Ok, so I'm a slacker!

I completely understand that I've totally been lax in keeping up with this blog. But in my defense, I've been swamped lately. When it's dry, it's a drought, when it rains, it's apparently a hurricane (something those of you along the gulf coast understand). I'm in the middle of the hurricane season, literally and figuratively, so I haven't had a ton of time to even think about the blog.

While you're waiting on me to come up with an incredibly smart and brilliant blog post, feel free to check out this new site, which comes in VERY handy to small business owners with marketing questions. www.freemarketinganswers.com. Oh yeah, did I mention it's FREE!? I actually know the purveyor of the site and it is totally legit and 100% ethical. You don't have to worry about being spammed or sold.

Enjoy! Visit www.freemarketinganswers.com and let me know what you think :)

You gotta talk the talk...

When you meet with a marketing firm, they may throw out some of the following terms without defining them first. This list should help you to know what to listen for and what each term means or stands for.

ROI-
Return on investment. How much a campaign, project or event measured up after the initial investment. For example, if you spent $3500 on direct mail to promote a certain product or service and received $7800 in business from that direct mail campaign, the ROI would be $4300. This is why coming up with a way to measure your marketing efforts is crucial.

SEO-
Search engine optimization. If you have a business that is run completely online or would benefit from receiving exposure to a potential client base online, you need a way for people to find your site through search engines. People can place keywords in your site and give you advice on giving your site a higher search rating (which means it shows up higher on sites like google when people input those keywords). For example, if your site is on the 5th page of the google search results when people type in keywords related to your business, you’re probably not getting any web traffic from that search engine. If you’re in the first 2 pages (a coveted position, indeed), it’s more likely that you’ll have people finding your site through the search engine results.

Web 2.0
Ok, I’m going to cheat here and copy and paste the Wikipedia definition:
A term that describes the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.
To find out more about web 2.0, see this Wikipedia article.

Social Networking
Part of the web 2.0 movement with sites that allow users to interact with one another through their online profiles. Examples of social networking are facebook and myspace. It’s a great way to showcase your company through a more personalized approach (and there’s no cost to create profiles on either site).

I will have several more blogs with marketing terms defined over the next few posts. Please add some to the list you think need definitions or add your own definitions.

Press Release-Bilingual Marketing

THE MARKETEERS, LLC TEAM UP WITH SUSANA TORRES TRANSLATIONS TO OFFER MULTI-LINGUAL MARKETING SERVICES

Partnership will benefit smaller Houston businesses with multi-lingual targets

The Marketeers, LLC and Susana Torres Translations are combining forces in order to better serve the multi-cultural and multi-lingual Houston community. Together, the two companies will enable businesses to create marketing strategies, campaigns and materials that reach a culturally diverse target.

“We’re ready to offer smaller Houston businesses an affordable solution to multi-cultural marketing through this partnership,” said Amber Ambrose, general manager of The Marketeers, LLC.

Susana Torres Translations, located in Houston, TX, provides translation services centered around a profound knowledge of grammar and a passion for writing. This approach ensures an interpretation as opposed to a literal translation of materials. They offer onsite translation services and language classes in addition to translation of materials. See more at www.torrestranslations.com.

The Marketeers, LLC is a marketing firm located in Houston, Texas. They offer marketing collateral design, strategic and creative development and implementation, event planning and development and follow through of product or service promotions. More information and an online portfolio can be found at www.marketeersllc.com.

Confidence in your consultants

When hiring any consultant, a portion of the price of services is due to the expertise of your consultant. So why not trust them with the project you’ve handed off?

For example, would you hire a plumber to fix your leaky sink and stand over him or her the entire time and direct their every action?

“I’m not sure you’re tightening that pipe correctly, perhaps you should use the other wrench for that…”

Can you imagine having that conversation?

Would you call your accountant and argue whether or not the return they’ve prepared for you meets certain tax laws?

The answer should be “no” if you truly trust your consultants, vendors and service providers.

The same should be applied to your marketing/advertising or graphic design firm, marketing director or anyone you’ve hired to help you with your marketing efforts. Unless you have a strong background in the field you’ve hired someone to help you with, you should remain confident in the abilities of the person you’ve enlisted to provide you with services.

Micromanaging any project (no matter what type of professionals are involved) will lead to exhaustion, frustration and a lesser outcome. It may even lead to broken relationships or a tarnished reputation and quite possibly, a hirer bill from your consultant (due to the extra effort involved just catering to your whims).

However, since marketing and advertising relate more to the image of a company, a subjective approach is understandable. This is why you should do your homework as a client before deciding on a marketing/advertising firm.

Have you seen their previous work? Does it correlate to what you’re looking to do? Do you agree with their approach to projects and clients? Do you have any reservations about your contact at the agency/company? Is it easy to communicate with your contact? Do they have the same moral platform? Can they see your company from a customer standpoint? Can you see your company from a customer’s standpoint? Are there procedures in place to show accountability and/or responsibility for the project? Have you checked references?

There are thousands more questions to ask yourself before you decide on a marketing company that could make or break the relationship, and eventually, the final project. Make sure after you’ve made the decision that you remain confident in your consultant’s or firm’s ability and enable them with support, not micromanagement.

Guest - Introducing Melanie Lanuza

I had the pleasure of meeting with soon to be graduate Melanie Lanuza today. She will have a degree in Communications _ Advertising and Art - Graphic design under her metaphorical belt come this August. I sat down with her to ask a couple questions about what she has learned in her trades and how those lessons can help us (small businesses) all out. She has fresh eyes to the world of design which is sometimes a very good thing! (insert Martha Stewart joke here)

#1 - Try not to convey EVERYTHING about your business in a small space.

I agree with this whole heartedly. An AD should look graphically pleasing and convey enough information that the client/consumer can find out more information on their own accord.

#2 - Always use High quality images

It does make your files larger, but the outcome will bring a more professional look to your graphics. Mel says having to work with low quality images makes excess work for the designer. The standard for printing is 300 dpi. (most images saved by right clicking and saving pictures off the Internet are 72 dpi)

The Marketeers offers a FTP site to handle larger files which are too big for email to accommodate them.

#3 - Dot gain is important to Newspaper ads

Mel learned about dot gain when dealing with a newspaper AD where some objects were very dark and details went missing because of the dot gain. Dot gain is the measurement of how the dots of ink will expand on the newspaper paper. Typical dot gain is 30%.

#4 - Stroke on text is to be used with caution

Mel and I came to the agreement that text with a stroke around each letter is a blessing and a curse. We never could come up with set rules of when to use and when to not use it so basically we cited some circumstances where we knew it did not work for us. First, small text almost never works. The typeface is just too small to handle a detail such as a stroke. Second is the lack of using a contrast color to enhance the text.

Mel proclaims herself as a typography snob. (And rightly so she is.) She went into greater detail on how centering text is hers (and mine) least favorite justification. I do believe it has it's place, but for the most part I almost never center text to start with.

We hope to hear from Mel soon after she throws the tassel at graduation and says goodbye to college!

Do what you do best

I would like to spotlight a company that was brought to my attention from a friend.

Geoff & Drew's is a gourmet cookie and brownie bakery that specializes in one thing. Doing their one trade and doing it well. Rather than trying to compete with mass market cookie chains, Geoff & Drew's use fresh cookie dough everyday and make sure the orders are sent out also the same day. They have been highlighted on MSNBC Today show, The Early Show, and in USA Today and Modern Bride. Below is a quote from their "About Geoff & Drew's" webpage.

"Our commitments since day one have been to produce and sell only the finest, freshly baked cookies, brownies and bakery gifts. This means satisfying our customers 100%, operating a great business that keeps its promises to its customers and employees, helps out the community and supports good people and causes. Five years later, we're a nationally respected company on par with peers who have been in business for 25-75 years. "

Geoff & Drew's is still relatively a small company, but they are a successful small business because they made decisions to stay focused on providing a quality product without sacrificing great tasting cookies for mass production. I encourage you to check out their website and read how they started out as a cookie and milk delivery service in Boston, Massachusetts.

Viral Videos

What the original video looked like, which I'm guessing you've probably seen before (in reference to the video below).
Have a great weekend. Next week we'll discuss the merits and downfalls of viral video marketing.

Because it's so amazingly awesome...

It's all in the packaging

When you’re selling a service, expertise or a physical product, packaging is everything.
Voice of invisible business owner: “Packaging, how does that relate to my business? I offer a service. I don’t ever have to worry about packaging.” Au contraire, my small business owner amigo (and yes, I was able to fit 3 languages into this sentence).


Packaging for businesses offering services or consulting sometimes includes grouping services together in a tidy little package, making your services easier to sell, not to mention easier to quote. In a sense, creating packages with pre-priced options saves you administrative time and makes it simpler for clients to decipher what you will offer for what price--hence the easier to sell piece of the puzzle.

An example of packaging service can be as simple as putting together blocks of hours for a pre-set price and offering them in regular increments. At the Marketeers, we’ve recently started a “Rent a Marketeer” package in which we offer 5-hour blocks of time to clients to cater to their every marketing whim. The hours are useable over a 6-month period, so even if the client takes 2 out of the 3 initial hours, they have 5 more months to use the 3 leftover hours.
It’s easier for us to quote jobs, offers more flexibility and everyone gets a fair deal. Plus, the package is easily renewable when the client exceeds their initial 5 hours (or 10 or 15—depending on their project). Much less headache for all involved.

Another way to package services is to combine two or more of the services you offer for a small discount, allowing the client to receive more bang for their buck and you to have more potential for an upsell (or eventually a larger check from the client). Both sides benefit from this package deal. You should have the services offered and the details involved written in way that should be transferable to all clients, saving you time (once again) with administrative duties and quoting jobs.

One last way to package things for a service-oriented business is to offer a membership plan. The Latham Group, a business offering mostly outsourced administrative help, offers a great monthly plan. They offer different levels per month, also providing flexibility for businesses and creating a simpler process within The Latham Group for selling and billing. The client knows exactly what to expect every month and The Latham Group is able to bill at a lower rate due to the security of having members at different levels and decreased administrative upkeep of these accounts.

How do you package your services? If you don’t offer services, but use other companies that do, have you noticed anything that stands out from certain service providers as far as packaging?