Give Mom and Pop Some Business Love

To the millions who acted on their dream, we salute you. For days on end, you rise before the sun and outlive the burn of the midnight oil. You play a vital role in the US economy and yet you don’t get the recognition you deserve. But on March 29, we celebrate National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. And because you have little time to work on absolutely everything in your business, we’re offering three marketing tips that you can do in your sleep—or at least take less of your time to do them. Get Found Online Google tells us that 97% of consumers look to a web search to find local businesses. With no cost to you and less than an hour of your time, your customers can find you online if you set up your Google Places account. It’s as easy as updating your address, hours and phone number and adding a few photos to help you stand out. It should get your business closer to the top of a search when your prospects search for, “plumber, city, state,” unless of course you’re not a plumber. Leave Your Calling Card It sounds simple, but so many small business owners overlook a basic necessity of doing business. Get thee to a printing company and order some business cards. Then, have them with you at all times. You never know when you’ll run into a potential customer or want to leave one in a conspicuous place for an unsuspecting customer to find. Ask For Referrals Again, we’ll look to the basics. You have to interact with your customers, right? Well give them the best service they can receive all day. Ask your customers if they've appreciated your service. If they say yes, ask if they know of anyone else that can benefit from your business. It may feel like you’re begging at first, but if it becomes a routine with every transaction, you should have more business in no time. Oh, and that’s where those handy business cards can come into play. So as we celebrate National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day, we encourage you all to go out and support a local business this week, and everyday.

Market Yourself by Teaming Up with a Nonprofit

You are part of running a business, and that business needs revenue to keep things happening. That’s the cold hard truth. But this truth doesn't mean money is the only thing that you care about. As a business professional, you’re just like the rest of us–you have dreams, aspirations and hopes for the world. You have beliefs about how the world could be a better place. If you’re like the rest of us in the business world, you believe in your product or service and its ability to actually improve people’s lives–otherwise, you wouldn’t be in your line of work. Teaming up with a nonprofit organization–sometimes known as “cause marketing”–is one way to reunite your altruistic side with your pragmatic, business self. While there are a ton of great reasons to unite philanthropy with your marketing efforts, we’ll name just a few. It Helps You We’ll start with the least altruistic reason: it helps you! Customer research indicates 79% of Americans say they’d be likely to switch from one brand to another (price being about equal) if the other brand is associated with a good cause. In other words, the market rewards those brands who care about something beyond their own, immediate profits. Consumers want to feel like they’re making a positive difference in the world, not just buying products for their own good. It Helps a Nonprofit One big difference between corporate giving and cause marketing is a long term commitment to a marketing campaign, not a single, tax-deductible donation. This means you have an opportunity to significantly grow a nonprofit’s brand and their long-term success. Sure, your business can give a charity a donation, but through cause marketing, you can help them connect with hundreds or thousands of long-term donors, instead. Which do you think has a greater impact? It Helps the World Business, at its heart, is about finding solutions to problems. Your business has unique resources and people with unique skills. Customers trade their money for the specific value you can add to their lives–and their lives are improved. Partnering with a cause is just another way you can use your business to add value to other people’s lives, thanks to the unique reach and market your business captures. Use your marketing prowess for good: to help a cause you believe in grow.

Every Day You’re Marketing – Whether You Realize It Or Not

When we think about our businesses, we tend to think of marketing as just one department among our neatly segmented workplace. But marketing isn’t some abstract thing you relegate to the writers and advertising dorks. Pretty much everything you do as a business is part of the greater marketing process. Don’t believe it? Let us break down the various ways you’re marketing, every day–whether you realize it or not. Your Customer Service Every time you answer the phone, you get to decide what message you’re going to send to the person on the other line. Your decision is marketing: you’re forming the way your customer experiences your company. Your interaction with that customer is one in a chain of experiences that creates a lasting impression: one that stays with that customer, and more often than not, is shared with someone else. The way you respond to complaints when your service goes offline is marketing. If you ever decide to say, “I’m sorry, but that’s against our policy,” you’ve just sent a very potent marketing message. Your Human Resources When you craft a work environment where you value employees, cater their job description to their strengths and listen to them when they grouse, you’re marketing. You’re telling those employees something about your business, and about what you value. You’re saying something about your services. You’re marketing. If you don’t replace your employees’ outdated equipment or refuse to give them the tools they need to do their job well, you’re marketing. Do you think the outside world doesn’t hear about how you treat the people closest to you? Do you think your employees don’t market you to future job candidates, based on how you treat them? Every HR decision you make is marketing. Your Product Your product might be the ultimate marketing message. Think pricing. The way an item is priced is marketing, plain and simple. A person assumes different things about a cheap, plastic bottle of vodka than an expensive glass one with an intricately designed label–even if they contain the exact same liquid. How is your product delivered? Where is it delivered? What’s the experience like? Was it easy to use? What extras did you offer? What did your product say about your company? The way these questions are answered determines what the market will say about you, and what your customers will tell their friends. Finally, to paraphrase Dr. Phil: “We teach others how to treat us.” Every day your business operates, you’re teaching the market how to treat you. Make smart decisions, because whether you like it or not, you’re marketing your business every day.

A Guide to Effectively Connecting to People

Networking is such a valuable skill because it allows you to create new bridges. And it IS a skill–meaning it can be practiced and learned like anything else. You don’t have to be a born extrovert to network well. Networking allows you to reach new connections, which in turn will connect you with their own contacts, expanding your reach far more quickly than you could on your own. You can use networking to market your business or even yourself. In other words, while it’s about who you know, it’s also about who OTHER people know, because those people might open you up to a whole new audience and new sales opportunities. Here are three tactics to get your networking game into gear: 1. Get off your couch and into the real world. If you’re browsing on Twitter, Facebook, or sending out cold emails, it’s no wonder why doors aren't opening for you. You've got to play the game. And sometimes, that means getting off your butt and actually meeting people. Be proactive. Contact someone and ask him or her out for a 10-minute coffee break. Don’t expect a VIP to invest time in you unless you have an existing connection. Who do you know who knows this person and could introduce you? What networking events would host valuable networking contacts? And if you’re at one of those events, talk to people. Networking–and all human connection–is about initiative. If you don’t put yourself out there and say hello, no one else can do it for you. 2. Offer your contacts value, instead of just expecting value from them. The idea of networking makes people feel uncomfortable because we associate it with awkward, self-interested sales people working a room and handing out their business cards. Real networking isn’t about getting–it’s about mutual giving. Networking done right is a two way street, where both parties work to make a human connection that provides reciprocal value. So for every networking interaction, ask yourself, how can I provide value to this person? Figure out how you can help them before you interact: Can you be already known for leaving insightful comments on their blog? Can you offer them a unique solution to a problem? Could you help them find a valuable contact? Maybe they’d like the satisfaction of having someone to mentor–someone who listens to them and actually shows them a way they've applied their advice. 3. Respect those you’re networking with. If they are a valuable contact, treat them that way. Many who take the initiative to meet up with high-level VIPs know that it’s not enough to contact them. You have to make it easy for them to reply, because they are incredibly busy. By definition, if someone’s valuable enough for you to go out of the way to connect to, his or her time is more valuable than yours. Position your conversations with that fact in mind. If you’re emailing to get in touch with someone, make answering the email as easy as saying “Yes.” So if you’re proposing a meet-up, make your intentions clear immediately and provide a specific time and location (letting them know you’re willing to be flexible). If you’re setting a meeting in person, don’t ramble. If you’re trying to learn from someone, understand how to ask good questions and allow your contact to talk more than you. At the end of the day, networking is about two people offering one another mutual value. There’s nothing sleazy about building relationships with someone who is interested in the same things as you and would benefit from the relationship, too. Just learn how to offer value to another person, and soon you’ll have a stronger business and be able to reach more people than ever.

Customer Service

At the heart of every printing company is the customer service staff – the people who interact every day with customers. What makes a good customer service representative (CSR)? Is it cheerfulness? A pleasant personality? The point of view that the customer is always right? Here’s our take on the question: we believe a good customer service representative has personal accountability. Personal accountability means the CSR has the ability and has been given the authority to take action when needed. A good CSR offers suggestions and alternatives, speaks up if what the customer has asked for will increase cost or turnaround time, and manages the printing project to ensure on time delivery. Personal accountability is the natural outcome when a CSR has strong communication skills and a natural tendency to be detail-oriented. A good CSR has been trained to listen closely to the customer, write up the job accurately, order any required special materials, and provide a checklist with due dates of inputs due from the customer. At BC Print and Web we provide our CSRs with a written job description clearly explaining the duties and responsibilities of the position, and we conduct an annual performance review that includes eight areas of evaluation. We provide tools and continuous training for technical skills. If you’re not experiencing top-level customer service, give us a try. You won’t be disappointed.

One for the Environment !

Over the last few years, we have noticed a trend that we applaud: our customers are requesting recycled papers for their printing projects as part of a heightened sense of how their buying decisions might affect the environment. As printers, we have an understanding of and appreciation for paper that makes us happy to see this turn of events. At the same time, we are somewhat dismayed by the conventional wisdom that use of paper must be curtailed to protect the environment – particularly when this notion causes our customers to forego the benefits of using printed materials for sales and marketing or other purposes. Evidence exists that paper – the product of trees grown specifically to be made into paper – can be considered a beneficial, renewable resource. Please understand that we’re not advocating for wasting paper by printing things that don’t need a hard copy. But we do feel strongly that printed material, including direct mail pieces, still has an important and valuable role in helping businesses and organizations reach their target audience.

7 Things Small Businesses Need to Know About the Future of Mobile Marketing

With more than half of all Americans now using Smartphones and nearly a quarter of all online activity now coming from mobile devices—we have stumbled into a new age in technology and the future of mobile marketing has unexpectedly shown up at our doors. Is your business equipped to market to the new digital consumer? Here are seven things all small businesses need to know about the future of mobile marketing. 1. The future of mobile started yesterday The first thing you need to know about the future of mobile marketing, is that it actually started yesterday. Don’t worry; you’re not the only one who may be running a little late. In fact, most of the world’s biggest retailers and service providers are still playing catch up. That’s because, no one could have fully predicted the rate at which the surge in mobile ownership would begin to influence all of our online activities.Hits from mobile devices more than doubled from January 2011 to January 2012. By 2013, mobile web searches are expected to eclipse searches from desktop for the first time in history. Don’t wait until next week, next month, or next year to start thinking about mobile—get started today! 2. Mobile users are social users If you’re already using social media to engage with your target audience, chances are you’re already involved in a conversation with the mobile majority. Over 80% of smartphone users use their mobile devices to connect to sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. On Facebook, 600 million of its 1 billion users are logging onto the site via a mobile device, and 70% of those users return to the site on a daily basis (compared to 40% for desktops). That means, whether it’s at home, work, or at your place of business—mobile users are among the most engaged members of your social communities. How can you prepare your social media marketing to speak to these members? First, make sure to download the mobile apps for each of the networks you’re currently using to market your brand—that way you’ll have a better understanding of what their online experience looks like. Then, put yourself in the place of a customer on the go. Most of these users won’t have the time or patience to read long pieces of text, and in the case of Facebook, any posts longer than 160 characters are going to be cut off. Focus on photos, videos, and other types of rich media. Track your results and see what types of post are driving the most engagement. 3. Consumers are accessing more information in more places than ever before The influence of mobile on the life of your customers is already being seen at home, on the go, and especially at your place of business. Consumers are ahead of the mobile curve. A recent study found that two-thirds of all smartphone users had used their mobile devices to help with making a purchase—with more than a third of those customers using their devices for in-store research. Last week, Google released a forecast for the holiday season projecting that four out of five Smartphones will rely on mobile devices for help during the shopping season. These users are checking prices, reading reviews, and researching competing businesses. Bottom line? The mobile consumer is an informed consumer, and it’s never been more important to have your information up-to-date and accurate across all of your online channels. Plus, 72% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, which means, sites like Yelp, could become even more important to your business. 4. Most mobile searches are location-based If you’re not on mobile, you don’t exist. Over 40% of all mobile web searches have local intent. These are people that are currently living or visiting your area, searching for a specific product or service, and who are hoping to discover a local answer to their mobile questions. In the case of restaurants, 64% of these mobile searches convert to real business within the hour. That’s a huge opportunity for a business looking to attract new customers and tap into the potential of mobile marketing. Mobile web searches can either be a small business’ dream or its worst nightmare. Take the time to search your place of business for keywords related to the work you do. Make sure that what customers are finding is something that accurately represents your brand. And most importantly, make sure you have a presence on mobile maps! 5. Mobile videos have gone viral If you’re already a smartphone or tablet user, you know that much of the activity that’s done on these devices is, well … less than active. The fact is, these devices don’t only provide people with endless amounts of information—they also provide an excellent tool for making less use out of free time. (Thanks again, Angry Birds.) That’s likely why watching online video has become such a popular activity amongst smartphone and tablet users. In the last 18 months, YouTube has seen a 400% increase in mobile viewership. Today more than a fourth of all videos being watched on the video sharing site are being seen on mobile devices. If you’ve been on the fence of about using video to market your business, now may be the time to rethink your directorial future. Video is a powerful medium for small businesses, and it doesn’t have to cost a dime to create. 6. Mobile will redefine customer service If you haven’t been monitoring your social networks for customer comments, questions, and complaints —you may want to add it to your list of resolutions for 2013. Nearly three-quarters of all companies are now using social media as a channel for customer service. One in five consumers is already using sites like Facebook and Twitter to have their voices heard. Expect mobile to send that number skyrocketing and for social costumer service to become the norm for businesses of all sizes. 7. Content creation is going mobile The mobile revolution isn’t only having a profound influence on the lives of consumers, it’s also changing the way business owners—especially small business owners—are marketing their business. This is especially true when it comes to content creating. Coming up with content ideas for Facebook, Twitter, or an email newsletter is one of the biggest pain points facing small businesses. And while Smartphones aren’t guaranteed to alleviate all your content creating anxieties, they do make it easier than ever before to capture content ideas and turn everyday work experiences into engagement posts on Facebook and active-worthy articles for an email newsletter. Today, less than 1% of marketing budgets are being allocated for mobile. That’s a huge miss for business owners and, more importantly, a huge disappointment for their growing mobile customer base. But preparing your business for its mobile future doesn’t have to break the bank. Start by giving the tools you’re already using to market your business another look. Does your social media marketing strategy fit a mobile world? Does your website offer the type of experience you want on Smartphones and tablets? Is your business easily discovered by online searches? Start small, think big, and begin to plan for a bright future in mobile marketing. To find out how mobile marketing can benefit your business call Dan or Kimberly at 303.320.4855.