Be Real Do Better - The Small Business Marketing Show

This episode is not meant to diminish anyone's accomplishments in any way. It is meant to call out (what I feel is) another lazy advertising cliche that often muddles our message, blends us in with rest and, in some cases, represents an unnecessary limiting belief that keeps some people from getting started in the first place. Not everyone can be "number one," and yet is certainly seems like most local marketers and online entrepreneurs are trying to tell me that they are, in one form or another. Best-seller. Expert. Leader. Biggest. Best. Number one. Frankly, I don't care if you're "number one." What I care about is if you can help me or not, add value or not, take care of me or not. Don't worry about being "number one." Worry about being remarkable.

Would you like to improve the return on the investment you're making - in time and money - related to your marketing and advertising? If so, this is essential to understand, and really fundamentally quite simple: If the message doesn't connect, the method of delivery doesn't matter. It's just more noise. To put it another way, if you have a recording that is distorted or unclear, playing it louder or more often does not make it more effective. It just makes it more noise. This is a trap that still snags most local marketers who are stuck in the 20th century, playing the "top of mind awareness" game, thinking volume and frequency instead of connection and clarity. Advertisers keep looking for the magic medium, but if you transfer the same old advertising cliches and stereotypical, self-centered advertising-speak that you've used on radio over to Instagram or Facebook, it's not the new media's fault that people don't care. Improve the message. Make it more authentic, more relatable, more human and more about th

Video content. It's already a tsunami moving through the internet. It's best to catch the wave. It doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. And, yes, you can do it. In this episode is a high-level overview of how easy it can be to create engaging video content to share your story online.

Has it ever occurred to you how much we condition people *not* to pay attention to us? It's difficult to create interest, trust or any kind of relationship or emotional connection when we lead with communication we've been trained to ignore. Why would anyone listen or care when we keep crying, "Wolf?"

It's a sound piece of advice, for business or at home, and it comes straight out of the pages of swashbuckling tale written by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1922. The book I'm referring to is "Captain Blood," and the "rule"  is something the main character says that has stuck with me since the moment I first read it: "You may define our position as you please. But I'll remind you that the nature of thing is not changed by the name you give it." In other words, you can call yourself - or label something - whatever you want. But that won't prevent that thing's true colors, true character, true culture from showing through eventually. And that matters when it comes to building sustainable and scalable relationships.

When somebody else pays part of your advertising bill, that's a great thing, right? Maybe. It depends on how you use it. For some, it's a trap that paints them into a corner, dilutes their own unique message, character and culture and creates the illusion of "getting the word out" more effectively than it actually is. And now more than ever, that matters. A lot.

The people and businesses I trust don't have to tell me to trust them. I already know that I can. But when someone I don't know says, "Hey, you can trust me," I am immediately apprehensive. Perhaps that's yet another reason why I feel so much small business marketing pushes people away as much as (if not more than) it connects: You keep telling me to trust you, which actually makes me trust you less.

Feeling that we're marketing ourselves EFFECTIVELY is just one of many common business "problems." But, almost always, there is a deeper, simpler, more fundamental "problem" beneath that problem. Once we turn our attention to it, and actually do something about it, many of the other common "problems" related to business - marketing included - suddenly seem to be solve themselves. That's what this episode is about: the real "problem" beneath the "problem."

Everybody's got access to Google, so as long as I hear your name it's easy to find you, right? Not necessarily. Plus, I the more work I have to do to find you, the more likely it is that I may find a lot of others in your category in the process. It's still a good idea to make it all as simple as possible. In this episode… - Some things to keep in mind when choosing a web address or URL. - Another way you can point people to your site, specific pages within your site, or even a separate landing page. - Why you are best not to have anything in your web address that you may feel you have to explain. - What to always assume people will do when it comes to typing in your address or search for you in Google. - Something to keep in mind if you are choosing a web address name that is already registered with a different extension.

It's not 2008 anymore, and the distribution models of some social media platforms have changed significantly since then. If you are looking to effectively connect and communicate your small business or organization using Facebook, there are a few basic things you'll want to know. In this episode… - How it used to be 10 years ago. - How it is now, what is free and what is not. - What percentage of your followers you can expect to actually see the content and posts you share and what you can do about it. - Your best strategy to create more organic reach, which is the same thing you should probably be doing anyway. Key takeaway: See if you can look at your Facebook page from a different perspective. How engaging is it? How interactive is it? If you were the other person, why would you like or follow it?

So you want your business  to be top-of-mind? There's something you should know: There is no "there." You'll never fully "arrive." It's a process, a grind. Forever. If you're going to be in business, you may as well accept it.  It's just part of the deal. In this episode, I give some examples of why we must think of marketing as habitual part of what we do as opposed to a means to an end result, including: - An example of a 100-year-old benchmark business from where I left who still fights tooth-and-nail to stay relevant. - Why huge companies like McDonald's and Nike keep advertising, regardless of the fact that most of us know who they are and what they do. - How quickly and radically times can change, including the examples of certain businesses, sports and events that used to be a lot more culturally significant than they are now

Have you ever heard the term, "Less is more?" Why is that so difficult for us to understand and embrace? We humans seem to feel that we need to do everything. And in the world of small business marketing, that's a dangerous game because it can quickly pull our effort and attention away from our most important tasks. Worse still is making an extra effort only to have it appear to others as if we've made very little effort at all. And that's why, sometimes, we'd be best to get ourselves off of social media. Less is more. In this episode, I give some examples of why you might want to consider getting your business off of some - or all - of your current social media feeds, such as: - If there's no recent activity; if your social channels look and feed like ships long set adrift. - If the only content you're sharing are sales offers and "calls to action" with little-to-no engagement. - If you're just using one social channel to automatically feed another (e.g., the only thing your Twitter page does is show links t

This used to be easier. As small business owner/operators, we used to just look for opportunities to "advertise." And there's still that. Except, there's also this other word that keeps getting tossed around: Content. What exactly does that mean? And more specifically, what does it mean to someone operating a small business, community group or non-profit organization? In this episode, I share a little bit about what I feel content is, including: - Some simple, traditional examples to give it some context. - Why content is very different from typical advertising sales offers. - Two great options for anyone looking to leverage content to build their business: creating it or curating it ... or both. Key takeaway: See if you can brainstorm some examples of things that you could be sharing in addition to (or in place of) your standard lineup of sales offers and call-to-action commands? What stories can you tell? What photos could you share? What (very simple) videos could you shoot and share that will, over time,

Almost as soon as you've begun to engage in any kind of external marketing, you're likely to be inundated with what seems like an endless parade of advertising and media sales reps. How should we handle that? In this episode, we cover: – Why it comes down to trusting your gut. Are they trying to help you or sell you? Do they dump on the decisions you've already made to build themselves up, or are they being respectful of your time, effort and process? - How to know who may be a helpful, valuable resource to you and who should likely be immediately excused and never asked back. - What I would never, ever, every do when it comes to "pests."

Once you put yourself out there, the advertising and media sales reps will see and hear it and start to call. And that's okay. They're just doing their job. Our responsibility as business owners and managers is to not let those interruptions pull as away from the important tasks of the day. And yet, we don't want to necessarily slam doors closed on future opportunities either. In this episode, we cover: – What's likely to happen after you become more visible with your advertising and marketing. - Why pre-determining an activation plan, process and timeline for measurement is crucial to limiting short-term distractions that can limit your effectiveness. - How to handle the inevitable interruptions and begin to sort out who may be a valuable resource for you at some point and who's just in it for the sale. Key Takeaway: Have a plan for what methods you're going to use to market your business for the next 6 - 12 months. Pre-determine a point to review (perhaps once a quarter) to measure results and trends, and s

Are radio and TV still relevant, effective advertising options for local, small-to-midsize businesses?   Recently, many in the television industry have come together to create an ad campaign to argue their continued relevance. I've also recently been hearing a radio commercial - broadcast on traditional radio - that essentially suggests that radio's been around forever and will continue to be. And perhaps it will be (frankly, I hope it is). But remember, I'm not asking whether or not traditional radio or TV will continue to survive on the local level. What I'm asking is: For a local, small-to-midsize business, are they still relevant? Are they effective advertising options? In this episode, we cover: - A quick overview on the economic reality of traditional radio and how that ultimately effects local advertisers. - Why it's a good idea to not have you advertising eggs all in one traditional basket. - The critical mistake many small-to-midsize advertisers are currently making, and what I'd recommend

On air and online, should we be using our own voice and showing our own face? Absolutely. With two exceptions: 1. If the thought of being seen or heard genuinely causes you major anxiety, I would never ask you to just "suck it up and do it." I'll leave it up to you to decide whether it's something that just feels a little beyond your comfort zone or if it's well and truly something you need to avoid for your own well being. If it's the latter, respect that. 2. If you're just going to go in front of people and spout out the same old copycat, empty cliches and most other marketers use, you may as well let someone else do it. Putting your own voice to it adds a little credibility and personality, but if it's still just, "check it out, don't miss out, hurry in today, we're a name you can trust," I'm not interested. I'm already hearing and seeing that from everybody else. In this episode, we cover: - What we generally tend to compare ourselves to, and how that doesn't often match up with what we, as human beings,

Have you ever heard the old expression about trying to cram ten pounds of stuff into a five-pound bag? That's inventory overload. It's one of the most common - and ineffective - marketing strategies there is. It seems we're so intent on proving our value and worthiness that we cram our ads full of what we think are features and benefits. Why? I think it's because we're trying to overwhelm listeners, viewers and social scrollers with evidence of our awesomeness. But it's a bad strategy. It's ineffective because it literally turns our message into white noise or what you might call a "tune-out factor." And in a case like that, when our message doesn't resonate, showing it louder and more often isn't going to make it more effective. In this episode, we cover: - A recent example of a commercial I heard from a home improvement company, and all of the effective content I feel they missed by trying to stuff it all into one commercial. - An example of another common drawback of "inventory overload," which is rapid-fi

One of the questions I have been asked the most over the years is, "When is the best time for me to advertise?" Not to be glib about it, but my immediate reaction would always be to wonder, "Well, when are you open for business?" Most often, the question would come from someone running a small-to-midsize business who felt that only their sales or  big events were worth advertising. Either they didn't feel their day-to-day operations were worth advertising, or they didn't feel they could afford it. Or both. These days, with so many low or no-cost options available to even the most frugal of businesses, there is little excuse not to be sharing your story and offering the opportunity for interaction and engagement on at least some level. Perhaps we should swap out the word "advertising" for the word "marketing." I believe that advertising is a part of marketing but does not necessarily define it. And marketing is something that we should be doing all the time.  In this episode, we cover: - The typical

Most of us likely know somebody like this: a coworker, extended family member, friend of a friend. Every time you see them, they're asking you for something. You likely know the type: forever in need of a favour, hat perpetually in hand, asking all the time. We all need to ask for something sometimes. It's healthy and necessary. But if every single communication is an interrogative based on self-serving motives, won't the person who is constantly being asked want to re-evaluate - or altogether avoid - that relationship at some point? But back to the idea of asking all the time. That's most small business marketing in a nutshell. In this week's episode, we cover: - The difference between a "branding" (storytelling, relationship-building) approach to marketing vs constant "call to action" or "direct response." - Why it's so difficult for a small business marketer to resist the temptation to put some sort of call to action into every single piece of paid communication. - A few examples of how to think about your