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 

Digital Lead Generation Firms Come to the Quad State Region

This subject may develop into a series as it impacts many businesses in our area.

There is a tremendous interest in lead-gen companies as marketing partners as technology is pushed deeper into society's fabric. Forget the kids, now even 'Grandma' can work her way around on a tablet or an I-Phone these days.

Why this topic may develop into a Quad State Business Journal series is because 'local business development' for many firms in many industries is often controlled by 'out-of-state' firms--more specifically lead-generation firms.

And local businesses going after local businesses don't really care WHERE the lead generation firm is located. But digital makes it all possible.

It all makes sense when one steps back to look at business from the proverbial 30,000-foot level. If you are a home service contractor, a dentist, an attorney or in need of quotes to tear down a building to finding money for a project, online search is the logical place to start.

A Society Integrated and Connected By Keywords

Everyone of us who look for people to get happily involved with our business (aka customers), can find them online.

So as business owners, we face a dilemma. Do we learn to do lead-generation ourselves (the online kind) and take the time to go through the learning curve, or do we stick to our knitting and hire an outside firm?

Most people in most professions opt for the latter. Some notable exceptions to taking the time to master the online lead gen process we have met include chiropractors, a swimming pool contractor and a construction worker.

A teacher in Martinsburg, WV looking to help his son earn some extra money doing around-the-house yard work with a power wash option have found 'almost too much business' they report.

Their marketing tool?

A home-made website with 'hired SEO' options. And as of this writing, they will not leave Berkeley County--even to turning down business from other Quad State counties.

A dentist, who prefers anonymity, reports he works with 'some lead-gen outfit in California' to find business from Franklin and Washington Counties.

U.S. Tax Receipts Setting Records--Online Sales Make Its Mark

The US Treasury reports a record $2.66 trillion in receipts through August and a large chunk of that increase is coming with online firms. (However the US still runs a $500+ billion deficit!)

The United States ranks way down to #32 among 34 industrialized nations according to new research reported by The Wall Street Journal. The study ranks and compares 40 tax variables of the 34 industrialized nations. Only France (#34) and one other country is lower than the USA.

You can find out more about the study here:  http://online.wsj.com/articles/were-number-32-1410729349

Coming to the Quad State: Contractor Lead-Gen Aggregator 

Although this news concerns only the home improvement niche of contractors, it shows how large the lead generation 'industry' truly is.

There are some 17,000 lead generation firms in the US for all industries. Of that number there are roughly 3,000 firms who work with contractors and of that number only a few hundred who work with contractors exclusively.

An aggregator may get you a red line misspelling in a word processor as it is a fairly new phenomenon but there are news aggregators (think of the famous Drudge Report, Google Reader, Feedly and so on), content aggregators and more.  Google News searching for your key word news items is another example.

The contractor aggregator is being build locally in the Quad State for national reach, but will focus on local activity within our region first.

The attempt with the developers of the contractor lead gen aggregator is to match local contractors and their specialty (roofing, wet basements, landscaping and so on) with the best lead generation company so that they can focus on what they do best (repairing and replacing roofs for example) and the lead gen firm can focus on what they do best (finding exclusive leads).

Some lead gen companies have a revenue floor for any prospective client (as in 'we won't take a contractor with yearly sales less than $750,000 or $1.5 million and so forth).

The QSBJ is told that the aggregator site, having been worked on for the last four or five months, will be up within three weeks.

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Seven Marketing Insights from Seven Marketing Greats

One of the things just about all of at who write for the Quad State Business Journal have noticed is that how owners are reluctant to try something new.

This is true whether the business has been around for 20 or more years and is dying or brand new.

Recently we compiled seven marketing insights that are actually quotes from other marketers–some names you will be familiar with. Frankly, this is an open attempt to inspire you as we seek to inspire our own clients. Let us know if we got the point across!

“Get closer than ever to your customers; so close that you can tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves!”                                                –Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple, Inc.

It was 2004 or 05 that the president of A T & T, when hearing that Apple was developing a personal portable computer called the I-Phone, said something to the effect that it would never work because the customers just were not ready.

You know marketing is about relationships. What are you doing to grow your ties stronger to them?

“Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you have. Marketing is the art of creating genuine customer value.”                                            –Philip Kotler, Northwestern University

This is one of our favorite quotes. So many times all of us miss the point of marketing. It’s not to unload a warehouse of products (yet that is the end result), but it is to use our products and services to build value into our customer and clients.

Steve Lanning tells of several consulting clients who told him, “I like to hire as many good consultants as I can because of their ideas that I can steal or use. I always make five to ten times what I paid them.”  It’s probably a little different way than Dr. Kotler intended, but it still works.

“Nobody cares about your products (except you).”                                                                               –David Meerman Scott, Sales & Marketing Expert

This is extremely insightful to the wise marketer to start out with a paradigm like this in regards to your own business.

Of the literally hundreds of clients that our marketing group has between us, we can count only a handful (less than two hands’ worth) of clients who did NOT think that the world was going to beat a path to their door because of the products or services they offered.

Having this kind of paradigm ensures that you will be thinking, “…therefore, I will do all I can so that people can see how my products and/or services add value to their lives and/or business–and start to care about them!”

“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.”                                        -Seth Godin, Founder, Squidoo.com 

Seth Godin is an extremely wise marketer. If you are not receiving his daily blog (very short and very inspiriting and pithy) in your inbox, get it!

This quote fits hand in glove with the above Steve Jobs quote. Obviously, if you are a fast-food type business, you might not think that there is only so much you can do to get closer to your customers.

This is also a quote that has many affiliate marketers to fatten their bank accounts by literally finding products for unknown customers by being the middle man in the transaction with such firms as Amazon and many more.

The smaller marketer will often ride a successful product to the point of death for that product. They fail to notice that their customers are deserting them and without continuous customer information they think, “This puppy has been worth a great bottom line to me in the past and I’ve just got to ride through this market rough spot.

They fail to make an analysis–or get a hired gun to do likewise–in something akin to a SWOT analysis that their market may have moved on. Think 8-track and cassette tape distributors!

Remember, depending which type of market you are in, that knowledge will double in your industry every 10 to 36 months.

In today’s information age of marketing and Web 2.0, a company’s website is the key to their entire business.”                                                         –Marcus Sheridan, President, The Sales Lion.com

If you don’t know Marcus Sheridan yet,  just stay tuned…you will. He is one of Steve’s heroes–starting out as a swimming pool contractor, learning to create leads for his own business and then branching out to other businesses.

In fact, when Steve wanted to create his contractor marketing organization, he contacted Marcus who then turned him over to his Executive Vice President. While the EVP just fell in love with Steve’s idea of supplying contractors with exclusive (non-Home Adviser type) leads, The Sales Lion was expanding way beyond the 45 niches of contractors.

Your website must be more than just SEO and Google Adwords of course, but that’s a great start. As The Sales Lion’s Marcus Sheridan discovered, quality blogging content is the key to Google-love these days.

“Marketing without data is like driving with your eyes closed.”                                                                 –Dan Zarrella, HubSpot.com

If you are not receiving HubSpot’s daily inbox feed, you are missing out on some fantastic FREE content that you can use to build your own business.

The data is vital. If you or your consultant are not analyzing the data REGULARLY, you are indeed speeding down the road with your eyes closed.

“If people like you, they’ll listen to you. But if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”                                                                                                                           –Zig Ziglar, Former Speaker & Author

If you have been asleep in a cave somewhere and do not yet know the wit and wisdom of the late Zig, you need to do a Zig Ziglar look up.

There have been thousands of business owners inspired on to greatness because of this man’s wit and wisdom (even including many right here in the Quad State region.

You’ve heard it before and it is true even more in 2014-15…people do business with people they like–and trust. The entire suite of quotes on customer relations, getting close to the customer, customer enrichment and so on simply means you are building trust. Simple as that.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration!

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Article first appeared: www.QuadStateBusinessJournal.com