15 posts categorized "SMB Marketing Tips"

Entry By Jason Brick

Would you like to see better results from your SMS marketing efforts this year? Often, adding just one new technique to your existing campaigns is all you need to see a significant change in response. Better yet, test all four during the first quarter, then go strong with the most effective technique for the remainder of the year.

1. Coupon Synergy
You're already putting virtual coupons into your SMS messages. Now, add your text message codes to all of your print coupons. This means everybody you reach with traditional coupons has the option of joining your list. This can be especially effective with "daily deal" coupons like Groupon, with their wide first-time reach.

2. Put Your Keyword Someplace Weird
Keywords are rapidly becoming as invisible as cell phones. No longer novel, they're a part of the landscape - unless you put them someplace people don't expect to find them. Like an elephant in the lion cage, out of place objects get attention. Uniforms, equipment, "gimme" merchandise and elaborate set pieces can get some new attention. Think twice about that tattoo, though.

3. Add a Second Level
Invite people already part of your regular mailing list to join an elite level for additional offers, sneak previews and chances to affect company decisions through polls and events. Half of customer management is identifying the core 20 percent who will bring you 80 percent of your income - and this plan can do exactly that.

4. Change Your Call to Action
Spend January and February experimenting with the call to action in your SMS messages - which you are, of course, making part of every single message in your campaign. Track the numbers carefully to learn which calls work best. Broadcast each call several times, on different days and at different hours, to cull out variables like happy hour and weekends.

Your mobile marketing campaign is an opportunity to leverage your contact list and market advantages at a lower cost than nearly any other option. What you do with it in 2012 may well make the difference between the company you have and the company you want.

Want to learn more about improving your SMS Marketing campaigns? Check out our free SMS Marketing Resources Center.

SMS Marketing for Large-Ticket Sales is the fourteenth in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business. 

Entry By Jason Brick

A lunch time or happy hour coupon is probably the most recognizable SMS marketing broadcast. It's a short-term offer intended to bring in customers on an impulse buy, or to add an appetizer or similar small item to something they were going to buy anyway. In this context, text marketing has a proven track record of success.

But what about higher-ticket items? If you sell pianos, or cars, or long-term services like legal representation or karate lessons, a "weekend warrior" coupon isn't going to get the results you want.

This doesn't mean an SMS message can't get you results. A recent eCommerce Predictions report notes that mobile commerce can actually spur large-ticket purchases more than everyday purchases. The trick is tailoring your mobile message to make this true in your shop.

Here are some Dos and Don'ts to help you get started:

Do integrate your message with your mobile and traditional websites, making it easy for potential customers to do research on their own.

Don't include unnecessary time pressure, like you would with a smaller ticket item. You can hold special sales from time to time, but sophisticated customers will resent a "high pressure" feel.

Do provide insider information in your posts. People who purchase luxury items like to feel "in the know" – and will remember the source for their behind-the-scenes knowledge.

Don't ignore the value of freebies. Offering a free accessory, or an entry into a sweepstakes for a free high-ticket goody, can be the gentle push your broadcast list needs to make a buying decision.

Do respect the time scale of purchasing high-ticket items. You'll send fewer messages than for other kinds of business. Too many messages can mean extremely well-in formed customers &ndash for your competition.

Don't limit your options. If you have two potential market demographics, set up two different SMS campaigns – with each tailored for the tastes and values of that demographic. One thing large-ticket SMS has in common with less expensive merchandise is that it's all a numbers game. The more people you reach meaningfully, the more sales you'll make.

Do make things as personal as possible. Include customer names, and your own name, in your message. Direct readers to your top salespeople and technicians. As they come closer to a buying decision, a personal relationship is likely to steer them to your door.

Don't forget to include a call to action with every message. It may not ask for a sale, but it should elicit a response so you can track what works and what doesn't.

6 Steps To Your Best Mobile Plan for the New Year is the thirteenth in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business.

Entry By Jason Brick


You can want to run a successful mobile campaign in 2012 all you like, but without a written plan your chances of having one are slim. Like any other ongoing project, without a plan, the "daily grind" of your SMS plan will take a back seat to other tasks. Regardless of your personal vision of mobile marketing success, you can apply these six steps to help you set up your plan for the new year:

Step One: Determine Budgets
Set a realistic fiscal and scheduling budget for your SMS marketing plan, based on what you know from the last two to three years and what you project for the coming months. Use this to determine what's a realistic amount to commit to your mobile marketing. If you set goals that aren't in line with your available support, you're almost certain to fail.

Step Two: Set a Rhythm
Based on how much time and money you can put into your mobile program, decide how often you will send out an SMS broadcast. Can you afford to do it once a week? Every other day? Once you know how many you can send, set strategic days and times that garner the best response. For example, a lunch-based restaurant would avoid weekends and evenings, while a dinner crowd place would target those times with virtual coupons.

Step Three: Account for Events
Check the regular calendar and the calendars for your other projects to find special events that might affect your mobile marketing plan. Holidays, for example, might interrupt your usual flow with people leaving town. If you live in a tourist area your market might be flooded with people during the summer months or Spring Break. You can also support new products or promotional events by including them in your SMS campaign.

Step Four: Set Benchmarks
This is where you define success. Unlike finite projects, you won't brush your hands one day and be finished. Rather, you'll compare the ongoing progress of your campaign against an evolving set of metrics like number of broadcasts, size of recipient list and conversion rate. Assign each number a specific date, to review progress at least every quarter.

Step Five: Assign Responsibility
Make results somebody's job. That person may not be responsible for every detail of the SMS campaign, but it's his or her job to coordinate everything so that your plan goes off on schedule. If you leave the plan without somebody responsible for and in charge of it, it becomes nobody's job -- and the job won't get done.

Step Six: Remain Flexible
Remember throughout the year that this is your Plan of Record . A POR isn't a holy writ, but rather the idea people can set a good case to change. You'll hit snags and unforeseen events throughout the year, but having a plan to alter is better in uncertain times than having no plan at all.

Service-Based Marketing For Your Small Business is the twelfth in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business.

Entry By Jason Brick

The great thing about mobile media is that it's so cheap and easy anybody can do it

The bad thing about mobile media is that it's so cheap and easy anybody can do it. 

This double-edged media sword makes it hard for small businesses with small marketing budgets to stand out in the noisy crowd of electronic voices. Service-based marketing, though, will let you stand out in the best possible way: by giving back to the same community that keeps your business afloat.

Step One: Find a Cause
Choose a cause you care about, preferably one served by an agency or non-profit in your local area. Some examples include:

• Reducing pollution
• Hungry families
• Homeless families
• Diabetes (or Cancer or AIDS) awareness

Once you've chosen your cause, reach out to a nearby group dedicated to that problem. Most major metro areas will have one or more. Local chapters beat national organizations here because you'll have better opportunities for "face time."

Step Two: Plan an Event
Host an event – either at your location or in a prominent area like a parking lot at a major intersection – to raise funds for that cause. Use a "hook" somehow related to your business to make it memorable. Print coupons or gift certificates for everybody who participates.

Bushido Martial Arts of Hillsboro, Oregon, for example, collected over three tons of food by having students stand outside local grocery stores with signs saying "Will Teach Karate For Food." Everybody who came out of a store with a can for the l ocal food bank got a coupon for a free week of lessons.

Your event doesn't have to focus on fundraising; you can also focus on awareness – such as renting an air compressor to "top off" cars for free and improve gas mileage.

Step Three: Tell Everybody
Once you've set a date, it's time to activate your social media team.  Use every media channel you have access to, and spread the word. It's rarely worth it to pay for advertising, but you can write a press release for the local paper. The local group you've partnered with should help you with this – either with their own publicity team, or by providing graphics or other support.

Step Four: Broadcast Live
Use SMS, Twitter and Facebook to post ongoing progress reports on the day of your event. Let recipients know how many people are already there, about upcoming special speakers or other activities, and your progress towards your goal. You can also use the feed to organize a "flash presentation," by encouraging hard core fans to show up all at once.

Step Five: Recap
Send a follow-up press release to the local paper if you didn't get a reporter on scene. Send a mobile broadcast with thanks and final results. When you present your earnings to the local charity, get photos and post them on your website. Tell everybody about it, and include a coupon offer for  anybody who brings in a copy of the story.

Service-based marketing requires some creativity and a front-end filled with hard work. Used successfully, it's worth the investment of time and effort.

Getting More Out Of Social Media With SMS Marketing is the eleventh in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business.

Entry By Jason Brick

Synergy occurs when two productive activities combine to create a total greater than the sum of their individual parts -- like chocolate peanut butter cups. If you do it right, SMS marketing and social media marketing can create this same kind of effect. Both provide positive mobile experiences, which can build on one another in a reinforcing upward spiral. 

Social Media Marketing
You can link your social media presence to your SMS campaigns with regular posts and tweets containing a call to action, along with your keyword and short code. Your most engaged customers will self-identify by becoming part of both mailing lists - and help your marketing go viral by sharing and re-tweeting your message.

This works best when your social media presence is professional, effective, and up -to-date. Here are a few tips make sure that's true.

• Use different keywords for different platforms. When fans respond, you'll find out which platform reaches the most people.
• Incorporate mobile functionality into your social media presence, such as Facebook's check-in feature. These contacts keep you front of mind in clients' awareness, even without a call to action.
• Add videos, images, and interactive widgets to your social media pages -- creating a dynamic and memorable experience people will want to follow.
• Include your social media information in your letterhead, signature and business cards.

SMS Marketing
Linking to your social media in your text marketing message creates a feedback loop. Readers visit your site and end up following or subscribing. They then get messa ges that encourage them to participate even more in your SMS...which leads them to your social media. It's a key part of combining these two powerful initiatives into a synergistic whole.

For this to work, both campaigns must be interesting and relevant -- otherwise it will simply feel like you're giving them twice as much spam as their competitors.

• Use SMS to point to social media updates only when relevant to your clients. Humor, news, and statistics are all good choices - some better than others, depending on your industry.
• Never repeat the same post over multiple channels. You can point to a post you think people will like, but plagiarizing yourself feels like spam.
• Encourage SMS voting and similar participatory programs, but announce the results on your social media program. Those who vote will cross over to learn the outcome.
• Adopt an "elite" program, by offering discounts and other rewards to fans who sign up for SMS and multiple platforms. This can include "private" broadcasts only for this group.

Want to try it yourself? Head over to Ez Texting to start enhancing your social media efforts with SMS Marketing.

Your Social Media Team is the tenth in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business.

Entry By Jason Brick

To a large corporation, "Social Media Team" means a group of professionals earning high salaries, whose job it is to promote the business using the web. To a small business, it means something else entirely. Your team will consist of fans and friends, most of whom aren't even on your payroll. Since you don't have the budget to cover the web with mention of your brand, you'll rely on the quality and enthusiasm of the content your team puts out there - and on their ability to inspire retweets, shares, and similar viral techniques.

Each small business social media team is different, but in most you'll find some of the usual suspects. Let's meet them, so you can identify those people in your own customer base. 

The Exchange Guy
It's possible he's a pro - or he might be a social media or PR hobbyist - but he loves wha t you do for him. A work-in-trade agreement can mean bartering for expert advice.

The Raving Fan
She's probably already touting you in social media. This is that one customer who loves your shop, and likes you better than your own family. Official status, and the opportunity to help, is all she needs to happily lend a hand.

The Early Adopter
This guy might have been one of the first in your door, or he might be a new arrival. Either way, he's enthusiastic about early access and the inside scoop. You can get him on board with insider information - especially if he gets to share it with his friends.

The "Kid"
Right out of central casting, this is the teenager who comes into your shop even when she has no official business. She seems interested in the industry, or maybe just the counter staff. Either way, you can give her valuable experience for her resume by getting her involved. 

The Intern
One of your employees is probably already a social media enthusiast. Tap his knowledge and put him in charge. Though it's illegal to ask him to work for free, you'll find giving him a paid hour now and then will keep him inspired.

The Connector
You may know this woman from your local Chamber of Commerce. She knows everybody, and has probably already put you in touch with a handful of vendors and customers. She might be all over the Internet, or may still use a physical Rolodex. Either way, she may be your best chance of going viral.

The Crowd
You have a loyal core of regulars and hard-core fans. Giving them special rewards they can share with new friends means your m obile marketing messages get spread far and wide each time you tap this resource. 

Your team might be made up of one of each of these types, or several of one type. But whoever makes up your social media team, make sure you reward their efforts with elite status and occasional discounts. It will be the best value for expenditure your marketing budget has ever seen.

5 Ways Mobile Marketing Beats Print Marketing is the ninth in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business.

Entry By Jason Brick

When you're ready to add mobile marketing to your in-place marketing plan, you'll have to learn some new tricks. Maybe you want to replace more traditional methods with a mobile message, or maybe you're thinking about expanding your mobile platform at the expense of some other options. Whatever the reason, consider these five ways mobile outperforms print, radio and television. 

1. Affordable Expandability
Although you get some discount for scale, 1,000 fliers cost significantly more than 100 fliers. The larger the audience, the more you'll pay for print and on-air ads. With mobile marketing, you'll pay a bit extra for bandwidth if you're broadcasting on a very wide scale, but for most small businesses, expanding your reach won't mean significantly increasing your budget. 

2. Instantaneous Response
Mobile marketing is a conversation. As your opt-in list expands, you know exactly how many people are receiving your message. Polls, contests, and discounts for responses, will tell you exactly how many people that broadcast engaged. This lets you know in real time which messages worked and which ones didn't. That's a lot better than waiting until next year to tweak your Yellow Book spot. 

3. Greater Engagement
Modern consumers want to feel invested and involved. If they don't, they'll just find the cheapest offer online. You can make your broadcast list feel like a club, by being responsive to replies. The more you  encourage this feeling, the better the results. Ironically, this means you can create the personal touch in a broadcast to hundreds or thousands of contacts. 

4. Simpler Process
Even a quarter-page, black-and-white newspaper spot requires graphic design, compelling copy, and formatting. Your mobile message is a short series of characters you can knock off in a few minutes. It's true that you'll have to put some thought and attention into what those characters say -- but you won't have to worry about all the aesthetic trappings that accompany traditional marketing. 

5. Contact Sharing
Sharing a print coupon means mailing it or handing it to someone. Sharing a TV ad means recording it and showing it -- or at least uploading it to YouTube. If a fan likes your mobile message, though, he can immediately forward it to other people he thinks might also appreciate it. Some of those recipients will opt in for your broadcast -- a benefit that did not exist for earlier marketing methods. 

6 SMS Coupon Formats to Reel Subscribers In is the eighth in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business.

Entry By Jason Brick

Print coupons have been part of marketing for more than a century, benefiting national brands and local small businesses. But according to marketing research reported by RestaurantReport.com, SMS--short message service coupons--can be up to 10 times as effective as print coupons at a fraction of the price. 

SMS coupons generate an immediate response when you create a call to action paired with a time limit -- the trouble is coming up with unique coupons week after week. One way to do it is by rotating several different coupon formats, sending them out in a pattern that produces new coupons.

1. BOGO
"Buy one, get one free" is a coupon classic that works just as well with modern marketing modalities. This can be a core value -- such as free entree with a purchased entree -- or a loss leader -- applying the deal to an ap petizer or similar small item. Offering a 50% off deal on any two items gives you two coupon formats for the same basic concept. 

2. Progressive Discount 
Offering 5% off for purchases over $30, but 10% off for purchases over $50 encourages your customers to buy more. Whether they stock up on staples, or splurge on dessert, the result is more profits for you. 

3. Hidden Upsell
In restaurants, this often takes the form of a free beverage with purchase of a side order. The customer gets a deal, but your profits from the side exceed your cost for the freebie. Retail can accomplish the same with thematically similar items, like free socks with each new pair of shoes. 

4. Website Coupon Codes
If you do a lot of Internet business, or want to start doing a lot, you can broadcast coupo n codes for customers to enter when buying through your web portal. These coupons can follow the formats of in-store coupons, or apply uniquely to internet commerce -- such as free shipping for orders above a threshold. 

5. Daily Deal
Groupon and similar sites have turned this kind of deal into its own niche industry. You can use the same trend by offering a short-term deal your customers can't refuse. Make subscribers part of the "in crowd" by extending the offer for extra hours only for them, or with an even bigger discount for bringing in a friend. 

6. Customer Choice
People like feeling involved and listened to. If you're having trouble deciding what kind of offer to make, hold a poll among your SMS subscribers. Not only will the winning team come in to enjoy their victory, but even the voters on the losing side will feel more attached to your business.

6 Unexpected Ways Businesses are Using iPhones and iPads in the Workplace is the seventh in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business.

Entry By Jason Brick

For decades, Apple courted the consumer market so exclusively that business clients often considered the company actively hostile. Since the iPhone/iPad revolution, though, Apple products have appeared more and more in employee hands at businesses both large and small. In some cases they work as the newest productivity tool, a next-generation upgrade from the standard laptop. Other businesses, have taken the implementation to an entirely new level.

1. Meet the New Cash Register
Internet-based credit card processing is beginning to nudge traditional point of sale machines out of the market. Combined with apps like Square for order tracking and accounting, this turns your iPhone/iPad into a portable cash register. Salespeople can ring up orders on the floor, or take them into the field for house calls. 

2. Upgrade Presentations
Old-school sales presentations means carrying printed materials; they're bulky and can quickly become outdated. The iPad/iPhone way of presenting is light, portable, and easy to update. Apps like Keynote allow you to add colorful graphics, animation and videos, makes this new presentation approach still more powerful. 

3. The Truly Paperless Office
Large companies and small businesses have a common problem -- too much paper. Putting the same information on a dedicated iPad though -- or a server the device can log in to -- eliminates paper and saves trees. It also creates a document that's easy to update, and one that everyone can access at the same time.

4. Integrated Customer Tracking
A business without an electronic customer database is far behind the times. But some savvy business owners are going further by integrating that customer database with apps for their iPhone/iPad. This benefits them in three ways: It lets them choose the best candidates for marketing broadcasts; it gives them the ability to update information in real time while talking to customers; and it makes inputting a new customer's information a more pleasant experience by moving it away from a formal desk and a bulky computer. 

5. The Robot Waiter
An iPad integrated with another in a restaurant kitchen means a comfortably seated diner can order a meal at the pace that best suits him. Instantaneous, electron ic delivery, helps out as well by eliminating wait staff errors, and lost or confused tickets. No luck yet, though, on an iPad that actually carries your food to the table!

6. Flexible Workstations
Everyone's interacted with the conceptual ancestor of the iPad for years by signing the UPS worker's electronic order tracking pad. Apps for the iPad now provide this kind of workstation for every imaginable task, and let one employee use the same device for different tasks throughout the day. A network of iPad workstations also gives management real-time tracking of progress

7 Great, Affordable Web Apps That Small Businesses Use To Communicate With Their Customers is the sixth in a series of articles that we'll be posting this fall. Small Business Marketing Tips To Build Sales In A Down Economy will teach you how to use do-it-yourself tools like SMS, email and social media to effectively market your business.

Entry By Zack Miller

In an increasingly wired world, businesses are reaping huge profits by automating many parts of their business. It’s enticing — providing service breadcrumbs for your customers to help themselves. If you’re automating customer service, though, bad move.

In this market, customer service is the new sales.

Marketing analysts point to online shoe store, Zappos, as the paradigm of how good customer service can build a huge company — no matter what you’re selling. The 8-year old company that was bought by Amazon last year for almost $1 billion has service as its #1 core value. By continuously surpassing customer expectations, Zappos has been able to create a raving pack of customer evangelist lunatics.  

Zappos sells shoes online. It has nothing short of a cultish following.

New customer service tools make it easy for companies of any size to delight their customers. Once the domain of only the largest companies, these technologies put the service muscle of the Fortune 500 in the hands of small and medium size businesses — easy to implement and on the cheap.

Here are seven easy and affordable tools that business can use to offer world class customer service:

1. Customer chat: Online businesses have improved their ability to help customers find what they’re looking for, but they still fail 28% of the time. Services like Olark allow website operators to fully engage via chat with people browsing their sites. Reaching out to prospects poking around a website — in a gently, guiding way — can be a great way to fill the empty space between supply and demand. Olark’s also decently priced, has a ton a features, and can be set up in minutes.

2. Email marketing: Many successful online businesses are using outbound email marketing to stay in front of their customers with great communication, offers and service. Mailchimp has become a customer favorite because it’s hard to beat in price (free, up to 2,000 subscribers) and it’s a pleasure to use. Email marketing is effective in converting prospects to customers.

3. Text messaging: SMS is kind of like the sleeping giant of customer service. Few companies are really doing this effectively — yet. Ez Texting provides a cost-effective SMS marketing platform that firms can use to customize how they ping their clients on their phones. Businesses can fine-tune who they target and create auto-replies for specific keywords

4. Support ticketing: Turnaround time on inbound requests and questions is key to keeping customers happy and satisfied. Zendesk enables firms to focus on what’s core to their business and automate an email ticketing system. These systems used to cost tens of thousands of dollars to build and manage. Now, you can get in for less than $10/month.

5. Social media monitoring: Research shows that customers want answers delivered via social media as well. Hootsuite is a marketer’s favorite tool to monitor and communicate over social media in real time. Its dashboard allows firms to monitor multiple social profiles, track brand mentions, and schedule outgoing messages.

6. Invert your call center: Instead of asking customers to wade through your service center’s phone tree, identify how important the call is to your prospect or clients. For those really excited to chat with a company rep, they can request a callback by using a callback module like the ones offered by Fast Customer.

7. Customer self-help: There are times where self-service works — especially for customers that are DIY in nature. Consider using a free, hosted FAQ, like the one FaqMe offers. Customers are frequently happy to try and figure things out themselves and a frequently-asked question page is where they’re trained to look for answers. FaqMe’s tools make creating this page easy and the platform has some analytics so businesses can monitor where customers are getting stuck.

You don't need Fortune 500 resources to deliver world-class customer service. With these easy and affordable web tools, small and medium business can out-service — and out-compete — much larger competitors.