Blue Knowledge

Over the years, I have the opportunity to work with many different small business owners and managers in a variety of industries. I've worked with software companies, web services companies, real estate firms, importers/exporters, associations, services companies, telephone companies, internet companies, hardware manufactures, publishers, etc.... The common thread among all of them is their lack of understanding of what marketing really is, what it is intended to do and how to go about gaining the most benefit from it.

If you ask most business owners or managers, "what is marketing?", they'll give you answers like logos, sales, brochures, a web site, TV commercials and newspaper ads. While these examples are correct in that these are the outputs from various marketing components, the simple answer should be "tactics and strategies that will bring customers to your business."

So, when I talk about helping business owners reach their potential, what I want to focus on is the latest tools in the marketing tool chest....Social Networking Technology and how to apply it.

Many business owners have a vague idea of what a social network is, but almost all of us know what My Space, Facebook or You Tube is today. What is important about these sites is how these fairly simple ideas grew into enormous businesses within a 2-3 year period. The vial marketing, ease of use, interactive communications and leveraging the user generated content are critical to the success of each of these businesses.

So, when we talk about your Real Estate Brokerage, Law Firm, Association or Medical Practice and how it can benefit from a Social Site Works web site, the easy answer is to think about the biggest challenge you have in attracting and keeping your customers. All too often, the need to keep customers educated with the latest developments in your industry is a constant challenge. Often, positioning your business as a service to counter-act industry norms is a significant challenge and usually absorbs a great deal of your marketing budget.

You know you need a more effective way to communicate to your customers. You may know a little about some of the services that are available. You may even know what companies may provide these. The challenge always comes down to implementation, costs, project management and time. But, unless you address the issues, you run a substantial risk of loosing customers to your competitors. We all know how difficult it is to regain a customers once lost.

In a recent study, here are some very interesting findings on Small Businesses:

- Website penetration: 55% of SMBs responding to the survey said they had a website

- Most commonly used marketing methods: When asked about all media used to market their businesses, respondents identified websites, print newspapers, email marketing, print yellow pages and coupons/direct mail as the methods with the highest adoption and penetration

- Most successful methods: Identifying their “most successful” marketing methods, respondents named their websites, email marketing, print newspapers, coupons/direct mail, search engine marketing and print yellow pages, respectively

- Role of referrals: Nearly 60% of respondents said that more than half their business comes from customer referrals and “word-of-mouth,” while 30% said that “more than 75%” of their business is from referrals

- Awareness and tracking of review sites: Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents were aware of online review sites and nearly 30% of this group said they actively track reviews, with roughly one-quarter indicating favorable online reviews have led to new business

- Attitudes toward online reviews: Among those aware of review sites, a striking 59% said consumer reviews “are a good thing and are helping us improve our business.” Yet even negative reviews are being embraced, with more than 50% of this category saying they had contacted unhappy customers to address complaints. Reviews are also being formally embraced in marketing materials, with 40% saying they had quoted customer reviews

- Interest in video: While only a minority of respondents had developed any video advertising (professionally produced or not), interest in video advertising is rising: 33% of respondents said they were evaluating developing video ads “in the next 12 months.”

- Why not doing online marketing: Among those who were not doing any online marketing (60%), the main reasons were:

1. Lack of budget (25%)
2. Confusion: don’t know how/where to begin (20%)
3. Lack of time or personnel to do it (15%)

We understand that not all of your customers/members will adopt the new services the Social Site Works platform offers, but if you can enable 20% of the customers to adopt your new communications strategy, you will have reduced your cost by as much as 20-40% in a 6 month period simply due to the viral nature of your new Social Site Works web site.

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