What works for you?

[GreggVicik]

OK, I have taken the first step. My site is now off line for complete re-design. I still have a home page up, but I think based on Norm's advice, it may be a bit better now.

[DouglasUrner]

[ QUOTE ]
OK, I have taken the first step. My site is now off line for complete re-design. I still have a home page up, but I think based on Norm's advice, it may be a bit better now.

[/ QUOTE ]

A few suggestions, if I may:

1) Add a sentence or two that very clearly states what you do, and who your target clients are. Something like "Archival quality art and document digitization services for museums, X, Y, and Z."

2) Add a "call to action." This is a sentence that tells the reader what to do next. In your case it could be "Call us for a consultation or to see examples of our work."

3) Since you're already got some good content developed (according to Norm) focus first on getting your site navigation designed, so you can relink this content to your home page.

4) Think about how you are going to measure the response to your marketing activities and make sure the design of your web site supports this -- for example a design that lets you see where visitors can could be very valuable in determining where potential client's interest lies.

5) Start thinking now about a comprehensive marketing campaign that will "drive" potential clients to your web site -- and how you will design the campaign and site to track the results of the campaign. For example you could write a white paper on digitizing and suggest that it be downloaded in the call to action of a post card that you send out. The track the downloads (maybe don't even link it to the main site) to see what response is. Consider whether or not you want to require registration of some sort before a download.

HTH, Doug

[Norm_Cabana]

<Why all this emphasis on ads and buying you ask? Well, it’s simple. We, as small business owners, don’t have the resources to waste on advertisement that doesn’t result in sales. So if ads don’t work, what does? Ah, the answer to this is to be found in my next installment of “How the sale works!””

Ok, to carry on from this I kind of need to back up just a bit. Advertisement, as a means of motivating people to get up off their butts and go buy something, is dead. It doesn’t work anymore simply because there are far better ways to get the customer to buy. So if advertisement doesn’t push people to the stores what good is it? It is an absolutely perfect medium to inform, entertain and generally defend an established brand, it just won’t bring in any money/sales, at least not any that you can directly measure against the advertisement, and that’s important. We’ll tell you what does work in a moment.

In my business, motorsports event photography, there are a lot of things I can do to let people know that I am at an event. I can go around and put flyers on cars, I can have announcements made periodically, I can hand out business cards, I can schmooze and do several other things including holding raffles. These efforts definitely let people know that I am there. This is the small businessman’s equivalent of the advertising methods we see today. Great, they know who I am and what I do, and while that is important, just because they know who I am and what I do, that doesn’t put food on the table for my family. I need cash flow, money, moolah…in other words, to put food on the table, I need my cash register to go ka-ching. I need to get the customer to get up off their dead butts and come to my trailer and give me their hard earned cash. How you do that, repeatedly and reliably, is the question, isn’t it?

Let’s ask this question. Canon comes out with a new camera. It’s a killer machine. It does everything including washing the dishes and folding the clothes…according to Canon. Do you believe them? They are, after all, in the business of SELLING this camera. They’re not going to tell you the bad or even less than perfect things about this machine. They’re biased and rightfully so.

Now, if you’re a Canon guy/girl like I am, you are probably far more inclined to believe Canon’s ad than a long time Nikon shooter would be. If nothing else, you’re far less likely to be as skeptical as the Nikon person would be. However, if you make your living by using this equipment, like I do, you can’t afford to just plop the ol’ credit card down and spend top dollar to buy the latest and greatest every time something new comes out. If you’re a business man, you have to be a bit more prudent than that. I can’t afford to be in the middle of an event and have an “Oh No!” moment with the gear.

There’s an old joke that goes “You can always tell who the pioneer’s are. They’re the ones with the arrows sticking out of their chests. The business man is the one selling slightly used arrows, first aid kits and head stones.” We can’t afford to be pioneers.

If the product is brand new, you want to read some reviews. No reviews yet? Hmmm, I think I’ll hold off a bit. Reviews are out? Hmmm, looks good but I know better than to buy any 1.0 or any .0 version of a product. I’ll wait until some one I know buys the thing and can tell me if it’s good or not. Can anyone here honestly tell me that you haven’t done this? Why would you think your customers would be any different?

In my business, I spent a lot of thought on how my products were going to be shown to customers. I want people to tell, and most importantly show, others what they have bought and where they can go to get the same stuff. My customers do my “advertising” for me. At each event we have to build that network of people who speak highly of our products. Word of mouth advertising and personal recommendations are the best (and cheapest) way to build your business.

Here is an actual situation that happened to me last weekend. On Saturday we sold a photo of a Honda Civic to its’ owner. It was dark blue with dark wheels and quite a bit of dust on the car. In other words, it was nothing special. However, we worked on the photo and it came out nicely and the customer was very satisfied. Later that evening he showed his picture to some racer friends who were impressed. The leader of the group told me later that if we could make that car look good, we were definitely different from the other photographers he had seen. As this group of racers was leaving the track on Sunday, the leader decided to take a few minutes to see if we had anything interesting of their cars. He mentioned that although he knew we were there and he had seen a sample of our work, he didn’t expect us to have anything outstanding of their cars. Forty five minutes later each of the car owners walked out with at least one 12x18 print and in two cases they bought our 12x18 Steal It Special. That was a total of 5 additional sales, all of large prints.

Gregg you have something that many of us would love to have and that is expert customers who have a very high credibility factor. People who run museums are not noted for being risk takers, they are usually highly educated, they are usually sophisticated and they are expected to be extremely knowledgeable about their subjects. In other words, they just drip with believability. You’re also fortunate in that museum curators know all the other museum curators. If you get the right people saying good things about you, others will follow.

On your web site you will be best served by having testimonials from your customers but don’t identify them as testimonials per se, because that has a bit of an overused advertising ring to it. Simply have a “Here’s what our customers said about us” area. Make sure you have the persons name, what they do (not necessarily a title), where they do it and a number or e-mail address where a potential customer can contact them along with what they said about you.

This leads us to the next step. An author that I really respect greatly has coined a term “Quick Fix Silver Bullet” as a way to help “Jump-start” a company. From what you’ve indicated, your company needs a jump-start. The question is do you need 12 volts, 24 volts or should you fry your brain with 440 spine tingling volts? You jump-start your company by jump-starting you. Your company gets a boost through improved marketing but not just any kind of marketing. You can’t use safe marketing. You can’t use big company marketing. You have to market outrageously.

Many people spend all their time and effort trying to get new customers, as if they were disposable, i.e. use them once and forget about them. Sooner or later, the pool of new customers starts to shrink. Many business experts will tell you that it is far less expensive and far easier to get existing customers to buy from you a second time than it is to get a new customer to buy from you the first time. I can personally tell you that this is a very true statement. I can also tell you that increasing the frequency of purchases by your customers is the best and most efficient way of building a business. I can also tell you that you will never go wrong by treating your repeat customers better than your first time customers. How do you increase the frequency of purchase by your customers? Well, you might try asking them to buy something and not wait for them to come to you.

There are several parts to a Quick Fix Silver Bullet but the most important part is names. Not just any name but names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of every customer, past and present, as well as the same information for every person that has shown an interest in your company and your products. Why?

I’ll answer that tomorrow.

[Norm_Cabana]

Gregg,

As I re-read this post I've realized that I am taking this down a path where I will discuss things that you probably don't have any awareness of. For example, The Ratio, Marketing to a Segment of One, Crossing the Trench, etc. There are four books that, in my very strong opinion, every business person should be intimately familiar with. All can be bought at Amazon or Barnes & Noble and probably are available in your library. Before you switch your website back on you should read this book.

Positioning: the battle for your mind. by Al Ries and Jack Trout ISBN 0071373586

There is a newer book called "The New Positioning" by Jack Trout but I'd read the older one first.

The second book that is an absolute must that will transform your business is

Focus: The future of your company depends on it. Again by Ries and Trout ISBN 0060799900

I've read this book so many times it is falling apart!

The next book, which is a fun read but one which will have wondering why you never heard of this stuff is

Ice to the Eskimos: How to market a product nobody wants by Jon Spoelstra ISBN 0887308511

And finally

Marketing Outrageously: How to increase your revenue by staggering amounts again by Jon Spoelstra ISBN 1885167504

There are other books definitely worth reading such as Your Marketing Sucks and Differentiate or Die but they can wait. Once you've gone through Positioning we can start this up again.

[Mike_Guilbault]

Norm.. have you read "Jack Trout on Strategy"? It seems to be the newest and was curious about your thoughts on it.

[Norm_Cabana]

I went through it about 18 months ago but at the time I was pretty much burned out on his and Ries emphasis. Then I found Spoelstra. That man can take a subject as dull as marketing and make it fun. I think it's time to go over Strategy again though. I found that a lot of the book was a rehash of concepts expained in earlier books but with a slightly different emphasis. At this moment I am reading "The Irresistible Offer" by Mark Joyner. It's got some interesting stuff. Back to Trout, I honestly think that Al Ries was the guy who had the better ideas. Trout's best book is Differentiate or Die.

Read any good books lately?

By the way, the best business book I have ever read is "Why We Buy" by Paco Underhill but if you aren't in retail most of what he writes about is pretty useless. I'm also reading several books by Joseph Sugarman, Roy Williams and Dan Kennedy.

[Mike_Guilbault]

So of the positioning strategy books, which one do you feel is the best - the most 'meat'?

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