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If you’re a smaller residential service company, chances are you create your own fliers and marketing materials. It’s likely you create your own business cards and order your invoices and time cards from a company that also offers t-shirts, baseball caps, and embroidered name tag button-down shirts. It’s affordable. You get to have the appearance of a legitimate company and no one selling you pricey services and telling you how your message needs to sound to your clients. Certainly, these things are important for you to stay in control of your costs and your reputation.

Or is it?

If it’s all you’ve got, think again. All of those things do agree with your service van that you’re in business, but does it say, “I’m the only one who will treat you fairly and you should deal with me because I can give you the best service and product, guaranteed.”

Whether you realize it or not, the time you spend coming up with ways to cut marketing costs may very well be the slow death of your company. You may not agree, but if I’m right, ‘lone-wolf’ marketing is far more expensive than using a professional with an eye for detail and a flair for the right words and strategies.

There are many cost-saving methods of getting your message to your potential clients. This blog is dedicated to teaching small companies how to market effectively at reduced costs. Don’t get the idea, however, that you’re better off with a half-hearted, single-minded approach. No, what we advocate is that you learn new, aggressive strategies being used by professionals now with the understanding we impart to you through this blog, and have the polishing done by experts who care about your holistic success. Do what you can do well, outsource the rest.

The difference is clearly financial – but it’s more than that. Consider what Dan Kennedy teaches in No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs (NO BS): if you are in business to be a restaurant owner, caterer, pool service owner, electrician, or plumber, your services doing that are what make your business valuable. Although necessary, the time you spend marketing brings less value to your company than doing what you get paid to do. You will get more bang for your buck when you hire someone to help you bring that quality to the table. Each part of your business should be handled by the people who handle that part most effectively.

Say you’re a florist, for example. You own a brick and mortar shop on the corner and business between holidays is slow. Maybe you employ three others who do various things, like delivery, floral arrangements, and bookkeeping. Between all of your employees and yourself, you’re capable of handling large volumes of business because each can play a part in floral arrangement as well, as long as the finished product is inspected, approved, and re-arranged as necessary by the experts who know this stuff.

Stay with me here.

In another instance, an electrical service has been in business for almost two decades. You hire the electricians who go out on the job, you estimate the large projects, oversee and troubleshoot, and ultimately hold the responsibility for the job being done correctly. Say you manage a team of six, each with their own service vans. You’ve probably got an office manager and receptionist who handle the phones, scheduling, and payroll.

In each of these scenarios, each member of the team brings value to their position. Each player has a financial value in the company and a direct interest in their particular part. They get paid first. Overall company performance and income for the business owner is based on everything above that overhead.

Is the best use of company dollars to pay the delivery driver to answer the phones, or the florist to make deliveries? The best way to utilize electrical technicians isn’t to schedule team members, or do the payroll. Your company makes more when you can charge hourly for skilled work on the job, right? Of course. The right people need to be bringing the money in. It wouldn’t pay the bills to spend company money like that.

What is your dollar value per hour? What do you have to bring in for your company to show profit? If you are doing all of your own marketing, you’re not making money doing what you do best. Time is money. If marketing is what you do best, why not do that for a living? If you only promote your company with limited skill-set, and not for a living, aren’t you short-changing yourself?

There are plenty of things you can do for yourself, don’t get me wrong, but pay for the professional advice and outsource the things that may be taking away from your bottom line. Those same hours are worth more when the right people are on the right job. In the long run, you DO pay for marketing, and you may be paying far more than you can afford when it doesn’t bring in the desired results. Go through our Do-It-Yourself pages, check out our Small Business Acceleration Packages, and look at our Services page for a la carte options our company provides to augment or overhaul your current strategy. Need more information? Call or email us today and see how we can help you get the most out of your marketing dollar.

If you’re listed in the service directories offered online these days, it can be a very good thing. Google Local, for instance, is one of the smartest places to exist, and so are  MerchantCircle, Yelp, and Foursquare. If you don’t exist there, you should, but if you do…

Do you have a Web site? Or did you simply list your business with them and expect that to be your online appearance?

It is a common situation for local companies to list themselves with little more than an online opportunity for reviews. I see a big problem with that. For one thing, when searchers are looking for a residential service company or a local small business, they expect to learn more about them than basic contact info. It really puzzles me to see the companies that have little more than a company name, but it really drives me nuts to see that often they’re not linked to a Web site, and have no name associated with the contact number when it exists. Top that off with reviews that may not be favorable, and it flat out floors me.

Often some reviews aren’t even from customers familiar with the business.

What to do? Remember a few things when you decide to list your business:

• Connect your listing to your Web site. Test your link. We want to know more about you than your company name.
• If you work out of your home, use a mail center P.O. because it allows you to use their street address, protecting yours. (USPS only offers P.O. Box)
• Do make a contact name available. It’s the first step to an introduction, and friendly is good.
• Manage your reviews. If they are poor, address and correct them.
• If your reviews are favorable, thank the customer.

We’ll be going into more detail soon about the importance of a Web site connected to directory listings and other ways they benefit the customer. Meanwhile, the last bit of advice I’ll give you concerns reviews that are not legitimate or favorable. I can’t stress enough how important it is to request customer reviews, especially when the customer ecstatic. Have some things in place to make it easy for them to do so, like a one line request on the invoice or receipt of service, or post card mailings with the link to your directory listing, or even asking the customer if they would like to add their email address to your list for future specials. Make sure the first email is a customer service survey with an opportunity to comment. You can then post their comment in reviews. Honestly, there is no easier way for a customer to publicly brag about your service than an email link.

The more favorable comments you have posted to your reviews, the less impact a negative or illigitimate review will ultimately have. Consider negative reviews a way to connect to your customers and correct problems you don’t want to repeat.

Our affordable business Web sites and hosting platforms have tremendous flexibility, and combined with your years of expertise, may be just what you need to increase visibility.

Take a look at our Small Business Accelerator Packages and see for yourself how affordable the combination of good advice and necessary services can be for your company. Would your company benefit from better visibility? Can you afford to be invisible?

As much as I know that social media forums like Facebook and Twitter offer brilliant free marketing for small businesses when used strategically, there are a handful of things I’ve begun to hate, I mean…er…strongly dislike when it comes to socializing on those platforms. They are, sadly, things I could have done better or understood more fully if I had made it my entire life for a set period of time. I couldn’t, and can’t, and I’ll assume that you don’t have that kind of time, either. I really do work, and because I write for my living, quiet thought is my friend. That means long hours of intense mulling over and reading (the one thing I love about Twitter, by the way – things I read and learn from what is posted there.)

Please learn from my mistakes. I committed these social media crimes knowing full well what I was doing, and thought in time these problems would rectify themselves. They haven’t. And now I’m paying the price for poor planning.

I wanted to name this article, 6 Things I HATE About Social Media, but my sister and mentor scolded me and told me I needed to speak more effectively about my calamity, and also that I should share with you problems I could have avoided, rather than just throw the fit I was intending.

I learned social media for business and accidentally realized it was a good hook up for long lost family. That was cool, but I’m not in there constantly typing about my life, and I haven’t talked myself into purchasing the $400 phone that would let me Twitter and Facebook the only time I really would, (out and about with my unique, humorous perspective:-) I should be ashamed, because I endorse social media for my clients and really believe that a local business can use these tools with some really kick-a** results. But for me, I’ve been in it just long enough to know what I hate…er…strongly dislike.

1. I indiscriminately chose people to follow believing it was more important at the beginning to start a list and refine it later.  I thought it was O.K. to start my list with ‘who-evers’ but now I have to go in and fish through them to rid my list of them so I don’t accidentally get rid of someone I like. What a pain.
2. I followed marketers just because we were in the same industry. B-a-a-aad idea. Only a handful are really interesting, the rest just abuse the twittersphere.
3. I allowed strong political perspectives, but prejudice is prejudice, and I hate it. Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative – whatever, why must you decide you’re one thing and someone else is another? I’ll choose for myself, thank you, but political party certainly doesn’t define me and shouldn’t make you angry.
4. I don’t know how to get rid of the disreputable, vulgar and obscene people that for some reason decided to follow me. I report them, they come back. DON’T FOLLOW ME! I get updates in my email every once and awhile when checking my new followers. I look at their profile and see their updates and can’t for the life of me figure why they followed me. Yuck, go away. I’m not a part of any one’s harem.
5. I allowed automated quotes. I should have stopped following those eons ago. Thought it might keep me positive. Some are actually pretty insightful. Know what keeps me positive? REAL conversations and feedback. I’m a positive person, really.
6. I didn’t get that expensive phone so I can’t update when I’m out running errands. Trouble is, I really engage in conversations with people. Real people I can see. I talk to my favorite cashiers, neighbors, people waiting in lines, and just about anyone. If I’m zeroed in on my cell phone during those precious moments, I’m missing out in some rewarding interaction. That phone is a thorn in my side because I know for business, it would help me be more efficient. I don’t think it would help me as a person, though. Sometimes ya gotta make choices.

So, I guess that’s a shameful perspective for someone who thinks all small businesses should be represented on social forums. There’s only a handful of people I really enjoy, the rest I will delete soon, if I haven’t already. How I wish I had been more discriminating. It will easily take hours.

If only local businesses would represent themselves, they could completely tear up their industry giants. Marketers, on the other hand, seriously over-saturate.

Oh, there’s one more thing I strongly dislike...

I love God, and I’ll tell you all about it in person if our conversation ever goes that way. In no way would I ever publicly or otherwise disclaim God, I think that would be stupid because He’s been integrally involved in my life and I’m uber-thankful, but I really strongly dislike what’s happened to marketing-speak. Every time I try to forage new relationships with what I hope to be my peers, I end up with these people that scream Holier than Holy all over my Facebook page. Nothing wrong with inspiration, but what I’m talking about is over the top. Gonna have to thin that out.

I hope you’ve learned from my mistakes, I’ll try to do better, promise. For those of you who’ve stuck with me through the weird stuff, well…please accept my apology, and…thanks.

5 Ways to Work Smarter

Ever feel like this? As a business woman, I admit that I sometimes do. Every once and a while I get the feeling that I’m surrounded by perfectly running businesses and I’m just not keeping up like I should. Times like that make me want to spin on my office chair and blow spit bubbles.

Crazy how we get into that mindset, isn’t it? We work and plan, and plan and work, and it just doesn’t seem to ever really get done. I mean…finished. I get done all right. I get done with projects, I get done with billing, I get done with tasks and errands; but I never get finished marketing. There’s always a better, newer, more persuasive way to get the message out there. It’s never ending.

You gotta’ love your job to live it, and I do. But how do those other companies make it look so easy?

The trick is, finding the easiest way to do the most in the least amount of time, and still build a quality empire. I’m a wife, mom, sister, and daughter–I don’t want to spend all my time working just to be like everyone else. So with that, here are 5 things I’ve learned to work smarter, and keep all my hair.

1. Use quality systems to aggregate. It’s never worth doing extra steps in any marketing strategy that you can do in just one. Consider using Ping.fm your social media updates, and AWeber for getting your small business email marketing campaign off the ground. This saves me TONS of time for pennies a day.
2. Give yourself permission to research competition, read about concerns, and update your brain files with new information. It may take longer than you think, but unless you put a priority on learning as an investment, you won’t be able to keep up with anything.
3. Remember, slow and steady wins the race. Getting up to speed fast is great if you have systems in place to keep up. If you don’t, take the time to set yourself up for success by simply inching toward your long term goals daily. Life is NOT about living in a squirrel cage.
4. Appreciate what the mentors in your market are teaching you, both by what they do, and how they do it. You can always learn the hard way, but isn’t it easier to learn from others’ mistakes rather than your own?
5. Go ahead and do something different, in a different way, and take that risk that you’ll regret not taking. If you never step out, you’ll never know what could have been. You have amazing ideas in your head that need to come out. Don’t mistake that adrenaline rush for fear you shouldn’t tackle. It could just be the turn on you needed to kick the competition’s butt!

That’s what works for me. How do you handle the occasional frustrations that stem from a busy environment? Do you ever feel caught up in the mundane while everyone else looks like they’ve accomplished their goals with ease? Hang in there!

Photo Credit: kevindooley on Flickr

Ever Wonder If Your Press Release Is Getting Picked Up?

You’re not alone. While writing a press release is only half the battle, getting it picked up and read continues to haunt industry professionals everywhere. This doesn’t have to be the case, say the authors of Press Releases Designed For Effect. Not only will recognizing new dynamics re-energize your small business marketing campaign, but here at Zero To Sixty Marketing, we believe working smarter includes producing better results in less time.

Pamil Vision’s 13-page white paper on press releases is an enlightened perspective on both traditional use and newer methods of distribution. Small business owners, this is good news. You’re no longer limited to writing releases that are only read by news media journalists and columnists, now your information needs to capture the attention of professional bloggers and online readers. While some journalists still prefer a traditionally structured media release, many are finding online resources valuable for finding their information as well. Recognizing the shift in today’s communication and public relations campaigns makes a big difference to the size and geographic location of your audience. The authors of this informative white paper clearly explain the differences between the way we’ve written press releases before, and how to do it better now when considering an online audience. If you’re mindful to steer clear of industry noise, you can tackle actual newsworthy issues much more effectively with an understanding of where your target will find that information.

For example: Take into account both SEO and your social media strategy for promotion. Should you decide to take your release to the online world, recommended, you will have to use your keyword phrase in your title, and limit the length of your title to 60-100 characters. Social media exploits like Twitter and Digg only allow a certain character length in their submissions, so leaving room for the reader to comment and send on is integral. Furthermore, using keywords in your attention-grabbing title causes your release to be seen where new media is trained to search in those arenas using keywords. This method gets the information out to more people faster than traditional press releases.

The rules have changed, and small businesses need to know it. The information here is fully resourced and credible. I found the do’s and don’ts listed here for comparison a helpful and easily understood ‘cheat sheet’ for the independent and small business press release writer.

Getting your story in front of the right people still requires newsworthy content adhering to Associated Press style guidelines. It should be well-written with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. A small business press release should avoid hyperbole and emphatic expression, while still appealing to the interest of your reader. Transparency necessary before is even more integral now with a savvy reader and viral marketplace. You won’t get away with incorrect facts or poorly drawn conclusions. Consumers want the truth, not keyword-stuffed hype that reads more like an advertisement. Pamil Vision’s white paper takes the press release writer through the thought processes and steps that, if followed, causes his newsworthy item to be broadcast to the specific readership necessary for success, whether using traditional or online distribution methods.

I give this paper 5 stars, and strongly recommend it as a ‘cheat sheet’ in your marketing arsenal. You can pick up your copy here:

Pamil Vision’s White Paper: Press Releases Designed For Effect

Most of the things we do for our businesses, we do out of habit. We have some people that we call, we have direct mail sent out, we post coupons on Merchant Circle, or we post to Google Local online for decent SERP placement and reviews. Those things aren’t enough, and you probably know it, yet when asked what you’re doing for your business, you probably mention those things with an air of ‘I’m doing what I ought to be doing.’

You probably don’t need a marketing coach or a ‘guru’ to help you market your small business, but there are a few things those guys are doing right that you shouldn’t ignore entirely. They seem to know just how to center attention around themselves, and while that never denotes authenticity, having others in your field recognizing your efforts certainly can appear that way. Just how do they do that?

Here’s where the ‘guru’s’ have it, and even though I’m not a ‘guru’ or a marketing coach, I’m going to share it with you free of charge:

They know how to muster up credibility.
Marketers usually blog. They post something about what they do, and they comment on other marketer’s blogs, start conversations, and drop links. How is this practice good for you? By the time their would-be clients get to their site, they have plenty of others in their field endorsing their endeavors. That’s not actual credibility, but it is perceived credibility, a good start. Take some time every day to build relationship with others in your field by leaving a conversational comment on a competitor’s blog designed for response.

They know what promotions, offers, and Web site traffic is working for them.
It’s not enough to just throw information on a page and hope it does well. It doesn’t take complicated algorithms to figure it out, either. If you’re not tracking your efforts and traffic with (at least) Google Analytics, you have no real idea if you’re reaching who you want to reach.

They engage in social media.
Yeah, it’s a time-suck. But even so, limited engagement on social media sites is actually a smart way to engage local traffic, if your local city and state are part of your profile or username. Getting used to it is half the battle. Once in, you’ll enjoy short conversations with others and your list will naturally build over time. If you do more than just post your specials, that is. Respond to ridiculous situations that makes you laugh, or drop your own personal thoughts about a thing here and there. (Advice: Stay optimistic. Why follow a grump?)

Photo Credit: NeeDeeAh’s! Photostream on Flickr

Related Post: Why The Social Media Experts Are Smarter Than You

We love to offer the links that we use for our continuing education to our readers. As Shari and I will tell you often, we never stop learning. We look forward to your comments on our posts and links to our information that you make, but also enjoy answering your questions. We don’t profess to be ‘guru’s’ or marketing coaches, even though we do offer ‘lite coaching’ and marketing direction. It’s just responsible business to offer your learned prowess in anything that you do.

We’d like to encourage you to keep a notebook of your learning experiences; things that worked for your small business, and things that didn’t. No doubt there will be a laundry list of both. It’s helpful to keep notes and refer to them often, because as you do, you’ll see that many times all that is required is a little tweaking of an earlier thought, or just a little more understanding of a thing.

Kaye Z. Marks, Where Is Your Marketing Attention Focused?

Adam Ostrow, Mashable, How To Take Advantage Of Social Media In Your Email Marketing

Earlier this week:

So, What’s In A Newsletter Anyway?

Great Newsletter Design Is Nothing Without Targeted Content

Resources For Great Newsletter Design:

Images By Hawkeye

Alberts Illustration And Design

Express It Write!

If you stop to think about it, we’re all marketers. We all have something to sell and we need to market it, whether product or service. Narrowing the focus of your newsletter to your particular niche will increase your bottom line – whether you’ve got a huge list, or not. Your email marketing list is an important feature, don’t get me wrong, but look at it this way:

Not everyone who goes into a store is looking for the same thing.

What is the strongest thing you offer, and who wants it? Your list can be divided up in such a way that your message targets the particular group who has already shown interest in a thing, or is in the category of someone who may not know that your product or service is their remedy.

The templates shown on AWeber for newsletter design are a nice way to present your message, and it does impact on your readership to a degree, but the most important thing will always be the content specific material that is provided in it.

Kaye Z. Marks says it this way in her article titled, Where Is Your Marketing Attention Focused?,

If you send out a mass mailing to everyone you can, odds are the people who will take interest are the same people you could have specifically targeted from the beginning instead of wasting money sending something to all the people who did not have interest.”

She’s absolutely right. Some of you stop here for information on marketing your small business by yourself, others want to know if they trust the claims about our services that we make. As our list grows, so will our specific newsletter offerings to each separate group of readers. Posture yourself through AWeber by using sign up forms and your first welcome responder email template to find out just where their needs are.

A great newsletter takes much forethought, but the right tools make all the difference.

Related Posts:

So, What Goes In A Newsletter, Anyway?

Maybe last week you were inspired to start your email newsletter service. Maybe you inspired me, instead. Newsletter design set up is so easy with AWeber that it might bowl you over. If you took any of our advice last week, you at least took a peek and know we’re not just some affiliate marketers out to sell a product. No, we use this service on two of our blogs, the Inside Line and Express Marketing Memo, with such ease that we gladly encourage everyone to try it for themselves. Yes, of course we become affiliates of products that work excellently and allow us to teach the small business owner how to take control of their marketing, duh. (No disrespect intended, just a disclaimer.)

So what type of content is appropriate for your newsletter? You can have your blog set up to automatically feed your newsletter with content that your subscribers get to view right in their own mailbox, and if you continue to update your blog with helpful information about your product, services, industry news, and specials, they will enjoy hearing from you if you follow the tips I outlined in Can YOU Influence Customer Response? Parts 1 and 2.

Try AWeber Email Marketing Risk-Free

Is that all? Well, no. If you use this service, you get to choose your template (appearance) and can even set it up to include affiliate links that YOU endorse. Inside the templates are places where you can add helpful links, upcoming events, and even (if you’re organized and plan your posts in advance) let your readers know what’s coming up in future editions.

You can choose to offer different content in your newsletter than your blog. It’s unnecessary and time-consuming, but you can put any relevant information in there that you wish. I happen to think that the discipline involved when realizing that your newsletter content and blog content are one, causes you to make ever so certain that you don’t ramble and send out worthless diatribe.

To wrap it up, here’s what can go into your newsletter:

• regularly updated blog content
• affiliate links
• product information
• service offerings
• specials
• industry news
• relevant links from other sources that your readers can use
• social media buttons so that they can connect with you in the eco-sphere

A couple words of advice:

• Decide in advance how often to send out your newsletter. You can set it up to send out as you post to your blog, or every other one, or on the same day each week, and so on.
• Figure out what time of day your readers are most likely to read your information, and set it up to post during those hours.

And remember, if this is outside your range of ability, we can do this for you for a nominal fee. We do offer customizing if you are looking for something a little different than you see there. You’re going to do great, I just know it. Make sure you add us to your blogroll, and tell us about your experience in the comments, below.

Related Posts: What Email List Marketing Method Really Works?

Here’s to all the great information on business email list marketing we enjoyed reading this week, now it’s time to share it with you. Please take some time to check out these links this weekend.