Sharing Your Knowledge Can Grow Your Business

We have all heard the phrase ‘Knowledge is Power’. Some of it is common knowledge like one plus one equals two and some of our knowledge is uncommon. But is your uncommon knowledge holding your business back? Can the knowledge that you hold and others are interested in, increase your business by establishing you as the expert? Define you as the person or company that others want to do business with? Or be the company that consumers want to purchase products or services from? Yes.

Your knowledge of your business and industry can establish you as the local or global go to company. We know that consumers and businesses want to do business with companies where they can be honestly informed. They will pay for products and services where the owners and employees are educated and experienced in their field and products. They want the specialists because their expectations can be met, and even over achieved.

There are very few places where the try before you buy option is offered. Sure, the software industry is easily able to offer fifteen day free trials. But, you don’t go to the grocery store and take home a gallon of milk to see if it the milk and grocer's service will meet your future needs. Essentially, we buy it first, if we don’t like it. We just don’t buy it again. Plus, if we did not have a positive experience at the store in which it was purchased, the consumer may move on to shop at your competitor.

But how can you let your prospective customers know before they buy that you and your business are the place that they should be doing business with? That it’s your restaurant that they should eat at. It is your technology company that they should sign a maintenance contract with. Or know that it is your consulting services that will give them the value that they need.

By sharing and proclaiming your knowledge where potential customers can see it, read it and identify with it, you will find your business grow and expand. Because in today’s society, more and more people are doing their homework and research before they buy. Including consumer product goods and services like restaurants and home electronics. What they are doing is minimizing their risk of disappointment or wasting their money. So, sharing your knowledge before you even know that a consumer is interested in the types of products and services that you provide, will positively influence their decision about purchasing products or services with your business.

Naturally, where is the most ideal place – and cost effective as well – to proclaim your knowledge? On your website. Your website is your hub for not only describing your product and service offerings, but regularly sharing your knowledge on your website will demonstrate that they will be making a choice to purchase these with an expert that will meet their expectations and minimize their risks and provide them with a great deal of value.

Take the time to share your knowledge, because the long term effect on your business is inevitable

Here's Why You Should Avoid Directly Marketing to Your Facebook Fans

Recently, Morgan Stewart, Director of Research and Strategy at ExactTarget, conducted a research study on consumers' attitudes toward marketing. He surveyed more than 2,300 consumers and interviewed almost 100 random. Below is an excerpt from his November 2009 results:

70% of consumers who visit Facebook at least once a month and are a "fan" of at least one company or brand don't believe they have given those companies permission to market to them.
40% of those "fans" don't believe marketers are welcome in social networks at all.

Why have a fan page then? Stewart indicates that the following findings from the study* will help you understand marketing to fans without losing them:

• What Is The Facebook Environment
  
  - People visit social networks to communicate with current friends, catch up with old friends, and otherwise express themselves.
  
  - 44% of people who are fans of at least one company or brand on Facebook also say social networks should be used strictly for interpersonal communication.
  
  - People on social networking sites don't believe marketers are welcome. To them, self-identification as a fan is not an invitation; it is an expression of personal taste or style intended to be shared primarily with friends.
  
• Don't Act Like A Marketer
  - Consumers don't trust marketing. Consumers trust people (or brands) that help them and exhibit interests similar to theirs.
  - Marketers' first inclination is to build a fan base so that they can send those people marketing messages. Consumers are increasingly put off by offers on their Facebook fan page like “exclusively for our fans.”
  
• Align With Fans, Don't Sell
  o Anything that shows you are aligning brand with the interests of your consumers
  can constitute a meaningful brand experience. For instance, if you have a interest in raising money for diabetes
  or cancer research then take your offer and align it with that foundation. Something along the lines of “we
  gave 10% of all revenues from January's sales…" Make sense?
  
• Be quick to listen and slow to speak
  
  - When it comes to positive comments, let your fans tell the story for you.
  - Negative comments. Two types: those you can address in a helpful manner and those you can't. Don't engage unless you can be helpful, but if you do, do it in real-world dialogue and solve their problem.
  
• Direct consumers to other channels for marketing messages
  
  - When Stewart compared data from this year with data collected in 2008, Morgan noticed consumers' attitudes toward non-permission (or "pushy") marketing messages souring fast. However, that wasn’t true for permission-based messages; consumers are very receptive to promotions and are reporting using coupons more often.
  - In marketer-initiated communications, email is the preferred channel (75% of consumers overall), even among teens (64%) and college students (70%). Consumers prefer to maintain that separation of "church-and-state" between how they communicate with friends and how they receive deals from fan pages they follow.
  
• Use what you learn to improve marketing
  
  - Fans' comments can provide valuable insight in regards to what is and isn't working with your fans. This provides an opportunity for marketers to adjust their message on respective promotional channels accordingly.
  
  - Identifying email subscribers from Facebook fans, marketers are able to better target and communicate with them as members of this vast, motivated and engaged audience.

Peoples' expectations in social-media environments are very different from their expectations of other direct-marketing channels. Approach social media with that difference in mind. To succeed, marketers need to overcome considerable skepticism on the part of their consumers.

If consumers are to change their minds about marketers' being welcome on Facebook or other social networks, it will be because marketers interact as participants in the dialogue instead of attempting to control the dialogue through slick messaging.

Stewart states, "That it's not that marketers can't launch social-media campaigns; rather, they can't act and think like marketers when doing so". Marketers are to create messages that are about service that is aligned with your fans taste, preferences and the like. Then they have no idea that they are being marketed to.

Effective Marketing Activities For The No Or A Low Budget Business

Small business owners know they have to market their business for all the same reasons as mid to large companies market their companies. Growth and viability. But we know a key differentiator is that the marketing budget for a small business tends to be very limited, in good and bad economic times.

So how can we market our small business when there is little or zero money available to do so? Through what is called Integrated Direct Marketing or what we marketers call ‘combining our sales initiatives with our marketing initiatives’. What does that mean, you ask? Well it’s taking those selling, interacting and networking opportunities and then coupling them with your marketing tactics.

Let me give you a few ideas that you can implement quickly or ease in to them one by one. Just a note though, some of these activities require serious time commitments and others may only be effective for the small local company. Yet, all have been proven effective marketing tactics for the small to mid-sized company:

• Get On Your Local Banks Small Business Spotlight of the Month Program. Many local bank branches have recently been offering their customers’ free display space in programs like ‘Small Business Spotlight of the Month’ (or two week intervals). You will have to create a display of some kind and it will gain attention and provide value to passerby’s with an enticing offer for encouraging folks to take the next step towards purchasing your goods or services.
• Be The Expert in Your Industry. Can you provide educational presentations or write articles for your local Chamber of Commerce or other national organization? When you provide educational seminars to your Chamber of Commerce or organization where your target market participates in, those members see and hear your knowledge and they begin to recognize you and your business as the experts within your field. People like to do business with experts. You can also utilize online blogging websites as a method of sharing your expertise. But will talk about that in a future newsletter.
• Become A Volunteer. Volunteer with an organization or program that you have passion for. An organization that allows you to meet and interact with many people, while supporting a greater cause. One thing that people really like is the company they do business with give back to their communities - local or global. They are attracted to companies that genuinely support their communities. Also, some non-profit organizations will even promote your personal volunteerism by advertising your business as a sponsor.
• Partner With Your Vendors. Partner with a vendor that provides a complementary product or service to your business and has an established reputation/ brand within your target market. If it is a retail store, ask them to allow you to put up a small display or flyer that includes an incentive or offer with your vendor or partners name located within the display. Joint collaboration helps with many direct marketing tactics, like having a joint direct mail campaign with a combined offer or co-sponsored newspaper advertisement.
• Get a Facebook Fan Page. Fan pages on Facebook are free and if you carve ten minutes out of a day, you can effectively build your following – or rather, fans. Use your fan page to post recent events, happenings, news, incentives or specials. Post photos or ask existing customers to write reviews. This will provide you with a method to keep your business in the minds of your existing customers. You do not have to post every day, but do post often and make it effective. Word of caution... do not sell to your fans on Facebook. Just communicate with them. See my next blog for more information about this.
• Write and Submit Press Releases to the Media. Press releases are free but they must be news worthy. It is at the discretion of the media provider whether or not your press release gets published or not. Do this on a monthly basis and the news mediums will want to know you more.
• Reach Out To The Media. Meet your local press – small and regional newspapers, radio and television. Introduce yourself, your services and provide them with an opportunity to showcase your products or services with their medium. Remember that volunteerism that I mentioned above? Well, volunteerism makes great human interest stories and the local press really likes to portray those stories. Invite them to your volunteer event. If the press does attend they usually interview organizers about the event, its purpose and history. Then when the story is aired or published, the reporter will name you – the interviewee – and your business name. Free publicity instills a subliminal message in viewers and readers minds that you and your business are respectable and trustworthy.
• Become An Active member of Your Local Small Business Organization. You will want to join your local Chamber of Commerce or similar organization. But more than that, you will want to become an active member of that organization. Get yourself, your skills and your business known throughout the membership. Attend the networking events and educational sessions. Meet the people. Members tend to be loyal to each other and buy and support their local businesses.
• Begin A Monthly Email Newsletter. Start an email newsletter program where subscribers are provided with practical and useful information about your industry, business or area of expertise. For example, we here at Promotional Channels are marketers with specialties in web design, search engine optimization, advertising, direct mail, social networking and much more. But it is our intention via this newsletter to share our knowledge to help you market your business.
• Institute a Customer Referral Program. Provide an incentive for customers, friends and family to send you customers. For instance, a $50 credit or gift card, or comparable, for any referral sent to you that actually purchases your product or services. This way, your customers will be sure to send you quality referrals, not just quantity.

As mentioned, each of the above requires time, but they are options for low or no direct costs to you. Also know that marketing is not an exact science like, one plus one equals two. So not every promotional strategy mentioned above will be a match for your business and there is also no cookie cutter promotional strategy by industry either. So you must do your research, some trial and error testing and tracking in order to increase your success.

You may not be able to do all of these right away, but by adding one of these activities one by one you will begin to see your business grow and expand over time. As you implement each program, be sure that you continuously and regularly work the tactics that work for your business; maintain these Integrated Direct Marketing commitments for your business until you find that the respective approach is not feasible for your business.