Stories about how business blogs help small businesses reach out to customers, get known, attract buyers and grow their small companies are common. Here is a story about how using a blog helped (saved) a small business owner when she was facing a financial crisis. Thanks to Todd Nelson, contributor to the Star Tribune newspaper for finding this gem of a small business blog success.
St. Paul-based Classic Cookie Company owner Katie Novotny felt she had to try everything when she realized her dire financial situation. Early in March she posted a blog article about how her small downtown bakery was in need of a rapid stream of customers and cash in order to stay in business. Her blog entry stated the facts and appealed to her loyal customers and blog readers to get the word out—she needed lots of customers. Quickly. She also emailed the entry…
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Small business blogs are now a must-have for most companies that find buyers via the Internet. Especially small businesses that know that many of their buyers are finding them as a result of Internet search engines and want to be easy-to-find on the Internet. There are tons of blogs by marketing companies (as captured by the ever-popular marketing blog The Viral Garden), technology firms and management experts (like David Maister).
Small businesses are blogging for all of the well-documented reasons:
- Search engines love fresh content: new posts, links, content with keywords
- It’s easier to update a blog (for most of us) than it is to add new content to your company web site
- Blogs offer you a way to be your own public relations wizard—publish stories about your company’s new products and service (using an educational approach–not marketing or selling)
- Blogs are one of the best ways to establish you and your company as industry experts
What if your small business is in another type of industry that does not seem to lend itself to blogging?
For example, a swimming pool company, office furniture provider or plumber? What if there are no major bloggers in your space? Hooray! You can be the first small business blog for buyers of swimming pools, expert bicycles or fill-in-the blank.
It’s All About Your Customers’ Problems
When thinking about topics to start and keep a blog going, consider the conversations you have with your current customers, your prospective buyers and even your partners.
Here are some key questions to ask yourself, as you consider starting a blog for your small business:
1. What are the most common questions you hear from current customers? Since blogs are conversations, your company blog can focus on sharing … Read the rest of this entry »
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Nate Whitehill, talented blogger, designer of John Chow.com, and CEO of Unique Blog Designs sat down for an interview with me recently.
At Unique Blog Designs, since its founding in August 2007, Nate and his partners have designed over 120 blogs for businesses and organizations. Nate shares his expertise and experiences about helping John Chow.com (Top 100 Technorati blogger) with a blog redesign, ways small businesses can be successful with a blog, conversational marketing and much more.
The Podcast is about 30 minutes long and takes about 8 minutes to download.
Podcast with Nate Whitehill, CEO of Unique Blog Designs About Small Business Blogging [30:21m]:
Play Now |
Play in Popup |
Download
Enjoy.
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After seeing dozens of news stories about the “Will It Blend?” online videos from Blendtec (the devices blend golf balls, cigarette lighters, iPhone…) seeing the results from this now- legendary small business marketing tactic is impressive.
According to Inc.com Magazine , Blendtec’s viral online videos netted not only 35 million YouTube views but a nice bump in sales. The company’s annual revenues jumped from $2 million (2006) to an estimated $10 million. Blendtec’s web videos were dirt-cheap to produce, 50 bucks for the first 5 videos and distributed on YouTube for free. The rest is, as they say, history.
If you are into ads, the Inc. article reports that the online ad company DoubleClick noted that online ads featuring videos have higher click-through rates than ads with text or graphics.
Inc.’s article also demonstrates how a marketing investment of $5,000 for three online videos can be used effectively. Portland-based Gdiapers, a small company producing and distributing eco-friendly diapers, tapped a film maker to help them create the videos posted on their web site. The videos were created to explain how the reusable diapers and disposable liners are used and how they decompose. The Founder said that the videos are among the most popular parts of their site, www.gdiapers.com
The time-lapse web video comparing their decomposition to traditional diapers is my favorite. Of course, the one with the cute baby is hard to beat too.
I think this is a very effective use of new media. The value of the videos will keep on giving. I hope that gDiapers uploads the online videos to YouTube for further exposure. What a great way to stimulate more word of mouth about gDiapers!
What do you think?
See complete Inc. article here.
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In your efforts to generate leads via new media (or via any other media), it’s getting harder and harder to not consider the potential behind online video. At least it is for me.
Creating compelling content for your target market and posting it on YouTube just might be the lead generation tactic of the year decade.
At the end of last year there were some attention grabbing online video viewing stats:
86% of Internet users say they view video at least once per month
- The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) quoted a recent report from Horowitz Associates, titled “Broadband Content and Services 2007,” stating that six out of ten Internet users download or watch video content on a weekly basis.
- The survey said news and user-generated videos top the lists of what Internet users are watching.
48% of Internet users have been to video-sharing sites such as YouTube
- Daily traffic to video-sharing sites on a typical day has doubled in the past year.
- The Pew Internet & American Life Project reported (January 9, 2008) that these findings were the result of a national phone survey conducted by the organization that ended in December (2007).
Last week, BizReport published this statistic:
According to recently released comScore figures, “the number of videos watched online in the U.S. rose to the highest number ever recorded during December 2007”.
The BizReport article goes on to say that more than 10 billion videos were watched by 141 million unique U.S. viewers in December, 2007. The article attributes the online video viewing spike to the television writers’ strike and election news. But it is still a record.
Small business presidents, owners, marketers, and customer service teams, that are on the fence about new media/online video, make me think of the mid-1990s when businesses of all sizes asked:
Do I really need a web site? What would I do with a web site? Okay, let’s put up a web site, load up our product brochures and call it a day…
Well we know how that story ends.
Fast forward to today: Businesses (of all sizes) are asking: Do I really need a business blog? What would I do with a blog? What would I do with an online community of my prospects and customers? (My previous online community posts here and here.)
Okay, maybe the jury is still out on that one in your business-mind. So I will try to change that in the coming weeks.
I think all small businesses need to get ready for (more) video: Internet video, video sharing, viral videos, marketing videos, educational videos, e-learning videos, user generated videos. You name it.
Could online videos, produced by your company, be the next big thing when it comes to starting an online conversation with your customers? In my next post, I’ll show you what a couple of small businesses are doing with online video to get the word out and connect with their customers.
The complete BizReport article is here.
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Warrillow Weekly published a lemonade-cool successful marketing case study—complete with budget.
The bank’s Marketing EVP used traditional tactics in a (good, old fashioned) integrated marketing campaign to generate leads: opt-in email, signage, give-aways, cold hard cash and radio spots.
This marketing budget/execution example has useful lessons for small businesses, even if your marketing budget is no where near the size of Umpqua Bank:
- they really tuned into their small business owner prospects
- they used a ‘personas’ approach because they knew their target customers have young children
- they applied tons of creativity
Here is the complete story published in Warrillow Weekly:
Compare your cost to acquire 1 small business customer
What is a reasonable return on a marketing investment targeting small business?
Umpqua Bank landed 1500 new accounts by investing $830,000 in an initiative targeting small businesses in the Pacific Northwest. The campaign set out to position Umpqua as the bank for local businesses of any size. Umpqua was targeting small business owners and used a novel “center of influence” to reach them: their kids. Umpqua offered their prospects’ children a lemonade stand how-to kit and $10 in start-up capital.
They called the initiative “The Lemonaire” and it was aimed at kids and their entrepreneurial parents in the 96 cities where Umpqua operates its 144 branches. Lani Hayward, EVP Creative Strategies for Umpqua, invested her $830,000 marketing budget in an integrated, locally focused campaign. She bought local newspapers like The Oregonian in Portland and complemented the newspaper advertising with local market radio spots. She did an email blast to Umpqua “opt ins” and leveraged the Umpqua “stores” by displaying signage, etc.
Depending on your industry, you may look at the $553 cost per account acquired as extremely good or horribly inefficient. Keep in mind that banks can afford to invest a significant sum in each account acquired because the customer represents both business and consumer opportunities for a wide range of financial services products over their lifetime. Switching banks is such a hassle that, once a business customer starts with a bank, they stay. Sprinkle in the good will and local buzz Umpqua generated from this feel-good campaign (the lemonade stand kits included the booklet “How to Become a Lemonaire: A Guide to Starting Your First Small Business”, a sign for the stand, cups, napkins, a tablecloth and a crisp $10 bill), and the $553 per account acquired starts to look good.
Source: Warrillow Weekly January 29, 2008
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Old Media vs. New Media
Finding the best way to generate leads is probably the biggest marketing challenge for businesses of all sizes.
I had a small business owner client that for years relied on direct mail letters to generate leads and prospects. Direct mail to a select list of prospects worked well for him for years. I will admit, as direct mail letters go, his were pretty good. No outlandish promises or claims or must-buy-now-offers.
Then suddenly, direct mail ceased to be effective for generating leads for him. Almost overnight. The “tried and true” marketing method of reaching prospective buyers and customers became “old and useless”.
I got him started (kicking and screaming) on blogging. He connected with others in his industry and with prospects. He kicked the snail mail/direct mail habit. And cut his marketing budget significantly, by the way.
A small business marketing vice president recently told me about the print advertisements they were running in trade magazines. I asked her about the results. She said “…the print ads are good; we’re definitely covering the costs to run the ad.” Hum…
Merely covering the costs of a traditional print ad does not equal marketing success. I define marketing success as generating enough quality leads and prospects that evolve into long-term customer relationships to grow your business and meet your revenue goals.
How happy are you with traditional direct (postal) mail programs, email newsletters and traditional web site lead generation results?
A COO of a fast-growing tech company put it very well at a recent marketing & sales panel discussion here in sunny San Diego-land, “…there are lots of conversations going on all over–in person and online. You need to participate in as many of these as you can.”
Maybe it’s time to dip your toe into the blogs, Wikis, social networks for business that make up new media and join in the online conversation going on in your market…
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Welcome to Small Company Big Image’s new look and new home!
Thanks to Nate Whitehill and the team at Unique BlogDesigns! I met them in November at 
BlogWorld Expo. Nate is an Internet and Business Blogging Strategist. Also, a top blogger at Nate Whitehill dot com. Nate launched his blog in January of 2007 and is now ranked number 1, 186 at Technorati.
I like working with Nate because he’s creative, and a great collaborator. I felt like I was working with one of my partners. Nate is unfailingly patient and goes so far above and beyond the call of duty. I highly recommend Nate Whitehill and the entire Unique BlogDesigns team.
This marks Small Company Big Image’s return to Wordpress. Actually, I think I may have set a record for the most-blog-moves-in-two-years.
Small Company Big Image started out on Wordpress.com in early 2006. (Here is the original blog.) I then moved the blog to TypePad in November 2006. I just wasn’t clicking with Wordpress.com—never got the hang of the basics like adding widgets. Boy, finding someone who could move 10 months worth of posts from Wordpress.com to TypePad and preserve the links was quite a search. I emailed and called (implored) several folks to try to hire someone. (I think moving a blog is not a rewarding/lucrative/fun task.) oh, and I needed a design for the new TypePad blog also…
Anyway, I finally found the delightful and talented Sarah Lewis, owner of Blogging Expertise. Sarah came to my rescue when I called her from a list of TypePad experts provided on TypePad Support pages. Lucky for me. The blogosphere is an overwhelming place if you are a complete non-techie like me.
TypePad is a good blogging system. Very easy to post and to set up TypeLists in the siderails, etc. I had a cool design created by Sarah Lewis, ‘blogger extraordinaire’. She is also very good to work with.
The reason for my move back to Wordpress.org now is that I want to find a blogging/web presence system with the most content management flexibility. I finally understand that Wordpress.org provides the full features of a (pricey) content management system (CMS)—on a small business budget like mine.
My search for a content management system that fit in my budget has been going on for a couple of years. After working with three different web design firms here in San Diego County to find an affordable, user-friendly CMS, I gave up. The most reasonably priced CMS I found were upwards of $5,000. So, now I finally get it about the enormous, positive impact of open source applications like Wordpress.org. A real boon for small businesses.
My goal is to take full advantage of the benefits of Web 2.0—updating content without relying on a programmer. Will let you know if I’m able to fulfill my Web 2.0 dreams for some other projects with Wordpress.org.
I’d also welcome any feedback on the new design or ideas for content, topics.
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Today’s Wall St. Journal has an article about how big companies are using online networks of loyal customers to gain valuable insights. They are used for collecting customer opinions on ads as well as new products. I think there are great ideas here for small companies putting together lead generation programs.
Del Monte Foods established an online community, “I Love My Dog” which helped them launch a successful new product, Snausages Breakfast Bites. This private, online community is made up of 400 handpicked customers. Del Monte uses the group, according to WSJ, to build buzz, create products and test market campaigns.
This trend started with technology and videogame companies first. See my earlier post here about how Motorola, Chordiant Software and others shortened research time to determine features for new product releases.
The online groups are proving to be less costly and more effective than in-person focus groups or phone surveys. Key reasons for this are outlined by the article:
- Companies draw on the participants in a much broader and deeper way than in the offline world
- The online groups become more than a one-time, 3-hour focus group; the company develops a relationship with the customer-participants
Sylvan Learning got useful direction for a television commercial from a group of mothers they worked with in an online community. Sylvan found that the moms thought the more compelling message was the success children can have from tutoring instead of the struggles they face in school.
Now most small companies are going to be creating TV commercials—but there are some useful ideas here I think. If you are a small company on a budget, an online, invitation-only community could give a big boost to your product, service or lead generation programs. Here are my recommendations:
1.Start with a small group of customers. I like 12 customers. Invite your most loyal customers to participate in an online community. Think of the community as the ‘new’ customer advisory board.
2.Create an online community on a budget. Use Typepad or any of the other blogging programs that allow you to password-protect the blog.
3.Pose questions to the community. Ask for input.
4.Start with a small program—maybe your ideas for an upcoming lead generation promotion. Test your top 2-3 ideas. Explain your ideas. Find out what is compelling to the customers.
5.Share your plans for a new product release or new service. Nothing proprietary—just enough to preview the plans and let the community give you feedback. Most customers love being on the “inside” when it comes to new products, programs.
The benefits of the online community are that your customers can login whenever they have a few minutes. In my experience, the time you spend getting feedback and ideas from customers is worth 100 times any other activity. Here is link to complete Wall St. Journal article.
Has anyone had luck (or not) by asking for customer feedback on plans for lead generation programs or new products/services?
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Raza Imam at Boycott Software Sweatshops blog is an outstanding example of small business blogging at its (humorous) finest. I love his "about Me" bio here–to the point and honest. Raza’s blog is a way to win the hearts and minds of small/mid-size and startup companies that could benefit from the services of his offshore outsourcing company (Adaptive Solutions, Inc.).
He is focusing on the trials and tribulations (of which there are evidently many) of companies who make bad choices when selecting offshore software partners.
Kudos to Raza for investing in this educational, entertaining blog. The blog is helping him to win business. See Raza’s comments on a recent post (aptly titled, Blog Dammit) at the award-winning Duct Tape blog here. Here is how he describes his blogging success (in part):
"I started it (the blog) a few months ago to liven up my brand and it’s been my main lead generation tool. It’s very hard to differentiate myself from the dozens of “Bob’s from Bangalore” that call on the same prospects I’m after, so I decided to make fun of my entire industry.
The results have been phenomenal. In a crowded marketplace, I all of a sudden stand out. It ain’t safe, but it works.
Mentioning my blog to people helps break the ice because it’s funny. I’ve gotten new clients all over the country, and even one in Belgium because of it. I publicize it like crazy at events and even wear buttons with my blog logo. When I make cold calls, I tell people to visit my blog. I tell them that I’m making fun of my own industry. It differentiates me and has been the main reason for my growth. "
Congratulations, Raza. To all the non-blogging small business owners, as John Jantsch says so eloquently, "Blog Dammit!".
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