Marketing for Small Business

In today’s digital world, where ‘one-to-one’ marketing has been greatly facilitated  by tools such as social networking, many business owners assume that in this highly personalized environment, it’s not a concern if your messaging or positioning is different from one medium, audience or client conversation to the next. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, in such a divergent and complex world, it’s never been more important to have a consistent and integrated marketing strategy for your business. Here’s why:

1)      “It’s all about focus.” – I seem to repeat this statement over and over again when speaking with clients.  Being focused on what your business stands for, how to convey this and where you want to communicate these messages is critical to any business’ marketing strategy. You need to think this through carefully and get it right.

2)      Consistency is King – There is little value and almost no point in saying things one way in the online space and another in your print collateral. If your audience is the same or similar in both mediums, your messaging shouldn’t be very different regardless of which one you’re currently using. Of course, if you’re talking to two different target markets, you’ll need to do this in two different ways.

3)      Reinforce key messages – Products or services that are unique to your business or a cut above your competitors need to be emphasized accordingly. Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself across different mediums, your clients won’t find you boring or repetitive. Instead, this will help to strengthen your positioning (you can always reword your messages a little to make them unique in each channel).

4)      Think holistically and strategically – You always need to think about the ‘big picture’, no matter how deep in the weeds you are. What are your objectives, and how do you plan on achieving them? What could get in your way and prevent you from accomplishing this? Don’t get caught up chasing the latest fad marketing concepts and tactics. Instead, take a step back and look at things from your customer’s perspective – what are they looking for and how can you satisfy this? Plan out your approach as much as possible.

5)      It makes good business sense – An integrated approach to marketing just makes sense. Having that consistency, where messages reinforce each other over multiple mediums can save you a lot of money, and reduce the amount of time it takes to establish and strengthen your brand. At the end of the day, an integrated marketing plan is just a smart business decision!

So if you want to enhance your marketing effort, online or off, be sure to first assess your plans and activities. If you’re currently employing a fully integrated marketing communications strategy for your business, this will come out in spades in terms of the focused, consistent approach you’ve developed.

If you’re in the city you don’t want to miss the Summer’s Biggest Networking Party! 9th Annual.
Join Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist -  I have been to many of these events and they are always SUPER!

TICKETS: $25 Early Bird  CLICK HERE  $35 advance/ $45 at door  
Social Media Bar – sponsored by Convurgency

Connect with 500+ business professionals & owners and some of the city’s best-connectors at Toronto’s Biggest Summer Networking Event!  BizNETWORKnews.com’s

9th Anniversary  SUMMER NETWORKING BASH
Wednesday, August 10, 2011,  5-9 pm

The Glass Factory, 99 Sudbury St, Toronto, Ontario, 
(Queen St W & Dufferin)  click here for map 

Exhibitor Tables are available – email for details.
SPONSORED BY: ITEX, Premier Fitness, Convurgency, BNI, BCX, BPW Toronto North, Networking Diva, BOSS, BWNA,Toronto Entrepreneurs Networking, Inspired Connections, POWE, Women Who Excel, First Fridays, Entrepreneur Link, Step Ahead, Take II

Now you have that stack of business cards make sure you follow up!
If you need help starting the conversation, keeping it going and building the know you, like you, trust you factor so you grow your sales attend Set The Stage For Follow Up. Training available in Oakville ON, Toronto ON and at your office.

One of the challenges many entrepreneurs and business people face when they establish a business, set up their LinkedIn profile for the first time, delve into social media on a business level or start networking is creating the proper image that aligns with their business or position.

Business people often find it difficult to get the right person to capture them in a photograph. What they find equally challenging is determining how best to present themselves in their headshot in order to come across in a positive, flattering and professional way.

What can be even more difficult for many is effectively writing a biography that captures in words their experience, skills and education while at the same time striking a balance between being overly boastful or drab to the reader. Many people find it hard to speak about themselves in an overly positive manner, thinking they’ll be perceived as arrogant.

What can be especially difficult for business people is to find professionals that are good at all of the above, and who can also provide a complete, packaged service at an affordable price. Having identified this need, photographer Laurinda Shire, copywriter Ian Turner, and image consultant Janelle Long have teamed up to provide a fabulous and cost-effective package.

The package consists of an in-home image consultation, a professional headshot and a professionally written bio for only $200 +HST. This will take place at the eSpot on Thursday July 21^st from 10am-12pm. Bring a friend and let them take advantage of this great offer too! For more information or to book your appointment, contact Laurinda at 289-242—5547 or laurindashire@hotmail.com.

Let us help you create the right impression – in both words and picture – so that you can impress your clients, colleagues and network and set yourself up for success!

At Sydcam Marketing Communications, we believe that social media should be an important part of the communications mix for many small and medium sized businesses. And the reason why is simple – it provides a cost-effective strategy to grow your business and build your brand. Twitter is one of the more popular social media tools for doing just this.

To help your business utilize this resource effectively, we’ve provided you with 8 tips we believe are critical to successfully using it.

Rule #1 – Have a communications strategy: know what you want to say, how you want to say it and to whom (i.e. your target market). Try to never stray from this approach.

Rule #2 – Remember, it’s all about them: Twitter, much like every other social media service, is about adding value to your client’s experiences, of giving back in a tangible way without expecting anything in return! Do things differently and you’ll damage your brand.

Rule #3 – Never, ever tweet more that 5 times a day: This way seem counterintuitive for some of you that think you need to be on Twitter 24/7. Remember, you’re a business, not a frat member or a groupie for a band. If you send out too many tweets, especially low value ones, you’ll irritate your audience as you’ll push everyone else’s tweets down the list. Their action to you will be swift and permanent – they’ll unfollow you! It’s all about quality over quantity.

Rule #4 – Make your tweets interesting: Somewhat related to #4 above, if you’re a business and you’re trying to promote your brand and add value to your followers business and personal lives, don’t waste your time and theirs telling them you’re at the bus stop waiting for the 11:30 shuttle to pick you up. They don’t care!

Rule #5 – Multi-tweet posts should be avoided at all cost: These are hard to follow and end up annoying people more than helping them. If you have more of a story to say, write it up in a blog post and link that to your tweet.

Rule #6 – Twitter is in the public domain: Everything you say and write is available to anyone and everyone – so watch your Ps and Qs! Anyone from your mother to your chief competitors could be watching and/or following you on Twitter so be careful what you say.

Rule #7 – Make sure your tweets are informative: As was mentioned earlier, Twitter like most if not all social media is all about adding value. Make sure your content is what your followers would be expecting from you. If you’re a chef, give out cooking tips, great recipes, etc., but not what your dog Waldo is having for dinner tonight!

Rule #8 – Never underestimate the impact of your statements: One of the dangers with social media, especially in the business space, is that many people come there to learn and to be informed. Treating this audience in a flippant and indifferent manner can do you and your business permanent and irreparable damage. Stay focused and on message at all times!

If you would like to follow Sydcam Marketing Communications’ tweets on Twitter, our user name @sydcam_marcom.

Linkedin, the social media site for professionals has established itself as the place to go for service professionals, solopreneurs and small business owners to generate leads and build their business.

I’ve been using Linkedin actively for 3 years, and have found it to be an extremely powerful lead-generation tool, especially for self-employed service professionals, but it works equally well in creating new business opportunities for all kids of businesses.

Recently I asked members of Linkedin how much new business they generate and 57% said: Zero! Frankly, I am not surprised. Linkedin is getting bigger and more feature-rich, so the learning curve for new users is getting steeper and steeper. Because of this many people open an account and then get discouraged when they start exploring the site. Unfortunately, it is not immediately apparent how can one use Linkedin to get more clients.

If you’re struggling with making Linkedin work for you, come to my popular 2-1/2-hour workshop *Linkedin to the MAX* and learn my secrets. Click here to register today for the next session on May 5.

Here’s one participant’s testimonial — Since participating in your Linkedin to the Max! workshop, I have been expanding my list of connections, and have already seen positive results. I have made some great connections that could result in business opportunities. Your workshop presentation was clear and very informative. Even I, a self-proclaimed “techno-idiot”, learned a lot, and have started to put some of your recommendations into practice. – Thank you!! — Jim White (click this link for more testimonials for my seminars)

Boris Mahovac R.G.D.
iBizAcademy – Online Marketing For Small Business

What makes a great marketer? Is it above average creativity, a strong business acumen, an ability to think strategically with a big picture approach, or is it a bit of everything? And how do marketers acquire these skills?  Is it by working in various areas of an organization first, by attending a B-school and perhaps getting an MBA, or is it by cutting your teeth first in sales and then translating that training and exposure into a marketing role?

 I truly believe there is a lot to be said about the latter approach, and here’s why. I often feel there is a much more practical way of going about becoming successful at marketing – and that centres around thinking more like a customer! At Sydcam Marketing Communications, we believe that thinking like a customer is at the essence of effective marketing.

Understanding Needs

One of the primary reasons why I think marketers need to think like a customer is that it helps to better understand the needs of the end consumer of your goods and services. I would argue this is even more important when you hire advertising agencies and the like to work on behalf of your company, who have an arms length relationship to the business and its products.

Buyer (i.e. consumer) behaviour is a critical component of the purchase decision and process, which is exactly what most marketers are trying to impact and influence. There is no better way to understand what motivates the end customer to purchase your products or services than to actually put yourself, as the marketer, into their shoes and try to understand why they make certain purchase decisions.

Formulating marketing strategies

When it comes to thinking strategically, or developing a marketing strategy for your business or client, the same tactics and approach apply. It should be based on the perceived motives and intents of your target client. What are they looking for from your given product or service? What are their expectations? What would be the distinguishing factor that would sway them to purchase your products over your competitors? All these questions should be carefully considered and analyzed when coming up with a marketing strategy for your business.

In the end, business and marketing always comes down to the customer. Understand their needs, appreciate what motivates their purchasing decisions, and recognize what actions will resonate with them and you’ll be on the right track. Stepping into their shoes is the best way to assess this effectively. You will then be able to develop marketing campaigns and programs that will achieve the bottom line results you and your company expect.

Thinking like a customer is really no more than a concerted approach to thinking and acting in a very unique way that can have tangible benefits for your business. If you would like to discuss how you can implement this kind of strategy within your company, or if you simply want to discover some simple techniques to incorporate this into your daily marketing routines, contact us at Sydcam Marketing Communications. We’d love to sit down and talk to you about something we’re very passionate about.

Last month, we at Sydcam Marketing Communications spoke to you about why we felt social media was a critical and viable marketing strategy for most small (and medium-sized) businesses in this country. Today we would like to talk to about what we believe are the key social media tools small businesses need to consider in executing on their social media program.

The key elements in your social media strategy

With the myriad of social media tools, resources and options available to small business, the question many owners ask us is which tools are best for our needs? While this is sometimes a difficult question, and one that may vary from one client to the next, the most common recommendations we make at Sydcam Marketing Communications are the following:

Blog: Your social media strategy needs to be centred on the creation of a blog (just like us!).  The ability for a blog to provide fresh, new content to your website on a regular basis is one important reason for its value, especially given the impact it has on your search engine rankings.

Twitter is another fabulous tool that enables businesses to send short, targeted messages of interest to their ‘followers’.

Facebook is great resource for promoting your business to clients – old and new – and most importantly for creating a community of people that ‘like’ your business for what you do, how you do it and what you stand for.

YouTube: No one can deny the power of video in capturing an idea or a moment and bringing it all to life. YouTube does this and so much more by creating a medium to house all your company videos in one neat area, and to then use the video content to put a whole different light on your business. Love that Google juice!

LinkedIn: The odd one in the bunch, LinkedIn, while perhaps not the most obvious social media tool for promoting your business, provides an incredible avenue for promoting yourself, your background, skills and credentials and enabling you to connect with colleagues and associates around the world. It helps to build that personal credibility that so many small businesses thrive on for their success.

So there you have it, a multi-pronged approach to social media that can have a noticeable impact on the success of your small business in the near term. And to be clear, it is not essential that you go an open an account tomorrow for each of the services mentioned above. Pick and choose those that you think can benefit you the most, or better still those that you feel most comfortable implementing yourself.

If you’re looking for help and advice on devising your social media strategy for your business, please contact us at Sydcam Marketing Communications. We’d love to hear from you and provide you with some insight, guidance and support to help you grow your business’ presence in this growing area.

It’s not news that social media has exploded in the past couple of years all over the globe. More and more people of all ages, cultures and walks of life are using social media to find old friends, connect to people with similar interests, and generally speaking reach out on a personal level to a wider audience than was ever possible before.

The business applications for social media have only come along recently, almost as an afterthought as businesses realized the potential of this new medium.  Large global corporations have been using social media – particularly Facebook, Twitter and of late Four Square – to engage with their customers on a more intimate level, to learn more about their likes and dislikes and to develop a closer relationship to enhance customer loyalty.

At Sydcam Marketing Communications, we fully endorse the use of this medium as an important tactic in the creation and delivery of a focused, strategic, and cost-effective marketing plan. In the first of a two-part series, we’ll explain why we like it, and in Part II we’ll outline how your business can take advantage of it.

Small Business and Social Media

So why would small business be interested in exploring social media? Well, for exactly the same reason that many larger companies do. The ability to engage with your clients on a more personal, intimate and one-on-one basis is the critical factor, and to do so in a very cost–effective manner with little to no investment.

This medium provides small (and medium-sized) businesses with an avenue to connect with their clients, highlight unique and time-sensitive offerings and receive input and feedback in a way that was never possible before. The budget required to achieve these objectives in the past would have required a sophisticated CRM and client retention strategy that the average small business owner couldn’t afford.

In next month’s blog post, we’ll outline for you what we feel are the key social media elements most small businesses need to consider in order to establish and develop their social media strategy and plan. If you would like to learn more about social media now and better understand how and why it can be relevant for your business, please give us a call at Sydcam Marketing Communications. We would like to help guide you through the jungle of information that is out there so you can make sense of all of it.

Why achieving a consistent, branded communications strategy is critical in the digital era

I recently came across an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review* (HBR) that I wanted to share with my readers. The article talks about a unique aspect within social media: how it is impacting consumer behaviour (and attitudes), the impact it is having on a company’s brand, and how a consistent communications strategy can resolve consumer confusion and improve your bottom line.

At Sydcam Marketing Communications, we understand that social media is changing the sales and marketing landscape. We hope this article will enable you to better understand this new media and help you devise the necessary strategies to take advantage of this digital phenomenon.

The demise of traditional media

We all recognize that technology, the internet, and most recently social media have all adversely affected both traditional media (newspapers, TV, and radio) and traditional methods of marketing (TV and print advertising). However, many of us don’t realize the extent of the impact.

The online communities created by social media have provided a forum for discussing a company, its brands and products. These discussions often take place after a customer has purchased a product, either in the form of a product review or an online discussion.

Lesson #1: The growing importance of the post-purchase stage

In the article, the post-purchase phase of the buying process is referred to as the “Enjoy, advocate, bond” stage. Social media has facilitated consumer’s ability to advocate for (or against) a brand or product, to bond with it and to disseminate information to a wide audience very quickly. Marketers need to allocate more attention and resources to this critical stage of the buying process.

Lesson #2: Shifting the marketing spend

The research highlights that the conventional approach to using paid advertising in traditional media to influence customers before the purchase decision is not effective anymore. Instead, influencing clients post-purchase will have a much greater impact on their satisfaction with their purchase decision, will expedite their future repurchase decision, and will enable them to advocate for the brand through social media  – positively impacting the purchase decisions for many buyers.

Lesson #3: Keep your “branded” messaging consistent

Today’s plethora of marketing and communications channels creates other challenges for businesses – ensuring product and brand messaging is consistent across all channels of communication, from print to social media to product packaging and PR. One of the key concerns noted by consumers in the HBR paper was inconsistent product information and descriptions across different sources and different media, and how this made the purchase decision more difficult.

It is incumbent on companies that they view product and brand messaging from a strategic perspective, and coordinate it more effectively. Research has proven that centralizing this communications role with marketing results in a clearer and more consistent understanding of the brand by consumers; they are then better able to articulate its attributes.

 Implementing a “branded” communications strategy

If you’re looking for assistance in developing a social media plan to improve your marketing and communications efforts, or you’d like to comment on this blog, please contact us at Sydcam Marketing Communications; we’d love to hear from you.

Together we can work on devising a program that will create consistent messaging across your entire organization, strengthen and grow your brand and your customers’ loyalty to it, while helping you become more profitable.

 * “Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places”, Alex MacLean, Harvard Business Review, December, 2010.

http://hbr.org/2010/12/branding-in-the-digital-age/ar/2

Collaborating with our clients probably isn’t that foreign to most of us – we’ve likely done it at some point in our careers. The real question is how often do we do it? Is it just something we do only when it’s convenient or when the client insists upon it? Or is this the approach we often engage in, one that forms a fundamental way to we meet our clients needs?

At Sydcam Marketing Communications, we develop collaborative marketing strategies, plans and communications by working closely with our clients. In this blog we’ll explain to you why we feel so adamant about it.

Collaboration delivers results

As we’ve seen with the explosion of Web 2.0, social networking is all about collaborating with clients to better understand their needs and to provide them with products and services they want. Bottom line, collaboration with clients has been proven to achieve better results and bigger successes. Why you may ask? Well, it can simply be the result of the old adage “two heads are better than one”.

It would be difficult to dispute that our clients possess considerable knowledge about their industries, markets and ultimately, their clients. We need to proactively tap into this wealth of knowledge to deliver superior results for our clients. Engaging them in the planning and decision making process can only benefit us in developing products and services that will truly “wow” them.

How can we make this work?

Many readers may think “this can’t work in my business”. Truthfully, collaboration can occur successfully in a variety of different ways, and with many different players. Employers and employees can collaborate as a team, and industry and academia can also collaborate together.

The most important element to successful collaboration is the willingness of both parties to work together, appreciate each others unique perspectives, be able to contribute and engage fully in the process, and finally be willing to compromise where necessary.

Collaborating with Consumers

In marketing, collaboration can be taken one step further by engaging consumers in the development of marketing strategies, plans and tactics. Through the use of surveys, feedback from social media and “old school” concepts such as focus groups, the consumer can become an integral part of the conversation, identifying what they feel would be the best way to satisfy their needs.

By working collaboratively with either clients or consumers, we’re able to create very practical and pragmatic solutions, and gain a fresh perspective on how best to apply marketing concepts and strategies for maximum affect. In our highly competitive and ever evolving marketplace, it seems inconceivable to ignore this input and information.

If you’re interested in working with a firm that wants to develop collaborative marketing programs with its clients, contact Sydcam Marketing Communications by email at info@sydcamcommunications.com. We want to hear from like-minded businesses that see the value in building stronger relationships as a means to creating better solutions. Let’s work together to build even better mousetraps!