The Foxy Marketer Blog

The headline of this is a bit misleading really, because these aren’t just tips, ideas or suggestions to be considered, but absolute MUSTS. If you do not have at least the first 3 in place already, immediately launch a plan of action to do so.

1. Have a website

I was in a small business the other day and asked what their website was since I didn’t see it mentioned anywhere. The girl replied that they were thinking about getting one someday. WHAT!?! Everyone has a website nowadays, it is expected. There is simply no reason or excuse not to have one. They are not very costly at all and add volumes to your exposure. Much more on websites to come…

2. Get feedback

Have a survey or feedback system in place for your customers. You need to know what your customers think. Every national business has an online survey, 1-800 number and place on their website for feedback. This is overkill for a small business. It can be as simple as a form by the register, or a follow-up call or email.

3. Have a newsletter

Whether quarterly, monthly or weekly, have a newsletter that you either snail-mail or email to your customers. Announce new products, upcoming events, anything special that your loyal customers need to know. This can be simple or extravagant, depending on your time and budget.

4. Belong to a networking group

Every town has a chamber of commerce or other professional business organization, and http://www.meetup.com is a goldmine of groups looking to network for breakfast, drinks, weekend networking, card-exchanges, you name it.

5. Have business cards

The days of swapping cards have not yet come to an end, so having your details on a card ready to hand out is vital. Don’t spend a fortune or even a dime if you don’t want to. Visit http://www.vistaprint.com for free business cards. You can have an offer printed on it and hand them out to people you’re in line with at the post office or wherever you are to make natural connections.

6. Know your competition

Make it a point to see what your competitors are doing. What’s new, what’s great, how do their products and services compare to yours? Do you know their prices, how they market? This makes you even more confident and knowledgeable.

7. Have a mission statement

What’s your vision? Why are you doing the things you’re doing? Having a clear purpose, concisely written in front of you will do wonders for clarity. Take the time to do this. It can be just a sentence, no more than a paragraph. 

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The Importance of Truth In Grammartizing

Proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar are CRITICAL to a successful ad campaign. Nothing pulls your plug faster than a faux-pas like an apostrophe where it has no business being or using the wrong homonym. Take this example that’s on a billboard along a heavily trafficked road I drive past every single day: “See why our competitor’s cried about our last ad”.

If you’re wondering what my problem is, read the sentence again in the context they put it in: “See why our competitor is cried about our last ad”. I have been seriously considering contacting the company and gently cluing them in. Unfortunately, that small minor, teeny misstep may be costing them business, A LOT of business. They are in a fiercely competitive industry that is based on 100% commission. Who would want to buy from a place let alone work for one that is willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a big, eye-catching billboard with this big goof-up on it? Does that scream “trust us with your $30,000 because we’re experts” to you???

Not convinced yet? Ok, read on. Did you know that 387,090 people are in a Facebook group called “I judge you when you use poor grammar”? While that may sound like a staggering figure, trust me when I tell you that they are not alone! These are only the ones willing to admit to their judgment on a social networking site. There are more, so many more willing to judge.

You’ve heard the phrase “measure twice, cut once” before, right? With advertising, even measuring twice is simply not enough! Whether you’re investing $1200 on a radio campaign, $4000 on a billboard, or blogging about your biz, how you communicate MATTERS. Triple check, have someone else check, read the thing backwards if you have to. Thank goodness for spell-check, it’s saved many a job for sure. Right before launching this website, I sent it to a friend to preview for me. He thoroughly enjoyed busting us with 2 blaring grammar mistakes my partner and I missed. It’s easy to miss when you look something over again and again, so pull in a fresh eye. Where spell-check falls short though is context, so while there is spelled properly, you may be going for the possessive their.

Yours in proper grammar, spelling, and syntax

-Joy

We’ve all been told and probably generally agree that all businesses must have a plan. Just as it is recommended that a pilot file a flight plan with the FAA prior to departure, having a business plan is not required, just strongly recommended. What would happen if a pilot boarded a plane, started it up and took off with no direction in mind? How smoothly would that flight go? Where would that flight end up? How would the passengers who paid to be on that flight feel about not knowing where they would end up?

Having a flight plan for your business gives you direction and purpose. The sky is vast and launching toward it with no particular outcome is daunting and leaves too much unconsidered. Take pause to craft a plan for your biz, whether it hasn’t yet begun, or if it’s still in its infancy stages, or even if you’ve been around for 25 years. Businesses change and grow, and so should the plans you make. Is there an existing business in your field you can model after? Maybe working with a Score rep from your community is the best way for you. Is there a dusty old binder in the back room somewhere with a plan that needs dusted off and updated?

An easy way to start with your biz plan is with your vision. When you imagine your business at its optimum, achieving what you set out to do when you started, what do you see and hear? Write it down! Put it on your website, hang it on your wall. Need a little inspiration? Here’s what some have done:

3M
“To solve unsolved problems innovatively.”

Mary Kay Cosmetics
“To give unlimited opportunity to women.”

Merck
“To preserve and improve human life.”

Wal-Mart
“To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people.”

Walt Disney
“To make people happy.”

These are the ‘one-liners’, but each is supported by a set of values that set the performance standards and direct the implementation of the mission.

For example, Merck, a company that produces pharmaceutical products and provides insurance for pharmacy benefits, publicly states the following values:

Corporate social responsibility
Unequivocal excellence in all aspects of the company
Science-based innovation
Honesty & integrity
Profit, but profit from work that benefits humanity

Walt Disney:

No cynicism
Nurturing and promulgation of “wholesome American values”
Creativity, dreams and imagination
Fanatical attention to consistency and detail
Preservation and control of the Disney “magic”

Use your vision as the destination of your flight, and craft the flight plan, aka the details from that. Begin now by crafting your vision. If you have one, make sure it’s prominent and still relevant for you. Can your customers see it, do your employees know and live it?

Here’s our vision:

The vision of TheFoxyMarketer.com is to ultra-empower small business owners to pro-actively work to realize profitability by adopting strategies that get results. We make Foxes!

I’d love to hear your vision…post it below, email or call me!

How many times have you had a random flash of genius pop into your mind, only to forget about it or quickly dismiss it? Yep, me too. Too often…

How many of those times have you seen your clever idea in a shop or on TV, just several weeks or months after you first thought it up? Yep, me too. Too often!

What can we do about this? Continue to gripe and lament that that was supposed to be our million dollars? Tell anyone who will listen that we were jipped? Nah. Waste of energy.

What we’re gonna do instead is feel grateful that we have such wonderful minds to think of such cool things, wish the lucky person well for having the courage to act on their thought, and shout “NEXT!” as loud as we can! Yes, bring on the next great idea! I believe that none of us are one-hit wonders, unless we let ourselves be that. What we do need is the confidence and follow-through with an idea once it presents itself.

A few years back, I was fixated on the idea of leather rugs, thinking how luxurious they would look and how special I was for thinking up this soon-to-be rage. Lo and behold when the company I was working for started selling them. I was furious with them and myself. Why did I not take any steps beyond imagining and how dare IKEA show me up, I thought. Now I laugh about that because some days I have so many ideas I hardly feel like I have time for other things.

The world is ripe with opportunities, just waiting for your solution, creation or input. I’m not suggesting that you hole up in your basement like Homer Simpson did, forcing ideas out until finally, you shoot your wife in the face with a makeup rifle, although that was hilarious!

As you move through your experiences, have an awareness and openness to how things can improve or what’s missing that people need. The ideas are right there, just take note, literally I mean write it down, do a little net research, then think about who’s on your team to help you bring your idea to light.

Searching the US patent site is fascinating. I can get lost in there like some people do watching videos on Youtube.

We are all inventors, all creators. What great idea can we perhaps partner on to make a reality? Can’t wait to see what’s next for you.

Ok…I’m certain you’ve already seen this, admittedly or not, on a program like American Idol, or at your local Starbucks (if you’re lucky, yum!).

Text Message Marketing is the fancy new technology marketing piece which is quick becoming a small business must. Just when you’ve finally gotten around to putting up a website and having some type of customer e-mail in place, along comes the next wave of ‘advertising necessities’.

But no worries, because this is one that gives you direct control over its implementation, and you’ll know if it’s working very, very quickly!

Let’s start by placing ourselves in a scenario I’m sure you’re familiar with, or if you haven’t yet started your business, you will be soon:

It’s a pretty slow day at your business. Maybe it’s just a dreary day, and you’re wishing you were at home where all of your potential customers apparently have decided to stay. Maybe it’s just that typical slow Tuesday or Wednesday, or whenever your seemingly unavoidable downtime occurs.

So you go to your back office and log into your Texting Program, type out a nice little diddy like:

“Wow! It’s raining like crazy today.. Brave the weather and get 20% OFF today’s purchase!!”

You of course proof read it (see my article on grammar!), and send it out to all of your clients that have opted-in to your Customer MVP Club.

So let’s say you have 250 people in your club…

Some of the coolest benefits with Text Message Marketing is that everyone nowadays carries a cell phone with them. Which means they IMMEDIATELY get your message! And guess what… a Marketing E-mail (which your customer would have to be checking their e-mail to even receive) has about a 5% read rate. But, Text Message Marketing has a 95% read rate!! This puts the goal of your Return-On-Investment at around 10%.

So, with a little creative “carrot dangling”, you’ve brought in about 25 customers on a day they might have been cozied up at home instead of at your business. One example of a store that did this began with about $200 in their drawer, and two hours after the message went out had $2,900. Not bad, huh?

In fact, this is just one of the many ways you can benefit from something like this. It’s only limited by your imagination and how well you know your customers. Alright, so now you understand ’why’ this works for you, so let’s explain the  ‘how’ of a successful Text Marketing Program.

As a rule of thumb, 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers. This means that it is much easier to bring a customer back through your door than to get a new one in for the first time. It is a must to develop a strong customer base! They’ve already demonstrated that they are willing to spend money in your business, so take care of them, and they’ll come back and recommend you.

The Opt-in
Most businesses recognize the need for some type of loyal customer program. In a boutique you’ll sometimes see the book at the counter where you enter your name and e-mail to stay up-to-date. At the local grocery store, you can often fill out a form and receive a card that gives you some special discounts. These are great ways to develop your base and customer loyalty.

So when your customer comes to your counter, you have a sign in a clearly visible location saying, for example: ‘Text BagelCafe to 74700 for your FREE fountain drink!’ The person at the counter follows up with: ‘Would you like a free fountain drink with your purchase today?’ while pointing to the sign.

If the customer decides he wants your ‘irresistable’ offer, they proceed to opt-in. They then receive a text immediately back saying welcome to the MVP Mobile Club and to show the text at the counter to redeem. They get a free fountain drink (or whatever you feel comfortable offering), and you my friend have a Loyal Customer Program!

Compared to most forms of advertising, such as print ads, your business just spent almost nothing for that customer to be a part of your Program. There was no long form for your customer to fill out like at the Grocery Store, it is easy and simple.

Text Message Marketing is one of the many great things that we offer at TheFoxyMarketer.com. Besides instant results, a better read rate and ROI, it also has another thing going for it when we help you implement it into your business…

For one it is month-to-month, so there is little commitment. Once you perfect it, you’ll see for yourself why we don’t need to ask for a commitment. And guess what… It’s so much more cost effective than any decent print advertising. We start at $79/month, which allows you 1000 Text Messages per month. How much have you spent on print ads?

I’ve actually had an advertising publisher for a local magazine tell me “If you wanted a return on investment you would have been better to take $1,000 to the race track, than to put an ad in my magazine”…Their circulation is over 78,000. Well, I guess he was at least honest, although I’m sure the magazine owners aren’t pleased! I would have actually rather spent it on some top shelf magaritas, but oh well!

So the point is.. Text Message Marketing is something that if you don’t adopt now, you will in the near future when you see your competition using it. It’s not just for big companies anymore!! It is for you!