The Kiers Marketing Blog

I visited a potential new client this week, and as I drove into his brand new location, I got a sense of “this place looks really inviting, I would have no problem making a purchase here”. I got a great vibe off the place.

What do people think when they visit your location? Do they get a good vibe when they walk in?

Customers that have been doing business with you for a while don’t really care if your business is inviting or not. They know what they are getting. But consider what a new customer might think when they walk into your business for the very first time.

At Kiers Marketing Group, we are fortunate to have our office in an old converted church that was built in 1896. Reaction from most people who come into our office for the first time is “WOW”. Of course, we work in a creative atmosphere and our offices reflect that. What type of reaction do people have when they walk into your space?

Obviously, if you are in the furniture business, customers are going to see the good stuff as soon as they walk in the door. That’s why car dealers have showrooms, to shine up the cars and make customers say wow. You have to make sure the visitor has something to be impressed about right away.

If you are in an office setting, it is important that the receptionist is sharp and on the ball and the lobby/waiting area is orderly and clean and your company’s marketing material is on display. You want the visitor to feel they made the right decision to visit your business, even before a staff member gets to speak to them.

Take a look at your business from a visitor’s point of view. What type of vibe are they getting off your layout and décor? Give them something that will make they say WOW.

In the marketing business, we do many different projects for a diverse range of companies. One day we will be working on a website for a multi-million dollar corporation, and the next day re-branding a mom and pop business. But, at the end of the day, the projects for the big guys and the little guys are exactly the same, just on a different scale.

At Kiers Marketing Group, January has turned out to be re-branding month. We have quite a few customers who are enhancing or creating new brands. Regardless of the size, a business needs a snappy tagline or positioning statement. Every company or organization needs a line that helps enhance their brand.

Does your company have a tagline that makes potential customers take notice? Do people know exactly what you do by looking at your logo and tagline? If not, then you have to fix this because it is costing you business.

For example, if your company name is “Jones & Associates” and you have a sharp looking business card which includes your company name and contact info, you feel very confident when you give your card to a prospective customer. When the customer looks at your card, do they know what your business does or do they have to ask you? Your company not only needs a tagline that says what you do, but if possible, the benefits of doing work with you.

On the other hand, if your company name is “Jones Plumbing & Heating”, people know exactly what you do by looking at your name. That’s a good thing, however now you need a tagline that tells them why they should call your company and not the “Joe’s Plumbing” down the road.

Make your tagline work for you. Let people know what your company can do for them and how much easier their life could be by doing work with you. Here is a great example from one of our clients, “Fredericton Volkswagen – Turning Dreamers into Drivers”. Their name says what they sell, the tagline makes you want to buy one of their cars. Another good example is “Metalfab – The Firetruck Experts”. Kind of hits the nail right on the head, doesn’t it? Metalfab on its own doesn’t say much. Add the tagline and there is no question about what they do and how well they do it.

Companies like Nike can get away with “Just do it”, because everybody knows what they do already. Same with McDonalds or Pepsi, they can change their tagline every year and get away with it. Smaller companies have to be smart and take nothing for granted. Not everybody knows who you are and what you do. Create a tagline that enhances your brand and leaves nothing to chance.

I remember back to 20 years ago when the internet was starting to be seen as something that just might work. I was working in the newspaper industry at the time and we were very concerned about the impact the internet may have on subscriptions. Little did we realize the impact it would have on advertising revenue.

It is no secret that newspapers are suffering from slumping circulation and advertising revenue. But you know what? Newspaper advertising still works.

In the past few years, we moved our clients away from traditional advertising like newspapers into some new media. Lately, we have been moving some of our clients back into newspaper and are seeing much better results.

Newspapers have never really been a reliable media to target the younger demographic. This is truer now than ever before. However, if your target market is the 45+ audience, then newspaper advertising is a great vehicle to throw into the mix.

Daily newspapers work well, weeklies work great. Why? Smaller communities are more community oriented and everyone wants to know what is going on. In towns and communities like these, almost everyone reads the paper. That’s why they are a good buy.

Newspapers are trying very hard to keep market share. The big challenge is how to integrate the traditional newspaper with the online edition and still retain circulation numbers. The Irving Group of newspapers has recently changed their canadaeast.com site to a pay-for-subscription model. This makes a lot of sense to me. Why should a newspaper work hard to gather all the information readers want, then give it away? I have a subscription to The Daily Gleaner, for only $3.00 more per month, I get the online versions of all their papers throughout the province. To me, this has value. For an advertiser, it has more value because all the ads that are in the papers are online as well.

The next time you are planning an advertising campaign, don’t forget to include newspapers in your buy. They are still very much alive and kicking.

Merry Christmas from the staff at Kiers Marketing Group.

We have always been big advocates of thinking outside the box and being different.

We like to create a funky desk calendar that is different than any other calendar you may receive. This year we have come up with an innovative new design that looks stylish and has a very visible date pad.

If you haven’t already received one, drop us a line and we will be happy to put one in the mail to you.

Thank you for reading and sharing our “Kiers Marketing Tips”. We wish you much happiness and success in the coming year.

Do you know how your customers find out about you?

When a potential customer, who you have never heard from before contacts you, do you wonder what made him pick up the phone and call your company?

If you really want to know, ask!

Most companies use multiple methods – from traditional media like newspaper, radio, TV and Yellow Pages, to new media like FaceBook, online ads and Google Adwords ­- to market themselves. Do you know which medium is working and which isn’t? An easy way to find out is to ask the caller how they found out about you.

If you do this each time you get a call from a new customer, you will know which marketing method is working and which isn’t. The same method can be used in retail. If you are having a sale, ask customers how they found out about the sale as you ring in their purchases.

For example, every time we receive a call from a new client at Kiers Marketing Group, we ask them the question. Five years ago, most of the callers said Yellow Pages. Now, the majority of callers say they Googled us. What does this tell me? We should move some of our marketing budget money around from Yellow Pages to search engine optimization and to Google Ad Words.

This is a proven method to find out which marketing methods are working for you and which aren’t. Many clients have completely changed the way they market themselves just by doing this one simple task. Many potential customers will tell you they were referred by a current customer. That’s good information as well, make sure you get the name of the person who referred them.

Try doing this. It won’t cost one cent of your marketing budget. And, it may change the way you are marketing your business.

I recently read the results of a survey that asked major companies where most of their customers come from. A whopping 85 percent said referrals are their number one source of new business. Does that sound like your business? It certainly sounds a lot like ours!

The first place to look for referrals is from happy customers. When someone compliments you about your product or service, thank them and ask them to tell their friends and colleagues. If you have done good work for them, then they will have no problem passing on your name.

Set up a network of businesses that complement each other. Whether they are customers or suppliers, it doesn’t matter. You send prospective customers their way and they send them your way. For instance, at Kiers Marketing Group, we do large format printing (among many other things). We have arrangements with some local printers to send them our projects like brochures and stationery and they send us their requests for banners, trade show displays, etc. This works quite well and we reach new customers without putting a lot of time into prospecting.

If you get a new customer from a referral, don’t forget to send the referrer a thank you. It creates good feelings and is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Looking for a great way to get the most from your advertising budget?

Try Google AdWords.

It’s simple to do and you only pay when a potential customer clicks on the link and goes to your site. It’s called the pay-per-click method and is the most sensible way to advertise online. Google AdWords are the links that appear on the right column of the page when something is typed into the Google search engine. If someone clicks on it, they go directly to your website and you pay a small fee for the click. If they see it and don’t click on it, there’s no cost to you.

Here’s how to get started.

• Visit www.google.ca/ads/freetrial
• Sign up by entering your email address and a password.
• Follow the instructions to create your campaign.
• Set the maximum amount you want to pay per day.
• Create your ad.
• Select your search terms.
• Activate your campaign.
• Monitor the results and make revisions if you like.

It really is that easy. Try it. If it’s not working for you, then it doesn’t cost you anything. Wouldn’t it be great if all media worked that way.

When prospective customers read your print ad, watch your TV commercial or listen to your radio ad, do they clearly understand what you are selling and why they should buy from you?

A common mistake made by a lot of businesses and ad agencies is that the marketing message is not clear. What benefit is an ad if the customer doesn’t understand it, or they never find out how buying your product or service will benefit them?

First of all, don’t try to be too cute. How many TV ads do you see that you find really funny? The next day you tell your co-workers about the humorous ad but can’t remember what company it was for. Sure, that TV ad might win a creative award, but if you can’t remember who it was for, or what they were selling, what was the point?

Some magazine ads suffer the same problem. Next time you are thumbing through a magazine, take a little extra time and look at the ads. Cover up the company name at the bottom. If you can tell what they are selling and a really good reason to buy it, then it is an effective ad. If you have to uncover the company name to see what type of business they are in, then they have failed.

Be crystal clear in what you are selling and the benefits to the customer. Keep it simple so everyone can understand. Sure it’s okay to mix in some humor, but not at the cost of clarity.

I was speaking with a client last week about the best way to connect with prospective customers. Facebook is a powerful marketing tool. Websites, brochures and direct mail are all proven ways to promote your business. But nothing, and I mean nothing, can substitute an actual face-to-face meeting with a prospective client.

Two of the biggest reasons people don’t buy from you are that they don’t understand what you’re selling, or they don’t know you. One way to get past this hurdle is to provide a one-on-one information session with your prospect.

Invite prospects to your business for a personal tour, or just a meet and greet, no pressure, no purchase expected. Sit down with them, listen to their concerns, answer each one, taking as much time as needed.

Getting to the bottom of your prospect’s concerns and questions right from the start can vastly reduce the time it takes to get a sale and ultimately, increase the number of sales you make.

People who are willing to spend one-on-one time with us, who know their subject and are ready to share their knowledge, are the people we trust and admire most.

Customers want to feel that they are important. Nothing is better than taking the time to sit down and meet with them. Yes, it might be old school thinking, but it works.

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. Everybody’s using Facebook. Are you?

More importantly, is your business? If you’re a business owner, you really should set up a Facebook Page, or else risk being left behind as more businesses shift to social networks like Facebook. Here are a few quick tips for setting up and getting the most out of a page on Facebook for your business.

Facebook pages are different than profiles. You may have a personal profile for you, but your business can’t have a profile – it can have a page. You need to have a personal Facebook profile in order to set up a business page, but don’t worry, your customers and people who view your business page won’t be able to see your personal info. A page is a place to house all the pertinent information about your company. It’s useful because you can include everything that relates to your business in one place with a built-in potential audience:

• Overview of company
• Website and contact info
• Press releases
• Videos
• Company news and status
• Customer interaction

One of the major benefits of a page on Facebook over (or in addition to) a webpage is that it’s so simple to update. With Facebook, updates are as easy as logging in and typing or uploading. The more often you post fresh content, the better the chances of people taking notice which can lead to better interaction with existing and potential customers and business partners.

Once you’ve logged into Facebook, scroll to the bottom and click on Create a Page. Select the type of business that applies to you and start filling in all the details. The more information you add, the better your page will be (and remember, Google thinks highly of Facebook in its search engine results).

Make sure to include your company logo, videos, images – the whole nine yards. Once you’re satisfied with the page, publish it, then get ready to dive into promotion.

The tricky thing about Facebook pages is that you can’t friend someone the way you can from your profile. People can elect to become fans of your page by ‘liking’ it, but only if they know about it, so you’ve got to spread the word yourself (and keep doing it) to introduce people to your page and to your company.

First, identify contacts from your profile that are either business connections, people working in a field related to your business, or who would otherwise benefit from the information your company provides, and invite them to visit and ‘like’ your page. Send a short note explaining what you will be offering from the page (remember, people are thinking “what’s in it for me?”) and include a link to the page. Once they have ‘liked’ your page, any content you publish will automatically show up in their Facebook feed, an instant and easy way for you to interact with people directly.

You should also promote your page elsewhere online by putting a Facebook page button on your website to help others find it, spreading the word on Twitter if you’re there (and you should be), sending out an email notification, and putting a link on your business cards and promotional materials. Do whatever it takes to let people know that you’re on Facebook and you want them to become a part of your community.

It will take time to build your fan base, so remember to keep sending out invitations to new contacts asking if they want to become a fan of your business page. Constantly promote the page in any way possible, and keep your content fresh – give people a reason to check in on your page regularly and provide them with important information they can use  or that is specific to your industry.

Once you are up and running, there are many options for importing content you may be generating elsewhere (a company blog page, a Twitter account, a flickr photo page etc.) and cross posting that content in Facebook as well, saving you some time and making it easier to update content more often.

Your Facebook efforts will be ongoing, so plan to dedicate a few hours each week to getting new fans and updating content. You’ll quickly appreciate the ability to connect with existing customers and develop new customers and business relationships too!

We are building our fan base as well and invite you to join us on the Kiers Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/KiersMarketing Hope to see you there!