Who’s the Advertiser Anyway?

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Terry Gray

Advertising firms take a lot of pride in their ability to be creative with advertising and companies invest in that creativity. But give me one more ad with guinea pigs rowing a boat in a fish tank to keep a computer running and I am going to lose it. Whose Commercial Is That Anyway??

Did this company ask themselves…? What does it have to do with what I am selling? Premium’s also: Why spend any money on a giveaway that isn’t creative, useful or relative to your product or service just because it’s cheap?

It takes talent to brand and market a company or product in a way that speaks to consumers in a creative, relative and ‘memorable’ way which moves them to buy it. This is the point right? Given all of this, when the respective ad agencies presented these ideas why did nobody on the client side ask “Since we are spending all this money to market ourselves, shouldn’t we at least try to say or show something relevant to what the offering is?” Or perhaps that is too much erring on the side of common sense these days.

Then again, it might be that I am missing some amazing new marketing concept that will soon be revealed to all, and it will make me look extremely silly, although I sincerely doubt it. It’s best to stick to the tried and true ways of advertising to your customer. It’s not to say you should not be funny or original, but you spend money on commercials to brand your company and to sell a product or service.

Here for you are four essentials every advertiser should remember;

  1. Have A Call To Action. NEVER forget your call to action, tell customers to visit right away and give them your contact information. (Website, Address, Phone Number, etc.)
  2. Be Relatable. They have a problem, you have the solution and not just any solution you have THE BEST solution to their problem.
  3. Consistency Is Key. Use your logo, a jingle, a slogan, something so that people will recognize your company the moment they see or hear about it.
  4. Plan Ahead. So maybe you’re the best writer and director ever but that may not mean you have the time to do everything. How valuable is your time? Find a marketing firm or advertising agency to help you put your project together the right way.

Now while you are considering these words I would like to extend an invitation for you to come and visit us. Ah ha now you see that I practice what I preach! Behind this informative and hopefully amusing article is a team of dedicated marketing professionals over at DirectionWorks Inc. We are a small business marketing firm that does pretty much everything a company needs with years (and years) of combined experience and higher education behind it all.

So, if you need any kind of advertising in either the traditional direct marketing arena, or you need to be on the cutting edge of internet marketing, please visit our company website and request a consultation. One of our friendly consultants will be happy to chat with you.

Please Visit: www.directionworks.com

Written with the collaboration of these great minds:

Terry Gray (Owner) & Victoria Gates (Director of Interactive Marketing)

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The HUGE Mistake Millions of Businesses Make Every Day

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Terry Gray

As a small business owner you get excited about not only making a profit but often about the business that is your passion. You want others to know all about the amazing and wonderful products and services you can offer. But there is one problem… you need to quit talking about yourself because nobody cares about you. What!? Well as Toby Keith famously belted out in his chart topper;

I wanna talk about me!

Wanna talk about I!

Wanna talk about number one!

Oh my me my

What I think, what I like, what I know, what I want, what I see

I like talking about you you you you, usually, but occasionally

I wanna talk about meeeeee (me,me,me,me-background singers)

I wanna talk about me (me,me-background singers)

The point, people want you to tell them how you will help them with what they need. They don’t want to hear all about you… you… you. So here is what you do, use “you” rather “we” or “I.” Trust me on this…

Information that focuses only on your company and practically ignores your clients’ needs doesn’t work even a fraction as well as carefully thought-out information that speaks directly to your target customer about the benefits they will be receiving. If you keep the focus on your business, you will be preventing your target customers from really grasping the benefit they’ll get from working with your company. Do tell potential clients about your services, results, and experience but make sure to do so in a way that makes their success with you the focus.

Don’t make the mistake that millions of others make… focus on your customers and not your company.

I appreciate your visit and hope you will return for more business insight. This article was brought to you by the brilliant minds at DirectionWorks Inc. If you are a small business in need of advertising or marketing in either the traditional direct marketing arena, or online, please visit our company website and request a consultation. One of our friendly consultants will be happy to chat with you.

Please Visit: www.directionworks.com

Written By: Victoria Gates, Director of Interactive Marketing

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If It Touches Your Customer – It’s Marketing

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Terry Gray

Customer Service Touch PointsWhat parts of your business should marketing be involved?  In this post, I am discussing Customer Touch Points to answer that very question. Since I like to guide clients to the highly effective basics.. identifying touch points is easy to figure out: Every instance in which any representative of your company comes in contact with your customer or client is a touch point. Your choice is to leave those touch points (representatives) to their own devices or you can apply a process (marketing) in those areas which assures your customer’s satisfaction with your company.

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” American Marketing Association (AMA)

There is a misunderstanding among, especially small, companies that marketing is just advertising and sales. Marketing is actually the entire experience your customer has with your company. Marketing is all of your (internal) receptionist, billing, customer service, your products and services, your tellers and delivery people. And your (external) branding, advertising, salespeople, collateral representation and, the (extended) contract vendors you choose, all are also responsible for the success or failure of your company. Everything and everyone combined, equals the process by which you communicate the value of doing business with your company to your customer. As a rule of thumb: If it reaches, touches or talks  to your most valued customer – It’s a touch point.. apply marketing.

As a side note: Maybe it’s my age but it astounds me that companies (owners / managers) don’t see the value of applying marketing to all aspects of their company. In my euphoric state I think, if applied, then customer service and the quality of your products and services will be the best they can be in order to compete, to stay alive..  In my opinion now is the time to ‘kiss’ your customers often and frequently at every place your company.

Pay attention to every aspect of your business which your customer experiences when they do business with you. Think through your customer’s process with your company: How would you want to be greeted? When you make a purchase, Have a problem, Find a discrepancy? Come back to do business again?  The way which I make a decision to use or no longer use a company can almost always be based on the service I receive before and after the ‘sale’.

Ask yourself: When was the last time you did business with a company based purely on their presentation in an advertisement, and stopped doing business with a company based on their billing policies? What separates you from doing business with a company also separates customers and clients from doing business with you.  It’s the business owner who realizes that marketing is the experience their customers have with every aspect of their business that are the winners.

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What Drives Your Small Business

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Terry Gray

passion drives a successful businessIn the internet marketing industry we talk key-words: For this blog post I want to talk to you about  ‘passion’; not just the word, but the insatiable desire with energy all its own, the emotion which drives a person to start a business, run a business or even to stay in business.  If I were to have a personal key word about my faith, my family and my company it would be ‘passion’.  For my company, passion came out of an idea and turned into a dream: Once I decided what I wanted to do the passion for my work manifested as the desire to be persistent, to be available and to give it the best of who I am and my experiences. Passion is the energy that inspires me to get up in the morning and the endurance I need to go on when I’m not sure I can.

When DirectionWorks was truly just an idea; I wanted to create a marketing firm that filled the gap between traditional high budget marketing agencies and the small business. I had worked in advertising sales as well as advertising agencies and realized that small businesses have an enormous need for professional marketing services that are  realistic to their size, goals, and are also affordable. Similar to many people who start a business for the first time, I had no idea about the minutia of details required for owning my own business.

All I was thinking at the time was ‘I have years of experience, education and a dream and now all I have to do is sell it.’ Over the past 10 years of developing what my company is and what we do, I have learned a lot. Mostly, and since this is what this blog post is about, I’ve learned a lot about passion.

At first I did not even realize I had a passion for what I wanted to  do when I started. I believe that I realized I have passion for it as I was challenged with finances, employees and yes – clients. I also learned that I, the business owner, have to be the best sales person of the passion I have for my company.

For my internal customers (employees), I have to continually sell them our company’s passion for serving and how the quality and results of what they do makes our passion (marketing services) worth buying.  For my external customers (clients), we have to encourage them to educate us on their passion so we can effectively sell their products or services for them. Our maxim goes: You are the dreamer; we’re simply the seller of your dream.

I believe any business can be successful if you are persistent, consistent and resistant; persistence to keep going when you don’t think you can, consistent in the quality of work you do, and resistant to all that will detract you from your goals.  Passion will encourage you to overcome, and passion will take you further than you ever thought you could go. Just make sure to communicate your passion in all that touches your customers and clients. A radio advertising friend of mine once said when doing a commercial, – smile; people can ‘hear’ your smile.  So, if you’re out there marketing your own business or hiring professionals to help you;  communicate your passion,  customers love to experience passion.

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The Article Marketing Method

Posted on May 5, 2010 by victoria@directionworks.com

It is no secret that more and more people are tired of traditional marketing methods online. A small business owner has to be smarter with current marketing methods, this includes writing fresh content that is not only interesting to read but also relevant and valuable to the target market you are after. This is precisely why you see a rush of businesses to social media sites like Facebook.

If you want to keep-up with the current trends online you will want to make sure that your website or blog has written content that markets to your audience without directly selling to them. Article marketing is a very valuable and powerful method that often leaves a much longer impression than any other style of marketing currently used. If you are not comfortable with writing, hiring an expert to write for you can be the perfect solution.

Since people have short attention-spans the short, 400 to 600 word articles generally get the most traffic. In addition, adding videos or pictures to your article make them easier to read and even more appealing to the readers. Search engines like Google love multi-media related extras especially when the content is very relevant and related. Make certain to use target keywords when you name images to help boost your presence further.

Make certain you also select keywords that are relevant to the product or service you offer as you write your content. If a potential customer is searching for tips on small business marketing and types in keywords such as “article marketing” or “small business marketing firm”, you want them to see your site and related content high in the search listings for your area. That person will then find your article, gain valuable information for free (everyone loves free), learn more about your company, and possibly move on to request your products and services.

Remember not to “stuff” your articles with a ton of keywords! Two to three main keywords is more than enough for the search engine. Once you have chosen one or two keywords you want to focus on, pay attention to related words. If again we are writing on the topic “article writing” we want to add in related keywords here and there such as “writing for SEO” or “writing ideas and tips”. This way the search engine can detect that you are actually on topic and not just stuffing keywords in your site for the sake of ranking.

As the SEO Manager and lead writer for the small business marketing firm DirectionWorks, I am often asked how difficult it is to get a website to the top of the search engine rankings on engines like Google. The answer is simple; it is easy, but like most things only if you know what you are doing and how to do it. Article marketing is one of the most powerful methods I can recommend.

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Minding Small Business P’s and Q’s

Posted on May 5, 2010 by victoria@directionworks.com

Is your small business minding the essential P’s and Q’s? Companies doing well despite economic down times may be in danger of forgetting essential business fundamentals that create underlying success. Important marketing management decisions can be classified into four categories; Product, Price, Placement (or Distribution), and Promotion.

Product can pertain to the physical product or actual service/s offered to the target customer market. Decisions include aspects such as choosing a brand name, functionality, appearance, packaging style of products and even website presence, service and support, warranties for repair if applicable, and so on. Quality and consistency planning for a product is the foundation for long-term success.

Price decisions can include the obvious task of setting the retail price. Other considerations are pricing strategies including seasonal prices, bundling, price flexibility, volume and wholesale discounts, and discounts based on method of purchase, such as purchases made with cash. Correct and competitive pricing strategies are important for customer retention and profitability.

Placement practices are those associated with channels of distribution that serve as the means for getting the product or service in front of customers. Market coverage of all types; exclusive distribution, inclusive, and selective all fit into this category. Decisions for placement include transportation, inventory management, warehousing, order processing, and reverse logistics to name a few.

Promotion is the final business management decision and is as equally important as the first three. Think of it this way… if you build a professional and well thought-out website or a physical store with a wonderful product on a busy road (or online), yet you do not put out any signs up or tell anyone about it, the chances of that store being a big success are slim. Promotion therefore represents the communication of information about the product with the goal of generating a customer base and as a result sales. Decisions for promotion include having a strategy for your target market, advertising, sales tactics, publicity, promotions, and establishing a consistent marketing budget.

This framework may seem quite simple with all of the new techniques in play in the current marketing arena, yet it is in fact this strong foundation on which other tools and methods have been built. Small business marketing firms like Directionworks, Inc. make a point to keep these basic marketing principles in mind. When a client approaches us with the need to build or expand on their small business we can immediately determine how stable the foundation of their business is now, and then we can then expand on that to enrich and build that business even better.

This brings us to the final and most important essential business fundamental, asking questions. When a client approaches us here at DirectionWorks it is important to us that they ask a lot of questions. Our passion is offering the same services to small businesses that large corporations get from much more expensive marketing firms. Many small business owners do not realize there is a great wealth of affordable options available that have the potential to boost their ability to compete with bigger companies. When you ask questions as you work with your marketing firm, together you find the answers you need to really pull through in tough economic times and succeed.

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Affordable SEO Marketing Methods

Posted on May 5, 2010 by victoria@directionworks.com

Search engine optimization or SEO is the hottest way to drive targeted traffic to your website. Maximizing the benefits of a well optimized website will yield lots of earnings for your company. However, optimizing your site might cost you thousands of dollars if you are not skilled in this area. However, to tell you the truth, you can do some of the SEO yourself if you have the time to work on it.

Start with Link Exchanges

One cheap SEO method that can get you good results is through link exchanges or linking to and from other web sites. Depending on the websites that you would like to exchange links with, this particular method could even cost you nothing at all. Contact the author or owner of the web site you want to have a link exchange with. Obviously not a competitor, but a site that relates to your site is a smart way to go. For example if you sell baby bottles you could exchange links with a website that sells baby clothes.

Write or Acquire Keyword Rich Articles

Writing truly informative and keyword-rich articles is one surefire way to make your business on the internet more visible than ever. Either you can write your own articles, or you get them from article directories that allow you to post these articles on your website as long as you keep the resource box or the author’s byline intact. Just don’t stuff your articles with keywords, 3 to 4 of your main keywords is fine. The readability and freshness of your articles will still be the basis of whether your visitors will keep on coming back to your website or not.

Catchy Domain Name

What better will make your target visitors remember your website but with a very easy-to-recall domain name. Something sweet and short will prove to be very invaluable. However, keep in mind that if you want to catch Google’s eye, your domain name should include one of the main keywords for your business.

SEO is ever-evolving like most of today’s information technology. There are many methods that can very well land you on the top ten rankings of Google or on any other search engines. Many take some time to apply but are worth the hours you put in. Keep in mind that if you do not have the time or technical knowledge for all this, there are many small business friendly marketing companies who can help you for a nominal fee.

DirectionWorks, Inc. is a small business marketing and consulting firm. We work hard to promote your business to the top. We really care about small business, are you ready to grow? Contact us today! www.directionworks.com

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