I hit my teens in the late sixties. I was too young to get to Woodstock but I enjoyed the music a few years lator. It's not where you were but where you believe you were.
This site awoke some fond memories and stoked some chills.
Every once in awhile you come across a website that strikes you - and this one did.
If you were a past subscriber of my Power Marketing Tips then now is the time to resubscribe. Today the new version was launched. It has s new simple look and more importantly it will publish every two weeks. So you can count on regular marketing help. Below is an excerpt from the first issue.
Marketing can be fun - but don't be fooled by that aspect
Marketing can be fun or it can be boring. In either case it is the results that count not your enjoyment level. You should enjoy your business but don't judge the value of your business investments on your enjoyment. Creating new ideas and holding special events can be fun. However the boring side of marketing might pay off more for you in the long run. Evaluate your marketing investments by examining your return on investment.
Base your marketing on systems. Marketing systems will pay off greater than marketing madness. Systems are a means to an end. The system is not the end. Therefore create the system, refine the system and automate the system - but focus on the end.
A system is composed of three things: 1. It is based on a principle. 2. It is a process. 3. It must be persistent and consistent.
Systems are not feel-good whims. They are planned, methodical and regular.
Apply this three-step processes to summarize your marketing systems:
Every time (event) happens I do (action). I do this because (principle). The results are ____________
To ensure that the boring things happen consistently you can automate using technology, delegate to staff or outsource to a service provider.
Here is a good set of free tools to analyse your website.
Of particular note is the "Load time test". It tests how long your website takes to load and tells you where the delays are.
Of course you might not realize how slow your own website is because after your first visit it is cached in your computer. So you can be fooled into thinking that your site is faster than it really is. I was surprised when I tested one of my sites with this tool.
Here is an excerpt from the page of free tools. --------------------------------------
Time for a tune-up... The below tools (and to the left) are listed chronologically to assist you with site preparation and testing. Website preparation and testing are your first steps to reaching those magical top positions in major search engines (actually there is no magic, just hard work... learn more).You can use our tools as often as you like and even place them on your website to offer free web tools to your viewers and generate traffic (Add MiniTools to your website). We also ask you to help us keep an almost nine year old (June 23rd) Submit Plus tradition absolutely free by displaying one of our (buttons) on your website... So, let's get started! Link Popularity [Low link popularity = Low ranking... Check it Out!] Load Time Check [Good loading time = happy surfers/spiders... Check it Out!] Test Your Meta Content [Major engines still reply on Meta Tags!... Check it Out!] Spider Simulator [See what engine spiders see... Or don't!] Generate Meta Tags [Improve or create new Meta Tags... You need them!] Alexa Ranking [Archived info and web traffic information ]
Here is another free tool for checking your website or those of your competitors. Just type in the url and it will tell you the age of the domain, links and pages indexed by the three major search engines.
Take it for a spin. Warning - it seems to take about 30 to 60 seconds to return the results.
Marketing expert & bestselling author, George Torok, offers marketing insights, tips, and strategies on branding, networking and personal marketing to business owners, marketing professionals and the marketing challenged. Your comments are welcomed.
About Me
Name: George Torok
Location: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
Co-author of "Secrets of Power Marketing".
Interviewed over 400 business leaders as host of the weekly radio show, "Business in Motion" on 93.3 CFMU.
Marketing specialist and executive consultant.
Executive speech coach and presentations skills specialist.
I am available for media interviews and speaking engagements.
Call 905-335-1997 or email George@Torok.com
