2013 Marketing Trends

What are your 2013 marketing resolutions?

There are a few things I'd recommend you do this year to make sure your marketing does what you need it to. Some ideas:

1) Make a plan. What are your business goals this year? Is there a level of growth you need to achieve? Are you opening new channels or locations? Are you launching new products? You should map your marketing plan to your overall business plan for 2013. Then, you'll be marketing intentionally and you'll see better results. This will also help you to discard tactics that don't support your business goals.

Plan. From Flickr user J'Roo.

2) Keep mobile in mind. Mobile marketing isn't going away - more of your customers will be looking at your web site or reading your emails from mobile devices than ever. In fact, more than 8 in 10 smartphone owners surveyed used their smartphones to research and browse for products for their recent holiday shopping.

Your takeaway? Remember, you may not need to spend lots of money developing your own mobile app, but you should make sure your web site and your emails are readable and clickable on a variety of devices. With so many people using touchscreens today, think about how you can make links more accessible. Also, can you make mobile buying easier with one-click buying?

3) Customize whenever you can. Are you still sending out identical non-personalized blast emails to your customers and prospects? How are they doing? There's a lot of good reasons to use dynamic content to personalize your messaging - customers want to know that you know who they are  and what they like. If you can help make their next purchase a little easier, everyone benefits. Also, by respecting prospects and meeting them where they are, you can get them ready for purchase in a way that feels more like a dialogue and less like a command to buy.

What are your 2013 marketing resolutions? Unsure how to get there? Let me know, I can help.

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It's Time to Think About Your Holiday Promotions

We've had some record heat lately, so it can be challenging to think about silver bells, holly trees, and frosty air. But if you don't plan your holiday promotions now, you can be left without the homey glow of candlelight to keep you warm. Today, you need to make a list and check it twice - whether you have a retail business, a non-profit, or any other kind of operation:

Holly, from Flickr user Arquera.

1) What are your goals for this holiday season? Some retailers get up to 40% of their annual sales during the winter holidays and the end of the year is peak time for most non-profits as people want to be generous and be sure to have their tax deductions ready. Do your financials and figure out what you need to bring in.

2) What's your strategy for reaching that goal? Are you going to start before Halloween, as more and more retailers do? Are you going to peg big sales/donation drives to Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa? When do you expect to meet each goal milestone? Are there particular items that are going to drive most of your sales? Do you have an overarching theme?

3) What tactics are pegged to those strategies? Is it the 12 toys of Christmas? Give for Thanksgiving? How are you going to use email, social media, your web site, your telepresence, videos, traditional mail, and everything else in your arsenal to support your strategies?

4) What do you need to do now? If your major holiday promotion is tied to polka dot ties, you need to make sure you have them, and their displays, packaging, and shipping materials, in stock soon. If you're going to be sending out holiday cards to donors, you need to get these designed and ordered now. If there's some heavy lifting to do on your web site that your in-house staff can't do, think about what you need and talk to a consultant now. Lots of us are busy during the holidays and we'd much rather help you today.

What are your holiday plans? Please share.

Customize Your Message for Each Channel

This week, I want to share a story with you about message customization.

I once worked with a client on an advocacy effort to improve local public safety. Because they'd been told to try more online messaging, they were using Twitter to try and reach all of their messaging goals. Not unexpectedly, it wasn't quite working.

Lots of ways to get the message out. Photo: Kevin Poh.

I encouraged them to think of the overall campaign, and all groups they wanted to reach - local government officials were the primary targets, but they also wanted to move petition-signers, public safety workers, crime victims, and local media.

We discussed the best channel for outreach to each group, based on the makeup of the group and the action we needed them to take. We found that most of the local officials we needed weren't active on Twitter, but we knew they were reading the local paper, and that journalists from the local paper were on Twitter, so we tweeted at targeted members of the media instead, in conjunction with some more traditional media outreach.

We also used Twitter to listen to local discussions of crime and public safety, and inserted ourselves into that dialogue.

When it was time to reach out directly to the officials, who had seen our news stories thanks to our media outreach, we found it was actually more effective to use a combination of more traditional channels to get the officials to act. They were more receptive to our emails and phone calls because they had seen the news stories we'd been able to get.

Facebook, we found, was a great place to reach our petition-signers and also to collect victim stories. These victim stories and petition activities then became online content, that we used in our continued email outreach.

Your takeaway?

Consider your overall goals and align the channels you use to those goals. Not every channel can address every goal. Don't discount traditional channels because they're not new. It can take a combination of messages to get the results you want.

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Why Marketing and Inventory are Intrinsically Connected

You might think that the folks who handle your supply chain and logistics should be the only ones concerned with inventory, but you’re wrong.

Photo: Flickr user Hallenser.

Why?

Your inventory, whether it’s t-shirts, mobile phones, hotel room nights, or seats in your restaurant, is intrinsically connected to your marketing strategy, or at least it should be.

The state of your inventory tells you what to sell. For instance, say you own a local restaurant. You have a certain number of seats to fill every night - an optimum number based on the number of tables, your opening hours, and how long it takes the average customer to get through a meal without feeling too rushed (or ignored). 

There's a restaurant not to far from me where the owners have mastered the art of managing seating inventory well. First, they noticed that their weekends could be a little better. They had entertainment on Saturday nights, so they added it to Fridays. They are only a block or two from a local theater, so then they added a pre-theater menu on show nights. Their Sunday brunch was already busy, so they worked on making service more efficient so they could serve more people.

Weekends taken care of, they looked at the week. Thursdays filled up after they began advertising some great happy hour specials, most of which they already had in place. Wednesdays are packed thanks to trivia night. Tuesdays, they do a seafood special, and Mondays they're the place to be, thanks to half-price burgers. 

Everything they do is promoted on their web site, their Facebook page, and they regularly advertise in the local paper. They also make sure their pages on sites like Yelp, Menupages, Urban Spoon, and MerchantCircle are updated with the current menu and specials, and that they read all the reviews and respond if needed.

Thanks to the fact that customers know there's a good deal or some great entertainment around no matter what night they come in, the place is reliably busy - they are making the most of the inventory they have available, making sure that those empty seats are filled, rather than wasted. They've even hired a few new people, creating badly needed jobs.

Your takeaways:

• Look at what you have available, and sell that.
• If something you have is great, but isn't selling, try promoting it in a new way. 
• For inventory that's selling well, find ways to sell more.
• Always look for ways to make happy, loyal customers even more happy and loyal. 

Have an inventory problem? Let me know. I can help.

How are you making the most of what you have available? Tell me in the comments.

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Five Ways to Beat Last Week - Using Sales Data to Maximize Your Opportunity

If you're like most brick-and-mortar retailers, you see the majority of your sales on the weekend. So when you start your Monday morning, the first thing you do is take a look at last week's sales (you do, don't you?). This data, when used correctly, will help you to make this weekend's sales even better than the last one.

Photo: Flickr user GoodNCrazy.

Here's five steps to making the most of your opportunity:

1) Identify what worked last week.
-  What product generated the most net dollars?
-  What product generated the most net profit by unit? - Which promotion generated the most traffic?

2) Identify what you need to sell this week.
-  What inventory do you need to move the most? What products are sunsetting?
-  What were the most profitable products you sold last week?
-  What's new on the market that needs promotion?

3) Check your calendar and see what promotions you'll have in the marketplace right now.
-  What are you advertising in the paper and local magazines?
-  What are you advertising online?
-  Did you have any emails or social media promotions planned for this week? For what?

4) This should provide you with a pretty comprehensive landscape of where you are - what's working, what you need to sell, and, based on your current marketing calendar, what you're pushing already.

5) Now, take a look at what you can adjust for the week based on what you need to sell. Adjustments you make now on email and social promotions can make a big difference this weekend. If you've ignored any of the things listed under item #2 above, then use today to adjust your email, Facebook, and Twitter posts accordingly.

Need help making sense of all of this? Let's connect and I'll provide you with a system for capturing the right data early in the week to understand your sales landscape and adjust to maximize your profitability each weekend.

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Making the Most of your Email Marketing in 2012

Your 2012 Strategy: Messaging on Multiple Channels

Like most marketers, you probably operate on multiple channels. You've got a web site, an email list, an advertising plan, some press releases, a Twitter presence, a Facebook page, and maybe even some direct mail.

Channels. Flickr user Dustin Askins.

While you don't want to repeat yourself verbatim across every channel all the time, it's a good idea to at least coordinate the message a bit. Why?

Your community now expects a pretty seamless brand experience. If they see a blog post promoted on Twitter, they want to be able to find it on Facebook if that's where they go next time they're online. If they find a sale on their tablet, they also want to be able to call and talk to your call center about the same deal. If it's mentioned in your ad, it should be on your web site.

How do you get this working?


Make sure you use consistent branding across all channels - customers want to be sure the company they trust on email is the same company they trust on Facebook. If your channel presences  have a consistent look, the experience is more seamless.

Keep your marketing and sales team in the loop. A good marketing calendar tells everyone what's going on when. You never want your sales floor to be caught flat-footed because they don't know about your latest Facebook deal.

Connect to your community where they live. Don't abandon channels because you don't see immediate results. It can take time to develop a strong Facebook and Twitter following, and you will likely find that customers may not buy directly from Facebook, but they do like to connect with your brand there while they purchase from  your email promotions.

Make information easy to find. Because your community expects a seamless experience, make promotions built for one channel (say, Facebook), easy to find other places people might look (like your web site).

Need help leveraging all your channels? Let me know. I can help.

Your 2012 Strategy: The Best Marketing Team for Your Business

As you continue to get your marketing strategy in order for 2012, it's time to give some thought to your marketing team. Is energy and time being spent in the right way to grow your business? Successful markeitng teams have these bases covered:

Teamwork. Photo: Flickr user Dawn (Willis) Manser.

Writing: Poor writing can derail even the most well thought out campaigns. Someone should be on top of your grammar, syntnax, and spelling, and be making sure to write in a way that appeals to and connects with your target audience.

Data: If you don't understand your customer data, you're marketing in the dark. If you don't have any data expertise on your team, consider hiring a consultant to train you on how to read your data and segment your customers.

Project Management: You need a real stickler to make sure your campaigns go out on time to the right audience and that you have the inventory to support them. Marketing can go terribly wrong if no one's paying attention to logistical matters.

Strategic Planning: Successful marketing plans align with your overall business goals, available resources, long range plans, and the channels and tools you plan to use. Without strategic vision, you'll just be sending out emails and posting on Facebook with few results.

Need help getting your marketing team aligned around the expertise you need to drive your business? Let me know - I can help.

Your 2012 Marketing Plan - Crafting Your Framework

It's a fresh new year, full of possibilities. Make the most of it with a strong marketing plan. Done right, your plan will carry you through the year, supporting your goals and keeping you from dangerous foxholes like procrastination and loss of focus.

Scaffolding. Flickr user Maurice Koop.

The most important part of your new plan?

Your overall business strategy - this is the basis for the framework that is your marketing plan.

Why is this so crucial?

Your marketing plan isn't  about checking off boxes and making sure you're dutifully providing content for each channel. Your marketing plan supports your larger business strategy and your overall goals.

That said, what kinds of goals do you have in 2012?

- To open a new location?
- To increase the size of your business?
- To find customers in other parts of the world?
- To reach a new vertical - like parents or teachers or hikers?

These kinds of things are your business goals and your marketing plan supports those goals. The tactics you put into place support the strategies you've decided to employ to grow your business.

Here's how the framework operates:

Let's take the first goal as an example -  to open a new location.

Your strategy is - "We're going to open a new location in 2012, and that will increase our business by x percent because we will be able to accommodate x more customers than we could with one location."

Your marketing plan supports this strategy because it's a framework for driving traffic to your new store. You'll be able to add to this framework with marketing tactics like ads in local papers and their web sites, announcements on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, participation in check-in applications like FourSquare, videos, and emails with grand opening specials to your email subscriber base. You can use your marketing calendar to schedule all of these things to provide a strong, consistent flow of traffic to your store. Your calendar provides a framework that supports your overall goals.

Here's the best part. If you're thinking of a tactic and wondering whether to use it, you can just ask yourself if it supports the business goal you've already identified - in our case today, to open a new location. Tactics that don't support this strategic goal don't belong in our framework.

Need help starting your 2012 Marketing Plan? Drop me a line and let me know. I can help.

Thoughts for the End of 2011

If you can't quite recall everything that happened in this action-packed year, here's the condensed version, courtesy of JibJab.

Goal.From Flickr user Opopodopo.

Now's a good time to reflect on your own goals for 2011 - how did you do?

I set a number of goals for 2011 - maybe too many...

There were a couple of big ones for me - starting this blog, and also finding a new gig for my main source of income, both of which I did. This enabled me to meet some other financial goals I'd set for this year.

There were others (for health and wellness), where I made strides but didn't get where I wanted to be, and still others (for continuing education) that I just couldn't get to.

So, what's the lesson here? 

First, it's important to congratulate yourself on what you did get done. I'm really proud of my new client relationships and I feel like getting my own blog and Twitter feed this year were key in supporting those.

Second, it's healthy to acknowledge where I made progress - I am exercising more and eating more healthfully, but there are continued improvements I need to make.

Third, examine what you couldn't get done this year and why - I didn't make time to take any classes, but I did get a lot of other things done. I had to deprioritize this goal because finding new sources of income and working on my health and wellness were more important.

So what about the coming year? What are your goals for 2012, for yourself and for your business? Here are some of mine...

For 2012, I'd like to work on growing my online audience and doing some more in-person idea sharing and networking. I want to continue the strides I've made in the health and wellness department, and also make a more conscious effort to pursue educational activities in whatever form I can find. If I can't take a semester-long class, webinars and one-off lectures can also work. I got a theramin for Christmas, and I'm looking forward to learning to play it as well.  


If you're a bit stuck on setting workable goals, here's a very useful article from Washingtonian about setting resolutions you can keep. Try not to set too many goals at once, and make sure they specific and measurable.

Happy New Year, and thanks for reading! Wishing you all a successful 2012!

Time to Set Your Business Goals for 2012

So your holiday season is cooking along - you got through Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Green Monday, and hopefully you're all signed up for Free Shipping Friday, which is coming right up on December 16th.

Martini. Flickr user Adrian Hoffmann.

Take a little time out of the hustle and bustle to think about some key priorities for 2012. These may include:

Maximizing. Make a new years resolution to explore the potential on top of a new channel, like mobile or social. If you're already there, then maybe it's time to look at your PR or advertising in a new way.

Organizing. How do you organize your web content, photos, videos, enewsletters, and other assets? Are they managed in a way that makes them easy to find and allows for easy re-use? If not, it may be time to revisit your content management systems.

Motivating. Your salespeople (whether you have one or one thousand) need inspiration to keep on moving. Take another look at your incentive program. Are the incentives attainable? Are rewards frequent enough (monthly or quarterly) to keep people motivated? Is everyone participating? If the answer to these questions is "no" then revamp your program and see your sales rise as a result. People are not robots - they need to be incentivized, recognized, and rewarded to perform.

Networking. It's hard to get out there when we're so busy. If you're not a regular networker, challenge yourself to meet some new people this year. If you're not active on LinkedIn, set a goal of joining a group and participating regularly this year. If you're already there, challenge yourself to get to at least one live event in the first three months of 2012. If you're actively networked but your employees aren't, help them get started - new contacts benefit everyone in your organization.

What do you want to accomplish in 2012 and how will you get there? Please share.

Need help putting together your plan for success? Let me know.

What's Getting in Your Way?

Is there something getting in your way? Something keeping you from moving to the next stage of the game? If you're having trouble moving forward right now, today is a good day for a little business therapy.

Tito may be keeping me from full combo score on my dance game.

Some things to think about...

1) On what issue exactly are you having trouble moving forward? Creating a budget for next year? Completing your marketing plan? Putting together a press package? Identify where you're getting stuck.

2) Do you have too many goals? Just as it's probably not a good idea for a person to try to lose 30 pounds, get a new job, and learn a foreign language all at the same time, you might not want to try a creating a formal forecasting process, 5-year business plan, and a first-time press package all in the same 30-day period. Figure out which goal is the most important to get to first, and work on that. Sometimes giving certain projects a little rest can be immensely helpful. You'll come back later with fresh perspective and renewed energy.

3) Do you need help? Remember that it's OK to ask for help. This is where your network becomes a huge resource. Ask folks in businesses like yours (and different) how they are dealing with the issues you've been having. This is a great way to get some creative solutions, and make deeper connections.

What's holding you up? I'm here to listen, so drop me a line.

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Setting Your Goals

Get Your Holiday Sales On

From Flickr user Christina Rutz.

So we're about halfway through October, and it's time to put the final touches on your holiday sales planning. For most retailers, the winter holidays are the busiest time of year. This is when everyone's buying, and everyone's expecting a deal.

In fact, the National Retail Federation forecasts a better holiday season this year, with sales up 2.8% to $465.6 billion. Of course you want your share, so here's what to consider while you're finalizing your plans:


Do you have all the decor you need?

You should have approved designs and ordered everything a couple of months ago. Everything should be arriving now. Give it a thorough inspection and call your purveyors if anything is out of order. If all looks good, get it out to your stores with their new plan-o-grams, which they should implement right after Halloween.

What's your online plan?

While you were ordering your holiday decor, you were also approving designs for your web site to match. It's always a good idea to be a little more festive at this time of year - substitute some warm wintry graphics and put holiday sellers forward and move non-seasonal items back. Of course, the holiday promotions you've planned should go front and center.

What's your email plan?

Now that your stores and web site are updated, you can work on your holiday themed emails. These should be highlighting your deals and special sales events - Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and one or two more before the end of December. Consider a Hanukkah event, a last-minute event, and a deadline-oriented event - "last day to get free shipping" or "last day for 10% of orders of $80 or more..." kinds of things.

Are you staffed?

I hope you've already hired everyone that you need to start November 1. This includes warehouse staff, call center folks, and regular retail personnel. If not, help this year's lackluster job market by hiring people now. There are plenty of talented, motivated people out there who'd love a chance to build your business while they build a career.

I hope you're ready for a strong holiday season this year. Need help? Drop me a line and let's get our sale on.

Starting Your Marketing Plan

So you you've been updating your Twitter account like a good kid, posting to Facebook often, but not too often, you make sure your blog and your web site always have fresh content, and you may finally get that press release done this week. For some reason, though, you feel like none of this is helping. The traffic just isn't coming.

Planning Essentials: Photo: Flicker user JacQueLyne

Why?

Because it's not part of a larger marketing strategy. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web site, and PR are tactics, not strategies.  These tools play their part to support a larger plan. If you don't have a larger plan, then won't realize their true potential to grow your business.

OK, so now what?


I like to lay out an annual plan, mapping out the year and determining some major themes. Marketing events might include promotions around holidays, the launch of a catalog, a major web site update, and a quarterly PR push. This is also a good time to think about new product that will be launching in the next year, where that goes on your marketing calendar and what you'll be doing around it.

"But, I can't possibly think of every single tweet, Facebook update, or blog post I'm going to do for the next year!" you say.

And you're right. You'll plan those things out on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, depending on how you prefer to work. It's important, now, though, to lay out your year so you can see what needs to be done in advance. For example, if you're launching a major new product line in the next year, you'll need to build in time to update your web site, put together a new catalog, write a press release, and make sure the rest of your online properties are updated.

Your Takeaway?

Set a goal to put together a marketing plan for 2012 by the end of October. Think about what your major campaigns will be, and what you'll need to do to execute them. I'm happy to review what you've put together and offer my feedback. You can connect to me on twitter at @leahibraheem or on LinkedIn here.

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Why All Marketing is Local

OK, all marketing isn't really local, but local marketing should be a strong component of your marketing strategy, whether your customers are consumers or other businesses. Why?

Local businesses. Flickr user RachelVorhees.

1) Being local gives you a natural connection to your customers. You're from the same place. You live and work in the same place, and this gives you a serious, valid reason to support one another.

2) You'll be able to make face-to-face connections. This is especially important if your customers are other businesses. You can call on new and prospective clients in person, sharing local stories, and building long-term connections. Your customers won't need to wait for you to fly into town to see you - you'll be able to stop by anytime. If you sell to consumers, you'll also be able to invite them to your store or call on them much more easily.

3) You'll have a much better understanding of the market than your non-local competition. Since you'll be selling to people who live and work in the same community as you do, you'll have an intrinsic understanding of the needs, environment, and conditions of that community. Knowing your local market inside and out will put you one rung above your non-local competition.


How do you access that local network? Simple is best - use your local papers (web and print properties), local events, local chambers of commerce and business groups, and local groups on LinkedIn to connect. Facebook also allows you to advertise by location, so you can find local customers there as well. Don't forget other networks that focus on local business reviews - like Yelp, ServiceMagic, and MerchantCircle.

What are you doing to strengthen your connection to your local community? Please share in the comments.

Are you local to the DC area? Drop me a line or let's connect on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Marketing News Roundup - July 22, 2011

What should you be paying attention to this week?

Most business executives now aware that social marketing is important, but have failed to create cogent social media strategies as part of overall marketing plans. (eMarketer)

Your takeaway? Do you have a social media strategy that supports the rest of your marketing plan? Social media can be time-intensive, so make sure that time is being used wisely.


Photo: Copyright John Rawlinson, Flickr

Fake Apple store in southwestern China best ripoff store ever, and just around the corner from, you guessed it, two more fake Apple stores. (NPR)

Your takeaway? Now's a great time to set up google alerts and other social media monitoring so you can see how your brand is faring online (and detect any fakes).

Time to take another look at coworking. Coworking offices are set up so that independent professionals have space to work and share ideas. The city of Santa Cruz is using it to help local talent find work. (Fastcompany)

Your takeaway? Why does the best talent for you to hire have to live somewhere in your geographic area and arrive in your office at the same time each day? Maybe it's time to think more creatively about getting the best people for your marketing team.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

How to Get Ready for Holiday Sales Now

I know, I know - it's the end of June. You have to start planning your holiday selling season now.

I'm serious. Really, I am.

Here are some things to think about:photo © 2007 christina rutz | more info (via: Wylio)


1) What are your core product and service offerings going to be? If you haven't ordered what you need, get on that right away. Are your purveyors going to have to make something new for you? It should already be in development or you'll likely miss your deadline.

2) How are you going to promote those offerings? Via catalog? On your web site? Online ads? Social media? In-store display? Print advertising? Billboards? You need to order outdoor and print advertising now and look into which web sites to target for online ads. Now is also a good time to start design concepts for your catalog or other mail promotions. If you're brick-and-mortar, you need to start designing in-store display. If you need anything special - like new hardware for special banners or custom-made decor, you'll need to get to ordering now.

3) What's your launch date? Holiday is starting earlier and earlier - last year, we saw Christmas decorations in stores right around Halloween! This seemed a bit early to me - most businesses will need to  be ready in early November. If your business does layaway, compute the average number of weeks customers do layaway, and plan to announce your holiday layaway specials somewhere in that timeframe. Figure out your launch date and then design your project plan working backwards.

4) How are you going to be celebrating with your customers? If you're sending them cards, you need to order them this summer if you want them imprinted with your brand. If you're planning on doing a special loyalty promotion, price it out now as you're ordering product.

Did you find this blog post completely alarming? No worries - I can help you with all of this.