We just returned from a trip to Traverse City to celebrate my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. What struck me while we were there is how even in the midst of stiff cherry selling competition everyone seems to get a piece of the action. Whether you are driving to the city on M72, at the farmer’s market, or walking downtown on a Friday evening. There are always plenty of people selling cherries – red cherries, yellow cherries, sweet cherries, sour cherries, washed cherries, unwashed cherries, you get the idea. It doesnt matter that you drove by a booth 10 minutes ago…now you feel like cherries so you stop and buy cherries at this booth instead of the last. As small businesses, we can sell to more people by meeting them at different places in their search. Why give your competition the opportunity to sell to your customer 10 minutes later, when you can do it yourself. Meet your customers down the road with a different (or the same) marketing message. Maybe they weren’t ready to buy the first time they saw or heard you, but they could easily be ready now.  You can do this with email marketing, direct mail, or a phone call.

I recently read about a website where you could order shoe repairs. They send you a prepaid envelope and then you put your shoes in the envelope, drop it off at UPS, and then they repair them and send them back to you.

I thought this was a great idea! When we lived in Frankfurt I loved that fact that there was a shoe repair service when I walked out of our building and turned to the right and a seamstress when I walked out of the building and turned to the left. It was very convenient because even thought my German was pitifully bad, they still knew what I wanted them to do.

I decided to try this shoe service even though they are located in Southfield and I drive by their store almost weekly because stopping in is a big hassle with a baby in tow. I still think it is a great service, but I still had communication problems just like when I was in Germany. The reason was I needed better directions on what they expected from me. The UPS envelope arrived folded up in a #10 envelope. That was it.

I was expecting some additional instructions and/or communication from the company. Something like “Thanks for becoming a customer, please put your shoes in the envelope and drop them in a UPS box near you”….even better would have been if they had take 1 minute to find where the closest UPS drop box was, print it out the map, and send it with the envelopes. Instead I had to do it.

I am still thrilled with the service, it was one thing I could easily check off my to do list without really having to get out of my seat. Getting the mail and driving by the UPS store are things I already do.

However, I think it is a good lesson on setting your customer’s expectations once they give you business. You may know what the relationship will look like but do they? You don’t want to be speaking two different languages.

Yesterday my husband and I were watching The Office (my favorite show) and we saw a commercial for Gatorade. The whole commercial was about “it”. At the end, you realize “it” is Gatorade. The problem? About a month ago we were watching a much more innovative commercial about “it” from eBay. Opps…it seems that eBay and Gatorade both seem to think they have what “it” takes.

A good reminder to us all to differentiate ourselves from our competition and stand out. It is easy to think of examples of businesses who all have the same marketing messages: realtors who give you a free home value report, mortgage companies who offer you “friendly service,” stores that offer you a “no-hassle return policy.” Maybe these were innovative marketing messages some time ago, but it is time for these companies to come up with something new. It is time to think of how to differentiate yourself if you look around, and others are saying the same thing about their business as you say about yours.

I think the Capital One No Hassle credit card does a great job of differentiating themselves from the competition in a cut-throat almost commodity industry. They have used their commercials to illustrate to us visually what happens to us when we use another credit card. We get hurt by pillagers, always are told “no”, never get to talk to real person, and lack the protection of a guardian angel.

Make “it” a point to differentiate your marketing message.

Within about 1/4 of a mile, there are two Coney Island restaurants by our house. One is always empty, one is always full. The one that is always full usually requires that you wait in line about 10 minutes before you get served. The line snakes outside onto the main street in rain, snow, and sunshine. Why is this Coney island full and the other one empty? Because everyone driving by sees the line, says to themselves “wow, that place must be good for people to WAIT in line OUTSIDE. And demand continues to grow. The restaurant has a perceived value because of what they see others doing to consume their food.

On the Internet, you wouldn’t exactly want people to be waiting ages for your page to load, but there are things you can do to create the same effect. Sell some of your products in limited quantities. Tell them what percentage of the product is left until you sell out. Put expiration dates on your coupon. Make offers available only to the first xx number of people who subscribe to your newsletter. Create a sense of urgency and value on your website so your customers feel that they are lucky to be able to do business with you.

I posted last week on how I had to search Google on how to do something on Windows and the Windows help “feature” didn’t help me at all.

Saturday I encountered a similar problem with HP. When I bought my new laptop (HP Pavilion — Love it!!!), there was a little slip of paper in the box that said I could turn my laptop into a TV. I threw it out without a second thought. Until Saturday, when my husband and I wanted to watch the World Cup on TV. I saw that it was being broadcast in High Def and because we don’t have cable (we don’t watch much TV), I remembered that little slip of paper that came with my laptop. I logged on to hp.com to look for it and couldn’t find it. They gave me all sorts of irrelevant products and services….no TV tuner. So then I go to Google, and once again, in about 2 seconds, I had a whole selection of TV tuners to choose from.

Which brings up a couple of issues. HP should have some type of feedback button. I would have filled it out in a second to tell them that I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Whenever I go shopping in regular stores the first thing they ask me when I am checking out is “did you find everything you were looking for today?” Why not have something like this on your website? Second, why is there search capability so bad? I used to work for an automotive supplier and part of my job was purchasing hardware from HP. They were bad then, we complained, and it seems like they haven’t gotten any better since I left 2 years ago.

I will restate my original proposition – unless companies begin realizing that the search capabilities on their website needs to be as good or better than Google’s they will continue loosing sales because customers will go to Google to find products that they could have found on their own web site.

While trying to book my latest trip to Malta, I was on www.Cheaptickets.com (I wish they were cheaper). Every time I searched I was taken to a page before my flight results showed that has a “CheapTickets Tip” The tips were OK, but the problem was that they were labeled Tip #385, Tip #724, Tip #126…now I don’t really think they have up to 700 tips that they randomly show, but I think if they were going to label them so high, they should at least have a higher number of rotating tips so I don’t see Tip #126 every 3rd time.

Which brings up a point for small business owners – make sure your marketing messages are not transparent. If you are advertising online about having great service but don’t respond to emails people send you as a result of that ad – what good is the advertising? If you tell your customers you do something “the best” and then don’t take care of them the way “the best” should – you are not going to grow your businesses.

Transparent marketing messages are a deal killer.

Here are six technological tools I think businesses should consider implementing this year. The first three deal with ways in improve your marketing efforts, the second three deal with ways to streamline your internal operations.

1. Email Marketing
Email marketing is successful when used correctly for just about any business. Yet many people write-off email marketing because they only think of the emails they receive from online retailers boasting of their latest sale with “free shipping.” The term should actually be used to describe targeted, traceable communications to potential and current customers, or individuals who can refer others to your business. Maybe you have services that your customers don’t know about, maybe you have excess inventory that you would like to get rid of, maybe you hired someone new that may bring certain customers in your door, maybe you opened up a 2nd location – there are hundreds of events that you can announce to keep in contact with your customers. Tracking who opened your emails and how many clicked on the links in your email to go to your website offers a measurable way to track the success of your advertising. As long as your emails are relevant, timely, and valuable, your customers will appreciate getting your latest news and will reward you with loyalty. http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/page.asp?PId=49046

2. Pay-Per-Click
An advertiser once said “half my advertising doesn’t work, the problem is, I don’t know which half.” December’s newsletter focused on the benefits of pay-per-click advertising – You only pay when someone clicks on your advertisement. Did you know that you can set up a pay-per-click campaign even if you don’t have a website? Did you know that if you do have a website, you can use pay-per-click to tract the specific phone calls and emails you receive as a result of that ad? When using pay-per-click advertising no one has to wonder which half of their advertising is working. Online demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/WSILocal.asp?PId=45178

3. Streaming Video / Video Email
As more households sign-up for high-speed internet access, the amount of time spent viewing steaming video is increasing. Over 50% of internet users view online video (eMarketer). Most of us associate video with news providers, but there are a number of reasons beyond the latest headlines to offer streaming video. Product demonstrations, service descriptions, facility tours, interviews with employees or executives, and job descriptions are just a few examples of ways streaming video can move beyond the realm of the daily news with streaming video on your website. Looking for something really unique to capture your clients attention? Try adding streaming video to your emails. Online demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/VideoEmail.asp?PId=40891

4. eLearning
Consistency, traceability, and resource management are the reasons most companies incorporate an e-learning solution into their internet strategy. Consistency – eLearning provides a way to ensure that all of your employees receive exactly the same material in exactly the same way. You don’t have to worry about different trainers covering different topics, or some document being left out of the training manuals. Traceability – Track exactly which modules in your e-learning system employees have read or viewed, test them on their knowledge, and allow them to virtually interact with other e-learners or trainers on the modules – with written documentation on everything. Resource Management – free up time for yourself and your employees by putting your training online. The time saved won’t only be on the employee’s first day, it will continue through the employee’s first weeks. Instead of coming back to ask questions that were covered the first day, the new employee can logon to their e-learning page and look up the information themselves. E-learning Hint: Have an employee leaving and haven’t hired a replacement? Have the employee record a going away training message for the yet-to-be-hired replacement. Online demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/e-LearningSolutions.asp?PId=36870

5. Document Management
We all know the woes of having documents stored on a variety of discs, computers, and servers and wondering “am I using the latest version?” Why not make this the year that you take control of your documentation? A document management system allows you to track the who, what, when, and how of your documentation. The best part is that the system is web based allowing for employees to access documents anywhere there is an internet connection. Online Demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/DocumentManagement.asp?PId=36873

6. Web Conferencing
Although the benefits of web conferencing are obvious to most of us – reduced travel time and costs – the technology is barely used by most small and medium sized businesses because they think it is only something for the “big guys”. The truth is web conferencing is a very cost effective tool. This is an on-demand system that can be used when you need it with no monthly fees. But what exactly is web conferencing you may ask? The term web conferencing can actually refer to various technologies, including video conferencing where each participant can see and speak to each other via steaming video; it can include having everyone logon to a centralized platform where a presenter shares his desktop or PowerPoint presentation; or it can include recording presentations for viewing by other employees or customers at a later date. No matter what form of web conferencing you use you can be assured that company communications will improve. Online Demo: http://www.strategicwsinetsolutions.com/WebConferencingSolutions.asp?PId=36871

Wouldn’t it be great to look back on 2006 with satisfaction because it was the year that you saw your business grow by increasing your customer base with new e-marketing methods and streamlining your operations with the latest tools?

The New York Times reported yesterday that Gannett is rolling out a new marketing tool that will allow companies to place banner ads on newspaper websites owned by them allowing users to click on a banner ad and see a virtual version of the weekly circular that usually comes in the print version of the paper. They have signed up 10 of the nations top 50 advertisers.

I for one, think this is a great idea. I really like to look through these advertisements each week, but since I don’t have a paper subscription myself, I usually rely on my mom bringing me the advertisements each Sunday. I know that I can go to places like www.Meijer.com or www.Kohls.com and view these circulars online, but that takes a lot of effort and time that I don’t have. If I were reading my news online (which is really the only way I get my news) and I was reading the Business section and a banner ad showed up for Office Depot’s weekly circular I would be pretty prone to click on it to see what was on sale that week. This is just another way that the internet is becoming more localized. The article states that local internet advertising is expected to grow 26% this year. I wonder when this technology will be rolled out by people like Val-Pak and Save to use as a local online advertising tool for the smaller companies that use them for advertising. This seems to be the logical next step to me.