A while back I wrote a blog about how Google Glass is going to change marketing.  If in fact Glass is the future – the future of marketing is about to evolve.  Perhaps sooner than I expected…

According to eMarketer – only 25% of small businesses use social media and only 33% of mid-sized businesses use social media to engage with customers.  They also state that less than 20% of U.S. companies have integrated social media with their customer service, sales, or product development processes.

I stress these stats because I believe social media is the best tool to gauge where your customers are at – and what they want – and how they think.  Unless you’re performing a structured focus group – you’re likely guessing if you’re 75% of small businesses, 67% of mid-sized businesses, and 80% of U.S. companies.

It will help you understand how to optimize your search engine optimization, what types of email marketing activities they prefer, what type of information they want to receive from you (blogs), and what they really think of your product or service offering.  This makes it much easier to sell them things.

With Glass – you’ll soon have instant access to the information and tools you want most.  Instant is the operative word here.  You’ll be able to access what you want faster than you can unlock your phone.  This means your marketing must capture them instantly.

Start following best practices…today.  The future of marketing is here.  As to how it will change no one knows.  But what I do know is that your best bet is to ensure you understand today’s best practices.

1. Monitoring web traffic and modifying keywords regularly.

2. Interacting on social media with colleagues, customers, and prospective customers.

3. Blog.  And blog atleast weekly, if not more.

4. Test your marketing emails, segment your lists, and stop sending emails to people who aren’t opening your emails.

5. Ensure your website is graphically pleasing and easy to navigate.

Want to learn more?  Register for our webinar on Wednesday, May 15^th at 1pm EST.  We’ll go in-depth into what these best practices are and steps to take to ensure you’re staying ahead of the technology changes.

If you’re keeping track – that’s an average of 2.7 emails per hour.

After deleting the emails that accumulated during my email-free time – I was shocked that after removing marketing related emails, LinkedIn Group updates, and political action emails, I was left with a total of 3 emails that were of interest to me.

That’s not a typo.  That total # is 3!

So if you’re still keeping track – I only retained 3% of the emails I received in 36 hours.

Does this mean business has an email problem?  I’m thinking yes…

Based on the types of emails I received – and given how long ago it was since I actually purchased anything from them – I’m going to guess a majority of them are using what’s called ‘batch and blast.’

Batch and blast means you take your entire email database and send them all the same message.  Sure – they may throw in some dynamic data (dynamic data makes an email personal to you, like including your name or other information you’ve provided the organization) – but overall it’s a very generic email blast.

Want to make the email cut and be the 3%?

So if you want to be the 3% – these are a good starting point.  There are other things you can be doing such as creating a consumer life cycle, run focus groups, and perform usability testing.

But the standard ‘batch and blast’ is an outdated strategy – one that I don’t foresee making a come back any time soon.  Unless it’s a one-of-a-kind special that you don’t offer on a regular basis…

It’s competitive out there for small businesses. Roughly 25% fail within their first year; the percentage doubles by the fifth year. So small businesses always have to be hyper-aware of business and marketing trends, and must always be 100% ready to compete for their success.

And with the rise of social media, small businesses are more than ever able to connect with customers around the globe. Social media is great; most of the big-name sites are free. And customers are likely using it; according to the social media statistics monitor SocialBakers, 52.7% of Americans over the age of 12 have a Facebook account; and 62% of all adults use at least one form of social media.

So by using social media, your small business has the opportunity to reach millions upon millions of people. So why aren’t all small businesses using it?

Studies show that even today, almost a decade after the introduction of Facebook to the masses, that 1/4 of all small businesses are not using any form of social media whatsoever, despite countless studies proving results. For example, of businesses using Facebook, 86% find it effective in driving business. The percentage varies by platform, but the rate is consistently above 50%.

So doesn’t it make sense to use social media to grow small businesses?

Here are a few tips to make social media work for your small business:

It doesn’t require your entire day to use social media – but even 1 hour a day can lead to big things down the road.  One tip – the sooner you start the better.  It takes time to build a following…sometimes 6-12 months.

Questions?

This seems like a silly question to ask.  But millions of people want to know what marketing is, and presumably, how to market.

The basic definition of marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers.   To me, though, it is much more than just that.

Marketing is an art form.  It’s the process of pulling together design, content, and a strategy that appeals to the target market’s senses.  It’s half creative half data driven.  It’s not something that you can just do once and call it a day.  It needs to be nurtured, analyzed, and tweaked on a regular basis to ensure you’re achieving the necessary return on investment (ROI).

So what are the core areas you should focus on within your marketing?

So enough about what I think marketing is…I want to hear from you.  Tweet me or comment below and answer  “what is marketing?”

You’ve got to be kidding me.  So just because I walk into your store – I am required to buy something?  Novel idea. How about I start making people pay $5 just to come to my website before demonstrating the value of what’s on there…just in case they don’t decide to work with me.

Sounds ridiculous, right?

Here is an idea – rather than point the finger at your customers (and prospective customers) I think it’s time you look in the mirror to realize the real problem.

If your company is losing money to a competitor – slapping customers and prospective customers with a fee is just plain stupid.  If you’re losing money…it’s not me, it’s you.

Why isn’t this specialty grocery store offering their products online?  Why are they continuing to charge high prices when they know people can get it elsewhere at a lower cost?  What do your competitors do or know that you don’t that is allowing them to offer the same product at a lower cost?

These are all questions this specialty grocery store should be asking themselves.

But it’s not just the specialty store customers who are comparison shopping then buying online elsewhere. It’s happening to Bed Bath and Beyond, Petsmart, and Toys ‘R’ Us, too.  But I don’t need to pay $5 to walk into the store.

So regardless of the size of your organization or your business model – there are simple ways to change how you do business to turn “lookers” into “buyers.”

First – ask someone who isn’t close to your business to evaluate you versus your competitors.  You can’t do it – you’re too close to the situation. You need an objective opinion that you really can’t provide.

Second – have them pretend to be your customer and your competitor’s customers.  When they visit the websites – evaluate how the product or service offering is presented.  What are the costs?  Is there convincing content? And is it clear and concise?  Does it solve a problem? Is it easy to connect with the company – socially or via email or by phone?

Third – view the feedback side by side.  You need to see a side-by-side comparison to understand the differences.  What are your pros and cons as they compare to your competition?

Fourth – create a strategic plan to modify your business model.  The strategic plan takes you to where you want to be.  Without a plan, new processes, goals, and actionable steps, you won’t be as successful in changing.

Change is not an easy thing.  But today’s world is much different than it was even 5 years ago.  Your marketing, strategy, and product or service offering needs to be adapted to today’s needs and wants.

If you feel that you can simply ignore trends and best practices yet still make the same kind of revenue you once did – you will likely be disappointed by the end result.

P.S.  There is no charge for this advice.  This is on the house.

The best part – in today’s version of the show – you, the viewer, can get in on the action.

It’s called Rise to Power.  The goal: declare your allegiance online to the character you think will rise to power each week.  Come back after the show and “tweet something sinful at the command of that week’s winning character.”

What’s even better about this social engagement is each character has their own twitter account – tweeting in the voice and personality of the character on the show.

Getting ready to watch tonight’s episode – I can’t help but think how this is a great example of how to create a roadmap to to a social engagement campaign for your own business.

This social engagement does the following:

The key to the game is…you need to watch the show to guess who will win this week.  That means you must stay engaged and you need to keep watching the show.  This increase in engagement means more viewers and more viewers means more advertising money. Which in-turn allows TNT to sell expensive advertising on Monday nights.  You’re happy and the network is happy. Win-win. (You’re welcome!)

Ok, so you aren’t TNT and don’t have the  resources to attract viewers (customers) to participate and engage like Dallas – however, you can still take some steps of your own.   So how do you generate interest via social media via a contest or a game?

To generate interest via social media– you don’t necessarily need a contest or a game.  But these 3 easy steps can help you manage your social media – and rise to power.

Going through my mail yesterday  – the old fashioned kind – I open what appeared to be a bill for $85 for a website listing.   Knowing I didn’t sign up for this, I investigated.

Turns out – even though it looked just like a real invoice, after reading the fine print, I realized I got spammed via direct mail.  On the back of this direct mail piece designed to look like an invoice, it said, “this is a solicitation. “

First – shame on you!  How many people who received that pulled out their checkbook?  This may not be deceptive advertising by the definition, but it sure is spam.

So what makes this spam?

The direct mail piece doesn’t actually tell me what I would get from the web listing.  It doesn’t list any benefits, testimonials, or value proposition.  It looked just like an invoice.

Although the definition of spam applies to electronic messaging, spam is used so often and in so many instances that I think it can apply to direct mail .  For example – did you know that some consumers hit the spam button even though they opted-in, but simply because they don’t like the message or it doesn’t apply to them.

It’s rough out there for email marketers.

So how do you avoid being labeled a spammer?

So if you’re planning an email or direct mail piece that is set to look like an invoice – or anything else that could be questionable and could make someone question your authenticity – time to start over.  Because once you’ve lost the consumer’s trust – it’s likely lost for good.

Have a similar story?  Comment below, tell us on Facebook, or Tweet us your experience.  Oh, and if you’d like to hear from us via email – check out the opt-in form on the right.

Lets face it – it’s no secret Yahoo! and Best Buy have struggled lately.  Hence their recent CEO appointments.  Despite increases in stock prices, their solution to help increase sales further appears to be banning teleworking.

That’s like being thirsty and then making a sandwich.

So I’ll go ahead and just say it flat out – you’re not increasing sales like you used to because you’re not innovating new ways to grow your revenue.  You’re pushing out the same stuff via the same channels via the same processes some how expecting this time it will be different.

I hate to poke a hole in your theory Yahoo! and Best Buy – but it ain’t gonna work.

Before you go banning teleworking to increase revenue – consider these options:

1 Have you looked at your competition?  To compete – you need to know what the other is doing – and why they’re succeeding.   Look at their service offering.  Look at how they market.  Look at the ways in which they interact with customers.  AKA – put yourself in the customer’s shoes – what about your organization and theirs can you learn to be innovative?

2What does your data say?  All too often a standard look at your data won’t make the real problem seem obvious.  You have to dissect it in different ways via different time periods.  Perhaps profile your likely buyer.  Locate the time in which the decline started  – what changed?  If nothing changed – that’s when what you do became stale.

3Have you asked what your customers want via social media and via surveys?  The ultimate strategy to move forward is unlikely to be explained in your data.  The best way to find out what your customers want is to ask them.  This is something companies forget to do.  Ask via social media, via surveys, and even ask them to participate in testing your product or service.  That would go a long way to building brand loyalty.

These aren’t the only things to consider when trying to increase your revenue.  There are some organizational strategies to follow.  But either is better than banning teleworking to increase revenue.