The importance of a tracking system cannot be overemphasized to anybody involved in marketing or selling – and that applies to practically all businesses. Without a tracking system you will be unable to tell where most of your business originates, and will also be unable to test the effect of changes in your marketing strategies.

Take a simple example which we came across recently. A client was convinced that they were receiving no business through their website, and that most inquiries originated from Yellow Pages. We identified four sources from which calls could originate, and had the dispatcher make a note of which calls or inquiries came from which source.  The result was very illuminating to our client.

The majority of responses came from the website and least from Yellow Pages – vehicle signage was second and an advert in the local community press was third. This indicated to our client the importance of a tracking system in marketing, because they had no idea where their inquiries were coming from and were likely spending most money on the least profitable marketing technique.

If that’s you, then it is critically important to your advertising and marketing that you track everything. By doing that, you will then be able to make minor changes to adverts, to web pages and to vehicle signs in order to maximize the volume of responses to each form of marketing.

If you fail to track your responses, then you will never know which of your marketing campaigns are successful and which are not. You could be spending money on adverts that are not bringing a single inquiry, yet starving your most potentially profitable sources of cash.

The trouble was, he got paid for each vacation sold – he didn’t get all the backend sales from the cruises and restaurants – cash spent in the bars, restaurants and casinos. He was giving all his earnings away in discounts.

That’s one reason why coupons and discounts can harm your business: They can work fine when there are backend sales and up-sales coming from the promotion but if the payment for the vacation is all you are going to get then you are giving away your own income. Not only that, but most will never come back and pay the right price.

Which brings us to another problem, particularly with offline businesses that rely on the public such as hairdressing salons, beauty salons and other forms of service industry – give discounts or coupons to new customers, and they will look upon what you charge as the base price. Try to increase that to the correct price next time and they will think you are cheating them.

And what about your existing clients – what are they going to think when they are paying full price and others are paying half as much?  You are ripping them off, that’s what.  Isn’t that what everybody thinks when they see sales and massive price reductions?

“If they can make money at that price think how much they were making from us before!”

You also have the problem of looking cheap. Discount coupons cheapen your business name – you get everybody coming into you store or your salon looking for cheap prices. Word gets round and before you know it the discount is regarded as the norm and your margins go down the sink hole. Since when did you see Prada selling cut-price goods? You won’t get 50% off a Mercedes!

You attract the wrong customers – you get the bargain hunters who will never pay the right price, and you also chase away your regular clients who refuse to pay the full whack when others are getting reduced prices.

Discount coupon companies will persuade you that your marketing costs will drop, but they don’t point out that every reduction is coming from your bottom line. Nor do they tell you that you’d better buy a whole bunch of the coupons because everybody will want one – add up the coupons and then add up the lost profit from all these discounts. First you have to buy the coupons – then you give money away when you distribute them? Does that make sense to you?

So when can coupons and discounts help your business?

Let’s say you have a hotel:  you can offer a coupon for a weekend stay.  All the recipient has to do is buy their evening meal in your hotel. They will also likely pay for breakfast as well, and a few drinks at the bar, so you are making good money in return for the discount.

You have a restaurant and offer a coupon for a free sweet, or a discount on a three-course meal equivalent to the average price of the sweet – or maybe a coupon for a free bottle of wine. The diners will likely purchase more drinks and you make money on the food and the drinks.

You could offer these vouchers with each meal after 7 pm, or even make a 2 for 1 offer on selected meals between 3 pm and 5 pm. That way your existing customers can’t complain, because they can get in on the offer as well, and new clients might like your restaurant and will return for an evening meal some other day.

Notice the difference?  Now you are making your coupons and your discounts work for you.  You are not losing money on it, and are using the coupons and discounts as a marketing technique to make money on the back sales and also advertising your product. You could offer a room upgrade to coupon visitors, for example – use your brain and you can make discounts work for you.

You are selling a fitness machine. This is the best fitness machine in the world, it is inexpensive and fits into your den or garage – even your bedroom, and is totally silent in operation so it won’t wake the kids when you are using it.  It combines the benefits of a top-of-the-range treadmill and a rowing machine, and has 100 different programs you can set for different gradients of hill and can even be adjusted to your particular weight and size.

You market it as this and sell none! Why?

Because you did not target the benefits to the client! You will sell dozens of fitness machines that will help your client lose a half a pound a week while eating ice cream, and build up fantastic pecs and abs while doing it. These will sell like hot cakes – yet they are the same machine!

Small business owners neglect marketing for a number of reasons, but the main one is that perhaps they have never been shown how to market a product. Rather than focus on the benefits of their products they focus on their features. Your clients purchase products to meet a need or solve a problem – if one guy says his fitness machine builds great 6-pack abs while you lose weight, and the second guy says his fitness machine fits in your trunk and can be used in the office – guess who sells the machine!

Goals are very important, and marketing must keep the client’s goals in mind. If you are marketing a sunbed you are not offering ‘California sun 24/7′ but a ‘fabulous golden tan all year round.’ Target your market and show them how your product meets their needs and their deepest, innermost desires.

Making money counts, of course, and that is also where small business owners fail while the big guys win. Show them what you can do. If you design web sites give them a free website and then sell the applications needed to make it work!

“It looks great, doesn’t it – now get it to work making money for you!”

“Make money while you sleep!”

Most small business owners don’t use headlines like that, and neither do they keep in touch with their clients and prospects. “A list?  What’s that?” and “What’s a Squeeze Page?”

They fail to capture contact details of everybody that displays some interest in their products – or their websites. Small business owners neglect marketing for a number of reasons, but mainly because they don’t know what the word means, they fail to grasp the concept of ‘benefit’ to a potential customer rather than a ‘feature’.

Small business owners should learn the simple things and then they could use their knowledge of their products to make a killing online. Attract your customers, stay in touch, give them information, meet their needs and solve their problems. Achieve each of these and your small business will soon be banking large business income.

Second issue is quality.  Paper companies have made strides in “clean edge” perforations, yet you can still see them.  From a design perspective I’ve seen folks try a full color background but when printed, the ink doesn’t go edge to edge.  Or they print crooked and the ink is running low but that’s OK no one will notice.

Folks, printing your cards at home is pricey in supplies, quality and your time!

The numbers:

DIY Version:
1,000 double-sided business cards
Printed in full-color with ink edge to edge (we call that a bleed)

Using Generic Brand of Business card stock:
$33.99 – card stock (tax not included)
$.288* per page (side) x 100 sheets = $28.80 x 2 = $57.60
Plus time for paper jams, reprints, tearing apart the cards and power.
________________________________________________
Total DIY Cards: $91.59 for materials
*Per page rate found on HP’s website for the OfficeJet Pro 8000.

Professionally Printed Version:

For the purpose of this example we are using pricing from our online print site: www.boomerangprintshop.com
1,000 cards, single or double-sided, full, color, ink goes from edge to edge, heavier 16 PT stock. Optional UV coating for $.75

$30.00 – Cards
$10.00 – Shipping
_____________
Total Professional Cards: $40 plus you save time!

One step further, get a price break for printing more cards.  5,000 cards for $67.50 plus shipping.  Think about that, printing 1,000 cards on your own is $91.59 and having 5,000 professionally printed cards is only $67.50.

Don’t have a business card designed already?  Many online sites (including ours) offer design galleries for free.  You can set up your card, add graphics, etc. Next time you need business cards think of us or turn to a printer you trust!

Are you surprised by the numbers?  What’s your first thought when looking at someone’s business card?

Here’s how… while logged into your Facebook Fan page do the following:

1. Select Edit page from the upper right corner of your screen

2.  On the left navigation select Apps from the list

3. Events generally is the first application listed. You’ll see Go to App and Edit Settings.  Select Edit Settings.

4.  A window will appear and give the option Available (add).  Select Add.

5.  Your window should now read Added.  Then click Okay and you have successfully added or re-added the events feature to your Fan Page.

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Info slips: Office Depot is a great example of these sheets.  They are small yet have all the important information (but no picture) about their furniture.  Dimensions, color, price, etc.  Then when you are ready to purchase you can give the slip to the clerk and they pull your merchandise.  Fabulous idea.  In our case, we were writing on an envelope all of this info and then when we went back to purchase would be forced to remember the location of the piece so a sales rep could write-up the order.

QR Code: Fairly new tool but an absolute brilliant example of implementation.  Before I share my vision I should tell you a bit about QR Codes.  Quick Reader (QR) code is a square image that can store unique information to a product, location, business, or an infinite number of things.  The image to the right is a QR Code that appears on the back of our business card.  Our designer programmed the code to provide all our contact information which you can then save into your contact/address book.

To read a QR Code you need a smart phone and reader program such as www.neoreader.com which is free.  Using the camera on your phone you snap a picture and up comes content or a custom web page.  There are a number of free tools to generate a QR Code, however they won’t have the tracking tools or robust tools as a paid version.  We recommend http://qreateandtrack.com/  Qreate and Track offers low pricing, a dashboard for tracking and maintaining multiple codes and more.

Now, on to how I see the furniture store using QR Codes.  At each furniture display there were plastic displays with all the information we needed.  Why not add a QR Code to the flyer in which we could have scanned the code for each piece, saved it in our phone, gone home and had the specs, color swatches, fabric type, pricing, etc.  Everything in one place.  Oh, and one step further have the option to order the pieces right from my computer for delivery or pickup.  Now that would have made our life easier.

Businesses need to embrace technology and find ways to make purchasing easier.  Think about how your business could use QR Codes or simplify the purchasing process.

First time business owners or those trying to cut back on expenses resort to printing their cards off the home printer or used a template from an online printer.  You can pinpoint the home printed cards.  The colors are usually washed out, the black text may start to look gray and oops… the edge was ripped when following the Avery Perf line.

I was at an event a few weeks ago and received two cards that looked identical!  Same exact design!  (apologize for the double exclamation, just driving home the point).  The two individuals offered completely different services but their cards were the same.  Why?  They used a stock design from VistaPrint, saved money but sent a “silent message” to me.

DIY cards may have cost savings, but with that is the presentation you give about your company.  When I see a card especially in the trades (Plumbers, tree trimmer, etc.) I instantly wonder if this is a fly-by-the-night company, will they be around in a few months?  A template doesn’t create an identity (brand).   Instead of presenting an obstacle for your business, take the time to create a business card this is unique, presents a stable and professional appearance, and clearly showcases your offerings.

Action Steps:

1. Fan through the stack of cards on your desk and pinpoint the cards that are a template?
2. Look at your card, what message is being communicated?  Is a change in order?

I use Google Alerts for all of our monthly coaching consultants as part of our service.  We watch what’s being said, can respond if necessary and keep a pulse on the markets they are in.

You don’t have to program your alerts to be your name only.  Add in some key industry terms.  For example we have Boomerang Marketing, marketing Denver, marketing consultant, printing Colorado, Marci Whitman and a few others in our alerts.  And, I have our top competitors so I know what they are doing.

Setting up the alert tool should take no more than 10-15 minutes and will email you every day the results. Here’s a screen shot to show you how easy it is to program.

To get started go to: www.google.com/alerts

A few examples from our social media webinar include:

• Tour of your office (even if you have smaller digs!)
• Interview a client you serve (be sure you get a waiver to use the video for all promotional means)  One of our clients offers housing counseling records parts of workshops for promos.  They also ask attendees to share the impact their class has in keeping their home, etc.
• Do you have counselors, trainers, and other staff members you could interview?  They could express who they work with and make a connection.
• Record your events!  Then you can use parts of the video as a teaser for the next one.  Show a little of the auction area, folks dancing, socializing, laughing, etc.
• Executive Director Address: Instead of having text to “introduce” your organization have your Executive Director give a short 3-5 minute overview of the organization.  You could then use this video on your website as an intro on the home or about us page.
• Call-to-action for support.  If your organization needs support for something specific ask in a video.  You can then include the video on Facebook, your website, e-newsletter, etc.  Example:  A client that works with placing animals needed support for foster families and additional outdoor dog runs.  Your words and facial expressions will have a greater impact.
• Interview a volunteer. Highlighting a volunteer each month gives you an opportunity to show your appreciate.  What you’ll find is the volunteer will want to share the video with friends and family.  As their friends watch the video they’ll also be learning about your organization.
• Training videos: Another great tool to have on hand when a new volunteer comes on board.  Maybe you want to record a video of your long time volunteers talking about their experience, what type of volunteer opportunities are available, etc.
• Sponsor highlights: I’m always looking for ways to sweeten sponsorship levels.  Record a video interviewing your sponsors (at certain levels), asking a little about their company, why they support the organization, for how long, etc.  Then you can use this video in your materials, website, etc.  You can provide the link/code so they can share with their customers, include on their site, newsletter, etc.  Now your message is being seen by a new audience.

Keep in mind your video can be used outside of YouTube.  Using the embed code or link option you can include on your website, e-newsletter, Facebook, etc.

When opening an account:

1. Use your organizations name as the “channel” name.
2. Once your account is active AND you are logged in go to www.youtube.com/nonprofits and apply for nonprofit status.  The added perks include a donate button on your channels page, listing on the nonprofit category, listing on the nonprofit channel and more…

Share with us how your organization is currently or plans to use YouTube.

The next time you find yourself on hold, pull up Hoot Suite and start scheduling tips, suggestions, reminders, etc., to your fans and followers.  Look at scheduling one week out.  When your day is too busy and you simply can’t squeeze in a post you’ll always have one or two using this tool.

I make it a goal with Social Media that fans/followers will see two tips per day from me and if I can make it happen I post several additional times.

Action Step:
Go to www.hootsuite.com
Create an account & link to Facebook & Twitter

**One important note**
When you connect Facebook to Hootsuite make sure you select PAGES from the list not the Facebook option.  If you choose Facebook you will be connecting your personal account.