Creative Marketing and Promotional Ideas for Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day Marketing Ideas for Small Business

Last year consumers spent an average of $140 each on Mother’s Day gifts for their moms, wives, daughters, aunts and other special women in their lives. That was up more than 10% from the previous year, and there is reason to believe that this could be another great year for retailers when it comes to the sale of gifts and gift cards for Mother’s Day.

If you sell items that would make great Mother’s Day gifts, or you can transform your goods and services into gift baskets or even non-traditional, creative Mother’s Day gifts, it’s time for you to go into full on Mother’s Day marketing mode!

To that end, here are some Mother’s Day marketing ideas to help you court Mother’s Day shoppers in 2012:

• Make sure you know what women want. More specifically, find out what the women among your clientele, your target markets, or the wives and mothers of your customers actually want.
  
  • Survey your customers as to what they want to receive for Mother’s Day, what their favorite Mother’s Day gift was in the past, or what they plan to purchase for their own mom for Mother’s Day this year. Use your social media platforms to survey your readers using the same questions.
  • Use a poll not only to solicit customer and reader feedback as to what women want for Mother’s Day this year, but to make specific Mother’s Day gift suggestions by listing great Mother’s Day gift ideas as the choices for your poll question.
• Make it easy. Make it very, very easy. Make it easier for people to buy Mother's Day gifts than you ever have before, and easier to buy their Mother's Day gifts from you than from anyone else! 
  
  • Use your email newsletter to make specific Mother’s Day gift suggestions to your subscribers with ‘one-click’ ordering, order ahead for store pickup or that even include wrapping, gift card and delivery service.
  • Make specific suggestions that would be most appropriate for the different women in their lives (moms, daughters, aunts, etc.)
  • Place signage throughout your business pointing out great Mother's Day gifts. 
  • Put a sign or set up a display at your point of sale stating that Sunday, May 13, 2012 is Mother's Day and reminding them of the great Mother's Day gift options you offer.
  • Include gift wrapping and gift cards along with Mother's Day gifts or gift baskets.
  • Provide (and promote) last minute creative Mother’s Day gift options.
  • Prepackage gift baskets for Mother’s Day with themed items; such as a bundled package for outdoor lovers, exercise lovers, food lovers, movie lovers, makeup or pampering products, etc.
  • Create a cross marketing opportunity and create Mother’s Day gift offers which include something from your business along with something from a partnering business and promote this special Mother’s Day gift package to customers and contact lists of both businesses (or all participating businesses).
• Make it a lather, rinse, repeat experience.  Create Mother's Day gifts that come along with a good reason for mom (or the gift purchaser) to come back to your business again, soon. 
  
  • Ideally, a Mother’s Day gift won’t just represent the sale of products for your business one time, but would result in a new customer coming to your business, repeat visits and the opportunity to turn a new customer into a regular, loyal customer. If you offer services (such as a salon or spa), be sure that your Mother’s Day gifts are bundled along with a gift card that mom (wife, daughter, or aunt, etc.) will come to your business to redeem it and experience what your business has to offer.
  • Don’t forget the bounce back! Create a special offer to include with the sale of Mother’s Day gift items in the form of a bounce back offer either for the recipient or the individual purchasing the gift (or ideally, include one for each!)
• Take advantage of the opportunity. The sale of Mother’s Day gifts might mean that people who are not normally your patrons come to your business or visit your website to buy something special for their mom, wife or daughter for Mother’s Day.
  
  • Include a bounce back offer, bag stuffer or special offer along with the customer’s receipt designed to bring them back in for Father’s Day or another future sale or event.
  • Ask them to subscribe to your email newsletter or to follow you on social media, or to be added to your direct mail mailing list to receive future offers from and news about your business.
  • Set up an online customer survey form and invite them to rate their experience with your business. As follow up, extend a special offer via landing page on your website or email thanking them for their participation.
• Get your Mother's Day gift ideas and offers into the places where Mother’s Day gift givers are. Many Mother’s Day gifts are given by men to their moms, wives and daughters. But if your business caters mostly to women (or women are the ones most frequently shopping your establishment) then you face the challenge of getting the word out about the Mother’s Day gifts you want to sell.
  
  • Create strategic partnerships with businesses whose patrons are comprised of the male audience you want to reach, such as mens clubs at golf courses, recreational or outdoor sports facilities.
  • Partner with businesses that serve mainly male shoppers or clients in a Mother’s Day / Father’s Day gift promotion combination or swap (you advertise their Father’s Day gifts to your customers, they advertise your Mother’s Day gifts to theirs).
  • Partner with businesses whose patrons (and email subscribers or direct mail contact lists) have a large male composition for cooperative email marketing or direct mail marketing.
  • Partner with restaurants, bars or clubs that have a high percentage of male patrons and place table tent cards at their establishments advertising your Mother’s Day offer (and making it easy for them to obtain it! Wouldn’t it be great for a guy to be able to buy a salon gift basket with gift card for mom while out with the guys on a Saturday night? Or how about a last minute bouquet of roses? Scentsy burner and scent wax? Gift card for Sunday brunch to take the family out for Mother’s Day? Make up and skin care gift set? Beautiful tote or purse? The possibilities are endless! With a little creative and cooperative effort, cooperative marketing can become a big source of referrals and cross sales for both businesses. 

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Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing.
365 Days of Marketing is available on amazon.com in print or digital format. It contains marketing how-to, inspiration and content for every day of the year -- including Mother's Day and Father's Day to help you build a bigger role for your business in the lives of your clients, 365 days a year!

4 Divine Secrets for Happier Customers and Employees

Driving my girls to school this morning I heard a snippet on the news about a Gallup-Healthways survey of more than 300,000 people which revealed that regular church goers are happier each and every day compared to irregular church attendees or non-church goers. As if that weren’t interesting enough, the report also said that for regular church goers, this “high point” of happiness occurs on Sundays (while those who only occasionally or never attend religious services peak on Saturdays).

Absent an analysis of survey details, as someone who has been a regular attendee of churches for the better part of the last 33 years, I thought that I’d offer up a few reasons why people who regularly attend a church, mosque or synagogue might be happier than those who don’t. To that end, here are four divine secrets for businesses who want their own ‘congregations’ filled with happy customers and employees.

Divine Secret of Happier Customers and Employees #1:

A belief that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

Churches, mosques and synagogues from fundamental to new age, traditional to modern, and all stages in between still provide this one commonality for their members: The opportunity to be part of something bigger than themselves as individuals. Their members are fully “bought in” to the vision (what can be accomplished) and so are willing to do what is needed to help fulfill the mission (the means by which they will bring the vision to pass).

Most churches have the ability to carry out their mission and vision not due to paid clergy but in large part due to volunteer efforts. Contrast that with the dilemma some business owners have getting even their paid employees to show up and do a full day’s work, or give 100%. Why? Church members believe in the mission of the organization.

And it's not just being part of something, but the feeling that they know the purpose of life.  The question asked in all generations:  "Why are we here?" is answered for those who regularly attend church, synagogue or mosque.  Who wouldn't be "bought in" if they felt they had a truly worthwhile life's purpose? 

If you want your employees and customers to be happier, you need to get buy in to a vision of what can be that is meaningful to them, that is worthwhile (beyond monetary compensation), that provides emotional and intellectual payoffs and one in which they see themselves as valued contributors. To do that, you must first actually have a clear vision statement (the good that your business can ultimately provide to the world) and a clear mission statement (the means by which you will achieve your vision).

Secondly, you have to ensure that your mission and vision statements are more than just inspiring words. If no one buys in to your mission and vision statement, they are unlikely to come to pass. And if the only time that your employees hear your vision and mission statements are the day they’re hired or at annual meetings, they are not likely to be part of your employee culture; they aren’t likely to influence your operations, day in and day out. And if your mission and vision aren’t central to your day to day operations, you’ll never achieve them!

Divine Secret of Happier Customers and Employees #2:

A belief that other members truly care about them and act on their behalf.

Man oh man, if you want to hear some great gossip, attend a church prayer meeting. You’ll find out who is sick and what they have, who is struggling financially and who is living in sin. Why? Because of the trust that members have in one another. They trust one another with incredibly personal information because they believe that other members have their best interests at heart, that they would not act on the information inappropriately or share it indiscriminately and that they will pray on their behalf and do whatever they can to meet the needs of one another.

That’s not usually what happens at the office, though, is it?

When we hear tidbits of gossip at work, we are more likely to share it with people whose business it isn’t and either to be happy that it isn’t us or even gleeful that someone is getting “what’s coming to them” karma wise.

But when it comes to your employees and customers, your business should be as safe as a church. Not only should your customers have absolute faith that any information you have about them remains confidential (and that goes for contact information, email addresses and financial information as well as any information actually obtained as a result of providing services for customers), but your employees should, too.

Gossip should be called out and eliminated, whether the secrets being told are those of customers or employees. And your employees should view your business as a safe place to share their problems and troubles – the employee culture should be one of mutual encouragement and be characterized by people who are willing to help one another out, whether on the job, or off.

Divine Secret of Happier Customers and Employees #3:

A belief that they should focus less on their own problems and well-being and more on that of their fellow man.

It’s easy to focus on ourselves, it’s human nature. And the more we focus on ourselves, the more we tend to worry about our own problems, indulge in self-pity or experience jealousy at the success of others. It’s more difficult to put the well-being and happiness of others ahead of our own, but that is one of the guiding principles of conduct in churches, synagogues and mosques, where members not only preach but regularly practice putting the needs of their fellow man in the forefront.

If you want happier customers and employees, this must be central to the culture of your business, too.

• When was the last time you caught an employee doing something that was someone else’s job, just because it needed doing? 
• When was the last time you had managers who worked to forward the initiatives of other departments, rather than fight for their own initiatives or “turf?” 
• When was the last time you caught an employee going out of their own way for a customer?  
• When was the last time that you did it, yourself?

Divine Secret of Happier Customers and Employees #4:

A belief that they have an oasis for encouragement, learning, personal growth and self-renewal.

When church goers walk through the doors of worship, they not only find a community of people they believe truly care about them and who would go out of their way to help them, but when they walk through those doors, they are entering a place where they can leave the cares of the world behind and find sanctuary; an oasis where they can renew their inner spirit and mind and prepare to face the week ahead.They expect to be uplifted. They expect to learn and grow. They expect to leave feeling filled up, rather than drained out.

What happens when your employees or customers walk through your doors? Is anything about your customer experience meant to renew or refresh their spirit in some way – by showing that you truly value them, by demonstrating that you view them as people (rather than tools or wallets), by stimulating their senses or providing them with information and education to engage, enlighten and intrigue them? When was the last time that you put any effort into ensuring that employees break and lunch rooms were hospitable for rest and refreshment? Would your employees or your customers say that their renewal, refreshment and interest was important to you or your business?

And that brings me to one final observation. Regular church goers aren’t just happier in general than non church going counterparts; they’re happier every day of the week, and especially on Sundays. Are your customers and employees happier on the days when they interact with your business than on any other days? If you take inspiration from the divine secrets of customer and employee happiness, they could be!

Related articles

• Mission-Shmission: I Know What Really Matters to You (business2community.com)
• Shoot First, Target Later (business2community.com)

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Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing.
365 Days of Marketing is available on amazon.com in print or digital format. It contains marketing how-to, inspiration and content for every day of the year that can help you cultivate buy-in and loyalty from among your employees as well as your customers, and give you the tools you need to hone your leadership and management skills. 

The Psychology and Use of Color in Branding and Marketing Design

Choosing colors in design is always a big part of the process when creating something new. Most people don't understand how subjective color is, though, so it can become a point of contention, as participants argue, hoping to convince others to see their point of view.

Why does this happen?  

People tend to think that their own preferences—whether in choice of color or in design elements—are "right" or somehow superior to those of others.But that's like saying that one person's favorite foods is superior to another's.

The truth is, many of the choices we make in designing our logos, choosing fonts, choosing caricatures or other logo images and other elements relative to brand identity (including the colors we choose for our logos and branding) are purely preferential.

As a graphic designer, it is very help to know this, because it's nearly impossible to keep our own preferences out of the design and branding mix. And sometimes what the client wants is far removed from our own design point of view. Once you understand which elements of the brand design process are subjective, based on personal preferences, it helps the designer to let go of control in some areas they might otherwise feel compelled to argue for, if they believe that their point of view is "right."

As a small business owner or client, it can be very helpful for you to keep this in mind as well. 

When you are choosing colors for a design project or within a branding process, if you can keep in mind that your preferences are just that, you can become open to a more objective, analytical brand analysis that should result in a better outcome for your business.

Understanding the psychology of color and the associations that people in western cultures have relative to certain colors is one way that you can take a more objective approach when it comes to designing crucial elements of your visual brand identity.

If you want to further your study of the meanings of color, especially as it relates to the branding your small business or marketing communications, you will love Pantone's Color: Message and Meanings A PANTONE Color Resource by Eiseman.

To that end, I want to share this infographic from TestKing.com as introductory to your study of color in branding. As your first exercise, after taking in the information contained here, you might spend a few minutes analyzing the landing page of your website, your logo or other elements of your visual brand identity or corporate communications and think about where you could better use color strategically, what may need to be revisited and what kinds of messages your visual color cues might be sending to your customers.



The Psychology of Color by Tech King

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Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing.
365 Days of Marketing is available on amazon.com in print or digital format. It contains marketing how-to, inspiration and content for every day of the year that can help you cultivate buy-in and loyalty from among your employees as well as your customers, and give you the tools you need to hone your leadership and management skills. 

7 Leadership Takeaways from A Management Coup on NBCs ‘The Office’

Most of the executives in NBC’s comedy, The Office, exemplify the kind of leadership you should absolutely avoid. This fictitious sales-centric company has more than its share of exaggerated dysfunction in any given episode; nevertheless, every once in a while, one of these over-the-top personalities does something to be funny that deserves serious analysis. The March 15 episode of The Office held a real jewel of a leadership lesson, in my opinion.

In this episode, on a day when the office’s manager was out of town, a woman known to most of the employees of the office turns up from corporate headquarters and proceeds to plant her behind in the manager’s chair. The woman, Nellie, is not liked by the employees at all, and is coming off a huge failure at the corporate headquarters – both of which are good reasons that two of the main characters, Dwight and Jim, encourage their co-workers to reject her usurped leadership.

During the course of the day, brazen Nellie calls a group meeting for the stated purpose of “getting to know” the other employees, calling herself their manager. Having failed to establish her stolen authority with the group, she begins a masterful “divide and conquer” strategy, which, by the end of the day, has nearly all of the employees clapping, smiling, and saying, “I believe!”

I'm not suggesting you follow her example and steal someone else’s job or conduct any kind of office coup, though; what struck me about Nellie’s leadership was the use of uber-positive, one on one encouragement, feedback, incentives and customized perks, and her ability to believe in herself, even when no one else would.

• Nellie publicly praises Dwight (who has a history of having the most sales in the office), calling him “Atlas,” saying that she recognizes that he carries the weight of the office on his shoulders. She tells him he is worth something, and in the process, she defines his worth by the one area in which he most desires to excel.
• Phyllis, she flatters with compliments and admiration.
• To Pam, mother of two including one still breast-feeding baby, she offers up a midday nap.
• By the end, when there is just one hold out left, she uses group peer pressure to try to get him on board.
• And everyone is to receive a pay increase, presumably even Jim, though he never bought in to her power play at all.

You probably can’t afford to give everyone in your office a raise, but you can still learn from Nellie’s example. Here are no less than seven leadership lessons that I suggest as worthwhile Office takeaways: 

1. Belief, confidence and passion are contagious. You can’t expect any of your staff to take risks in order to make your vision a reality unless you wholeheartedly believe in it yourself.

2. Expect opposition and don’t let it cause you to doubt yourself or the mission.

3. If your goal is important, don’t just have a plan, have a contingency plan, or plans.

4. You need employee buy in, especially to get employees to accept big changes. Seek out influencers and win them over privately in order to create thought leaders who can then encourage others to get on board.

5. Rethink the idea that everyone can be motivated by the same rewards. Personalized incentives that would make the professional or even the personal life of individual employees better could be more effective ways to create loyalty and employee buy in than one size fits all rewards.

6. Be generous with positive feedback and genuine compliments, including both personal and professional accolades, in private and in public. Acknowledge behavior that you want more of.

7. And finally, fake it ‘til you make it. If you are a new leader, you might not have a long track record of successful team leadership to inspire trust among your followers. In that case, the confidence you exude yourself will need to replace it!

More? Read  Creating Sustained Performance Through Thriving Workplaces (business2community.com)

From the article: "...A very practical article in the January-February issue of Harvard Business Review, “Creating Sustainable Performance” surveyed 1,200 white and blue-collar employees in several studies over seven years across a swath of industries.They concluded that a better word to describe happy or satisfied employees was “thriving.” The article provides the leadership lessons and suggestions from the research for both personal thriving and leading others to thrive.

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Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing.
365 Days of Marketing is available on amazon.com in print or digital format. It contains marketing how-to, inspiration and content for every day of the year that can help you cultivate buy-in and loyalty from among your employees as well as your customers, and give you the tools you need to hone your leadership and management skills. 

How to Identify Potential Leaders by Mistake

Today I read an article titled, When Critiquing Others, Try Critiquing Yourself, Too by way of @Efficient CEO on Twitter where author Richard Walker shares a great leadership learning moment. While making some notes for suggestions that would help a colleague, he suddenly realized that the notes he was making applied to himself, too.

I love this story for two reasons. One, it’s relationship to (authentic, internal, personal) humility, which is critical to growth and personal development.

We all have co-workers (whether above or beneath us on the organizational chart) who feel that they have so honed their leadership, presentation, management and other work skills to the point that they don’t feel the need for change, regardless of any feedback they receive to the contrary. They become their own worst enemy when it comes to the future, and that includes how they will (or will not) benefit your business in the future.

Why?

Because if you are not open to change and growth, and if you are not humble enough to realize that you don’t, in fact, have your act completely together, then you will miss opportunities for personal growth. If you have “arrived” to the point that you no longer need constructive criticism, then you’ve peaked, too (and you are probably somewhere high up on the “pain in the butt spectrum” for colleagues and subordinates).



Authentic humility (this has nothing to do with making self-deprecating statements, this is an internal trait) is critical to being open to change. (Duh.)

But the higher you rise, and the more successes you have on the job, the more tempting it is to believe that you’ve got it all mastered. The more likely you become to resist change, because you believe that what got you there will keep you there. That attitude only reveals that you don’t know what really “got you there” in the first place.

What likely “got you there” in terms of success wasn’t something inherently yours in terms of skills or style; rather, it was your ability to learn, identify opportunity, put in the work and be developed, personally, throughout the process.

And those abilities begin to disappear when you start to rest on your past accomplishments.

Great leaders remain humble and retain the internal traits relative to being authentically humble that enable them to continue to learn and grow and develop, personally and professionally. Great leaders don’t think that their style or performance is above reproach; instead, they listen to criticism intelligently, analyze it and then make changes based on the truths they gleaned during the process.


And that brings me to the second thing I love about this story. Strategically and systematically using institutional criticism could become a great tool for you as a CEO or manager.

If you want to identify the next great leader within your business, watch how they handle criticism. In fact, create opportunities for potential leaders within your business to be in a position to receive constructive criticism relative to presentations (which could even be staff meeting presentations) or performance on projects.

Create opportunities that include 360 degree feedback and see how these individuals analyze and incorporate findings based on feedback from co-workers and subordinates into their personal and professional work and style. See how they communicate with their subordinates about feedback received and changes they intend to make as a result.


And you can use criticism as a tool even before you decide to hire a new employee, too. 

If you have a multi-step hiring process, include an opportunity for candidates to receive constructive criticism relative to some aspect of their candidacy: a suggestion on how to improve their resume, how to improve their interviewing skills, how to present themselves in terms of dress or style, etc. And then see how they react to the criticism. This could be especially helpful in the hiring process when you are dealing with a “superstar” type of candidate, as it will reveal whether they are teachable and whether they possess the authentic humility needed to become a contributor as part of your team (rather than just individually).

And finally, as Walker himself did, take this story to heart as a leader, yourself. Authentic humility and transparency are traits which can create strong loyalty among your colleagues and subordinates who will discover that they can trust you. It will also create loyal followers who realize that, since you are open to learning and growth, the sky is the limit and the best is yet to come.

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Elizabeth Kraus is the Author of 365 Days of Marketing, the 2012 Small Business Marketing Calendar and her newest book: Little White Marketing Lies.  

Little white marketing lies are common misconceptions that many well-meaning business owners claim to be true, but which usually aren't.

In fact, these little white marketing lies might even be standing between your business and success. 

The new book, Little White Marketing Lies will help you put these and other little white marketing lies to the test, enabling you to identify the true strengths and weaknesses of your business and put your business in the best position to succeed in the future.

A Marketing Idea from Starbucks That Is Simply "Grande"

Without apology, I freely admit to a serious coffee addiction. Every morning I start my day with one or two venti non-fat lattes, this week alternating between Pumpkin Spice and Caramel Macchiato. While I would go broke if I did not have my own espresso machine at home, I still manage to pop in to Starbucks and other local coffee shops a few times every month when out and about.

The last time I did so I saw a sign on the counter announcing that every Saturday afternoon, they would be hosting “Coffee classes.” With my love of java and the fact that I make my own coffee drinks every day, I would love to brush up on my coffee knowledge.

But besides thinking that this class was something I’d like to attend myself, I whipped out my pen and wrote a napkin note to myself, because this is a 'grande' marketing idea for almost any small business.

Classes like these would be a great way to draw already engaged customers even deeper into relationship with your business and it’s also a great way to introduce prospects or indifferent customers to new products or services.

So you don’t serve coffee? Good news: This isn’t about the coffee.

Free classes, seminars and demonstrations are a great way to educate interested prospects and customers about products and services they haven’t yet tried. The trick to attracting attendees is to do just what Starbucks did, educate people about your products and services in a very non-threatening, non-salesy, low to no pressure way.

Here’s what I mean:

They didn’t offer up a class on Starbucks coffee, they offered up a coffee class. They are giving people who love coffee a chance to learn more (presumably) about things like how coffee is grown, how blends and roasts are made, and what types of processes are needed to produce various coffee drinks. My guess is that attendees will also be treated to samples at the event. It would be equivalent to a winery offering wine tasting, growing or making education or a local bar with its own microbrewery offering some type of beer classes.

And you can apply the same principle and create classes for almost any type of business: 

• Does your business provide financial services? You could hold estate planning, budgeting or retirement planning classes.
• Do you offer salon or spa services? You could offer classes in current styles and trends for hair and makeup, celebrity look how-to or seasonal styles, hair and skin care.
• Are you a realtor or mortgage professional? Hold classes to educate consumers about various lending programs, how to qualify for a mortgage, or how to best prepare a home for sale.

And so it goes. Almost no matter what type of business you have, you can think of topics that are related to your business but not only specifically about your products or services, and use them as a vehicle to expose individuals who represent your ideal client types and leads to your products and services.

You can use classes as a way to connect with people in your community who are at various stages of the buying process, so that you establish and build your reputation with them as an expert in your field.

You can use free classes and seminars to help you identify leads—individuals who may not be in the market for your products and services right now, but who may be in the future, or who may have friends or family to refer to your business.

If you like this idea but don’t feel that your business provides you with a topic for which to offer classes, you can also view this as a cooperative marketing opportunity and partner with other professionals or other businesses who serve the same types of clients that you do. In fact, a joint event offers several advantages. Not only do you share costs, but you also share contacts and have a greater reach for extending class invitations out into your respective constituencies.

Here are some more ideas when it comes to creating free classes to bring people in to your business and expose them to your products and services in non-threatening, non-sales-ey ways:

• Establish a weekly or monthly time when you will offer free education or demonstrations to any interested customers or local community members.
• Hold quarterly or semi-annual open house events featuring free mini-classes, demonstrations, refreshments and door prizes.
• To make sure you don’t engage in “hit and miss marketing” when it comes to classes, which will  require the investment of your time and other resources, make sure that your topics are going to be interesting to your customers and prospects. Survey customers in-store and online to find out what types of topics they might want to know more about. Benchmark competitors. Use networking events to ask peers for advice and feedback.
• Invite other professionals or business owners to participate and bring free education on a variety of topics to people at your place of business. Chances are these professionals will also be willing to invite their customers to attend as well; or you could even work with a local business owners group to set up a round robin of free classes at local businesses which will be promoted by all participating businesses.
• Create webinars and post educational videos on YouTube. This is an especially great option as people can ‘attend’ them any time, from anywhere. And since they are virtual, there is little to no cost to you to present them. If you are not comfortable making educational videos, consider video-taping your live events and making them available to the public online.
• Create branded PDF and web page “tip sheets” and short videos that give your customers and prospects “insider” education, seasonal or monthly ideas and tips relative to your industry, products or services to post on social media, your blog and website, YouTube, etc.

Investing in the education of customers and prospects could bring “grande” results not only in terms of sales but in managing and cultivating customer relationships and employee engagement. It could be the vehicle to help you reap new referrals not only from customers but from among your peers as a result of networking and cooperative marketing and event efforts. So take a lesson from Starbucks when it comes to marketing your business in a new, grande way!

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Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing.
365 Days of Marketing is available on amazon.com in print or digital format. It contains marketing how-to, inspiration and content (including more ideas for classes that can help you market your small business) for every day of the year -- literally. 
 

Marketing Savvy | March 12.2012 | Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Bottom Line

Today's marketing savvy newsletter with marketing strategies to boost your bottom line and help you gain a competitive edge can be viewed here.

Introducing yourself (and your business) for impact—so that other people remember who you are and what you do— requires some serious editing and practice. 99% of you are losing the attention of your audience, before you're even half done. You're trying to tell them much too much, you're getting too specific and you're diluting your message. Find out how to get it right.

Here's what you will find in the March 12 edition of the Marketing Savvy newsletter:

- I'm sorry, I've already forgotten your name

- The power (and profit) in pro-social motivation

- How to get employees who will boost the bottom line

- How big is your back end?

- Eight ways to turn your marketing department into a profit center

- When it comes to leadership, are you clouds or sunshine?

- Consumers picking virtual gift cards over plastic

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Elizabeth Kraus, author of 365 Days of Marketing and the 2012 Small Business Marketing Calendar: Little White Marketing Lies.

Dispel all the little white marketing lies that might be holding your business back - check out the 2012 Small Business Marketing Calendar: Little White Marketing Lies on amazon.com.  With hundreds of marketing ideas laid out for 2012, you'll get into a marketing groove and build a bigger role for your business in the lives of your clients!

I’m Sorry, I’ve Already Forgotten Your Name

Over the years I’ve attended many different types of professional networking events and classes at which business owners and managers had the opportunity to introduce themselves and tell the group about their business or job. Having attended several business networking events fairly recently, I have come to the conclusion that introducing oneself for impact, so that other people remember who you are and what you do, requires some serious editing and practice.

99% of you are losing my attention before you’ve half done. You’re trying to tell me much too much, you’re getting too specific and you’re diluting your message.

30 seconds turns into four minutes as you try to expand on specials that your business is running right now, events you are planning, how interest rates are affecting your industry, and even very worthwhile community and charitable causes your business is supporting.

It's just too much. In most cases, way too much.

If you tell me anything more than your name, the name of your business and one strong statement about what you do or what you hope to accomplish, the amount of information I will actually remember drops off precipitously. And I don’t think I’m alone.

I’ve heard it suggested before that when giving a presentation or writing a paper, you should have 3 main points. And most people can remember three things.

When you give me anything more than your name, the name of your business and one strong statement, the amount of information I am actually retaining is dropping off, precipitously. And I don’t think I’m alone. We are bombarded with ads and marketing messages throughout the course of every day. We remember very few of them; and in fact, our brains have learned to tune most of them out.

The three main points presentation principle is a good one when it comes to planning how you will introduce yourself (and your business) to others going forward. This does not mean that you should tell people three different things about your business, it means you need to limit yourself to three things: your name, the name of your business, and one strong tagline or purpose statement.

Think of it this way:  

When you are part of a business networking, rotary, chamber of commerce or another community group, you are thinking for the long term. You are making yourself available so that when people in the community actually need your services (or know someone who does) your business will build mind share with your networking peers that will result in referrals.

When your introduction expands into selling points, you’ve moved into selling mode. You are working a short-term strategy, as if you are cold calling and going for the sale at the same moment, rather than working to build a relationship.

When introducing yourself to any group, first decide what it is that is most important —the one message about your business that you most hope those specific people will remember, and limit your introduction to that one short (but hopefully impactful) statement.

When you know you will have the opportunity to introduce yourself to a networking group, plan ahead. 

• Think about the people who will be in attendance and what one message might resonate most with them. 
• Think about the kinds of customers they have and the types of people they are most likely to come into day to day contact with: what aspect of your business would be most relevant to them?
• Think about the types of customers you most want to attract. 
• Think about your short and long term business goals; what is most important for your business right now?   

To make an impact in 30 seconds requires preparation. But I would argue that you will make more of an impact if you take only 30 seconds than you will if you take 5 minutes. 

For your one strong statement of purpose, you might need to create a tagline for yourself or you may simply be able to take one of the main points from your mission or vision statement and convert it for the purpose. If you have a few (or even several) strong statements, don’t give up, just spread them out. Rather than delivering them all at once, deliver them over time. Take one and stick to it each month, or decide which you will deliver based on its relevance to the audience.

If the information you deliver for yourself and your business is laser-like in focus and clarity, and concise, the potential for audience members to connect with it and remember it increases, exponentially. So when it comes time to introduce yourself, think 3 main points—the three most important things you hope people remember: Your name, the name of your business and one strong statement of purpose.


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Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing.
365 Days of Marketing is available on amazon.com in print or digital format. It contains marketing how-to, inspiration and content for every day of the year -- literally -- to help you build a bigger role for your business in the lives of your clients and community. 
 

Mission-Shmission: I Know What Really Matters to You

You spent hours swatching, matching and testing in order to choose a paint color for your walls.

You, your accountant and a team of lawyers spent a month finessing the disclaimers on your invoices.

You spent months (or even years) writing an employee policy manual.

But your corporate mission and vision? That one sublime, supreme statement which reflects the ideal of all you want your business to be? That one you knocked out in a single staff meeting.

Believing in the words that you wrote and hoping to inspire others with its intent, you made an announcement or two to employees and customers, blew it up poster-sized, put it in a beautiful frame and hung it on the wall.

There it sits, in all its glory, but no one remembers it. It’s not a source of inspiration to your staff because apart from reading it during employee orientation, to them, it’s no more than a lifeless wall ornament. Your customers don’t connect with it – or worse, are even offended by it – when their experience with your business does not match up to the promise that it conveys.

Why?

Because your mission statement is just not that important to you.

Why do I believe that? Because as human beings our actions speak louder than our words when it comes to telling others about what is important to us.

Because what is important to us gets done. 

What is important to us, gets attention. And resources. And research. And funding. What is truly important to us receives whatever is needed to keep it alive and well. And right now, your mission and vision statement isn't on the receiving end of any of that. 

Don’t get me wrong, I realize that all of those other things are important, too. Mistakes can cost money or even result in law suits on the part of customers or employees. How you present your business to the public is intrinsic to your branding efforts.

But here’s the thing:

If your mission and vision statement is really important to you – if it is a genuine reflection of the ultimate ideal of what you believe your business can be and the good that it can do in the world and in the lives of your customers – then all of the actions you take, goals you set, strategies you undertake and tactics you employ to reach them – all of it should tie back in spirit to the mission and vision of your business. Because all of those day to day interactions, all of your business policies and operations, all of the goals you set and the means you take to reach them -- all of those little things are the means by which you will reach (or fail to reach) the ideals laid out in your mission and vision.

See what I mean?  If your business decisions, operating policies, goals, hiring and training investments and all of the other little and big things that you do every day aren't aligned with your corporate mission and vision, how in the world do you expect to achieve them?  If your corporate mission and vision are just pretty words hanging lifelessly on the wall, you never will. 

Your mission and vision statement should be the guiding and determining factor when it comes to your long and short range plans, your marketing plans, and the decisions made behind closed doors in staff meetings. Your plans and operating policies should all be measured against their relevancy to your mission and vision and whether the strategies and tactics you will employ are in harmony with the promises you make to your customers within them.

As should your hiring decisions; after all, what is more important to the customer experience than the individuals they will encounter or who are responsible to create and facilitate them? Job descriptions should tell employees how the role they fulfill helps to fulfill the corporate mission and vision, and the manner in which they are expected to create them. Performance evaluations and salary determinations should be tied to whether and how employees embody your corporate mission and vision in the fulfillment of their duties.

The training you provide for employees and the education and resources you provide for your customers should all contribute toward fulfillment of your corporate mission and vision. The ambiance and atmosphere you create for customers and the climate and employee culture you provide for your team should reflect the ideals contained within them. And of course the overall experience that you create for your customers.

If your mission statement is truly your ideal, then keep it alive. Make it the focal point for yourself and for your employees. Work with vendors and manufacturers who will support the spirit of your mission and vision and partner with you in ways that are strategic in order to help you fulfill them. Hire people who will buy in, readily and with enthusiasm, and who have the ability to embody what it is that you want to provide for your customers day in and day out.

Where you invest your attention and resources tells the story of what is important to you. 

At one time, your mission and vision were the center of your workplace universe, at least for a little while. Perhaps they still are truly important to you, but you assumed that people would understand just how important they are, simply because they the natural ideal for your business, without making them the literal measure of your business decisions and operations. Bring your mission and vision back to life by ensuring that they permeate every area of your business.

Make us believe! 

Related articles

• Why Everything is Marketing When it Come to Your Small Business (business2community.com)
• What is the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement? (drewsmarketingminute.com)

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Elizabeth Kraus is the Author of 365 Days of Marketing, the 2012 Small Business Marketing Calendar and her newest book: Little White Marketing Lies.  

Little white marketing lies are common misconceptions that many well-meaning business owners claim to be true, but which usually aren't.

In fact, these little white marketing lies might even be standing between your business and success. 

The new book, Little White Marketing Lies will help you put these and other little white marketing lies to the test, enabling you to identify the true strengths and weaknesses of your business and put your business in the best position to succeed in the future.

8 Ways to Transform Marketing into a Profit Center

8 Ways to Transform Your Marketing from Cost
to Profit Center

One of the reasons that many business owners and managers fail to execute when it comes to even basic marketing is that they see marketing as a cost – as an expense – without realizing its benefits or return.

And this, in turn, can probably be traced to something very simple: They don’t understand marketing.

The word “marketing” is connected with (and limited to) “advertising” in the minds of many business leaders. And advertising is expensive. By definition, it is visual, audible or other promotional representations of your business for which you have to pay money.

Even though it is often targeted in terms of placement to provide a business with potential exposure to members of their target markets, the return on paid advertising is often very small (or non-existent) since consumers have learned to tune out advertising across pretty much all media. To say that consumers have been bombarded with ads over the last few decades is to understate. Small wonder that we have learned to ignore the ads we see on TV, hear on the radio, which clog up our mailboxes or which frame out the articles and other information we’ve sought online.

But to limit your understanding of “marketing” to what constitutes “advertising” is to put your business at a serious disadvantage.

To give you an idea of why this perception exists in the minds of non-marketing professionals, check out  infographics like this one from CreativeDesigns.com that demonstrates marketing in the 1980s vs. marketing in the 2010s. Or Brian Solis and JESS3’s “Conversation Prism” which aptly demonstrates that today’s businesses can take advantage of thousands of different marketing strategies. The trick, of course, is determining which can actually produce the best return on your marketing investment.

And that brings me to the point: 8 ways to transform your marketing from a cost center into a profit center—in reality and in the minds of non-marketing managers and co-workers:

1. Put your mouth where the money is.

No – that’s not a misstatement of the well-known phrase, “Put your money where your mouth is.” Rather it’s to make the point that you must be able to specify what you desire to accomplish or what results you want to achieve for any given marketing campaign or on any given marketing channel. And then, be prepared to track, measure and report your results on an on-going basis.

This strategy has an added bonus: by measuring and reporting real results – results that provide your business with more followers, more leads, more customers, more sales – whatever it is that you want “more” of – you will greatly increase the probability that your boss, co-workers or employees will develop a better understanding of and appreciation for what marketing “does” to benefit themselves and the business.

2. Educate internally, about what marketing “is” and on the many ways and channels where marketing occurs. 

Do you attend staff meetings? Ask for (or take) 5 minutes to introduce your peers to a new aspect of marketing. Do you have daily huddles? Take 1-2 minutes to present employees with a marketing concept or tip. Offer to teach a marketing-oriented internal class or make marketing training part of your new hire orientation process. Don’t assume that all employees have a clear understanding of what marketing really is or the potential for return that well-executed marketing tactics can bring.

3. Include your marketing specialist in your product or service development meetings and discussions. 

All too often, purchasing, accounting and sales managers seclude themselves with vendors and purchase in quantities of products, which are then received and put into stores; and only then, after the fact, is marketing given their marching orders to develop demand for and sale through of the same products.

When, if consulted earlier in the process, not only would marketing have the opportunity to develop a full-scale, strategic launch campaign and the opportunity build demand and educate consumers prior to its arrival, but they would also have a chance to test market the products or may even be able to provide valuable input to prevent the expenditure of valuable resources --not just the money to buy the products, but all of the time, shelf space and other valuable resources needed on what are commonly referred to as “dogs,” (a.k.a. products your customers don’t want, don’t like and won’t buy).

4. Include marketing in other processes, too. 

Think about things like the disclaimers you put on your invoices or customer statements, your employee policy manual and hiring processes.  Anything that impacts the customer experience should be viewed from a marketing mindset, specifically, from the customer’s point of view.

5. Conduct an analysis of all customer touch points from the customer’s point of view. 

Recruit key customers to participate in focus groups. Conduct surveys to gauge customer satisfaction, potential interest in new products or services and anticipate other things that your customers want and need (that your business might be able to provide). Find out what your customers value that exists within your customer processes, what they don’t like, or what might be missing.

6. Engage in Content Marketing. 

Studies* show that leads obtained by way of inbound marketing (blogging, social media and other content marketing and curation platforms) cost 61% less than outbound marketing (including traditional advertising, mailings, etc.) Not only do these leads obtained via inbound marketing cost less, but they are higher in quality, and as a result, produce more conversions. Inbound marketing gives your business the opportunity to target your ideal client types by providing relevant, interesting content, and also gives you the ability to pre-qualify these same leads to some extent through the same content.*source: www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2012/7243/inbound-marketing-leads-cost-61-less-than-outbound

Related: Why Should I Consider Inbound Marketing When I'm Already Using Social Media? (business2community.com)

7. Use SEO strategies.

I know, I know -- one hears the term “SEO” and envisions that mastering SEO and SEM strategies will necessitate learning equivalent to that of a complex computer programmer. While you can go that deep if you so desire, you need to drop that presupposition. The truth is, SEO is as much a part of marketing today as is social media, as is advertising, as is your print collateral, website or any other channel. Get smart enough so that you are incorporating basic SEO strategies into all of your online content marketing, website development and email marketing. SeoMoz.org offers a wonderful and free Beginners Guide to SEO online.

8. Do research and stay on top of emerging trends. 

Marketing isn’t just responsible to help promote your business to people, it’s also responsible to find out what those people (a.k.a. customers and prospects) want. It’s also responsible to be aware of what is trending in content marketing so that your social media and blog actually provide content that draws web traffic and generates leads or stimulates in-store visits (you know, “shopping!”) It’s also responsible to keep abreast of what’s coming next and how to utilize it to help your business, like how smart marketers became aware of Pinterest and started using it for business long before the media realized that it had quietly passed up the much-heralded Google+ in terms of traffic, and engages its audience members in average minutes per visit more than almost any other social network; second only to Facebook.

Marketing is not the errand girl for the sales department or the janitorial staff for any other department when they make a mistake that impacts your customers.  Marketing is not a series of activities that occur.  Marketing is not reactionary. In it's most powerful and effective form, marketing will be a proactive part of all of your business decisions and will be strategically essential when it comes to the success of your business.

Transforming your marketing efforts (or how you view marketing) from cost to profit isn’t just desirable – it’s absolutely critical for your business. Marketing, done right, can help you now and be a valuable resource to help you become more profitable in the future. If you view marketing as a cost center, or as expenses, chances are you don’t really have a good grasp of what marketing is or what it’s real benefit to your business can be.

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Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing.
365 Days of Marketing is available on amazon.com or save $5 off the list price when you use the Code USH9VPJG and purchase on my site at 12monthsofmarketing.net.