The Kiers Marketing Blog

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!

Nothing sells products and services like good comments (testimonials) from current or past customers. Prospects will believe the word of a customer before they’ll buy into the best written ad or the most lavish television commercial. However, as some business owners will tell you, one of the toughest chores to do is to ask a customer for a testimonial.

1.  Nobody says YOU can’t provide the testimonial. What I mean is, most business people are busy and really don’t want to be bothered with writing a testimonial, so offer to write it for them. Ask them what they like about your company and your products and tell them you will write a few lines for them to approve before it is published. It doesn’t get much better than that. You get to write it yourself.

2.  Get someone who is a recognized name in your field to say something good about what you sell. Let them mention their own interest in the testimonial. This is why blurbs on book covers go, “Best book I’ve ever read,” Joe Blow, author of How to Get Rich.  Joe lends his good opinion as a way to get a mention for HIS book.

3.  Include a form on your web site for comments. Clearly mention that some comments may be selected for your promotional literature. Some people will say good things (which I’m sure they mean sincerely) just to get their name in print.

4.  If possible, always include the person’s first and last name along with the city they live in or the business they work for. Otherwise, people will think you made up the testimonial.

Testimonials are a powerful marketing tool. You can tell people how great your service is, and how effective your products are until you are blue in the face. A lot of potential customers will not believe you until they hear it from someone else.

When we talk about marketing and advertising, we usually talk about social media, newspaper and trade publication ads, radio and tv ads, trade shows and the like. But none of these marketing tools are nearly as important or powerful as your reputation.

If you run a great business or do fine work and everyone knows and appreciates it, you’re on the right track. However, you don’t have to settle with just any reputation. Smart businesses set out to purposely build a specific planned-in-advance reputation. Decide what reputation you want people to know. Are you a top expert with ready answers; honest in an industry that is often less than honest; speedy among competitors that aren’t? What are you?

Pick a reputation that makes a difference to customers and start building it. If everyone has low prices, stress your high quality and outstanding service. If all your competitors are bad at answering email, make quick response your known reputation.

Advertise your reputation in all your marketing. Make it a headline on your web site. Put your reputation statement on your business card. Then follow through to back up your reputation and prove you deserve it.

That’s the question many people ask when they see the square with the funny shapes in it. If you have a Smart Phone, then you probably know what it is. It’s called a QR code, which is short for Quick Response code. It really is just an updated version of a bar code that, when scanned by your mobile device, can be launched by your web browser. So after scanning the code, where does it take you? The simple answer is, wherever the owner of the QR code wants you to go.

If you drive by our office at 761 Union Street, you will see an A-frame sign with a large QR Code. Scan it and you will be taken to a page on our website that offers a discount on our large format printing, mounting and laminating. This is just one of many applications for these codes. Our new business card has a QR code that links directly to the home page of our website.

There are many other marketing applications for QR codes. Some companies are putting these codes on their product labels so customers can scan it in the store, to find out all about the product before they buy it. QR codes are also a great way to measure the effectiveness of your marketing. We have Google Analytics tracking traffic to our site from the code on our A-frame sign.

QR codes are now popping up in company brochures, trade show displays and posters. Imagine seeing a movie poster with a QR code, scanning the code and going directly to the trailer for that movie. Or including it on your tradeshow display, taking potential customers to a virtual tour of your business.

The possibilities for this application are limitless. Think about your business and how you could use this marketing tool to your advantage. It may open up some exciting new opportunities for you.

Each week in this space I usually write about a specific topic. This week, I decided to change things up a bit and share some marketing – related thoughts that aren’t long enough to write a whole column on. Enjoy my rambling!

Facebook is a great marketing tool, but if you’re promoting your business or organization too much, people won’t read your posts. Or worse, they’ll hide your posts so they can’t see them. Some days I get three or four from the same business. Once a day is plenty.

There is a new professional corporation that opened up in town a couple of months ago. There is no sign outside. No sign of many clients either.

Went out for supper with friends at a local restaurant on Canada Day. Just after our drinks came, a man, we assume was the manager, came over and told us they had a gas problem in the kitchen and wouldn’t be able to serve food for a while so we would have to go somewhere else to eat. We left with nothing but our appetites. I was upset with the lousy customer service so I sent an email. The restaurant owner called me himself, apologized and sent some food coupons. Good marketing decision for him to change a negative experience into a positive one.

Who reads the fine print in those big car ads in the newspaper? I suspect not very many people do. They average between 400 and 800 words, and you need a magnifying glass to read it. Wouldn’t it be easier to say “visit our website for terms and conditions”. There, I did it in seven words.

Is it just me, or would everybody like to see the real price in the ads for airfare and automobiles?

Writing this was fun. I might do something like this every few months for a change of pace. Thanks for reading.

Most marketers will tell you that if you stand out in the crowd, your marketing dollars are better spent. The same premise is true for trade shows. If your booth is good most people will notice.If your booth is great then everyone will notice.

It’s time to turn your good trade show display into a great one!

Let’s take a look at what makes up a great trade show display. The number one thing you want to do is have booth graphics that makes the trade show visitor stop and say WOW. When developing booth graphics, remember that the sole purpose of the design is to attract attention. We suggest a large image, a headline and your logo. That’s it. If you busy up your display too much, visitors might have a hard time understanding what you do and what your message is. People will not stop and read a lot of text either. Keep it simple and make it bold.

The second factor is the layout of your booth space. Again, don’t make it too busy. If there is no room to move around because you have a sample of every product you have ever made, people will walk on by. Make your booth inviting, don’t put a table out front so visitors can’t get in. Leave it open, give them the opportunity to come and visit. It is okay to have your products on display, but keep it to a minimum. Something that is new or different is best, they seem to attract more interest.

Lastly, be prepared. Have enough staff on hand so you can take breaks and not get caught eating or drinking when a prospective customer drops in.  Remember, you and your display reflect the professionalism and the quality of your company. It is important to be 100% ready when the show starts.

Trade shows are an excellent way to generate new leads and new business. Create a booth space that people will want to visit and remember when the show is over.

“Sign, sign. Everywhere a sign.”

This is a famous line from a hit song the Five Man Electrical Band released in 1971. If the songwriter thought there were a lot of signs 40 years ago, what would he think now? Every business has a sign. Business signs come in many shapes and sizes. There are indoor signs, outdoor signs, backlit signs, wayfinding signs, A-frame signs, rotating signs, highway signs, etc, etc, etc.

How many signs does your business have? Do you have enough? Are they effective? If you are going to the expense of producing a sign for your business, do it right to maximize its effectiveness.

When creating a sign, make sure it sends the right message to your customers and says what you do. For example, if your company name is Joe Smith and Sons, you’d better make sure the sign says what business you are in.

On the other end of the spectrum, a common mistake made is putting too much on a sign. Recently, we were discussing A-frame signs with a client and I took a drive around looking at what other businesses put on their roadside A-frames. Wow, one business listed nine or ten services on his 24″ x 36″ sign. I was travelling at 50kmh and only got to read the top two. What a waste of premium sign space.

It is important to step back and look at the factors that go into a successful sign. Who is going to read it, how long do they have to read it, what is the proper placement for the sign, how many other signs are you competing with, is it made to last and most importantly, is it getting the right message out.

Strategic thinking should go into every sign that you have for your company. The better you make your sign, the better it is for your business.