Best Low Cost Marketing Tools

There is no such things as "free marketing" because it takes time to create material for marketing. However LOW COST is another story and can be very effective for small businesses. Here are some tools that I've used in my small business consulting (they depend upon your industry as to which you should apply): 

• Social Media (Facebook Groups, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Blogging)- These provide you a great place to post discounts, sales, keep people appraised about what you're doing, drive customer interaction, etc. You need to have INTERESTING content that people will want to share. 
• SEO- You can spend some time learning the simple/beginner SEO steps from amazing blogs online written by experts and use a lot of the free tools on SEOMOZ.com to test your site. No need to hire an expert if you don't have the budget, but there is stuff you can do now on your own to help your sites SEO. 
• YouTube- Highlight your business, culture, etc through fun videos that are engaging! (It can't be boring but rather needs to be helpful) 
• PARTNERSHIPS- One of the best things you can do is find businesses that are complimentary to yours and ask to partner wit them! Offer a % of sales or referrals that come from them (typically 5-10% is good pending your margins). This drives referral businesses and you reciprocate back to them. It is one of the easiest and least used forms of marketing! 

Those are some simple ones to start you off! You can also do Word of Mouth campaigns, ask for feedback via Yelp or CitySearch, etc. Happy to talk more with you or your small business if you'd like to look more into this!

6 Characteristics of High Functioning Social Media Strategies

Recently I was working with a colleague on analyzing social media efforts of companies, specifically consulting firms.  Through our efforts we discovered there were six key characteristics that dictated if a consulting firm had a high functioning social media effort/strategy.  We then began to talk and found that these same six characteristics applied beyond the consulting field and could be used as a benchmark to measure a company’s social media strategy.  These six characteristics are the following:

1.Exhibits thought leadership
2.Connects followers to real world events
3.Speaks to multiple target audience members
4.Information is shared by audience with their peers
5.The company shares others’ news and postings
6.Company seeks customer input

Let’s dive a little deeper into these.

1. Exhibit Thought Leadership-  This can be accomplished through posting articles that you or your company writes, re-posting industry advice that you find helpful, offering a bit of free advice (similar to what I’m doing now with these 6 characteristics) in which you are the expert, and announcing any awards that you have won.  Thought leadership is key to making you standout from your industry crowd.  If your social media becomes the go-to place for consumers, businesses, etc for advice and help, this will grow your brand, help your marketing, and eventually help you to make sales.
2. Connect followers to real world events- Why are people on social media? To CONNECT!  You need to be offering the opportunity for people to network, learn about your product in person, etc.  Have a networking wine and cheese event, host a webinar on “The top 2 things you should be doing in XXXX industry” with limited space, invite people to industry or association events.  People should be able to pursue interaction beyond simply reading what you post to Twitter, Facebook, or your blog.  Again, you are creating an opportunity to drive loyalty, interaction, and value for the people who are watching your social media.
3. Speak to multiple target audiences-   This should apply to anything you put out into Social Media.  It does not matter if you only have one product, people use it for different purposes and your customers are probably from different target segments.  A great example of this would be a company that sells home improvement products- They need to target professional contractors, weekend fix-it dads, moms, busy young professionals.  This company could offer tips on remodeling your kitchen, 3 things to make sure your child’s room is safe, Fast Fixes You Need to Know, 6 Honey Do’s you can get done tonight, Plumbing 101, 10 ways to hang a picture- We’ll show you the right one, etc.  Offer something on painting, sanding, general repair, etc, etc. These keep your audience engaged, are likely to be passed along to friends, are USEFUL, and apply to a range of audiences.
4. Information is shared by your audience- What a simple and desirable idea, but it can be very difficult to accomplish!  People will share INTERESTING information.  The information you need to post has to be relevant and interesting to them.  Like with the home improvement example above, 6 Honey Do’s You Can Get Done Tonight… What wife/girlfriend wouldn’t want to pass that along?  Offering diverse content that is engaging and helpful is one of the best ways to encourage people to share your content.  Beyond that, providing people with information they can share and through sharing appear like a thought leader to their friends is another great way to encourage sharing content.  I know that I recently ReTweeted a Tweet on working to develop your SEO backlinks.  This information was helpful for me and I wanted to share it with my peers to help them out.  Valuable content gets shared; it is as simple as that.
5. The Company Shares others information- This one may seem counter intuitive, sharing what others are posting, but again it makes you seem human and not a one man show.  When you share industry news, articles, helpful tips from others, you quickly further establish yourself as a hub for great information in the industry.  This means that people will continue to come to your social media sites, read what you are posting about your company and what you’re reposting from others.  Now obviously there is a caveat to this… Don’t share content that is going to drive your readers to your competitors!
6. Seek customer input- While many companies are afraid to do this, this feedback can be one of your best assets.  Asking customers what they thought about a product, event, etc will illicit great feedback that you can either use to improve your product or leverage as positive word of mouth marketing.  The key here is that you have to respond and interact with your customers to make this feedback useful and avoid any damage negative reviews could potentially bring.  Be ready to fix any negative experiences and amplify positive feedback.

These are the 6 characteristics of a highly effective social media strategy and effort.  If you would like to have an analysis done on your company to see where you fall in comparison to your competitors or just in general- feel free to contact me.

An expert & a cocktail party

Recently I was having a conversation with a professor from the University of Washington. He had some wonderful advice that is simple but still represented a light bulb going off in my mind. His advice was simple:
-Be an expert in a category with enough knowledge that you would be able to intelligently be able to talk the entire time at a cocktail party.

What this means:
Often when we go to networking events, parties, etc. We are thrust into conversations with new individuals and need to be able to have an intelligent conversation. Be it a simple party at your friends house or a who's who at a Single Malt Scotch tasting- frequently the conversation turns into one person or the other talking about themselves, bantering about politics, and we leave not having learned anything or having added a new person to our network. What this professor was suggesting is the following- Pick a topic of interest (social media marketing, best practices for some topic, psychology of decision making, etc) that while specific, applies across a broad range of businesses. During your conversation, use this expertise to guide the discussion, find out a problem/struggle they are facing and have a conversation about it. At the end of the night the people you have engaged with should walk away thinking several things:

• Wow that was a great conversation!
• I learned something new that is applicable to my business or life
• That person would be great to talk with again

If they leave the conversation thinking these things, you are likely to be able to have more conversations with this individual in the future and have thus, added someone to your network. As the evening is wrapping up and the conversation is going well, I tend to offer to meet the individual for coffee or to continue the conversation on the phone. If they agree, you exchange business cards or numbers and continue on your way. Be sure to follow up with them a few days after your first exchange.

So in wrap up- pick a topic, learn a lot about it, and start talking.

Once you've identified a topic you like, here are some good resources for you to use:

• University/Local Library (they have access to academic articles and databases with cutting edge research)- You want to have read the cutting edge research and be able to reference studies and authors who have studied your subject
  
• Google/Web to an extent

6 Business Principals: Taken Down

I apologize if you came here looking for my posts on "6 Business Principals- My breakfast with Jim Donald." I was requested to remove it from my blog and have done so. If you wish to read Jim's principals, simply search "Jim Donald Fish Story" and you will find many websites almost exactly that information that I wrote about.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions/comments: marcoux@gmail.com

Update

Sorry it has been a little bit since my last post... quite a while actually.  A lot has happned/changed so a quick update:

-I am no longer with Geoteaming for many reasons but all that to say I left to go work for a company called Projectline

- Have started finalizing Efiia Consulting's website! (Should be up within the week)

- Working with Bethany Community Church on a marketing project to fundraise over 100k for Clean Water Wells in Africa through a non-profit called Living Water. (Post to come about that one soon)

-Fiancee got me an XBox 360!!

Alright, more detailed post to come soon (today or tomorrow)

Free Marketng Tip of the Week

In this economy we are all looking for easy, cheap, or free ways to increase our marketing, exposure, and sales.

This weeks Tip-

Create a video about your company and post it on YouTube- Then link to it in all of your social media networks!

Make it catchy, fun, and about the experience a customer will have with you.  Often walking through the process a customer will go through is a fantastic idea and makes the process feel safer for your potential clients!  Your video should be no more than 30-60 sec long.

I am happy to help you brainstory how to do this and what to include, contact me at marcoux@gmail.com.

So, get creative and work with your team to create a smiple and catchy video.. this WILL bring you business and leads!

The Power of Feedback

Feedback can be difficult to give sometimes because of the avenues we have for delivery, yet feedback also has the potential to be immensely valuable to the individual receiving it.

Here are some interesting tools that I have found for giving both positive and negative feedback.  They are called the "Johari" and "Nohari" windows.  This enables you to select characteristics about yourself and then send it out to others to provide you with anonymous feedback.  Check them out and let me know what you find out!

http://kevan.org/johari

http://kevan.org/nohari

I encourage you to take a chance, fill this out, and send it out to your friends, coworkers, & relatives to give constructive feedback and room for growth in your life!

Why we wake up every day...

This past week I have been musing about the thoughts surrounding "work" and why we do it. Think about it with me for a minute:

• Wake up 5 days a week to get ready for work (6-7am)
  
• Drive to work in traffic -(7-8am)
  
• Work 8 hours (9 when you take your hour lunch)- (8-5pm)
  
• Drive home in traffic (5-6pm)
• Finally home and exhausted

So you have 4 hours at home every night to spend with your family, wife, husband, children, do any chores that need to be done, visit friends, exercise, and anything else you may wish to do with your 5 nights every week.

There is a silver lining to this whole process though and it is CRITICAL that we find it- You must love what you do every day and be excited to engage it every morning. The other crucial part is that your employer takes care of you and respects a work/life balance (in my next blog).

The question that plagues so many of us is, "How do I find a job that I love going to every day?" And unfortunately there is no easy or fast answer to that question, it is a process to be gone through.

Here we go:

• If you could get paid to do anything, what would you do?
• What are your strengths?
• What are you weaknesses?
• What are you passionate about?
• Are you willing to relocate for your job?
  
• What education do you need/desire to have?
  
• What do you do for fun & what are your hobbies?
• What do you want from your perfect company? (benefits, time off, schedule, work from home, bonuses, work/life balance, etc.)
  
• What are companies that are currently doing that? (Your answer to #1)
• If there is not a company doing that, is there enough interests in the area for your to start your own company?

After you have gone through these tough questions, you are well on your way to finding your dream job. Take your thoughtful answers from above and begin to research what companies that share your passions & direction, positions that play to your strengths & desires, and if you cannot find a solution it is time to see if there is enough of a market demand for you to start your own company. Although a lot of work, being your own boss can be very rewarding and freeing.

I'm happy to work through this process with you and help to guide you more if you would like. Just email me at: marcoux@gmail.com.

Increasing employee morale and productivity in our current economy

Tips for keeping employees productive-

·         Lead by example.  How many of us have seen the movies where the executives play golf and games all day instead of work? And often that is how we feel our managers act.  If managers, supervisors, executives are held to the same level of accountability for their work and lead by example, this alone will begin to increase employee productivity and will essentially wipe away resentment of “higher ups” which is what causes a decrease in productivity when they are not around.

·         Create a “fun” environment.  Life is too short to hate going to your job everyday and creating a fun environment will lead to happier employees which leads to increase productivity.  This can be done through simple things such as, having “Beer Friday,” changing the arrangement of your office to be more creative with couches and tables rather than desks and cubicles, bringing in games (Foosball, Nintendo Wii, Pool, Air Hockey, etc.) and let your employees use them (managers must start this!), allow employees to work from home (it has been proven that employees are happier and 10-15% more efficient when they work from home),  have a relaxed time off policy/personal time policy and TRUST your employees that they can handle that responsibility (encourages trust, better work/life balance).  You will find by allowing these creative spaces, fun activities, trust your employees to get their work done on their schedule you will see a HUGE increase in productivity and if employees enjoy coming to work you will see a decrease in “sick” days and not many people will want to work from home because work is fun.

·         “We” is better than “I.” This is a simple one- life and work is always more fun when you can share the experience with at least one other person.  Teams have many benefits besides adding to the enjoyment of work (why do you think police have partners?).  Teams have less mistakes because they can double check each other’s work, they are more efficient and get the same amount of work done in a shorter period of time, they are more creative because they can bounce ideas off of one another.  Teams are simply more fun and more efficient than going at a project by yourself.  This can also become the mentality where, when a team finishes their work they will offer to go help another team finish their project early too.

·         Reward extra effort. Have a “Comp Time” policy that states when an employee works over 40 hours they get that extra time either in overtime pay (time and a half) or they get that extra time in vacation hours!  If they worked hard and extra that means they made a sacrifice for the company, the company should take care of them likewise.

·         Reward efficiency. This is simple- If employees work hard they should be rewarded.  Have a policy that you stay till the job is done, this enables efficient employees to get their work done faster and leave early or take Friday off.  It will also make it more palatable when they need to stay and work with their team to meet a project deadline.

·         Trust your employees.  Employees who do not feel trusted do not work as hard as they could.  Employees should not need to be “watched” over- this creates an unhealthy environment for both the manager and the worker.  Give them a realistic deadline, be available for questions, and let them work.

·         Surprise your employees.  You would be amazed at what a little reward or surprise can do to your company morale and thus on your employees productivity.  Some things you can do- have a morale day and go do something, surprise your team or company with a full day off (maybe a Monday or Friday? And NOT taken from their vacation days!!), do a random drawing (once a week, month, quarter) for a nice $50-100 gift card to somewhere, or you can simply let everyone off early one day.

·         Nap Time. Europe got this one right! Have you ever heard of a siesta? Dr. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologists, has found that we, as humans, are programmed for a nap! If you take a nap between 2-4 pm, of approximately 45minutes, you will be approximately 33% more productive the rest of your day! Remember preschool when you used to hate naps in the afternoon? Well, as adults we are supposed to continue that and a simple rest in the middle of the day will refresh you and make you about 33% more productive in the rest of your day (work, home, kids, family, sports, gym, etc).  The benefits of this are both work and health related.

A little about me

This is my first blog and I am very excited to be starting it.  I figured that I would start with a little bit about myself so that you all can get to know me.

My name is Jeff and I work up in the Northwest for a Team Building company called Geoteaming. I am their marketing assistant and also do  what we call Course Designing.  My company designs closed Geocaching courses for corporate clients where we use GPS and other high-tech toys to analyze and develop teams (trust, communication, collaboration, effectiveness, etc).

Beyond this I am currently starting a company that focuses on a real passion of mine and that is mainly what this blog will be about.  My company is going to be about Life Coaching, Small Business Development, Employee Retention and Morale, and Creative Marketing ideas.  My hope is to have the website up and launched, January 1, 2009.  I have always been gifted with helping others, guiding them toward their goals, helping them succeed, and having a creative mind for developing great strategies to get them to where they want to be.  That is the hope of this company.  My friend, who is also starting her own business, has allowed me to be her Small Business Development consultant and we have both loved every minute of it!

So to start, that is a little bit about me and I am excited to start sharing more about business, tips, marketing ideas & thoughts, etc with you all.