Businesses Built to the Hilt

When you started your business–think back, did you put up a tent and a hand-painted sign and wait for the customers to flock to you? Probably not. Every business plan should have a marketing strategy, but many do not. Owners think through location, build-out, signage, phone systems, compensation, and a host of other things that make a business successful. If you are a business owner, you know how much work it is to get everything working, and yet asking customers to come to you and telling them why often takes a backseat to all these other concerns.

Marketing is often the first expense to be cut. Please note that I said “expense” instead of “investment.” If your marketing is simply an expense–Cut it! If it is a clear plan working consistently on several levels that brings you business and builds your brand (Business reputation) then it is a true investment. It doesn’t matter is your business is brand new or has been around for generations. All businesses need marketing. All businesses need a marketing plan, especially one that reaches today’s participatory consumers.

The newspaper mentality has always been, you must be in the paper. Really? Not so! Today’s consumers have changed their media habits and advertising must change in order to reach your customers. Are there some that still read the paper, yes, but only some.

The same thing was true of Yellow Pages listings…You must be in the Yellow Pages! It’s a huge monthly investment, but consumers used to go there to look at your business, often overshadowed by your competitor’s ads stacked right together. Some people use the directories still, but the percentage is waning. Today’s directory is more likely to be Google or Bing–and it’s free to list there! True!

The point is, make your marketing count! It’s your money. It’s your business. It’s your reputation. You aren’t in business just to see if it might work for a few weeks. Invest some time with a marketer who understands what your vision for the business is. Invest a percentage of your gross toward advertising because it can become the life-blood of your business.  (Another topic for another day.) Don’t overlook the impact your business can have from simple online platforms or shy away because you don’t understand it. A good full-service marketer will teach you the basics and do the rest for you. Know that your negotiation power has never been greater that it is in marketing right now. Online platforms can be purchased by geographic slices (Williamson County businesses can target Williamson County residents.) Working with online can be incredibly inexpensive and trackable.  Tradional media is aware of online, but to date have not been able to tap online to deliver results. Traditional media is simply what we’ve always known: radio, television, billboard, newspaper. The new media is everything else that people interact with each and every day. At To the Hilt Marketing we call it “participatory media,” and there are hundreds of ways to market to both the traditional market and the participatory market. Managing your online presense and your mass media presense together will show your customers that you are a strong business with a vision for the future.

To schedule a consultation that will help you examine both just send us an email to:  info@TotheHiltOnline.com

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Stop the Screaming in Advertising!

Today’s consumers do not want to be yelled at or tricked with one-way advertising. You know what I am talking about—advertising that screams at you some unbelievable offer and expects you to get right up off the couch and chase the deal. Yeah, right.

Car dealers are often the perfect example of this on local television: Come in now for such-and-such car for only $79 per month! Or all our cars “gotta go” so we are giving them away at less than invoice price! Really? Do we believe that?  I think that once upon a time we did. Now we know that the $79/month vehicle is a lease or simply a loss-leader and if you walk in to buy it the dealership will show you everything including the kitchen sink before you see the low, low advertised car. Or better yet, they will tell you that all of those cars sold already.

Infomercials have this same sort of trickery that most of us see through. They will give you two sets of knives for the price of one and all you have to do is pay separate shipping and handling. Why? Can’t they put them all in the same box? Of course they can, but the shipping and handling is where they make their money—charging us $14.95 each when we could have shipped it for $3 or $4 ourselves. Yet, thousands and thousands of people buy these products everyday.

The art of marketing has changed. These two examples are from traditional broadcast media. We understand that web advertising is different, but is it? Traditional marketers are beginning to see that the buying process is a two-way conversation, but listen or watch or even read ads in the newspaper and you are sure to find perfect examples of one-way advertising designed to grab your attention. Clever maybe, but not designed to educate the consumer on the company’s products, selection or any information that can help buying decisions. Approximately 80% of consumers do internet research when shopping for a car and walk into a car dealership with more information than ever before. Today’s consumer is smarter and gets a better deal most of the time.  77% of all consumers use the internet as their main business information source (Pew Reasearch 2009).

Yet even websites—especially car websites have the “scream at me” mentality. Go to a website and pretend you are buying the new version of your current car. Do you see all the offers, improvements and amenities spelled out, easy to see? Did you go to a local dealership site or the manufacturer’s site? Did they throw a commercial at you to watch? How difficult was it to get to the actual information? Was it there or did you click through to a third party site like Edmunds.com or Autotrader.com to actually get information, reviews opinions from owners? How many times did you have to fill in your personal information to get into these sites? Did you do it, or just click out? It’s easy to see that the multi-million dollar, big fancy websites can be as useless as a poorly envisioned small business site. Everyday consumers click out of confusing or useless websites. These are engaged potential consumers and we let them scatter uncontrollably, even though they were right there in front of us on our website!

One of the cool things about advertising and public relations online is that the playing field is leveled. If you get your name and website in front of people, you have the same opportunity to influence the customer’s buying decision as the huge local site. Make sure that your website strategically gives the consumer what they are looking for and not some cool stuff that the web builder talked you into. Be strategic. Be open. Ask the consumer to let you help them find what they want. Seems simple, but you’d be surprised how many websites do little of this.

None of this is to say that you shouldn’t use traditional media (radio, television, directory and newspaper.) Maybe you should. The key is how you use it so that it works in tandem with the potential customer you grab with media and bring into your business through your website. It’s all important and a balance of traditional media and online media will serve your business well if orchestrated to reach your targeted market. What’s more, don’t ignore it now because your customers aren’t! As a matter of fact, they can look at your website while sitting in your parking lot with smart-phones and the world is going to get more mobile with information, not less!

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Opening Doors for Business

  Launching a business has been an eye-opening, long-term, hard, detailed process.  We have always been the sellers on the staff of a media and plan that was established: the product sets predetermined. We walked in and put the product in front of the people who could benefit from it. Well, that’s what we are going to do now with our product sets that we have created and our processes that we have developed, with the strategic goals we’ve outlined. For us, getting the right product set has been a mission of destiny. We have taken it very seriously and know that in this movable internet world of media development our product sets will have to evolve too. We understand this. Now we are prepared to put our expertise and marketing skills to work for businesses.

   We are active with the local small business community. We are always eager to share our expertise with business owners. The fact is, that much advertising and public relations online can be done by anyone with the time and inclination to learn. We are happy to share a few suggestions with free advice for a business owner who needs to improve their web prescence. Free. Yes, free.

   The fact of the matter is, some people are going to need our services, because they don’t have the time to learn Google Adwords or Social Media Optimization or research a video ad service. We have the comprehensive programs that will work for different levels of investment and engagement in online marketing. Our packages are flexible and allow the business owner to decide (with our help) where to focus. We manage the analysis of campaigns and work with business owners to adjust campaigns as needed.  Some business owners will do this for themselves. (And we will encourage them to do so.) Some will be too busy running a company to do it themselves and see the value proposition that we offer by helping to care of this part of their business.

   The start-up part of this business has been the hard part for us. The working with customers to help their business grow is where our natural talents lie. We look forward to moving forward from here. We walk the walk and talk the talk. This blog is part of our plan for our business. Content rich online presence is optimum. We work to make this blog (and everything else we do) informative, but also very content heavy so that people looking for information might be able to find us through our localized advertising online.

    We have a business to build too. So, here’s an example of a 350×250 standard advertising unit that we created and have now placed on various networks to gather interested business  decision makers and give them the opportunity to see what we are all about. We are not a creative house, in that we are going to sell you a fancy website, but we are a creative house in that we will help you target your customer base and help create units that help you reach them. You’ve seen internet advertising. Sometimes it’s about branding and sometimes it’s about immediate call to action for the consumer to interact with the business. We can help you with both. Here’s another one we have for our business.  It’s a banner ad and is made to the IAB advertising specs, so it can be placed on many various sites who support banner ads. Here’s another example–of course this is our style, not yours, but yours can be built by our creative department. If you click on it here, it connects you with our website. Simple.

   If any of this interests you, we should have a conversation about opening some internet doors for your business. You have our contact info.

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What to do?

  Looking at a blank canvas can be daunting. I’ve done it.  Knowing what I wanted to paint, but lacked confidence to start, mar the canvas by the chance I could make a wrong stroke. The first stroke of color is always the hardest. After the virginity of the prepared canvas has been broken the strokes, right or wrong are much easier. It’s the layering of the paint that makes the image art. I know that. Learned that a long time ago. Yet, every time I prepare my paints and brushes, take a seat in a well-lit room and stare at that stark white canvas. I cannot think of many times that I’ve looked at the end result and been disappointed. I can think of many times I looked away and got busy with other things rather than make that first stroke.

   What does this have to do with anything? Everything. I think that we often look the other way rather than taking that first little step into something new thinking that it’s too hard or we will do it wrong. That first step, or stroke, is a leap of faith. Once we start it’s no longer painful, we get used to fixing as we go and letting the results guide us toward the result.

   Many of you reading this are business people. How hard is it to step out of your comfort zone and try something new?  What’s more, when has it worked and made a difference in your business? When has it failed? That business is your baby, your livelihood, sometimes even your life. What I do know is that you took a risk and had faith enough to begin that business, so you are probably my type of people.

   I have always enjoyed talking to people with an entreprenuerial spirit. I’m not one to sit back and collect a paycheck. I tease that I’ve never had a real job in my life…I’ve always been a salesperson. I have always viewed that as a noble profession. Sales with ethics is helping people get what they want. I reap what I sow and sometimes I’ve been really good at sowing some great ideas with brave businesses who see the reason to leap to the next level with me. Often it was difficult to start, but the end result was worth the trouble. I look at that canvas sitting on the easel and it’s hard to remember when it was white.

   I use this example on purpose. It was hard for me to step out of the corporate world and take the leap into my own business. I’m not sure why. I’ve often been the innovator in my company. I have always passed my ideas up the ladder and often they have made money for my company. At some point I started to look from right to left and believed that I knew something that few others do. My experience is broad and I am a student of my industry and the businesses that comprise media. There wasn’t going to be the perfect job for me unless I created it. My partner Richard felt the same way. So, we made that first step like you did when you went into business. We had to.

   Now, we have a noble cause in mind: Helping you get what you want. If you have a website, or not, we should have a conversation about today’s participatory media and how to reach consumers. You made the first stroke when you started your business. This new layer might be a little difficult to start, but  it’s worth it.  At To the Hilt Online Solutions it’s our job to help you get what you want. That’s what we do.

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