Summer 2009 – Online Insights: Innovation
Drive Revenue With Innovative, Low Cost Marketing Tools
By Adam Boyden
Despite reports of the continued recession, small business innovation, along with smart thinking and entrepreneurial spirit, can continue to drive business forward. In fact, small businesses can take advantage of this economic climate by using it as an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns, and to adopt new strategies as needed. Many small businesses and would-be entrepreneurs know this, but aren’t sure how to begin. Here are six tips to adapt your business to the new reality and to continue to thrive, not just survive.
Don’t Pay For Your Marketing Tools
Developing custom applications for your business can be expensive, time consuming and redundant. Often, a tool that will meet your needs is already available. Whether it is for customizable landing pages, toolbars, ad campaigns or other applications, most are available for a low cost or are free and on-demand. The best offerings will have a point-and-click wizard that guides you through the installation and development process. With a little research, you can find tools that are well-suited for your business.
Three popular examples are Facebook, Twitter and Ping.fm. By setting up a Facebook group or fanpage, you can promote brand presence while sharing news and events with the group members and offering a place for discussion. Mashable has a great resource to help you determine whether a fanpage or group is right for you (www.mashable.com/2009/05/ 27/facebook-page-vs-group).
Twitter has to be included in any mention of free marketing tools these days. For some organizations, Twitter is a great opportunity to have one-to-one conversations with followers that might be interested in what the company is offering. It’s also a means to publicize specials or promotions and drive people to a company website, blog or another online presence. Companies like Comcast (twitter.com/comcastcares) and Constant Contact (twitter.com/ctcthelp) are getting great results from it.
Ping.fm is an excellent tool for managing the updates on more than 40 social networks simultaneously. Working with sites such as Facebook, Mashable, Flickr, Tumblr and others, Ping.fm saves you time and energy. And, best of all, it’s free.
Find Tools That Are Easy to Use
You shouldn’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time updating your marketing tools. They should be working for you, not the other way around. Particularly useful if you are offering a promotion, coupons, discounts or other incentives, these tools can get the word out quickly and painlessly.
For example, Major League Baseball (www.mlb.com) has a community toolbar from which it sells seats and promotional items. MLB’s promotions update in real time, so that an administrator is not bogged down in lengthy updates or coding. With just a couple of mouse clicks, MLB is able to update any element of the toolbar, which gets the word out about new products and offerings immediately.
Let Your Community Speak for You
People trust other people. They trust their peers, and they also trust personal relationships. You want to encourage that dialogue instead of getting in the way. Some of the most successful online selling campaigns have spread virally, through word of mouth alone. Two examples of companies that let their communities speak for them are Craig’s List and Dell Computers.
Craig Newmark, founder of Craig’s List, likens online reviewing and rating on his site as a civic act, not dissimilar to public service. You want your community to approach your business with this intent, as it generates goodwill and can lead to better customer service and better customer experiences. Consider a discussion forum, online community or blog where customers can speak not only to you, but also to each other.
Dell is a good example of a company that once had a major image problem—it was known throughout the blogosphere as “Dell Hell.” The company learned—the hard way—that customers should be in control, and the best thing to do is to work with them and learn from them. By answering issues directly through forums and blogs (and, for Dell, Twitter has proven to be an effective platform), as well as working to improve the company based on feedback, Dell was able to regain control of its image. Today, the company has a number of blogs that allow for dialogue and feedback.
The Customer is Number One
Your existing customers are your most precious assets. They are the easiest to market to and the most likely to buy. Your competitors can buy their way into your market by matching your pricing, copying your product and even imitating the look and feel of your brand. What they can’t buy are your relationships. Placing your customer above all else should be of paramount importance at all times.
An excellent example in this regard is Travelocity and their newly launched custom toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer. This new toolbar allows customers to book flights, hotels and vacations at any time. This is aimed at current Travelocity customers. The toolbar is extremely convenient and opens a direct selling channel—right in the customer’s browser—for Travelocity. The special offers encourage travelers to interact more frequently with the Travelocity brand and to hopefully increase their travel arrangements with the company.
Relationship Marketing
Today’s customers are different than those you encountered in the past—even those from just a year ago. They expect more: more information, more choices and more convenience. Relationship marketing is the new approach, and there are a variety of methods available to increase your value to, and interaction with, customers. Make coupons and special products available exclusively on your websites, blogs or toolbars, host customer forums, syndicate your best content, offer “how-to” videos, deploy surveys and provide a direct link to customer service, among many other activities. Large and small organizations can learn to hone their relationship marketing efforts.
An example of successful relationship marketing is seen at Babystrology.com, which created a baby countdown widget. The pregnancy ticker is an addictive, constant reminder of the brand, and features special offers, new products and more. There have been nearly 630,000 installs of the widget, which links customers and users to the Babystrology online store.
Make Your Tools Reflect Your Brand
Every tool should look and function as an integrated element of your online marketing presence if you want it to help with conversion and retention. Without consistency, you run the risk of appearing disjointed, or worse, unrecognizable.
Tools such as WidgetBox’s Blidget (www.widgetbox.com/make_blidget.jsp) allow you to do just that by giving users the opportunity to easily brand and control updates. Pioneered by WidgetBox, Blidgets are widgets built from a company’s own content (a “blog feed” plus a “widget” equals a “blidget”). Today, companies are able to turn all their content—from blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Vimeo and more—into dynamic, customizable widgets.
With some strategic planning, smart thinking and solid execution, small businesses can realize positive results throughout the coming year with only minimal investment.
Adam Boyden is president of Conduit, a leading provider of website syndication solutions for web publishers. He can be reached at adam@conduit.com.
