Nomad Marketing Blog

New Year’s Resolution:  Keep your customers!

In this frustrating economy, it’s more important than ever for small businesses to solidify their existing customer relationships.  Losing customers and having to replace them is more costly than ever.  The added cost of attracting new clients vs. keeping existing clients has been well documented.

Making a fresh commitment to current customers is a great way to start the new year.  Keeping their loyalty helps preserve top line revenue and reduce marketing expenses.  Here are three suggestions for maintaining your customer connections and getting them to work for you:

• Communicate!  

Start the new year by thanking them for their continued loyalty.  Tell them about your plans for the coming year.  Invite them to share stories of their work with you.  Testimonials are always valuable.  Think about starting a regular newsletter or blog.  Whatever you do, let customers know you appreciate them and want them to stick around.

• Create incentives for extending relationships

Loyalty programs are a great way to reward loyal customers and can help attract new customers.  These programs don’t need to be expensive.  Offering early or preferred access to products and services encourages loyalty, helps in production planning and costs little.  Early notification of new products and frequent flyer discounts are other valuable and low cost loyalty rewards.

• Ask them for help

Satisfied customers are usually more than willing to put in a good word for you.  Referral programs encourage customers to do that in an organized way.  A small reward for a new customer referral goes a long way.  The new customers you land from these referrals are more likely to be good long-term partners, too. 

Social media offers many opportunities for customers to promote you, as well.  Getting them to follow you and interact with you on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. can expand your sphere of influence and increase your brand awareness.

Start 2009 with a fresh commitment to your current customers.  Your customers will reward you with continued loyalty.

Marketing,Nomad Marketing,Loyalty,social media,new media,Facebook,Twitter,LinkedIn,New Year’s Resolutions,referral programs,e-newsletters,blogs,economy

Ever wondered what your customers really think?  It’s easier than ever to find out.  A number of new and not-so-new online survey tools are making customer research accessible to everyone.  But while the tools exist, the art of questionnaire design and the science of research methodology are still critical to successful surveys.

Several for-profit and open-source organizations have created affordable, user-friendly online survey tools.  The most common are Zoomerang, Survey Monkey and LimeSurvey.  Each of these providers offers free basic service and a variety of paid premium services.  Each has basic tools for survey design and reporting.  With some variations, each allows marketers to build, conduct and analyze surveys.  Here’s a little tour of each one, with some pros and cons.

Zoomerang

Zoomerang has lots of options for question types, but data analysis features leave a little bit to be desired.  One great feature that Zoomerang offers is the ability to embed images into questions, allowing researchers to gather data on visual responses as well as written questions.  Zoomerang’s annual contract pricing may scare some noobs away and may prohibit some low-volume researchers from using the service.

www.zoomerang.com

Survey Monkey

Formatting/question type options are not quite as robust as in Zoomerang, but data analysis options are a little more sophisticated.  Survey Monkey is very easy to use and has an affordable monthly rate.  One thing I really like about Survey Monkey is their tie-in with Mail Chimp – an online e-newsletter tool.

www.surveymonkey.com

LimeSurvey

Disclaimer:  I haven’t used this service yet, but in taking the tour, I’ve discovered a few very interesting things.  Before I jump in, I’d like to thank Guy Hagen @ Innovation Insight for turning me on to this open source tool. 

LimeSurvey offers an online, hosted version, called LimeService, and a customizable download version that allows sophisticated web programmers a very robust tool.  The download version can be a powerful tool for more advanced researchers.  LimeService has an interesting band-width-based pricing model.  The more questions you ask and the more respondents you have, the more you pay.  This is a great feature for low-volume researchers and makes it easy for newbies to kick the tires.  LimeSurvey appears to have some limitations in question/survey formatting, based on the demo survey on the site.  In particular, it doesn’t appear that LimeSurvey allows for skip-pattern survey design.  This is a big deal, especially if you have a highly heterogeneous respondent pool.

www.limesurvey.org

Online survey tools are making market research much more accessible for small businesses.  Short learning curves, low pricing and relatively robust survey and analysis capabilities make the leading services great options for entry-level researchers. 

But with great power, comes great responsibility.  Sound research strategy and solid survey design practices are critical to getting the most out of these tools.  It’s easier than ever to ask bad questions and gather misleading data. Just because a tool is easy to use, doesn’t mean it will generate worthwhile data.  Researchers must be sure their results are reliable to avoid making bad decisions later on.  

marketing,Nomad Marketing,market research,zoomerang,survey monkey,limesurvey,web,internet

I’ve been thinking about web strategy a lot lately.  The current economy has made many businesses re-evaluate their marketing plans.  Companies justifiably see the web as a great "free" resource for marketing.  So many tools exist today - many of which were covered in recent posts here - that getting the word out online is quick, easy and effective.

At the same time, a disjointed web strategy can send confusing messages to the market.  Web marketers must take care to integrate all of the elements of their web presence.  Whether a company uses blogs, Twitter, Facebook or all of the above, the tone and content of messages sent should be consistent across these media.  A snarky, abrasive tone in Tweets can reduce the effectiveness of thoughtful blog posts, etc.  The brand must be consistently represented in all marketing vehicles.

Policy questions aside, Barack Obama’s campaign (and now administration) offer one of the best examples of consistent, connected web strategy ever seen.  His tweets link to YouTube videos of his speeches which refer to his website where people can find blogs and chat rooms to discuss his ideas.  The tone, message and style of each of these elements is consistent and drives interest and engagement from followers. 

He has taken it a step further with www.change.gov - his transition team’s website. By bringing the campaign’s web savvy to his administration, more people than ever before will become wired to the inner workings of government.  The potential for an engaged citizenry is enormous.

The web offers tremendous opportunities for low cost, highly effective marketing.  The key to success is a holistic strategy with the brand at the center.

marketing,nomad marketing,web,internet,twitter,facebook,barack obama,blog,youtube

Step 3.  Use social networking tools

Improving search results and generating site traffic relies on links and connections from around the web.  One of the best ways of spreading the word is through online social networking.  Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook can connect you with thousands of prospective contacts and referrers.  Messaging tools like Twitter provide a forum for sending quick updates and sharing links with thousands of “followers”.

The instantaneous nature of these online tools makes it easy for website owners to draw visitors and keep them coming back.  Each new blog post or site update can be communicated quickly to thousands of fans with a few keystrokes.  In fact, several Facebook apps, like My Blogs will automatically post new blog entries to a Facebook profile.  With millions using these tools, they are critical for improving search results and web traffic.

Twitter can be another valuable asset. Twitter messages - called Tweets - support live hyperlinks.  That gives website owners the opportunity to quickly alert followers to updated site content and new blog posts and drive them directly to the new content.  Not surprisingly, multiple Facebook apps allow Tweets to be posted on a profile page – almost instantaneously.

Social networking tools create an interconnected alert system that is fast, easy and inexpensive (free).  Website owners can use this system to communicate new content and expand their reach.   By cross-pollinating messages among the various tools, website owners can create a robust mechanism for generating new and loyal traffic.

Nomad Marketing,Internet,marketing,social networking,facebook,twitter,linkedin,blog,website,web

Step 2.  Take advantage of blogs

In the last post, I discussed the ways small businesses can utilize Google’s web tools to increase traffic on their site.  A second way to attract visitors is to create a blog strategy.  Blogs give visitors a reason to return to a website.  Leaving comments on other blogs can help increase traffic on your site, too.  A new breed of “aggregator” sites can also help extend the reach of a website featuring a blog.  A good blog strategy will incorporate all three elements.

Build a business blog

Not all blogs are created equal.  Everyone has heard of the “blogosphere” - that tempest in a teapot filled with ranting crazies.  Business blogs are very different.  When well-crafted, they can offer an insider’s view of a company and extend a brand persona beyond advertising and media efforts.

A blog must be supported by an underlying strategy.  Without a mission, the blog will wander and readers will lose interest.  Aspiring business bloggers should ask themselves questions like:

• “What are my recurring messages and themes?”
• “What personality should my blog adopt?”
• “How open should my blog be in discussing my company or products?”
• “How can I keep my posts relevant to my readers?”

Business bloggers should be prepared to deal with negative or inappropriate comments posted to their blogs.  Eliminating the negative feedback universally can backfire, but all comments should be moderated to eliminate inappropriate or unnecessarily harsh commentary.

Blog entries must be frequent and relevant enough to keep readers interested.  If posts appear less than once a week, readers will stop returning.  Understanding readers’ interests is also critical.  Blogs should address issues readers care about.  If business bloggers understand their customers and their market, they should be able to comment on relevant topics easily.

Comment on other blogs

The blogosphere is full of blogs discussing business issues.  There are many people commenting on topics relevant to your business.  The keys to making this work for you are:

1. Find the appropriate blogs to connect with.
2. Leave relevant, insightful comments.
3. Include your blog address in the comment so readers can find your blog.
4. Be active.  One comment once in a while is not enough to make this work.

Connect with aggregators

Many websites aggregate blog posts into categories.  These sites are popular because they filter the millions of blog posts and return those that are of interest to readers.  Business blogs should be connected to these aggregators.  Some examples include:

• Digg
• Stumbleupon
• Del.icio.us

Each post should be tagged to match the key words in the post as well as the key search for your company.  Those tags will allow readers to find your posts more easily.

Blogs can drive significant traffic to a website.  They add visibility and provide a forum for extending a company’s brand.   They also give visitors a reason to return to a site frequently, giving brand owners more opportunities to connect with their audiences.

Nomad Marketing,marketing,web,blog,search engine optimization,internet

Small businesses often can’t afford expensive Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services.  The good news is, they don’t really need to.  Three simple activities can provide more bang for the buck than many SEO services. 

I’m not suggesting that paying for SEO wouldn’t be valuable for some businesses.  In highly competitive markets, SEO can mean the difference between showing up first and showing up last.  But for many small businesses, appearing in the top 5-10 search results is sufficient to drive more traffic to their sites.  I suggest three simple steps for all of my clients.  I’ll review each step in separate posts.

Step 1.  Focus on Google

Like it or not, Google controls 60% of worldwide web searches.  And considering Google’s partnership with Yahoo, they will control even more of the paid search results market.  Google should get most of a small business’s SEO attention. 

First, webmasters should focus on their "snippet".  This is the little blurb that appears under the link in any Google search result.  Google has created a valuable video explaining the mechanics of a Snippet. .  The key to snippet success is making sure that the opening paragraph of a site’s home page text succinctly captures the business’s message.  It should include as many key search terms as possible in the first couple of lines.  The best part of this effort is that it’s free!  (Note:  Yahoo and MSN snippets function similarly, but Google is the most scientific about theirs.)

Here’s Nomad Marketing’s Google snippet.

Companies that advertise on the web, should emphasize Google AdWords in their campaigns.   This simple “pay per click” service reaches the majority of web searchers and allows advertisers to budget any amount per click and any amount per month for search results.  More competitive searches will cost more, but this can be a very affordable advertising solution for many businesses.  Note:  it’s not always necessary to appear in the “Top 3” results – the most expensive category.  Often, showing up in the top 5-10 is enough.  Frequency is important, so businesses should consider buying more frequent results in the lower range for the same monthly budget.

One important element to a successful AdWords campaign is search term optimization.  That’s where the 3rd leg of the Google stool – Google Analytics – comes in.  Google Analytics allows webmasters to monitor the search terms that lead people to their sites – and integrates directly with AdWords.  Google Analytics is free and only requires a simple code snippet addition to web pages.  This tool offers a variety of valuable data in simple, clear reports.  By closely monitoring the most common search terms in Google Analytics, web advertisers can optimize their search terms in AdWords – dropping ineffective search terms and adding more effective terms.  Webmasters should review their Google Analytics data at least weekly to most effectively optimize their AdWords campaigns.

Google dominates the web search world.  Embracing the giant can make life easier for small businesses.  Webmasters can optimize their web search results by spiffing up their snippets, advertising with AdWords and monitoring results with Analytics.  These are some simple, affordable ways to start an SEO effort. Check back for Step 2:  Taking advantage of blogs.

Web traffic,internet,marketing,Nomad Marketing,Google,snippet,adwords,Google analytics,search engine optimization

Much has been made of micro-finance as an economic development tool.  One challenge in micro-finance is that the businesses created with micro-loans are often service businesses that do not create new wealth within communities.  They simply move the wealth from one person to another. 

Some community development organizations have created a different model.  Micro-marketing.  This concept creates jobs and wealth by teaching marketable skills and providing valuable products to people outside the communities these groups serve.  Cape Town, South Africa is home to two such organizations, the Philani Nutrition Development Project and MonkeyBiz.

The Philani centers, located in the townships of Cape Town teach weaving, beadwork and other artistic skills.  They provide sales, marketing and business education and support.  Two-thirds of the revenue from the artists’ work goes directly to the artists.  The remainder supports the centers’ educational and childhood development programs and provides business assistance to the artists.  The art is sold to tourists and collectors that visit the centers and a number of retail shops throughout Cape Town. 

MonkeyBiz provides a similar outlet for local artists via a retail shop in Cape Town, an online shop and partnerships with organizations around the world.  In contrast to the Philani Centers, which focus on township residents, MonkeyBiz artisans largely come from the streets of Cape Town.  MonkeyBiz provides a broad range of skills training, involving artisans in every aspect of the retail business and community outreach programs.

Like micro-finance programs, these micro-marketing initiatives create new economic opportunities for underprivileged communities.  By creating goods for art collectors and tourists, projects like MonkeyBiz and the Philani Centers go one step farther.  They attract new wealth into the communities.

Nomad Marketing,marketing,economic development,micro-finance,micro-marketing,MonkeyBiz,Philani

Yesterday, Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons left this plane and entered the Astral Plane.  He was 69. 

Gary’s influence on the world of gaming cannot be understated.  All online role-playing games, fantasy card games and many video games owe their existence to Gary.  Without D&D, there would be no World of Warcraft, Magic the Gathering or even Second Life.

Gary, through Dungeons and Dragons, took an arcane game genre and made it universally known – if not universally cool!   He created a game category, invented the hobbyist game convention concept and parlayed the game’s popularity into cartoons and movies.  As an entrepreneur, he had quite an impact on the entertainment industry.  A very young Tom Hanks even starred in the D&D TV movie, Mazes & Monsters!

My adolescence included a heavy dose of D&D.  Yes, I was THAT guy.  But I’m not the only one!  Over 20 million people are estimated to have played the game.  More than $1 billion in game gear and books have been sold since 1973! 

In junior high school, I even had the chance to meet Gary.  My family was vacationing in Lake Geneva, WI and I insisted that we visit his hobby store – I think it was called The Dragon’s Lair.  He was there!  He autographed the D&D books I bought and spent an hour talking with me.  It was very exciting for a low-level Druid like me.

I haven’t played for years, but hearing of Gary’s death has made me nostalgic. Here’s hoping his latest adventure leads him to rich rewards!

Nomad Marketing,marketing,Gary Gygax,Dungeons & Dragons,D&D,World of Warcraft,Gen Con,Magic the Gathering,Second Life,Lake Geneva

There’s an old sales adage that says, “Bad news early is good news.”  Knowing a deal won’t happen early keeps a salesperson from wasting time. 

That saying applies to new product ideas too.  A good product development process has hurdles at several stages.  The most important hurdles are the ones at the front end – before the big investments are made.  Saying no (and yes) to the right projects at the right times makes product development a more profitable endeavor.

Some studies estimate that more than $100 billion is spent on R&D every year in the US alone.  Many (most) of the products will never see the light of day – or worse, will fail in the market.  When that happens, billions in money and thousands of person-hours have been wasted on futile, unproductive efforts.  Corporate profitability takes a hit.  Market opportunities are squandered.  Morale suffers.

Management has a responsibility to make hard decisions on new product concepts early in the process.  Without applying early scrutiny, managers put major dollars and human capital at risk.  Of course, there are no crystal balls, but investing in due diligence at the front end of the development process will improve the success rate of R&D efforts.

Key elements of early stage due diligence include:

• Dedicated and engaged management – rubber stamping project plans invites trouble
• Willingness to invest in market research – knowing customer needs improves project success rates
• A full concept funnel – saying no demands more project ideas to evaluate
• A strong product management staff – sound decision-making and good data are essential to early-stage evaluation

None of this means that managers should never say, “Yes.”  By weeding out less viable concepts, managers allow the more promising projects to flourish.  These projects should be supported with extra resources and corporate support.  A great way to kill a good project is to starve it in its infancy.  Diverting resources from less viable projects to the “winners” improves the good projects’ chances for success.

Saying no to new product concepts early improves new product success, reduces R&D waste and improves profitability.  If a project makes it past the first hurdle, shower it with love AND money.  The up-front investments will be well spent and the rewards will be great.

Nomad Marketing,marketing,product management,product development,R&D,innovation

Getting inside the minds of consumers is a real challenge for marketers.  Consumer research is a huge industry.  Focus groups, online surveys, consumer panels.  You name it, marketers have tried it.  All of these research methods can help marketers segment their customers into ever-smaller groups.  A big challenge remains, even after this level of dissection:  finding the personality – the soul – of the consumer.

That’s where segment personas come in.  A consumer persona combines the demographic, psychographic and qualitative characteristics of a segment into one fictional composite personality.  Putting a face on the cold hard numbers can help marketers gain a richer understanding of a segment and it’s preferences.  The mere exercise of building a segment persona can be enlightening, generating new and interesting insights.

Building a segment persona is a relatively simple process.  Clear and concise segmentation is critical.  If the segment isn’t reasonably homogeneous, the persona can’t speak for the whole group.  Using the demographic information as a start, assign a gender, age, income level and family to the persona.  The persona should have a name.  That way he or she will acquire a personality of her own. 

Once you’ve assigned your persona a name and vital statistics, reach into your psychographic data and give her preferences.  Where does she shop?  What magazines does she read?  Where does she browse online?  To what groups does she belong?  To what other brands is she loyal?  Where did she and her family go for their last vacation?  What model car does she drive? 

The more questions like these that you ask, the richer will be your picture of her.  If you can imagine her driving her car (mini-van, SUV, etc.) to the grocery store (convenience store, farmers market) and changing the music on her radio (iPod, cellphone, satellite radio), you can imagine her interacting with your brand.

Marketers today are awash in data.  But the soul of the consumer doesn’t live in the cells of an Excel spreadsheet.  With a little imagination, marketers can create rich, robust pictures of their consumers using segment personas.

Nomad Marketing,marketing,market research,personas,demographics,psychographics,consumers