As a small business owner, I’m continually finding ways to differentiate myself and my service offerings, and examining what is the best use of my time in terms of both profitability and enjoyment.  Lately, I’ve been trying to hone in on some specific differences.  For example, I enjoy training but does it make sense for me to speak on any social media topic to any group?

This weekend, I was making a few social media updates for my client, Carroll King Schuller, who is a business and life coach.  In reviewing some of her own content, I saw a quote from her that said:

Pay attention to what works for you. Ask yourself “what works for me?” daily for six weeks.  It probably won’t take you that long to figure it out but you will figure it out.

That’s great advice. And I think I’ll take her up on her challenge because I know that clients choose me as their marketing consultant for different reasons than they choose others.  And just because an opportunity comes my way, doesn’t mean that it is a good fit.  I need to be more judicial in deciding what works for me and — perhaps more importantly — what doesn’t work for me and my company.

What about you? 

• Are you careful in your business planning? 
• Do you have specific goals that you’re trying to achieve? 
• Do you know your strengths? 
• Do you know the things you really enjoy? 
• Do you know a great client relationship when you see one? Do you know what elements make up a great client relationship for you? 
• Have you spent time not only thinking about these things but getting them down in writing? 

Of course, that’s not to say we shouldn’t be flexible because opportunities may arise that we hadn’t thought of before.  That’s good!  But we still have to properly vet those opportunities to see if they are the best for us in the long run and that we’re not just chasing the first shiny object that flashes before our eyes.  Brand differentiation is critical no matter the size of the company.  Saying no to a business opportunity might mean that we clear the way for something better, something more enticing and perhaps even easier and more profitable just because it is a better fit.

More importantly, the process of properly vetting opportunities helps us to raise questions about what it is that we want – and therefore we continually work on differentiating ourselves and our companies in almost a methodical way. 

Companies with the best brands are usually those who do a few things – or make a few products – really well.  They know who they are, they know their culture’s foundation and they deliver meticulously on those few things. 

Whether it’s Apple, Starbucks, Nike, Virgin, Disney or Harley Davidson, they’ve all said “no” to many, many opportunities.  They know, without a shadow of a doubt, what works for them.  And what doesn’t.

And that’s what brand differentiation is all about.

Recently, a local small business owner told me that he spent nearly $4,000 per month to advertise in directories such as the YellowPages and YellowBook. His annual contract included some online advertising, as well as about $400/month in pay-per-click ads. He said he got tons of reports but when we really sat down and reviewed them, he wasn’t getting much in results in the way of website traffic, off-page search engine optimization or phone calls to the separate numbers they had set up for him.

And when we looked at his pay-per-click ads, the traffic wasn’t going to his site — it was going to a replication of his site on one of their servers. Other than the information they were reporting to him, he didn’t have access to any kind of detailed analytics on these efforts, like he would have with Google, even though he has Google Analytics on his website.

I just read that phone directory advertising equates to $13 billion dollars annually.

And what I’ve heard from small business owners is that the sales folks are selling aggressively and doing everything they can to upsell them from previous year’s contract, which is how they make their commissions.  It’s unfortunate, because small business owners often get locked in to a contractual agreement that often doesn’t make the most sense for them if you look at the bigger picture of their overall online and offline marketing budget and plan.

Many local small businesses still should have basic listings in the printed directories, especially if they’re appealing to an older demographic. But gone are the days that it makes sense to take out a full-page ad in a phone directory.  Eventually, over the next few years, I’m guessing that the $13 billion dollar industry will shrink.  But, for now, many small business owners are still not knowledgable enough about what the phone directories are selling that they get sold a service that sounds good but is really less effective in the long run. 

Here are three reasons why we think small business owners should re-evaluate and reconsider their phone directory advertising spend:

1. Fewer People Use Printed Phone Directories. With the increased usage of computers especially in the form of laptops and iPads, as well as smart phones like iPhones and Androids with geo-location services, fewer people have a need to grab a paper directory to find a business product or service, a phone number and an address.   For advertising to be effective, businesses have to be where people are spending their time.  And very few people are spending much time with their phone book!  Facebook, yes.  Phone book, no.

2.  Consider Better Options for Your Advertising Dollars.  The business owner that I mentioned to you at the beginning of this post didn’t realize that he had very little control over what was being done for him.  He didn’t realize that once he stopped paying, that he had no online history of the PPC advertising.  He didn’t realize that none of the web traffic actually went to his site like he thought it was.  He didn’t realize that Google Analytics as well as the Google Adwords and Google Places accounts could have been integrated but weren’t even being used.  Today, there are so many better options – both short- and long-term – that he could have considered such as SEO and better SEM.  Heck, for $4,000 a month, he could have even considered advertising on TV (something he never thought he could afford).

3.  Focus on Building Relationships, drawing people to you rather than have your ad sit in a book on someone’s shelf in hopes that they’ ll find you one day.  There are people looking for your business and products or services every single day – and people who will refer others to you if you remind them and if you reach out and help other people and other businesses.  It’s not all about selling.  It’s about connecting and engaging with your target audience, and paid advertising – especially in phone directories – just can’t do that like social media and organic search methods including effective blogging and content management.

So what should you do instead?

1.  Well, first, don’t eliminate your phone directory listings altogether.  If you’ve always maintained a presence there, then reduce your spending by reducing the ad size.  And always keep your online listing up-to-date.  For example, AT&T’s Yellow Pages will allow businesses to maintain a free and fairly detailed listing as long as you update it annually.  Others like SuperPages.com are similar but don’t require annual updates.  Yellowbook seems to want a bit more control with their sales force but you can still get a free listing if you don’t want to pay for one.

2.  Make sure that the basics are covered.   Create and/or update your other online directory listings like Google Places, Bing, and Yahoo and any local directories like Richmond.com.  Fill them out completely and add photos and/or videos if they let you do that at no charge.  And be sure to include your website URL!  Keep a list of them in a spreadsheet so that you don’t forget your log in information and passwords, or print out the sign-up emails and keep them handy.  Also, be sure you’re talking to your web developer about optimizing your website for appropriate keywords and make sure you have access to your Google Analytics account.  Get familiar with the tools you probably already have in place – review results at least monthly.

3.  Evaluate the status of your current online marketing efforts.  If you haven’t updated your website in a few years, or if you’re not active on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter or if you haven’t even considered whether it makes sense to begin blogging, then evaluate those marketing efforts as they’ll provide you with better traction in the long run.  Also, be sure you have both an on-site and off-site SEO effort in place and that you know your best keywords, particularly long-tail keywords that might get less hits but better conversion for you.   The idea is to do the work that will get your OWN website up in the search engine rankings – not to help the directories push yours off the first page.  This takes commitment but a lot could have been accomplished with less than 25% of the $4,000/month budget my small business owner was spending on phone book directory advertising!

In addition, test and run your own PPC campaigns, even if you start with just Google Adwords.  If you run your own campaign, you can learn a lot more and know what questions to ask if and when you feel you want someone else to run them for you.  Even if the small business owner spends just $300/month or $10 day on Google Adwords, you’ll at least get a feel for your better performing keywords.

Need more help?

If you’re a small business owner and would like a free evaluation of your online marketing efforts and in how you can get more traction from your overall marketing expenditure, then give us a call at 804.777.9940.  We’ll be happy to talk to you in person, by phone or webinar.

At Traction Group, we work with several types of small businesses including franchise owners, product dealers and stand-alone businesses who may be members of a governing trade association. In the age of new media including online marketing and social networking, it is essential for all types of small businesses to hire a photographer and build a portfolio of images which will be reflective of their own brand.

Granted, stock photos work well for certain purposes and we highly encourage their use to make a visual point when needed. We even use photos from FreeFoto.com on our site, just to add some interest. 

Home Instead Senior Care provides franchise owners with a photo bank of seniors and caregivers.

Franchise owners often have the benefit of using videos and images that their corporate home office makes available to them, although not all franchise owners use those to the fullest extent. Dealers have the ability to use manufacturer product photos, images, videos and design drawings which come in handy when they’re promoting or explaining a specific product to a prospect. And a stand-alone business might be able to utilize similar images from a trade association for which they may be members. 

Using imagery of any kind these days is critical to a small business success as consumers have an increasing desire to interact and engage in various ways. But photographs and images like these can only serve small business needs to a point. For a franchise not to localize its business, or a dealer to count only on the manufacturer’s brand, or for a small business to rely on the laurels of its association membership, is just absurd from a business branding standpoint. And that’s particularly true since we find ourselves thrown in to this new social media world with photo tools like Flickr, Picasa, and the many online photo album services including the one available on your Facebook Fan page. 

So why should a small business prioritize hiring a photographer and not rely on stock photos or other images from their franchise corporate office or their manufacturer? 

Here are Traction Group’s top 10 reasons why a local small business should hire a photographer:

1. Business owners need terrific profile shots. Social media profiles like those on LinkedIn, Twitter or your WordPress blog require profile headshots that tell people that you’re both professional and approachable. The business owner’s photo helps people to remember you and connect with you and the photographs can be used for your company business cards, sell sheets or brochures. If you have a business development director, the same goes for that person as well, as they are often the face of the company.
2. Prospects often research your company online. Often your customers or prospects are checking out your business online before they even call, or connecting with those who answer the phone and they don’t always know or talk to the business owner. Having photos of your office team that your prospects or customers can find on your website or on your Facebook Fan page is important so that they can put a face with a name, or that they can see that your business is both serious and credible.
3. Accurately depict the size of your company. Recently, one of our clients almost didn’t get called about a project because the prospect found some outdated data online that said his company had 2-4 employees. While my client did have 4 employees a few years ago, his company now employs nearly 20. Having updated photos of your company and your team every couple of years is important so that prospects can easily see that you have a business that is big enough to service their needs.
4. Keep your content fresh. In the age of social media and online content development, adding photos and images to your blog posts, your website and your Facebook Fan page keeps your content fresh and engaging. There is nothing more important in the world of online marketing than to continually keep your customers and prospects engaged with you and your brand. Yes, I said your brand. Not the brand of your franchise and not the brand of your manufacturer or association.
5. Developing your unique brand. Hiring a photographer to shoot photos of you, your building, your signage, your team, your work – or anything that defines your company – is part of building your business’s unique brand and sets you apart from other local or national competition. And if you’re a franchise owner, it helps to localize your business and sets you apart from similar franchises that may be in your area. And photo selections can easily be turned into slide shows and videos, even cool online banner ads, that can further define your brand in the online media space.
   

   Marshall Mechanical, Richmond VA, recently invested in creating their own photo bank.

6. Starting a photography bank. I can guarantee you that few small business owners realize the importance of creating a bank of approved photography that can be used for both online and offline marketing efforts. But it must be part of their overall marketing budget. With the economy the way it is, you can get a good photographer to get you started with as little as $500 to get some basic shots and the costs range to a few thousand for a couple of days of shooting. Be sure to negotiate that the photographer will do some minor retouching (especially for the profile shots) and give you all the images on a CD so that you have a permanent copy and can load on multiple computers for accessing and storage. Also, be sure to negotiate the fact that you have all photography ownership rights.
7. Photos for Case Studies. Many small business owners perform work that is visible and should be showcased as a case study on their website or in presentations for business development purposes or industry presentations. And if you’re working on a large job that takes weeks to perform, you might require photographs in the various stages of development such as the early stage, the work-in-progress stage and the finished job. Certainly many business owners who are in the construction or related business might want before and after shots, whether they are installing a geothermal heating system or a dedicated home theater, or whether they are performing a makeover or creating a memorable event. We can’t stress how important it is to write up a simple case study on the more intriguing projects that your company has performed. At a future point, we’ll add a blog post with instructions of how to write a case study but it is imperative to capture high quality pictures while the job is progressing and to make notes about the job before you move on to another one.
8. Using both primary and secondary shots. When we work with a photographer on behalf of our small business clients, we help them develop a shot list so that the photographer can properly estimate the job (they may be able to group some together) and so that we all agree on what shots we expect to get from booking of their time. Within our shot list, we specify the number of staff members, extra locations or backgrounds, wardrobe changes and various things that are unique to each business and their situation. In addition to those primary shots, we also will ask the photographer to shoot some secondary or stylistic shots that might be close-ups, shots at different angles or views, or of just cool aspects of a project that are unique which may not ordinarily get any attention. Asking the photographer to take those extra shots on location and during the main shoot is much less expensive than scheduling more time. And those secondary shots can be so interesting for use in social media – especially in blogging and how those blog posts appear on your blog and on your Facebook Fan page for example.
   

   Google's Local Business Center allows small business owners to add photos and videos.

9. Local Business Directory Listings. Most small businesses forget to take the time to update their online local directory listings on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Yet, it is one of the more powerful search engine optimization tactics to use for a local business. Many listings are free and then there are some that charge a small monthly, annual or one-time fee. Most of these listings will allow you to add a logo and additional photos or even videos to make your listing more interesting. Using well-branded photographs that are unique to your business, especially if you have a storefront, will help people to find you and recognize your business. And this is one of the many reasons why we suggest that you have a photographer take pictures of your signage and your building.
10. You can’t be effective at social media marketing without photos. One of the very first questions we ask our new clients is “what photos do you have for us to work with?” Often we have to refer them to a photographer right away as they have very few photos for us to work with or the photos they have are outdated or out of focus. So if you plan to invest both time and money to increase your social media marketing, then take a serious inventory of your company’s photographs. And if someone tells you that you don’t need photos to be effective at social media, think again. Without a decent start of a photo bank, you’ll end up with nothing but boring content. And boring content will make your readers run away faster than you can say “flapjack.”

If you need help with how to maximize your social media and marketing efforts through photography or otherwise, then give Traction Group a call at 804.777.9940.

Check back for our next blog post:  How one small business used photography to elevate its brand image.

I’ve been on a rampage lately about businesses being listed on the online local business directories.  It’s such an overlooked piece of the SEO puzzle — and often the first piece that should be in place before any other — that I find myself trying to figure out why that is the case. 

• Do business owners underestimate the importance of having their business found on Google, Yahoo and Bing?
• Is there a lack of both awareness and understanding about how powerful and critical a detailed business listing is to a business’s overall success? 
• Are businesses not cognizant of how consumers or other businesses find them through the search engines?
• Do businesses work with and adjust their keyword list as their business grows?  Better yet, do they even have a keyword list?
• Do business owners know which listings are important and how to find them?
• Do business owners know that if they can’t own certain competitive keywords with their local directory listing, they can more heavily focus on them by other means, such as their blog, and may still get on the first search page for those terms?

And then I have to ask myself, did I know about all this a year ago?  Even just six months ago??  Well, the answer is emphatically “no.”  I was aware of the search engine local directories but I certainly didn’t know exactly how they worked or what it meant to get in the 3-pack or 10-pack — or that Google may be changing their 10-pack to a 7-pack or anything like that.  In fact, the questions asked above are derived out of my experience of working with several business listings over the period of many months, including now my own business, in order to even begin to ask questions like those.  So I have to give business owners a break here.

I just recently worked with a company who has been in business for 8 years that had never claimed its Google Local Business Center directory listing.  While the successful business had a general listing, it didn’t appear at all if one was searching for any of the relevant keywords or phrases.  Only their competitors showed up as well as a few other businesses that did not provide the same service.  The only time their business listing appeared was if one searched on their full business name.  And, frankly, that’s the only time their website appeared in the organic searches as well, so their website was not optimized either.  After claiming the listing and massaging it in order to get it to appear more often on the prominent keyword searches, the business comes up on the “board” in all the main keywords except for one highly competitive one, and they often appear in the top 3 business listings.  In a couple of cases, they are #1 and/or the ONLY business listed.   I was thrilled beyond belief with my before and after results, even taking screen shots to remind myself of the major difference, by making changes that were relatively simple if you have a bit of experience with gaining SEO value.

Admittedly and openly, the business owner didn’t share my enthusiasm.  ”I’m not sure I fully can appreciate what you just did for us,” the client said.   The business owner didn’t know how to put a value on what was just accomplished.  The business is primarily B2B, and not consumer-driven like some other businesses who would rely heavily on internet searches.  Still, the business would only need to gain one new client from an internet search for it to be more than beneficial.  Last time I checked, there are very few businesses in this economy that are doing so well that it would be okay for them to remain invisible on the internet.  I mean, if it were okay to be invisible on the internet, then why have a website at all?  Why have a social media presence? Why invest the time and cost?  If the only people who are finding the business are the people who already are familiar enough with your service or product to search your business by name, then what’s the point of using the internet for generating new business leads?  Am I wrong in my thinking here?

Frankly, I don’t know how to value what seems like such a simple change either:

• From a TIME standpoint, even with my experience, it took some hours to write a comprehensive listing, add logos, verify and then test/edit the listings on Google, Bing and Yahoo.  It would take some further time if I were adding photos and video as Google allows.  The client had a Google account, but the other accounts I had to create.  It took additional hours to figure out the best keywords and key phrases (he didn’t have a keyword list for his business), as well as to perform the before and after searches on the multiple search engines and save the screenshots and report the results in writing with a phone discussion.  I would guesstimate 15 hours total.  Sure, a business owner could pay someone with less experience to verify the listings but the effect would not be as pronounced, that’s for sure.  They wouldn’t understand the strategy and tactics to get the same desired results.
• From a VALUE standpoint, I guess it would depend on what kind of business it was.  A bricks-and-morter retailer would benefit greatly as would any kind of local professional service business.  And larger businesses can benefit as well because of the sheer volume of people searching, as would most franchise owners.  Perhaps a true B2B business like my client’s, not so much.  Although I feel like I could argue that point greatly in that maybe they’re the ones that get the MOST value from an internet lead because the sale would be large in terms of dollars coming in over the length of the project and/or relationship, versus a retailer or service business that might get a one-time, small-dollar purchase from a lead.  Internet sales based on local search and/or organic searches can range from the hundreds to thousands to perhaps even hundreds of thousands for some businesses — and some businesses would kill for that 3-pack listing, or even to be on the board somewhere in the 7-pack listing.

I’d love to know your thoughts about optimization for Local Search Listings and this post.  This will be a subject that will be explored further in the near future.

Correct Set-up of your Twitter Account can translate into effective followership, and better relationships.

I recently completed three back-to-back social networking presentations for small business owners and one of the most burning questions coming from the audience always surrounds how to set up an effective Twitter account.

This blog post isn’t designed to give you step-by-step instructions – you can get that from a number of places – including the Twitter 101 Guide for businesses.  But we wanted to share our ”traction tips” on what we believe to be the most critical things to think about when setting up a Twitter account for your personal brand or your small business.

Listed below are the 7 most important steps to gain social traction for your Twitter account:

1. TWITTER HANDLE.  Be sure that the Twitter handle you choose is both memorable, it serves you well and is as short as possible.  Keep in mind that people connect with people which means ideally we like to see Twitter handles in the name of the person.  Often that becomes a challenge because your name may already be taken, it’s too long or you’d prefer to use your company name which we’ll address in a moment.  While we don’t recommend using all caps for sure, we do recommend using initial caps where it makes obvious sense.  For example, @guykawasaki can be (and is) @GuyKawasaki.
2. MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS: For those of you who have personal brands as well as businesses, you can (and should) set up two accounts:  one in your personal name and one in your business name.  That way, you get the benefit of both.  Your personal account should be bringing your listeners value based on your own knowledge and building of one-on-one relationships with others, and can and should include some of your own personality and humor.  Your business or company account can be more focused on helping people strictly as it relates to the company and what value the company brings and shares to others.  You don’t need both necessarily; take a look at your own situation and figure out which is best.  You certainly can have an account that has your business name as your handle with your photo and name.  Or vice-versa.  Weigh the pros and cons and figure out what is best for your individual situation.
3. PHOTO CRITICAL.  For your personal brand account, your photo or avatar should be a photo of yourself.  For goodness sakes, don’t use a photo of your dog or kid, or a photo of you as a kid — unless you really are a kid (and then perhaps Twitter should be used only with some adult supervision).  And it’s probably not a good idea to put up just any photo of yourself.  Your photo — whether on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook — is a reflection of you and your personal brand.  Make it count. Invest in a decent photographer, pay attention to your wardrobe — even hire an image consultant if you feel it necessary.  People will see your Twitter photo each and every time you send a tweet or post – adding up to thousands of times.  Think of tweets as your own branding campaign – like your target audience seeing mini TV spots of you over and over again.  If this is your business account, then your company logo — or a very memorable graphic representation of it — should be used. Traction tip:  remember that Twitter (as well as LinkedIn) only allows for a square photo less than 700kb in size.  Make it bold and impactful in that small space.
4. FILL THE BIO.  Many people don’t take the time to write a good bio and so they get in a hurry and just write something lame. Irrelevant. Meaningless.  Your Twitter bio, while short, says a lot about you. In fact, it says everything about you.  Aside from your avatar, it is your image to the world.  Pay attention.  It’s like your resume only short.  Very short.  But just like a tweet, you’d be surprised what you can say in a few words.  Or what your bio says about you.  One of my favorite lines is one from Mark Twain or perhaps attributed to T.S. Eliot, who said “If I had more time, I’d write a shorter letter.”  The point is, take the time.  Write pithy. Edit. Review. Edit again.  Get not only to the heart of who you are but, most importantly, who you serve.  To whom do you bring value to?  Be sure they are mentioned.  Business owners? Moms? Kids?  Runners? When people read your bio, your “story,” they need to see a bit of themselves in it.  They need to relate to you.  While you don’t have to take up the entire character space, we don’t want you to sell yourself short — but we also don’t want you to sell in this space.  Just keep it simple and don’t try to do too much: simply get the person to the next step and the next step is to follow you or, if they’re already following you, to connect or converse or contact you. 
5. LOCATION.  So we have some pet peeves about this.  People don’t realize how important it is to not only use the location field but also to use it correctly if you expect people to find you and follow you.  If someone leaves this field blank, then it says they were either lazy or don’t want anyone to know where they’re from.  I’d rather see something in this field, than nothing.  Geez, at least let us know what country or state you’re from.  But some people use UberTwitter and then have their UberTwitter code in the field, which is meaningless if I’m looking for location to be a connection with the person.  What’s worse, is that their Twitter handle won’t be picked up in Twitter directories such as Twitterholic or Twellow.  Which means, if I’m looking to find people close to me, I won’t find that person.  So adding the proper location is important if you want more people to find you — and particularly important for local businesses, sales professionals or freelancers.  Traction tip:  use the main metropolitan area closest to you. For example, I live in Chesterfield, VA but in the Richmond, VA area so I use Richmond VA.  Most people won’t be looking through all the suburbs to find people.  And best to use that City, ST format as well.
6. FILL IN THE URL.  Sometimes people leave the URL field blank but don’t do that.  If you don’t have a website you can find a URL to put there.  You can use the link to your LinkedIn or your multi-media VisualCV profile, particularly if you’re looking for a job or building your personal brand. Or you can set up a PeoplePond page with your social profile and use that.  Or a simple Google personal profile.  Even your YouTube channel if you work with a lot of video.  Traction tip:  we want this URL is an active, engaging place — either a blog or a site that not only has further contact information for you but also has further content — content that is relevant to what you do, who you are and, most importantly, who you help.
7. TWITTER BACKGROUND.  Ideally, you want to design a custom background for you or your business that is branded to you.  Not a designer?  That’s fine.  You can use the Twitter backgrounds and colors to at least match your brand temporarily, until you get started.  There are also a number of free Twitter backgound services you can use.  But, just like your photo, your Twitter page is a reflection of who you are and your company so don’t leave it to chance.  Just like anything else, sometimes you only have one chance to make a great impression.  So find a designer who will create a Twitter background page for you — budget of $100-$200 will usually more than suffice, depending on how much graphics you need created.  If you can’t find someone, call us and we’ll create one for you.

So those are what we believe are the 7 most important set-up steps to creating an impressive and effective Twitter account — one that will get you the most traction from a branding standpoint.  If you still need help, no worries.  Just contact the Traction Group, the social marketing agency for small business owners, and we’ll be glad to answer any questions you may have.  Remember, WHAT YOU TWEET is just as important, if not even much more so.  We’ll share some traction tips for that as well — in a future post.

Photo Credit: rocky stream photo courtesy of FreeFoto.com