3 Creative Ways SMBs Can Use Social Media for Holiday Discounts

by Jennifer Van Grove (Mashable)

Every year consumers turn to the web to scour for the best holiday shopping deals. Black Friday has practically become a holiday of its own, with retailers jumping on the bandwagon earlier than ever to satisfy deal-hungry consumers.

This holiday season you have an opportunity to leverage social media channels for trackable giveaways and discounts that can not only boost your holiday sales but improve your social media presence.

1. Direct Message Discounts

If you're looking for fun and innovative ways to drum up your follower count on Twitter, or create more engagement between you and your customers, consider offering direct message-only holiday discounts.

Here's how this could work. Come up with a holiday deal that is significantly better than any of your existing promotions and make sure to share it with your entire team. Then use your social media channels to send out shareable clues about the promotion. You could tweet something like, "exclusive holiday Twitter deals on X,Y,Z, DM us for details."

For this type of promotion to work, it's all about the details. First, make sure you follow new followers back so that they can send you a direct message. Also, determine whether or not you want this to stay underground, or whether you're open to having the deal spread online. The benefit of the former approach is that select customers feel privileged, but the downside is that you'll need to generate a new discount/offer code or "password" for each person.

On the flip side, if you have one password/coupon/discount code, then anyone can get it via direct message and share it with their friends, which means you could get more mileage and buzz, but fewer followers. Figure out what your goal is and go with it, full steam ahead.

You might even get more mileage out of the deal if you offer a double deal (double whatever the original deal was) when you hit X amount of followers before a certain date. That could give deal-seeking customers the incentive to promote you in the hopes of saving even more.

2. Facebook Freebies

We're seeing more and more brands use their Facebook Fan Pages for fan-only deals, discounts, and coupons, and there's no reason why you can't use the holiday season to do the same for your small business.

This works for both online and offline retailers, but should you have a physical store, using your Facebook Fan Page to create a holiday coupon for an extra X% off already discounted merchandise would be an instant way to gain more fans and please holiday shoppers on the hunt for a bargain.

Since Facebook is so ubiquitous, if you go this route, make sure to inform your team members to tell customers about the deal while they're shopping. You can even teach employees how to show customers how to become your fan on Facebook from their mobile phones, thereby making them eligible for the extra savings instantly as well as getting a new fan on the spot.

3. Social Media Sharing

Whatever your sales goals are this holiday season, chances are you want to sell more of your products and services, but usually it's your customers and super fans who do all the real selling for you. Here's where social media can help.

Use your email newsletter, Twitter account, Facebook Fan Page, and website to encourage your customers to share what they love most about your small business online. Encourage them to upload a photo, create a video, or pen a blog post about the products or services they love most. Also make sure to instruct them to tag the content with a predetermined tag. You can make the incentive whatever you want it to be, but offering each participant an X% discount off existing sale prices would be well received.

This approach works best if you make the announcement on your own blog and request that participants include a link to their shared media in the comments section of the post. Also, remember that due to new FTC guidelines, you should encourage participants to disclose the deal or discount.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, YinYang

Turning a Service into a Product

5 Steps to Turning a Service Into a Product - So You Can Sell Your Business

By Anita Campbell (Small Business Trends)

Nov 18, 2009 -

If you run a service business and have plans to sell your business someday and cash out, you may be in for a rude shock. The value you thought you were building in your business may not be there.

Why not? A number of reasons. Here are a few:

First, buyers may view you as being too personally tied to the business. They worry that the business is too highly dependent on your personal relationships -- that when you leave, your clients eventually will leave, too.

Second, in a service business it is not uncommon to rely heavily on one large client – and that’s risky. John Warrillow writes on his blog:

When you go to sell your company, an acquirer is going to try and understand how predictable your revenue stream is. One swing factor will be how exposed you are to any one client. If you rely on one customer for 25% + of your revenue, an acquirer is going to take a steep discount on your market price at best, or walk away at worst. Your goal should be to ensure none of your clients make up more than 5% – 10% of your revenue. That way the impact of losing any one customer is minimized.

Third, service businesses often have trouble scaling to grow. You’re constrained by the number of billable hours in a day, month or year. It’s difficult to ramp up growth without adding people – and that can get expensive. Plus, services involve so many intangible factors, and require such a wide range of skills, that finding qualified staff can be tough. You may end up going through lots of trial and error hires (mostly error).

Of course, if you have no plans of ever selling your business, this whole discussion is moot for you.

But -- if you dream of cashing out someday to fund your retirement, or achieve financial independence, or just try something new – listen up. Start working now to transform your business by “productizing” your services. To productize a service means to turn your services into product offerings. In other words, you position your services to resemble products as much as possible. That will build value that an acquirer might be willing to pay for.

Here are 5 steps to turn services into products:

1. Identify something you can replicate repeatedly – The idea behind a product is that you want to be able to get paid for selling a “thing” and not selling your time. Also, you want to sell the “same” thing over and over if you are to achieve operational efficiencies and decent profits. Look around at what you do. Chances are, if you’ve been in business for a while, you have developed a process you follow closely for at least one service. You may not even realize you have a distinct process until you set out to identify it – but you have something. If that something is in reasonable demand, you have the start of a “product.”

2. Document it – Turn your process into a manufacturing-like assembly line. Break it down into steps that can be performed over and over, by people you can train for the job. Document those steps in detail so that you can calculate the costs involved, and so that your knowledge is transferable.

3. Put limits around your offering – Many services are “squishy” and open ended. For a product you need the opposite -- an offering that is well-defined. Set limits to your offering: time limitations; the deliverables included; a flat fee price; a name you can refer to your product by.

About Small Business Canada notes:

“You give it a defined scope, fit it into a limited time period, assign it a definite price tag, and attach a distinctive name. Let's say you are an image consultant, and you've been selling your time for $75 per hour. Instead, you offer a ‘One-Day Makeover’ at a price of $495, and include a wardrobe assessment, color consultation, and shopping trip.”

4. Incorporate technology – A technology component for processing sales or delivering your service further establishes the impression that it is a product. For example, look at how companies such as LegalZoom have put a website front-end on what are still basically services – cementing the perception of a product offering. The website streamlines and automates functions to a large degree, too, with the potential to drive out costs. But the key is that with the help of technology, it looks like a tangible thing, and so customers perceive it as a product.

5. Build an organization – Even if it’s just you today, over time you will need to involve others in producing, selling and distributing your product. No one wants to buy a business that is a one-man or one-woman show – they want to buy a company. Besides, it can’t be just YOU because YOU are not scalable. Add “labor” to “manufacture” your product, sales reps to sell it, and management to run daily operations. Build a team that is skilled and knowledgeable, and able to operate without your daily intervention.

Follow these five steps and you may just have something that grows bigger than you ever imagined – and one day you can sell.

The Holidays and Marketing: Advertising During the Holidays
By Maria E. Andreu

Too many of the clients I talk to write off December as a marketing black hole. After all, people aren't really focused on doing anything but holiday shopping and attending parties, right? Why not preserve your energy for a time when people are ready to buy?

Considering the holiday season a time when marketing should be put on hold is missing a great opportunity to connect with your prospects. True, people are overextended financially and time-wise, are cranky and overshopped and are wondering how they're going to get it all done. But, miraculously, the spirit of the season also survives and gives people more hope, openness and willingness to try new things. Being as it is on the cusp of a great, shiny new year, the holiday season is a golden time to connect with people emotionally about what you do. So, instead of resigning yourself to wait until next year to redouble your efforts to get new clients, ask yourself instead how you can use this unique time of the year to get creative about communicating about your business.

Tie your work in to the season
Ask yourself - what about your business is seasonal? If it's nutrition, talk up a fresh angle on how to eat nutritiously during the holidays. CPA? Focus on important end-of-the-year planning you can do. Divorce attorney? Send a tipsheet on how to enjoy your holidays as a divorced person, plus 3 important legal matters you should attend to first of the year. Virtually every profession can be tied into the end of the year/holiday theme. If you're in a profession that's easily tied into the end of the year (food, shopping, etc.), then your work is done for you. If not, think harder. Ask yourself - what do people need from me during the holidays? Do they need more balance, a time to relax, a plan for how they're going to do something better in the coming year? New year planning and balance are great themes that can be carried across many different businesses.

Let people buy gift certificates for your product/service.
Hey, they're going to be giving stuff - it might as well be yours! Look around to see the kind of packaging product-producers are doing and ask yourself: how does that apply to my service? What is an affordable bundle of solutions I can make available during this season?

Holiday card
It's an old-stand-by for a reason. Insert something that keeps on giving. Challenge yourself to come up with a great "next year at a glance" theme. Or perhaps a gift coupon for your service? A bonus for referring a friend? It's a great time of the year to reach out and show people how much you appreciate them and remind them how your work can help them.

Put together an end-of-the-year and "What's Coming Up" report
Even as people are frazzled and engaged in other things, they are filled with the expectation of what next year will bring. Why not tell them how they'll benefit from your work? What's coming up for you - do you have a new product you're working on, a workshop they'll enjoy, an add-on service, a new strategic alliance you want to announce?

Tie a promotion in to New Year's Resolutions
A cottage industry for service professionals, New Year's Resolutions can be a great way to make your service real and immediate to your prospects. Ask yourself - what do people resolve to do that I help with? Weight loss and self image? Financial security? Better relationships? Considering these and other broad categories of the kinds of resolutions people make, get creative about what kinds of tips, services and programs you can offer to help people meet their goals.

Party for Business
It's true, you probably won't ink that important deal or get tons of new buyers during the holiday mixer. Still, all of the chances to meet and celebrate with many people are a golden business opportunity. During holiday parties, people are usually jovial and relaxed about having a good time. So instead of thinking about all the deals you won't make during the holidays, focus on the spirit of the season and build relationships. After all, everyone who is focused on getting through the season will "go back to work" in a few short weeks. When the season is over, you can call on your holiday-party connections and evoke the good feeling of having been at a holiday party together, then translate that into a conversation about how to further the relationship. And, as always, when attending a holiday party (or any other business gathering), ask the organizer if there is an opportunity to give something as a door prize. What do you give? Your service or product of course!

Gift-giving
Now's a great time to let your key business contacts know they're important to you. Give your business list a little personal attention and pick out something less generic and more meaningful. Taking the time to find a personally appropriate gift will mean the world to your prospects, referral partners and clients.

Time-sensitive Offers
People respond to deadlines and the end of the year is an ideal time to build those into your service. It's smart to re-visit your prices every 6 months anyway. The end of the year is a natural time to communicate to your prospects: prices are going up next year so now is the time to hop on.

With a shift of focus, you can consider the holidays a wonderful time to build new relationships and breathe fresh ideas into your business. One last important tip: Don't overdo it! Remember, while you can build your business even through the holidays, it's good to tap into the spirit and focus on family and friends. When you do, the rest will come naturally.

Maria E. Andreu is the Founder and President of Andreu Marketing Solutions

A Practical Guide to Branding

Define your brand identity—your product's "personality"—before you spend a dime on advertising or marketing

by Karen E. Klein

Talk to entrepreneurs about their marketing and communications efforts, and they'll often use the words "branding," "marketing," and "advertising" interchangeably. That reflects the pervasive confusion about the terms, says Gail Guge, managing partner of Wilkin Guge Marketing in Ontario, Calif.. "About 15 years ago, 'branding' became a buzzword in the business vernacular, and people still get the words mixed up all the time," she says.

That confusion is unfortunate, because understanding the concepts and how they mesh is vital to every company's bottom line. Studies show companies that market their products or services without first establishing their brand identities are not likely to achieve return on investment. "If you're spending money to advertise and market without being connected to a brand position, you might as well pile the money up and burn it," Guge says.

Rob Frankel, a branding expert and author in Los Angeles, calls branding the most misunderstood concept in all of marketing, even among professionals. Branding, he says, "is not advertising and it's not marketing or PR. Branding happens before all of those: First you create the brand, then you raise awareness of it."

Your Brand is Your Personality

And while many people think successful branding is only about awareness, it's not, Frankel adds. "Everyone knows about cancer but how many people actually want it? Branding is about getting your prospects to perceive you as the only solution to their problem. Once you're perceived as 'the only,' there's no place else to shop. Which means your customers gladly pay a premium for your brand."

Your product or service is not your company's brand and neither is your logo or your business card. Your brand is the genuine "personality" of your company. "It's what your customers think of you and say about you when they've left your company," says Rodger Roeser, president of Cincinnati-based Eisen Management Group, a public-relations and brand-development firm.

Your brand is what your company stands for and what it is known for. "Look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what you stand for. Go around the room with your leadership and ask them what the company stands for. Settle on one or two brand pillars and build your brand around them. If you can't define your brand, your customers won't be able to, either. And the risk is that someone else will define it for you—probably your competitors," Roeser says.

The Promise You Make to the World

Steve Cecil, a copywriter and verbal-branding expert with Where Words in San Carlos, Calif., says a brand is a promise and branding is the act of devising the promise your company makes to the world. Marketing, he says, "is the strategy that differentiates your brand promise from all the other brand promises in that increasingly crowded house called "your category."

Think of marketing like a toolbox containing branding, advertising, direct mail, market research, public relations, and other tools. "Marketing represents the combination of methods organizations use to persuade their target audience toward some specified behavior such as sales," says Stephen Rapier, of Glendale (Calif.)-based The Artime Group.

Advertising, Rapier says, can take many forms: print, as in newspaper and magazine ads; outdoor, such as billboards; online Web banners; and broadcast advertising on radio and TV. "Typically, the goal of advertising is to grab attention, create positive perceptions, and prompt response while conveying information consumers will find relevant to their needs," he notes.

Your Brand Is a Lifestyle

A successful marketing strategy uses all—or most—of the tools in the box depending on the job at hand, Cecil says. "Crafting a winning marketing strategy is challenging enough even when you have articulated your brand promise and is probably impossible if you haven't."

If you have not specified your company's brand, don't spend another dime on marketing until you do. While everyone's familiar with megabrands such as Apple (AAPL), Nike (NKE), and Virgin, small companies can also develop potent brands and market them successfully, says Steve Manning, managing director at Igor, a branding and naming firm based in San Francisco.

"A brand creates an image in the mind of the consumer. It says something is different at your firm, something worth more than business as usual. If your firm is a commodity, your customers will choose you solely on the basis of price or getting something for free. If you've got a brand, you're selling a lifestyle and you can sell anything you want," Manning says.

More elements of this Special Report are available in the related items box on the upper right side of this page.

Karen E. Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and small-business issues.

Why Your Advertising Isn't Working

This following article is a great tool for getting your advertising/marketing back on track. Take a good look at what you are conveying through your advertising. Is is what you want your company to be known for? Does it represent you well? As we approach a new year, rethink your strategies and goals. Let us help you start this year out strong!

Hope you enjoy this great article. Great article Steve!

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The vast majority of ads don't register with consumers. Here are seven straight-up reasons why your message probably isn't getting through

By Steve McKee

Recently, an AdweekMedia poll of LinkedIn members posed this question: "Of the ads you see in a typical day, how many engage your attention?" A remarkable two-thirds of respondents said "a small minority of them." Another quarter answered "none of them." Together, that's 91%. Only one in 100 respondents said "most of them."

Ouch. While polls like these have their limitations (we often can't—or won't—tell the truth about our own purchase behavior), I suspect few us would doubt the overall conclusion that a lot of advertising doesn't work very well. Your own advertising may even fall into that category.

If you find yourself nodding your head and wringing your hands right now, keep in mind this simple business axiom: Companies get the advertising they deserve. If your advertising isn't working, it may be you that's the problem.

The good news is that you can take steps to fix it. Certainly the economic environment is playing a significant role in how well (and how quickly) prospects are responding to your advertising, but blaming the recession is ultimately unproductive. After all, you may not like the hand you've been dealt, but your competitors are holding the same cards. It's how you play your hand that counts.

With that in mind, I'd like to suggest seven reasons why your advertising may not be pulling its weight. Use them to evaluate your efforts, but don't rely on your judgment alone. Ask a trusted and objective colleague to give you his or her honest opinion as well.

1. It's boring. Yep, boring. Why do we watch TV, listen to the radio, read the newspaper, or go online? Three reasons: information, entertainment, and engagement. Ads that fail to offer at least two of these three benefits flop. Just as nobody reads every story in the newspaper, nobody pays attention to every ad. You have to engage your prospects with something that is interesting or entertaining before they'll give you their valuable time and attention. Creativity has always been the coin of the realm, but in our time-starved culture it's truer than ever.

2. It's boorish. You shouldn't think of your advertising as being about your brand, you should think of it as an extension of your brand. If it's loud, annoying, insulting, offensive, or self-centered, people will think the same of your products or services. Remember the first sentence in the best-selling hardback book in U.S. history, The Purpose Driven Life: "It's not about you." What's true in life is true in advertising; if you focus only on what you can get, you're not going to get much. Instead, focus on giving, and good things will begin to happen.

3. It's safe. The first time I saw a Ford Taurus, I took note, and I suspect you did as well. So did a lot of other people, and the Taurus went on to become the best-selling car in America. If the Taurus had been another in a long line of boxy sedans, it probably would have been just another car. Instead, it turned automotive design conventions upside down and made history. While being different isn't in and of itself a guarantee of success, what you do is a lot more likely to get noticed if it hasn't been done before. And keep in mind that when you do something different, people may not like it—at least initially. Most of us were shocked at our first sight of the Taurus' curved lines, but it went on to have significant influence on automotive design. If you worry too much about offending someone, you're likely to not attract anyone.

4. It's trying to do too much. As the poll results above demonstrated, most people don't engage with most ads. And even when they do, for how long do they pay attention? Thirty seconds? Ten? Five? The best an ad can do is communicate one single, compelling idea, and in the age of the Internet—when people know they can go online to get all the additional information they need—it's crazy to ask an ad to do more than that. Just because you have a lot to say doesn't mean your audience will sit still and pay attention. Do your best to make a simple, singular point. Do it with flair, and given enough exposure (see next point) it might just get through.

5. It hasn't been given time. You can't rush bread out of the oven. You can't hurry a seedling out of the ground. All you can do is prepare the ingredients properly, tend the garden with care, and wait for the loaf to rise and sprouts to appear. The same is true of advertising. If you expect too much too soon (especially on a limited budget) you're sure to be disappointed. Think about your own consumer behavior—how many times do you need to be exposed to a marketing message before you take action? Depending on your prospects' level of interest in the category and frequency of purchase, it could take weeks, months, or even years for your message to sink in.

6. You like it. O.K., this one may sting a bit, but you are not the best judge of your own advertising. You can't be, because you simply know too much about your brand and have too much affection for it to remain objective. Look at Burger King (BKC). Its advertising over the past few years has been quite successful in appealing to the company's core target audience of young men, but many Burger King franchisees could personally do without it. The smart ones recognize that they're not the target and leave it alone. Your advertising is not only not about you, it's not for you. Both points seem counterintuitive, but that's why this stuff isn't for amateurs.

7. It's not an advertising problem. A common mistake many companies make is trying to use advertising to fix another problem. It may be faulty or outdated product design, an uncompetitive cost structure, customer service letdowns, or any number of other things. It's not as if they do so intentionally; it's just that it's a whole lot easier to put on a new coat of paint than it is to fix the foundation that's causing the drywall to crack. No company executes flawlessly, but until you can maintain a solid track record of excellence, spend your money on internal improvements rather than advertising. Paint may mask the problem for a short time, but soon new cracks will begin to appear.

There are, of course, many more reasons why advertising underperforms, from poor media placement to bad strategy to competitive countermoves. But the above missteps are so common—and so commonly misunderstood—that simply putting them out to the curb would go a long way in making advertising better. Not to mention making television much more bearable to watch.

Steve McKee is president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, a firm that specializes in helping stalled companies rekindle growth. He is the author of the new book, When Growth Stalls.