In fact, Lloyd Perry from Big Richard Condoms actually set out to create a clothing brand, but, thanks to a Venture Capitalist with a sense of humour (what?!) he ended up starting and running a condom business.

So, in this revealing interview (BTW, it’s not one for the kids’ ears) we go under the covers (pun intended) and get some fantastic insights in to very smart marketing strategies around:

1. Product Development - It can be much easier than you think.
2. Pricing – Lloyd introduces us to a S-Commerce (very, very interesting).
3. Packaging – Hear how Lloyd figured out where to position the product using clever packaging.
4. Distribution – If he can have a condom delivery truck, then imagine what your business could have!
5. Promotion – Lloyd is a big proponent of video marketing for small business, and has had broadcast quality ads produced for less than $300 (see below). He even reveals a strategy for having your video content go viral.

PLUS we hear from Professor Mike Ewing who provides us some insights in to online retailing versus traditional bricks and mortar approach, PLUS I tackle a listener question (issue!) from Claire Balmer from Container Creative about outsourcing.

Yes … a jam-packed episode of Australi’s #1 small business marketing podcast if ever there was one!

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Register to attend a Key Person Of Influence Accelerator 8-Hour Brand Accelerator in Melbourne and Sydney this June 2012.

Seek marketing advice from the Small Business Big Marketing LinkedIn group.

See the lighter side of marketing on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review for Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes. I’ll love you for it ;0)

It’s an elegantly simple way of convincing a prospect to exchange their contact details or a small amount of money for something of high-perceived value from your business (at low cost to you).

There are many forms a product for prospects can take (online and offline), however for simplicities’ sake, I want to keep this post to ways of creating one online that you provide in exchange for contact details.

Before I do, here are the six fundamentals that underpin the product for prospect’s concept:

1. You are doing it solely to acquire contact details in order to begin a sales conversation (not to make bucket loads of cash … yet). You’re aim is to create ‘pre-sold prospects’
2. The content should contain ideas & philosophies that are highly appealing / useful to your market.
3. The content is of high perceived value to the recipient (even better if it offers them a quick win) and is of relatively low cost to the business who’s offering it.
4. They contain a clear and strong call to action (not a sales pitch, just a call to action) – this is really importnat, as why would you provide such valuable information without giving prospects the chance to get more of what it is you’ve got? Calls to action include your contact details, links to sales / product pages on your website, or specific instructions about what to do next.
5. The more contact details you ask for the less prospects will sign up. The inverse of that is that those that do will be hot, hot, hot!
6. Lead with your best stuff. Your best tips, your most insightful knowledge. Don’t feel like you’re giving away the farm, because in my experience, if prospects like what you’ve shared they’ll want more of you.

Now, before I share some examples of online products for prospects, you need to know how you’ll distribute them. Well, there’s a few ways, but the one I use successfully is this … You place a registration form (created in Aweber – an opt-in email marketing program) on your website (Home and secondary pages) that asks for prospects’ details in exchange for your product for prospects. When a prospects complets the form, Aweber will automatically send them your product for prospects. PLUS, and this is where it gets really cool, it can continue to send them emails with more products for prospects, at intervals which you determine.

Special Reports

Also referred to as a guide, a white paper or blue print, it contains useful information that will help a prospect solve a problem; or provides them with highly useful information that improves their personal or business life. ‘How to’s’ are great (the most searched prefix on the internet!), guides that get people taking action quickly are golden, and we love lists (just look at magazine covers – 7 Steps To …, 3 Ways Of … ) and the headline ‘Read this before you employ a [insert your profession]‘ is a big spiker of curiosity.

Example -> If you enter your name and best email address in the form to the right of your screen right now, you’ll be emailed a copy of my Fast Start Marketing Report which is my product for prospects.

eNewsletters

You’ve all seen one of these. The trick with eNewsletters is ensuring the content is short and sharp, and always focussed on solving your prospects’ problems. (You know what they are right?) Oh, and be consistent … an eNewsletter every now and then is useless … commit to a schedule so that prospects  expect them. And make the archives accessible for new prospects to go back and search.

Example – Here’s 50 newsletter examples … some good, some not so.

Webinars

Don’t let the technology bamboozle you. A webinar is simply an online seminar – people can hear you, see your desktop (on which you’ll have a slide deck)  and ask questions either written or verbally. That’s it! I use Go To Webinar – the webinar set-up process is simple (it’s a series of fields you complete) then GTW provides you with a registration  link that you can email, share via social media or post on your website. On the day and time you set, you start the webinar and do your thang.

Example – This is the process for setting up and running a webinar.

Videos

Pull out the iPhone and start recording. Create five short (2-5 minute) videos that give prospects an insight in to your best tips – they’ll love you! Or, if you’re not one for talking to camera, then check out Screenflow for Mac and Camtasia for the dark side (I mean PC!). This software records what’s on your screen and what you’re saying – then turns it in to videos quicker than you can say “ascending transaction model” ;0)

Example – Google a topic you’re interested in follow by the word webinar. Then register for the webinar and experience it for yourself. I’ll also run one over the coming weeks so register follow Small Business Big Marketing on Facebook and you’ll be the first to know.

eBooks

These have been around since day dot of the Internet. And they’re as valid now as they were then. It’s basically a PDF version of a real book. You could even look at it as a longer version of a Special Report. I’ve done quite a few for Clients in which I use a tried and tested process that always ends up with a great book that gets written by others!

Example – I created an eBook for the accounting firm SP Solutions which was basically written by their Clients! You’ll need to register on the right hand side of their website  to receive their Product For Prospects. Does the structure look familiar?!

OK, so I really hope that has brought the concept of a product for prospects to life for you. YES, there are technical things involved in creating one BUT don’t let these be hurdles. Many do, so therein lies the opportunity.

I am currently working on a Core Product offering that will include the creation of a product for prospects for my future clients. If you register at the box on your right, not only will you receive my Fast Start Marketing Report,  you’ll also be the first to know when I launch the offer.

So … if I’ve inspired you enough, why not leave a comment below about what your product for prospects will be.

He now runs multiple businesses turning over millions of dollars in revenue each year.

But that’s not important right now! (Although he does share some insights in to how this came about).

What is incredibly interesting is a concept Daniel’s created aptly named Key Person Of Influence or K.P.I. – A five-step sequence to becoming one of the most highly valued and highly paid people in your industry.

Listen up as Daniel explains how you can become a key person of influence in your industry.

Listener Question -> PLUS I tackle a question sent in by Mitchell who asks (and what great timing!) whether he should become known in his category under his company name or under his own name.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Register to attend a Key Person Of Influence Accelerator 8-Hour Brand Accelerator in Melbourne and Sydney this June 2012.

Bernard Salt – Here’s a guy who is building his personal brand whilst working for a large Accounting firm.

Seek marketing advice from the Small Business Big Marketing LinkedIn group.

See the lighter side of marketing on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review for Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

But (and it’s a big BUT) you don’t just wake up one day and say I’m going to generate some word-of-mouth.

Word-of-mouth marketing requires work … and there are certain things you can do to ensure it actually happens.

That’s where long-time listener, first time emailer to the show Curtis Crawford from Alert Alarm Company stepped in with his 7 ways to generate word-of-mouth in business:

Hey Tim …

I noticed that the small business owners you interviewed all said ‘word of mouth’ but didn’t really know what or how to cultivate it (the photographer being the exception) I don’t think that this is well known and most business owners are ‘just waiting for rain’ so to speak.

1. Be referable – do good work, show up and smell good (I added the last one from the episode) and be memorable for something (good).
2. Stay in front of your customers – I send out a hard copy newsletter quarterly through the mail.  while i don’t get very good intimidate response, it has really helped me connect with my customers,  become more than just the ‘alarm guy’ but a trusted adviser that stays connected.  I do know that 2 sales are directly because of the newsletter.  The lifetime value of those 2 will pay the cost of the newsletter printing and postage for YEARS…
3. Make sure your customers know what you do and why you are better – the newsletter helps a lot with spreading this message.
4. Send small tokens of appreciation for the referral – I send a thank-you card with a scratch-off lottery ticket in them.  The tickets are available in most states here in the US, cost $1-5 and add a little more to the thank you.
5. Send a thank you for the sale – i send cash or gift certificates (not for my business, but for restaurants or movies, etc, unrelated to this business) to the referral source with a nice thank you card.
6. Ask for referrals – if the product/service is good. then people are glad to tell their friends and contacts about you.  all it takes is just a little question “do you know someone else who could use _____?”
7. Make it a system and name it – it just makes it that much more real and if you have employees, then you can offload a lot of the legwork.

Anyhow, that has been eating at me since I listened to the episode and just wanted to make sure I got it out so maybe it can help others.

Stay Secure!
Curtis Crawford

So, do you agree? How do you generate word-of-mouth for your business? Add your idea in the comments section below.

In her own words, she said “I’ve gone in to the territory of over-thinking land.”

I answered the question in detail in this episode of Small Business Big Marketing, however I thought I’d also share the key points here.

Whilst naming a business can be a challenge, there are some key considerations that, if you are aware of them, will make the process less onerous and more fun:

1. Choose a name you love – that you love to say, hear and read.
2. It helps if there’s a story behind the name.
3. Make it memorable.
4. It doesn’t have to be self-explanatory, but if it’s not, support it with a tagline that is.
5. Short is good.
6. Acronyms suck!
7. Remember, Apple was once just a piece of fruit.
8. It’s what you put in to the name in the months and years ahead that makes it special.
9. Listen to how it sounds – it might read well, but may be hard to pronounce. I feel in to this trap with my other podcast – Freedom Ocean.
10. It’s good if the domain is available. Dot com if you’re in the state – .com.au if you’re in Australia.
11. If you’re torn between two names, use 99Designs to get some cheap logos done.

What considerations would you add to this list?

That’s the premise of his business. As he so eloquently puts it:

“Don’t call us to pick up your dry cleaning or walk your dogs; that is simply not what we‘re about. Bluefish is not a gopher service, an old boy’s network, or a snobby bunch of party-crashers.

Rather, we offer the highest level of personalised travel, transportation, and cutting-edge entertainment services to corporate executives, celebrities, professional athletes, and other discerning individuals interested in living life to its fullest.”

Listen in on this chat I had with Steve and you’ll discover in no uncertain terms how to get things done. Which is kind of ironic given the last interview with with David Allen who wrote a whole book called Getting Things Done! Plus Steve shares with you some of the mazing things he’s arranged for his A-list celebrity client list. Oh, and he gives Small Business Big Marketing a world scoop – some news he received just hours prior to coming on air.

Listener Question -> PLUS I tackle a listener question from Stephanie St. Gal de Pons, also from the LA area, who’s seriously gone in to over-thinking land when it comes to naming her business. In answering her conundrum, I share 11 things to consider when coming up with names for a business.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Seek marketing advice from the Small Business Big Marketing LinkedIn group.

See the lighter side of marketing on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review for Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

However, Raphael Bender from the Melbourne Pilate’s Studio – Breathe Wellbeing – and a long-time listener of the show, has built a $1.5 million dollar p.a. Pilates business almost 100% off the back of some very smart search engine optimisation – AKA, setting up your website so that it ranks on page 1 of Google for search results relevant to their business. So I asked Raphael if he’d share how he did it and he agreed. Read on …

It’s been a long journey to the top of page 1 of Google, and we’ve tried a bunch of things.

Our basic SEO tactics are as follows:

1. URL (page address) including keyword e.g. breathewellbeing.com.au/Education-pilates-instructor-training.html

2. Meta tags (no more than 5 per page)

3. Page title including the same keyword e.g. Breathe Education | Melbourne Australia | Pilates Instructor Training

4. Heading 1 and 2 tags using the same keyword

5. image “alt” tags (the text that your browser displays if the image doesn’t load) using the same keyword e.g. This is an image of Tamika learning to teach Pilates at Breathe Education Melbourne Australia Pilates instructor training

6. Lots of keywords embedded in the body copy

7. We update the website at least weekly so it stays fresh.

8. Whenever we send out information it’s never a pdf, always a link back to our website to increase traffic, and thus ranking

9. We don’t send a direct link to our secure booking website (which has a hidden url). Instead we direct clients via our main website through a link –  so they have to visit our website every week to book their classes – thus increasing traffic and page rank.

At the start of the optimisation process we searched our search terms (Pilates Melbourne CBD/ Yoga Melbourne CBD and variants) and saw who came up in the top 3. We then did a google search on their web address (in this case Matrix Pilates and

Yoga, and saw all the back-links they had generated: Many of these were in paid, and even free directories. We followed them around and listed ourselves in all the exact same directories (including the Eastern Suburbs Soccer League listing!). We then

did the same for the second and third rank pages for our keywords. This seemed to work. Matrix subsequently went out of business, as have 2 of our other local competitors.

As we got a bit more savvy we’ve got some cool software programs that do some of the work for us – Market Samurai to check keywords and page rank, Zen Tester to split test our page layouts and content for conversion rates.

We’ve automated the sales process too. The prospect goes from their initial google search all the way through to purchase without requiring any human intervention on our part, just the auto-responders that are generated depending on their actions as they go through the funnel. Currently we’re converting at about 30%.

I came from a sales background in the Fitness industry. When we first opened the business in 2007 we had a very aggressive sales and marketing campaign, but very old school – flyers at the train station, accosting people outside the business, local paper ads, corporate outreach (aka cold calls) and hundreds of lead boxes. We employed 6 full time GUN sales people with massive track records in fitness direct sales. We didn’t tell the price over the phone, we got the prospect down and showed them the studio then we tried to close them at the end for a 12 month membership. We failed abysmally and almost went under.

Eventually we’ve realised that our market actually doesn’t want to be sold to. Of course everyone always says they don’t like being pressure sold to, but then most people buy stuff when they are pressure sold, so go figure. However in our case the people of Melbourne weren’t joking – they really don’t like being sold to. So one by one we got rid of our entire sales team, we published our prices online, and automated the sales funnel so prospects were encouraged to make up their own minds in their own time at home. Suddenly people were buying from us in droves.

We currently employ no sales people and do not ever try to ‘close’ a client face to face or on the phone. We just offer them the information and they choose to buy (usually online). Over 90% of our sales come through our website with no human intervention at any stage of the process – so when a new customer walks into the studio for the first time they’ve usually already purchased online and booked their first class online, often without ever talking to us. Of course we still have a few people wander in off the street (our one concession to above the line marketing is a presence at street level, with signage and flyers on display in the entrance to our building).

What do you think? Do you love it? Has Raphael missed anything?

• How Getting Things Done, the world’s most famous productivity methodology came to be.
• Solutions for transforming overwhelm and uncertainty into an integrated system of stress-free productivity.
• How getting stuff out of your head and onto paper can set you free.
• How we can be buried in projects but amazingly have nothing on our mind.
• How to go from overwhelm and uncertainty to being ready for anything.
• PLUS David shares with us some of the marketing behind Getting Things Done, and how the writing of one book turned in to a global phenomenon.

Oh, and it’s Lukeee’s last show :0( So we share a whole lot of heart-felt emails from you, our treasured listeners.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Seek marketing advice from the Small Business Big Marketing LinkedIn group. Or give it!

See the lighter side of marketing on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

** This blog post was kindly written by Mark Samuelson from Sign Co Australia **

I have spent much time commuting between home and work listening to the Small Business Big Marketing podcasts and have not heard, yet, anything about old school signs for your business. Below are some quick thoughts that may help those thinking about how to promote their business off-line. Bottom line, know what you want before you go in and you will be much happier with the results when you walk out. So, here’s 10 signage tips for small business:

#1 Why you need to get your message out there?

This will be the foundation for your sign plan and should be taken into consideration when you ask the other questions.

Are you trying to improve your Brand awareness?

Do you have a sale or special on?

Do you need to tell people where you are or when you’re open?

Does your audience need to know about your products or service?

#2 Who is your target Audience for your message?

This will influence the style of your design and the information on it. Is your audience walking past your shop with an empty stomach looking for a great meal or is it someone browsing past looking for a new outfit or gift on sale today only? Are they young, old, require your services for work or play?

#3 What is the key message for each sign?

We have far more time to take in the message of a fixed sign on the side of a building or in a window than on a moving object. Keep your message appropriate for its location.

Your audience need to know in a very short space of time what you are trying to say so keep the message short and the font large, not the other way around. Are you trying to promote your products or your business? Who you are, what you are, How to find you. K.I.S.S

#4 Where are you going to place your signs?

Do you have permission? Check with your land lord, building owner or body corporate before placing any new signs. If you have taken over a new lease there is no guarantee you have the right to the existing sign in a common area. Check the legal requirements with your local council in regards to signs as they can vary from a residential zone to retail and industrial location. You may need to obtain a DA? Keep in mind you are responsible for the DA if the council catch you out not your sign supplier.

#5 How much money do you have to spend on your signs?

The old saying you get what you pay for counts in signs just like many other areas in life. Get a good idea on what your budget is and what you hope to see for your finical input. Your budget will dictate not just the size but the quantity, location and materials. A solid message on the right sign in the right location should cover its costs quickly.

#6 Where do you go to get the message out there?

Who are you going to use to spread your message? Local is always good. Don’t be afraid to shop around for a few quotes and don’t think that the cheapest quote is the best way to go. If you are looking at multiple products and the costs vary ensure they are comparing apples with apples and don’t be afraid to haggle.

Show loyalty to your sign manufacturer and they will be loyal to you. If they are reputable they will keep all your artwork on file for future use which will help to keep costs down.

#7 Branding.

Branding is one of the most important pieces of the marketing model. It helps your suppliers and customers tie your whole storey together. Make sure when you are putting your message out there that your logos, message, fonts, images etc reflect your Branding. People see the logo/colour schemes well before they see the many bullet points on what you do.

#8 Research.

Next time you are driving in the car look around at the various signs and take a mental note on what caught your eye and why. Try and read the A-Frames as you are driving by or the message on the back or sides of the car, did you get all the information on the Banner in front of the local school or church? Look for your competitors, what are they doing, do you think it is working for them? If a sign catches your eye stop in and ask the owner how it works for them. Most people are more than happy to tell you their storey. When was the last time you wrote a phone number down from a sign?

#9 Have fun.

Don’t be afraid to have fun with your signs. I am sure you will remember the car with the large logo across the doors and boot like many banks and soft drink vendors do vs the local plumber who has a list of 10 bullet points on the tailgate of his truck and a little logo.

#10 Lacking design skills?

Don’t worry most sign manufacturers will have a design team in house; prices vary of course so shop around. If you have a graphic designer they will more than likely have a connection with a local sign company and be able to point you in the right direction to a trust worthy company. Yes even the sign business has its sharks.

What would you add to this list?

Nothing lasts forever and it’s been a sensational 79 episodes with one of my best mates.

But family commitments, full-time work and life generally can get in the way of producing a regular podcast – especially when it doesn’t produce a full time income.

That said, don’t despair too much – he will be back next week for a final episode, plus he’ll make the odd guest host appearance over the coming weeks, months and years ahead.

Small Business Big Marketing isn’t going anywhere, there’s far too many marketing gems still to be uncovered, spectacular marketers to be interviewed and knowledge to be shared. So, despite the melancholy nature of this episode:

• Lukeee shares some of his favorite interviews including Haul, Strom and Adora Live, Michael Klim and Mornington Peninsula Brewery.
• We pull a small business marketing learning from the current Jim Beam TV commercial.
• We talk about how tio use Pinterest in your business.
• Professor Mike Ewing looks at the upside of social media.
• We answer a listener question from photographer Josh.
• We talk about the quick uptake of the new Small Business Big Marketing LinkedIn group.
• PLUS we hear from some very small business owners on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula about what frustrates them about marketing their business and the best marketing initiative each of them has ever taken.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Site Boost – How to make your website outperform your competition.

Seek marketing advice from the Small Business Big Marketing LinkedIn group. Or give it!

See the lighter side of marketing on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Well, Miriam (the listener) appreciated the advice and is now acting on it. This not only gives us a warm feeling inside, more importantly it reminds us of the power of building momentum and taking action. Here’s Miriam’s response:

Aloha(Hello) Timbo and Luke,

I have been wanting to email you for several days to thank you all for answering the question I sent.  Needless to say, I was shocked that it actually got aired and that you all gave sincere, thoughtful and informative insights to the question.

I have listened to that podcast at least five to six times and will continue to listen to it as it continues to give me more insights and “ah ha” moments for my business.  I have often thought of writing a cookbook but felt that something was lacking in the format.  Your idea to turn it into an infomational/ business / how a small business like mine runs is intriguing and exciting.  I could definitely get behind that idea!

Your suggestion to systemize is a great idea for me.  I do have an extensive product line that would need to be streamlined and edited a bit to make it easier to actually have another person handle the day to day operations. I have treated and continue to treat my business like my babies but at some point my babies grew up and took flight. And so like the babies, my business has grown up and it is time to let it take flight too.

Mahalo (thank you) for such great and timely advice.  Thank you for picking the topic to air.  I certainly gained more insight into my business from listening to that podcast. I hope it will also help others that might be having similar thoughts about their business.

Although we’ve been in business for over 34 years, the name “Miriam’s Old Hawaii Bakery” is fairly recent.  Originally called simply “Miriam’s”, my son wanted us to have a name that could be trademarked.  My son and I brainstormed for several days exploring what this bakery meant.  We wanted the name to reflect the fact that it is rustic and home-spun in appeal.  We wanted to convey the idea that this bakery is like the bakeries of old, where everything was made from scratch, with tremendous pride and soul.  It is the way I view baking, food and life in general.  I’ve worked hard to ensure that all the products and the ambiance of the place reflect the feeling of love and of coming home to a relaxed, happy place.

I feel the name “Old Hawaii Bakery” reflects that.  We want to convey old-fashioned feelings of family, where, when you walked into a home, you could count on the fresh smells of bread baking and the warm personalities of the people making it could be felt. Thus the name was born and my son and I really love it.  We constantly strive to make our business reflect just those feelings and what we represent.

Cookies…I am  always giving our products away or bartering with friends and clients.  I often trade my breads and cookies for  other people’s farm produce, eggs, business advice, etc.  I love to barter!  I wish we could go back to those simpler times when bartering was the way of trading.

Anyway, I would love to send some cookies and other products your way.  I also would love to send some bread but I do not think it would make the long shipping time.  However, the other products will definitely make the journey.

If it is all right with you all, could I get a mailing address where I can ship you some of our products?  I’d like to send them as a mighty grateful thank you for all that you have done for us by giving such great advice.  I’ve so enjoyed your warm and enthusiastic personalities, and am so grateful you’ve shared them with all of us through your podcast.  You really come across as sincere, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and wanting to help others. A rare thing in this day and age!  You do a great service for all of us in the business community.

Mahalo (thank you) for your time and efforts. Take care.

Miriam
Miriam’s Old Hawaii Bakery

If you’ve got a question you’d like answered on the show then please send it through by clicking here or clicking the orange Questions tab on the left hand side of this page.

Luke: How are you Tim?

Tim: I am excellent, thank you and welcome back listeners to another episode of Small Business Big Marketing, Lucas?

Luke: Thank you to Flying Solo listeners. FlyingSolo.com is Australia’s biggest online small business forum.

Tim: Lukie? Sorry to interrupt you there. I am very excited.

Luke: It’s all right. It’s something you do regularly, some of our listeners tell me.

Tim: Quite practiced aren’t I?

Luke: You are.

Tim: Lucas, without revealing whom; we have just interviewed Australia’s . . .

Luke: Well, we revealed who he was in the last episode.

Tim: Oh, did we?

Luke: So we might as well tell the listeners.

Tim: Did we do that?

Luke: We did.

Tim: All right. Okay.

Luke: So, in a few moments we are going to be talking to Harold Mitchell today.

Tim: A.O.

Luke: A.O.

Tim: Order of Australia.

Luke: Yes.

Tim: Would A.O. be O.A.? It is A.O. isn’t it? But anyway, he’s been given a gift by the Queen, and wow, biggest media planner in Australia, friend of Mr. Pecker, Mr. Middle, Mr. You Name It.

Luke: Yes, he is.

Tim: He’s going to spill the beans on what is happening with the world niche media. Anyway, enough of that. We will come back to Harold Mitchell because we have a bit to cover. We have a listener question.

Luke: We do have a listener question.

Luke: And the Prof is going to cover, do you know what he is going to cover? He is going to slam social media.

Tim: Yeah, he is.

Luke: Well, he’s not slamming it.

Tim: Well, he’s not slamming it.

Luke: No.

Tim: He’s giving a different point of view.

Luke: He is. He is giving a good point of view.

Tim: Question?

Luke: Yes.

Tim: Do you want to get stuck into that?

Luke: Before we do, I would just like to say thank you to Kelly Exeter from Swish Design. We did a listener profile on Kelly on a blog recently, so you have to go to SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com and check that out.

Tim: We are doing listener profiles, and maybe we can put a shout out to any listeners who want to profile their business on our blog. We have a series of questions that you are required to answer, all about your marketing, your best marketing efforts.

Luke: Yes.

Tim: If it is up to scratch, we will post it.

Luke: Yes. We will also drop in a link to your website as well.

Tim: Yeah, which our website has got a bit of Google juice attached to it, hasn’t it?

Luke: It has.

Tim: It’s got power.

Luke: It has been around a while. So yeah.

Tim: It’s been around. Now Lucas, this is an email we got from Ingrid who is a chiropractor. She is basically asking . . . well, I’ll abbreviate the question. She has had a chiropractic business with a partner and she wants to know how to increase patient numbers. Okay?

Luke: Yeah.

Tim: Increase sales basically. We have put ourselves on natural therapy page. She has a website. It’s not ranking high at the moment. She has done flyers. She has done gift vouchers. She has gone to local businesses and tried to do a bit of a joint venture. Nice idea.

Luke: Good idea.

Tim: She is getting a bit of repeat business, and has had two referrals so far. But she wants to up it.

Luke: Yeah.

Tim: She wants to just put this chiropractic business on steroids, Lucas, and you and I are going to go one-for-one on some ways that we think she can drive a bit more traffic. Do you want to start?

Luke: Okay. Well, I think some of our listeners are going to think I am a one-trick pony.

Tim: Here we go.

Luke: AdWords.

Tim: You love your AdWords.

Luke: I would be setting up a local AdWords campaign. And I have actually done a recent blog post around that. So if you want to go ahead and check out SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com, it shows you a little bit about how to set up a locally targeted AdWords campaign.

Tim: We will put a link to that in the show notes for episode, I think this is 78, and so we will link to that. It is a good blog post, Lukie.

Luke: Yes, so there is a way in AdWords that you can actually target people within a certain radius of your business. So you might be targeting people up to 20 kilometres away. It just means that you get highly targeted, focused clicks on your ads, and therefore you are not spending a fortune.

Tim: No wastage.

Luke: No wastage. Tim, what’s your?

Tim: Okay. She is trying to be the chiropractor to anyone right now by the sounds of things.

Luke: Yes.

Tim: You know what I am going to say, don’t you?

Luke: I know where you are going with this.

Tim: Niche it down.

Luke: Absolutely.

Tim: This is very close to my spine, Luke.

Luke: Yes.

Tim: For long-time listeners, about six months ago I had spinal surgery, had a disc replaced in my spine actually. As it was the result of too much computer work, so my neurosurgeon said. Have you got a neurosurgeon?

Luke: No.

Tim: Now I have. He said, “Too much computer work, Timmy.” Now, subsequent to that, I have heard so many people say to me, “Oh my god, working at the computer is killing me.”

Luke: Yeah.

Tim: And you know what? It actually is. I’ve been looking at my kid’s posture, and the kids these days, digital natives, are living on the computer. Their head and neck is tilting forward in a very unnatural way. So my advice to Ingrid is to put y our hand up and be known as the chiropractor in something.

Luke: Yeah.

Tim: I am not suggesting it be the chiropractor who can change computer users’ lives around, although I reckon that would be a pretty good one. But be the chiropractor for pregnant moms or whatever it is. Lukie?

Luke: There is someone who listens to our show, or used to anyway, Luke Van Every, who is known as The Shoulder Guy. He is a physiotherapist, and he focuses purely on shoulders. We met Luke when we were out at the [James 05:48] conference last year. If you do a search on Google for “The Shoulder Guy,” you will be able to find his website. It is actually TheShoulderGuy.com.au. Go and have a look at what works there. I think he has quite a good base of customers.

Tim: Right. Was that your idea? Or was it mine?

Luke: That was your idea.

Tim: My idea?

Luke: That was your idea.

Tim: That was my idea.

Luke: I think in carriage and reward referrals. So if your existing customer base refers people, try to reward them in some way.

Tim: There it is. Okay, good one. Ding. There is a chiropractor near the city, in Melbourne, and it has been there for years and years. They have got a big statue of a spine out in front. It is on Victoria Parade, just for local listeners, Victoria Parade in Abbotsford.

Luke: Yes.

Tim: Have you seen it?

Luke: I think so.

Tim: Oh man, it is just so obvious. So, while it might be expensive to get a large spine constructed, actually it would be a really good idea. At least have really good, strong straight signage and tell people. Having a signage is not the answer. But what is the message on that signage and putting your hand up as being the Chiropractor to the Stars or whatever it is. You are looking at my notes?

Luke: I am looking at your notes, email interest, Timbo.

Tim: Okay. Yeah, well that is a problem. It is not a game winner.

Luke: No.

Tim: What is your problem?

Luke: It does come down to branding.

Tim: Okay.

Luke: It is a hotmail address.

Tim: How many hotmail addresses are there? Ingrid, get an address that has your business name.com.au. That was your idea. So it is back to me. She said her website is not ranking. It is only three to week, but it shouldn’t be so hard to rank locally. I am going to get geeky, but she needs to get clarity around her keywords.

Luke: Yes.

Tim: And then get them into her meta data, which basically, go ahead and tell your web developer to do that. We won’t explain it here, but we do explain it in our product Site Boost, which if you go to our Products page on Small Business Big Marketing, you will see our product Site Boost, which basically shares the characteristics of high performing websites. Lukie, what is yours?

Luke: Yeah, I was just going to follow up on that. We are not sure where Ingrid is. But if she is in a suburb, then she probably wants to try and do some SEO around chiropractor and then suburb name.

Tim: Absolutely, she would. A couple more before we get stuck into the Harold Mitchell interview. Testimonials, she is getting some repeat business. You better capture those as testimonials. Post them on YouTube, post them on the website. Make sure they are well described and tagged back to suburb specific chiropractor, and she will get a bit more Google juice.

Luke: Yes.

Tim: Got one more?

Luke: We have one more, and I think I have actually done a bit of a rant on one of our previous episodes, Timbo, with the experience I have with my chiropractor and dentist. Make sure you follow up on customers that have been to you already. Look, I know you are probably in the early days of your business, but always follow up with them to see how they are going, and obviously get that repeat business. I know that I have had experiences where I have not been able to attend a particular session with a chiropractor., and basically they’ve just let me drop off their radar. They haven’t rung back to try and get me back again at some other time. So make sure you always follow up with the customer.

Tim: Ingrid, thank you for your question. To all chiropractors, if you implement any of those ideas and get results, let us know, questions@SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com. If you implement them and don’t get results, tell someone else.

Luke: Absolutely.

Tim: Okay, Lukie, it is time for the Prof to have a crack at social media.

Prof: What is the case against social media? Is social media everything it is hyped up to be? As much as I am a fan of social media and I believe in its long-term potential, I think it is important to take a balanced perspective and to look at the arguments on either side of the fence.

Firstly, let us look at some statistics. 89% of the world’s population is not on Facebook. For every one Facebook user, there are eight non-users. There are only 225 million Twitter users. Twitter has 92% awareness amongst Internet users, but only 8% usage. There is a lot of activity around social media on the part of companies, lots of strategies and campaigns, but the results have been ambivalent and less than convincing so far, as a generalization. Of course, there have been some exceptions.

Things like liking a brand on Facebook or following a company on Twitter is it really a measure of commercial success? I am not sure. I think perhaps it says more about the person than it actually says about the company or their relationship with the company or their intention to purchase from the company.

Like the Internet, social media is definitely a double-edge sword, and it has a lot of social and psychosocial negative consequences. Some examples, of course, would include something that is in the headlines right now, cyber bullying. I think also real world, offline relationships are suffering as a consequence of social media. I would love someone to do a study on lost productivity in the workplace as a result of employees engaging in social media when they are supposed to be working.

Then, I think that the Internet is making us intellectually lazy. We are not putting in the effort to do research, to verify, to check that perhaps we used to in the good old days of encyclopaedias, etc.

Another unintended consequence of social media is attention fragmentation. People are simply splitting their attention across too many activities, and the quality of their attention devoted to any one activity has to suffer as a result.

That is my articulation of the cons, if you will, of social media. Next, I will address the case in favour of social media and the advantages of social media.

Tim: Lucas, put that in your intellectual, academic pipe and smoke it, my friend.

Luke: I don’t think my pipe is big enough.

Tim: Now Luke, Harry Mitchell, never call him Harry, Mr. Harold Mitchell, A.C. I got it wrong earlier. It is A.C.

Harold: Yes.

Tim: Not A.O.

Harold: No.

Tim: Okay. Don’t know what A.C. stands for. But son of a saw-miller who subsequently built a media empire in Australia, the biggest media buying and selling agency in Australia, has been kind enough to join us for a bit of a talk about how niche media is impacting on the big guys.

Luke: Yes.

Tim: Over to Harold.

Tim: Hello, Harold.

Harold: How are you?

Tim: Good. How are you? It is Tim here and Luke as well.

Luke: Good day, Harold, thanks for joining us.

Harold: It is no trouble.

Luke: Welcome to Small Business Big Marketing.

Harold: Thank you.

Luke: Harold, before we get into the serious stuff, we were Googling you, a picture of you early this morning, and on the second row came up a picture of George Clooney.

Harold: No. No. So why are you interviewing me if you can get George?

Luke: Well, I juts think that is very impressive, and we clicked on it, trying to figure out why.

Harold: What was the second row? What was that all about I wonder?

Luke: Well, when we say second row, it comes up row upon row of pictures of Harold Mitchell, but in the second row . . .

Harold: Oh, right. I don’t know about that.

Luke: Oh well, anyway, now serious stuff. Thanks for joining us. An important interview for us and our listeners, because we are obviously a creator of niche content in the media. We happen to be Australia’s number one marketing podcast for small businesses, but we are a niche player. I was sitting with my 12- year-old daughter only a few nights ago, and we spent about two hours on YouTube and in iTunes. I thought that previously we would have been watching TV and consuming advertising. I’m really interested to understand what your view is on this whole impact niche content is having on mass broadcasters.

Harold: Well, a number of things, it is probably the biggest change that we have known in any of our lifetimes. It might well be as big a change since the development of the printing press. That all sounds a bit grand and when we learn that when we look back at it. What has really happened is that the form of communication, which began with printing, suddenly managed to go one-to-one. We’ll print something and we’ll hand it out and that becomes communication. It was the beginning of mass media over many years. That was the basis of what we have been dealing with mass media, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, etc. One thing happened, the message went out and you were not quite sure it was getting. Research will show us a lot later on. But it was a mass market and there were mass products, mass markets and mass media. That was the world. It was also one way, that is you sat down and you watched the television or you listened to the radio.

2004, the greatest change we’ve ever known, which is the beginning of the Digital Age, and this has brought the change that you just now talked about with your daughter. What happened from 2000 on was that the world became the world of the individual, and that became so important you didn’t have to deal with mass markets anymore. You could work out just who that individual was, and you could communicate with them and in doing that it was now two-way in that you could press the red button if you like and you could then interact. Previously it was always, I see the ad, I get the message, I would go down to the store or try and call, or I’ll read the catalogue, but I will respond differently. Now it is a complete inter-reaction and not only that you describe measurability.

What we are seeing is, in a space of just 12 years, the advertising market has responded tremendously to this. It is now probably 20% of all of our dollars is involved with digital media. Now, it took television, the storm to survive through the 20th century, it took television 25 years to get to the same level. That is just how big the Digital Age is and what it will be from here. Many are now finding out how to deal with it. First, we have the big publishers. That is a very major deal, in terms of what they are, what they are doing. It took them some time, understandably, to say that the world was changing, not uncommon.

When you saw the first motorcars, it was essential that someone walk in front of the motorcar holding a big flag, because it was something new and dangerous. The steam engine, people said no, no, no, it will be here forever all these other diesel things are not going to happen. That was the world of what that was all about, a very big difference in every way.

This is the new world that we live in. What does it mean to the old world of the media? It doesn’t mean that it ends. It just means that it changes. We know that people spend over seven hours a day with the media in various forms. That is a massive amount of their time. They still consume television, [inaudible 17:34] television in different ways.

Tim: Where does that seven hours come from, Harold? How is that seven hours accounted for?

Harold: There is sufficient research to say what did you do today. Some of it is part of the regular [inaudible 17:47] which is all of the audience measurement detail, for both radio and television. There are separate ways of reading the readerships of newspapers, magazines, [inaudible 18:02] assessment and what you were doing to have contact with advertising. So it has been that way for a long time. People have got a lot of spare time. What are they going to do with it? The media has filled that gap over most of the 20th century in different ways. It is changing, but it is not changing so dramatically, but nevertheless changing. People don’t watch regular television as much anymore, of course. Radio varies. They used to listen to AM. Now they listen to FM. Newspapers are changing in the actual circulation is going down, but they happen to be reading the newspapers as much or nearly more online. So that is the changing nature of the world. It is the biggest change that has happened in our lifetime. And no one will know until we look back after a long period of time to say this was the greatest change that ever happened ever.

It does mean challenges across a whole range of people. Firstly, to your daughter, how old is she? 12 you said?

Tim: 12, yes.

Harold: 12. No problems at all. She has only known this new world, and to her this is fantastic and this is the way it is. So any wonder that a 12-year-old can pick up a telephone, a mobile phone and can handle it better usually than her parents, because that is creating a new world of learning and understanding, and the fact that she increasingly demands flexibility and mobility, and these new devices will give it. That is the change that is taking place.

In 2000, we started a digital business. Somehow we worked out that this was going to happen. Google was one year old. Rupert Murdoch of News Corp was still saying it couldn’t quite work. Mind you, to his great credit, it was not too many years later he swung the whole of News Corp behind it, and now it is catching up very fast. But others came along, this new world, where phone companies got involved, the mobile phone is going to be one of the greatest ways of communicating with people into the future. These changes are there and before us.

Tim: There’s even discussion of the mobile phone becoming where your mobile phone statement becoming your bank statement?

Harold: It will be more. It will be everything if you want it to be. It will be where you go to the next [inaudible 20:17] or to the next [inaudible 20:20] to think what to record. There are now over 24 million mobile phones. People are so involved in all of it ,that it is incredible. The smart phones have changed in a different way. 46% of smart phones owners use them to watch TV. 43% listen to music. It’s nearly 20% browse newspapers on them and [inaudible 20:43] now read their books.

Tim: Harold, we have a segment on our show, which is hosted by the head of marketing, Professor Mike Ewing at Monash University. In the last segment, he talked about this concept of simultaneous media consumption and attention fragmentation. It is just so interesting. I mean, Stephanie and I, we’re 100% focused on YouTube and iTunes. But what I am also seeing, and even if I look at myself, and I don’t watch a lot of TV, but if I do, I generally have the iPad in the hand and am consuming something else as well. The question is where is people’s attention these days? Is it leaning in to the screen or is it reclining back on the rocker watching the television?

Harold: Well, it is in many different ways, which means the attention span, as we all know from all the young people now, is much shorter. And it brings the next challenge, which is about content. That is, you can’t rely on anything anymore because people will it. There was a time when what you were going to watch on the television was what you hated the least, as you all agreed to watch whatever it was usually what Mum wanted. But not anymore because you can go up to the bedroom and you can watch any device that you want, even in another room. You can go out into the garden and watch with all of the mobility of it. And so, if you are a bit bored with something, you will swap to something else. If you have to wait 20 seconds for something to load, you say [inaudible 22:03] much. And so what is now important is content and maybe that has always been the case.

This raises, as I said, challenges in many ways. One is for media owners. Two are great advertising opportunities, which are different to what they were in the past, because in the past they were simply, we will create an ad and we will slot it in to 30 or 60 seconds and people will watch it. Well, not anymore. The contact with the customer is in just so many different ways that are just so important and different. That is it.

Retailing has changed dramatically as you know, because you actually don’t have to go to the store. There was a time where people in retail said, “No, no, they want to feel it and try it on.” Everyone knows they’re size a [ten, if they're a size ten.] They can look at the colours from somewhere else. They can make up a montage of what it is going to be with other parts of whatever they are wearing. They can push another button and order it from somewhere in New York.

All of that is the new and changing world. So the challenge is ahead, which it says draw the line, understand that this is a digital world we’re going to live in. By 2020, 80% of all media will be delivered digitally, and that is what it will be. It does mean that there has just been an absolute explosion of the channels that are there. So the word niche media doesn’t exist anymore. If what you have to do is sell 8,000 of your particular European model car in Australia this year and 8,000 will do it and that is all you need to do, why on earth do you need to be on a television show with an audience of just over a million. In that case, you don’t. If you can find somewhere that there are those 8,000 people, they are the only ones you want, that is a niche media. To anybody that is really big time targeting, and that is the importance of the future.

So the next challenge is to marketers, to understand that the world of the individual has arrived. There was a time when if you had a Mercedes-Benz 25 years ago, people knew what you were talking about. You either had a black one or a white one, but it was a Mercedes-Benz. That was the car. Now there are 50 different models of Mercedes at the very least, which can be fashioned in so many different ways. That is the world of the individual. That is what it will be into the future.

Tim: Harold, that is really interesting and reassuring for us as podcasters, although Luke and I can’t wait until 2020. We want to start making money now.

Luke: Yeah, have you guys got your own?

Tim: We are out there looking for a big brand. We have a show that is listened to by very motivated, passionate small business owners, and lots of them. We are knocking on the doors of big brands that we think would be an ideal partnership with us, and they are just not getting it. They are not getting that here is a piece of niche content that is highly targeted, where we have very motivated listeners. But they are like, some of them are like, “What is a podcast?” Others are like, “Well, it is not big enough for us.”

Luke: We do find it frustrating because there are a lot of, particularly the big banks, the likes of Zero, NYB, that are after the eyeballs of small businesses. There are a lot of people after the small business dollar.

Tim: Yeah. What are we doing wrong Harold?

Harold: Oh well, you are not doing anything wrong. I live my life like that, of being impatient. That is about all that is happening. I’d have to say crawl before you walk and all of those things. No you are doing the right thing.

Tim: We have been doing it for three years.

Harold: Have you? Well, I’ll tell you what, I have made a lot of money. I have been very successful. I built Australia’s biggest media company by a mile. Do you know how I did it? 40 years it took me to get there. So three years, that is not very long. You won’t take that long. the thing is you are on the right track, and you are early into the process. This all started about 2000. I started our image business in 2000 and went through all of the bumpy patches of the .com boom and everything that goes with it. All of that is before you. Three years has been a blink of an eye.

Tim: Your people now, for the sake of our listeners, your people, meaning the people who buy spaces, full page ads in the newspapers, 30 seconds on TV, is their job going to be very shortly to identify the niche opportunities like our show or whatever it is, little podcasts but together?

Harold: Oh, it’s happening now. We [inaudible 26:20] that this is digital of course.

Tim: Yes.

Harold: It will grow more and more, worldwide it is over 30% now, that is a very big thing in every way that we do it. More of the younger people are understanding that there is no such thing as a niche market, [inaudible 26:41] not to talk about it because niche is so small. If you can deliver the entire market to someone that wants, that is not a small market, but at that same time market to what you want. Now it is true that another generation is still having a bit of a struggle with niche media, and it is pretty safe to say that we recommend media solutions to advertise. It is pretty safe to say we are on television, we have a spot on the news, and no one is about to question that too much. But what we know about the digital world is that you can do everything much more efficiently, easier, and in a measurable way, highly targeted and so you concentrate on doing that.

Luke: Do you see Google as having the online advertising eyeballs of signup online?

Harold: No, I don’t very well. No, they have got it because of search. It’s been dramatic, and they are an incredible organisation and will continue like that for the foreseeable future. Now it is not there entirely. It will be many others in many ways, but they deserve every credit for what they have done. They started in a garage with not much money with an idea, and it just took off from there. They wanted to have everything in the world online. Good for them. But there are many other ways around all of that, many other ways, and you are probably one of them.

Tim: I hope so. Well, we are in a garage. We are in Luke’s garage right now. So there you go.

Harold: Many of the great companies started in a garage.

Tim: Oh I love that. I am excited. Harold, do you think the mass media, the broadcasters are keeping up in terms of the content they are putting out? It gives me a bit of a yawn when I see what is on television each night. Are they being not as creative or innovative as they should be?

Harold: They are giving people what they want. Now, for some people, that is not as creative or as innovative as they might want, but it is a mass market that they generally deal with, and they tend to go for a certain common denominator, [inaudible 28:36] and [inaudible 28:40]. The really big drivers are [inaudible 28:42] the last time I looked, from the top 30 [inaudible 28:47] sports and on the foxtail program, it is the top 30 all 30 sports. So that just shows about content, people want live action and a lot of other things in-between that they get hooked on over a long period of time. Remember, that is only three hours a day. People want certainty in what they’re going to do. So their regular program if it’s there, it is there. But this is a change. It is happening. It has been happening since 2000. It has happened more quickly in more recent times, and the world is digital and that is just what it is all about. The big media companies they know. They have got their extra channels. They are looking more at what they do online in so many different ways, and as we know with podcasts and things like you are doing, a lot of the very successful IBC programs, one of them [inaudible 29:33] like that, they are massive podcasts [inaudible 29:35] what he does, and everywhere like that.

That is the new world that is out there. It takes some time to work out something that is going to be new. Just remember what I said about the automobile, a man walked along in front with a white flag, this will never work. Eventually it did.

Tim: Harold, if you were to advise a small business somewhere to put their marketing dollar in advertising, where would it be?

Harold: Well, it would be across a whole range. We have more than 20 different companies, and they deal so much with all of the many different ways to market. There is no simple answer. Long ago has gone the “let us put it on television, it will work.” First, it is very expensive. The big idea is not as important as it once was, and the idea can come from anywhere as we well know. Social media can just take off overnight, and something can be there or not there. It can be so powerful. There is no longer, fortunately, any simple single solution to anything. There are many different ways. The ways to market now are multitudinous, and that is not going to change.

Luke: I think that’s exciting. Would you agree that that is the exciting thing for the small business owner? I grew up in a large advertising agency, and I have seen what things used to cost. Now, the ability for a small business owner to hail from a video marketing strategy or to have their own show like we do with a podcast is right there in front of us.

Harold: Yes, and that is good because that means the cost of entry at a certain level is lower than it ever was before. Just open your visions, get excited, but prepare to stub your toe every now and then, and have a real go at it. The cost of getting into it is much easier than it ever was.

Tim: Love it. Harold Mitchell, A.O., thank you so much for joining us. It would be remiss of me to say at the end, Harold, do you know of an advertiser out there who wants to get in front of small business owners in Australia?

Harold: Oh, we’ve got 4,000 with me. I am sure they come knocking on our door.

Tim: I’ll hop in the car there. Thanks so much.

Harold: Okay, fellows.

Tim: Thank you so much.

Luke: Thanks very much, Harold.

Tim: Bye, Harold.

Luke: Timbo, that was fascinating. Harold pretty much interviewed himself. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, but that is not unusual for me. It is amazing, Harold is not pulling any punches in terms of the way that digital is going. By 2020, 80% of marketing is going to be online. So it really is interesting. Maybe we should think about becoming Small Business Big Online Marketing?

Tim: Did we push a bit hard for a sponsor?

Luke: Yeah, we probably did.

Tim: Oh? What do they say, ask for the sale?

Luke: Yes, it is.

Tim: Golden fact, just as an aside, people often say, “How do we get these interviews? You have had some great people come for the show. Is it hard?” Often it is not.

Luke: Yeah.

Tim: You just have to ask.

Luke: Yeah.

Tim: So that was so kind of a busy guy to share those learnings and insights.

Luke: A very, very busy man. It is interesting going and looking at Aegis website, Harold’s business website. It appears that they have invested very heavily in digital marketing agencies, and I think it is certainly as Harold suggested, there is a lot of focus there.

Tim: There are a couple of listeners to our show who work at businesses that Harold owns, it would appear.

Luke: Right.

Tim: Yes, right. Finally, listeners thank you very much. We suggest you push the stop button in about five seconds. Go to SmallBusinessBigMarketing.com and register for a free fast start marketing report that spills the beans on how to go about getting your message right and your brand right, and we think you will enjoy that and that is our little gift for listening to us.

Luke: Yes, you also get notified as soon as our new podcasts are released as well.

Tim: Lucas, next week another interesting interview. We will keep the powder dry on that one.

Luke: Yes, we will.

Tim: We might post it on the Facebook shortly, but until then, thanks mate.

Luke: Cheers.

Tim: See you.

Announcer: You have just come that little bit closer to getting your business booming thanks to the Small Business Big Marketing show with Tim Reid and Luke Moulton. Please keep in mind that the information, opinions, and ideas expressed in this show are those of the hosts and interviewees and these alone, and they do not necessarily reflect those of their past, current, or future employers.

PLUS we tackle a question from a Chiropractor who’s running out of patience and Professor Mike Ewing suggests social media may not be all it’s cracked up to be [insert dramatic music ... da da da dahhhhh!].

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Luke’s blog post on Google Adwords – How to set up laser targeted local Adwords campaigns.

Siteboost – How to make your website outperform your competition.

Join the conversation on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Small business marketing is any activity aimed directly at generating an enquiry to a small business.

That activity may be based around five key aspects:

1. Product – What product (or service) can you offer that solves a major problem you’re prospects experience?

2. Price – How can you price it in a way that is attractive to your prospect whilst ensuring you make decent margin or sell lots of them at a low margin?

3. Place – Where can you distribute it so that the maximum amount of prospects have the opportunity to access it?

4. Promotion – How can you promote it in a way that engage your prospects and compels them to take action?

5. People – Who do you need in order to optimise the way your product gets to market?

There’s, of course, many other questions to be asked however the above provides a good start.

And here’s the secrets sauce – small business marketing is all about having lots of balls in the air at one time. Each ball being one marketing initiative. Some will fall to the ground … others will fly. You wont know which will do what until you try – so test and test again.

Is there a difference between small business marketing and big business marketing. Damn right, there is! Big businesses have a load more marketing dollars to spend. All that means is they get to do more things, more often.

Do you need a big stash of money to do great small business marketing? Hell, no!

You just need to be smart, will to give things a go, be patient and never give up. Look at marketing your small business as fun – it will show in your outputs.

And if you’re looking for somewhere to start – some ideas to get you going – then tune in to Australia’s #1 small business marketing podcast  - it’s literally full of hundreds of ideas shared by successful small business marketers.

(Acknowledgement – Thanks a million to Clodagh Higgins from Get Focussed Consulting who suggested we answer this question. Love your work, Clodagh ;0)

Plus we tackle a listener question from Miriam at the Old Hawaii Bakery who asks how she can continue to make money from her beloved business whilst slowly pulling back from the day to day hustle.

Oh, and in our much loved ‘Hey, Prof!’ segment, Marketing Professor Mike Ewing explains how the concept of simultaneous media consumption leads to attention fragmentation which eventually impacts on the way we consume marketing messages … how intellectual is that!!??

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

That book Luke mentioned – Every Bastard Says No.

Join the conversation on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Here’s an example I came across recently while exploring office supplies and stationary type keywords, using one of my favourite keyword research tools, SEMrush (aff). The results below show the top 10 keywords Kikki-K.com rank for in Google’s organic search results.

What are the results telling us? The SEMrush data suggests that 22,200 people are searching in Google for the brand name “Kikki K” as opposed to 5,400 people searching for “stationary”. This business has done such a great job building brand awareness, that more people are searching for their brand name than for “stationary”. They’ve managed to capture the hearts and minds of consumers jack of boring black canter-leaver folders.

This is a great illustration of how building brand awareness means fewer people can compete with you online in the search results. It would be very difficult, nigh impossible, for someone to setup a website and achieve a position #1 ranking in Google for Kikki K. In fact, if you do a search in Google for Kikki-K, you’ll see they own (figuratively speaking), or have access to, almost all the results on page one.

Building a brand also means your AdWords clicks will (generally) be cheaper. In Australia you can trademark your business name in Google AdWords to prevent others from bidding on it and mentioning it in ad copy. This means there’s no one else competing in AdWords for your main search term, thus making clicks cheaper, much cheaper.

SEMrush suggests that bidding on the term “stationary supplies” will cost your around $2.52 per click, while bidding on the band term “Kikki-K” will only cost $0.18. Does this encourage you to invest in brand building? It should – Google is the new Yellow Pages.

I’m not for second suggesting brand building is an easy marketing strategy, this is a long term strategy that takes time and money. However, it is worth keeping in mind that a quirky, non-english-dictionary word can be a good long term strategy.

As an aside: If you’re not familiar with Kikki-K’s work, they’re a very groovy stationary and office supplies business who have done an amazing job of turning the industry on it’s ear. If you pass one of their retail outlets, make sure you walk in a see how different they are compared to other boring office supply retailers – or just check out their product online.

Listen in, take some notes and then put in to action some of these valuable learnings. (Remember, Phil McKinney in last week’s show on Innovation talked about action being King?). ’11 marketing concepts explained’ for small business may just change your marketing world forever!

Plus Professor Mike Ewing explains what the difference is between sales and marketing.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Download the Forgotten Marketing Concept slide deck used in Tim’s presentation here.

Purchase Timbo’s Online Marketing Communications Masterclass (and yes, it includes 30-minutes coaching call with Timbo).

Join the conversation on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

First of all, what is WordPress?

WordPress is an online publishing platform that makes it easy to keep text and images up to date on your website without having to know anything about programming. It’s so easy my Dad can use it (you know I love you Dad, but let’s face it, technology is not your thing). WordPress was originally design for blogging, but has grown into a powerful content management system used for websites big and small.

WordPress is used by over 14.7% of Alexa Internet‘s “top 1 million” websites and as of August 2011 manages 22% of all new sites on the web, so it’s pretty popular. It’s not only used for small websites and blogs though, there are some big names using WordPress, including CNN and Sony, so when your business grows, so too can your WordPress website.

Why do we recommend WordPress for Small Business Websites?

1. It’s free

Yep, WordPress is free to download, and most website hosting services (like my favorite, Hostgator) will offer WordPress as an installation option so you can have a basic WordPress website setup in minutes.

2. You can do almost anything you can think of with it

WordPress has 1000′s of plugins and theme’s which add or alter it’s functionality. This means you can add shopping cart functionality, or a classifieds system, or a photo gallery or… the options are huge.

3. It’s dead easy to use

As I mentioned in the intro, WordPress is very easy to use. I setup a WordPress business website for my Dad, who curses technology (regularly), and after a watching a 10 minute video was able to jump in edit and update his website. You don’t know what a relief was – no more “son, I need to update my website” conversations.

3. WordPress is search engine friendly

With a few tweaks and one of the many SEO plugins, WordPress is very Search Engine friendly. There are also theme’s (skins that change the appearance of WordPress) like the Thesis theme that improve on some of WordPress’ default settings to make it perform better, SEO wise. Thesis is one of my personal favorites for creating SEO friendly websites quickly. Out of the box, they don’t look all that pretty, but whack in a nicely formatted header and make some typography changes and she’s apples.

4. Many web developers and designers know how to code WordPress websites

I used to own and run a web design agency – we had our own content management system that we built client websites on. To my mind this turned out to be a bad idea for both the client and us as an agency because it made it difficult for the client to take their business elsewhere. And believe me, there were times when I wished it was easy for some clients to take their business elsewhere!

WordPress has a MASSIVE developer community so if you choose to build your website on WordPress, you’ll never have trouble finding someone to help you develop your site. Also, because there are so many developers using WordPress, it means you won’t have to pay an arm and a leg to have things changed if needs-be.

5. WordPress is (mostly) secure

The last thing you want is to have your website hacked and defaced by some pimply faced teen hacker. Believe me, I’ve had one of my own sites hacked before and it’s a pain in the proverbial to get things fixed and repair the security hole.

The smart fellas over at WordPress are constantly improving the software, including it’s security. There are also plugins, like Bad Behaviour, that can help lock your website down even further.

So there you have it, 5 pretty solid reasons why WordPress is perfect for your small business website.

Tell us about your biggest marketing success.

Our biggest marketing success story is our website. It has always been our best marketing tool but we felt it could work even harder for us … and we were right!

What made you consider this marketing method?

We already knew that our website did a good job but we felt we could get more out of it. We purchased a Spotlight podcast from the guys at Small Business Big Marketing and as part of that podcast, they critiqued our core message and also our website.

How did you implement it?

The Spotlight podcast highlighted two things:

1. First, we had to stop trying to appeal to everyone. We needed to identify who our most ideal client was and hone our core message for them
2. We then re-wrote all the site content to speak to and attract that ideal client
3. Finally we re-designed the website to incorporate the tweaks Tim and Luke suggested

What were the outcomes?

When I first started Swish Design, it was just me in a 4x4m office and my overheads were tiny. I worked mostly with brand new businesses who had limited budgets for design. Over the years Swish Design grew into a team of three designers plus myself. This significant increase in overheads meant an increase in our pricing and new businesses/start-ups generally couldn’t afford us any more – but we were still pitching our marketing to this cohort.

The Spotlight segment with Tim and Luke really clarified for us the fact that our ideal client was more the medium enterprise/established small business. After re-writing all our website content for this niche, we have consistently attracted new enquiries from this group. We also have an excellent conversion rate with new enquiries as our website does a great job of making the client feel comfortable with the people behind Swish Design before they even meet us.

Since making all these changes we have been able to increase our turnover to such a significant degree that I have been able to bring a manager in to run the business which frees me to up to work on the business rather than in the business.

We have never run a single advertisement or placed a single ad in the Yellow Pages in the six years of our business and we have our website to thank for this!

About Kelly

Kelly Exeter is the owner of Swish Design, Perth’s friendliest design team. Swish Design loves to work with established small and medium enterprises who realise how much beautiful and consistent design is worth to their business! You can find Swish Design on facebook and if you are a twitter addict, you can find Kelly here.

• A process for coming up with new ideas for your marketing and product / service development;
• Why brainstorms don’t work;
• How to become innovative (even if you think you’re not);
• Why innovation in small business is so important;
• The concept behind Phil’s own innovation process called Killer Questions;
• How to run an innovations session.

Plus we tackle a listener question about why would some one pay for your face-to-face services when they can access your content online?

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Buy Phil McKinney’s book – ‘Beyond The Obvious’.

Join the conversation on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Group.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Get LinkedIn with Luke Moulton.

Get LinkedIn with Tim Reid.

Plus we tackle a listener question from Daniel Bennett -> If you were to approach a typical aussie small business that was struggling to keep afloat, (say for example a print shop or a cafe), what type of strategy would you present to them first – something more purely Internet Marketing based like the strategies you discuss with James on Freedom Ocean, or refer to your strategies in your small business marketing book – Cha Ching?

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

That Winning Feeling (Famous business founder interviews) – Register here to access the entire Geoff Harris interview plus much more.

Site Boost – Our newest training product that shows you how to optimise your website for more sales, enquiry and list building.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

- Why every small business should have a social conscience and how they can do it.

- What’s the future got in store for us small business owners?

- What is Wealth Dynamics and how can a small business owner use it to get in the flow, identify our strengths and weaknesses and surround ourselves with great people in order to attract and retain wealth in our business lives.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE WEALTH DYNAMICS TEST.

BUY A TICKET TO SEE ROGER HAMILTON SPEAK IN AUSTRALIA IN MARCH 2012.

Luke also shares his current productivity challenges; Timbo throws around the idea of running a Small business Big Marketing workshop in Bali and we answer a listener question about whether to launch a social media strategy before your website goes live PLUS the Professor Mike Ewing talks about Post-Purchase Dissonance … what!!??

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

That Winning Feeling (Famous business founder interviews) – Register here to access the entire Geoff Harris interview plus much more.

Site Boost – Our newest training product that shows you how to optimise your website for more sales, enquiry and list building.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Roger Hamilton’s Bali Resort – XL Vision Villas.

The Green School, Bali - Roger Hamilton is on the Board.

The same applies for AdWords; if you’re trying to target “wedding reception venues” with an AdWords campaign, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

For a little background on how and why you pay more for some keywords than others: AdWords is essentially an auction; when someone types a keyword in the search field, a mini auction takes place that positions advertisers’ ads. There are a number of factors that contribute to where an ad is positioned in the results which including:

• Cost per click – what you’re willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad
• Ad copy relevance – how relevant is your ad copy to the term being searched
• Website relevance – how relevant is the content on your website to the term being searched
• Click Through Rate – how popular are your ads – what percentage of people click on them

The last three factors are part of a range of factors Google calls “Quality Score”.

So, why are venues (in this case) willing to pay upwards of $3 per click to have their ads shown? Because converting someone who clicks on their ad into a customers means 1000′s of dollars in revenue.

As a small business with a limited budget, offering services to people in your local area, how are you going to compete while maximising your marketing dollar? You narrow down the area you’re targeting.

Enter AdWords Location Targeting

At the AdWords campaign setting level, Google gives you the option to bring up a map and use the Radius tool to select a geographic area in which your ads will be displayed. For example, I can target people searching for “wedding venues” within a radius of 50km of my business. Pretty cool huh – and kinda scary . Geo targeting isn’t an exact science and using this method may mean you miss out on some searches simple because Google can’t always tell where people are searching from (believe it or not).

Back to my venue owning friend… 

He was in the same position as you and I, dear reader; limited budget, unsure as to the performance of AdWords – would it generate leads, would it be a waste of time and money… So we setup a few campaigns targeted only at people within a radius of 50 km of the venue using AdWord’s radius targeting option in the campaign setting, and kept a close eye on the performance of the campaign.

Initially it looked something like this:

This was a good start – he began attracting people interested in the venue, but they were not always highly qualified. And this meant he was wasting money on people who were never going to buy from him.

If you’re familiar with Melbourne, looking at the image above, you’ll understand why. The area targeted was attracting people from the other side of the city. People generally (there area exceptions of course) like to get married close to where their family and friends live.  So to ensure my friend was getting the biggest bang for his buck, we decided to narrow the field down even further.

Bringing the local adwords targeting radius down even further did the trick. He was able to spend less, attract more qualified leads and expand his campaigns to include other event types.

If you’re a professional services business or bricks and mortar retailer, I urge you to at least test using local AdWords targeting and get your message in front of customers looking for your product or service in your area.

The Northcote Home’s website

The Northcote Home’s Twitter feed

The Nothcote Home’s YouTube Channel

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

That Winning Feeling (Successful business founder interviews) – Register here to access the entire Geoff Harris interview that we did a few weeks ago..

Site Boost – Our newest training product that shows you how to optimise your website for more sales, enquiry and list building.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Also, in this episode of the Small Business Big Marketing show :

- We discuss the concept of you are who Google says you are and provide some tips ensuring that only the good stuff appears on page 1! ;
- Professor Mike Ewing of Monash University sheds light on the 4Ps of Marketing;

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

That Winning Feeling (Successful business founder interviews) – Register here to access the entire Geoff Harris interview that we did a few weeks ago..

Site Boost – Our newest training product that shows you how to optimise your website for more sales, enquiry and list building.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Knowem – Reserve your name on hundreds of sites.

Sometimes we can all get a little bogged down in so much marketing detail that we can end up forgetting one of the most basic of all business techniques.

And that’s the importance of communication.

Let’s face it.  Have you ever been so busy and wrapped up in other projects that you forget to respect your business partners?  And by partners, we’re referring to anyone you interact with on a business level.  This can be suppliers, staff, colleagues, even customers.  All of these people are your partners in crime, and as such deserve the utmost respect in regards to communication.

When it comes down to it, if you want to work with your partners – and get the best out of them – then you need to ensure that your communication is impeccable.  After all, most of us have probably had a business scenario when you’ve been let down at the last minute.  And any time that happens it means that whoever lets you down slides just a little way down the scale of importance in your business dealings.

After all, in business – as in every aspect of life – sometimes the proverbial hits the fan, and things don’t end up going to plan.  But as long as you communicate with your business partners, most people will understand – just as long as they’re kept in the loop and know what’s going on.  Work with people who want to work with you – that’s the key to good communication and business relationships.

And whilst we’re on the subject of communication…

Here’s a marketing idea that even some of the most successful companies could do with remembering.  And that’s that no matter how big you get, or how much of a household name you become, don’t ever assume that everybody knows just what it is that you do.

Because as sure as the sun coming up every morning, there will be people that won’t have heard of you.

The minute you forget that is the moment that you begin to lose out on potential customers.

Now, we’re pretty sure that we don’t need to tell you how to suck eggs, but on occasion it really is necessary for all of us to just go back and check over the basics.  And without clear, concise communication, then you might as well just throw in the towel and give up now.

But of course – we know you’re made of sterner stuff than that.  So get out there, and shout your message out loud and clear – because it’s simply the only way to get noticed.

What do you think?

Sign-up for your FREE Fast Start Marketing Report.

Plus Luke vents about some professional services’s approach to follow-up; we answer a question about how to identify a very specific target audience; and the Prof talks about the importance of emotion in marketing.

Exclusive Listener Offer

Become a Member of Read It For Me and receive:

1. A downloadable copy if Timbo’s 250-page eBook – Cha-Ching! (chockfull of small business marketing ideas).

2. A copy of Lukeee’s How To Build An Email Subscriber List. Fast.

3. The video summary of Steve Jobs’s biography.

These exclusive bonuses are not available anywhere else.

To claim your bonuses, simply forward us your Paypal receipt to questions(at)smallbusinessbigmarketing(dot)com.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

That Winning Feeling (Successful business founder interviews) – Register here to access the entire Geoff Harris interview plus much more.

Site Boost – Our newest training product that shows you how to optimise your website for more sales, enquiry and list building.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Also in this episode of Small Business Big Marketing:

- Timbo answers a listener question about how he made the transition from the corporate jungle to starting his own successful small business;

- We pull apart an email Timbo received asking his to LIKE someone’s Facebook page;

- You’ll hear from Professor Mike Ewing in our new segment ‘Hey, Prof!’ as he tackles another marketing conundrum.

Here’s an example episode of the Ask Allan segment that Brent talks about in this interview:

• Talk about big brand marketing efforts (or lack of!) at the Australian Tennis Open;
• Dissect what happened when Timbo’s Twitter account came under some serious fire;
• Share some some tips on how to go about your email marketing;
• Launch our brand new segment ‘Hey, Prof!” with Marketing Professor Mike Ewing from Monash University;
• Discuss a copywriting tip Timbo’s gleaned for the Steve Job’s biography.

“I’m wanting to update my website and really want to get it right this time.”

“I know my business needs a website, but don’t know where to start.”

We hear this from our listeners and clients all the time. PLUS, in our travels we’ve created a number of successful websites AND spent time with business owners who’s websites generate some serious return – both in dollar terms, enquiry and list building.

So we’ve created SITE BOOST … 2+ hours of video training showing you the exact characteristics of a successful website AND how to apply them to your current or future site. Broken down in to individual sessions, we go in to detail on Set-Up, Usability, Trust Factors, Content, Search Engine Optimisation, List-Building, Design, Continual Improvement PLUS we cover key concepts that make improving your website even easier.

Every insight is backed up by a real life example. All 72 insights, in fact.

A website should be a cornerstone of any marketing strategy. If you know what you’re doing then having a website that actually grows your business shouldn’t be that hard. SITE BOOST shows you exactly what to do.

Site Boost should save you thousands of dollars and tens of hours in wasted time by showing you how to get your website right – once and for all.

Enjoy two chapters on us …

TRUST FACTORS

LIST BUILDING

Gain immediate access to the Member’s Area containing:

1. All 9 video chapters;
2. The audio files of every chapter to download to your iPod;
3. The entire slide deck to scribble your action points on;
4. Life time updates.

One of the quickest ways to business suicide is to rely solely on a single advertising source to attract customers.

So – if you only take one thing away with you from our blog, let it be this.

Never, ever stop marketing!

And they needn’t cost you a fortune.  There’s a bunch of different marketing ploys you can use that barely cost anything.  Such as

• Networking opportunities
• Giving out business cards
• Asking satisfied customers to put a review on your website (what do you mean, you haven’t got a website…)
• Okay then, for anyone who hasn’t – GET A WEBSITE!  Any website – you can always upgrade it, just get yourself online.  Pronto.
• Posting comments on various blogs, forums and the like – offering relevant advice and leaving a link to your website

The list is endless – and these are marketing opportunities that will cost you virtually nothing – in monetary terms, at least.  But don’t ever forget that your time has a value as well.

So, combine these with your paid for advertising, and you start to have quite a few marketing balls in the air, all working for you.

But it doesn’t stop there.  Because you constantly need to be measuring the success ratio of every single marketing ploy you’re using.  It’s only by doing this that you’ll know which marketing is working for you and which isn’t.

And guess what?  By measuring the success rate, you can tweak, change or even ditch the marketing that doesn’t work – and increase your efforts into those that do.

Treat your business, and your business marketing, as a living thing.  It needs constant looking after, constant attention and constant adaptations to cope with an ever-changing market.  Once you get your head around that concept, marketing just became a whole lot easier.  (Not easy mind, just easier!).

Remember, with marketing you need to see a significant return on every marketing dollar spent.  And if it’s not working, it’s time to change.  And how do you measure it?  Simple – ask every single customer who rings, emails or comes into your premises exactly where they heard about you.

Get into the habit of it, and you’ll soon be measuring your marketing strategy without even breaking into a sweat.  So go on – get your balls up there…

Hi Tim,

Welcome to the last edition of Rons Rant for 2011.

First of all, I’d like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Healthy Happy New Year and that 2012 brings continued success.

In our last edition we mentioned some of the changes that were happening in the market place. But nothing could have prepared me for the biggest challenge in my life.

In September, I was diagnosed with a head and neck cancer after discovering a lump in my neck. I must say it was a very surreal experience as the first thought, I think we all have is that “it will never happen to me”. Following that initial diagnosis things moved very quickly. 2 separate operations, eight teeth removed and 7 weeks of Chemo & Radiation and as I write, the treatment has just completed. I am still in hospital being treated for the side effects that can continue after treatment has stopped.

There is no doubt that this will be a life changing experience and even though my prognosis is very good; it’s the way you handle the process after being challenged by your own mortality. That will have a lasting impact on me forever.

I wanted to pass on some of my thoughts that I have had during this process. If it can help one person it has been worthwhile.

• Never take anything for granted…..from a health point get any lumps etc. checked out.
• Take each day as it comes…..live in the now……not yesterday….not tomorrow.
• Have great support networks……family and friends have been unbelievable in their support……(cooking food, childminding, drop offs/pick ups to and from the hospital, gardening, etc…..if they love you they will be there for you)
• Don’t be afraid to take a risk……what’s the worst thing that can happen?
• Have an amazing attitude….it will help you get though whatever challenge you might be facing.
• 3 little words…….I’ll handle it………

 We will be back bigger and better in 2012.

Ron.

Thanks for sharing, Ronnie. And God’s speed in your recovery.

The winner of our recent Mornington Peninsula Brewery content is announced; we’re the proud runners up of the recent international Podcast Awards; we discuss the very giving concept of brand’em acts of kindness; we muse over the importance of LinkedIn and how to make your profile more marketable; we launch our newest training product called SITE BOOST that shows you how to get the most out of your website; Lukeee shares his big news; we ponder the importance of mobile marketing AND last but by no means least, we talk about our search for a sponsor for 2012. Phew … enjoy!

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Site Boost – Our newest training product that shows you how to optimise your website for more sales, enquiry and list building.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

And that’s often easier said than done!

Sure – we can all rattle on at length about what our business offers, but let’s be honest here, most people tune out after the first ten seconds.  If you don’t hook them in that first sentence, you’ve pretty much lost them forever.  And it’s that very reason that it’s so vitally important for every single small business person to have a killer answer to that very common question – “So what does your business do?”

For example, look at the following two quotes.  This first one is from a junk collector in the USA – a business that doesn’t exactly fill you with enthusiasm when you hear what they do.  But when you see that their description of the business is as follows, it suddenly becomes a whole lot more interesting:

“Uncluttering People’s Lives”

Neat, don’t you think?

And what about the Australian brewery whose slogan is the following:

“We Make the World More Social”

Pretty cool, huh?  And certainly hits the spot far more than just saying that they brew beer.  Mind you, the beer hits the spot as well…  But we digress.

You see, this ‘elevator pitch’ is all about thinking outside the box and coming at your product from a unique angle.  And once you’ve done that you need to come up with a succinct and compelling one-liner that’ll have your audience saying “tell me more.”

And one of the best ways of coming up with what is essentially your business USP (unique selling point), is to first understand exactly what it is that your target audience requires.  Once you can get into their mindset and discover exactly what solutions your business can provide them with, you’re half way to nailing your elevator pitch.  That too can take some doing, and is something that the savvy small business owner will think long and hard about.  And remember, catering for your customers’ needs is an ever evolving issue.  So don’t ever think you’ve found your niche and that’s it – success comes from adapting, tweaking and constantly perfecting what you’ve got.

So get working on that elevator pitch.  And once you’ve got it, repeat it over and over to yourself until it’s etched inside your mind.  Because you never know when you’re going to get that once in a lifetime chance to make an impression.

Good luck…

Okay – that’s great.  But there’s another type of knowledge that is equally as vital to your small business.  And that’s knowing the mindset of your customers.

Yes, most people put in the legwork to find out information at their customers demographic level, which is of course, critical information you need.  But what can honestly change the level of success your business enjoys is by managing to understand the way that your customers think.  In other words, their hopes, dreams, aspirations – and how your product can provide a solution to them.

Sure – you’re not necessarily going to have a product that floats everyone’s boat.  But it’s going to do it for some.  And if you can get exactly what it is that your potential customer is searching for, you can target your marketing specifically to answer those questions.

Take Darren Finkelstein, who runs St. Kilda Boat Sales in Melbourne.  He’s not only an expert in his field, but he ‘gets’ what it is that his customers are looking for.  And that’s whether he’s selling a $5000 boat or a $150,000 one.  He understands the dream – be it to just get out on the water to snag a few snappers, or to live the high-flyer, champagne lifestyle on the high seas.  And he can offer the solution to his clients’ needs.  Not to mention that he knows his boats inside out, so when he talks to his potential customers they know they’re talking to an expert simply from the lingo he uses and the advice he offers.

And that’s exactly what you need to be able to do with your small business.

Get into the mindset of your customers.  Exactly what problem do they have, and what solution can your business offer them?

And if you find you’re struggling to try to understand this concept, there’s a simple way around it.  Ask people!

Ask everyone you come across.  And keep clear records of their answers.  Because it’s only through concise market research such as this that accurate trends will appear.  And having this knowledge is one of the most powerful assets a small business owner can have.

No matter what your small business is all about, you simply have to offer a guarantee to your customers.  After all, why on earth should they buy from you if you don’t believe in your product enough to guarantee it?

However, the thought of actually having to give money back to customers is a scary one.  But something that you really have to accept in business.  After all, you can please some people some of the time…. as those famous lyrics go.

But what should you actually guarantee?  And how do you go about being fair to your customer, but also to put in place legitimate and fair damage limitation so that should something beyond your control go wrong that you don’t end up completely out of pocket?

That’s where the expression ‘keep it simple, stupid’ comes into play.

Let’s face it, we’ve all seen those reams of terms and conditions – small print that, to be honest, who on earth has the time, inclination or even the interest to plough through when you’re purchasing a product.  And we’re all guilty of it – only worrying about all those get-out clauses when something actually goes wrong.

The thing is, far too many businesses hide behind that small print.  And if there’s one thing that’s going to make your customers (or potential customers) think you’ve got something to hide, then it’s page after page of terms and conditions.

After all – how refreshing is it so see a company that says something along the lines of;

“We guarantee that our product is suitable to do XXX.  If it doesn’t, we’ll refund (100% / 80% or whatever) of the purchase price – no questions asked.”

It’s a bold statement – but it’s crystal clear!  And how many extra sales do you think a guarantee like that would bring you?  Because we’d bet our last dollar that it would certainly see them racking up!

In today’s world of mad litigation, multi-page contracts and people and businesses doing whatever they can to squirm out of anything they can, a guarantee like that will stand out like a shining beacon in the darkness.

Sure – it’ll take some courage to do it, but rather than thinking of it as a guarantee, think of it as yet another marketing strategy.  And anything that gets your customers sitting up and taking notice of you is exactly what you’re aiming for.

Be different, be professional, be bold.  It’s exactly these attributes that’ll have your business standing out from the crowd.

Do you offer a guarantee? Share it in the Comments section.

** This is just one of the many observations we made in an interview we did with John, the Founder of Wicked Campers. You can listen to the whole Wicked Campers marketing interview here. **

Exclusive Listener Offer – Free Masterclass SessionOn Branding

Access the entire first session of Timbo’s Online Marketing Communications Masterclass – It’s 90-minutes in which he covers key marketing concepts every small business owner should know an understand PLUS shows you how (using his tried and tested process) to identify the key pillars of you brand.

We also talk cookies, small pleasures and recent book Lukeee read called Lean Start-Up.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Australian Gourmet Cookies – A big thanks to Sharon for seeding us … or should that be feeding us?!

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

The website Timbo has put together to sell his in-law’s beach house – A waterfront property on Raymond Island – Gippsland Real Estate

Because whilst many so-called ‘marketing experts’ will happily take mucho dollars off your hands to design you the perfect logo, do you honestly think that it is really the be all and end all of your business?

The thing is, the key thing to understand about marketing your small business is not to become so focused on one thing that you forget to worry about everything else.

And even if your marketing strategy is working, you should never, ever just sit back and congratulate yourself on how well things are going.  Because marketing your small business is a living, breathing, dynamic entity – and for that simple fact it needs feeding, tweaking and stirring around to keep it working.

Hey – we know that it takes a brave person to change something that’s ticking along okay.  But – and you should think about this very carefully – how do you know that your advertising and promotions are bringing you in the best sales possible unless you experiment?

Well then, isn’t that a question that’s sure to strike fear into the heart of any small business person…

But one thing that the savvy entrepreneur needs to realise, is that stirring up the mix is simply the only way of finding out the answer.  And that’s a key learning point that all small business owners need to come to terms with when it comes to marketing their business.

So, what you need to do is take a good hard look at the ways you market your business, and ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there any way you can actually measure how well certain marketing strategies that you have in place are actually doing?
• If so, are they performing in way that you need them to?
• Could that performance be better?
• Is each and every dollar you’re spending on your traditional marketing working as hard as it possibly can?
• Could that money be better spent elsewhere?

These are questions that you need to be asking on a regular basis.  Because consumers, their needs and their habits change.  And what might have worked last year, or even last month, might not be working now.

It’s a tough call, but something that you simply have to get to grips with if you seriously want your business to grow.  And hey – if you make a mistake, you simply backtrack and put that mistake right.

So, although it might seem like a crazy move – changing what might currently be a winning formula – it’s one of the most necessary things any small business owner simply has to come to terms with.

Adapt and survive – it’s the only way forward.  And failure to do so is one of the biggest pitfalls that’s killed many a small business stone dead.  Don’t let that be true for you…

** This is just one of the many observations we made in an interview we did with John, the Founder of Wicked Campers. You can listen to the whole Wicked Campers marketing interview here. **

Now, this isn’t meant to make you want to give up and go home.  In fact, what it should do is help get that fire in your belly that gave you the passion to start your business in the first place, all riled up again.

And that’s what you should be listening to.  That gut feeling that tells you that a certain marketing strategy is the way to go.  Because nine times out of ten, that nagging feeling in the pit of your belly is offering you that spark of genius to which you should be paying attention.

You see – once you’ve identified your target market, what you really need to do is get inside the minds of your customers.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Why would your potential customers be looking for your product?
• What is it that would drive your target market to purchase your product?
• Is there a unique angle that you could exploit to showcase your product to your potential customers?
• Is your current marketing ploy simply a carbon copy of what all your competitors are doing?

Now – for the first three of those questions, that’s where you need to let your gut instinct come into play.  Let your imagination run wild, no matter how crazy, daft or downright stupid those ideas might be, and get them all committed down on paper.  (Because if you don’t, sod’s law says that you’ll have forgotten half of them by the time you want to re-consider.  And you might have just let the marketing plan of the century be lost in the murky depths of your grey matter!)

And as for the fourth question!  Well, that’s where most marketing plans fall into the same old trap – costing money, bringing in poor to average sales, and leaving most small business owners scratching their heads wondering what the heck they’re doing wrong.

A fantastic example of a small business owner using this gut instinct is John Webb from Wicked Campers – a company who provide the wackiest paint jobs on camper vans for travellers.  Forget about the odd dint here and there, they concentrate on what the van looks like!  He’s one guy who literally, with no real marketing experience, followed his gut as to how to develop and promote his brand.  From understanding his target market to incredible promotions such as the ‘naked special,’ which – for the uninitiated, really is exactly as it sounds.

** This is just one of the many observations we made in an interview we did with John, the Founder of Wicked Campers. You can listen to the whole Wicked Campers marketing interview here. **

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Get your Fast Web Formula 3 (FWF3) videos and bonuses.

Andy Grand’s Super Affiliate Masterclass Recordings – Earn extra income / discover a new marketing strategy

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Get your Fast Web Formula 3 (FWF3) videos and bonuses.

Andy Grand’s Super Affiliate Masterclass Recordings – Earn extra income / discover a new marketing strategy

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Plus we have a laugh about Apple’s infamous auto-correct feature, Starbuck’s launch of a (lame) augmented reality Christmas campaign plus how one of our rcenet guests have found their way in to Anthill magazine’s Top 50 Coolest Companies for 2011.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Get your Fast Web Formula 3 (FWF3) videos and bonuses.

Andy Grand’s Super Affiliate Masterclass Recordings – Earn extra income / discover a new marketing strategy

Guestrr (Get or make guest posts) – Luke’s new website all about getting guest posts for your website or blog.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Get your Fast Web Formula 3 (FWF3) videos and bonuses.

Guestr – Guest Post Content – Luke’s new website all about getting guest posts for your website or blog.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Zentester - Brent’s website testing tool

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

And here’s Brent’s 7-step process on how to write sales copy. Seriously good, high-converting sales copy.

• When we talk about “copy”, what are we talking about, and why do business owners need it?
• What are the big problems business owners face when writing copy?
• So, where do you start? (Copy isn’t hard – but there are 4 big mistakes business owners make in their copy).
• 3 Keys to Good Copy.
• The first 3-steps of 7 to writing great sales copy.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Zentester – Brent’s website testing tool

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

And here’s Brent’s 7-step process on how to write sales copy. Seriously good, high-converting sales copy.

Writing Sales Copy

This is the process Brent Hodgson from ZenTester uses to write sales and marketing copy.

It’s an effective step-by-step process for any type of copy – although you will need to cut down the end output to suit your needs.

1. Bullets

The best place to start writing copy is by working out what you’re selling.

Start by listing every feature about your product or service on 3×5 index cards. (You can buy index cards at most newsagencies.)

Example:

If you’re selling golf clubs, a feature of one of your golf clubs might be the perfectly weighted alloy head.

By the time you’ve finished writing down the features of your product, you might find you have several hundred features. This is great! Perhaps for the first time, you can see a list of the “things” that people want to buy inside your product or service.

The next step is to work out what is special about each one of these “things” – or what the benefit is of each of these features.

Example:

Using the example feature of the perfectly weighted golf club head, the benefits for this feature might be more distance, more accuracy, more power and less strain in your swing.

If you’re a financial planner, one of overlooked features of your service is that you are subject to Continuing Professional Development, that all financial planners must undertake. Some of the benefits of this might be that the customer can have confidence your skills are up to date, you are aware of the latest risks and opportunities in the market, and you will invest their money wisely.

When you’re done, you’ll have something that you can easily turn into a feature-benefit bullet point.

Example: All pastries are baked fresh on the premises daily – meaning they’re even warmer and sweeter with the first bite. 24 hour monitoring of your alarm system – so your family, and belongings, are secure from intruders – even when you can’t be there to protect them yourself

These bullet points will form the meat of your marketing sandwich.

2. Problems

This is where we put pen to paper and write the introduction to your sales copy.

Look over the list of bullet points you’ve created, and pick the BIG benefits – the big reasons why customers pick your product over alternatives.

Then flip that benefit into a pain point.

Example:

If people buy from you more often because you’re more reputable than your competitors, it’s because of fear, uncertainty and doubt about your competitors.

If people are buying your $1,000 coffee machine, instead of going to Starbucks, the local latte shop, or buying a $200 coffee machine, then it’s likely that they want to avoid the pain of getting bad coffee, the cost of buying coffee from coffee shops, and the hassle of going out to get coffee (when some benefits of your coffee machine might be the convenience of getting high quality coffee at home).

Or if you’re an electrician who arrives on-time, cleans up after themselves, and charges fairly – talk about the pain of messy, late, unprofessional and expensive.

List these pain points – and then turn them into a “pain story”, focussing on the problems your customer will face, and the benefits they will miss out on, if they don’t buy your product.

This story will grab the attention of potential customers, and prepare them to buy by reminding them of the reasons why they need to buy from you.

Example:

Using the electrician example from before, you might end up with a story like:

“When you pick an electrician – how do you know you have the right one?

You pick an electrician out of the phone book because you want a new light switch installed. They say they’ll be there on Saturday morning (later than you want), but you grit your teeth and say “OK”.

Saturday morning comes and goes… And so does most of the afternoon. And suddenly, the electician rolls up – disorganised, smelly and dirty and straight from his last job, trudging muddy blundstones across your clean floor.

They make a hole in your wall for a new light switch, and whack the wires together as quickly as they can, and finish the job – leaving plaster dust on your floor.

But before leaving, they make sure they slap you with a bill so big it makes you feel like you’re passing a kidney stone.

Later that night, it strikes you… He hardly seemed to be paying any attention when wiring up the new light switch… It seemed to be a slap-up job… And they weren’t even dilligent enough to call ahead to let you know they were running late (by several hours!)…

So how do you know they’re diligent enough to the job right?

There could be electrical wires inside your walls and ceiling that are now a dangerous fire or electrical shock hazard – putting you, your belongings, and your family at risk!”

(At this point, your headline practically writes itself… Perhaps something like “Don’t make these mistakes when picking the an electrician…” or “Get the right electrician, and get the job done the right way” or perhaps“Are you putting your family at risk by hiring the wrong electrician?”.)

3. Offer the Solution

Now that you’ve built up the pain of not buying your product, they’re practically begging for a solution for all the pain they’re reading about.

Now’s time to swoop in like Batman to save the day, and show the customer your product.

(Suddenly, you’re no longer “selling” to them. Instead, you’re just person who happens to offer the solution to their problems. Aren’t you a nice guy!)

Remember those feature-benefit bullets you wrote? Do you see why you wrote them now? It’s a laundry list of solutions to all of your customer’s problems, and they’re a great way to demonstrate the value of your product to customers.

Combined with all the fear, uncertainty and doubt your customer has about alternatives and competing products, they’ll be at your whim – unable to resist your product.

4. Call to Action

It’s time to tell them what to do right now…

• “To book now, call {phone number} and register your spot with {person’s name}.”
• “Click on the button below to get your copy now.”
• “Enter your details below for a free measure and quote.”
• “Click here to download now.”

Lay it out for them in precise detail. Tell them what to do, when to do it, and what they can expect after doing it.

5. Give them a reason to act now.

You’re so close to a sale – so make sure you don’t let them get away!

Tell them why they need to act immediately by showing them that your product is legitimately scarce. (I say legitimately scarce, because you should never lie in your sales copy.)

How do you find legitimate scarcity? Every business has constraints. Think about yours:

• A limited number of appointments available each week;
• A 2-week waiting list for appointments;
• Only 2 units left of an item in your warehouse;
• You have a BAS due on Friday, and you need to make some quick sales with a special offer;

These are all great reasons for customers to act now.

If you can’t think of anything, manufacture scarcity:

• A 40-hour special to celebrate your 40th birthday;
• You’re testing a new special offer for the next two weeks to see if it increases sales;
• You want to reward action-takers who buy within 48 hours with a special offer;

Whatever your scarcity is, be a person of integrity and keep your word. (If you say an offer is only available for 7 days, make sure it expires on the 7th day!)

With the right sales copy, you’ll wield a lot of power and influence over your customers – so much that they will literally end up begging to buy from you (particularly when they miss out on a good special offer.)

But if you use this power without integrity to “play” your customers instead of helping them, they’ll never forgive you.

6. Polish Your Copy!

Congratulations! You’ve written some great sales copy – and you can stand back and admire your work.

But before you start using it, there are some simple “tweaks” you can apply to good sales copy to make it work even better.

These “tweaks” are based in sound psychological principles of influence:

• Authority
• Social Proof
• Contrast, and
• Removing Obstacles

Authority

• Show them your awards, licenses, qualifications, industry accreditations;
• Add a security icon to your site, reassuring customers their details are safe becuase your site uses 128 bit encryption;

Social Proof

• Scatter testimonials from happy customers throughout your sales copy;

Contrast

• Contrast your price against more expensive alternatives (including the cost of inaction!);
• Contrast your product against the results customers will get from less effective competing products;
• Do a side-by-side comparison;
• Show them their annual savings over 12 months;
• Show them how much their business might improve over the next 12 months with your product;

Remove Obstacles

• Make your shopping cart easy to use;
• Take away long queues when people call to place an order;
• Provide a trial offer;
• Provide a money-back guarantee;
• Offer a payment plan for expensive products;

7. Test it!

How do you know whether your copy is any good? …How do you know if it can be any better? …How do you decide between two, or three different ideas for your marketing copy?

Split testing is the “secret sauce” top marketers use to make sure they always make the right decisions, and get the best results from their copy.

To split test your copy, split your customers into 2 (or more) groups and send different versions of your marketing copy to each group.

By tracking and measuring which version results in the most signups, enquiries, quotes or sales.

If you’re split testing your website marketing copy, easy-to-use software (like Brent Hodgson’s ZenTester software) helps you to split test your marketing copy, and make more sales effortlessly.

If you’re writing copy for your website, improving your results using a tool like ZenTester will help you to dominate your competitors when it comes attracting customers (and making sales!) online.

Small Business Big Marketing listeners can grab a free 30-day trial of the full Gold-level features for free by signing up here. (Valued at $299 per year.) Be quick, and get yours now – becuase this trial offer won’t be around forever!

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Online Press Release Package – The same one Mark & Ilde used.

Buy Starlettos – Use the code SBBM, get 20% off and avoid that sinking grass feeling forever.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Kokomo Coconut Water – They seeded us, and we slurped it up (well, Lukeee did).

The website Timbo has put together to sell his in-law’s beach house - A waterfront property on Raymond Island – Gippsland Real Estate

Given it’s located on a first road and off the beaten path, the owners don’t naturally have a lot of traffic passing their front gate.  They rely on sandwich boards, a form of billboard advertising, placed on the corners of the nearest main roads to notify passers by of their location. Those nearest main roads have speed limits of 90km/h and 100km/h.

Now, picture the last time you were traveling in a car at around 100 k’s an hour. How do you reckon you’d go trying to read a 60cm by 100cm sandwich board passing you 5 meters away. You’ve got Buckly’s of reading any more than a couple of words. The image above is of the actual sandwich board, but I have blurred it with Photoshop for dramatisation – in the interests of safety, I pulled the car over before taking this shot!

In the oposite direction to the winery, there’s an olive grove. They also have a lovely little cafe and sell local boutique products, however, the owners are a little more canny when it comes to billboard advertising.

The olive grove owners have a trailer they’ve turned into a mobile billboard. The billboard on the back of the trailer is about 10 times the size of a sandwich board, and so is the writing. Even at 100 km/hr you can read their messaging.

This is a good reminder to take a step back and look at your advertising “in-situe”. Wether it’s a sandwich board, your shop front window or a magazine ad, put yourself in you customers shoes; flick through that magazine with mild interest, walk past your shop window with a fleeting glance, drive past your sandwich board doing the speed limit. Is your messaging readable – let alone attention grabbing?

This is the starting point for Spotlight… one of our most popular offers where we record an exclusive episode (podcast style) dedicated to improving the marketing of your business. No waffle, no gags (actually that’s not true), no “what’s on our mind”  segment, no guest… just Timbo and Lukeee talking about your business and how we’d go about marketing it. Plus we include links and access to resources that we use to turbo-charge the marketing of our own businesses.

Our Small Business Big Marketing Spotlight works like this:

Send – You email us up to three pieces of marketing collateral….things like a link to your website, brochure artwork, a newsletter, signage, an ad, direct mail piece … it’s up to you what you send.

Review – We then review them separately (it makes it more exciting!) and take copious notes about what we love and why…but more importantly, what we don’t love and what we’d do differently.

Record – We then head in to the studio and record a 45-minute episode of Small Business Big Marketing exclusively dedicated to your business. Every word we utter, idea we share, joke we attempt to make will be 100% laser-focused at turbo-charging the marketing of YOUR business.

Implement – We then email the show back to you as an MP3 file for your listening pleasure.

All this for just AU $497…for the best value marketing coaching available today.

Don’t take our word for it, here’s what Kelly had to say…

Hey guys – I don’t have a camera on my computer, else I would send you a kick ass video testimonial…

All I can say is thank you so much for the very healthy dose of tough love. You served up a year’s worth of marketing gold in 45 minutes and all it cost was $500. I’m totally embarrassed that’s all I paid!
Kelly Exeter – Swish Design

Sample 5 minute excerpt from Kelly’s Spotlight (To download – right click then save as)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Why’s it called Spotlight?
A. Really? It’s not obvious? Well, it’s simple….we metaphorically pick up the biggest, brightest, most intense spotlight we can find and shine it on your marketing efforts. It’s kind of like looking in the mirror under fluorescent light…every blemish can be seen in the cold hard light of day…and attended to swiftly!

Q. Who gets to hear it?
A. You…and anyone else you choose to share it with. We share it with no one.

Q. Who owns it?
A. You. We’re simply the creator and courier.

Q. So, you just give me constructive criticism about my marketing efforts, right?
A. That’s certainly the starting point, and a major part of the show. But we will also share with you useful links and resources that we know you should be using. We’re constantly amazed at the plethora of marketing tools available to the small business owner…many of which are free….you just need to know where to look.

Q. How does Spotlight differ to your podcast?
A. Spotlight is 100% laser-focused on your business. It will sound as though you’re listening to an episode of Small Business Big Marketing….with the same intro and outro…but in between it’s 100% Timbo and Lukeee talking about your business and how to improve its marketing. Cool, huh?

Q. What happens once I hand over the folding stuff?
A. Once you PayPal us $497 you’ll be immediately redirected to a page that details exactly what to do next….it will include a list of things you could consider sending us, plus an email link to send them all through to.

Q. How longs it all take?
A. We’ll shine the spotlight on your business within 2-weeks of receiving payment and have the final show and transcript to you within three weeks. Usually much sooner.

Q. Should I do it?
A. Is Lukeee shorter than Timbo?

Q. How much was it again?
A. $497 Australian dollars.

Advertising where others aren’t means there’s less noise, less competition and often, lower costs.

Here are three places to consider as part of your small business online marketing strategy:

Facebook Ads

If you’re still in denial about Facebook, get over it. With over 800 million active users worldwide, about 9 million in Australia, Facebook can be an affective advertising medium for small business – and one that your competition may not have embraced. The awesome thing about Facebook Ads is that you can do very specific demographic and geographic targeting, showing your ads to a specific target audience.

Take the following example I used in a recent Podcast episode.

Let’s say you’re a wedding photographer wanting to drum up more wedding gigs in your local area. You can create an ad on Facebook that will only be displayed to Women aged 25-35, engaged to be married, within 50 miles of your capital city. How’s that for nailing your target audience!?

Here’s a video I put together that will show you how to discover if you target audience are using Facebook.

Yahoo/Bing Pay Per Click

Yes, there are other Pay Per Click advertising platforms appart from Google AdWords. Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM in Australia) or Microsoft Ad Centre for the U.S., can be a cost effective addition or alternative to Adwords. Why? Because less businesses are using it, which means there’s less competition, ipso facto, cheaper clicks.

One of the important aspects to keep in mind, and what many online marketers forget, is that most new Windows PC’s come installed with Internet Explorer 9. The default search engine for IE 9 is Bing and many of your average Windows user won’t bother to change the default search engine. Have a think about those kinds of people, do that fit into your target audience?

Globally, Bing currently has 12% of the search market, Yahoo 16.5% and Google 66%. While the skew toward Google is greater here in Australia, you should still keep in mind that you might be missing out on close to 1/3 of the search market by not advertising on Yahoo and Bing.

AdWords Display Network

Many small businesses aren’t fully leveraging the power of Google’s AdWords Display Network. Put simply, advertising on the display network lets you place banner and text ads on other people’s websites, those who have chosen to be part of the Google display network.

Google’s recent addition of Interest targeting is a very powerful way to target people based on the types of websites they’ve been visiting. Combine interest targeting with local geographic targeting and you’ve got yourself a lazer targeted advertising campaign that won’t cost you the earth. Well worth engaging an AdWords professional to help you set this up.

In summary, if you’re really trying to squeeze the most out of your small business marketing budget, try advertising where other’s aren’t – keep your eyes open and you might find find channels that are less crowded.

Waiting for my latte, instead of flicking through the daily newspaper flopped on the table, I had good look around… at the walls, the benches, what was behind the counter. And I noticed something.

There were some interesting historic photos of the local area hanging on the walls, but they were all crooked. There’s a heshen bag in the corner, for some kind of kitch effect, but it had a pile of junk mail perched on top. The counter top was dusty, there were chips in the paint on the walls and plastic picture hooks without pictures hanging from them.

As business owners and marketers we often get so used to these minor imperfections, we start not to see them. We get complacent, we notice them in the beginning, promise to fix them, then never do… then we just forget about them and accept them.

Try to take a look at your business with fresh eyes. Put some time aside once a month to look at your business objectively  and ask yourself, “what would Starbucks do?”. Or even better, open yourself up to critique – ask a family, friend or pier what they think (we offer this as a service on our Marketing Spotlights) .

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

Sweet Poison – The book mentioned in this episode.

Much more importantly, we get serious with answering some listener questions:

1. How can a tradie grow his market share through some smart local area marketing ideas?

2. What do you do when you’re being attacked on Twitter?

3. Where do you start with your online marketing strategy?

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In The Show

Therecane – A website (and product) that Timbo loves.

Flying Solo – Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Leave a review on Small Business Big Marketing in iTunes.

The website Timbo has put together to sell his in-law’s beach house - A waterfront property on Raymond Island – Gippsland Real Estate

Enter QR codes. Appart from making you look cool and tech savvy, QR codes on business cards are *becoming* a great way to help potential customers get details off your card and into their smart phone. I say * becoming* because currently most people have to choose to download a QR scanner for their smart phone. Soon this will change and smart phones will come installed with QR code scanners.

The convenience QR codes provide for transferring snippets of information from paper onto mobile phone rang true to me recently when I met Julie, a real estate agent. Not wanting to waste her 5000 business cards, Julie had retro-fit the back of her cards with QR Code stickers. Being the geeky marketer that I am, this intrigued me, so I scanned it using a QR code scanner on my iPhone.

BAM, in seconds Julie’s details were on my phone.

Now, these funky new(ish) style bar codes won’t appeal to everyone. It’s an emerging format that’s slowly gaining traction and mainly being used right now by affluent 18-35 males (I just fit into one of those criteria). So, as with all marketing, make an educated decision before you go crazy adding QR codes to your marketing material.

How to create a QR Code

Creating a QR code, with your personal details embedded in the form of a vCard or MeCard, can be done with a QR Code Generator. Keep your personal details to the bare essentials when you create a QR code – the more details you add, the more complex your QR graphic becomes and the more error prone they are when being scanned.

He then goes in to quite some detail on a number of actions they can take to help them build a strong, healthy brand.

We also geek out on QR Codes (what are they and how you can use them in your marketing).

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In The Show

The Online Marketing Communications Masterclass 2011 – Tim Reid’s upcoming webinar series where small business owners will discover how to place their marketing efforts on steroids.

QR code generator.

Flying Solo – Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

• How smorgasbords may inspire a new pricing strategy;
• How the Daintree Ice Cream Co. have got their pitch oh so right;
• How Kalula Airlines are brilliantly on-brand;
• And Timbo announces his Online Marketing Communications Masterclass 2011.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In The Show

The Online Marketing Communications Masterclass 2011 – Tim Reid’s upcoming webinar series where small business owners will discover how to place their marketing efforts on steroids.

Kalula Airlines – Images of their planes

Small Business Victoria – Timbo’s speaking here on Thursday, August 25, 2011.

Creative Innovations 2011 – Timbo’s running an Innovations Workshop  alongside Dr. Edward De Bono in November, 2011.

Duration: 26:12 minutes

I know another one who goes to work to sell jewelery.

I know a junk collector who believes he unclutters peoples’ lives.

I know another one who just goes around collecting junk.

I know a cafe owner who loves to make the world more social.

I also know one who just sells coffee.

I know a marketing consultant that’s shows businesses how to be irresistible.

I also know one that offers marketing advice.

In each case the first business is more successful, its customers are emotionally attached and so are the staff.

My point? No matter what you sell – widgets, wadgets or wodgets – sell on emotion.

It’s the most effective foundation for building a strong, healthy brand.

Do you agree? What do you sell?

He’s one of Australia’s best small business marketers.

68 years old, covered in tatts, absolute salt of the earth fella.

He asked me if I wanted a quote to have my windows cleaned and gutters cleared.

Sure, I said.

So he pulls out his ladder, his 3 year old 64-page faint-ruled exercise book and a pencil from behind his ear.

10-minutes later he’s back with a written (bloody reasonable) quote on a bit of paper he’d ripped out of his 3 year old 64-page faint-ruled exercise book, apologizing that he’d run out of business cards.

He tells me he can do the work within the next two weeks and just needs a couple of days notice.

We have a chat, I get to know him and build trust then he excuses himself as he’s got more doors to knock on.

I love Fred. He keeps it simple.

I didn’t bother asking if he was on Twitter. Or had a website. He’s too busy ;0)

Postscript – It’s just over a week since I wrote this post and Fred just knocked on my door again. On a Sunday! I commented that he worked hard. His reply – “If you don’t change it, you don’t get it.” I love Fred’s attitude. (And know, he’s not pushy at all).

Plus we:

• Lukeee apologises for his abismal Twitter performance!
• We talk about what it means to get a good old Panda slapping!
• And Timbo makes some noise about his soon to be launched Online Marketing Communications MasterClass.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In The Show

ProBlogger Darren Rowse’s Exclusive Offer To Small Business Big Marketing Listeners

ProBlogger’s Guide To Blogging For Your Business (aff)

Flying Solo – Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Duration: 51:40min / 62 MB

One of my biggest challenges is attracting advertisers. The online marketing campaigns I’ve tried just haven’t been cutting through, so recently I decided to attempt a direct mail campaign.

If you’ve investigated direct mail as a marketing channel for your business, you’re probably aware one of the challenges is finding an affordable and highly targeted list.

Following is a simple method I used to build a list of businesses who I know spend good money on marketing and advertising.

Collect Industry Expo Event Guides

The next time an industry expo comes around, go along and pick up a copy of the exhibitor guide. You don’t even have to walk in the door  - you could probably even contact the organisers and ask them to mail you a copy of the guide.

These guides usually include a directory of all the exhibitors in the back pages. The exhibitor information often includes:

• Business Name
• Contact Name
• Address
• Phone
• Website
• Email

Now, if you’ve done any direct mail campaigns before, you’ll know that having a contact name significantly increases your open rate. And not only do you get physical addresses, you might also obtain exhibitors email addresses to boot (we’ll be using that at the end to significantly increase enquires from your normal DM campaign).

When you get back to the office, cut out the directory pages from the expo guide. Then use your fancy multi function office printer to scan the pages and save them to your computer as PDF’s - preferably using some sort of OCR software so that the text can actually be copied and pasted from the PDF doc’s once scanned.

Send the scanned pages to your assistant (virtual assistant, outsourcer, mum, etc) and get them to copy and paste all the data into a spread sheet.

Voila! One highly targeted mailing list full of businesses you know are willing to spend $ on their marketing because they’ve just spent $5,000+ on exhibiting at an industry expo.

Sending the Direct Mail Campaign

Depending on the size of the industry expo you’ve attended, your list may not be overly large. It might be anywhere from 100-500, which means most mail houses won’t want to know you.

You have a couple of options:

• Do a mail merge using Excel and Word, print it on your own printer, fold, stuff envelopes, address them, attach stamps… the thought of all this makes me shudder.
• Find a convenient service that will do small runs.

I recommend the latter. I use Send Out Cards (aff) to create an attractive looking greeting card with a photo, as opposed to a stale black and white A4 letter.

Printed on the cards, I actually used a photo of the entrance way to the expo as I thought this would grab the recipients attention given they’d just finished exhibiting when they received the card.

Follow up with an email

This final step significantly increased my response rate to this campaign…

I  emailed each of the people on the list, approximately 4-5 days after they received the greeting card. My email subject line simply asked, “Did you receive my card?”, while the copy reiterated the offer and asked them to repsond confirming they had received the direct mail piece. The email also linked to a page on my website which once again, reiterated the offer and allowed the prospect to either contact me or signup.

(Full credit to Pete Williams for the email follow up tip)

You could take it one step further and follow up with a phone call. Given that the prospect has already been introduced to your offer, the introduction will be a little easier.

What were my results like? I had about a 5% conversion rate, this was without jumping on the phone.

Let us know your thoughts, comments or questions below.

Plus we:

• Discuss what makes for a good pitch;
• Share our very early thoughts on Google Plus;
• Talk about Google Grants – $10,000 per month for any charity to spend advertising on Google!

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In The Show

CMA Learning Group – Our Guest, Simon Dowling’s business PLUS their EXCLUSIVE LISTENER OFFER – $250 off any public workshop – simply enter the promo code SBBM at check-out.

The LinkedIn discussion that lead to our interview with Simon.

‘Moving on from a No’ – CMA Learning Group’s blog post response to the LinkedIn discussion.

‘How to recognize assumptions and kick them out of the conversation’ – CMA Learning Group’s blog post following our interview.

Flying Solo – Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Duration: 54 min / 63 MB

Plus we:

• Ask another hard question – Do prospects really know what you offer?
• Talk about domain name leasing;
• Share the 10 things we’d consider if we were starting a small business today.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In The Show

How to build an email subscriber list

Facebook Pages For Business Guide

Flying Solo – Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers.

Duration: 46 min / 53 MB

• Finish the interview with Matt Simpson, who tells us how he strategically used Facebook Ads to find his life partner with Facebook Personal Ads;
• Answer a listener questions about FAQs and Wikkis;
• Discuss the importance of having a crystal clear call to action in all your marketing efforts.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In The Show

How to build an email subscriber list

Social Stickers

Flying Solo – Australia’s largest community of soloprenuers

Soooo … in Part 1 of Episode 51 of Australia’s favorite small business marketing show – Small Business Big Marketing – we cover some serious marketing ground:

• Lukeee talks about how to build an email marketing list;
• We answer a listener question from Katie at Midnight Music about interpreting website’s statistics using Google Analytics;
• Lukeee reveals his favorite business book of all times;
• We talk about the importance of copy-writing; AND
• Timbo talks to Matt Simpson (AKA the Scribe Devil) who not only knows one hell of a lot (‘scuse the pun!) about interactive marketing for business BUT, and here’s where it gets interesting, used Facebook Ads for his own evil (another pun!) purposes to find his life partner. The outcome will surprise you.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources Mentioned In The Show:

How to build an email marketing list – Lukeee’s newest baby.

Ready. Fire. Aim. – Lukeee’s favorite business book.

Convince & Convert – A great website that provides social media insight.

The Now Revolution – Mentioned by Matt in this episode’s interview.

Duration: 40 minutes / 44MB

I didn’t fully comprehend the truth to this statement until I started marketing to a large list one of my online businesses had acquired. Using email marketing, I was able to double the revenue the site was generating, in under a month.

Armed with a qualified email subscriber list, you don’t have to wait for people to decide they want something. You don’t have to wait for them to do a Google search, or walk past your shopfront. You create the want by presenting email subscribers with products that solve a problem they forgot they had – or by creating that want.

Building a list should be viewed as you would investing – the sooner you start the sooner your investment starts growing and delivering returns. And if you can speed up that investment process, doubling the number of people that subscribe to your list each month, then you’ll be making more money sooner.

In this 20 page guide, I’ll show you:

• How to double you email opt-in rate
• How to create a compelling free sign-up offer
• The best email marketing applications to use
  (I’ve used almost every one on the market)
• 3 simple email markering strategies
• What you should (and shouldn’t) include in an email subscription form

If you’ve been looking for a way to significantly increase your email subscription rate, then grab a copy of this guide.

30 Day, 100% Money back Satisfaction Guarantee: If you’re not happy with your purchase, we’ll refund you the full price.

Only $17

Links & Resources

Traffic Grab – 20+ traffic generating ideas; 9+ hours of video; full transcript and audio for $79. Insane!

Speaking Engagements – Click HERE to enquire about booking Tim Reid or Luke Moulton to speak at your next conference.

Know of a business that would benefit from sponsoring our show? They can email us directly here.

Kerry Finch SEO Press Release – Where Luke launched his press release.

Poke The Box – Seth Godin’s newest book.

Duration : 63 minutes

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

Click here to download the full transcription of episode 49 of the Small Business Big Marketing show.

The above transcription was lovingly prepared by Bridie’s Typing & Transcription Services.

Boats Plus Classifieds – Luke’s Australian boating website where he has installed a WordPress classifieds system called Classipress.

Freedom Ocean – Tim’s other podcast all about Internet marketing.

Flying Solo - Australia’s largest community of small business Solopreneurs.

SMALL BUSINESS BIG MARKETING

AUSTRALIA’S #1 MARKETING PODCAST

Marketing Lessons From The Hospitality Industry (PDF Transcription)

And we’ve decided to turn our 50th episode over to you – our treasured listener. All you need do is email us your recorded answer to the question “So, what do you do?” We’ll play it on episode 50 and the most engaging response will win a free lifetime membership to the Small Business Big Marketing Academy.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

Turn your handwriting in to a digital font

Join the Small Business Big Marketing Academy for 8 monthly marketing HOW TOs.

Flying Solo – Australia’s largest community of Solopreneurs.

PLUS we …

• … take you behind the scenes of our email marketing efforts, and show you what we’ve done to address a possible issue of list fatigue.
• … share with you a simple strategy that will lift a serious weight off your shoulders!
• … wonder whether there’s value in making a big hoo-hah about our upcoming 50th show. Does anyone really care?

Duration: 38 minutes (possibly our shortest episode!)

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

Two random acts of kindness (AKA how we solved our list fatigue) – Download Tim’s book & join our Academy for just $1

How to create a Facebook Page for your business – Is this the cheapest and best Facebook HOW TO guide going around? We think so.

Freedom Ocean – Tim’s other show ;0)

Duration: 38 minutes

Lukeee revisits that old chestnut of whether Facebook is good for your business – in fact he’s even recorded a short video explaining how to discover if your prospects are on Facebook. Bring that on! And Timbo shares his experience from attending a weekend seminar where 10 future trends were revealed that will have a direct impact on how we do business now and in to the future.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

• Luke’s Facebook video
• Noodle Box
• TED videos
• TED video on 3D printing
• The Small Business Big Marketing Academy

The two providers I came across were E-Junkie and DPD (Digital Product Delivery). As with all discerning consumers, I checked out their Pricing pages to see how much of my hard earned I was going to have to part with to use their service.

Here’s what their respective pricing tables look like:

E-Junkie

e-Junkie Pricing Table

DPD

Digital Product Delivery Pricing Widget

Click in the images to see the full pricing page.

Who do you recon I ended up testing out? Yep, DPD. You know I didn’t even bother comparing prices – I went with DPD because:

1. They made it easy for me to do business with them.
2. I know their product is going to be much easier to use than e-junkie, simple because their front end website is.

“Don’t make me think!” is such a good motto to keep in mind when designing your offering.

More importantly, this is the episode where we interview Ric and Cam from the up and coming Australian company, Kettle Bells…the newest thing in weight training and body building.

Duration: 45 minutes

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

How to set up a Facebook fan page for your business

Kettle Bells – These guys are surrounding themselves with marketing royalty!

Crazy Domains – Where we buy our .au domains

Be relevant and Google will love you – Our most recent blog post

Facebook has become a phenomenon hard to ignore. With more than 500 million user, and more page impressions per month than Google, as a business owner or marketer, you should be taking a serious look at Facebook as a means to connect and engage with your audience.

For my fellow Aussies, there are over 9 million registered Australian Facebook users (according to Facebook), that’s over 1/3 of our population. Facebook has arguably replaced television as a relaxation activity for many, with people collectively spending over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

Of course, I’m not suggesting EVERY business should be on Facebook. As with all marketing mediums, you need to place your message where your audience is.

Discover exactly how many people in your target audience are using Facebook

Before you go spending hours building a Facebook Page (or hiring an expensive agency to do so), find out if your target audience is actually using Facebook.

Feeling intimidated about getting your business on Facebook?

You’re not alone. Many businesses are hiring professionals to help them setup effective Facebook Pages. That’s because it can be overwhelming to the uninitiated. There are so many options to choose from, 100′s of additional applications available to install, and settings that can make or break a page.

This 32 page PDF guide is a simple step by step to setting up an effective customer engagement Page on Facebook.

What’s in the Guide?

Here’s the table of contents from the guide to tell you exactly what’s included.

DIY or Outsource

This 32 page guide is literally a step by step tutorial. I walk you through the exact steps I use to create Facebook Pages for businesses, products and brands. You can either do it yourself, or give it to someone to do it for you.

UPDATED: We’ve updated the guide to include Facebook’s changes to dynamic page coding.

Cost: AU$19
Format: Digital download (PDF)

(That’s about 4.5 lattes depending on which city you’re in!)

NOTE: We’ve stopped selling this guide – keeping up with the Facebook Changes is a biatch and we wouldn’t want to sell you out of date info.

He seriously knew his stuff…and he even wore his mobile phone on his belt – which says to me that he is the geek’s geek. (I mean this in the most loving way!).

Then, just yesterday, I read a press release from Google on the same topic ie. How to get to page 1 of Google.

It was far less geeky….and hit me right between the eyes. here’s how I’d summarise it:

1. Create high-quality sites
2. Use original content
3. Write in-depth content
4. Be helpful!

Isn’t that beautiful? It’s like jumping in to a cool ocean on a 40-degree day.

And our experinec with Small Business Big Marketing is exactly that. Whilst we’ve done some SEO, Lukeee and I focus on creating relevant content. And guess what Google thinks of us?

So, should you SEO the living bejesus out of your site or write for humans. What’s your poison?

But of course, the show wouldn’t be complete without us sharing what’s on our mind, which all starts with Timbo coming clean about his new ‘lover’ and fellow podcast host in James Schramko. That’s right, this is the episode where Timbo finally launches Freedom Ocean – a podcast for anyone who’s ever dreamt of creating a life of freedom from Internet marketing.

Duration: 42 minutes

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

WebSavvy – Mike Rhodes business

Freedom Ocean – Timbo’s new podcast with James Schramko

Small Business Big Marketing Facebook – Will you be our mate?

The Small Business Big Marketing Academy – Unlock a monthly dose of HOW TO’s.

Following on from my recent trip to the theme parks on the Gold Coast, here are my 10 observations of how the they market themselves and questions  they pose about how you could be asking about your own business:

1. Product is King.   Q. How could you better treat your product or service?
2. Interesting pricing strategy of $99.99 until June 30, 2011 and you can use it as often as you like  (huge take-up….high perceived value…little repeat take-up)   Q. How could you alter your pricing to encourage more transactions but less take up?!
3. Q4U makes life easy by not having to cue for rides. They actually charge you for a problem they’ve created!!   Q. What can you do to make your customers’ experience hassle free…and charge for it at the same time?
4. They don’t use social media to have an ear to the ground.   Q. How can you ensure that you know what you’re customers are thinking?
5. They don’t always understand their customers’ state of mind – I would have kiled for a massage during the day as I raced between rides!   Q. What state-of-mind are your customers in when they’re ready to purchase from you? And how can you meet their needs?
6. Bring your staff along for the ride.   Q. What can you do to ensure that everyone who has responsibility for selling your product / service is on the same page?
7. Consistency is Queen.   Q. What could you do to ensure all your marketing is more consistent?
8. Consider bi-products – Massage, behind-the-scenes tours, product explanations.   Q. What bi-products are you inadvertently creating but not making money from?
9. Consider your opening hours a bit more closely (Wet ‘n Wild closed way too early given the huge cues).   Q. Are your opening hours respectful of your customers’ needs?
10. Don’t screw me – Pizza, photos were outrageously expensive … AND don’t charge for piddly little things eg. Remote control boats $2.  Q. What could you give away to your customers that would make them love you and not cause you to lose money?

Hear me go in to greater details about each of these marketing lessons here on the Small Business Big Marketing podcast #41.

So, in this episode of Small Business Big Marketing, we take an in-depth look at how and why we podcast. Leaving no stone unturned, we share with you why we do it, the hardware and software we use, how to get intros and outros made, how to set up a website for your podcast plus a whole lot more podcasting tips and tricks.

Plus (yes there’s more) we talk about the hidden power of auto-responders and how they can turbo-charge your list-building efforts AND we welcome Chip Richards back (a previous guest from episode 21) who makes a very special listener offer for those wanting to find your true passion in business

Now that, friends, is a seriously chock-a-block show. But that’s what we do around here at Small Business Big Marketing.

Still want more? Then take a squiz at the Small Business Big Marketing Academy. Or maybe you’d like us to do a show 100% dedicated and laser-focused on your business. Check out our Spotlight.

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

Moving Mountains – Chip’s amazing course

Garage Band – Apple’s editing software

Audacity – Free editing software

Samsun Mic Co3U – Lukee’s baby

Skype Call Recorder – Records your conversations on Skype (it’s what we did this current episode in)

Levelator – Ensures all your levels are the same

How to Make Websites – Lukeee’s gift to you…our treasured listener

Podpress – A WordPress plug-in that makes the podcaster’s life easy

Amazon S3 – Where to host your episodes

Mechanical Turk – Get stuff done (for our American listeners only)

But wait, there is so much more – Timbo shares a funny Twitter marketing story relating to Jetstar; we talk about the marriage of Yellow Pages with Google Adwords; we share an idea or two about HOW TO information and we ask the tough question about the weakest link in your business.

Duration: 37 minutes

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

The Challenge -The ‘how to’ of Internet marketing.

Flying Solo – Check out their very useful Marketing forum.

Google hops in to bed with Yellow Pages – Is this a marriage made in Heaven or Hell?

Weakest link blog post – What do you think?

The Small Business Big Marketing Academy – 8 Marketing HOW TOs penned by Lukeee and Timbo delivered fresh monthly for just $67.

The Small Business Big Marketing Spotlight – Get some ‘tough marketing love’ directly from us…where we focus 100% on your business.

And if you haven’t got it already, then here’s the link to the best HOW TO video on setting up and optimizing your Google Places account ever!

The other day my dishwasher stopped working.

I quickly got online and found the number to call for service. It was a great, simple to navigate website.

I phoned and was immediately told I was the fourth caller in the cue. All good.

Whilst on-hold, the recorded message told me how much the service call would be. Tick.

Ten minutes later I spoke to a real, friendly person who gave me some over the phone trouble-shooting tips and then booked me in for a service in five days time.

She advised me to expect a call the night before from the technician who would give me an arrival time the following day. Loving it!

Oops…here comes the weakest link…No call from the technician. Damn, it was going so beautifully.

Having a weak link is OK in itself as long as you know it exists and how to fix it.

So, what’s the weakest link that’s stopping your business over-delivering?

And what ya goin’ to do about it?

Having just spent 8 days schlepping through Queensland’s theme parks, Timbo decided he’d turn his family holiday in to a tax deduction by making 10 marketing observations. Afterall, what else do you do when you’re lining up for a 70-minutes for a 22 second ride? (And yes, that’s Timbo circled on the left there!). Plus we wonder whether a certain PR opportunity went begging; we debate the pros and cons of an electronic diary versus the good old written version; Timbo presents Lukeee with a little visual gift (on-air!) and we talk about some holiday reading about that powerhouse called Google.

Googled – The End Of The World As We Know It – Great holiday reading with that famous quote “Don’t fuck with the magic!”

Red Bubble – Get lost for a few hours looking for that favorite T (it was Timbo’s Xmas gift to Lukeee)

Moleskine – The best paper journals going around.

The Small Business Big Marketing Academy – $67 monthly membership and you’ll be helping two destitute marketing blokes!

Flying Solo – Check these guys out if you work alone…It’s a great source of all things business for the solopreneur.

Our 2-minute survey where you tell us what you really think!

9 observations Timbo made about how the Gold Coast theme parks market themselves and questions you could be asking about your business:

1. Product is King Q. How could you better treat your product or service?
2. Interesting pricing strategy $99.99 until June 30, 2011 (huge take-up….high perceived value…little repeat take-up) Q. How could you alter your pricing to encourage more transactions but less take up?
3. Q4U makes life easy Q. What can you do to make your customers’ experience hassle free…and charge for it at the same time?
4. They don’t use social media to have an ear to the ground Q. How can you ensure that you know what you’re customers are thinking?
5. Understand your customers’ state of mind Q. What state-of-mind are your customers in when they’re ready to purchase from you? And how can you
6. Bring your staff along for the ride Q. What can you do to ensure that everyone who has responsibility for selling your product / service is on the same page?
7. Consistency is Queen Q. What could you do to ensure all your marketing is more consistent?
8. Consider bi-products – Massage, behind-the-scenes Q. What bi-products are you inadvertently creating but not making money from?
9. Consider your opening hours a bit more closely (Wet ‘n Wild) Q. Are your opening hours respectful of your customers’ needs?
10. Don’t screw me – Pizza, photos. AND Don’t charge for piddly little things eg. Remote control boats $2 Q. What could you give away to your customers that would make them love you and not cause you to lose money?

The Small Business Big Marketing Facebook – Will you be our friend?

Timbo’s gift to Lukeee

Transcription of Small Business Big Marketing episode 41

“Was that the best ever podcast???” asked one listener on the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Fan Page. Well, we hope not although we’d both have to admit that the four marketing ideas that Dave and Pete dished up were pretty darn sensational. If you’ve not listened to episode 39 of Small Business Big Marketing then do so now, seriously! There’s 4 marketing tips to geting your business found online that are ‘must-dos’. And, in this episode, there’s another 3 to ensure you leave no stone unturned. Implement all 7 of these small business marketing ideas and you’ll be shining the proverbial spotlight on your business.

Duration: 33 minutes

Small Business Big Marketing – Links & Resources

How to create your presence on Google Places – Pete & Dave’s gift to you (this is G O L D !).

MailChimp – Free Forever Plan

The Small Business Big Marketing Academy – Are you a member yet?

Sign-up for a marketing idea per week for 52-weeks F R E E !

Buy Tim’s best selling book – Cha-Ching! The sweet, sweet sound of small business marketing success.

Tell us what you think with this short survey

Driving through a suburban shopping strip the other day I passed this Yogo studio sign, attached to the back of an old Posty bike.

Local city councils require you to apply for a permit to place a sandwich board on a footpath. I’m guessing they wouldn’t allow this business to place a sandwich board on the opposite side of the road to where the business premis is. So this small business owner has done some thinking outside the box and come up with a clever guerilla tactic to getting their sandwich board on the footpath.

Now in the state of Victoria it is legal to park your motorbike on the footpath (unless otherwise stated). So, buy a cheap motorbike, attach some signage to the back and voila – guerilla sandwich board!

I’m guessing a old posty bike would cost $500 – $1000, and the signage might be a couple of hundred. The street is very busy in the morning and afternoon with hundreds if not thousands of cars passing this spot on a daily basis.

Hats off to this Yoga Studio owner!

In this first of a 2-part interview, Pete and Dave talk us through:

1. The magic behind having a Google Places account.
2. The must-dos of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for small business websites.
3. How to optimize your small business’s website so that it’s a sales machine.
4. As well as the power of creating a Google Adwords campaign.

If you don’t listen to our show with a pen, paper and cuppa in hand then now’s the time to start…Pete and Dave deliver some serious marketing gold.

Small Business Big Marketing Links & Resources

How to create your presence on Google Places – Pete & Dave’s gift to you (this is G O L D !).

How to build a website – Luke’s gift to you.

xoxox – Tim’s gift to you!

The Small Business Big Marketing Academy – Join before 31/12/2010 and lock in a low membership price forever!

Google V Yellow Pages – The people decide.

Mail Chimp – Free auto-responder service for small businesses.

Australia’s leading internet marketer – Have you listened to our interview with James’ Schramko’s yet?

Come say HI on our the Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Fan Page

Sign-up for a marketing idea per week for 52-weeks F R E E !

When I heard Haul had released messenger bags, I bought one almost immediately (well in honesty my wife ordered it for me for Christmas but I gave her a big nudge).

It’s a wonderful thing when a brand can do this – create such an emotive connection that I almost don’t even think about the money I’m spending – I must have it… my precious.

Haul has attained my brand loyalty because their brand and product attributes resonate with me.

I like the fact that the products are made out of recycled materials; although I wouldn’t classify myself as a greeny, re-purposing materials that would otherwise end up as land fill is pretty cool.

Each product is unique. We all like to feel a little bit special and owning a one of a kind makes me feel, well, a little bit special. It also means my purchase is quite personal. There is such a wide selection of colours and designs, you invariably find somethings that’s a bit you.

There’s a story behind each design. If you buy your Haul item in-store, you might be able to find out where your bag came from. Mine’s form a billboard that included a picture of the MCG’s grass – knowing that story somehow adds value to me and I enjoy sharing the story with others.

Haul knows how to have fun with their brand. Take Haul’s email signature for example: “Our products are rubbish”. I love that – a brand that knows how to have fun and not take itself too seriously. Then there’s Haul’s mascot, Gus the Boxer, who had his own Facebook Page. Gus was even at Haul’s recent Christmas party, schmoozing with the guests.

This brand loyalty also means I tweet, Facebooks and talk favorably about Haul to others. Much like my love of (almost) everything Apple, I’m a die hard fan of Haul’s stuff – and their ability to turn buyers into fans is really awesome marketing.

Now, who want to buy an old Crumpler bag?

Google AdWords can be a maze for the uninitiated. I’ve seen many small businesses waste a lot of time and money trying to drive leads and sales via AdWords, but if you follow some simple rules, it can be a highly targeted channel.

Here are 10 tips to help you spend less and appeal to more qualified buyers:

1. Keyword Research – 2 word keywords or more

What are your customers typing into Google to find your services? Google’s keyword tool will help you discover what potential customers are typing into Google to discover your products or services. Never, I repeat, never use single keywords in your campaigns. Use 2 – 3 keyword phrases Eg: income tax accountant, wedding photography Melbourne, small business podcast … you get the idea.

2. Go Local

When setting up a new AdWords campaign, by default, Google suggests you target your country. That might be ok if your country’s the size of Luxemburg or if you’re selling a digital products, but when you’re living in Australia or the U.S., and you have a geographical dependent business, you’ve got to go local.

AdWords Local Targeting

With Adwords you can be as granular as you like. You can specify a radius distance from your business or even plot out an area that you would like your ads to appear in.

Be careful how you use this feature. For example, if you provide accommodation in Sydney, you still want people in other capital cities around Australia to be able to see you ad.

3. Use Geographic Keywords

Further to the previous tip, include city names in your keywords. For example: “wedding photography Melbourne”. The cost per click will generally be cheaper than, for example, “wedding photography”, even with local targeting turned on.

4. Negative keywords

This is a critical step that many people fail to include when setting up an AdWords campaign. Adding negative keywords prevents your add from appearing when certain keywords are included.

Sticking with the example I used above; if you’re a wedding photographer, you probably don’t want your ads to appear when someone types in “wedding photography tips”. Why? Because the intention with this search is to learn how to take better wedding photos, not to hire a wedding photographer. So if you include “tips” as a negative keyword, your ad won’t appear for this search and you won’t be wasting money on a click that is unlikely to convert to a sale.

“Free” is probably the most obvious keyword and one I include in most campaigns by default.

5. Split test Ads

When writing ads for your campaigns, always include two versions. That way you can test which one performs best and continually improve your ad copy.

6. Point to relevant pages

A common mistake many people make is to point all AdWords visitors to their website home page. Pointing people to the most relevant page on your website will help improve conversions. So, if you’re an accountant and you’ve setup an “tax returns melbourne” ad, point your ad to the Income Tax & Tax returns page on your website.

This will also help improve your Quality Score which can also reduce your cost per click.

7. Consider including prices

Including pricing in your ad copy can help reduce tire kickers. One of the big questions many potential customers want to know is “how much does it cost”, so including this important piece of information in your copy will help answer that question before people click – therefore reducing potentially poor converting traffic.

8. Include Your Phone Number

Adding your business phone number to your ad copy is another way to increase enquiry while actually reducing clicks on your ads. Instead of clicking through to your site – a customer can just pick up the phone.

9. Track conversions

Make sure you have Google Analytics installed on your website along and ask your web developer for help to install conversion tracking. The definition of a conversion will depend on the type of business you’re in. A conversion occurs when a visitor (for example):

• Fills in a quote request form
• Buys a product on your website
• Calls your business

Tracking conversion will allow you to discover your highest converting keywords. I usually find there’s an 80/20 rule with keywords: 20% of the keywords will generate 80% of conversions. Discovering these 20% of keywords lets you focus your time and money on the ads and keywords that are generating the most enquiry or sales.

10. Know the lifetime value of a customer

This is such a biggy, not only from an AdWords perspective, but from a business development one as well. For relatively new businesses it can be difficult to know the lifetime value of a customer. Make it your goal to figure out the lifetime value of a customer, then you can make educated decisions around what you’re willing to spend to acquire a new customer.

With Google Analytics installed on your website you can run a Town/City visitor report (Visitors > Map Overlay) and discover where your visitors are located, finding the highest traffic cities.

If your business operates nationally or internationally, a high level report will provide some interesting data around visitor locations.

Google Analytics’ (GA) map overlay provides a “geo-traffic at a glance” style report, which is great for a high level, capital city indication of traffic location.

What’s even more valuable is the town/city report Analytics provides along with the map overlay:

Google Analytics Town/City report

If you’ve listened to the SBBM Podcast, then you’ll know we’re all about bang for marketing buck and minimising waste. What’s great about this report is that it highlights some of the smaller towns and cities where above the line advertising could be more affordable (and profitable) with better return on investment.

Now if you have an e-commerce website with Google Analytics E-commerce tracking installed or even goal tracking setup with a quote request form, you can take this report to the next level by checking out the e-commerce conversion rate stats on a town/city level.

Town/City conversion ratea

Looking down the E-commerce Conversion Rate column will highlight the highest converting cities. The table above shows Adelaide and Perth have a reasonably high conversion rate compared to other cities. That is, a visitor from Adelaide or Perth are more likely to purchase than, say, a visitor from Melbourne. (Although Hobart has a higher conversion, the figures aren’t statistically significant.)

So, this report is suggesting that advertising campaign in Adelaide or Perth could provide a better return that one in Melbourne – particularly once you take into account advertising fees.

Of course there are other aspects to take into consideration before you rush and and books that quarter page ad in the Adelaide Messenger, but this is one important due diligence task you can perform before spending those hard earned on an advertising campaign.

]]> http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/using-google-analytics-to-plan-your-advertising-placement/feed/ 0 http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/is-australia-post-suffering-an-identity-crisis/ http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/is-australia-post-suffering-an-identity-crisis/#comments Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:34:04 +0000 Luke http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/?p=990 An open letter to Australia Post

Dear Australia Post,

Firstly, let me just say, you guys are providing a great service that magically teleports my packages from one corner of this wide brown land to another in a timely and efficient manner. As at the time of this post, it’s the silly season and you’ve put on extra staff to cope with all Christmas packages. I’ve been into 3 different Post Offices in the last 3 weeks and every time I’ve had a great customer experience.

Customer service wise, you guys rock.

But what is with your merchandising? Seriously?

When I walk into a Post Office, apart from the PO boxes out the front and the stamps at the counter, I’m not really sure what you’re trying to be. You’re kind of Office Works, come ABC shop, come kids games isle at Target.

I think I see what you’re trying to do. You’re catering to such a wide audience that you’re trying to appeal to everyone. You’ve got those Simpson’s walkie talkie’s at kid level – for when Mum’s are waiting to be served. You’ve got those book packages from seniors friendly authors for when the oldies are paying their bills. And then you’ve got the ink cartridges for the small business / home office types.

It’s like being in a slightly more expensive version of a $2 shop; there’s something for everyone but it feels like there’s incongruous product everywhere.

Are you suffering from an identity crisis?

Can I remind you who you are? You’re POSTAGE.

Be everything postage. Not postage plus all these other little knick knacks that confuse my brand perception of you.

Stock anything that helps me get a package from A to B, period. It’s still a pretty broad brief.

Respectfully,
Luke Moulton

Lukeee in deep contemplation about to record this show. Why look so worried?!

What…no guest! Never mind, we still manage to fill around 40 minutes with small business marketing drivel (we mean ideas!). This time they’re our ideas…our top 7 in fact that performed the best for our various businesses over the past 12-months. We also share our thoughts on what we can learn from U2 as a well-oiled marketing machine…Yellow Pages have responded to our interview with them…Tim talks about key take-outs from the Small Business Big Marketing Intensive…and we reveal our guests for our next show. Oh…and Lukeee finally reveals the website he purchased a few months ago. About bloody time!

Show Links & Resources

The Small Business Big Marketing Academy – Join before December 31, 2010 and save.

$20 Banner Ads – Yep, $20 banners!

Audacity – Free podcast recording software.

BoatsPlus – (One of) Lukeee’s new businesses.

Small Business Big Marketing Facebook Fan Page – Tell us what you really think!

Cha-Ching! - Tim’s best selling marketing book chock-full of marketing ideas for small business owners

I recently discovered a tool that helped my more than double the number of people signing up to my email list.

Not bad huh!

The graph above shows the number of weekly email subscriber generated by a  niche website I’ve owned for about 2 years now. The site generates a modest 5000 – 6000 visitors per month and ranks well in Google for a hand full of search terms.

So, what contributed to the significant increase in email subscribers? Well, it’s a technique that’s not exactly popular – but as you can see, it works.

At the start of November, I started using a pop-up subscription form.  I installed a small script that you can add to any website that will present a form to your website visitors after a certain amount of time or when they decide to leave your website.

The script lets you choose to be as aggressive or benign as you like, specifying how often the form is presented to you visitors.

Of course it’s not for everyone. It will piss some visitors off, yes, but it will also allow you to re-market to  your website visitors via email.

There are many scripts on the market both free and paid, that will make this easy. Most email marketing services such as Aweber also provide simple popup scripts. However, after trying many of these, I’ve had the most success with a little application called Popup Domination (aff).

Popup Domination works with most email marketing providers including Aweber, Mail Chimp (my fav), Constant Contact, iContact and Get Response. It can be installed on any website and has an awesome WordPress plugin that makes installation and setup dead easy.

Pop-ups aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, some see them as spammy and annoying. But before you dismiss the technique, take a look at your website statistics and see how many unique monthly visitors you’re website receives. If you operate a small business website, many of your visitors will never (or rarely) visit your website again.

Would you take the risk of pissing visitors off so you could re-market to them again via email? I would. Particularly if you’re not going to see 60%+ of these visitors again.

It’s time for us to strike back with a vengeance.

To this end, in episode #37 of the Small Business Big Marketing podcast we interview Wendy Blume from Vegie Smugglers … a stay at home Mum who’s gone ahead and published, single-handedly, her very own cook book. She shares with us the secrets to doing so, how to become an author and reap the benefits.

We also launch the Small Business Big Marketing Academy with a very special listener offer. Lock in as a member between now and December 31, 2010 and you’ll protect yourself from all future prices rises. Th Academy is our way of giving you, the small business owner, a truck load of marketing stimuli each month, delivered straight in to your in box. It will have you doing much more with less. We review productivity tools, provide detailed HOW TO sheets, give you 5-minute power tips PLUS you’ll receive additional exclusive interviews with each guest who’s been on the show where they share some additional gold never heard before.

Show Links & Resources

Join the Small Business Big Marketing Academy now and receive a very special offer

Book now for the Small Business Big Marketing Intensive

Will you be our friend?

Vegie Smugglers – Wendy Blume’s website

Scrivener – Helps you write a book

MagCloud – Publish your own magazine

Cha-Ching! – Tim’s book chockablock of marketing ideas for the small guy

LuLu – Get your book published

Blurb – Make your own book

Flying Solo – Our partners in all things micro and small business

How to self publish a book (PDF Transcription)

What’s that about?!

If you’re going to make it e…..e….Easy, then do so….Don’t make it h…..h…..hard. I bought a washing machine from Clive Peters on Saturday!

If you’re all about being on time then be on time. The handyman I booked last week didn’t turn up today. He forgot!

If you make moving across to a new internet plan simple, then don’t use shop talk. I don’t want to learn what a POP server is. Hi DoDo!

How do you ensure you deliver what you promise?

Plus Tim’s passes comment on what’s happening on his marketing book bookshelf, Luke talks about two other podcasts that are much better than ours (!), we share some great feedback from a dedicated listener, another one offers a free helicopter flight to anyone in Brisbane who books in for our upcoming Intensive…oh, and Tim gets on his copy writing high horse again.

So, grab that pen and paper … sit down and strap in for the ride.

Show Links & Resources

Get Google Apps – Michael McKinnon’s Exclusive Offer.

Get your own internet TV series (6 x 4-5minute episodes for $1,995!) – An exclusive offer from Paul ‘The Burf’ Burfett….email him here. And here’s his website.

Spend two days with Tim – Small Business Big Marketing Intensive.

A free helicopter ride – For any Queenslander that attends the upcoming Intensive and mention AeroPower (a big thanks to Chopper Boy Mike Cullen).

Buy The 22 Immutable Laws Of Marketing – In our top 3 marketing books of all time.

Signature Clothing – Thanks Arn for your kind words.

Time Bridge – Scheduling meetings made easy.

SBBM Facebook – Will you be our fwend?

Sign up for our 52 free marketing ideas – delivered fresh weekly.

Buy Tim’s book – Cha-Ching! The sweet, sweet sound of small business marketing that works.

Flying Solo – Our partners in all things small and micro business.

To fill in the time I decided to send a tweet to Telstra to see if they were listening …

They were …

Now, I could be cynical and say that receiving this didn’t make my wait any shorter, so where’s the value.

However, I reckon there’s a lesson here for us small business owners … Social media is a great listening tool. Now, we might not be big enough to expect people to be tweeting about our business…but you should certainly be listening in on what people are saying about you category. For example, if you’re in the real estate business then you should have a few columns in say Hootsuite which track tweets about say property prices or the suburbs in which you sell.

What do you think? Are you using social media to listen in? How?

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That’s just one of the big questions we mull over with Paul Ascos, Sales Director (Yellow Pages, Victoria & Tasmania).

We’ll let you be the judge – but in this no holes barred interview we ask all the questions that are on the mind of every small business owner as they decide how to carve up their modest marketing dollar.

Show Links & Resources

Jame’s Schramko’s Very Special Listener Offer – A 12-DVD set that shows you how to monetise your online presence (it’s brilliant)

Yellow Pages website

Yellow Pages Twitter Page

Flying Solo – Australia’s best micro business community and friends of the show

Tim’s interview on QANTAS Business Inflight Radio

Google Analytics – Get your web developer to attach this to your site

The Small Business Big Marketing Intensive – November 26 & 27, 2010

Cha-Ching – Tim’s book full of small business marketing gems

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Show Links & resources

James Schramko’s Fast Web Formula – 50% off this amazing 12-DVD set of how to make it big using internet marketing

Our upcoming 2-Day Marketing Intensive – Is this Australia’s most useful Marketing workshop?

Small Business Big Marketing’s Facebook Fan Page

Buy Tim’s marketing book Cha-Ching! – It’s got more marketing ideas in it than Tim’s had hot breakfasts (well, not quite!).

Send Out Cards – Try it free…especially with Xmas approaching.

Our next guest will be the Sales Director from Yellow Pages…interesting stuff! Stay tuned.

Australia’s leading Internet marketer, James Schramko reveals his secrets (PDF Transcription)

OK…I’m being a little bit over the top…I know most people don’t think this way.

But here’s the thing…packaging up a physical product adds value to the customer experience…and when you do this, you can generally charge more. Cha-ching!

Last week I purchased Jame’s Shramko’s Fast Web Formula…a 12 DVD pack plus work book and notes.

It arrived within one week from the States and it looked beautiful…already, before I even watched any of it, I knew I was in for a treat.

So, my question to you is this…What offer can you package up to make look amazing?

Show Links & Resources

• Espresso Elements
• David Jenyns
• Pete Williams

Creating a Customer Experience (PDF Transcription)

• How to cross promote your professional services?
• What’s the best medium for B2B content?
• What are appropriate conversion rates for your marketing efforts?

Druation: 40 Minutes

Links from the Show

52 free marketing ides…that’s one per week for a year!

Check out the Flying Solo Marketing Forum

Get your audio transcribed and create a whole new revenue stream

Book now for our next Marketing Intensive

Dave’s clothing business…Planet 13

Dave’s ‘get you to the top of Google’ business

$20 Dollar Banners

Ideas That Stick (a must read for every business owner)