Five Small Business Marketing Miscues (and how to atone)

I work with several small businesses, and there are enough miscues out there in the marketing world that they warrant a quick rundown. I'm sure these aren't really just for the small guys, but always talk about what you know, right?

#10. Too Much Jargon
Five dollar words aren't usually worth the price. Even in business to business situations, the most elemental philosophy still holds. You're talking to people - humans - and they're the ones making the decisions about whom to work with. Speak to people professionally but humanly, and use words that feel more conversational than those that come out of your graduate school textbooks. Take a breeze through your collateral and see if the text would make sense to someone outside the industry. Necessary technical issues aside, you'll get much more mileage from your conversations with your people if they really believe you're talking to and with them, not over them.

To atone if your'e a Jargoneer: Pick a page (or a paragraph) on your website full of buzzwords and industry jargon. If you can't be an objective judge, have your husband/wife/teenager/friend read it for you. Cross out all the offensive words. See what you're left with, and start there for a rewrite. And go subscribe to Copyblogger and read Brian Clark and the gang's super awesome insights about writing, and writing well.

#9. Viewing Marketing as an Expense
Especially in today's economy (or recession or downturn or icky point, whichever term you prefer), small businesses have a tendency to panic and pull the plug on all things marketing - even brainstorming. I agree with MarketingSherpa today about using this time as an investment in your business and a great time to find those opportunities to really connect with your clients and customers or explore new avenues like online marketing and some of the cool social technologies out there. The market always, I repeat always, comes back around. And when it does, the time you've taken to have great dialogue with your customers will pay off when you're first on their mind.

To atone if you're a Marketing Scrooge: Spend some time with a few simple strategies that won't break the bank but are super valuable. Find the 25 customers that have been with you the longest and take them to lunch. Pick 50 of your best clients and write them a handwritten thank you note for their business.

#8. Mass Anything.
Gone are the days when you can throw 57,212 darts at a board and hopw that one sticks. Yes, ok, if you blast the world with a bunch of form letters, you might get a bite. But how personal is that? Mass email, mass advertising, mass mailings. They're all just a "toss and hope" kind of tool, and you risk alienating the people who are hopeful for personal and exclusive relationships with your company only to be handed a number and a Dear Friend letter. Small business is, and always will be, personal.

To atone if you're a mass blaster: You're much better off taking the money and time from the paper and envelopes and printing and postage and trade mag ads and doing some really great picking apart of your customer base and finding out who they are and what makes them tick. You may find a great deal of interesting information about clients and customers you never knew you had, how they found you, why they love you, what frustrates them. Understanding is the first step. Then you can talk to them, individually, with messages and ideas that are really relevant to them.

#7. Being Deaf
You're the business owner, which means you know exactly what your customers want, right? Are you sure? Are you sending out surveys or collecting comment cards and stuffing them in a drawer somewhere? Do you have a feedback form on your website? Do you insist on having your employees talk to customers about how they found you or what they like or what challenges they're having with your product or service? And then the million dollar question: What are you doing with the information once you have it?

To atone for being deaf: Start listening closely. If you get comment cards, read them, and don't dismiss the negative ones out of hand. Respond to the feedback emails you get - personally - and thank your site visitors for taking the time to share their feedback. And pay attention to the trends. One person lamenting that your return policy is too strict is one thing. A cadre of frustrated people might be pointing out something you need to fix.

#6. Bandwagon Jumping
There are so, so many techniques and technologies out there that it can be supremely overwhelming to decide which you need to use and which you can safely put aside. Some things will never go out of style - personal phone calls, one on one meetings, a personal letter or email to a valued customer. But launching a loyalty program or starting a blog or having an email newsletter can all be incredibly valuable if - and only if - they truly bring something of value to your customers. Small businesses especially need to look closely at what's out there before deciding where your time and money is best spent. Have a look here to see a few of Social Media Today's recommended starting points.

To atone if you're in a rush to hop the next train to techie town: Start by participating and exploring the technologies that you're hearing and reading about so you get a true sense of what they're really doing and who else is participating. Then, spend some time evaluating what your customers use (asking them is a good start) and how they use them. Are they just lurking on Twitter, or do they find it a valuable source of information about resources for their business? Do they have a Facebook page and look for connections from potential business partners? And most important of all, ask them what they love about your website and what they'd like to see on it to help them. It might be a few simple tools, and you're suddenly engaging your customers like never before.

I'll round out my top 10 in another post coming soon!

Free Stuff from Smart People Rules.

I have a Google Reader account that, for those who aren't familiar, aggregates all of my RSS feeds in one place so I can keep up with the many smart people whose blogs I read, people like Chris Brogan and Conversation Agent (Valeria Moltoni) and Brian Solis and Andy Sernovitz and and and... (the list goes on - check out the blog list to the right for more).

One thing that hounds me a little bit is that I'm thirsty to learn stuff. I've always said I'd go to school forever if I had the money to do it. But my need to absorb knowledge from the smart people around me is at times overwhelming. And with all of the tools available today and the many I'm actively using - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Flickr - it's easy to fall behind and miss stuff.

So to me, the incredible value I find in spending concentrated time reading through my feed updates is the amazing community of sharing. If I miss something on one blog, I might just get linked to it through another blog that I *do* manage to read. Today, I was so excited that Chris Brogan's blog directed me to Brian Solis' new free e-book on social media. Free Stuff From Smart People! More Free Stuff by Smart People that I've found lately:

• Valeria's e-book: Make Your Website Sticky
  
• Greg Verdino's updated presentation on Six Emerging Media Trends
• Drew McLellan linking to Seth Godin's TED talk on being remarkable
  

It's got me thinking about the content and information of value that I can and should be creating for my readers, my clients, and just those generally interested. I'm a firm believer in sharing everything you know, and the concept of teaching someone to fish meaning that you, in turn, will never go hungry. Yay for those who feel the same way, and I'm committed to spending some quality time with my keyboard to continue bringing and delivering great information.

Something in particular you'd like to see? Got a great Free Thing from a Smart Person? Drop me a note and let me know. I've got my creative juices flowing.

When Advertising Goes Bad. Or Stupid.

Have you ever been to Sonic Drive In? They have lots of yummy treats on the menu - great burgers, shakes, malts, slushees, and cheesy tater tots. mmmm.

I've seen them in the south near where I have family - Atlanta, Hot Springs, Memphis. But I've never seen one in Chicago.

Nevertheless, they advertise like crazy in my market. TV, radio, the whole bit. And finally, after the requisite number of impressions or an overwhelming interest in chili fries, I went to their website to have a look and see just how far I'd have to go to find one. After all, if they're advertising in my area, they must have one nearby, right? It's "America's Drive In"

Nope. In fact, according to their Sonic Locator, the nearest one to me is in Peoria, which is over 185 miles away. Are they kidding? It might be America's Drive In, but it ain't Chicago's.

I'm not sure the point here. As a potential customer, the ads leave me feeling slighted and a bit taunted. Like ha ha, no Sonic for you. And I can't help but wondering how much money they're wasting. Sure, I know they buy blocks on networks that include their entire distribution area. But this smacks of pure advertising laziness. I honestly can live with the fact that their business model must not include Chicago. But to advertise here anyway?

So I'm actually motivated to go back to the website and comment to someone about their flirtation with us Sonic-hungry folks in Chicago. And I've looked all over the site. Their contact us page has a phone number, which no one answered save for some automated recordings about franchise ownership. No email. No contact form. These days, I can't possibly understand why someone wouldn't make it easy for the outside world to get in touch with them through their website. Yikes!

So, friends at Sonic. While I still feel like a chocolate malt or a raspberry slushie delivered to me by a carhop is a thing of beauty, I'm not driving to Peoria. And when and if you decide to be nearer to me, I'll be thinking twice about whether to bother then, either. I may just try my hand at cheesy tater tots from my own oven. So there.

You Don't Control the Conversation Anymore!

One of the major dynamic shifts in marketing in the past several years has been the migration of our role as conversation starters - an active role - to conversation facilitators, a more observational and influential role.

10-15 years ago, we were all charged with integrating our marketing efforts by crafting and streamlining our messaging, ensuring that all of our channels were using the same language, creating "key messages" in bullet point form for the media, and mastering "official positioning" for everything from our product's benefits to our company's role in the community.

Not anymore.

These kinds of manufactured conversations simply don't have staying power and credibility in today's transparent world. The remarkable nature of the internet and social media have broken the conversation wide open, and put the audience in the drivers' seat. Today's consumers, companies, and readers aren't buying the canned corporate statement anymore. And frankly, they could care less about your "official" position on something. They're not going to ignore the unofficial stuff that's out there about you, and they're going to make up their own minds about what's really being said. Brian Solis has a great podcast that discusses this very thing.

So what can you do? Listen to the conversation and participate in it. Hear what people are saying about you, and respond. Craft your "official" positioning by making it your policy to:

- Allow your best assets - your team members, at all levels - to speak about what they know. Quit stifling their insights in favor of "approved" media spokespeople. It's more genuine this way.
- Respond to the dialogue that's happening around you and about you. And that means the criticism, too.
- Pay attention to how your idea of your brand is matching up with how others are talking about you. If they're vastly different, it's time to reevaluate.

Today, we're all charged with letting go a little bit and realizing that we're not the ones dictating the conversation anymore. The social media reality means that conversation and dialogue is now:

• Transparent
• Open to everyone
• Collective - the power of many
  
• Brutally honest
• Fast as lightning.
  

Our role as marketing people is to help create an oustanding, remarkable, and great product/service/idea. Then we participate in the conversation rather than merely trying to control it, and see what a difference it makes. Not convinced social media will affect the way you do business? Read this great post by Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research.

This kind of conversation can actually be great fun, super insightful, and inspirational. I can't tell you how many brilliant people I've met just by opening my brain and my business to these possibilities. Let go of the steering wheel a little bit, and reap the rewards.

How Not To Find a Great Marketing Person

Egads, have you ever read some of the job descriptions for marketing people? Some of them are downright cryptic. And for companies who are looking for "results oriented" people, I'm amazed at how jargon laden and crappy some of them are. Cases in point from just a little quality time with CareerBuilder:


From a big fat Fortune 500 company:

Collaborate with field and other cross-functional partners to identify potential revenue generating gaps or barriers in building infrastructure for any given alternate channel.

Is this jargon for "figure out what's working and what's not?"

From a big department store retailer:

Planning and execution of a multiple cutting edge business and strategic relationship marketing programs supporting the extension and development of online and direct-to-customer channels for XYZ company. Forming partnerships with internal business for expansion of value-added services and capabilities. Forming strategic partnerships with external partners to create new services, adding value to the XYZ customer experience.

Ready for buzzword bingo, anyone? Using the old trick of removing the buzzwords to reveal the essence of the sentence, we're left with little of substance. No wonder this company is struggling mightily.

From another retailer, this time in office supplies:

...this position is accountable for building, maintaining, and expanding the technical infrastructures and analytical skills pool required to consistently deliver timely insight to key decision makers as well as for building strategic relationships with merchandising, marketing, and sales to foster a fact based decision making culture.

As opposed to making decisions based on a bunch of BS? And I'm not exactly sure I'd like to go swimming in an analytical skills pool.

I could go on. (If you're a serious masochist, just head to career builder and type in "marketing". Start reading. Prepare the Advil.)

So how should people find great marketing talent?

You have to be willing to turn convention on it's head a little bit. The essence of great marketing is clear, compelling communication with the people that want to know you. You can't have this be an integral part of your strategy and then recruit people with this drivel.

Start paying attention to the aspects of your potential Marketeers that are the intangibles. I promise you'll find lots of people with adequate qualifications. But pay attention to a few other things:

• Are they personable? Funny? Gregarious? If not, their projects aren't likely to be, either.
• Can they hold an engaging conversation? This translates, trust me. Ever met a great marketing person with a wilting personality?
• Do they have interests outside of work, and do they participate in other activities and communities, either online or off? Great marketing is a good dose of insight and instinct, and only those who are involved in communities will know what it's like to talk to one.
• Is their resume or cover letter full of the same jargon that's in these job descriptions? Red flag.

It'll also help to take a hard look at the job description you're writing and whittle it down to the things you really want someone to do. You probably don't need much more than that. Skip the buzzwords. And when you're interviewing, toss aside the standard "Give me an example of a time you helped a customer with a difficult problem" and get to know the person sitting in front of you.

Smart marketing people are immune to these kinds of appeals, and will often skip right to the next company. Remember, you're selling them the appeal of working with you too, not just doing them a favor by giving them a job. Smart marketers are savvy and in demand, and unfortunately mediocre ones can be found in droves. Which are you searching for?