sales
Coming In From the Cold: Connecting With Prospects
January 29, 2013
A small business owner posted a great question on the LinkedIn group “Small Business Networks for Startups and Entrepreneurs” board:
Are cold calls effective? Or is it old school? For a small company, what is the best way to promote the business? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.”
The small business owner who posted this question got more than her fair share of advice and opinions regarding the practice of cold calling. And, while most every single comment had a jewel of truth and wisdom when it comes to cold calling – the comments also conflicted with each other. For example:
“Not only is it old school but its intrusive and offensive.”
“Cold calling is old school indeed but it is still one of the most effective ways to reach prospects.”
So – which is it? Offensive or Effective?
Fortunately for the small business owner uncertain whether to pick up the phone there was one comment that simply rocked. Sandra Hoedemaker owner of ChefinDemand.com an online business coaching service specializing in providing services to personal chefs, posted a completely different perspective and approach to cold calling – something she calls “Connect Calling.”
Connecting is Warm – Cold is…well, Cold
Those commenters who identified cold calling as intrusive and offensive make a good point. Today’s consumer not only isn’t interested in hearing uninvited sales pitches, they can (and quite often do) find unscheduled sales calls as a definite intrusion into an already too busy day.
Sandra notes that she does, in fact, “cold call” and also indicates that these calls are always most successful when she is able to connect with the decision maker. So far her comment sounds like your run-of-the-mill cold calling advice. However, Sandra definitely breaks rank because she goes on to say that she “doesn’t sell on the phone.”
OK, if she’s cold calling, but not selling – what exactly IS Sandra doing when she makes those calls?
Sandra knows prospects aren’t interested in “being sold” – but they are interested in learning real ways to solve their problems and get their needs met. Sandra knows that the best way to do that is to establish her credibility as an expert who knows how to solve common problems and meet the special needs of her niche. How does she do that? She offers to provide them with carefully selected free services. This allows her to:
- Build her email list and then connect with prospects freely because they have invited Sandra to contact them.
- Stay connected to her prospects via blogging, teleclasses, and other virtual events (she’s also in the process of putting video presentations in place.)
Outside of the above, connecting with prospects versus cold calling prospects has resulted in Sandra receiving referrals and she’s also garnered invitations to speak as well. Sandra has successfully used Connect Calling as a tactic to connect with prospects in meaningful ways. She’s taken an “old school, annoying” tactic and turned it into a powerful tool to build a community of prospective buyers.
What is most impressive about her approach is the opportunity to begin to establish trust with prospects via Connect Calling. Offering useful, applicable free services and information allows prospects to begin to build a relationship where Sandra becomes a Trusted Advisor who’s got their back versus someone trying to make a sale. Sounds more like networking than cold calling doesn’t it?
And when those prospects pick up a phone to make a call when they find themselves in need of services Sandra charges for, Sandra’s much more likely to be the one who hears it ring.
Sandra’s business serves a unique niche – but Connect Calling can be a valid, productive, and profitable tactic to market your small business no matter what market you serve.
Guest Authored
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
History of Merchant Cash Advance
January 24, 2013The History of Merchant Cash Advance
Before it was mainstream, it was kind of mainstream. Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) is not new or even relatively new and it definitely isn’t a byproduct of the 2008-09 financial crisis. In fact, in 2007 some people thought the best days of the industry were already behind it. In an August 2007 issue of the Green Sheet, Dee Karawadra expressed reluctance to write about MCA because he believed the subject was stale.
When a GS Online MLS Forum member suggested I write an article on cash advance, I explained my research and said, “I think that boat has come and gone, and I missed it.”
Dee’s article is an excellent snapshot of the feeling of 2007. Excitement was running wild and bold predictions were being made. A lot of the same questions being asked today were asked and answered back then. Those employed in the industry that do not take the time to read up on MCA history are at a disadvantage. And one thing this industry did a great job of, was chronicling all of the events that unfolded.
The Green Sheet
Prior to 2007, The Green Sheet’s forum was the only source for information. It is still filled with threads going back as far as 2003 on the subject. The discussion seems to begin by one user posing the question:
Who thinks a cash advance program, (a loan) on future credit card volume will help themselves get more deals and their merchants operate better?
March 2003
By 2004, MCA was all the rage. Competition began to nibble at AdvanceMe’s monopoly, a monopoly they were rightfully entitled to because they owned the patent on split-funding. Many chose AdvanceMe anyway simply because they had already established a name for themselves.
You might want to check out AdvanceMe. I think they have a superior product and service as well as more money too … that you will be better served by AdvanceMe than you would by any of the other Cash Advance companies of which their [sic] are not that many.
August 19, 2004
And many weren’t even sure what they were selling exactly. Merchant Cash Advance had not yet even been coined as a term:
quick show of hands as to what title you would place on this product… A) Factoring of receivables B) Cash Advance C) something else… Just for the record – I don’t know what to honestly call it.
August 20, 2004
Those that responded called it an unsecured loan, factoring, merchant funding, and cash advance. Some that weren’t even familiar with the concept appeared completely lost in the conversations. It was common to confuse cash advance as meaning to take a cash advance out on an actual credit card. The need for a universal term was badly needed. An industry couldn’t progress forward if no one even knew what the industry was.
A Way to Build and Strengthen Merchant Account Portfolios
But on the subject of giving money to merchants in exchange for more back, programs offered by AdvanceMe and Rewards Network were compared on the merit of the cost to the customer. Since reps viewed MCA as an acquisition tool to obtain merchant accounts or retain them, commissions and renewals were rarely discussed. They were basically a non-factor and some folks from this era carried this mentality straight into the financial crisis age of MCA. Funders advanced merchants not to make money on advances, but to build their own processing residual portfolios and to sell or lease more POS equipment. The loan, cash advance, merchant funding, or whatever it was of the day was a tool to drive business, not a business itself. Right before and during the financial crisis, funding companies began to streamline their focus and suddenly it became all about funding and nothing else.
The MCA industry has remained in that state for about 5 years and some are starting to think that it’s time to evolve. A poster on DailyFunder.com recently ranted that his company can’t grow unless it diversifies, coincidentally citing that MCA would be better served as an acquisition tool. If this happened, history would repeat itself.
This should be a lesson to the MCA industry which is trying to make a product out of something everyone else views as an acquisition tool. Are we just lenders or diversified businesses? We are the former. As such, prices will never come down, margins can only get slimmer.
1/19/2013
In 2004, when the MCA industry was joined at the hip with payment processing, becoming a dedicated funder was a way to stand out from the crowd. But perhaps now that the market is saturated with dedicated funders, it is getting more difficult to build a presence in the market.
Behold! Merchant Cash Advance!
In May 2005, The Green Sheet was forced to label the product when it published a story about Merchant Cash Advances. We’re not claiming that this article coined the phrase, but it is a good approximation of when it started to be called such. A few sentences in, they actually disclaim their own term.
There isn’t even consensus on what to call the product, except that it is most definitely not a loan.
The three word term was not even used in the Green Sheet forums until October 2005, and then not again until March 2006. Soon after, that became the term of choice.
The One and Only MCA Blog
As MCA financing took on a life of its own outside of payment processing, the industry turned to a blog to learn about the unfolding events. From 2007 to 2010, David Goldin, the CEO of AmeriMerchant wrote weekly updates about his firm and experiences. He wrote about his harrowing battle with AdvanceMe. After invalidating their patent, he opened the floodgates for any funder interested in utilizing split-funding. He offered honest opinions and had excellent foresight, forever documenting what it was like for the MCA industry during the financial crisis. Anyone that didn’t get to experience that time firsthand should read it start to finish.
As Goldin’s company grew, he turned his focus to other matters. The North American Merchant Advance Association (NAMAA) was formed on April 29, 2010, a non-profit alliance designed to bring peace and order to an industry that had gone through tremendous turmoil in the last few years. He all but abandoned the blog afterwards.
Free Info for All
Where Goldin left off, I resumed by starting a credit card processing/MCA blog in July 2010 named Merchant Processing Resource (MPR). At that time, I was an MCAer that had toiled away as both the head of an underwriting department and as an account executive. The blog covered a lot of topics and was targeted towards business owners and ISOs simultaneously. I believed there was a vast amount of data that newcomers didn’t have about MCA and set off to share as much as I could without self-promoting a product or service.
By December, my web host (a very simple blog site named Webs.com) informed me that the website was using too much bandwidth for the current package. I upgraded it only to encounter the same problem again 9 months later. The site was forced to transfer to a real host in order to grow and be able to handle the surging stream of visitors. Webs.com’s format was not conducive to transfers and as a result, every article written prior to August 23, 2011 was time-stamped with that very date.
Three History Books
To recap, the Green Sheet and their forums were the places to follow MCA from 2003 to 2007. Goldin’s Blog narrated the story from 2007-2010 and MPR has carried the torch since then. If we go further back, and we believe everyone should, you’ll find that AdvanceMe kind of existed in a world of their own in the late 1990s. In 1999, they funded $9 million. What they were funding annually increased to $200 million by 2006, a time when they had already amassed more than 14,000 clients. These aren’t exactly the humble beginnings of a new industry. These are serious numbers that could arguably support the theory that MCA was already well into the mainstream.
MCA in Black and White
MCA information was publicly available nearly two decades ago via the U.S. patent office. Barbara S. Johnson is listed as the official inventor of split-funding AKA Automated Loan Repayment in documents filed in 1997. There were no forums or bloggers to explain how it worked. There was only this:
Systems and methods for automated loan repayment involve utilizing consumer payment authorization, clearing, and settlement systems to allow a merchant to reduce an outstanding loan amount. After a customer identifier (e.g., a credit, debit, smart, charge, payment, etc. card account number) is accepted as payment from the customer, information related to the payment is forwarded to a merchant processor. The merchant processor acquires the information related to the payment, processes that information, and forwards at least a portion of the payment to a loan repayment receiver as repayment of at least a portion of the outstanding loan amount owed by the merchant. The loan repayment receiver receives the portion of the payment forwarded by the merchant processor and applies that portion to the outstanding loan amount owed by the merchant to reduce that outstanding loan amount.
The Automated Loan Repayment kicked off an industry that would evolve significantly over the next 15 years and yet a payment processor was already doing this to fund merchants as far back as 1992. Litle & Company didn’t call it MCA. That name didn’t even come about until around 2005, but they were the first MCA funder in the country. The makes MCA more than 20 years old.
Been There, Done That
We may have closed a chapter in 2012 when it became evident the product had finally graduated from the minor leagues, but there is a forever long story that preceded it. MCA financing existed before some account reps were even born. Sadly some of these kids talk to prospects today without really even knowing what they’re selling. Then again, in 2004 no one knew what the heck they were selling either. There is still technically no formal name especially since split-funding is no longer the standard. If the poster in 2004 posed the same question today about what to label this product as, there would be just as much disagreement. Business cash advance, merchant financing, ach advance, cash flow loan, ach funding, merchant cash advance, unsecured loan, merchant loan. Nobody really agrees and nobody really even does it the same way as everyone else. It’s all MCA to me and I’ll keep reporting on it for as long as it lasts. And as long as it keeps reinventing itself, there will always be a chance to get in early. Those that read up on the past or were there and experienced it firsthand have a major advantage. History repeats itself in MCA.
You know those butterflies you’re getting about 2013? They were felt before in 1998, 2004, and 2007. MCA was kind of mainstream before it was mainstream. 2012 ignited a spark and some of us know what’s going to happen next. As for the rest of you, brace yourselves. It’s going to be more crazy than you can imagine.
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
Getting Permission
January 21, 2013
Numbers don’t lie.
77% of online consumers surveyed said they want to receive permission-based marketing messages via email. Sounds impressive – but even more impressive when you learn that direct mail came in a distant second with only 9% looking forward to opening their mail box. Interestingly, only 5% preferred text messages. (Source: ExactTarget 2012 Channel Preference Survey)
That’s the good news. After all, email is perhaps the most inexpensive means for small business owners to communicate with consumers. The bad news is – before you can communicate with consumers via email – you’ve got to get their permission (along with their email address.)
Permission-based marketing simply means that you have your customer’s permission to contact them. However, if you’re a small business owner just getting their feet wet it’s likely that 77% of your list isn’t exactly a large number.
Collecting email addresses from customers and clients who have given you permission to contact them is the “Catch 22” and “between a rock and a hard place” of small business email marketing. Obviously purchasing lists of email addresses of consumers who fit the demographic of your customer doesn’t cut it. Emailing someone without their permission to ask for permission to email them just doesn’t make sense – not to mention today’s consumer tends to be totally turned off by businesses that make the attempt. Not too many fans of spam out there.
So, if you don’t have a list – how do you create one?
The Usual Suspects
It would be hard to find anyone with even a smidgen of experience searching the Internet who hasn’t encountered an “opt-in” when visiting a website. An opt-in is nothing more than a form that serves to ask permission to contact the consumer as well as collect their information. Visitors to your businesses’ website can opt-in to receive a variety of marketing messages from you – for example a newsletter, blog posts, or special announcements (such as a sale.) It makes sense to have opt-in opportunities on every page of your website.
Sounds great but, once again, if you’ve got very little traffic on your website, that translates into very little opportunity to build a Mondo email list. If the obvious tactic of including opt-in opportunities on your small business website doesn’t help that much when it comes to building your list – what other tactics can you employ?
Plenty – here are a few:
If you’re a retailer, make it a practice to ask for (and collect) every customer’s opt-in at the point of purchase. The same goes for B2B small business owners. For example, train your receptionist to ask for opt-in when taking calls.
Display an “opt-in sign up” book where customers and visitors to your office will easily find it. Be sure to include information that motivates people to provide you with their permission (i.e. a description of your newsletter, let them know you routinely email discount offers, etc.)
Do it the old fashioned way. It’s likely you’ve got the phone number of most of your customers and clients. Pick up the phone and call to ask for their permission to be contacted via email.
Contact customers and clients who’ve already subscribed. Let them know you’re running a “forwarding contest” and tell them they will be entered into a raffle for each person they forward your email to. Include a link that says something like “Forward to a Friend” (there are email marketing services that can identify which subscribers actually forwarded their email.)
Ask in-person. We are so “virtually” oriented that the obvious can escape us: ask people to opt-in when you meet them in person. This can be at professional and business networking events – even with that person you struck up a conversation with in line at the grocery store.
Partner with a related, non-compete business. Are you a web designer? Partner with a public relations firm and send out each other’s messages.
Include an invitation to opt-in on all printed marketing material. This includes everything from promotional brochures, stationary, and your business card. It also includes printed advertising.
Last, but definitely not least (and perhaps the most obvious) include a link to an opt-in underneath your email signature.
– Guest Authored
Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
Like a Rolling Stone
January 16, 2013
There’s an old story still making the rounds on the Internet about a woman calling into a computer company extremely frustrated because her new computer wouldn’t start up. The customer service technician, of course, first made sure the machine was plugged in (there’s a good chance that question made his customer even more angry and frustrated, but we all know it had to be asked.) The woman responded that YES, it was plugged in.
The technician then asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Power button? The woman told him she wasn’t aware of any power button, but she was certain that the foot peddle was broken. She’s pushed and pushed on it and the computer refused to come on.
She thought the mouse was a foot peddle.
It’s pretty much a certainty that all small business owners and their employees have their own customer complaint stories –and we’re sure thousands and thousands of them are pretty funny. We’re also sure that untold numbers of customer complaint stories small business owners and their employees have aren’t funny at all.
We’ve all had days when we’ve been so used and abused by a customer we wish could just fire them. Which begs the question – is it OK to fire a customer? If so, when?
I Can’t Get No
Wise small business owners know that the customer is always right. However, this doesn’t mean that a customer has a right to be abusive to you or to your employees. On the other hand, things happen – things that customers are justified in making a complaint. Some of those things are going to be the “fault” (even though unintentional) of your business. Some of those things are going to be outside the control of your business. Whether your company is at fault or not isn’t the issue. The issue is making the honest attempt to resolve the complaint to your customer’s satisfaction.
The problem, as the song says, is that there are going to be customers who, no matter how hard you try, “Can’t get no satisfaction.”
Here is the short list of basic ways to respond to complaining customers seeking satisfaction:
Let them vent. Most of the time even the angriest customers just want to be heard. They want to know that you’re taking them, and their complaint, seriously and the way to let them know you are is to allow the customer to vent. It can be frustrating, but don’t break in or interrupt. Instead, let them tell you their whole story. When you do, you’ll be surprised at how many customers “calm themselves down” without your having to say a word.
Help them figure out what they’re complaining about. Many times customers and clients call in and seem to be complaining about a very specific aspect of your product or service (i.e. it didn’t arrive on time, the quality doesn’t meet their expectation) but, after that issue is resolved, are still frustrated and/or angry. The way to respond is by asking clarifying questions that help the both of your sort out what’s really going on. For instance, a client may think they’re complaining about the quality of the product, when what they’re upset about is the fact that the service technician who installed it did not take enough time to explain how to use the product.
Validate the customer’s experience. Right or wrong – what the customer experienced is what they experienced. Attempting to convince someone they really aren’t or shouldn’t be angry or frustrated isn’t productive. And apologizing can backfire. Certainly there are times when a sincere apology for a goof up on the part of your business is warranted. There are also times when doing so can create unrealistic expectations on the part of the customer – expectations that will ultimately lead to the customer complaining again when those unrealistic expectations aren’t met. For example, you might apologize for the technician not taking time to explain the product when they installed it and then discover the technician spent a couple hours doing just that when 15 minutes is the norm.
Use your best judgment when it comes to apologizing, but also understand that more often your customer will be more satisfied that their complaint is being handled when, instead of apologizing, you validate the customer’s feelings. For example, “I know how frustrating new technology can be. Do you have any questions regarding how to use Product A that I can help you with now?”
However, if you’ve listened to your customer, asked clarifying questions to make sure you’ve handled their full complaint, and attempted to sincerely validate their experience and that customer still becomes increasing abusive or unreasonable it can mean it is time to sever the relationship.
This can be done by explaining to the customer that you’re disappointed you haven’t been able to resolve their issue to their satisfaction, but you truly feel this is because their wants/needs aren’t a good match – and then refer them to a reliable competitor. However, you don’t have to take prolonged abuse. If the customer or client uses abusive language or becomes threatening, it is completely reasonable to inform that customer that your company has zero tolerance for that kind of behavior and end the conversation as well as sever the relationship.
– Guest Authored
Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
MPR.mobi on iPhone, iPad, and Android
The #1 Sales Skill for Small Business Owners
January 10, 2013No matter how well you performed your due diligence before opening the doors at your small business, once you opened them you got a few surprises. And, unless you were in sales before opening your doors, the biggest surprise you got was likely just how difficult it is to “sell.”
Selling is a skill. Now, it’s true that there are “natural born sales people” – but all that means is that they have a talent for selling; they still need to develop their skills. The great thing about skills is that we can learn new skills.
The first skill you need to learn in order to sell successfully is often learning how to change how you think about “selling.” Not sure what we mean by that? If you read the word “zebra” an image of a zebra pops up in your head. Now read the word “salesman” – what image just popped up for you? Most likely not a very positive one.
It might take you a bit of time and effort to get over the prejudices you may have about sales. Unfortunately, as with many things in life, negative experiences we have a tendency to stick to us like glue. To make things even more difficult when it comes to changing attitudes, we also often have a tendency for negative experiences to stick with us much, much longer than positive experiences.
Don’t think that’s true? Here’s a brief exercise to prove our point:
- Write down 10 bad experiences you had with a sales person in less than 3 minutes.
- Write down 10 great experiences you had with a sales person in less than 3 minutes.
We rest our case.
Do You “Hate” Selling?
Let’s face it, if you’ve got a history of “not trusting” sales people it’s going to be pretty tough to feel very good about selling. Successful sales are based on trust and, in order for your customer to trust you, you’ve got to have a strong belief that what you’re doing is of value to your customer. Hard to do if you “hate” sales.
If you hate or are “extremely uncomfortable” about selling those feelings quite likely stem from beliefs you have about the process of selling in general and sales people in particular. For instance:
- Sales people are manipulative.
- Sales people are pushy.
- Sales people lie.
Right out of the box, it is true that some sales people do/are all of the above. But not most – and certainly the Top 5% are about as far away from manipulative, pushy, and dishonest as you can get. Think about it. You don’t want people to buy from you once – you want to create loyal repeat customers who also refer other loyal repeat customers to your business. Certainly the words “manipulative, pushy, and dishonest” aren’t behaviors that are going to result in creating a loyal customer base. That means that all those bad experiences you had with sales people happened when you were buying from “bad” (under-performing, unprofessional) sales people. While it might have looked like they would do anything to make a sale, it was probably because they were desperate to make a sale because they were so bad at it. Sales people who operate like that and are successful are actually the exception and not the rule. They also frequently aren’t successful for very long periods of time.
Hopefully you’re feeling a bit relieved to find out that learning how to sell does not mean honing skills related to being manipulative, pushy, and deceitful. Most successful, top-performing sales people are the exact opposite. Instead, sales is about solving your customer’s problems and meeting their needs. It’s about having their back and bringing them value even when they don’t buy from you. Why? Because that is how you create trust – and people like to do business with people they trust.
Believing in what you’re doing isn’t the only sales skill you need to learn – but it is definitely the first thing you need to get under your belt, and in a big way. No matter how many sales books you read or seminars you attend, unless you believe in what you’re doing and that your ability to sell is a value to your customer – you run the risk of becoming that manipulative, pushy, less-than-honest image of a sales person you love to hate.
Guest Authored
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
Such a Deal
November 15, 2012
You may have considered taking part in a “daily deal” program to increase sales at your small business. As always, you want to do your homework before jumping in. Lucky for you Constant Contact just published a post where they share information they gleaned as to “how and why” people use daily deals.
The research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey sent out a survey on behalf of Constant Contact asking 1,433 consumers over the age of 18 and came up with some pretty interesting results:
- Consumers who sign up to receive daily deals end up purchasing them
- Recommendations from friends make consumers more likely to purchase a deal from an unfamiliar small business
- Personal endorsements drive deal purchases, especially for women
- People are willing to share a deal if it’s great, regardless of whether they are a customer
- More than 1/3 of consumers are more likely to buy a deal from a local small business
- For nearly 60% of customers, even a good deal experience doesn’t automatically equal loyalty
- More than twice as many consumers share deals via email than on social networks
- Deals for restaurants and entertainment are the most commonly shared
- 92% of consumers think local deals are here to stay
- Consumers think deals help attract new customers to local businesses
A lot of this information isn’t new. For example, the fact that women are more likely to make a purchase based on a “personal endorsement.” However, it should be noted that not too long ago that endorsement didn’t need to be “personal.” According to some statistics, an online recommendation from an unknown consumer was trusted by 70% of online consumers. However, what is of real interest to small business is the fact that this survey indicates at least one-third of those seeking online “daily deals” are more likely to buy something from an equally local small business (i.e. your small business.)
On the “not so great” side of the coin is knowing participating in daily deals isn’t a sure fire way to inspire customer loyalty. Again, this isn’t surprising. Think about it. Consumers who use daily deals are consumers who buy based on price. More than that, the fact that 60% state a daily deal doesn’t inspire loyalty indicates that it is likely that this 60% are consumers that always buy solely based on price. This means the minute your price isn’t the lowest they will skip town in a heartbeat. On the other hand, all is not lost. There’s that other 40% of daily dealers you should be following up on in ways that DO create customer loyalty. So daily deals do, in fact, provide an opportunity to create repeat business.
However, perhaps the most significant finding from this survey is that almost 100% of the people who sign up to receive daily deals purchase daily deals. Wouldn’t it be great if 92% of those you just sent emails translated into buying customers? This is a phenomenal statistic. Again, you can’t count on someone buying based on price to be loyal, but a mechanism this motivating to consumers represents an avenue to market to those who may otherwise not consider your local small business when making their buying decision.
Guest Authored
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
Is Print Media Dead? Why Small Business Owners Should Take a Second Look
November 11, 2012
Many small business owners may have thrown out the newspaper with the bath water when it comes to using print media as a marketing and promotion channel for their small business. Number one, most of us are pretty much convinced that print media is dead. Major newspapers that have been around for eons are dead or dying. Print magazines are failing or subscriptions are woefully down. On top of that there are literally hundreds of thousands of online social media specialists and bloggers out there tooting the digital horn not as “the way of the future” – but telling us that the future is now. Any small business owner out there not engaging in social media marketing isn’t only missing the boat, they’re on a sinking ship.
However, small business owners might want to take a second, and much closer, look at whether or not investing in print media still represents an opportunity to achieve a high rate of return for their particular business.
Print Media Can Hit Your Target
The most obvious example is a small local business owner. A business owner who serves a local community with distinct boundaries is targeting consumers and clients within that local jurisdiction. That local community may be at the neighborhood, small town, or even large municipal area. What is common to all local businesses is that oftentimes print media exists that provides a relatively low cost vehicle to promote their small business.
For example, small business owners in small towns are likely to get a pretty big bang for their buck promoting their business in their local small town newspaper. Many of these small town papers provide what could be classified as “hard journalism” reporting on local political and other town issues such as city budget and the like. However, a major focus in small town newspapers tends to be human interest articles that attract local readers. In turn, those articles attract specific types of readers.
For instance, often there will be a column dedicated to subjects such as gardening, cooking, local events, the environmental, the arts, books, and so on. Because the paper is so small, many local newspapers provide a greater opportunity to locate your ad near copy that relates to your small business, or that is read by people you’ve targeted as your most optimal customers or clients. If you’re a local hardware store, an ad located near the gardening article can be very effective. If you’re a local podiatrist or retail store selling running shoes, an ad near an article about a local 10K is a great opportunity. Most neighborhood and municipal newspapers offer this type or similar opportunities for ad placement.
Loyalty and Numbers Matter
Regarding reach of your small businesses’ ad, local print media can be a better option than promoting your local small business online. For one, many of these publications already have a very loyal readership. Any small business owner with even a modicum of experience creating an online presence can appreciate just how much effort, time, and (yes) money goes into creating a strong, loyal, and large following online. While social media is low cost, it isn’t “no cost.” Even if you’re not outsourcing social media activities (i.e. content creation, posting, replying, etc.) – you are paying a huge premium in time.
Equally important is that print advertising in many ways isn’t as limited as social media. You can get a whole lot more information in an ad in your local newspaper than an online banner ad. Additionally, advertising in your printed local publication can actually create more credibility for your small business. Consumers understand that print advertising comes at a cost and tend to assign credibility to businesses using print advertising. Consumers are savvy and know online banner ads can come pretty cheap – a print ad can effectively communicate your small business is both established and reliable.
Ironically, we’re going to provide you with the best argument for taking a second look at promoting and marketing your small business using print media with an online example. On their “About” page here is how one community paper describes themselves:
The College Park Community Paper has been in circulation since 1989. We are a monthly, full color, family friendly newspaper delivering the good news happening in College Park each month. The paper is delivered free of charge by mail to over 7,000 homes and businesses in the 32804 zip code which includes College Park and the Country Club of Orlando. Additional distribution is provided throughout the community and commercial district through the use of newspaper stands and counter top display. Additional exposure is garnered through our website which includes additional material not shown in the print edition.
You’ll also want to take a look at their ad rates here, but we use them as an example for quite another reason: they provide an excellent example of a small business integrating both on and offline channels to promote their small business, which can be not only a balanced approach, but an approach that provides the biggest bang for your buck.
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
Can a Broken Window Be a Good Thing?
November 2, 2012
There’s a ton of controversy right now as to whether or not the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy will, or will not, serve to stimulate the economy.
Obviously there are two camps: one says Sandy is stimulating and the other days it isn’t. It would appear that the only thing we can be sure Sandy is stimulating is controversy over whether or not it will serve as a boon to what many see as our nation’s less-than stellar economic recovery (at least in the areas devastated by the storm.)
But this debate isn’t limited to people duking it out on Facebook using terms such as “jerk” and “idiot” to prove their point (otherwise known as an ad hominem, or “against the man” argument that confuses name calling with intelligent debate.) We’ve got some serious academic economic theory out on the table.
On one hand you’ve got your Keynesians (20th century economist John Maynard Keynes gave us the theory.) Keynesians were/are considered “revolutionary” in that they deny the ability of a free economy to “fix” or stabilize itself and instead feel that, in order for an economy to consistently support full employment and stable prices government must implement policies that stabilize prices and create full employment scenarios.
On the other hand you’ve got economists who support a “laissez-faire” economy. (18th century economist Adam Smith provided us with this theory.) Adams and his adherents felt that since human beings are guided by self-interest as long as you leave the economy alone (i.e. no government intervention) the result will be a balanced, self-regulating economy because that is the state of economy that best serves self interest.
And then we’ve got Frédéric Bastiat. Ironically he happens to be a great defender of laissez-faire economics. We say ironic as it is his “Parable of the Broken Window” that tells us that, in fact, destruction, whether it be caused by natural forces (such as Hurricane Sandy) or man (such as wars) do not stimulate the economy by creating more business (and therefore more jobs.) Bastiat included the story in an essay entitled “The Seen and the Unseen.” Here’s the short version of the parable:
The Seen: A boy breaks a store window. The owner now pays for a new window, which creates income for the glazier.
The Unseen: Because the store owner has to fix his (or her) window, he (or she) now doesn’t have money to invest in the growth of their business – or for anything else they might have spent it on.
In other words, Bastiat’s theory is that destruction doesn’t create more income, it simply reallocates income. Obviously, if this is true, disasters that cause mass destruction don’t stimulate the economy.
As far as the battle between laissez-faire and Keynesian economists are concerned, for our purposes let’s just say the jury is still out, especially after suffering through this last (or current depending on who you listen to) economic debacle. On the one hand, Keynesians can gloat over seemingly infinite corporate greed that resulted in lost homes as well as lost jobs – on the other hand, those who live on the laissez-faire side of the street can gleefully cite how President Obama’s stimulus package perhaps did nothing more than (as Bastiat might say) help us see that the economy was “worse than we realized.”
Back to Bastiat
Whether or not laissez-faire or Keynesian policy should be pursued in the effort to cure the economy really isn’t the point as related to the impact of Hurricane Sandy – at least for the purpose of this article. What is at hand is whether or not Bastiat was right. However, perhaps we’ve left out an important economic theory. And that would be Darwinian, or “evolutionary economics.”
There is no getting around the fact that evolutionary economics is pretty darn complex. Evolutionary economists like to use a lot of math – especially something called game theory which uses math to explain/describe what might appear to be “irrational” economic choices or events.
However, one thing we can all understand is that evolutionary economics uses methods and ideas similar to those used to study biological evolution. And most of us are very familiar with the evolutionary concept of “survival of the fittest.”
Just for a minute let’s suppose that two store owners find that someone broke their window (destruction.)
The Seen: Both hire a glazier to fix their window (and we see the glazier benefit.)
The Unseen Store Owner #1: Poor guy (or gal) is forced to use money previously identified to be used to pay for an ad in the local newspaper to promote an upcoming sale. Now that the cash is gone, the store owner responds by throwing up their hands in despair.
The Unseen Store Owner #2: Decides to take President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt’s advice and “Do the best I can, with what I’ve got, where I’m at.” Knowing the ad is now out of the question, and without any funds left to promote the upcoming sale, she (or he) decides to use the new window to showcase the sale.
The store owner pulls out every old decoration from every holiday or special event sale from the back room and decorates the new, clear as a bell storefront window. She (or he) then gets on Facebook and Twitter and announces a contest to come up with a name for a sale that encompasses every holiday and special event known to man. The contest winner will receive $200 to donate to their favorite community charity. She (or he) contacts every existing customer via email to inform them of the upcoming sale and contest and asks them to spread the word.
The local community newspaper (ironically the one that the paid ad would have run in) picks up the story. The sale is a huge success. Too many people assume that “fittest” always means strongest. Wrong. “Fit” means the organism that is best able to adapt when the environment changes.
Obviously Store Owner #2 fits that bill. The moral is that, no matter what the “disaster”, be it hurricane or recession, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best or hoping the government will save you are not your only two choices. One choice will always be yours to make, and that is choosing to do the best you can, with what you’ve got, where you’re at.
Guest Author
– Merchant Processing Resource
https://debanked.com
