Photo from Flickr: qmnonic

Asking for referrals and then thanking those customers that did refer new customers to you is something that we’ve all heard a lot from marketing experts, at conferences, and in any advice books about how to increase business. My experience, however, is that most businesses don’t ask for referrals and even fewer follow-up by thanking the person that referred business to them.

Asking for referrals is not easy and the whole process seems time-consuming, but I fully agree with most experts that it is an essential piece of the marketing and sales mix for many business categories. So, with that in mind, I’d like to congratulate Minges Creek Chiropractic in Battle Creek for not only asking for referrals, but following up with a thank you.

A few weeks ago, someone new to the Battle Creek area posted on the Battle Creek Area Young Professionals Facebook page that she was looking for chiropractor recommendations in the area. I sent her a message referring her to Minges Creek Chiropractic. Soon after, I received a  thank you card in the mail hand-written by Dr. Gordon thanking me for referring her as a new patient to them. Along with the card, there was another piece of paper letting me know that the office had applied a credit (not too much, not too little) to my account as a thank you for the referral.

So, again, congrats to Minges Creek Chiropractic for following sound marketing advice for patient referrals. I will definitely refer you again!

From Flickr: HowardLake

Especially in this challenged economy, a lot of non-profits are struggling to increase donations to the organization to cover rising costs and increased responsibilities. Many local non-profits I know are struggling and I feel for them. It’s tough out there for everyone and there is more and more competition for every donation dollar available. So, how can you increase donations for your non-profit organization? By asking a few friends and family to become “secret shoppers” by donating something to your organization and documenting how easy or hard it really was.

Story 1: Donating Clothes

A little over a month ago, a couple of trash bags were dropped off at my front porch with a note asking me to fill them with unwanted clothes and put the bags back on my porch the following Sunday. According to the note, the bags would be picked up and taken to a designated charity. “Perfect!”, I thought, “I need to clean out my closets anyway.” So, I filled those bags to the brim with clothes I didn’t want anymore and set them out Friday evening.

Saturday came and went, and the bags were still there. Sunday came and went, and the bags were still there. “No problem, they just missed me” I thought, “I’ll just drop them off at the non-profit myself.” So, I loaded the bags in my trunk and promptly forgot about them. About two weeks later I found them, so I took a late lunch to drop them off. I pulled up to the organization at 1 pm. That’s when I learned from a sign at the door, that the organization only accepts donations three days a week and Wednesday wasn’t one of them.

So, the bags came home in my trunk again. The problem was, I’d already forgotten the crazy days/hours that the non-profit DID accept donations. So, I went to their website and spent a good 10 minutes trying to find out where on their website it mentioned donations of goods. I found it, but no hours were listed. At that point, I grabbed my keys, went to another organization that I knew accepted donations every day of the week, and donated the clothes to them instead.

Lessons from Story 1:

• If you are going to pick up donations, make sure you do.
• Make sure your hours are convenient for your donors (the same goes for businesses too).
• List hours and days that you accept donations on your website (and on your voice mail too).

Story 2: Donating a cell phone

I have an old cell phone that I would like to get rid of. At the beginning of November, I received a solicitation letter from an organization whose mission I’m passionate about and one of the things they were asking for was cell phone donations. Again, perfect!

So, I got on the organization’s website to find out how I could donate the phone (it’s not a place you can just walk in to). There were two forms of contact they listed. The first one was an online form to fill out so someone could contact you. The second was to call them. Considering it was about 9 pm, the online form looked like a better option, so I filled it out with a message and two forms of contact and submitted it. Two days went by and, nothing. No phone call, no email.”Ok,” I thought, “I’ll just call them.” So, I got on their website, found their phone number, and called.

I called around 2:30 pm on Friday, well within most business and organization hours, but the phone just kept ringing and ringing. Finally, it went to an automated system that told me to press zero for the operator. I did and the phone started ringing on and on again for a few minutes. then, it said no operator was unavailable and asked me to dial another extension. The problem was, I didn’t know any other extensions for the business, so I hung up and called back again to get back to the main menu. This time, I pressed the number for the Executive Director. Again, ringing then voice mail. Her voice mail informed me that she was out of the office November 16 and 17. Good to know, but it was mid-December and her voice mail was still talking about November.

As a final ditch effort, I looked at their website again to see if there was an email for another staff member or contacts for their board members. I found a board and staff page that talked about how dedicated they were to the organization, but gave no names or contacts for me to use.

Lessons from Story 2:

• When you send out a solicitation for a particular item, give the person any easy way to donate the item.
• If you have an online form for people to use to contact you, follow-up with those daily If the person that usually does it is on vacation, make sure someone else is covering for them.
• Make sure your phone system is easy to use and up-to date.
• List multiple contacts on your website.

Hopefully by now you are mumbling, “Neither of those donations should have been that hard,” and, if so, you are correct. Both should have been very easy donations to make, but the organizations made it difficult to the point that I donated the clothes somewhere else and the cell phone is still sitting here. But, my real point is, your organization may have similar problems that are preventing you from increasing donations and, if so, you need to find out what they are and fix them. So, grab a few friends, convince them to donate to your organization in a variety of ways, and ask them to document what they see as your strengths and weaknesses. Take those, and work with them to make your non-profit more donor-friendly.

For further reading, visit:

Small business marketing strategies for “Small Business Saturday”

Ten marketing and pr lessons from FailBlog (and why it’s my favorite blog)

Effective Marketing using the Broken Windows Theory

Do you REALLY want to hear from your customers?

Review your hours for customer convenience

Recently, I purchased a Groupon for an exterior car detailing from a company about 30 minutes away from my home. After my discounts from Groupon, the price was $5, so I quickly snapped it up after quickly researching the company. What I failed to look at, however, was their hours. Imagine my shock when I called them to schedule and found out that they are only open 8 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday. Luckily, Black Friday is coming up and I’m not driving that day, so it worked out for me. But otherwise, I would have been a very disappointed customer.

So, take the time to do a careful evaluation of your customer base. Who are they? When do they have free time? When do they work? When are they most likely to visit your business? Then take that information and look at your current hours. Are they convenient for the customer? Do they match their schedule as to when they would be most likely to want to visit you? If not, I recommend readjusting your hours. Remember: it’s not about what’s convenient for you, it’s about what’s convenient for them.

Take a good look at your facilities

As I mentioned in my blog post, 5 things that are killing your marketing effectiveness and your business’ reputation, how your facilities look, feel, etc. sends signals to your customers about the performance of your business and whether or not they should come back to your business. If you own a small business, it’s a struggle to keep up your facilities and I know that, but ask friends or family that haven’t been to your business to walk in and give you their first impressions. Some of the changes might cost big money, but some may cost very little. For example, there’s a small business that I have to go into from time to time and I absolutely dread going in there because the entire place reeks of smoke. They have clearly been smoking in there for years because the smell is everywhere. Stopping smoking inside and a good cleaning with a smell-removing agent is inexpensive and would go a long way in encouraging me to come back again.

Think old-fashioned customer service

One of the best things that can be used as an advantage in a small business marketing strategy is a small business’ ability to provide old-fashioned quality customer service. But many small businesses struggle with this. There is another company that I have to frequent often to pick up orders. I’ve been going in at least once per month for three years to this small shop and have been communicating with them via email and phone quite often. Yet, the woman at the front desk still cannot get my name right. She either calls me another name or, if she does get it right, she spells it wrong (my name is Nicole, not Nichole). Take the time to get to know your frequent customers. They are the ones you rely on for consistent purchases and referrals.

Another example of this related to Small Business Saturday was a time when I purposely went to several locally owned jewelry stores looking for a 30 inch stainless steel thin snake-link chain. Many of the stores just said “Sorry, we don’t have anything like that.” One told me it was impossible to make one that long, and one offered to sell me two Pandora chains linked together for over $100. Disappointed, I went home and ordered one off ebay for $13. Imagine what would have happened, however, had one of these retailers offered to special order me one? They would have gained a customer for life. Or, a step further, what if one of these retailers had a policy to write down every time their customers came in and asked for something they didn’t have and then reevaluated their inventory based on sales and those requests?

So, as we approach another Small Business Saturday, take the time to look at your small business marketing strategies and see if they need some changes or additions like those mentioned above to make your business as successful as possible.

One of my favorite recent examples of a brand being hijacked is the Guy Fawkes mask from the movie ‘V is for Vendetta.’

Since the movie came out, there have been three notable examples of groups hijacking the mask for their cause:

1. The first time I saw another use of the mask was for the group Anonymous. They used the masks in their Church of Scientology protests to not only hide their identity from the Scientologists (who are known for suing  anyone that questions them), but also to make their point about the control of the church and some of the governmental protection the church receives.
2. Then, the supposedly same group, Anonymous, also used the masks to protest against the crackdown on Julian Assange for his website, Wikileaks.
3. Finally, Occupy Wall Street protestors began using the mask in their protests across the county in their attempt rise up against the government and end corporate greed.

So what does Time Warner, the company that owns the mask think of all of this? Well, they haven’t said too much, but considering that they are paid a licensing fee and it’s one of the top masks in terms of sales, I’m sure they aren’t too terribly upset.

For more of my writings on brand hijacking, see the links below:

Social media strategy means starting with a goal and losing control

What burning toilet paper and high school teacher reminded me about marketing and pr

The Team Concept

Especially helpful if the person plays or watches sports, for this explanation, you ask the person to think of a team sport, such as hockey. Then, ask the person to identify only one person from the team who responsible for the most recent win of that team. Depending on what type of sports fan they are, they might mention the coach or the star of the team, but the reality is, it takes the whole team to win or lose a game. Each person plays a part in the end goal. Then you can explain how advertising works similarly, because some combination of advertising, promotions, and other marketing caused the purchase through reach, branding, frequency, etc.

Google does a good job of explaining this in the video below. You only need to watch the first minute of the video though. After that, they try to provide you with a solution that also isn’t reasonable because it assumes all communications come from the company (friends and family are a huge part of purchase decisions!) and assumes only an online strategy. Nonetheless, they highlight the team approach very well.

Go Ahead and Do a Survey

Especially if you are being asked by someone who likes numbers, actually doing a “How did you hear about us?” survey will help your case. Those of us in advertising and marketing know that people have no idea where they see or hear things or, at a grander scale, even what causes them to purchase something. But others don’t. For these people, a simple, “How did you hear about us?” will help you prove the problems with measuring advertising ROI because people will report seeing or hearing from you in a lot of places you weren’t.

I used this approach years ago using Facebook advertising. I created Facebook ads that linked to a “please contact me” style form. The only way to get to the link and the form was through the Facebook advertising. But, just to prove my point, on the bottom of the form was the “How did you hear about us?” question with a listing of social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc). Keeping in mind that they could not get to the survey through any other means than Facebook and the fact that they had just clicked on the link. Now, here’s the results: 50% of respondents clicked on some other social media site than Facebook. I know, I was shocked too, but that’s completely the truth.

Tell Me About Your Last Major Purchase?

Probably my favorite way of showing the difficulty of measuring advertising ROI, however, is to ask the person about themselves. I generally pick a car, but you can pick any major purchase, and then just ask them what specific ad caused them to make the purchase.

I used this technique with a friend of mine. In his case, he had just bought a new car so I asked him what specific advertisement had caused him to buy that particular car. At first, he pointed to the 0% financing deal that had just came out. But, after asking him if that really was the only thing that caused his decision, he then talked at length about how his family always buys Fords, how he had read a lot of good reviews on it, how he’d seen a lot of ads about what his particular Ford could do, and even how he had seen multiple ads for the 0% financing. After all of that, he went silent. Then he just said “I get what you mean now.” “Perfect,” I said and that was the end of the discussion.

What’s your favorite way of explaining the difficulty of measuring advertising and marketing ROI?

• As of December 8, 2010, only 8% of the population was on Twitter.  For rural areas, including the one I live in, the actual percentage is much smaller.
• In addition, Twitter has a large number of accounts, but not a large number of active users.
• Twitter may not cost you anything when you are considering only actual dollars in advertising spending, but it does cost you in time. My general rule of thumb is that you should be updating Twitter 4-5 times per day. But, honestly, I fall short of this rule a lot because I simply don’t have the time to devote to updating Twitter plus doing other things I need to do. So, you need to ask yourself, do you really have the time to devote to this medium?

So think of it this way, what if your marketing manager came to you asking you to allow him or her to spend 30-60 minutes of their 8 hour day each day on a marketing program that would reach less than 8% of your market and in a program that very few of those users are actively engaged with? Would you say yes?

Twitter everywhere!

Undeniably, the average person hears about Twitter a lot.  But here’s my theory on why:

From my experience, the top four types of people/organizations that use Twitter are:

• The media
• Celebrities
• Public relations/marketing professionals
• Politicians

In comparison, in my opinion, the top four types of people/organizations that influence what we see/hear about are:

• The media
• Celebrities
• Public relations/marketing professionals
• Politicians

So, in following that rationale, doesn’t it make sense that, even though the actual number of people in the US that use Twitter is small the average person hears about it quite often since the people who influence our media the most are those that use it?

A good marketing tool?

So is Twitter a good marketing tool for your business or organization? Maybe and maybe not. What it really depends on is who you are trying to reach. Many businesses, such as food trucks in urban settings, have been very successful using Twitter to promote themselves. However, other businesses may not have that luck. My advice would be to critically look at your target market and their media habits. If you are targeting a group that, in large numbers, is actively using Twitter, then it may be worth using as a marketing tool. However, if your target markets aren’t using Twitter, then you might be much better off spending your time (which is money) someplace else.

But, in reality, my warning of it being an all-day trip is not unusual and it’s exactly what Ikea wants. A core component of retail marketing is coming up with new and innovative ways to keep customers in the store and Ikea has mastered this.

Here is a quick  list of some of the key ways Ikea keeps you in their stores:

• They design their stores like a maze, so it’s virtually impossible to get out without going through the whole store.  I’ve been to the Ikea closest to me enough that I know the shortcuts. But if you are visiting an Ikea for the first time, you’ll find it easy and yet, slightly painful, to have to cover every inch of the store to get what you want.
•  They make their stores incredibly interactive. The top floors of Ikea are usually  demonstration areas that look like a series of small apartments or homes.  Guests are encouraged to go in and out of each of these “homes” and see how Ikea products could really be used. For an active learner like me, this is heaven. I get to touch everything, sit on things, open cabinets, and try to get the non-slamming cabinets to slam (a personal favorite game of mine).
• Think those tasty and very inexpensive meals at Ikea restaurants are so they can make their customers happy? Think again! By offering food options, Ikea ensures that you won’t leave, just because you get hungry. And, of course, the food gets you to sample their food products, which you can also purchase. In case you are curious, I recommend the meatballs.
• They also watch your kids for you for free while you shop! As a retailer, they know that happy children means parents can stay in the store longer and shop, which means increased sales for them. It’s not really a new concept. In fact, the grocery store I visited as a child gave each kid a cookie to keep them happy while their parents shopped. But offering free daycare for an hour is definitely a ramped-up effort.
• In addition, they have small play areas strategically placed in areas that parents may need to spend a good portion of time in. For example, in the store I visit, there is a small play area next to the cabinet design portion of the store so the children can play while their parents design their new cabinets.

Now, Ikea is at it again with a new twist, Manland. When I would go to Ikea as a child, we would make it to the chair department and there my father would take a seat in his favorite chair and relax with a book until we were done shopping (or needed him to pay for lunch!). Now, it seems, Ikea has a better idea for my father. Now he can go to a space specifically designed with him in mind including TVs, snacks, games, etc.  Or, at least, he could on Father’s Day in Australia. Permanent or not, it seems Ikea is at it again, finding new ways to keep customers in their store and spending money.

Special thanks goes to my friend Nate Block for knowing my obsession with Ikea and forwarding me the information on Manland.

It’s no secret that the average age of women and men getting married in the United States is increasing. As of 2003, according to Bride’s Magazine, the average age of an American woman getting married was 27 and for men, it was 29.

Now think about the intent behind the bridal registry, wedding gifts, and bridal shower gifts. Most gifts given at the weddings/showers I’ve attend have consisted of things that the new bride and groom need to start their home. In my experience, it’s particularly a lot of small appliances, linens, and kitchen supplies.

Ah, but therein lies the issue. If people are getting married older, they are more likely to have their own established residence or their own home. So now, instead of having to start a new home from scratch together, most newly weds are faced with trying to combine two households.

Photo by sorakiei on Flickr

The Combining Household Game

One of my friends described the house-combining process to me when she was going through it. She spent days holding similar items up to her husband so the two of them could decide which to keep and which to toss. “We had seven spatulas, so I held all seven up and said we could keep three. We picked the best three and put the rest in the charity pile. Then I picked up the five colanders we had and we agreed that we probably only needed two, so we picked those two,” she said. It was daunting to even hear about. And, needless to say, their registry was pretty small and consisted of mostly decorative items.

Evolving in Various Ways

So, the product of the wedding registry, in a time when more people are combining than starting households, is becoming less relevant. So what can brides to be and businesses do? I’ve seen multiple alternatives so far:

• Couples are only putting items on their registry that would be upgrades to what they already have. Sure, they might have a $20 iron, but they would really like the $120 iron.
• To find enough to create a legitimate registry, some couples are turning to websites that offer combined registries where couples can register for items from multiple online stores in one convenient website.
• One couple I know used a vacation registry where their loved ones and friends could fund part of their honeymoon costs. For example, I could have paid for them to have breakfast in bed one morning or for them to go scuba-diving.
• Some couples are thinking of others during their special day by asking guests to donate to charity instead of giving gifts.
• Finally, some couples are using alternative gift registries to ask for unusual, but helpful items such as people’s favorite recipes, help fixing something at their house, advice on decorating, etc.

Two Perspectives, Same Outcome

From the bride and groom’s perspective, they now have more choices and can get what they really need. From the traditional retailer’s perspective, only the first is profitable to them, so if they don’t find a creative way to evolve the registry that benefits them, they could start losing a lot of business.  Either way, though, it’s quite clear that the traditional wedding registry is evolving.

Features vs. benefits

Because businesses are empowered by computer programs that allow them to design their own fliers, brochures, and webpages (although I recommend against this), I thought a quick reminder of the marketing concept of features vs. benefits might be useful.

Features describe something. Usually they describe something about your business or your product.

Benefits are how those features benefit the customer.  Basically, they describe why the customer cares.

An easy way to tell the difference between your company or product’s features vs. benefits can be done with a simple sentence:

1. Start by naming something about your business or product.
2. Now, pretend that you are talking to your potential customer and finish the sentence by saying “so you can…” and adding an ending.

Examples (remember you are talking directly to your customer):

• Our coffee is only made with the freshest beans (feature), so you can be sure that every cup of coffee will be a great sensory experience (benefit).
• The homes we build are made to withstand hurricane winds (feature) so you can be free of worry because your family will be protected when the next storm comes (benefit).
• Our lawn tractors last twice as long as any of our competitor’s lawn tractors (feature) so you can save money in the long-term by purchasing one of our lawn tractors even though it is more expensive (benefit).
• Every plumber that works for us is certified and has a minimum of 10 years of experience (feature) so you can be sure that the problem will be fixed the first time and you won’t have to worry about it again or take another day off work to fix it (benefits).

Photo by Happ Via on Flickr

Features vs. Benefits in Marketing

Your final marketing message doesn’t have to be in that format. It can be delivered in a wide variety of ways, which is where the beauty of good advertising comes in. But, the point that is absolutely critical is that your marketing should focus on them (benefits) and not focus on you (features).

With the constantly increasing number of advertising messages that your potential customers are exposed to every day, in order to stand out, you must speak directly to your customers in a way that resonates with them. You must explain or show them that your product or service benefits them in some way that will motivate them to act.

It’s Not About Your Building!

Going back to our law firm example, this is the biggest features vs. benefits mistake I see a lot of businesses make is to focus on their building. I am yet to find a business or service where the building is a key selling point (although poor facilities can affect your marketing effectiveness).

If I were advising the law firm, considering that their audience was primarily small business owners at that meeting, I would have recommended that they focused their talk on how their services benefit small business owners by saving them money, protecting their business, etc.  By doing so, they would be focusing on how they can benefit the people in the room and they would have had a much better chance of walking out with some new leads.

Take a Fresh Look

So I challenge you to take a fresh look at your marketing materials and review tapes of your past presentations (hopefully you are taping them so you can get better each time), and ask yourself if you are talking about features or benefits.  Are you talking about yourself or are you talking about them? Are you focused on what comes after “so you can…” in your marketing? If not, it’s time to start rewriting.

This was a game this particular doctor and I played a lot. She was by far one of the best doctors I had ever had, but her one weakness was how she answered questions. She answered exactly the question that was asked. Nothing more and nothing else.

Building Better Doctor-Patient Relations

I know it’s been said a million times already in seminars, blogs, books, and schools across the country, but this is yet another reminder for doctors out there: listen for what your patients are really asking instead of what they do ask. In my case above, my real question was “What’s wrong with me?” but because I had already been trying to sort it out in my head on my own, it came out much differently.

Sometimes the patients are passive-aggressive and that’s why they ask the question the way they do. Or, the patient could be more like me and be very logical in nature. Logical patients are going to try to figure it out on their own, get as far as they can down the road of a conclusion and then ask the question.

Regardless of why they do it, some patients won’t ask what they really want to ask or say what they really need to say. That’s why it’s so critical for doctors to slow down, and really think about what the patient is saying and then have a conversation from there.

More patients = More money?

With rising healthcare costs, rising office costs, etc., doctors feel pressure to serve a significant amount of patients every day to make money. The calculation, to many doctors, seems simple. More patients = more money. On the other hand, there are doctors offering concierge services where, for an annual fee, they agree to take fewer patients and devote as much time to you as you need. Their formula looks more like: less patients paying more money each = more money. Both of these formulas are at the extreme and both are riddled with issues, which we won’t go into in this post.

The point is, as with many things, the correct answer lies somewhere between the two and is the same as with any business; take on only as many customers as you can treat well. Any more than that, you’ll get unhappy customers and that will reduce your marketing effectiveness and your ability to recruit new patients.

How to Listen

So we’ve established a business reason for taking time to listen to patients and I’m hoping anyone that reads this understands the personal reasons for doing so, but how do you do it? Luckily, you already know how, it’s just taking the time to do it and having someone like me remind you:

• Slow down and really take the time to listen to the patient.
• Ask yourself not only what the patient asked, but what may be their underlying question or concern.
• Ask probing questions and encourage the patient to talk.
• Even though you think information may be irrelevant, still take time to listen to it. There might be something hidden in that information that can help you diagnose or treat the patient.

Now go forth and really listen!