The 10 Top Ways Quad State Businesses Can Attract More Customers On Shoestring Budget—Part III

Business Talk Column—Part III

This submission will conclude our 3-part series on customer acquisition on the cheap. We have looked at ways 1-7 in the two past Quad State Business Journal submissions and now we look at the final three. Our editors will be putting together an expanded report that will be free to QSBJ readers later this year.

8. Build relationships

We can hear you, “Yeah, sure. Build relationships because it's a lot harder and more expensive to gain a new customer than it is to keep them happy. Tell me something I don't know.”

But it is true. So many of us in business, especially when things are going swimmingly, hear speakers pipe similar things into our head, but living them out is a different story. And something that is not part of our business day—by habit—just is not done.

A Customer Enrichment Campaign Needed?

A few years ago, a Washington County friend who taught in the New York University and DeVry University MBA programs and I took on a Baltimore client. We successfully worked with that client for three full years, but one of the hardest things to get the large family business to come to grips with was customer enrichment—as Richard and I called customer relations.

The push back for our client came from 'older' family members. “I want our customers to enrich us...” I very clearly hear the president saying. But they all eventually got on board to begin to treat their customers as they did their own employees (which were treated very well).

Now customer enrichment/relationship doesn't have to be expensive or even cost anything to implement. Our client, because they did a lot of business with the universities and hospitals around the Baltimore region, found that little get-togethers over nice food really built up great rapport. But you don't have to go there.

A simple FaceBook Fan Page of customer testimonials as to creative ways customers were using your company's products or services might build some wonderful ongoing relationships.

An e-mail campaign through your autoresponder can be very inexpensive yet take on a great value-add to your company's value in the eyes of customers, patients, members, students or whatever you call customers.

This value-add e-mail campaign can take several formats. It could be an ongoing how-to list focused on your customers. It could be an automated teaching series on how to creatively use the various components of your business. Autoresponders are wonderful inventions that can run in the background but have continuous and regular contact with your customer base.

9. Offer True-Value Coupons

No I don't mean the hardware store version of coupons, but get coupons that offer the customer real value from certain aspects of your product or service offering. Offer real discounts and even free services in your coupon—as much as you think it hurts. Carpet cleaning firms do this well in their 'Three rooms for the price of one' and other offers.

Research has proven beyond the shadow of doubt that people will go out of their way to either redeem coupons or keep them around 'for later.' Whatever customers do with coupons, you have a constant brand-builder and advertisement consistency. Depending on your strategy, coupons can build an end-to-end campaign for repeat customers—while expanding your customer base.

Several coupon pros have very good and inexpensive offers over on the Business Solutions Network that you can check out at (http://thebusinesssolutionnetwork.com/flyer-vendors.html). Even adding a QR code is a very good addition. If you are not familiar with what QR codes can do, look into them. Also, check out the coming Local Lead Circles™ with the Customer Acquisition Forum of Experts (CAFE) that focus on intra-market marketing for owners.

10. Better Than a Discount: Give it away!

Is there some way you can allow your potential customers to experience your product or service 'wonderfulness' before they take out their wallet?

Many potential customers in certain industries are wary of 'free stuff' that might be offered with a 'what's the catch' attitude. Yet in developing a strategic offering platform or the 'because' of why you are allowing a certain product or products at a deep discount or even free, you get to the other side of their distrust.

Some initial customers of the Quad State's Business Solution Network (www.TheBusinessSolutionNetwork.com) and the terrific business services smorgasbord offered have found that a deep discount of the freelancer's services can lead to a long term relatonship.

Go back over the list in this article series. Print the three installments out. Make notes as to your time investment and any needed tools or services you need to launch. Try to launch your 2014 customer service/customer enrichment or customer relations campaign for less than $100. And then keep careful tabs as to your ROI on that $100. Let us know what you come up with!

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The 10 Top Ways Quad State Businesses Can Attract More Customers On Shoestring Budget—Part II

Business Talk—Part II—Ways 4-7

Those of us who are business owners in the Quad State region have a myriad of opportunities to have experts we trust give us their opinions about our businesses—in many fields.

It used to be that if you owned a brick and mortar business, one of the things you could count on would be lots of various kinds of sales people to walk through the door. Some with great ideas, some not so much.

Sure, businesses on the street still have their share, but the pitches also come hot and heavy through the e-mail box.

This is the second of three installments on 10 (of many) proven ways we can market our businesses. Please see the Quad State Business Journal, January 23 issue for the first installment.

Starting off this issue is probably the most effective use of free marketing we can use.

4. Network

The Quad State region is blessed by a covey of both formal and informal networking groups.  One of the largest groups is Business Network International or better known as BNI. The writer worked with Ivan Misner, BNI's founder in the early 1980s and was offered the territory of Northern Virginia, Washington, DC, and all of Maryland for a mere $3,000.  This was to be his first push to the east coast.

Alas, I had too many irons in the fire and wasn't thinking clearly—or maybe I just thought that the whole BNI business model wouldn't work. I passed on Mr. Misner's offer—to my pain. Sigh! BNI is now the largest business networking organization in the world.

I do know the Mason Dixon chapter of BNI is blessed by a tremendous president, John Poyle of Hagerstown Heating and Cooling. That guy runs a tremendous meeting and the members are quite blessed to have him. Good group there.

As you know, BNI, LeTip and other networking groups only allow one niche per member. It keeps the lead flow consistent. While BNI is a good business model, it is not for every business owner's personality.
Networking, combined with the #1 way mentioned, your elevator pitch, gives you a tremendous way you can be a mind-sticker in the thought processes of your potential prospects—AND--those who could recommend them to you.

Business Solution Network (www.TheBusinessSolutionNetwork.com) is going to be introducing a very special networking business model in the next 90 days. It is built on the 'space' that both BNI and LeTip leave out in their business model. Watch for it in these pages. (You are signed up for the Quad State Business Journal RSS feed, yes?)

5. Speech-Making

Granted, giving a speech is the #1 fear of a majority of business folks. Back in the old days, for some reason, I loved to market speakers. These pros were mostly from the National Speakers Association (www.nsaspeaker.org) but 'budding speakers' with a good story were also a favorite.

There are many different aspects to paid and unpaid public speaking. We are referring here to non-paid public speaking. Speaking personally, the reason I probably loved to market speakers is that I  often found myself hearing my clients speak and turning very jealous of their ability!

Virtually every organization is looking for a speaker. You are not there to 'advertise' your business and tell the audience how great you are, but to give them insight into their lives and businesses.  If you are an expert—at anything—please look into volunteering to share your knowledge.

There are many organizations here in the Quad State region who would dearly love to have you speak to them. And you don't need a Power Point presentation as many do if you are speaking to a group less than say 15 in number. Unless your speaker aids actually build the knowledge base of the audience, you can do a lot with handouts and a nicely presented outline with spaces for notes.   
 
The Business Solution Network has people who can help you develop your speaking presentation. See the section under Business Coaches and Consultants. The toughest thing to do is prepare a speech without receiving feedback from a disinterested third party—one who is only interested in YOUR success.

6. Create Business Buzz—Press Releases Mostly

As a small business owner, you are your own public relations firm. You need to be careful to a) craft the right message; and b) spell it out so that it makes sense.

Back to Business Solution Network again, our Quad State region has an amazing number of good professionals who can craft good press releases for you—very inexpensively. Or you can sign up for larger venue help if your budget allows. I urge you to give our Business Solutions Network professionals a test first.

Just as with the graphics section of BSN, I would put our press release professionals up against almost any of the high-fee business writers. Another great free way to go if you are an expert in any field is HARO.
HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out (www.helpareporter.com.) You can respond to reporters’ queries that are looking for story ideas and resources. Some are small media opportunities, but others are major media outlets that use this service too.

As I used to tell many of my own clients, whatever you are selling and if you plan a strategy using press releases, you need to make double sure of your capacity.

I like to tell the capacity story of a Quad State client that approached me after the Mountain States Arts & Craft Festival in Harpers Ferry, WV years ago. He had heard about my working with a friend of his and knew I didn't take on clients just because their check cleared the bank.
To cut the longer story with many business lessons short, I did take on the gentleman because he had an interesting craft. (That is all the information I'm giving because he is probably still living in our Quad State area!)

I felt I could genuinely help him market his unique craft through a press release strategy thereby saving him a lot of money. He manufactured his craft in a custom-fitted garage a few steps from his back door. That refurbished garage became both his manufacturing and order-fulfillment department all rolled into one.

We had not gone more than a month or two into our relationship when I gave my little 'sermon' on making sure he was prepared to gear up for larger success if our press release efforts proved extraordinarily successful.

I'll never forget the words he spoke to me. “Lanning, your job is to bring me business based on what we planned. My job is to fulfill that business. You take care of your part and I'll take care of mine, OK?”

We did start getting some nice editorial mentions in various craft publications around the country. And he started receiving some nice orders based on those mentions in the publications. In fact things were really going quite well. And then one day it happened.

We got mentioned in a HUGE national general-readership publication and the orders started coming in by the bushel basket. I immediately urged him to expand his capacity--now. He refused. He tried to work his help 15 hours a day. They refused.

I wanted to immediately stop our press release program until he got caught up with the orders. He refused. And I resigned him as a client.
The end of the story is that he, along with his clever craft, went out of business because of TOO MUCH business. And too little capacity.

7. Speak Up and Ask for referrals

Every single customer can be a walking advertisement for you if you treat them right. That doesn't mean buying them dinner at a high end restaurant or other gifts. People do business with people they like. And treated well, they will tell others. Oftentimes, people forget what a great person you are to do business with and you have to remind them. Statistics tell us that the majority of people are willing to provide a referral—if asked. So don't be shy in asking!

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For further reading unless otherwise linked in the article:
www.Helpareporter.com
www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com
www.TheBusinessSolutionNetwork.com
www.BNI.com

Small Business Is Dying And No One Seems To Care—The 5-Point Case for Turning Around an 'Actual 37.2%' Unemployment Rate

 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, we have right at 400,000 new businesses being born each year in this county. Before you order pizza on that news, consider that we also have, now, 470,000 businesses dying.

We are told that there are 92 million able-bodied adults who are not working. There are just no jobs. Let's allow for all the scams and scamming that goes on. It's still a horrendous figure.

Just let that figure sink in for a bit. We have in this country, what, 225 million adults (whatever their attitude for work is)? And there are 92 million who cannot find work? And the government says there is a 6.7% unemployment rate? Really?

Since 2009 the US has LOST 9 million jobs. That takes in economic conditions, bankruptcies, 'moving off-shore,' government regulations and general 'going-out-of-business' reasons within that figure.

Digging underneath the Labor Department's pretty face of the U-3 figures used to come up with the public mention of the 'wonderful unemployment rate' of 6.7%, a different picture emerges. Add the Labor Department's less-public U-6 figure of a 11.3% of those who have gone through 99 weeks of unemployment without finding work, and you only start to see the real number.

Divide 225 Million Working-Age Adults By 92 Million Not-Working Adults and See What You Get

Of course you get a little over 40%...roughly. This takes in the 62.5% of the US workforce that can work is actually in the workforce.

Granted, I am one of the last folks you should trust with math nor insight into how the Labor Department comes up with its numbers, but I cite two people you should listen to.

David John Marotta, an influential Wall Street adviser with a large fee-only practice in Charlottesville, VA of people wanting to know how best to invest their money, did his own calculations.

I will encourage you to read up on Mr. Marotta's findings at http://rt.com/business/us-unemployment-economy-crisis-assistance-006/ and also below. I find it interesting that as a Forbes contributor and working in his own financial advisory businesses, he loves the mathematical precision of teaching computer science.

Jim Clifton is the CEO of Gallup, the polling organization. He has written a dynamic editorial this week of questioning why anyone should take the official US unemployment figure seriously as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Not knowing if the two gentlemen even know each other, Mr. Clifton's work and Mr. Marotta's work use different paths, but get to the same conclusions.

“The Official Unemployment Rate Is an Inaccurate Mess...”

This is quoting Mr. Clifton. He decries current methodology and says that Gallup has developed a Payroll-to-Population (P2P) metric. It represents adults in full-time jobs receiving a paycheck as a total of the US adult population.

The new Gallup metric answers the question, What percent of American adults have a full-time job?

In this case the answer has fallen to the lowest point since March of 2011 with a rate of just 42.9% in December 2013 from 43.7% in November of last year.

It is with interest that we see general agreement in the two men's work. We could also include the clunky 40.8% figure that the Quad State Business Journal got from simply dividing the 225 million by the 92 million able-bodied adults.

The Quad State Journal Case for Lessening the Area Unemployment

We desperately need the involvement of every organization even remotely attached to business in the Quad State region.

That goes triple for area chambers of commerce. The economic development authorities can certainly have an at-large seat at the table because they are already engaged in the front line battle and we need them working for their respective regions all they can.

That means it is up to us to develop plans—not just programs—that make sense for local-area small businesses.

Granted, it takes both business owners and organizations to agree. Now with most chambers, programs can take the shape of forums, non-competitive owners sitting down together. These forums must be facilitated by a business owner or person with enough business battle scars that the attending business owners feel it worth their while to attend.

There Are the Big Five Reasons Way to Grab the Interest of Small Business Owners.

1. Help the businesses FIND more customers, patients, donors, members and so on;
2. Help the businesses create new and greater customer enrichment opportunities that increase the 'spend' of their customers;
3. Help the businesses increase the number of customer visits;
4. Help the business develop more referrals and fans of their business;
5. Help the business hire and keep employees who keep the reputation and profits of their employer uppermost in their minds.

If we could strive to have our business organizations determine to plan every meeting with one or more of the above five, interest and participation rates will go up.

These five objectives are on the mind of EVERY business—or should be. And the wise organization catering to business owners would do well to lock in this agenda.

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For further reading on Mr. Marotta's 37.2% unemployment rate: http://rt.com/business/us-unemployment-economy-crisis-assistance-006/

For background on David John Marotta: http://blogs.forbes.com/people/davidmarotta/

For Mr. Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, Column:

http://thechairmansblog.gallup.com/

Original Quad State Business Journal listing: http://www.quadstatebusinessjournal.com

To contact the author on the Quad State 5-Fold Objectives for Businesses:

Steve@QSBJ.org  

Small Business Reputation Management Handed Victory by Appeals Court: Could Reshape Customer Online Reviews

Remember Yelp and other 'business review' sites where you can anonymously review a business?

 

There are a lot of reputation management consultants who are making a good income protecting clients from unscrupulous review posters. However, that just may be changing—big time.

 

Many quality Quad State businesses hire reputation management consultants who 'have their back' against bad reviews that may be coming from anyone from competitors to people who just don't like their business.

 

Many Quad State owners have heard the Hadeed Carpet Cleaning ads when they travel to the Washington, DC area. He's everywhere—radio, TV, Internet, direct mail, you name it.

 

Posters who review a business, before the ruling, did not have to identify themselves. Now they do. The case could continue to be litigated, but this case is looked on as a victory for small business owners of all stripes.

 

Internet Case Law, Meet the New Ruling

 

In a decision that could reshape the rules for online consumer reviews, a  Virginia court has ruled that the popular website Yelp must turn over the names of the seven reviewers who anonymously criticized the prominent Hadeed business.

 

Mr. Hadeed plans, with ruling in hand, to sue the posters for defamation.

The case revolves around negative feedback against Virginia-based Hadeed Carpet Cleaning. The owner, Joe Hadeed, claimed that the users leaving negative reviews were actually not real customers of his business. This fact would violate Yelp’s terms of service.

 

His counsel issued a subpoena demanding the names of seven anonymous reviewers, and a judge in Alexandria ruled that Yelp had to comply.

 

Does This Week's Ruling Also Hamper First Amendment Rights?

 

The Virginia Court of Appeals agreed that it does not. The Appeals Court ruled that the comments were not protected First Amendment opinions. And if the Yelp users were not customers they were making false claims.

 

Reputation management consultants will still be needed until the ruling and resulting rulings filter into society.

 

“The Virginia statute makes the judge a gatekeeper to decide whether or not there’s a common-sense reason for someone in our position to get this information,” said Raighne Delaney, a lawyer at the Arlington firm Bean, Kinney & Korman who represented Joe Hadeed. “In order for someone like Joe Hadeed to find out who these people are, he has to explain his case, and if he can convince the judge that there might be a real lawsuit against this person, the judge can then say, ‘Yes, you can get this information.’”

 

But Paul Levy, a lawyer with Public Citizen, the group Ralph Nader founded, who represented Yelp, said the ruling might be concerning to consumers.

 

“Hadeed really did nothing to justify the need for the identity of the Does in this case,” Mr. Levy said. “It’s going to make it more difficult for the marketplace of ideas to get valuable information about companies.”

 

Mr. Hadeed deferred most of his reflection on the case to his attorney. He said through court documents that he believed most of the critiques came from a small number of users, non-customers, who were creating fake accounts to post multiple reviews.

 

The Quad State Business Journal reminds readers that just as a well-placed cut of the tongue can start a firestorm of controversy, so it is with those few who wish harm on a business through the Internet. Some do damage to business reputations just for fun it seems.

 

“Yelp said that all the posts had different IP addresses, but how many IP addresses does one person have between all their devices?” The attorney for Mr. Hadeed continued, “It would be easy to create a number of different fake accounts.”

 

Court Ruling: Unmasking the Perpetrators of Potentially Libelous Anonymous Comments

 

Yelp’s attorneys cited legal standards established across the country for identifying people who post anonymous comments and claimed that Mr. Hadeed and his business had not met those requirements. The court noted, however, that the state has its own standards for “unmasking” those who make potentially libelous anonymous comments online and agreed with the Circuit Court for the City of Alexandria, said that those standards had indeed been met.

 

“We are disappointed that the Virginia Court of Appeals has issued a ruling that fails to adequately protect free speech rights on the Internet, and which allows businesses to seek personal details about website users — without any evidence of wrongdoing — in efforts to silence online critics,” a Yelp spokesman said in a statement. “Other states require that plaintiffs lay out actual facts before such information is allowed to be obtained, and have adopted strong protections in order to prevent online speech from being stifled by those upset with what has been said. We continue to urge Virginia to do the same.”

 

In a 25-page majority opinion, Judge William G. Petty said, “Generally, a Yelp review is entitled to First Amendment protection because it is a person’s opinion about a business that they patronized.

 

Judge Petty continued: “The anonymous speaker has the right to express himself on the Internet without the fear that his veil of anonymity will be pierced for no other reason than because another person disagrees with him.” 

 

The court established the fact that the First Amendment rights do not cover deliberately false statements and agreed that the evidence that Mr. Hadeed provided proved sufficient reason to think the users might not have been customers.

 

The court's opinion stated: “the reviewer was never a customer of the business, then the review is not an opinion; instead, the review is based on a false statement” and not subject to any First Amendment protection.

 

The anonymous posters were revealed as non-customers when Mr. Hadeed said his company could not “match defendants’ reviews with actual customers in its database.”

 

The Quad State Business Journal has stated several times in its site that in order for businesses to bolster their reputation management capabilities, a solid database must be maintained.

 

A dissenting judge wrote however: “A business subject to critical commentary should not be permitted to force the disclosure of the identity of anonymous commentators simply by alleging that those commentators may not be customers because they cannot identify them in their database.”

 

Multiple Media Joined In the Case On Yelp's Side

 

Several well-known media outlets filed friend-of-the-court briefs including The Washington Post, Gannet Co, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the American Society of News Editors all filed in support of Yelp.

Public Citizen's Mr. Levy said the case was the first he had seen in which the court ordered revelation of information on anonymous users.

 

Mr. Levy declared, “I’ve litigated in many cases for 14 years, and it’s the first time I’ve ever seen an appellate court order the identification, the first case in which I’ve represented a party in which we thought the Doe was clearly protected and the court said they were not,” he said.

 

The Yelp Ruling Warns Posters to Follow a Review Site's Rules

 

Yelp's estimated 39+ million reviews on local businesses remains a popular place for praise or scorn of local businesses. However, if reviewers are  not actual customers, thereby breaking the rules of the site, as per the anonymous posters in the Yelp case, they can be found out.

 

Many a Quad State business, otherwise very customer-centric, has tasted the impact of an anonymous reviewer.

 

The Quad State Business Journal interviewed a reputation management consultant on the Business Solutions Network site who, in turn, spoke on terms of anonymity.

 

“Too many businesses are losing customers and revenue by not having at least a slight effort by a reputation management person. I'm not looking to get more business, but that is a fact. You will see a lot of the rep management firms make hay out of this ruling. And they should,” he concluded.”

 

Mr. Hadeed has a second business, Hadeed oriental Rug Cleaning where he has met with the same issue. In this instance the hidden reviews are roughtly split between negative and positive reviewers.

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Original post: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2536956/Court-orders-Yelp-reveal-anonymous-reviewers-identities-defamation-case.html

 

To find a local reputation management consultant: www.TheBusinessSolutionNetwork.com