Series: Mike Dougherty’s “Eight Things” « Grow Smart Business

Small Business Success Index

Index Score^*		Grade
SBSI INDEX	75	C
Capital Access	67	D+
Marketing & Innovation	70	C-
Workforce	79	C+
Customer Service	91	A-
Computer Technology	74	C
Compliance	90	A-
*Index score is calculated on a 1-100 scale.

Search Articles

Eight things to help you choose your next marketing piece

September 17th, 2009 :: Michael Dougherty

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Mike Dougherty's "Eight Things"

After some exchanges with a few readers of my previous post “Eight Things to Have Figured Out Before You Meet Your Designer”, I’ve been seduced by the list style blog. I know I’ve written that I don’t understand them, but, well, I’ve had a change of heart because they have said it helps them make a bit more sense of the process, something I love.

So with that in mind, I am going to start a periodical series of blogs called “Eight Things”. I am going to try to break down, either, the information you need to know or the steps you should follow to accomplish a task in your marketing goals.

I am going to assume you have your logo, business card, and a basic website, but you’re finding you need to make that next marketing choice. I am going to begin here with “Eight things to help you choose your next marketing piece”.

Do you have a project in mind – Starting a project just for the sake of it is the sure fire way to end up with costly marketing piece lining your closet. Bounce ideas off of a designer, marketer, or someone who can give advice but without being bias. Take their comments as suggestions and not criticism. Sometimes what we think will be great, might only be worthwhile to us.
What can your budget withstand – You’ve read me going over this before. And I’ve been victim of it early on, but make sure this project is not going to break the bank. Unless you are taking an EXTREMELY calculated risk with your finances, don’t create a piece that isn’t going to provide you a good Return On Investment. I personally feel that you should be able to see a $2 gained for $1 spent for each marketing piece over the course of one year. For example, if your business cards cost $500 and in the course of one year they bring you $1,000 in a sale, or sales, then they are a success.
Who is your intended audience – Marketing skateboarding to the elderly, or happy purple dinosaurs talking about safety to the corporate sales force, may not be the best audiences for these strategies. Know who will get the most value out of your marketing piece and tailor your piece to them. It might reduce the amount of pieces you create, but by focusing on your target you increase your chances of success.
Do you have a plan to measure success –You should be able to track a sale or potential customer touch back to each piece you create. You can drive people to a specific web page, a specific phone number, or ask them to say a certain phrase. While there are some things you can’t measure, there are things you can with simple questions like “How did you hear about this [insert marketing campaign drive from your marketing piece]?” Keep this in the front of your mind as you’re creating your piece.
What is the added incentive to contact you – Is it a discount code, a limited time offer, something for free if purchased, or simple…humor. Don’t forget that sometimes what you give might be a chuckle. Countless times I have been driven to learn more about a company from an entertaining advert, an emotion provoking commercial, or the incentive to get something more than what is being offered. Don’t limit yourself to needing to have more if you can give something of value for free.
When do you plan on rolling this out – Timing can be everything. If you are targeting college students to do something during the school year…reaching them in the summer might not be the best time. Remember that the desire on your end to move NOW could be driven by the possible outcome you see this marketing piece giving you. A little patience could be the difference between success and a closet full of brochures.
Will all of your current pieces have to be updated, even minimally – If you’re budget can’t withstand it, creating a marketing piece that completely redesigns your logo (so it also needs to be redone on your business card, website,etc.) might not be the best strategy. If your marketing piece does require a global marketing piece change, do a limited run of the effort and plan that in. It might mean you do less pieces initially or it might mean a complete re-branding of your company, but that’s up to you.
How are you going to get this piece to the people – This is just as critical a step as any of the ones above and often the one most ignored. You’ve got the design, how your going to measure it, have your plan for when this will go live, but…how is it going to get in the hands of the masses? You need to come up with a plan on how each piece will get in the hands of those who need it. There are tons of ways to get it out there. Just choose one and stick with it until they are all gone.

I hope these eight small nuggets of advice give you some assistance when it comes time to start your next marketing piece. While some of these are assumed to be common knowledge, it’s been proven time and time again that sometimes common knowledge…isn’t so common.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this and see if there is anything you think I missed. You never know, your comments might make it’s way to being one of the “Eight Things” in a future post. Of course credit will be given where it’s due.

You can leave a comment here, reach me on Twitter by sending a message to @wickedjava, or on Facebook at facebook.com/mcdougherty.

As all ways, if you have been reading, thank you and stay wicked.

Tags: entrepeneurship, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Generational Marketing, Marketing, michael dougherty, small business, success
Posted in Generational Marketing, Marketing, Small Business | Comments

Eight things to think about before you start your logo

September 24th, 2009 :: Michael Dougherty

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Mike Dougherty's "Eight Things"

In my last post “Eight things to help you choose your next marketing piece” I mentioned that I was inspired to do a blog series to try to break down, either, the information you need to know or the steps you should follow to accomplish a task in your marketing goals.

This posts is all about your logo. The corner stone of your branding and the one thing that will appear on every marketing piece you create moving forward.

Logos, while they look simple, aren’t something to be taken lightly or for granted. There is a reason we think of a swoosh when we think of tennis shoes, golden arches when we think of cheeseburgers, or a sea shell when we think of gas for our car. Often simple in design, or sometimes just a smart selection of fonts, logos set the tone and perception of your company long after you aren’t in the room.

As before, I am going to start so we can both be on the same page. Let’s pretend that you either haven’t created your logo yet or you know you need to re-brand from the Times New Roman font you’ve been using when you first started. Let’s get right into “Eight things to think about before you start your logo”.

Will your logo represent just you or your company – Before you get started, think if your logo is just representing you or the umbrella that will covers how people will perceive your employees. Sometimes it’s great to have an ego about the company you created, but if you are in a service industry you may want to create something that your staff can easily get behind as their own.
Is it in your budget to make this change right now – Your logo will not only cost you to be redesigned, but will cause you to need to print business cards, change an image on a website, and update/create your marketing pieces. Also keep in mind the more colors you have in your logo the more costly it can become to reproduce.
What type of logo makes sense – Do you want to create an iconic image that will stand alone without a sales person driving it? Do you need something a bit subtler? I’ll go over different types of logos in a later post, but this is really a good question to bounce off a designer or marketer who can be unbiased about your company. Sometimes we business owners need to be talked off the ledge of our own greatness.
Do the colors you like fit your industry – Colors evoke an emotion. Take a drive down the highway and count how many fast food, and restaurants, have red in the color of their logo. Red means stop. Using that color they hope, subconsciously, that you’ll stop in their joint. On the train of thought, red is a bad color for an accountant, because in the world of finance no one wants to be the red, but in the green. Do you see where I am going with this? While you may like a certain color, to your prospective customer that color might strike an emotion that causes that to think the opposite of your company.
What image do you want the logo to project – Is your company fun? Is it stoic? What do you want people to think of when they look at your logo when your, or your sales people, aren’t around?
Will this logo be printed, embroidered, or enlarged – All too often I see logos that only look good in the original size they were designed. Or that don’t translate will to other mediums because the owner wanted multiple colors, complex designs, and all sorts of wackiness just to make themselves feel good. Take a look at some of the most successful brands and their logos. These designs, more often than not, as simple and don’t loose any consistency of their design as they shrink or enlarge.
How long will this logo last before you change it again – You could be in a transition between just creating your business and the next evolution of your companies’ success. It is ok to alter your logo as your company grows. Whether it’s the increase, or decrease, of colors or the addition of a certain design element the design of the logo should show some sort of logical transition from one to the other. Drastically changing runs the risk of confusing future, and current, customers and thus turning them away.
Can you look at this design every day – This is your logo. The visual representation of your company when no one is around. If you can’t stand it…you aren’t going to get excited to promote it. Don’t get talked into a design by a marketer or designer who has learned the latest and greatest about whatever design technique is hot right now. They have to live with this logo in their portfolio, but you have live with it every day.

If you notice, I haven’t gone into much detail about what a logo is. That’s saved for a future post, but, hopefully, what is here will be some thing you can keep in the back of your mind when the time comes. I intend these to be sparks of thought and not mandates of marketing/design.

I hope you leave a comment here with your thoughts, suggestions, or questions. You can also reach me on Twitter by sending a message to @wickedjava, or on Facebook at facebook.com/mcdougherty.

As all ways, if you have been reading, thank you and stay wicked.

Tags: budget, design, entrepeneurship, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Generational Marketing, logo, Marketing, michael dougherty, millennials, small business, Small Business Success Index
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Generational Marketing, Marketing | Comments

Eight Things To Keep In Mind For Your Websites Search Engine Optimization

November 19th, 2009 :: Michael Dougherty

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Mike Dougherty's "Eight Things"

If content is King then your Search Engine Optimization efforts are your King’s Herald. The guy who is out there, once people are listening, giving out the valuable information about your King. But instead of the shiny horn and scroll of lineage, the Search Engine Optimization Herald uses text and links to allow the web crawlers, the cute name for the automated programs that source out websites and index their content in their lists.

Let me be clear, this isn’t the silver bullet that will push your website to the top page ranking. There are a lot of variables that get that there and with multiple search engines there’s more detail than can be fit in this list of eight things.

What we’re going to go over today are just a few things that will help helps search engines, like Google, be able to better index your site.

1. Title each page with your business name and section title. – Search engines use your title as the top link so it only makes sense you would have your companies name here. Don’t get too wordy and try to fill this space with extra words to try to help. You have between 60 to 70 characters (that’s letters, spaces, and symbols) so use that space wisely.

2. Use keywords on your pages that relate to that pages content. – This is where you leverage your key points in your content to, initially, draw attention to your content. You also want to take this time to also include words and two word phrases revolving around your industry and target markets.

3. Give each page a description based on the pages content. Ok, we’ve gone over the title and keywords, but the description is on more part of the sight that most people don’t keep in mind as they are looking at a search engine. By definition, this is the text that the search engines will display below the link to tell you a little about the site you are looking to find. By describing the content on that page, and a little about your company. Just like the title of your site, depending on the search engine you choose, you have roughly between 156 to 250 characters (letters, spaces, and symbols) to relay the information you want. This isn’t the place you want to get cute and fill it in with words that will boost your site. Your keywords are for that.

4. Name every image…photos and buttons. - This helps for more than search engines. This will help the disabled review your site. By namin>g the alt attribute, commonly referred to as the “alt tag”, you are giving a corresponding text title for every non-text element on your site. If this isn’t making sense, find your local web designer and they’ll go on for hours explaining it. Or you can just shoot me a message.

5.Give your site…a map- Site maps are great, because they help you organize your site as you go through the creation process, but they also provide a page of reference links for the search engines to review your site. The site map will also give viewers a place they can go where there a clean, and clear, direction to the content on your site without all the bells and whistles.

6.Breadcrumbs aren’t just for the birds. - Breadcrumb Navigation is often seen just below the header, and navigation (if it is horizontal), and just above the title of the content. It is a great way for visitors to see the path that took them to this page, but this also provides additional links, just like your site map, for the search engine web crawlers to use when indexing your site. Breadcrumb Navigation will often look like this:

Home > Main Content > Sub Content

7.Leverage free analytics tools. – There are paid analytics tools, but just if you are starting out there are tools like Google Analytics available to you simply for the time of setting up a Gmail account. This will help you determine where people are going on your site and what keywords are working for your site.

8.Remember your King. – The content of your site (the text, the links you create, and even images) help your search engine optimization as well. You may be able to get away with just a title, keywords, a description, and a single image, but you’ll get so much further making sure all of the things we talked about above are in line with the content on your website.

These are just a few efforts that you can implement early on, or even in your current website if you haven’t yet, to help make your site more appealing to web crawlers. Remember, this isn’t the silver bullet to the top page rankings, but it will help.

You can also reach me on Twitter by following me @wickedjava, or on Facebook at facebook.com/mcdougherty.

As all ways, if you have been reading, thank you and stay wicked.

Tags: entrepreneur, Generational Marketing, Grow Smart Business, GrowSmartBiz, Marketing, michael dougherty, search engine optimization, seo, Small Business Trends, social media, Startups, success
Posted in Resources, Web Design | Comments

Eight Things to think about before you use Social Media

December 24th, 2009 :: Michael Dougherty

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Mike Dougherty's "Eight Things"

Every day, more and more people become aware of the possibilities, successes, and capabilities of using social media as part of their marketing strategy. Some take the time to learn how to use the tools. Some will start blindly, get frustrated, stop using, and cry of it’s a failure/waste of time. Others will create accounts on the big social media sites, be less than passively involved, and ultimately forget they have them until someone asks a question.

With the people who are looking to get started using the tools of Social media, or are in the early stages of using them, here are Eight Things to think about before you use Social Media:

Will this be a marketing tool or a customer service tool? People have a wide range of reasons to start using social media for their business. Often it is to promote themselves or their business, but companies, like Comcast and Zappos, have found that Social Media can be a great tool for improving customer service/experience.
Are you the best person to take this on? Speaking of Zappos, their CEO Tony Hsieh, is their voice on Twitter. Not every CEO is the best person to be the online face of the company or organization. Chris Brogan, in his post “Develop a Strong Personal Brand Online Part 1”, wrote that you should “…remember that branding isn’t playing a role. Be yourself. It will become apparent rather quickly if you’re being someone that you’re not.” This is the same whether it is a personal or professional brand. Deciding if you, or your boss, are the right person to be on social media is hard choice to make, especially when egos are involved, but depending on how you decide to use social media could make that choice for you.
Do you have people around you that can teach you? Or is there someone in your company/organization that is already passionate about social media? Like Zappos, Comcast uses social media as a customer service tool, but instead of their CEO using it their Twitter account is maintained by Frank Eliason, Senior Director for Comcast National Customer Service. Because of Frank and Tony’s efforts, there have been a lot of companies following their format and finding success, and failure, in social media. These are just two examples, but make sure that whatever your choice that the voice you choose fits the overall tone and attitude of your company.
Are you willing to listen more than you talk? A big part of making social media an effective tool for marketing/customer service is the ability to listen to what your audience has to say as much as you intend to talk. People want to be talked “to” not “at”, so make sure that you find a balance between reviewing, responding, and posting.
Do you have the time to focus on social media? Social media, like any other marketing/customer service effort, will take time out of your day. But, like checking your email or attending a meeting, if you believe it to be important to the success of your business, or your personal brand, you will find the time. A rule of thumb that works well for me is, and I can’t recall where I first heard it, “If you have time to schedule and attend a meeting…you have time for social media”.
What social media tools will you use? Whether it’s wiki, blog, Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other avenues you could choose from, you need to decide which will be the best one for you depending on who your intended audience is. Take a little time and do some research to see just where your intended audience is, and they may not be using social media yet, to see if your choice is worth the time before you jump head first.
Are you patient? Just like finding the time for social media, you need to understand that it will take time. Unless you are already a well known individual in the public eye, and being a legend in your own mind doesn’t count, then it will take time to grow your audience. You are also going to have to live with some people either not buying into your idea or talking negatively about your company, or personal brand. Don’t try to judge your success by the successes of others, but don’t throw in the towel early because it’s not doing what you think it should. You didn’t start a company just to quit did you? Treat your social media the same way.
What will you determine as success? Will it be number of follower (which I don’t recommend)? Will it be how often your messages are shared? Will it be how many of your followers take an action on your behalf/request? That is really up to you, but I implore you to be realistic about your goals. Remember, you will need patience, clear intentions, and an ability to weather the storm as it comes, but success is ultimately determined by you, your efforts, and your choices.

What I can tell you is that if you are looking for a quick solution, or instant boost in sales, then social media is not for you. There, I said it. I’m sure you’re expecting me to say that no matter who you are or what you do that you should jump on the social media band wagon, but I’m sorry that’s not true. It has to make sense for you, your brand, or your company.

I would love your thoughts on this post or if there are other things you think people should keep in mind in the comments below. You can reach me on Twitter by sending a message to @wickedjava, or on Facebook at facebook.com/mcdougherty.

As all ways, if you have been reading, thank you and stay wicked.

Tags: eight things, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Facebook, Generational Marketing, Grow Smart Business, Marketing, michael dougherty, small business, social media, Twitter
Posted in Marketing, Social Media, Thought Leadership | Comments