10 YEARS OF
SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING INSIGHT
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We are excited! We just turned 10! To celebrate,we compiled
ten Helpful articles with our favourite marketing tips and tricks!
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ABOUT
THIS BOOK For ten years Dragonfly Marketing has advised small businesses on all things marketing. We have helped them develop considered marketing strategies that link to their business goals. We’ve helped them gain more insight into who their target audience are. We’ve worked with them to nail some clever and creative marketing execution and then provided them with measurements and metrics to demonstrate how that marketing has worked. And boy have we loved every minute of it. Here we share some of the key insight that we have gathered along the way. We hope you find it helpful!
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WHO WROTE
THIS BOOK Jane Hillsdon is a passionate marketer dedicated to helping businesses take advantage of all the benefits that marketing has to offer. As the the Founder and Managing Director of Dragonfly Marketing, a regionally based marketing agency, Jane combines her extensive experience as a qualified marketing professional and her huge passion for building relationships, to help businesses navigate the ever-changing world of marketing.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS OUR BEST EVER TOP 10 marketing Tips 10 marketing TipS That smalL business owners should avoid 10 REASONS TO INVEST IN YOUR MARKETING 10 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER 10 TOUCHPOINTS THAT Consumers will form about your brand 10 our best marketing templates and cheat sheets 10 cool marketing apps that helps us drive our marketing content 10 ACTIVITIES regional business can do to attract more customers 10 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS 10 THINGS YOU’LL love about dragonfly marketing
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Our Best EVER top 10
Marketing Tips Ten years in business and 20 years as a marketer. Boy have we learned some awesome stuff along the way. We’ll kick off by sharing our very best marketing insight, collected over ten years of delivering marketing outcomes to small business.
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TIP # 1 KNow your
target Audience Knowing exactly what drives your customer will allow you to communicate to them efficiently and effectively. It’s easy to find out more about your customers. Simply ask some of your best customers why they shop with you? What is it that they like about doing business with you? You may be surprised with the answers you receive and it is these answers that you can use to shape and create your content.
TIP # 2 Set goals and objectives
Your business objectives and goals will be used to fundamentally guide your marketing goals and objectives. Objectives and goals can be set around: • Financial (revenue and profit) • The number of leads or sales you would like per week/month/year • Brand recognition and awareness • Positioning • Customer & prospect perception • Customer loyalty And much more.
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TIP # 3 Set up a system that
measures your marketing This is a great habit to get into and by just tracking some fundamental numbers each month, you’ll be able to get a good feel as to whether your marketing is working. We use a basic monthly measurement template that you can download here. It’s in Excel so you can customise it to include all the important measurements relevant to your business. These monthly measurements help track the following:
How many people are visiting your website? Most people will Google your business or visit your website before contacting you further.
Activity within your social channels (are your channels stagnant? I.e. the community numbers are not growing, the post reach is minimal & mostly the same for each post and the engagement is low)
$ Email engagement (how many people open your email, click through on your links etc.?)
Monthly Revenue
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TIP # 4 Treat marketing
as an investment Marketing done well is an investment. Not a cost. Clever marketing that communicates key messages and points of difference in a way that means something to your tribe will make you money. If people don’t know that your organisation exists – how can they buy from you? If people don’t understand why they should buy your brand over a competitor’s brand, why would they buy from you? If people don’t know how to purchase your product from you, how can they buy from you? When considering how much to invest in marketing, ask yourself how much are you willing to back your product or service? If you let people know about what you offer, how confident are you that people will buy? If the answer is 100%, get your marketing investment into your budget ASAP.
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TIP # 5 Assign an annual
marketing budget Just like any investment, an annual marketing budget that aligns with your organisation’s key objectives is imperative. When assigning budgets to marketing activity, it’s a good idea to draw up a rough priority matrix to ascertain which marketing activities are going to make a strong impact or weak impact on your businesses bottom line. Then work out which high impact activities are going to be high cost and low cost. It’s important to remember that some of the brand awareness activities may seem low impact as they may not necessarily lead to an immediate lead or sale, however they are still a necessary part of the marketing mix.
TIP # 6 Be Authentic
Be authentic in everything you do. Whether it be talking to customers, pitching your business or engaging with your social communities. In our experience, people engage with real people. Show your customers the real people behind your brand. They will love you for it.
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TIP # 7 Learn how to use social media as a marketing tool
It’s one thing to know how to publish a post on social media, how to connect with people on LinkedIn or how to upload an image to Instagram. However, these platforms are engineered for marketing wizardry so if you know how to use them as a marketing tool, you can achieve some awesome results. The major social media channels can provide you with incredible consumer insight. They offer super targeted advertising opportunities that can drive traffic to your website, bring you leads and increase sales. Even the smallest tweaks in your mindset to ensure that the time you spend on these platforms is moving you closer towards your overall business goals can help you generate better results.
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TIP # 8 Be visible No-one can buy your product or service if they don’t know about you. Just because you open a business, or launch a website, does not mean customers will automatically come. Friends, family and referral networks will only result in a finite amount of business. The very first objective of any marketing plan is to generate awareness! Let people know who you are, what you do, what makes you different and how to buy from you.
TIP # 9 Be EXCELLENT
Being excellent inspires people to talk about you and want to work with you again and again. It will even inspire your competition to want to be more like you. If all of the above are happening, then you will have yourself a very successful business.
TIP # 10 HAVE FUN
The creative execution of well planned marketing activity can be a lot of fun. Building relationships, becoming visible, creating impact; these are all activities that can inject life and soul into your business’s culture and brand. 12
CREATIVITY IS
INTELLIGENCE HAVING FUN -Albert Einstein
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10 markETING mistakes
business ownerS should avoid 14
MISTAKE # 1 Viewing marketing as a cost instead of an investment
If I had a dollar for every time a small business owner said that they really needed to get some revenue happening but couldn’t afford the cost of marketing, I’d be wealthy enough to shout every small business in Australia a marketing campaign or two! When done properly marketing is an investment. Invest money to tell customers that you exist, to demonstrate what makes you different, to drive traffic to your website, your shop, your office. By marketing your business you are driving revenue or customers, or event attendees or whatever goal it is you have set out to achieve. If your potential customers don’t know that you exist or they are being effectively influenced by a competitors marketing and advertising, or they simply don’t understand what it is you sell then you make it very hard for them to buy from you. 15
MISTAKE # 2 Shooting your marketing tactics from the hip
Proper planning prevents poor performance. Ad-hoc advertising and promotion that is not properly executed or measured for effectiveness will very rarely work. Sometimes it’s easy to be convinced by a media sales pitch or panic when your sales take a downturn and so you throw some marketing out there. There’s a real science and a proven framework to how marketing can help you meet your goals but it generally takes considered planning, clever execution and careful measurement.
MISTAKE #3
Only marketing when the chips are down Understanding how long it takes to convert leads from warm or cold to paying customers is quite a crucial part of information for you to know as a small business. I know for my business, clients can be in the pipeline for sometimes 12 months before they decide to buy from me. Some products are less considered and can easily convert new customers to sales due to their price point or their brand. However for most businesses it will take customers several touchpoints and a bit of consideration before getting out their wallet. So marketing when the chips are down is not particularly effective. You need to be marketing BEFORE you anticipate a sales slump so your customers have time to move through the journey of getting to know, like and trust you. 16
MISTAKE # 4 Trying to be everything to everyone
When you try to be everything to everyone, you actually end up being nothing to no-one. This mistake comes down to people’s natural FOMO (Fear of missing out) tendency. It may be absolutely correct that technically everybody could buy your product. However, there is definitely a tribe of people out there who are more likely to buy your product. Unless you are Coca Cola, don’t spend your precious marketing funds talking to people who will never buy your product.
MISTAKE # 5 Not telling the customer whats in it for them
Too many small business owners make the mistake of listing product or service features and not communicating the benefits of their product or service to a customer. When you are writing your marketing copy, ask yourself repeatedly ‘what’s in it for them? The more you can demonstrate the benefits to your customers the more likely they will be to buy from you. 17
MISTAKE # 6 Not including clear call to
actions in your advertising What is the single action that you would like the reader of your marketing collateral or advertisement to take next? Call, Email, Buy Now, Download. Whatever it is, make sure this instruction is loud and clear in all of your marketing.
MISTAKE # 7 Not having a website
Even just a one page, information site with basic details about your business will give customers the assurance that you actually exist. 18
MISTAKE # 8 Not marketing to your existing customers
Attracting new customers can be timely and expensive. Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely necessary, however if you are looking to fast track some sales conversions then your existing or past customers are your low hanging fruit. They’ve purchased from you before and will most likely be happy to do so again.
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MISTAKE # 9 Promoting products or
services that are not profitable Unless of course you are using these non-profitable products or services as a loss leader to channel customers through to another purchase that IS profitable.
MISTAKE # 10 Not measuring your marketing efforts
How will you ever know if your marketing is working if you are not measuring. By not measuring your marketing efforts, your marketing could well be a cost instead of an investment. Your measurements just have to be simple. With all of the amazing (and free) insights and metrics available through digital marketing channels, there’s no excuse not to. 20
THE BEST WAY TO PREDICT
THE FUTURE
IS TO CREATE IT -Peter Druckr
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10 REASONS TO INVEST
IN YOUR MARKETING I’m going to be honest here and tell you that I have a personal agenda to get Marketing on the agenda for every small business. It’s not really something that should be viewed as optional in my opinion. If you are using marketing correctly there are many benefits that it can bring you and ultimately it can positively influence your to business’s bottom line. If you are serious about business growth, then marketing is an investment that will help you get there. So if you need to convince yourself, your boss or your business partner to start investing in marketing, here are my top ten reasons that you can use in an effort to persuade them!
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REASON # 1 Marketing helps customers find you.
REASON # 2 Marketing can help create an If people don’t know you exist, they can’t buy from you.
emotional connection with your customer.
Your brand and your company represent so much more than your physical being. There are customers who feel an emotional attachment to your brand and if they don’t, you want them to. Brand positioning is the spot in the mind of our consumers that we want to own. So when they come into contact with your brand, we want them to think certain thoughts or feel a certain way. It’s a subconscious effect, but ever-so important. If your customers (or your tribe) can connect with your offering on an emotional level, you have a lot more chance of them recalling your brand, talking about your brand to others and best of all, becoming loyal to your brand. 23
REASON # 3 Marketing helps customers
understand why they should pick you instead of your competitors. What makes you different? Why should customers choose you as opposed to your competitors? Your marketing activity can help communicate these key messages with clarity and persistence.
REASON # 4 Having an awesome brand can inspire your team.
Notice how proud people who work with Google or Apple seem to be. That’s because they work for awesome brands that are leaders within their field. The brands are instantly recognisable and they represent progressive and innovative thinking, global reach and incredible opportunity. So what do you think that says about the people that work there? That’s right – they must represent that too. Imagine if your employees were that loud and proud to work for your brand. 24
REASON # 5 Marketing drives leads.
REASON # 6 Marketing increases sales Leads can be converted to sales. Sales is what it’s all about.
I’m not sure I’ve ever worked with a small business who hasn’t wanted to increase their sales at some point in the business journey! 25
REASON # 7 Marketing can help to even out sales peaks and troughs.
Every business has them. Peaks and troughs can cause chaos with resource planning, cash flow etc. We would be naive to think that we can completely change people’s behaviour enough to work around our business and purchase our product whenever we need them to – without giving them good reason to do so! If you know a certain period of the year is quiet, you can create marketing campaigns to help influence sales around those times, or introduce sales / products that might be more suitable to the customer then. Alternatively, you can use your marketing to further amplify sales in peak periods to cover you over the trough periods.
REASON # 8 Smart marketing can save you money.
Running expensive advertising campaigns on channels that your target audience don’t tune into or that don’t do a good job of communicating your messaging or call to actions can be a very, very expensive exercise! We have saved small businesses thousands of dollars over the ten years that we have been operating simply by directing their advertising to targeted channels and tightening up their Ad creative. 26
REASON # 9 Marketing can help you get to know your customer better.
The insights that we can collect via digital marketing channels are AH MAZE ING!! By just having a well populated Facebook page, we can access insights about our Facebook community’s demographics. By posting certain content and running certain ad campaigns we can gauge our customers enthusiasm for certain messaging, images, or offers that we run etc. Customer surveys are also a hard and fast way of gathering key consumer insight.
REASON # 10 Marketing is fun!
We wouldn’t do it otherwise. Jeez, who doesn’t want to spend time creating ideas that convert people into paying customers. The rush of adrenalin when you witness a digital marketing campaign nail it, when you see your Facebook ad campaigns converting ads into online sales. Getting to know your customers better, creating a brand that gets the whole company energised and excited. Seriously – it’s the new black!! 27
GOOD MARKETERS SEE CONSUMERS AS COMPLETE HUMAN BEINGS WITH ALL THE DIMENSIONS
REAL PEOPLE HAVE -Jonah Sachs
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10 THINGS
YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER Understanding who your customer is, is one of the MOST fundamental ingredients to marketing. If you know who your customer is you can make smart and informed choices about where to reach them with your marketing. If you know their gender, age and geo location, you can target them very effectively on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. More importantly you will know what’s important to them, what problems they have that you can solve, who influences them and what they value. All of this information helps shape your messaging, and your copy headlines. It helps you select appropriate images to use in your marketing – images that your target audience will relate to. 29
THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR customers Their gender
Their AGE
Where they are geographically located
What other media they consume regularly
Where else they might buy a product or service like yours
The problem they have that your business can help them solve
Which people influence their purchase decisions.
#9 What they value about your product or service
Which social media channels they use frequently
What drives their decision to buy a product or service such as yours
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SPEAK TO YOUR AUDIENCE
IN THEIR LANGUAGE ABOUT
WHAT‘S IN THEIR HEART -Jonathan Lister
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10 TOUCHPOINTS
that consumers will form opinion about your brand There are a lot of small business owners who think the word brand refers to their company logo. And it does. But that’s only one component of your brand. There are so many more touchpoints that people will come into contact with regularly that will impact the way a potential customer will think and feel about you. Some of the touchpoints fall under the marketing bailiwick and some will fall under customer service or even operations. The most important thing to remember about your brand is that it permeates far deeper than just the fonts and iconography associated with your logo and collateral. There are actually so many more than ten touch-points, however in the spirit of sticking to our ‘Ten Years of Insight’ theme, I’ll start off with ten for now… 32
Touchpoint Website
#1
We’ll start with the obvious – does your website reflect the look and feel of your other marketing collateral? In the whole world wide web, there are generally many search results that might come up if someone is to type in your business name – let’s try and make it very obvious for people which website belongs to you! Now, let’s dig deeper. What’s the visitor experience when they get to your website? Can they find what they are looking for easily? Is your content a true reflection of the personality of your brand? Is the information up-to-date? Is the functionality clunky? Is the website responsive to mobile? People have zero patience these days. If your potential customers first experience of your organisation is your website – which is highly likely – then this is where we must make a good impression.
Touchpoint Facebook
#2
How does your Facebook content reflect your organisation? Are you simply using this platform as a place to push out messages that are all about you? Or are you entertaining, surprising, informing or adding value to your Facebook community? Facebook is the perfect medium to push the people behind your brand and organisation to the forefront and allow your customers to connect with real people. Are you publishing regular content on Facebook or do you leave your Facebook community high and dry for months at times when you get too busy to post? And if so, what do you think this says about you as a brand? 33
BUSINE S NAME S
Touchpoint Signage
#3
How up-to-date and impressive is your company signage? If someone was to see the signage on your building or perhaps the signage on your cars / fleet of trucks, whatever the case may be, what impression do you think they may form about your company. If the signage is faded, tired and dated, that could reflect those characteristics about your brand. What about a sign that is too small to read? This could cause frustration and could potentially position you as not confident enough to invest into your marketing.Â
# 4 Print Advertising
Touchpoint
Is your print advertising consistent with all of your other marketing? If someone was to visit your website as a result of seeing your ad, would they know it’s the same company? Does your print advertising look different from one publication to the next? Are you making it easy for people to find the information they need in your advertising? Does your ad look visually appealing or have you loaded it with so much copy that it looks overwhelming and ugly in the eyes of a potential consumer? 34
Touchpoint STAFF
#5
This is a massive touch-point! The experience that your staff can create for a consumer can be instrumental in influencing whether that customer buys, whether they return, whether they gush about your company to anyone who will listen, whether they swear never to return or worse, whether they express complete indifference to your company as you have only just managed to meet their expectations. An inspired and energised front-line staff can inject serious positivity into any brand experience, during work hours as well as out of work hours!!
# 6 Bricks and Mortar experience
Touchpoint
What is the gut feel that your customer will get when they cross the threshold of your physical space? Whether customers access you at an office, a café, a shop or a market stall, all of their senses have the capacity to be activated during this experience. So potential considerations are the music you play, your interior décor, product display, how your staff look and act and treat the customer, the smell of your space, the location of your space, the view from you space. These are all things that are being subconsciously noticed and judged by a customer when they come into your physical space. What does your space say about you? 35
# 7 Every day emails
Touchpoint
Marketing campaigns are designed to create a favourable impression of your business. However, what about the emails that you and your staff are flicking back and forward to customers day-to-day. What’s the tone of your emails to all stakeholders? Is it consistent no matter who the customer or stakeholder interacts with in the business? What about your email signature – what does that say about your business? Does it land consistently in your email recipients inbox or does it blow out and overwhelm the communication unnecessarily? Is everyone in your organisation on the same page in regards to responding to new enquiries or even in terms of how quickly you will respond to all emails? Do you have an out of office policy that lets people know when people aren’t there as opposed to just leaving emailers hanging for two weeks receiving no response?
# 8 Word-of-Mouth
Touchpoint
Word-of-mouth is categorised under the heading of ‘earned media’. This is something that you can inspire and influence however you don’t have control over it. What do you think your customers are out there telling people about your business? Are they even talking about you at all? 36
Touchpoint Online Reviews
#9
These are hugely underestimated by small business. On line reviews on platforms such as Google, Facebook and Trip Advisor can be a crucial influencer in purchase decisions made by your customers. Particularly in the hospitality industry and particularly with Trip Advisor. People book their entire holiday based on Trip Advisor reviews. What do your reviews say about you?
Touchpoint Publicity
#10
Stories that people read in the news about your brand can have a huge impact on the impression that people form about your brand. This is another aspect that comes under the heading of ‘earned media’. It’s something we can try and influence to a degree however the editors have final say of what is disseminated. Something to keep in mind is that if you make yourself known to key journalists in your industry you can feed them information and position yourself as a go-to expert in your field. This can lead to the journo’s making you their first port-of-call for commentary on industry happenings. 37
IF YOU GET BORED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA IT’s BECAUSE YOU ARE TRYING TO GET MORE
VALUE THAN YOU CREATE -Fast Company
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10 of our best
marketing templates and cheat sheets I remember Tim Reid from the ‘Small Business, Big Marketing’ podcast talking one day about the notion of sharing ‘helpful marketing’ content. He was making the point that a lot of business’s are very tentative to release their IP in an effort to share marketing content. His advice was to share as much of your insight and expertise in your content as you can, “Share until it hurts” he said. I took that advice on board and I must say, I’ve shared literally hundreds of articles and tips over the last ten years and never felt I was to the point of ‘hurting’. Until compiling this article. In this post, I’m sharing ten templates and cheat sheets that we have crafted over the last ten years and shared with our paying clients. We’ve never shared all of these templates at once though, especially for FREE. So enjoy these templates and put them to good use! If this helps at least one small business utilise marketing more effectively then it will all be worth it! 39
CLICK ON SHEET ICONS TO DOWNLOAD TEMPLATES
#1 Social Media Content Planner
#2 Digital Marketing
Measurement Template
#3 Target Persona
We use this content planner when we are publishing content to multiple channels. It just helps us see what content is going where, all in one spot. Yes, there are online platforms that can also do this but nothing we have found that will gain as much traction as posting natively to Facebook as well as post directly to Instagram. If I’m going to pay for a software – I want it to be able to schedule to every single channel. In the meantime – I use this planner.
There are some key numbers that you can monitor each month to gain an understanding as to whether your digital marketing is working. This template is a simple spreadsheet that you can easily update each month with that key data. This is a great habit to get into!
The better you understand your customer, the more effective you can communicate with them. This template will prompt you to put yourselves in your customer’s shoes and determine what’s important to them.
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#4 How to schedule a Facebook Post
#5 Facebook Ad
Planning Template
#
6 Twelve Month Marketing Calendar Template
#7 Lead Conversion Report Template
When it comes to publishing content out via social media, timing is absolutely everything! Forget trying to be in front of your computer ready to post at the times when your community are online. Or posting haphazardly whenever you remember. Simply schedule your posts using the scheduling tool.
In my opinion the Facebook Ad platform is one of the most underutilised marketing tools in the world of small business marketing. Just as with any ad campaign planning, there are some key considerations for you to think about to ensure that your Facebook Ad campaign produces the excellent results that it’s capable of.
For those of you who like to think ahead and plan out your activity well in advance, this is the template for you. It’s an excel spreadsheet that encourages you to have some broader planning for the year ahead with more detailed planning for your immediate 90 day periods.
So your website is receiving hits, the phone is ringing and people are emailing you to find out more about your product or service. In other words, the leads are pouring in. However, how many of these website clicks, phone and email enquiries are being converted into sales? The only way you will know the answer to this is to record it. 41
CLICK ON SHEET ICONS TO DOWNLOAD TEMPLATES
#
8 Creative Brief Template
#9 HOW tO ACT as a
This template will help you brief in an advertisement to a media supplier such as a print publication or radio station. It prompts you to include all of the relevant information they will need to know in order to create you an effective ad that drives results.
Facebook is constantly changing the layout and functionality of a Business Page. One thing that has been increasingly hard to work out how to do is to ‘Like’ other Business Pages as your Business Page. This cheat sheet shows you how.
business on FACEBOOK
#10 How to make a social video
It’s all about video on social right now. The best thing for you is that if you have a smartphone and a will – then there is absolutely a way for you to produce cool little videos that will engage your audience via your social channels. This cheat sheet gives you some tips as to how to achieve this.
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10 COOL MARKETING APPS that helps us drive our marketing content
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#1 CANVA
I can’t tell you how much this App improved our social media content. It’s Graphic Design for the design inept (like me). They have every single template for all of your social channels plus a whole bunch of templates that you can use to design posters, brochures etc. There a thousands of free icons and images to use. There are cool fonts and colours and image enhancing tools. AND there are design templates if you are lacking in the ability to whip up a savvy, well composed design. It’s all click and drag. Too easy!! This one does have a free version, however I pay for the business version which is $12.95 per month.
#2 Mailchimp
My beautiful email software solution. I have used this puppy for years. There’s a free version which I use for most accounts I manage. I’ve always found it super easy to use. Anyone who is emailing groups of people still using their email server, I very enthusiastically with my bossiest pants on urge you to make the switch to using Mailchimp, the benefits are endless.
#3 Survey Monkey
Don’t know anything about your customers? Well how about you ask them! Survey Monkey is the ultimate online survey tool that is really easy to use. Basically you input the questions you would like to ask, send the link to people, they fill it out, you press a button and it generates a report. Love. We pay for this tool however there is a free version.
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#4 Pages
This is the Facebook Pages App that you can download to your smart phone. It’s super useful if you manage multiple Facebook pages. As it only holds data about your Facebook Pages it provides assurance when you are updating to a Page, that you are not accidently updating as your personal profile. It gives you some limited Page insights as well so you can manage your Pages on the fly.
#5 Schedugram
This is the only scheduling tool that we have found that you can schedule out Instagram content and it will post it for you. Given the prolific nature of Instagram (we recommend you aim to post at least once a day), this tool can be an excellent resource for getting ahead. There’s no free version and at the time of writing this it costs $20 a month to use.
#6 ZOOM
Zoom is a bit like Skype but in my opinion easier to use and better for remote group meetings, particularly when you want to dial in more than two people. You can share a screen so we have used it to deliver Social Media Acceleration Programs to people not based in Port Macquarie. We use it to create ‘how to’ videos as well. There is a free version of this, however we pay.
CLICK ON THE ICONS TO go to APPS and websites
DROPBOX
SURVEY MONKEY
HOOTSUITE
MAILCHIMP
UNBOUNCE
SIMPLE MINDS
ZOOM
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#7 Hootsuite
I’ve used Hootsuite on and off for years. I really only use it for scheduling out content via LinkedIn and Twitter. It also allows you to stream all of your channels through so if you are managing multiple channels you can do it all in the one place. I’m a purist when it comes to Facebook, I schedule all content from Facebook itself. You can queue content for Instagram but it won’t post it out like Schedugram does.
#8 Dropbox
Cloud file storage. A winner in my books. It’s easy to share files and collaborate as teams on folders. It syncs to your hard drive immediately. You can download the App to your phone so you can access files on the move.
#9 Simple Minds
This is a mind mapping App. We use the free version and it’s an absolute winner for mapping out content.
#10 Unbounce
This is perhaps for the more advanced digital marketing enthusiast. It’s an App that allows you to really easily build landing pages that are designed to convert. You basically choose a template to work with, add all of your content, including images and videos, call to action buttons etc. then plug it in to your website. This is most useful when you just want to create a landing page quickly and don’t want to have to wait (or pay) for your web developer to build the page for you on your website. 46
MARKETING is a CONTEST
for peoples attentions -Seth Godin
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10 ACTIVITIES REGIONAL BUSINESS CAN DO TO ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERs
In some ways operating a business in a regional town can be a lot different to operating a business out of a big city. In my opinion, you have a lot of things working in your favour in a regional town. I think it’s easier to foster stronger relationships with your customers because as well as seeing them ‘at work’ you’ll often see them to say G’day on the soccer field or in the grocery store. I also think there is more motivation from regional communities to support local business. So as long as you are providing a good product or service and aren’t charging the earth, you’ll be likely to have the local community’s preference. Having now advised regional businesses for ten years on how they can attract more customers, there are at least ten tips I can share with you about this!
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ACTIVITY #1
Get people talking about your business If you want people to talk about your business you generally need to do something that is remarkable. This could be anything from running an impactful and memorable guerrilla marketing campaign to providing an extraordinary product or service.
ACTIVITY #2
Join local networking groups Networking groups are a fantastic way for people to get to know the business owner behind the brand. People connect with people much more readily than they connect with a brand or a shop front. If people know, like and trust you as a person, they are more than likely going to feel positive about supporting your business as well. 49
ACTIVITY #3
Run targeted Facebook Ad campaigns In my opinion, businesses in regional areas are not taking advantage of the Facebook Advertising platform enough. Running Facebook ad campaigns to a local market are quite simple to set up and can be a really cost effective way of letting people know about your business as well as helping you communicate your key messages.
ACTIVITY #4
Start emailing your customers Emailing is another really cost effective way to keep your business front of mind with your customers and prospects. You can communicate key messages such as special offers. Strengthen relationships by keeping your subscribers in the loop with your business happenings. Even better, add value to your email subscribers by providing them really useful tips or articles related to your product or service. NB This ebook is a perfect example of this!
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ACTIVITY #5
Run an advertising campaign on Radio / TV //Print In our experience, these advertising activities are ones that small business owners can either jump into too enthusiastically or be a bit too tentative about. Truth is, if these platforms are used correctly and with enough budget assigned to them, they can be very effective. My advice is if you run these, make sure you measure their effect to the best of your ability. One client I have worked with would run campaigns on each channel separately, leaving a month in between each campaign so he could accurately and methodically measure the results of each channel.
ACTIVITY #6 Enter your local business awards
The local business awards in a regional town are usually a pretty big deal. I know in our town, the annual Business Awards attract over 500 guests to their gala event. What a perfect opportunity to get your brand in front of such a large crowd of business owners. Even if your business is not business–to-business, other business owners generally make good customers. Not to mention all the leverage opportunity you will have if you get to Finalist or Winner status! 51
ACTIVITY #7
Letterbox drop your local neighbourhood This activity is still a winner. These days no-one gets anything much exciting in the mail. They get bills and they get junk mail. If you ensure that your direct mail piece doesn’t resemble any of the above, but instead intrigues the recipient with some clever headlines, messages or graphics your flyer, postcard or brochure stands to be noticed!
ACTIVITY #8
Become active on LinkedIn LinkedIn is now being used more than ever. It’s now much easier to access and engage with the Newsfeed and people are connecting and engaging all over the place. Remember, this social media channel is all about business and your profile is your resume. It’s the perfect place to position yourself as an expert in your industry.
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ACTIVITY #9
Employ a sales person Now all of this clever marketing could lead to an influx of customers. Good problem to have right? Question is – are you the right person to convert those leads into sales? Do you have the capacity in your current day-to-day activity to follow up prospects? If the answer is no, perhaps you need to consider adding someone to your team that can help you turn those leads into dollars in the bank!
ACTIVITY#10 Sponsor a local event or team
Community spirit in regional areas is often rife. And nothing says community spirit than a demonstration of your support of a local not-for-profit, sporting organisation or community event. I would advise you to be selective with your sponsorship though as it can be easy to bleed money to every person who knocks. Try and select the sponsorship opportunities that will provide you with exposure to your target audience, alignment to your organisations values and that help you to achieve your business objectives. 53
GOOD CONTENT ISNT ABOUT GOOD STORYTELLING ITS ABOUT TELLING
A TRUE STORY WELL -Ann Handley
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10 QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE YOU START MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS
I’m a curious person. I’m always asking questions and I believe the more you ask, the more you know. I also believe that an educated and considered approach to any situation will ultimately drive successful outcomes. So when we first start working with a client, we ask and ask and ask until we know enough to be able to make considered marketing recommendations. As a business owner, you can ask yourself the following ten strategic marketing questions to help better guide your marketing activity.
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#1 What is it that you are trying
to achieve with your marketing?
What are your business objectives and how can marketing help you reach them? What goals need to be in place to help you drive these objectives?
#2 Who are your customers?
Which groups of people are going to be the most likely groups of people to purchase your product or service?
#3 Where do the opportunities lie
for your business? Find them. Exploit them.
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#4 What economic environment is
your business operating in?
Is it a competitive market? Is it a price sensitive one? Is it fraught with legislation that potentially inhibits or encourages customers to buy your product or service?
#5 Who are your three major competitors?
You may not believe that you have competitors but I can guarantee that your customers have other options available to them when it comes to solving the particular problem that your business also solves.
#6 Why should your customers
pick your product or service over competing brands?
Just come up with one reason. One reason that none of your competitors could also claim. This is called your Unique Selling Proposition. 57
#7 What are your business’s potential threats?
What could stand between getting your product or service into the hands of your customers? Threats are generally external forces that you cannot easily control.
#8 What is your capability in
terms of resources for growth? Do you have the people and the funds to invest in to grow your business?
#9 Who will be responsible for
driving your marketing?
Who does the buck stop with for this activity? Are they qualified and motivated to get the best result possible?
#10 What is your definition
of success?
How are you going to measure success? What milestones and metrics will you monitor along the way? 58
PEOPLE DON’T BUY BECAUSE THEY WANT QUARTER INCH DRILL BITS,
THEY BUY BECAUSE THEY WANT
QUARTER INCH HOLES - Leo McGivena
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10 Things you’ll love about
DRAGONFLY MARKETING 60
#1 We let more people
know about your brand No-one can buy from you if they don’t know about you. We help develop a smart marketing strategy that creates a marketing eco-system of relevant, meaningful and impactful communication touch points.
#2 We bring your brand to life
A brand is so much more than a logo. A brand is an energy. It’s something that radiates at every touch point that you have with your customer and any stakeholder for that matter. It’s the way your team act, how your customer feels when they arrive at your website or bound through your front door. It’s the messaging that you include on your marketing material. It’s an attitude. We don’t just redesign logos – we breathe life and love into brands.
#3 We help you understand
who your customer is
This is our favourite part! We have so many questions. We ask you, we ask your customers, we ask ourselves, we stalk social media. You name it. We are always in hot pursuit to find out exactly how your customer thinks so we can anticipate the messaging that will work on them. 61
#4 We make
you money
$
And so we should. Marketing is an investment. Not a cost. Smart marketing should be designed to increase your leads and ultimately your sales.
#5 We save you money
Yep. How many dollars have you wasted on ineffective marketing and advertising? It’s frustrating not knowing if your marketing is working or not. So we design strategies that align with your business objectives, consider your target audience and communicate the right messages and call-to-actions. We cut out the crap that doesn’t work and just include the stuff that does.
#6 We get people talking
about your company
We create buzz. We want your brand to be the subject of every weekend BBQ. We not only encourage awesome marketing but we consider how we can optimise your business development and sales process. How can we provide your customer with the most remarkable experience that makes them want to spread that beautiful thing we love so much in marketing; word-of-mouth. 62
#7 We get your
customers to engage with your brand
Let’s not just talk at your customers. Let’s get them involved in the conversation. We use social media a lot for this because that’s what it’s designed to do – build relationships and encourage engagement. But it doesn’t just stop there. We can get your customers engaging with you on many different levels. All it takes is a sound strategy and a magical dose of creativity!
#8 We help you understand
how digital marketing works We do this because it’s the way of the future. Soon we won’t even call it digital marketing. It will just be marketing. We truly believe that digital marketing can be one of the most effective forms of getting your message in front of your tribe. We also believe though that for some brands – it’s just one component of the marketing eco-system. What we love about it – and we think you will too – you can measure your activity. You’ll know if something is working or not within minutes sometimes. And if it’s not – we tweak, optimise and try again. 63
#9 We demonstrate that
your marketing is working It’s so important to us that your marketing works. Our reputation relies on it. We have developed robust marketing measurement processes that help us, and you, understand how your marketing affects your business’s bottom line.
#10 We help grow
your business
We are as passionate about this as you are. We choose to work with clients who have amazing business’s and opportunities and we get behind them with gusto. Our strategy and execution is designed with your business objectives in mind. And we are doers. If your goal is business growth – then that’s what we’ll do! 64
FOR MORE MARKETING GOODNESS HEAD TO www.dragonflymarketing.com
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