HOW TO WORK WITH A MARKETING BROKER--PART

The term marketing broker seems to have caused a stir. In this post, I want to get more into the actual how-to--for BOTH buyers and sellers.

First there seems to be confusion from Part I, as I should have realized, on who does what and when in working with a marketing broker.

There is a whole lot of information on this new iteration of marketing brokering and how it is becoming a boon for local businesses.

Those of us who have been around the business world for two or more decades are not used to the term above the real estate broker, insurance broker and possibly the food broker designation.

Many minds focused on marketing your firm.

Does the Term Marketing Broker Actually Mean Sales Person?

A marketing organization does the marketing work for you, the business hiring them--at least in the street-level sense.

Remember, a marketing 'broker' is a match-maker of sorts--looking over what you want, your needs, and finding the best third-party match to fill those needs from their marketing professionals inventory.

What we are referring to here is a company who a) focuses on one industry; and b) collects several specific marketing organizations with differing marketing emphases; and, c) matches needs of the local client to solutions.

Let me swerve off on what I call an explanatory rabbit trail for a bit.

Let's go with marketing brokers for home improvement contractors as a live example that is actually a current, behind-the-scenes real business here in our Quad State region.

Now there are probably in excess of fifty (50) different retail niches--jobs that home owners call for by name--in the home contracting market.

Many contractors can handle several things as to home repair. But they usually have one lead skill set and then can add any other related items in working up a quote for the homeowner.

The Contractor Marketing Broker Finds the Best Marketer for the Contractor

They usually work either by niche or by contractor. The end result, however, is the same. The contractor marketing broker cannot afford to work with those  contractors who are less skilled in their work or have a checkered reputation.

So How Does a Contractor Marketing Broker Select a Contractor To Work with and Vice Versa?

First, whether they go by niche market or by contractor, they always seek to chat with a number of their peers to determine top tier contractors.

Next, the contractor marketing aggregator or triage firm will ask their contractors how they are currently receiving exclusive, just-for-them homeowner leads in their niche...among other things.

Included in their interview will be how the contractor's current website is giving them local leads as well, what their local footprint is, their current number of employees, goals with their company and so on.

Next the contractor marketing broker may go over the various lead generation agencies the contractor currently may use. These are agencies that gather the homeowner leads and sell them to a number of contractors.

What contractor marketing brokers (or marketing triage) are looking to do is connect the contractor with the contractor marketing organization that, after the interview, they feel best match's the contractor's business needs.

There should be no cost to the contractor for this service from the marketing broker.

The marketing broker's compensation comes from (or should come from) their marketing organization client from their work in finding a successful win-win-win match in the home contracting marketplace.

The contractor marketing broker (to continue with this industry) is faced with several criteria established by the marketing companies they work with.

One contractor marketing organization may want to ONLY work with contractors doing over $2 million a year.

Another contractor marketing organization may take on contractors doing less than $750,000 but have other hoops potential contractor clients must jump through.

In all cases, there should be no (or very limited) contracts required of the contractor from the contractor (or any industry) marketing organization.

A contractor marketing organization has a smorgasbord of solid marketing choices available to them so that they can be the best help to the local contractor.

This allows the contractor (or any business in an industry having a marketing broker) to 'try out' other marketing firms in their industry as there are (or should be)  because of the no-contracts policy.

However, once a good relational match is made, it is not unusual for a contractor and marketing organization to stay married for decades.

It's all about relationships and the goals and objectives of both parties.

Another contractor marketing organization, in finding a good match as to revenue standards, may require the contractor to refresh or rebuild their website, dedicate one in-office worker to handle homeowner leads or other criteria.

The world--from our local neighborhoods to the world-- is getting standardized via the Internet. And the sooner we adjust our businesses to this change in the landscape, the better.

If you need help in finding a marketing broker for your industry, let us know!

Let us (me personally) also know how you are working with marketing brokers at Steve @QSBJ.org and we will let the rest of the Quad State business audience know!

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Article first appeared in www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com

THREE STEPS TO GOOD HOME CONTRACTOR MARKETING IN THE QUAD STATE REGION

[Publisher's Note:  We love a good marketing mastermind group when it comes together! When the Quad State Business Journal made the decision to start to select and bring together excellent LOCAL business experts as vendors in order to have LOCAL Quad State owners pick their brains, we didn't know where on the business services scale--or what niche or discipline--we should start.

As it is the key to revenue production for any type of business, we decided to start off gathering experts in the online marketing arena. We know there is a need for management, legal and accounting mastermind referral groups, too. However, as with all our mastermind groups, we desire all our business-facing members to collectively have many decades of street-level business experience. In this case in marketing.  Therefore, on behalf of Quad State owners, we believe we then have the depth of experience in order to tell the difference between a marketer who can talk a good game, and one who can actually deliver results. We love to see business battle scars!

This article is actually a report--and therefore requires additional thinking. All businesses nowadays need to know these basics for your business.

We still have the groups of business management, business legal and business accounting in our plans. But as marketing is such an immediate and ongoing need--dollars in the door and all--we are gathering the best marketing minds so that we can a) pick their brains for articles; and b) help as many local Quad State businesses as we can. Contact us at the Steve@QSBJ.org address below and we will look to triage your most specific and most profitable marketing insights immediately. --SL]

Marketing Home Improvement Services in Three Steps--Different or the Same Advice for Most Businesses?

What you are about to read has not only been directed at successfully marketing businesses in the contracting sector, but many other types as well. Hence, all businesses should be able to take away some business-building points from the article. All of us in the QSBJ business referral program have similar experiences with clients so this is not 'off the top of my head' stuff. Many, many clients have benefited from the following.

FIRST STEP:  Get a complete website audit of your website--now!

Your website is the centerpiece of your online marketing strategy. Most contractors, roofers to plumbers, treat their website as if it were a digital brochure. This is a big fat mistake.

Your website is NOT a brochure--it's a virtual sales rep and sales funnel (where a "sale" means a qualified lead is generated). Before you invest in any form of online marketing--pay per click (PPC) advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, etc.--make sure your website is up to the job of getting you exclusive, just-for-you leads.

Our QSBJ Marketing Mastermind Referral group has advisers who will not even think about taking on a business client who doesn't have a website that is congruent with sound lead generation. You should want that, too.

What Does a Good Website Look Like?: Easily found on the first page of Google for relevant keyword searches, a good lead-gen website is built on something akin to WordPress so that content can be quickly added/changed/deleted--by you. Another criteria of a good website: A good website converts at least 5 percent of visitors into leads (most people aren't even tracking this!) (You mean my website is supposed to produce traffic, too?)

A good website audit (as opposed to a sales pitch) will be an investment of $250 to $500 or more--depending on the size (number of pages) of your site and the professional group doing the auditing and whether that audit includes only recommendations--or includes a deal where also fixing issues can be part of the package. This can be your most profitable marketing expenditure all year--in fact some contractors (and businesses) are allowing for complete audits to take place every year. Again, this can be a 'gimme' service included with your ongoing marketing work.

Now you know that contractors, just as with many mature businesses, should look to spend around 8% of their revenue on marketing activities, yes? (Start ups should be looking to spend at least 15% to 20% until revenues can be managed effectively.) As with most things, you get what you pay for.

SECOND STEP: Measure and monitor everything--be metrics minded.

Track everything and know your numbers well. Remember the 24th chapter of Proverbs here: "Know well the condition of your flocks and pay attention to your herds..."

Almost everything online can (and should) be measured and tracked. Today's most successful marketers are numbers guys (and gals). By combining business metrics with data that's available from the web, savvy contractors are able to determine--with extreme precision and accuracy--exactly what they can afford to pay to acquire a new website visitor, an exclusive lead, and, ultimately, what it costs them to make a sale.

What should a good--exclusive--lead cost you? (Don't rely on lead providers who also sell leads to a half-dozen of your competitors, too.)

This is important data to have because it can be used to avoid marketing strategies that are being over-bought by (stupid) competitors (ads on yellow pages websites, for example) and to test or "go all in" with marketing tactics that are (often grossly) overvalued and still over-priced.

Key metrics being used by smart marketers include:

Revenue today  vs. goal for the job: This includes average revenue per job (perhaps by job type) measured against this time last year.

Gross margin (perhaps by job type)--What caused overhead to be greater here and not there and so forth. Where is the low-hanging fruit?

Close rate (of lead to sale) Visit-to-lead conversion rate.  This metric doesn't matter if you are the only one writing the estimates and arranging for the crew or have a couple of in-home sales people. You need to know why you got this piece of business just as much as why you didn't get the job.

The minimum you need to accurately track your website is Google Analytics (which is free) and a good call tracking platform that allows for dynamic number replacement. Install both of these onto your website (or have someone do it for you), and be sure that you customize each to the specific needs of YOUR specific business within your business footprint covered.

THIRD STEP:  Your website is your web real estate presence--maximize it starting with your search engine results and outward.

If time and money are no object, put your audited business website everywhere online a potential prospect might see you. This means listing your business on every single website known to man. There are also a lot of ad agencies that would be pleased to take your money!

The trouble is, we're all running small businesses. None of us have gobs of extra time or money. So, the first place you should work to maximize your real estate is on the search engine results pages. Why? Because this is where people have interest and intent. Not everyone on Facebook needs a new roof or wiring or plumbing job--even if they do own a house and live within your service area. I get that.

However, someone searching, "[name of specialty here] contractor in city, state" almost certainly needs you... RIGHT NOW.

How Do You Maximize Your Web Presence?

First, invest in SEO or PPC. If you want even more growth or need faster results, always add PPC advertising too.

QSBJ will have one of our experts write separate posts about the right vs. wrong way to do SEO and PPC, but here's the absolute minimum you need to know. When done correctly, no marketing strategy produces the return possible through an ongoing SEO campaign (and, in most markets, PPC isn't far behind).

Assuming you've followed the steps above, all you have to do to "invest" in SEO is to create a list of keyword phrases for which you'd like your website to rank and start creating content that is directly and indirectly related to those keywords (whatever you do, please don't skip steps and then tell me that you don't understand SEO). (I didn't say the they were easy steps!)

The content you create can include everything from services pages, testimonials/project spotlights, blog posts (and in today's Google ALL businesses MUST have at least one blog expression on your site to get Google love--or love from any search engine for that matter) and more. 

Here's the deal. Google doesn't rank websites per se. Google ranks webpages--those divisions in your website usually with names such as About, Our clients, Blog, FAQ and Contact Us. By creating well-written, informational web pages that target specific keywords, you can get ranked and be seen by Google as an authority on almost any subject.

If you don't have the time and/or hate writing, you can always hire a professional copywriter to assist you (when you run a small business, you're always dealing with the tradeoff between available time, ability, and money, right?).

The world of marketing has changed and tech savvy contractors have used the shifting landscape as an opportunity to gain an enormous advantage on their competitors. Companies short on web expertise, and/or reluctant to engage someone to help, are struggling to keep up. Regardless of which category you fall into, you can use (some or all of) the steps above to measurably improve the leads and sales you're getting from the web.

It's easy to have your online business presence questions answered--SEO to PPC, Adwords, Business App generation and many more strategies...

Even if you are not ready to have the top marketing minds in our Quad State region help you build your business, the Quad State Business Journal has arranged for you to pick their brains, FREE. And get free, non-government-related business marketing insight immediately. Just write to Steve at Steve@QSBJ.org and give him your question and we will triage your profitable response within our growing marketing mastermind group!

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 Article first published in www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com 

Five Ways to Spot an Emerging Business Trend

By Jill Sommers & Steve Lanning

Did you catch the story in Forbes about the 100 richest men or entrepreneurs in India were all billionaires?  Yep, not a single multi-millionaire among them.

What causes an entrepreneur to find a trend, have an idea and make a business out of it?

There are trends and then there are trends. Some business trends are huge, but not popular--as per the president of A T & T throwing a new product of a 'cell phone as a personal computer' under the bus in 2004.

Other trends are micro--say a new market for a specialized acne treatment.or a digestive supplement.

This is a beginning list. We came up with the list (which grew quite long) during a brainstorming session at QSBJ, but this will give you a start.

1. What markets do the top 10 (0r Top 25) sellers at Amazon.com cover as to both books and products could be useful for your business? 

2. What are some large over-arching trends in population demographics in Baby Boomers to the  new-born market that could impact your marketplace? Notice the huge increase in financial advisers and 'products for seniors' from 2006 when the first Baby Boomer turned 60. How could your business impact this demographic wave?

3.  What have been the changes in the top 10 (25-100) websites in your industry over the last year?

4.  Can you put together a list of the 10 (25-100) most popular headlines in the newsletters and magazines that impact your industry and related industries?

5.  What are some of the changes in the product or service offering that have been made over the last year to three years by your key competitors?

As mentioned, the list did grow too long for this article. Spotting an emerging business trend can be downright fun--and profitable once you let your mind flow on the subject!

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Article first appeared in www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com 

Profiting from Digital Marketing In Your Business

[Publisher's Note:  The Quad State Business Journal is extremely pleased to welcome one of the most astute digital marketing professionals in the USA to these pages. We can tell you that Barry Abraham is Google Certified as a digital marketer, a relative rarity with marketers to business as it is not only expensive, it is very difficult.

We are also very pleased that Barry has agreed to speak directly to any Quad State business to answer their digital marketing questions--completely free. If any Quad State business has a digital marketing question for Barry, you may reach him through AdviceMarketing@gmail.com. This e-mail address is my own address so that I can best monitor and guide questions.--Steve Lanning]

Really businesses have no where else to go online to gain business than via digital marketing strategies in the current Internet world. If  you say that you receive 'all' your business via referrals, for most marketers, referral business takes up only about 40% of your capacity. This leaves the balance of your capacity, again approximately 60%, to offline and online activities.

This interview may take up several articles, but, true to the title, I want to lay a foundation for you to apply instantly to your own business. There are 10 'pillars' for businesses. Once you get these 10 pillars correct, all things become much more profitable.

1. Getting Your Website Right. This part comes first because a website plays an important role in almost any Internet marketing strategy. Your website is your own piece of virtual real estate that you can customize to be useful for you and your customers. It is the “tip of the spear” to which other marketing efforts play a supporting role. This part explains the importance of your website, the qualities that make a website effective, how to gather the elements you will need, and systems that allow you to create and manage your own website.
2. Early Stage – Must Dos. Once you have a website for your business, there are a few things that are important to do right away. These things are important because they don’t require a large investment of time, yet they are very beneficial. It is best to get the ball rolling on at least some of these things as soon as possible. Topics covered include Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, registering your business to show up in local search engine listings (if your business is a local one), building citations to help your ranking, blogging and mobile websites.
3. AdWords/Pay-Per-Click. In my opinion, pay-per-click advertising is the best way to start growing your business immediately. It is a very exciting method with enormous potential for many types of businesses. Its biggest problem, however, is its steep learning curve. Learning to use pay-per-click (PPC) platforms without wasting a lot of money is time consuming. However, whether you want to dive in and try it yourself or find a consultant to help you, I can give you an overview of the things you need to know. Most of what’s covered in this part applies to various PPC platforms, but since Google AdWords is the biggest PPC platform, that is the main topic of this section.
4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As long as there have been search engines to point us to the information we are seeking, there have been people trying to understand how to make their web pages appear higher in search engine results. Although the actual formulas (called algorithms) are kept secret, there is a great deal of common knowledge. Some has come from researchers who study the search engines, and some has come from the search engine companies themselves. After all, all of the search engines want you to succeed legitimately. They don’t want you to learn how you might game the system.
5. The Social Web for Business. Everybody’s doing it, or so it seems. “Like us on Facebook!” “Follow us on Twitter!” These and similar phrases are all around us these days. Is this some kind of weird mania or is it a genuine staple of how marketing should be done today? This section aims to answer that question and many others. It covers the most important aspects of the most prominent social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
6. YouTube, Email Marketing, Podcasting, & Craigslist. This part covers several big methods that businesses use to stay visible. It’s hard to overestimate just how powerful these methods are. YouTube is a free and easy-to-use platform that can have multiple and prodigious benefits for your business. Email marketing is perhaps the best way to stay in the minds of your current customers. It is also fairly easy to do and can be free. Podcasting is an amazingly powerful method for establishing yourself as a knowledgeable authority on a subject. It can be utilized for great marketing benefits. Craigslist is one of the world’s most popular websites with over fifty billion page views per month. Using it effectively can be a boon to your business.
7. Ten Amazing Tools & Timesavers.   Internet marketing is a very big pool in which to swim. It can feel a lot like an ocean. How can you manage to keep your business alive, competitive, and moving forward in the coming years? The answer is: 1. by choosing clear priorities and 2. by using great tools. In this section, I describe some of the best tools for getting your work done efficiently. Software development has come a long way in recent years, and sometimes you need to upgrade to better programs. They help you save time, and that is one of the most important aspects of being successful in business.
8. Ten Timeless Marketing Principles. Times change, technology changes, but other things never do. Having a great website, social web marketing system, YouTube channel, AdWords campaign, blog, podcast and email marketing system is mostly a waste without knowing the principles outlined in this section. In the end, it is people who will become your customers. Sure, there are a lot of robots out there vacuuming carpet and performing automatic car washes, but they haven’t become actual consumers yet. The more you understand people and how they make their purchasing decisions, the more effective you can make all of your marketing efforts.
9. Ten Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know. We live in a big, interconnected world containing approximately seven billion people. Free markets abound, full of amazing products and services—many of which didn’t exist a few years ago. Succeeding as an entrepreneur is not easy. It takes focus, persistence and strategic thinking. This section outlines ten principles that all entrepreneurs should understand and keep in the front of their minds as they make decisions and progress toward their goals. Adopting any one of these principles as part of your operational and strategic method could make the difference to bring your dreams of great success to fruition.
10. Putting Your Plan into Action—Realistically. The first nine pillars above are intended to give you the information you need to understand the methods, tools, and principles that can help you succeed in Internet marketing. This last part brings it all together to help you prioritize and make decisions about how to proceed. We all have limited resources. No business has unlimited time and money for marketing. Considering your options carefully, prioritizing your methods wisely, and executing your plan relentlessly is the way for you to move forward. This section will help start you on your way.

In a book I have written (but not mentioned), I include sidebar items called Side-note facts, Reality checks or Warnings. Side-note facts are little bits of information I wanted to include, but not in the main text. Reality checks are for subjects where there might be a large investment of time involved, and you should think carefully before committing your efforts in that direction. Warnings, of course, point out costly mistakes you will want to avoid.

If you would like to learn about my book based on the above foundation for digital marketing, contact Steve Lanning at AdviceMarketing@Gmail.com. Please include any questions you may have for me if you are a business within the Quad State Business Journal footprint.

Once you learn to profit greatly from digital marketing, I urge you to teach others in your local business community!

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Women in Business Growing By Taking More Risks

By Jill Sommers, Business Entrepreneur and Business Writer 

One the the things that has interested me in the 'women in business' category, is that we women tend NOT to be risk-takers--naturally.

Maybe it is the human female desire to 'build a nest' as some psychologists have put it, rather than to build an empire. I don't know. But I do know that women in business have built some VERY substantial enterprises--certainly not on par with men--but still substantial.

Now running a business, I feel, is an entirely different subject. That is not what I'm talking about here. We women can be found at the helm of some very healthy Fortune 500 firms, but running a business is not the same as building it from the first-customer up--the proverbial square one.

Why?

Because it seems that with all the statistics in front of us today, that women are the best at following a design, a plan if you will. Better than men--in general. Now don't get me cast in a category that ONLY a woman can do this or that in business. I've known women MBAs to use their MBA emphasis to run companies, run large non-profits, develop organizations and so on.

But this is something that is already started. Something that has been operating a few years. Something with a history to look at and make decisions from--not start it from scratch.

At the Quad State Business Journal, we've often discussed that women are better at following a business model rather than creating one. Steve Lanning mentioned that he feels that is why some of the most successful women in business have been women in the real estate industry.

In real estate, as in other industries, there is a pre-determined model of how prospects are acquired, nurtured and sold. Steve reported that his daughter, in banking in the Quad State, has reported depositing some nice seven-figure checks into the account of women in real estate.

So Why Should A Women In Business Take Risks?

The short answer is that they need to in order to grow. Some of the most hesitant, risk-avoidance activities have been responsible for women not advancing in their business--especially those just starting out--but it cuts across the board for any woman-owned business.

Here are some current stats from the Small Business Administration...

1. The number of FULLY women-owned firms accounts for 30% of all enterprises.
2. Women-owned firms employ only about 6% of the country’s workforce. That number seems to square with those owners in the Quad State. 
3. Women-owned firms contribute just 4% of business revenues – roughly the same share they contributed in 1997. We feel that risk-avoidance is a reason along with the fact that women can achieve success in non- business areas such as being an executive in business or in government rather than running their own business--opportunities are plentiful here. 
4. Only 1.8 % of women-owned business hit the $1 million dollar mark compared to the national average of 5.3%. Roughly 88% of all businesses--across the board in the USA--are businesses with less than $500,000 in sales.

In studying the stats between 1997 and 2013,  while the number of women-owned firms grew at 1.5 times the national average, look at the number of women who make it to the million dollar mark and the fact that women-owned businesses still only contribute 4% of business revenues to the economy.

This is the same amount they contributed in 1997!

We Are Talking About 'Calculated' Risks of Course

There must be family considerations, too, in that calculus. A friend of ours had a car wash in Berkeley County and owned land in Franklin County along a very well-traveled Route 30 location in Chambersburg.

Yet when a family crisis came up, they had to sell the location. But the types of  calculated business risks I am talking about include:

1. Hiring more employees (most women-owned firms are owner-operated)
2. Taking out business loans (most women-owned firms finance on credit cards debt)
3. Embracing change and responding to challenges in the marketplace
4. Knowing when to get in and when to exit! (With a tip of the hat to the Kenny Rogers song, 'Know When to Fold 'Em" --Ha!)

Practical Insight about Risk for Women in Business

1. Don’t be afraid to fail, if you don’t fail sometimes, you are playing it too safe. Most of the Quad State women-owned start-up business we've found have owners that are scared to death to fail. A little of that attitude running through your mental approach is a good thing. But it is when that attitude consumes your every decision is when potential progress is halted.
2. Follow your intuition, for many times your gut reaction is correct. This is akin to follow your dream but also follow your gut in day-to-day decisions as well.
3. Understand that everything won’t be comfortable all the time – you will need to have uncomfortable conversations with your employees and colleagues. Zig Ziglar sometime in the 1980s promoted a song called, "Get Out of Your Comfort Zone.' Catchy tune and even as adults today they refer to it.
4. Realize that doing the same thing over and over will only result in the same outcome – and will eventually lead to diminishing returns and potential failure. Everyone, no matter what anyone tells you, at some time in their business lives, does the same thing over and over and expects different results. We call that insanity, but even business organizations get into the rut at times--sometimes for years. 

Develop a Low-Risk Plan to Get In the Habit of Taking Risks

1. Start by taking small and less significant risks that have fewer long-term consequences.The term 'baby steps' is operative here. Small risks, well-calculated, will lead eventually to taking larger steps in business. 
2. Begin with the end in mind. Develop a specific plan for what business success looks like and work toward that. Having a plan to follow decreases your level of uncertainty about the future and thus decreases risk. A good business coach can be worth their weight in platinum here.
3. Ascertain an outside level of the amount of risk you can endure and work to this level (i.e. taking out loans up to a certain level, hiring a certain number of employees). This is akin to the biblical admonition in Proverbs of 'knowing well the condition of your flocks.' When you know your 'flocks' (eg your inventory, employees, your market, your margins on products) risk can be tolerated so much better. Not saying it get easier, but it does get better. 
4. Ask, ask, ask! If you don’t ask you will never be in the game. Remember your training if you've taken a good sales training course. Always be asking for the order. Or use the old ABC method of Always Be Closing--that is ASKING customers to become happily involved in your products and services. 

Risk-Taking Also Has to Do With Your Personal Confidence

If you sell services, how good do you see yourself in relation to other competitors? How good do you see that you are helping your customers? Better than 90% of your competitors? 100%? Are you proud of your products sold in how they improve your customers' lives? Here are some ideas that may help?

1. Lean toward your risks. Don't think of them as risks per se, but push yourself in expanding yourself in various learning situations. 
2. Become an expert in your field and in the future trends in your business sector. Knowledge is power and if you have a good sense of future trends, you will be more secure taking risks. Become a student of trends in your industry. If your market concerns the county you live in, see what the trends could be in the Quad State region. If your market is the Quad State region, learn about the national and international trending.
3. Find a mentor who you can work with to help you overcome fears and evaluate opportunities. We are very pro business coach in all of our affairs. However, many of our business leaders still conflate the interventions and outcomes of business coaching with consulting in many instances.  They are not the same. As a business owner, confusing the two outcomes can cost you money. Learning and focusing on the differences of consulting and business coaching can be extremely profitable when you correctly learn to use the two interventions.

There is much left that women in business can accomplish. It is my personal opinion that our higher education is oftentimes woefully lacking and not challenging women in business enough. But I am always open to your thinking and comments! Write to me at Steve@QSBJ.org below and I will get your message!

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Article first appeared: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com 

Would an App Be Profitable for Your Quad State Business? (Part II)

You can see that in Part I we laid the critical groundwork as to a) if you even need an app for your particular enterprise; and b) how to think about finding the most actionable parts of that foundation.

Now we launch forward.

We Have the Strategy of a Successful Launch, but Are the Tactics Right Leading Up To that Launch?

Remember your first attempt--in-house or paid--at your website?

I, too, personally cringe with the question.

An app, just like your website, needs SPECIFIC data bits. And that that data should get transformed and refreshed with a certain frequency.

What does that mean in street language? Basically it means that you need the data massaged correctly or accurately enough so that your customers can experience a positive result with your app.

This is where design starts to take shape.  You need start branding the screens so that your customer is constantly and continually aware of the wonderful app that a like organization has is so easy to work with. There is where the word intuitive must start to form in your design. OK?

This is called in some circles spec-ing the app. Which means getting the technical butterflies to fly in formation.

We are making a lot of words come in for processes which, for the most part, may happen sequentially or in parallel. Then we are ready to construct how content will appear to the user.

Content really is the form and function of your end-user app shape. This is where a pencil on a piece of paper does wonders. You are deciding on what content goes where, strategically, on your screen that will give your users the best result. And 'best result' for you is dollars in the account.

If you don't know it by now, there really is a difference between a programmer and a developer. They have different paradigms. (Kind of like the difference you may have heard me write about between consultants and business coaches.)

Programmers are basically old school. Developers, once they know parts and how all things will fit together, should have 90% of the components and templates and they can tie it all together in your customer-facing app by utilizing small amounts of code.

Now, there really are uses for programmers when you build apps from scratch. And it could really be a lot more efficient to use a programmer when, after your strategy session, you see that ready-made components and templates will not serve your customer purpose.

If You Are Hiring Your App Done...

You need to really be spending the time in-house in both planning and strategy sessions so that when you do hire your app developer, you can lay it all out for them in a cogent manner. (And not have the developer fire you as a client for all the frustration you've caused them!)

Mostly, to keep costs down, you need to focus on hybrid apps as opposed to native. The bottom line is Web code so that your developer can push the buttons to get your app approved for app stores.

Obviously, a church is going to have different needs than, say, a wholesaler or motorcycle dealer in their app. But each can be developed into a very 'unique' customer-facing app by using pre-developed components designed well so that your brand remains foremost in the app's use.

Who Ya Gonna Call to Keep Your App Updated?

The additional bottom line (and yes there are several bottom lines to building and launching a successful launch APPlication), is that probably about 97% of all apps need regular updating. This figure goes to 100% for customer-facing apps.

Now you CAN have your developer do the oftentimes tedious job of updating. It depends on whether or not you have someone hired to do that work in-house. Updating content is critical so the person doing the updating must be constantly looking at your app from the customer's point of view.

The Bottom Line to Keep In Mind When Considering Apps

These days, customers are not clamoring for another icon for their business or home screens. Most of us got over that novelty about 2004 or much earlier.

Your app HAS to matter to your customers. You must give them something they cannot obtain elsewhere. And all the talk in these last two Quad State Business Journal columns about native, hybrid, custom to cookie-cutter style in in-put and output comes down to this sentence.

Remember the term customer enrichment I've used in other articles in QSBJ? I wished I would have coined the term, but the mental image is the same with your app.

Content is Still King--But Content Marketing Is the Crown. 

Apps do well with content marketing. Your quality content is what pre-sells the customer. Some marketers have customers who read between 30 and 100 pages of content before a purchase is made.

Your business offers your customers, patients, donors, members and students a solution. Your app therefore is front and center on the front lines in your marketplace reminding customers and potential customers that YOU have the information. All they need is to come in, click a link, fill in their e-mail information, download this book--any activity that can move them closer to a buying decision.

There is something  has to matter to your customers by giving them something they can’t get elsewhere. In the end, native or hybrid, custom or cookie-cutter, that is where the rubber meets the road, where you deliver something of value. How you translate that value into increased sales is a whole other question. 

But as Marcus Sheridan showed with his fiberglass pool customers, the ones that had absorbed the most of his content on the product (at least 30 and in some cases over 100 individual web pages!) were the customers most likely to make a purchase.

Apps give you the opportunity to present your products as solutions to your customers’ problems, even if only by suggesting that you are a master in the domain of that problem.

The one thing that a lot of marketers do in the digital age is try to sell with every bit of content. That turns off people in 2014. You simply do not want your customer/potential customer that they are being marketed--at least aggressively so.

Your app should be like a gift to customers. Your solution is now right in front of them with your app. Now, how can you make that attitude happen to the great joy of your bottom line?

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 Article first appeared: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com 

Would an App Be Profitable for Your Business?

There are a lot of Quad State businesses looking at the efficacy of an app adding to their bottom line. Sure an app would be a sexy addition to your business, but is it going to pay for itself?

We haven't written much on apps for a few months at the QSBJ, and yet our app network of app developers are enjoying some nice growth in their upticks in their business. Hence, we thought we should get with the program.

A Network of Quad State App Developers?

Yes, indeed. As most digital folks, the people in our network whom we 'bother' for app technology updates and information for a variety of industries all seem to be doing well.  And as many Quad State digital folks, their business doesn't all come from our Quad State region. Digital stuff can be done across the world.

But let's look at some fundamentals in app development.

We can create our own app!

Yes, that is true. With the platforms currently available, it is possible that you can create your own app--if you really want to. But there is a learning curve, and the learning curve doesn't start with technology. It starts internally. Let's get to the basic question first.

What Can an App Do For My Business--Really?

Now if you just go around and gather some ideas from your staff, you may come to the wrong conclusion--to build or not to build. Either decision can be the wrong one for your business if you are not thorough in your exploration of this question--maybe even to the point of bringing in an outsider, getting staff and a couple customers in the room and firing questions.

The internal stuff starts with your assessing a) your app potential; and b) is this the best way to deliver our goods and services; and c) can we afford the option that does us the most good?

The first actionable, however, should be making SURE your website shows up well in all kinds of handheld mobile devices (I-phones to tablets, etc.).

The next actionable is what is your website requiring readers to do--click a link, download a report, watch a video and so on. Just don't have the clicker leave your site thinking, "Hey, that was a cool site. Now I wonder what's another similar site...." Think actionable!

The next question you need to ask yourself is (per above) WHAT data do I want to display, inform or collect through a handheld device?

Enter Your Strategic Concept for Your App

Granted, you do NOT have to bring in a consultant to find out if an app is applicable to your business. An app is certainly not going to do much for an architect, attorney or an accountant--unless they are marketing a book or some 'consumable' product that can be delivered through a website or an app.

Stephen Covey told us to 'begin with the end in mind.' So that's a great place to start. So we have to decide where do we want our data for any perceived app to come from. In larger businesses, they have the IT department as the keepers of the data--usually.

In a singleton (sole proprietor) or less-than-five employees type of business, an app can still do wondrous things for you, but you still need to be building that decision tree analysis of how you want data (and maybe money) to flow.

In most enterprises, it is the IT departments mission to store and protect the data that comes from different parts of the enterprise. This is still true for the singleton-type business--we're talking much more than just mailing lists.

What Data is Relevant In My Business--Really

We've got so many sources where one can stuff data these days--whether or not you have no employees or a couple thousand. There's SalesForce, DropBox and other third-party storehouses. Internally, you can have options such as Open Directory or SharePoint software. There really is a vast array of the possibles here.

Is your data fully accessible? Just as there are many resting places for data, there are many nooks and crannies where it can become locked up or otherwise not accessible.

Do I Employ a Tech Wizard that Knows How to Build My App?

Ah, now the rubber is going to start hitting the proverbial road. Even if you know where the data is and can access it easily, does the person in your employ have the necessary SKILL SET to put YOUR KIND of needed app together? It's got to be the right KIND of app for your business.

This is not a pitch for outside Quad State app consultants to come in, but this is where mistakes can get costly if you only rely on internal talent. Now it might be that internal talent is ALL you need, but wouldn't it be worth a few bucks to find that info out?

Consultants can bring us a broad array of industry and technical information from a board base of clients. I used to tell people that I've never lost money hiring an outside pair of eyes and ears--and I've had other owners say the same. Consultants roam the proverbial street so being street-wise is good and something that your internal staff may be far away from.

The point here is to not jump the gun into 'cool designs' until you get the cool data questions all answered and have built a strategy. Now your initial strategy may be all wrong so that the second iteration of your app is successful. It's still money well spent.

Coming next time: Getting the Data, Specs and Content RIGHT!

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Article first appeared: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com