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Twitter Dee, Twitter Dum

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A few weeks ago I blogged about my foray into social media marketing and the experiences have been surprising. One site that I have found particularly interesting is Twitter. Twitter has been described as Instant Messaging on steroids. Each message is limited to 140 characters and unlike IM you are talking to no one and everyone at the same time. The messages are called Tweets and those who Twitter are fondly referred to as Twits.

On Twitter, you build a network by “following” others. They in turn can choose to follow you too but it is not required.

Each day when I power up and greet my virtual work world, it is Twitter that I most look forward to reading. Throughout the day the stream of messages from across the globe weave together forming a story that is uniquely mine. The conversation threads range from the weather in Scotland, the anniversary in the Bay Area, the job openings in the Silicon Valley to a running commentary on politics, news and the economy.

I love the ability to follow multiple conversations at once. The eclectic mix of topics and global voices freely flowing throughout the day broadens my worldview. Twitter, for me is a like an international coffee shop. You can ease into your chair in the corner, sip your latte and delight in the myriad of conversations and interactions. The only difference is that you are free to join in rather than quietly observe.

Is Twitter good for business? Yes, but not in the ways expected. I am enriched by Twitter and the fleeting conversations. I have picked up resources, tips, and tricks that I would not have found on my own. All of these things allow me to be of greater value to my clients. However, the best benefit (in my opinion) is the opportunity to meet and interact with a diverse group of people. You learn what others are doing, thinking, reading, watching and what/who they value, all in 140 characters or less.

Do you twitter? What are your experiences? I’d love to hear from you. Comment or send a tweet, I’ll be listening. 😉

Karen

twitter.com/karenswim

Is Your Business on Welfare?

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Recently a writing colleague posted an article on the Elance water cooler. The article written by Ron Lindeboom, highlighted the three different buyer types. The article is several years old, but the principles still hold true.

Lindeboom discusses the three marketing types and groups them into top tier, middle market and low end. The top tier clients representing about 15% of your client base are those that value quality and relationship. The middle tier represents about 70% of the market and they want good but fair pricing. The low end wants high end service for cut rate prices. Lindeboom calls the low end segment “Grinders.”

As a business owner, why would you ever want Grinders? Yet, far too many businesses, particularly small businesses fight for this client type. Understanding the psychology of the client segments is important but it’s equally important to understand what type of business you are.

Many small business owners are standing in the welfare line and not sure how they got there. They work hard. In fact they may be working longer hours than CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. They deliver high quality work. Yet, they are barely making ends meet. These businesses are well intentioned but are not appropriately targeting their market or pricing their services.

Other small businesses are locked into a mentality that says they can only compete on price. To win against the “more established,” or “the “larger competitors” they have to compete on price. Does this sound like you?

Still others believe that volume makes up for low pricing. These business owners proclaim “yes our pricing is low but our volume supports it.” These same business owners would like to convince you to work at a fraction of your normal fees because they’re going to give you a large amount of work.

Although I’m humiliated to admit it for a long time I too had a business that was on welfare. My company was turning out high quality work and a sucker for every sob story that justified someone negotiating our rates lower. We wanted to help and by golly help we did to the detriment of our own profit margin. In fact our margins were negative!

I’m here to tell you “Don’t try this at home! You’ll go broke!” I am a big believer in volunteering, giving back and charitable giving. However, when running a business you must realize you exist to make a profit. You can set a fixed amount of time aside to donate business services (and I advocate doing so) but your day to day operations should be generating income.

Let’s look at this from another angle. In corporate America, did your employer negotiate your salary daily? When you showed up for work, did HR say, “Gee you know right now our budget is stretched, so can you work 3 extra hours for half your salary?” Of course not! Yes, companies get into budget trouble and they often solve it by doing lay-offs or salary freezes but no company negotiates your pay (or value) on a daily basis. So why are you doing this in your own business?

Negotiation is a natural part of doing business. Negotiation however is an exchange and not the seller simply giving everything away. It is an exchange to work toward a mutual win where the critical needs of BOTH parties are satisfied. Great negotiations end with all parties feeling like a winner and it sets the stage for a good long term relationship.

However, you are not obligated to negotiate price with every potential client. When you walk into the grocery store to buy a gallon of milk, there is a price you will be required to pay. Do you get to the register and ask to pay a different price? Do you ask them to give you more milk for the same price?

Yes, I realize milk is a commodity and service businesses operate a little differently, but do you negotiate price with your doctor, dentist or hair dresser at every visit? We ask for lower pricing when we beleive the price does not reflect the value but more often than not we simply pay what is asked or we don’t buy.

So, how do you begin turning things around? The first step is to examine what you have to offer. What does it cost you to provide the service? What is the value of that service to your ideal client (ideal being key here as you are not targeting grinders)? Set a fair price and stick to it. Your ideal client will pay you for the value. Grinders will not buy from you.

You may end up with fewer clients, but that’s a great thing. You want fewer clients that pay you what you’re worth. Unless of course you really do want to spend your time killing yourself for the pennies that grinders are willing to pay.

I’ve learned the hard way that clients will only value what I have to offer if I first realize that value myself. This means getting off welfare and saying No to the people who really can’t afford my services. Am I missing out on a large segment of the market? Yes, I am but it’s a segment that does not represent my ideal client anyway.

Break from the Herd

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I’ve been out sick and am now finally catching up. Before I post the low cost marketing tip, I have to share this great post that I read over on the Media Post blog (http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1134#comments):

Tom Cunniff from Combe Incorporated says:
September 27th, 2007 at 7:59 am

“Businesspeople run in herds, for safety. Many of us run in the Formula Herd; our heads down, ritualistically reciting our formulas like a prayer. We desperately hope that we can get rich before our formula loses its mojo. Others of us run in the Silver Bullet Herd; eyes constantly scanning the horizon for Deus Ex Machina. We desperately hope that our Silver Bullet will make us rich before anyone realizes it’s really just a little man behind the curtain.

A few crazies split off from the herd and form their own small groups. We desperately hope that logic and reason will win the day, and that our superior survival skills will make us rich in spite of the insanity of business. Usually the most successful crazies can be found at conferences peddling Formulas and Silver Bullets to members of the other herds.

And, there you have it :-)”

I seriously laughed out loud when I read this thoughtful, dead on comment. So kudos to Tom Cunniff! Tom’s comment is a perfect lead in to a discussion of business marketing. Too often people are joining the herd rather than being brave enough to be different and do what works for their business. I read today of an internet marketer who hired a copywriter to write optimized blog posts. Unfortunately the marketer was neither a blogger or SEO expert so had no idea how to evaluate the final product! I applauded the marketer’s honesty and felt bad for the situation. It’s likely that he/she got some advice from the gurus in the herd and eager to achieve success followed along.

Okay, enough of the soapbox. There are so many great low cost marketing ideas that have proven the test of time. Remember it’s critical to evaluate your own market and use only the ideas that align with your overall plan. So the first low cost tip, use your business cards. What? Yep, that little card is marketing gold. You can have really nice business cards printed and still not break the bank. Rather than stick them in your business card holder or wallet, use them. Resolve to pass out ten cards per day. Strike up conversations wherever you go and pass out that card. Drop a few in the thank you notes you send to clients (you are sending thank you notes, aren’t you?). We miss so many opportunities in our day to day life to talk about our business and how we can help people.

You will be surprised at the number of contacts and leads you can develop with that tiny little card. Happy Marketing!

Crystal Ball Marketing

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In the past few months, I have watched several businesses open and close in my community. The latest to bite the dust was a New York style deli around the corner. Was it to be my fate to welcome a new place only to have it close it’s doors in a couple of months. In the span of a few months, a coffee shop, Mexican restaurant, grocery store and drycleaners had all shut down. Here in Michigan where unemployment is among the highest in the country, it would be easy to place the blame on the economy. While the economy certainly played a role these business failures can be traced to fundamental errors made by the owners.

Nosiness is a professional hazard, so I talk to everyone, and ask lots of questions. I had chatted with the owners of the businesses on many of my visits so in every case had gotten to know their story. Many of the businesses had opened and closed in less than 6 months. In every case the owners had been filled with enthusiasm and hope only to close up shop a few months later. So, what happened?

The economy does impact spending. But let’s be clear consumers do not stop spending money they simply become picky about where those dollars go. This means that businesses have to work a little harder to attract their customers. Each of these businesses had failed miserably at attracting customers. They opened their doors and hoped for the best. None had a solid marketing plan (I asked) and apparently all were severely under capitalized. The owners all mistakenly believed that they could not afford to market so their efforts were a couple of fliers and coupon offers in local papers. Yeah, that worked out real well.

It may surprise you but these owners are not unlike many business owners. So for all of you out there allow me to share this: Consumers do not have a crystal ball that will direct them to your business. You have to TELL them not only that you exist but WHY they need you. You have taken the time to develop a business idea, raise enough capital to get started so isn’t it worth it to close the deal. Without customers, you don’t have a business so shouldn’t the acquisition of customers play a central role in your planning? Consumers are not psychic and the mere presence of a building (or website) will not guarantee you business. In fact as a business owner, the majority of your time should be spent on acquiring business and creating systems to improve the customer experience. Again – no customers, no business.

Marketing does not require a million dollar budget. There are many creative, low cost ways to acquire customers. The key is to understand your target market and find the most cost efficient and effective way to reach them. Who is your market? (Here’s a clue, your answer should not be “everyone.”) How and where does your market make decisions? How does your product/service help them solve a pain point, or avoid pain? Here’s a great example. The Mexican Restaurant that was briefly open did a fair share of take-out business. They had a small dining area which was perfect for the lunch crowd but most of their business was take out. Yet they did nothing to market or cater to this business segment. What could they have done? Local delivery service could have helped to grow this market. Fax and express phone service are other low cost ideas that could have worked. Dominos Pizza built an empire by filling a customer need and marketing it to death. By the way, they were not the best tasting pizza but they certainly were savvy in their marketing.

Marketing is not a nice to do task, it is essential to the life of your business. You cared enough to start your business so share that passion with your target market by telling them what you can do for them! Stay with me in coming weeks as we look at low cost ideas and methods to get you the recognition you deserve.

Paris Hilton and Purple Cows

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Do you ever feel like the Nicole Ritchie of the business world? Destined to be lost in a sea of larger, flashier competitors? Volumes of books have been written about standing out in a crowded marketplace so it’s obviously a topic that is near and dear to the hearts of millions.

Job seekers ask professionals to write resumes that will make them “stand out” from the crowd. Businesses strive to find their “purple cow” solution that will make them stand apart from competitors in their space. Even those running for President are looking for ways to be different in one of the largest and longest pre-primaries in recent history.

In the past, there was a clear dividing line in business. There were major corporations participating on a national or global stage, small business that was primarily local or niched and mid-sized business that fell between the two.

The size of the business no longer determines the playing field. Technology has made it much easier for small and mid-sized businesses to look much bigger and compete on a global scale.

Like it or not, almost every business does compete locally even if their desired customer base is local. The freelance writer in Paducah may face competition in the business writing arena from Great Britain, India and Chicago.

Technology has made the world much smaller and it can be hard to rise above the blogs, adwords, youtube videos and MySpace pages to get noticed. No wonder Barack has turned to hip hop music videos and Hillary is spouting one liners on Letterman!

So, how do you get noticed? Is it possible to rise from oblivion to greatness without a porn tape or shaking your groove thing at a Hollywood party?

Believe it or not the business principles that pre-date our modern technological tools remain relevant today. People still value good old fashioned quality and service. Yes, they may download songs from iTunes but it’s not the technology that makes them listen it’s the music.

In other words, the technology is a tool to reach your market but you will win and keep customers because you offer something of value to them. Album, CD or MP3, a great tune is a great tune!

The key is to know your market. What does your market want and where are the gaps in your industry? What do you bring to your market? Take time to discover your value to your market and then tell them! Once you’ve got the substance go ahead and add the sizzle! Use the most effective technology and marketing for your market. You may never become as famous as Paris but plenty of people have never heard of Martin G. Carver either.

Be purple, fuchsia, sing a song or tell a joke, but just be uniquely you!

Until next time!

KDS