Be Remarkable, Be Compelling

We’ve entered a new era in marketing where the prize will go to the big brains and
not the big wallets. The playing field has been leveled and tipped in the favor of the small business owner.

Content is the new king. Keep your cash in the bank. Money will follow eyeballs. Once again, this is in the favor of small business owners who are close to their passion. Content is the currency, but passion is the fuel. In this era especially, it holds true that it’s not really what you say, but how you say it. This is a great thing for small businesses, because it allows them to eliminate the one thing that used to separate them from their larger competitors, money. Consider Blendtec, a company that sells blenders. They started creating remarkable videos demonstrating the capabilities of their blenders (we’re talking blending credit cards, McDonald’s value meals, lighters, cell phones, etc.), and then published these “will it blend” videos to the Internet for virtually FREE. Internet users found them and love them.

How the viral success impacted Blendtec

• “The campaign took off almost instantly. We have definitely felt an impact in sales. Will it Blend has had an amazing impact to our commercial and our retail products.”- Tom Dickson
• The video series earned an annual pay-out of about $15,000 from the Web video hosting service Revver
• As of June 21, 2009 the videos had collected a total of 83,238,033 views on YouTube

It just goes to show that you don’t need a ton of money to create buzz for your company’s products/services. Use your brain and create something unique and buzz-worthy and people will come to you. Pull viewers in by being remarkable.

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

People buy differently than they used to. We can’t continue “shouting” at consumers and think they’re going the listen...they won’t. Today’s consumer has power. They have caller ID, they have voice mail, they can fast forward commercials, and they have many other tools that allow them to ignore the many messages being “shouted” at them.

Power has shifted to the buyer and the buying process has been democratized. Consumers decide what they want to listen to. In case you’re not paying attention, the game has changed small business owners and CEOs. The expectation of the customer is that we empower them to choose us, so empower them to find you wherever they look (hint: 86% of people go to the Internet as part of their buying process [hint, hint: If you don’t think Sr. Executives are going there, think about their direct reports they send to do research for them, they go there]). Furthermore, customers expect a dialog and not monologue.

Since marketing is no longer about campaign and more about creating and empowering a dialogs with the customer, alignment is mission critical.This alignment is also critical because your sales professionals have direct access to the customer with social networking sites such as LinkedIn.

It is estimated the misalignment of sales and marketing costs the US Fortune 100 $225 billion annually. Based on my experience, I'm certain the same challenges face small to mid-size businesses. Executives can no longer turn a blind eye to the alignment of sales and marketing. The process for lead conversion, lead nurturing and sales execution need to be seamless any interruption in this sequence can have severe penalties on sales performance. Whereas, the next competitor from anywhere in the world is only a "Google" query away.

Three signs sales and marketing are not aligned and they are costing you big money.

1.Your company does not have the sales process in writing from click to close.

2.If a colleague asked you how your sales team is using social media to create and nurture leads and you don't know the answer.

3. If you ask your marketing leader what is the process for scoring and transitioning leads to the salespeople and they can't produce a written process or answer.

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

A business owner screams, "We need more sales!" A sales person cries out, "We need more leads!" A few short years ago, the small business owner would have been justified in saying good riddance and tossing that salesperson out on his or her rear end. But times have changed(enter inbound marketing and social media), and the business owner needs to hear this plea with an open mind and not brush it off as just a complaint from a whiny sales rep.

Pause, take a deep breath and ponder...

Is my sales person truly whiny or does your small business have a marketing problem? Is the money I'm spending on marketing producing leads for the people selling?

Ponder all you want but it is marketing's function to drive the consumer from awareness to a point of decision and the salesperson's job to get them to take action. Asking the salesperson to do this greatly increases the length of the sales cycle and leads to high turnover in sales organizations because humans just aren't wired for this.  Moreover, most sales organizations place this responsibility on the sales people exclusively.

If you admit you have a marketing problem, inbound marketing can help decrease the length of your sales cycle and maximize the ROI of your sales team. An investment in inbound marketing supports your sales process.

According to HubSpot's "2010 State of Inbound Marketing Report," the trends of 2009 have been reconfirmed. Inbound marketing decreases cost per lead by 60%. I would also contend having more sales ready leads has a major impact on the length of the sales cycle for a wide variety of reasons.

If salespeople are randomly calling on prospects (whether they are existing customers or not), they are still just throwing darts in a non linear space-time continuum hoping it lands on a star. But if they're only catching roughly 3 out of a 100 people who are looking to buy, the return on investment (ROI) for their time invested in prospecting sucks.

Over half of the respondents in the study claim they will increase their inbound marketing budget in 2010. As Seth Godin said, "by the time there is a case study in your specific industry, it's going to be way too late for you to catch up." Gary Vaynerchuk also has emphasized how fast business moves and why a wait-and-see approach is dangerous.

Wake up and start creating content and enable your small business to participate in the conversations happening throughout the Web. Business are acquiring new customers by spending a portion of their marketing budget for lead generation and not just brand awareness – although you get both of these by embracing inbound marketing.

Don't set up your salespeople for failure. It's your responsibility to keep current with market trends, not just within your industry, but in how actual marketing and selling is getting done these days.

 

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

Twitter- Sending a Postcard (on steroids) on the Internet

Now that real-time content such as tweets are showing up in search results, the importance of engaging in this medium has just increased dramatically. The perceived quality of content in the tweet, and the link they point to, will assist your company in search engine optimization (SEO) when the search engines likely decide to include these in their ranking algorithms. In particular, sales people can contribute to marketing efforts by tweeting key concepts that will contribute to a small business's overall marketing efforts. Most importantly, tweets are limited to 140 characters, so tweets are so easy a sales person can do it.

In addition to contributing content that has SEO value, Twitter can be an incredible source for data mining by sales people. Twitter lists are definitely something that deserve a sales person's attention in 2010, and beyond. You can find extremely resourceful lists to follow, and if you’re quick to the draw in a particular niche, you can create a list of thought leaders which will establish your credibility because other people will follow the list that you created as well. This is all transparent for everyone on Web to see (unless you mark it private which doesn’t make sense within the context of this discussion of Twitter lists). Now do you get a feel for where this is heading?

As you get started in all of this tweeting stuff, you will certainly find the following tools helpful:

Socialite- Aggregates all your social media (mac only)

Tweet Deck- Aggregates all your social media (mac and PC)

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

 Expect your marketing department to soon have sales people knocking on its door inquiring how to best engage in social media. Customers are accessing information differently than before and changing their habits by conducting a lot more research online and taking advice from others who have established reputations on the internet.

Salespeople need to get on the ball immediately. It is the job of those responsible for marketing to lead the way and help out their salespeople. This may include taking a leading role participating in these social media accounts. Let's explore some key features in Linkedin and Twitter that salespeople need to utilize.

Providing Quality Answers on LinkedIn and Consider Creating a Group

 One great way to build thought leadership is by providing valuable tips and mindfully answering questions on Linkedin. The best answers for a question posed are highlighted, and when a prospective customer is impressed with the level of insight provided, it's a good possibility they'll take note of the individual for future reference when they are further along in the buying cycle. Ideally, they would reach out and request a connection as well. Creating a Linkedin group is another fantastic way to build a community. Invite the following people:

    * People in your company
    * Key customers and contacts
    * Other industry leaders.

Choose a title for your group that makes sense so people will understand the exact nature of your group. Lastly, make sure you promote your group and integrate it with the rest of your marketing events and programs.

Twitter

Now that real time content such as tweets are showing up in search results, the importance of engaging in this medium has just increased dramatically. The perceived quality of content in the tweet, and the link they point to, will assist your company in search engine optimization (SEO) when the search engines likely decide to include these in their ranking algorithms.

Twitter lists are definitely something that deserve your attention in 2010. You can find extremely resourceful lists to follow, and if you're quick to the draw in a particular niche, you can create a list of thought leaders which will establish your credibility because other people will follow the list that you created as well. This is all transparent for everyone on Web to see (unless you mark it private which doesn't make sense within the context of this discussion of Twitter lists). Now do you get a feel for where this is heading?

Click Here to Learn More About Social Media

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

So...the day starts at the butt crack of dawn 3:45AM. The typical life of a small business owner. Trying to get billing done, invoice, study my craft and prep for a prospective new client meeting before 9AM.

I shower and cruise to Starbucks, but the address in my GPS led me to a warehouse where Starbucks apparently used to be. I happend to catch a glance of a Caribou Coffee out of the corner of my eye and head there as my back up. (What is sad is this use to be my first choice before they went public).

I plow through a few emails and decide to take a break to grab an oatmeal. I place my order for oatmeal and I get a "what type?"  I reply, "What do you mean what type?" The Barista looks at me with a blank stare...Good question, I know we have a lot of choices.  Aaargh!

While this young woman was very kind to cure my illiteracy and read my twelve choices off the menu, I was sadly reminded why my once favorite place is now last on my list behind Starbucks, Dunn Brothers and a local hole in the wall.  

So here is the lesson for small business owners in the context of my blog, Epoch.

Don't Follow, Lead. If you do follow, blow the competition out of the water!

Caribou has 500 stores and Starbucks has 9,000! Caribou Coffee is so much smaller and nimbler, it should have been the company to offer coffee in a packet you can take on the road. Or, being an outdoorsy coffee shop, their food selections should resemble those items that take you back to where the Caribou hang. For example, I would offer a breakfast sandwich called a Crystal Creek Sunrise Scramble, inspired by some customers trip they had camping at Crystal Creek in the Tetons. If you are going to follow, make sure you are clearly better than the competition. Note, more is not better. If I was running Caribou Coffee I would have hired someone to create an out of this world gourmet oatmeal, instead of the undercooked crap from a packet I'm eating right now. This would be more consistent with their attempt at "fresh baked" pastries in the store.  

One more non-coffee example: iPods were not the first to market, but they clearly were superior to any media player on the market when they hit.

Build a Community. Human beings buy stuff, not demographics.

I use to feel like the folks at Caribou Coffee were my buds. When I went into the Caribou this morning at 5:30AM, there was no one but me there. I did not get a greeting from the two people that saw me walk in.  

I will go one step further and say that if you go to the corporate Website, there are no invitations to follow them on Twitter, Facebook or the like.  Once again, this suff is free, and social media is the easiest way to stay dialed in on the market and your brand. 

I would totally leverage inbound marketing to keep a pulse and inspire my community to help shape my offerings.

Be Authentic and Avoid the Mushy Middle. Mediocre is a Horrible Aspiration!

Starbucks always has been a kind corporate, sleek refined more upscalish coffee shop. Whereas Caribou is a rough and tumble back country type of experience. However, you would never know this other than the little bits and pieces of Caribou and rustic stuff in their decor. Being a kayaker, backcountry camper Caribou used to be the place where I could go to escape with my buds. Now they are a toned down chain trying to appeal to the masses and not doing very well, based on their financial performance.

To summarize, authenticity, the ability to innovate on a dime and create an intimate community is the biggest game changer small business owners and CEOs have.  I'm certain if Caribou would embrace these truths they would post stronger financial earnings and they would again become my first choice.

 

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.

It seems that these days that most companies have been bitten by the social media bug. It isn’t about what form of social media they’re using but how many they’re using. Companies are marketing by creating videos for YouTube, flooding facebook, creating Linkedin accounts and spoke accounts and flickr accounts and Technorati accounts and StumbleUpon accounts and twitter accounts…and “you get the point” accounts. The social media bug has bitten many, but how will it actually affect them?

Yes, marketing through social media works and yes it has leveraged many companies, but these are usually companies that have done their research. You may “tweet” your every move or create a facebook fan page, but that doesn’t mean you’ll see measurable results. It really isn’t about how many forms of social media you’re using to market, but actually about what form/forms you’re using. You need to know about the social media program you’re using and why you’re using it.

Some things to consider:

• Who uses this social media program? Are they your target demographic?
• What are the goals you’re trying to achieve by engaging in this social media program? Can this specific application help you achieve this?
•  You want to measure where success is coming from. Is that possible using the social media application/s you chose?
• Who else is using this application and for what? Will your company and what you’re trying to achieve get lost in the clutter? Does this align with your marketing strategy and goals and/or your company’s values?
• Does the time and money put into the application measure up to the results it will bring? Do you have someone available to put in the necessary time to make using this application successful?

Will Twitter or facebook or Linkedin help grow your business? To "tweet" or not to "tweet"...you can, but should you? This IS the latest question.

Focus To Grow is a SMarketing company, providing inbound marketing and sales execution services for b2b companies.