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I have a 9.5 month old baby.  I feel all techie when I type it like that.  Like she might be an android.  Not the phone, the not quite a human not quite a robot thing.  

 

She is too young to walk so right now she does a weird low crawl, kind of like a snail thing.  But I am not complaining,it saves me having to sweep.
 
My point is that when she does start to walk she won't start off running; she will begin with cautious incremental movements. And that makes sense because walking is a very complicated process,there are a ton of little things you have to do or you fall or fail, both really.

 

And you just can’t start walking you have to learn to pull up.  Then you have to learn to balance when you are up.  Then you let go and balance.  Then you take a step and keep your balance.  Then you move one step forward.  And so on and so forth.
 
Kind of like when starting a marketing effort, you need to prioritize and start with one task complete it build.  So what should you do first?  Start a blog or website?  Get on Twitter or Facebook?   The first thing I think you need, as I have said before, is to listen.
 
Hear what others in your space are saying and how that pertains to you and your business.  Spend some time on your competitor’s site.  Read their blog and comment, see what their customers love and or hate about them.  Surf the webnets and Twitter to hear what others are saying.  Oddly enough people love to tell you what they think.
 
The next step is to start your website or blog. Depending on your business one or both can work just as well.  Then when you are talking online you can send others to what you think.  Gradually build your following thorough having something to say and contributing.  Listen then talk.  Sounds like a conversation almost.

 

After that you can continue to build.  Just get one thing down before you start the next. The key is to do something until you can safely add to it.  Like jenga. Business Jenga. It is way too easy to get overwhelmed and want to do a hundred things at once.  I have to have a Facebook page or I will look like a joke!!

 

Do the one and build to two.  Two to three,three to five, five to eight.  This is why I took marketing instead of accounting.

 

Snowball,baby, snowball. Too warm where you are to get a good snowball going?  Give us a shout at@travisabaker or at travis@366marketing.com

I have a revelation, hold on for this one.  People are obsessed with talking.  They will talk about anything.  We share opinions, reviews, recipes what kind of jell-o they are enjoying. We want to talk in different avenues, channels and venues.  140 characters to thousand word manifestos.  It doesn’t take a lot of effort to get someone to talk. 

And small business owners may be the best.  They love to talk, and talking is good for business. You can tell people about what you do, how you do it, what you produce.  You have a business and you are passionate about it. 

The unfortunate part is that no one cares. 

 

So why don’t we listen? I suppose listening is not nearly as glamorous.  Perhaps not as cathartic either.  But how else are you supposed to find out what people want?  Maybe they want your product to have different features, or you are open when your customers don’t want or need your product. You keep spouting information but it is not what they need or want so they ignore you.

So instead of broadcasting, try communication.  You know back and forth.  There are roughly, oh I don’t know, a billion, online communities out there and your customers and prospects would love to have you out there exchanging ideas with them.  So put down the bull horn and have a chat.  Listen and maybe learn.

We at 366marketing.com are always listening so let us know what you think, comment or email us.

A lot of times I see businesses try to run from or disguise what makes them weak. 

Why do we do this?  I think it has a lot to do with business wanting to look “professional”.  If you are a professional you can do anything, no job too small or big for Professional Man (or Woman).  And maybe if we cloak ourselves in Professionalism we become a little less vulnerable.  

 

The downside of being Professional is that you aren’t allowing yourself to be human.  And I don’t know about you but I would rather deal with a human than with a business any day of the week.  I am friends with people not corporations. 

 

So the next time you are thinking “We are too big, or too small, or too niche or too broad, or….. too full of monkeys”.  Try to embrace your weakness and garner strength from it. 

 

You have a one-person shop.  That means you can offer personal attention and your customers always deal with the owner.

 

You are too niche, that’s called specialization and customers will kill for that.  They know if they go to you they can get exactly what they need.

 

You are too big, you can do anything for anybody.  It seems to be working for Wal-Mart.

 

You have too many monkeys……you can open a zoo.  Kids love zoos.  Hell I love zoos.

 

The important thing to do is not to shy away from your weakness because in the age of Al Gore’s internet you can’t hide for long.  The chinks in companies armor used to be a lot less evident, but now one unsatisfied customer can open huge can of worms….or armor…stupid mixed metaphor. And you will spend so much time and effort trying to hide something you aren’t you can’t focus on being good at what you can do.

 

Be a people.  People love people. 

Need help being a more people like person?  Contact us at 366marketing.com

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What is your story?  No I don’t mean it in a gritty, Al Pacino grabbing you by the collar and throwing you against the wall way.  I used to lose more clients that way….  I mean what is your businesses story?  And can you tell it effectively to prospects?  And more importantly do you convey  it through your marketing?

 

Look at someone like Ben and Jerry’s.  Everybody knows the story behind their company and their brand.  Couple of hippies…yada…yada…yada…awesome icecream with funny names. So can you customers find yours? 

 

And more importantly do they care after they do? 

 

For instance, my story is “Sleazy Marketing Guy, to Earnest Marketeer. (I love the word marketer it reminds me of Orlando for some reason…..) My journey from wide-eyed idealist, to Machiavellian Manipulator and back.

 

You have a transition, a character arc, and a heartwarming protagonist.  You can’t beat it.

 

So especially when you don't have the opportunity to come out and tell them what 

it is can they feel it?  Through what they read about you, what you show them, by your store, your logo, everything you do.  Tell a story.

 

Need help with your story?  Visit us, maybe we can help.

I was speaking with someone today, oh let’s call her M. (because her name starts with an M) who mentioned that a friend of hers, lets call him B. (because I don’t know his name) was interested in getting a logo for his business.
Great idea, I thought, branding, and all. M. also suggested a website, but B. did not seem very excited. I asked M. what reason she gave to B. to have a site.

“Ummm, because it is 2009”, she replied.

I thought, well, overall maybe that is the best answer. When some people’s cats have websites and some businesses don’t, well that seems rather odd. Either the cats are taking over the world, which means me and the puppies are screwed, or some people still don’t see the reason for a website.

So there you go, the best reason to have a website. Don’t you love it when you get what the title promises? But why not I will throw in my next three reasons small businesses should have a website, for FREE.

1) It’s the Business Card on Steroids. If you think about it, a website is like the best business card ever. You can give it to people and they can’t lose it, or run it through their washer. It has a ton more information about what will fit on a business card. In the end, a lot more people are going to see it than your business card.
And that’s even if you go to every business after hours in your town and leave your business cards on top of the gas pumps. Does that not just smack of desperation, especially when you know a least half of them will be used to clean a dipstick. 

2) Always On. Your website is always working for you. Once it’s up and out there floating in the inter-web, a prospect can find you at 3 am. I don’t know about you but I am not manning the phones after midnight. Unless you are my wife or my mom, I’m just not going to pick up. Sorry Nana.

3) Ninja Business. Returning to the business card example, wouldn’t you love it if every time someone in your area thought “Hmmmm, I need a lawyer, (mechanic, plumber, piece of fish) you could pop-out of the bushes and hand them your card?
Well that is what is happening when someone types a search in Google. If your site has some SEO juice (Search Engine Optimization, (makes it easier for Google to find you, check it out)) your digital business ca… I mean website pops up.

Anyway those are my top four reasons why you should have a small business website. Think you might need help reaching the next step? Contact us at 366 Marketing.com.

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 I noticed that there hasn’t been a guide to Twitter posted anywhere in nearly 6 seconds so I thought I would post mine.

This was in response to a person I know who was skilled in traditional Marketing, but was trying to get into Twitter.  Their concern was that they were reticent to just “follow” people. and they wanted some advice on how to start.

Bear in mind this isn’t really on how to build your followers there are enough of the GET 50, 000 FOLLOWERS IN 5 DAYS post and I think that quality beats quantity everyday of the week.

So without any further characters, here is my response.  Oh I added some links just in case you were curious about any of the below mentioned, dear reader.

Hey S.!

Yeah it has been a while. I just happened to see you and thought it would be nice to reconnect. 

I am a big fan of Twitter and it can be used in so many different ways. I was kind of confused when I got on Twitter, too.

What I used to find people who I thought would add value for me was Mr. Tweet..  It gives recommendations of whom you might want to follow. However to follow Mr. Tweet it does take a while to get back to you and give you recommendations.

I also use Twitterlocal to find people in the area. That might be helpful for you since I would imagine you are more concerned about people tweeting in this area.

Twitter is more a free-for-all than, in regard to "friends" than LinkedIn or even Facebook www.facebook.com/travis.a.baker?ref=name . Feel free to go to my twitter account and see whom I am following. You don't have to be friend IRL to follow people, in fact I probably only know 4 out the over 300 people I am following.

Also (sorry this is so long) find people who’s blogs you like ie Chris Brogan and follow them.

Anyway let me know how it goes and follow me and I will follow back twitter.com/travisabaker

Hints: People like real names vs company names, more likely to follow. People like real names with real pics, vs logos. Make a customized background, whenever you get a chance.

Think you could benefit from chatting about small business marketing?  Check out my site 366marketing.com.

I bought a new golf club today.  I have had the same clubs for over a decade now and this was the first time I purchased a brand new one.  I made this rash move on the strength of not embarrassing myself at a golf outing yesterday and thinking I might play golf again.

On the driving range a few days before, though, this purchase would have seemed wildly improbable.  I could not get my old driver (15 years old) to cooperate and figured by the end of the golf game I would swear off the sport for good.   

Because of the difficulty with my driver, I used my 4-iron (not what the club was designed for) as my driver since I could hit it.  If not very far, fairly straight.  For 16 holes, I used it and it was adequate.

 Then there was a hole that was so long I had to use a driver or I might have well just thrown my ball in the lake.  So, I borrowed one of my buddies 460 cc drivers and the change was amazing.  The ball went long and straight and I swung it with none of the fear I had with my own driver.   It was exactly what I needed.

The point is that even in this brave new world we tend to use the tools we are comfortable with even if they aren’t the best for the job.  We tend to stick with something we have success, with even if the success is very limited, because we are scared of trying something new.

I think this is the reason that I cannot go on the web and find menus for restaurants, barring huge chains.  They tend to use outdated low-tech solutions (and often more expensive ) for marketing like direct mail and coupons in junk mail magazines.

If I had a restaurant (or any small business really) the first thing I would do is get a simple website and at the very least put my menu up and a small blurb.  It is probably the most cost effective marketing you can do.  Marketing is changing as fast as or faster than golf technology and a Diablo© is a hundred times better than woods made out of, well, wood.

Interested in finding out if 366 Marketing can do anything for your small business?  Contact us. 

Like the pic?  Want to see some more great photography? dustinjordanphotography.com/

To put myself through college I worked slinging pies for Papa John’s Pizza.  This was in Atlanta and it was back when Papa John’s had no doubt what it was, a pizza place, pure and simple. 

While Pizza Hut and Dominos fought over “innovative” ways to use their ovens making brownies and crème Brule, and lobster Newburg or whatever PJ’s was doing it old school.  We had a simple menu Pizza, cheesticks and breadsticks.  No salads, nothing with cinnamon just those three simple things went through our oven.  And the pies had Pepperoni and sausage, peppers, things that belong on a pizza.

There was a certain amount of pride in that.  Hey, when you deliver pizzas it is nice if you can at least be proud, for who you work.  PJ’s theory was the whole “better ingredients, better pizza” thing.  It was great we don’t need to compete on the fad of the week and be a "me too" solution.  We have the best pies so buy from us.

Of course at some point this all changed.  I remember one of the last times I worked there, I was putting tomato and chicken on a pizza and it just seemed…dirty.  Not the chicken, the putting it on the pizza part.

Sometime it is easy to get away from your core competencies, whatever makes you, you.  Maybe you feel that you are being left behind by your competition and feel you have to change.  Or you lost a large customer or somehow doubt creeps in.  Or maybe it’s not doubt, but pride.  If we can just do “this”, we can be the big dog. This is the time to step back and reappraise the situation.

If you can’t compete on being you, can you glom onto some else’s idea and make it work?  If so more power to you.  However, in many situations going to someone else’s customer and saying, “I can do that, too” does not seem to be the best strategy. 

That’s why I am proud of 366.  I am doing something odd and different in marketing; telling the truth.  Check me out at 366marketing.com.  Oh and you have a little sauce on your shirt.

I was in a Chocolate boutique the other day and I began talking to the owner as I shopped.  I mentioned that I had not noticed his shop before and asked how long he had been in that location.  He told me that they had been there for over 2 years.

This is a neighborhood that I am in 4-5 times a month so I immediately think that this guy might want to think about doing something to raise brand awareness.  One-track mind I guess.   He reads my mind and tells me, “Yeah we have thought about doing some marketing, but we make handmade chocolate which have a limited shelf life.  So if we get a large amount of business from advertising we won’t be able to service the new customers.” 

He says his fear is that instead of new customers you have unhappy regular customers and disappointed newcomers that arrive for a diminished or empty stock.  I commiserated, purchased my chocolates and took them home (making it home with minimal losses to my purchase, I might add).

I kept turning the problem over in my head as I ate my chocolates and then I arrived at the answer.  Instead of a big bang, this business needed a series of smaller explosions.  Like the way they take down large structures.  Yeah one huge blast would take out the building (and be super cool) but the collateral damage is unacceptable.  Therefore, a series of smaller explosions will collapse the building under control.  The smaller planned explosions are social media.

Instead of a huge dose of business that might be unmanageable, there is smaller growth of the brand and business through building relationships.  Sure, they could not handle 500 new customers in a day but 10 is doable without stretching the resources to far.  And with all the demographic tools available through twitter or facebook this is a largely cash light investment.  This method also allows targeting with a rifle vs. a “spray and pray” type of strategy.

Before social media, I think that a business like this would not have a viable avenue for raising awareness and garnering new business. We as business owners today, though have this tactic and the more arrows in our quiver the better.