Networking works…or does it?

In times such as these people tend to find more affordable ways to market their business. One effective way is through getting plugged in at a local chamber or similar group through networking events. Now, it’s affordable on the money front (most meetings are $5-$10 admission, even business after hours events) but it does cost you time which can be just as valuable to you, and just as scarce. Just as with traditional marketing, if you’re going to do networking for your business development, you gotta do it right!

I came across this article on twitter today, and thought it had some helpful tips about how to network effectively. Remember, it’s about building relationships, not just collecting cards or selling every person you meet. With the right outlook, networking can be a fun way to be social on the job and an effective way to grow your business!

Looking for a local chamber to join? I attend the Johns Creek Chamber networking on Wednesday mornings at Perimeter Church from 9:30-11. Gwinnett also has a great chamber, and there are many other groups in this area. Check our business pages in the papers for more.

Thanks for reading — hope this was helpful!

Online Advertising market Stabilizing

This is good news for the advertising industry. We are all seeking to find ways to make display ads online more effective  for our clients, and it’s good to know someone besides Google is figuring it out.  Speaking of that though, seems like search ads are still the best way to go, and we are actually dabbling in that now. Call us and ask about the Appen Clicks program — it will allow us to sell ads in all the major search engines!

 Anyway, read this article and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading~Scott 770-442-3278 x 107

On Saving Main Street

Local small businesses, from retail to other types of business, are the majority of our clients. That’s who I work with and call on day-in and day-out, trying to help the market themselves through the various local media we offer, both online and in print.  Heck, WE *are* a small family-owned and operated business acutally *on* Main Street.  So I was especially interested when I came across this website.

It’s called the 350 Project, and it’s all about saving the brick and mortar shops and businesses that are the heart and soul of our economy.  After clicking around a bit, it seems that Cinda Baxter, a consultant and speaker out of Minneapolis, is the founder of this project…and it seems she’s using social media well to get the word out about this important cause.  I think it goes without saying, but Local business really is vital to our local economies.  Let’s keep fighting the good fight, folks! Get the word out about this important project!!

Til next time, Scott 770-442-3278 x 107

Newspapers: It’s what communities are made of

This is from a column that our Managing Editor, Logan Thomas recently wrote for our weekly newspaper

I listened with great interst to the bankruptcy news of Triple Crown Media, who owns daily and weekly papers in Georgia include the Gwinnett Daily Post.  They became the 11th newspaper publisher to seek bankruptcy protection in the past year. 

Of course, this news led me to think of a world without newspapers and what would change.  The answers surprised me.

Most of us have been lucky enough to have been in the paper once when they were growing up (hopefully for a great accomplishment).  As a lineman in football, I didn’t get into the paper much.

But there was one time when everyone in my family cutout and underline the one sentence when my entire defensive line made the paper for a defensive stop on the gola line. That’s right, only one time in the paper.  The news spread like wildfire throughout the town.  Team moms rushed off to local grocery stores to scoop up dozens, perhaps hundreds of copies.  The article was clipped out, sent to family members far and wide.

To this day, I still ahve a copy of that newspaepr article.  That is what a community newspaper is all about.

It’s not the same to print out a copy from the internet.  There is simply something about an article being in the paper, that special something when you know the rest of the community saw that article in the paepr without needing internet access. They could hold it in their hands.

It’s different than a computer screen, more special.  It wouldn’t have been the same if my very short moment in the spotlight happened on the internet.  Everyone who can type can now have their moment of “fame” with their own blog, but a blog doesn’t validate an event or an accomplishment like the newspaper can.

Newspapers become the fabric of a community in ways we take for granted.  It’s the place communities share their news, both good and bad, with one another.  Without them, where is a community’s sense of self? I hear it all the time, people like to know what is “their paper”?

The paper in your hand right now is your community newspaper. You can help make it what you want it to be because our staff cannot be everywhere at once.

Local little baseball team win the championship? Daughter take part in a pageant? Child graduating school or basic training? Send it all to news@gwinnettherald.com.  How? Type up some information in a Word document or directly into an e-mail, attach a jpg photo and hit send.  You will see your news published as quickly as we can because this is your paper, your community and your history. 

It really is that simple.

Advertising 101: Part 2

As promised, here are some more tips on advertising and marketing basics for your business

Be consistent with your advertising.  Every day, every week, every month new buyers come into the market. You want to be in front of them when they convert from a looker to a buyer.  Plus, running an ad once doesn’t work — readers MUST see your ad at least 7-8 times before they notice and begin to consider acting on it.  We always advise our clients to do more long term verses larger ads or color ads for a few weeks. Frequency is what works!

Always include the Internet with your print buy.  That is of course the way things are moving as more buyers research their purchases online and gather their news there.  Our web advertising options are extremely affordable and offer effective 24/7 exposure to your core and secondary markets.  Northfulton.com is the highest hit regional web site in North Atlanta, averaging 30,000 page views a day.  Also, ask about “AppenClicks,” our new search-engine turn-key advertising program. 

I’ll blog some more tips again soon so you can make it happen with Appen! Scott 770-442-3278 x 107

Advertising 101: Part 1

Our publisher recently wrote a piece for us on basic, common sense rules-of-thumb advice on advertising, so I thought I’d share them over the next couple of weeks on here. In times such as these, it’s important to remind ourselves of the basics and apply them.

Concentrate your advertising dollars FIRST in your core market.  Right now all businesses are having to “do more with less” and pulling back your reach some to hone in on your market better is the best way to do that.  Advertising in 2 or 3 of our newspapers usually covers all of your core market. Plus it costs less and you’ll get a better return on  your smaller investment.  Ad dollars invested in reaching your core market will always produce the highest yield.

More to come!

Newspapers deliver hyperlocal market

According to this Media Post blog post from last week, Community newspapers have the market cornered when it comes to delivering a product that covers “hyperlocal” news and advertising that works. The web can’t do it–too much space; big dailies can’t do it–they’ve tried and failed. So we are doing something right!

From the article:
“Paper still has power for advertisers, particularly local. In most small markets, newspaper products are still the heavyweights when it comes to delivering value for advertisers. There is no local TV, and analog products are not so hard to deliver if you only have to get them to a couple of thousand homes in an eight-mile radius. Plus, when customers carry newspapers into the stores under their arms as they buy, you know your advertisers will renew.”

Keep reading and buying ads–we’re delivering what you want…connection to your local community
We connect you!
Scott

Good News for Community Newspapers

The Circulation Verification Council (CVC) out of St. Louis recently published a report showing that despite the rough climate economically and for media in general, community and niche publications’ circulations remain stable. This is different news than what you normally hear about print being dead and what not. You need to hear the full story, the true story!

From the report:
“Readership of community and niche publications remains stable. Nationally, 76.9 percent of people report they read the community and niche publications they receive through home delivery or mail distribution.”

People are still reading their local newspaper, which is good news for you because that means people are seeing your print ad.  Now if there were only evidence showing that those readers are making purchases based on those ads. If ONLY!

“Increasing numbers of readers indicate they frequently purchase products or services from advertisements seen in community and niche publications, as indicated by CVC readership studies. Up from 74.4 percent in 2007/2008, 75.6 percent of readers now indicate they make purchases based on ads in these publications. ”

Could it be? Yes, the good news just got better!   Read the whole report here.

Marketing is more than an ad

We often have to remind our clients that we are just advertising account executives, not magicians   The design of your ad is not the only factor that affects the response of that ad – it depends on whether you have a good product, whether it’s priced at a good value, where you are located, and many other things.  Being in this business, we get very acquainted with what works in making a business successful, and what doesn’t.  So I’d like to share a few things for you to consider to help get new customers and keep them as lifelong customers.

1.  Keep regular hours — I run into this all too often. The sign on the door says you open at 11, but it’s 11:30 and the lights aren’t even on.  A customer relationship is just that– a relationship, and like every other relationship in our lives it is based on trust.  This is your first impression for your customer — if they look your hours up online, and make the effort to come visit from across town and then you’re closed when you said you’d be open, I doubt they’ll try again (esp. in this market). You’ve communicated you’re not reliable. If they can’t trust you before they’ve even been shopping there, then they’ll surely have trouble trusting and believing that your product or service will deliver.

2. Parking — Leave the best spaces open.  This is a simple thing, but again it communicates a lot.  If you, as the owner, always take that spot right in front of the door, you’re expressing that you’re in business for you, not the customer.  Plus, that’s one spot less that a potential customer who wants to spend money at your business can park in.   You want to make it easy for the customer to do business with you and accessibility is key.

3. Get a working phone line This is something that will kill response on an ad, but I realize I take it for granted that business owners will make sure their phone lines work.  If after 4 rings the fax machine picks up, contact the phone company to come fix it! These small, subtle things affect your customer’s experience and may cause them to switch to your competitor instead.

4. Is it a Business or a hobby? This really sums up all my other points, and this distincition is why in this economy so many places are closing down.   This is a question everyone who’s contemplating opening a business should answer. Because if it’s a hobby, then you won’t care if you have money to advertise, or if you open on time, and you won’t have product sale goals, etc. It’s just something to fill your day.  But if it’s a business, you are hopefully going to be strategic and intentional about it.  And keep at it til you succeed.

Well, I hope that helps…just some observations from me out in the field.  Let me know what you would add to this list.  Oh, and one more thing: Although us salespeople may be annoying at times, you’re smart to consider us as who we are — potential customers.

Posted by Scott  770-442-3278 x 107

What is this Twitter thing?

As a small business owner in our ever-changing world, it’s hard to understand the current market place.  What with new technology, the volatile economy, and other factors , it’s hard to find, market to, and gain new customers.  Well, that’s where we come in–we are your marketing consultants, bringing new ideas and exploring every tool at your disposal to help you bring in new business.

One that is getting a lot of buzz lately is twitter.  I’m guessing you’ve probably heard of it by now, but it’s basically a newer social media where you update the world, 140 characters at a time. No that’s not 140 words, that’s characters…including letters, periods, spaces, dashes.  Each update is called a “tweet” and you can have people “follow” you to get your updates on their homepage. Brevity is the name of the game here, and it’s very useful if managed and used correctly.

So lots of folks have discovered the usefulness of twitter in marketing. Now, be warned — it can be VERY time consuming, (so it’s not totally FREE as many claim, your time is valuable, right?) maybe even requiring a part-time person to keep up with it– but if you set limits and use tools available, you may bring in some new business this way.  After all it’s where a lot of your customers are right now, right? How can it be useful? Think for instance, if you are a bakery — you can tweet when the new muffins get out of the oven, and your customers who are following you will show up to get some of the fresh batch.  Or if you are a boutique, you may tweet when you get a new line of clothes and provide a link to their website so your customers can check out what’s available.  Cool idea, huh?

Twitter has recognized how this has taken off in the business world and now on their website has a tutorial on how to use it for business complete with case studies called twitter 101.  There are lots of other resources and experts out there that can give you ideas.  I heard Brent Leary speak on this the other day at the Gwinnett Chamber.  He’s an Atlantan who picked up on this social media phenomenon back during Obama’s campaign, studying how he used it to get his message out.  One thing Leary recommended was that you not use twitter to sell, but rather to provide useful content and be an expert resource for your customers/followers.

This could be a good tool for you, but as I mentioned it’s not free as it takes lots of time to do it right.  We can help set you up on twitter, or any of the other social media sites, but know that it shouldn’t replace traditional marketing.  As we’ve always recommended a proper way to market your business is a mix of all kinds of advertising — print, radio, billboards, normal networking, and other means — don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Any other questions about twitter?  Leave a comment and we’ll answer ya!

Scott Christopher  ; 770-442-3278 x 107