Kamigo Marketing - Marketing

What is Marketing?

Tue, 11 May 2010 17:30:00 -0400

Marketing is about Sharing, Communication and Building Relationships. I've upload a presentation I did a while back and wanted to share it with you all here. Enjoy.

What is Marketing?

View more presentations from Charlene Andersen.

He Turned His Back on Me

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:35:00 -0400

I was dismayed when at an invitation-only meeting after the meeting ended one of the hosts turned his back on me as I stood politely waiting for a moment to speak to him. Has this happened to you? Networking is an important part of every business, although for some it is difficult to meet strangers and strike up a conversation. I have had to deal with this difficulty myself and have found a technique that works best for me - just be myself. So, when the gentleman host turned his back I stood patiently while he had a discussion with another attendee and did not take it personally. Their conversation was not private as their voices remained at the same level. Even with my respectable distance I could clearly hear their conversation. I waited a few minutes longer and then wanting to speak to a few other attendees I walked away. The not so funny thing about this whole episode was that the host, a non-profit, was seeking my business to get involved and help with input and support of policy-making. What this particular individual does not realize is that I am an activist on issues that I care about and I volunteer a considerable amount of my time to community efforts and non-profits. Ways to Handle the Situation I have found through my experiences of being "blown-off" in similar situations whether it's by people I'm talking to or want to talk to that there is a professional way to handle these situations. Face it, there isn't enough time to talk to everyone you want to speak to or meet. The way I've tried to handle these situations when either someone wants to talk to me or I to them is to maintain politeness and professionalism. When I'm in a conversation with someone and I know someone is standing near and wants to speak to me I have politely interrupted the conversation (while I'm speaking) to acknowledge the person waiting. If I know that I don't have the time right then to speak to them I've asked them for a business card and promise to call them either later that day or the next day. I return to the conversation and thank the person I am talking to for waiting. I have handled it in a similar way when there is someone I want to speak to who I'm standing near either asking them to speak to me before they leave or asking if I can call them later. If there is someone I want to speak to them but didn't get the chance and I have their contact information I find the meeting is the perfect opportunity to follow-up with them after the event. In any situation I find myself in I make every effort to remain polite and professional. Have you had similar experiences? How have you handled them? You can comment below. Thanks for reading and thanks for your comments.

Sweeping Roses

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:09:00 -0400

The job of a chimneysweeper is dangerous and not glorious. It requires getting up on roofs to do some of the inspection and maintenance of the flues, dealing with cresol build up, dust and dirt and more. I know first-hand the job is dirty, grimy, sweaty and unhealthy or as I say down right "nasty." I know because in a previous rental residence I had to sweep the woodstove once a month or more due to an improperly fitted and installed woodstove the landlord just refused to correct. According the National Chimney Sweep Guild "a chimney service professional is to aid in the prevention of fires related to fireplaces, woodstoves, gas, oil and coal heating systems and the chimneys that serve them." But what about Roses? Last week I had my chimney sweep company Seacoast Sweeps come for the annual fireplace chimney clean. I've been using this company for well over 7 years and have referred them to friends and neighbors several times. Philip Mitchell Jr. is the owner of the business and is someone whose experience and opinion I value. In fact, I have consulted with him on his recommendations for a new woodstove. And, he is just a down-to-earth good person. Well, after his visit I noticed on my kitchen island a single Red Rose and note card left by Seacoast Sweeps thanking me for my business. I thought that was such a special touch I wanted to share it here with everyone. There's more The Saturday after my chimney sweep I was at a neighborhood potluck and noticed a rose and card in the host's kitchen. I pointed out that I, too, had just received one. "Yea." Bonnie, the host, said, "my chimney sweep guys gave me a rose, how cool. I love them." A Special Touch Bonnie and I went on about how we would use Seacoast Sweeps whether they give us roses or not because they are a top-notch quality service, but we agreed the rose certainly adds a special touch that shows they truly appreciate our business. Thanks for reading

Market Your Business without Breaking the Bank - Series Three

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:40:00 -0400

This is the Third in a Series of entries on Marketing Your Business without Breaking the Bank. The information is from a talk I presented at the Womens' Business Center Breakfast Table entitled Marketing without Breaking the Bank. Onto the Series Another strategy to help you improve your business is by Strengthening your Customer Loyalty and Growth. Doctors, sports trainers, physical therapists and our mom and dad teach us the basics about our health. If we spend time lying on the couch our muscles become soft, weak and unforgiving to us. Well, the same for our customers. If we aren't spending time with them, caring for them and helping them they will be unforgiving and go some place else for a little TLC. 3 Keys to Pumping the Iron 1. Communication Increase the quantity or quality of your communications to your customers and let them know they are valuable to your business. You can highlight a customer in one of your newsletters, blog posts or put them in one of your brochures. Recognize their patronage to your business. 2. Create Create specials or events just for your customers. If you're a retail business and have a list of key customers invite them to a pre-sale offer and open the store early just for them to browse and shop. If you have a membership program offer an upgrade to your customers for a limited time or at a discounted rate. 3. Leverage Partnerships If you have complementary product or service business in your area that would interest your customers go speak to that business owner and suggest partnering with them in a introductory discount program that benefits both of your sets of customers. Know, Listen, Learn and Thank When you think about how you can show your customers you care it can be as simplistic as getting to know and listen to them first. When you do this you will always learn a little bit more about what makes them tic, what they care about and how to please them. This could give you some insight into what they may appreciate you doing for them to strengthen the relationship. Thank You I didn't forget this from the last paragraph. I purposely wanted to leave this as my parting thought for you. The two most important words we can all say to our customers is "Thank You". I find these two words dying in many retail businesses right along with the associate counting out my change. Both frustrate me to the point that I wish D-Fens (the character Michael Douglas played in the movie Falling Down) would accompany me shopping to point out to the associate behind the counter the obvious lack of care...well, maybe I don't want to go to that extreme... If you have a way to thank your customers let me know, I'd love to hear about it and if you'd like, I'll post it in a future entry. Thank you for reading.

Through the Maze

Wed, 13 May 2009 08:48:00 -0400

Take a look at 3 views about The marketing maze in this video or read the article on theglobeandmail. I especially like what Greg Salmela of Aegis Toronto says: "the heart of marketing is people" I agree. thanks for reading

Market Your Business without Breaking the Bank - Series Two

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:31:00 -0400

This is the Second in a Series of entries on Marketing Your Business without Breaking the Bank. The information is from a talk I presented at the Womens' Business Center Breakfast Table entitled Marketing without Breaking the Bank. Read part one if you haven't yet. Onto the Series Another strategy to help you improve your business is by creating a Dashboard. Think about every time you get into your automobile and turn the key. The Instrument panel on your dashboard gives you many indicators of the way your car or truck is performing, whether your safety belt is connected, how many miles you have traveled, whether you have enough fuel and the list continues. Well, to run your business you should have a dashboard with many indicators that you check often. There are many Dashboard software programs on the market, but if you are a small or micro business you can utilize a spreadsheet to build your own customized dashboard. 3 Keys that Turn Your Dashboard On 1. Measure Efforts. A dashboard allows you to measure the efforts you are making throughout your business. What you measure will depend on your business plan and what is critical to your business. Here are a few: a. You should include cash flow, accounts payable and receivables and any other day-to-day financial activities that your business incurs. b. You should measure your marketing efforts. One example may be your search engine optimization efforts. If you are spending money whether it is internal or external to increase your ranking in search engines ask yourself if you are getting the return on this investment you expected. c. You should measure sales leads in relation to the efforts you are putting towards generating new business. d. Other ideas may be your customer satisfaction, your product margins, or your capacity utilization. 2. Create Metrics. Measurement for the sake of measuring is a waste of time unless you have some metrics established. As in the example above, set some weekly or monthly metrics to determine if the path towards your annual financial goals is moving forward. Some of the metrics may be determined based on what you have laid out for your business plan or annual plan while others you may be benchmarking against an industry standard or leader, a competitor or a historical data point. What matters most is that you have one and if you don't have one begin to measure the effort then set develop some goals based on the data. 3. Evaluate Programs or Projects. You have likely started some special program or project in your business and this needs to be part of your dashboard. Here is where you tie in the measuring and metrics, but make them specific to your special efforts. For example, I worked with a customer that ran a variety of workshops, but never measured the returns of the workshops in relation to any specific goal for the business. I asked them what they expected the workshops to do for their business, was it to generate new customers, increase overall sales, or promote new products? We discussed their specific expectations which they definitely had but were not doing any evaluations of the workshops. We then explored all the current workshops they had underway and went through the list to determine if any of them should be eliminated, improved or utilized in other ways that would benefit their customers and their business. When You Should Look at The Instrument Panel When you look at your dashboard will depend on the size and nature of your business. I look at my dashboard weekly and for the majority of my customers weekly seems to be the best way to keep on top of their business and to gets them into a routine. I recommend setting one specific day and time each week to pull the data together and review it and take any action that may be necessary to rectify an issue or celebrate a success. Share the Information You should share the Dashboard with your employees either as often as you look at it or at some designated time each month or quarter. It is just as valuable to them as it is to you and keeping them informed would help you with challenges, changes and celebrations. Go ahead and start a dashboard with just a few of the criteria I've mentioned. It does not have to be elaborate or perfect. Allow it to evolve and let me know how it goes. Thanks for reading.

Market Your Business without Breaking the Bank - Series One

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 11:28:00 -0400
As many of you know I recently did a talk at the Womens' Business Center Breakfast Table entitled Marketing without Breaking the Bank. I'll be discussing some of the information I presented in Series of blog entries starting with this one. Today, I'll discuss one strategy you can use in order to improve the way you market your business, but first I suggest reading these prior posts as other useful strategies: Keeping the Energy Flowing The Departure of Interacting Relationships Now, back to the Series One strategy to help you improve your marketing is by segmenting your customers. What this does is allow you to create better customization of the communication to them, allows you to improve your product offering to each segment, and it can open doors to new product ideas and trends that you may not have considered. For example, lets say you send out a newsletter to your customer base and in that newsletter you highlight some general company news, a product or service offering and you give some insight into general industry news and how or why your company's offering relate to the news. If you segment your customer base you can send out the same general news, but you can focus the product or service offering specific to each segmented group. If you have a group of patrons who have been with you for quite some time and have utilized your basic offerings and are now purchasing your high-end products to tell them about and introductory offer is of little to no value to them. So, in that newsletter you've missed an opportunity to let them know about another product or service that may better reflect their needs. There are many ways to segment your customers, here is just a few: 1. Product - You can segment your database by your product offerings and who is purchasing each one. 2. Service - Similar to products, you can breakdown the list by your service offerings. 3. Demographics - If you sell nationally or globally you can break it down by territory. 4. Purchasing behaviors - You can segment your database by the purchasing behaviors of your customers whether it is by dollars, season, time, etc. Segmentation requires some knowledge on how to effectively mine the information of your offerings and/or customers. It is a valuable strategy in often not used enough in small and mid-size businesses.

Stop Advertising for Some Other Business

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:07:00 -0400
I am often amazed when I see business owners advertising some other business. I wonder why they are wearing someone else's logo or contact information? I want to tap them on the shoulder and let them know how they can increase their business even while they are around town running errands or having fun. I figure I could quickly run the numbers analyzing how much they paid for the shirt, how often they wear it and how much they are not receiving in working for the other business as an Ad agent. Thus, how much of a loss that shirt is to their business. If you don't have your own shirts go get some and begin being a walking billboard for your own business. Grab a few extra shirts and give them as gifts to your customers, family and friends to wear. If you do have shirts wear them as often as possible. image by bludgeoner86 via Creative Commons

I'm drowning in a sea of magnets!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:48:00 -0400
About six months ago I started to keep those FREEBIE promotional magnets that everyone seems to be giving out these days. I think I may have enough to build a magnetic field around my house. Or, I may just make a coat out of them that way when I walk down the street people will stop - pause - and say "she has a magnetic way about her" or "boy, there goes a real magnetic force." Now, I know why everyone uses these promotional giveaways - they are inexpensive. I can order thousands of them myself for just a few hundred bucks. Then, I could send them to people I don't even know. Better yet, I could send them to people I don't know and who do not want them! That is just what a local paving company did in a direct mail piece. They sent me a magnet, a tri-fold brochure and an unsigned letter. They put all of it into an envelope labeled "RESIDENT." (I'll get into that whole mess of a direct mail effort in a later post.) I did a quick little research into the company and found they have been around since 1983 and do commercial, municipal and residential work so they are doing some things right. But, I wonder why they sent me a refrigerator magnet? The only explaination I could think of was that they heard I've started to collect them and wanted me to add theirs to my pile. Dear PAV-MENT, If, you want me to put your magnet on my refrigerator or file cabinet at least put some design work on it, perhaps a shiny new care parked on a newly paved driveway. I can easily place myself in that picture - IF I WANTED your service. The magnet does have their business name, tag line, phone and website - all the essentials. But it didn't stand out and is pretty darn ugly. Take a quick look at the picture and see if it jumps out at you. There are good reasons to use magnets as a freebie promotional tool: 1. Contact information readily and constantly in view, 2. Will usually last for years, 3. Inexpensive. Some reasons for not using them: 1. The business isn't applicable to the person, 2. The magnet isn't really all that decorative, 3. Everyone else is using them. There are some businesses that promotional magnets are really applicable too. For instance, if you offer pet-sitting service, appliance, car or home repairs or medical services, in other words, business where your product or service is used frequently or in an emergencies. If you are a B2B the same applies. Some examples may be a vendor of office supplies, IT support, accountant or product hotline service. There are many other businesses that really should spend their promotional marketing budget elsewhere. If you do decide to go the magnetic way spend your money on the following: 1. A good design that is pleasing to the eyes as well as having the essentials, 2. A quality magnet that will actually hold a sheet of paper. Many of the ones I have in my collection don't work and barely stay stuck to a file cabinet. Make sure your promotional FREEBIE is useful. 3. A unique size. A caution here, don't make the magnet too big; otherwise it will overpower its usefulness. The picture above shows some large magnets that may stand out in the picture, but are too large and could cover too much of the information the user wants to see. I will continue to collect magnets over the next few years. So, you may just find me walking down the street someday wearing a very unique jacket. I'd enjoy hearing if you have used promotional magnets either giving them or receiving them and putting them to use. Thanks.

Free Webinar on Blogging and Email

Thu, 01 May 2008 10:14:00 -0400
I subscribe to RetailEmail.Blogspot and they are offering a Free webinar on blogging and email on May 20th. It looks like there could be some valuable tidbits even for small business owners. Click here to find out the details and register.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Interviews

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:55:00 -0400
Dazzlin Donna over on SEO Scoop has an on-going list of interviews with many knowledgable SEO specialists. There are well over 250 interviews. I've listed some interesting ones I have read that contain some valuable information. I am not an SEO expert, but as a business owner I am interested in understanding more about the topic. Here are a few to check out. I hope they are helpful to you. Aron Wall owner of ThreadWatch Adam Lasnik of Google Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea and Director of Search Marketing at Key Relevance Danny Sullivan of Stone Temple Consulting Jill Walen of High Rankings Jim Boykin of We Build Pages Kalena Jordan of Search Engine College Kim Krause Berg of Usability Effect Lee Odden of Top Rank Online Marketing Neil Patel Chief Technical Officier of ACS Rand Fishkin CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz Todd Mallicoat of Stuntdubl.com

Impulse Shoppers Behaviors

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:17:00 -0400
Students at the University of New Hampshire's Whittemore School of Business have released some of the results of their study on Impulse Shopping. The study, "Observable Cognitive Function in the Purchasing Process: A Study of Quickly Identifying Impulse Buying Behaviors in Consumers" found a few interesting results: 1. Impulse buyers have certain cognitive skills. 2. Retailers can train their salespeople to identify these buyers. 3. Rigid customers are a tough cookie to crack for salespeople. Many questions come to mind when I read the press release about the study. 1. Is their a maximum price level when the "impulse" stops? 2. Does impulse buying depend on product categories? 3. Does impulse buying vary depending on gender, income level, customer loyalty or a whole host of other variables? I aked myself whether I thought I was an impulse buyer. My answer - it varies depending on the item, my mood and why I am at the store. Are you an impulse buyer? What about your customers?

The Growth of Eco-Products in 2008

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:41:00 -0400
A recent report from Mintel, a consultancy service based in Chicago, is predicting mass marketers will shift to eco-products in 2008 as consumer demand increases. The consumer packaged goods categories that will experience the changes are as follows: 1. Bottled Water - Because of its negative effects on the environment and data that shows that bottled water in not necessarily any healthier and in some cases just tap water, consumers are switching from bottled water to filtering their tap water and using reusable water bottles. 2. Cosmetics - A shift to more natural and mineral based ingredients. 3. Fair Trade and Equal Exchange - Demand continues to increases and I think with more questionable imports hitting our shelves we could experience a dynamic shift in this area as well as purchasing locally made products. 4. Organic Food and Whole Grains - Health and wellness awareness will continue to feed this growth. 5. Salt - Yes, salt. A shift in demand for sea salts,red clay salts and flavoured salts will happen next year. 6. Luxury Home Care - Products like scented candles, exotic fragrances and surface cleaners from high-end producers. 7. Personal Care - Products in this category will continue to experience the split between the lower-cost items and the higher-cost products that add benefits like anti-aging and sun protection. Do you think this will help the planet both environmentally and socially? I do as long at the standards, regulations and labeling stays honest and accurate and does not become clouded and fuzzy for the few. When I read how the Organic standards have been changing to fit large corporations I can't help but wonder what will happen to areas where standards are practically non-existent like in the bottled water industry or the use of the word "natural". What do you think, is this report good news for you and your business?

Who Is Your Website Talking To?

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:52:00 -0400
There is a quick and rough tool that consulting firm Future Now Inc. created that allows you to have an analysis of your websites' customer focus. It is free and only takes a few moments to get the results. I tried it out for my website and for several of my competitors sites. The results of my little competitor analysis confirmed that 80% of my competitors are talking more about themselves than they are to their customers. From the results I received of the the analysis it appears the tool just looks at the home page. So how should my competitors websites be more customer focused? They should: 1. Speak to the customer clearly - the copy should not be too technical or use a lot of industry jargon or buzz words. 2. Show you they support what they do for their customers with testimonials, reviews, case studies, articles, report or white papers. 3. Allow the customer to talk to them- have contact information on the home page or a link to their blog or customer review page. Future Now's tool is useful, but there are a lot of other variables it doesn't or can't take into account so use it as a guideline. Give it a try on your own website, a competitors or your favorite site then share your results with us here.

kNOw Advertising

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:53:00 -0400
I was recently speaking with a business owner who was considering placing an advertisement in a hobby magazine that they felt would help boost their sales. I cautioned them to reconsider for many reasons. First, I don't think every business needs to advertise and I like to use the example of the rise and success in Starbucks, a company that did no advertising until just recently. Instead, Starbucks put their marketing dollars in several other tactics that were more effective and more measurable. What should you consider before advertising in a media whether it be newspaper, magazine, newsletter or online? 1. Targeted and specific. Your advertisement needs to be in a mode that your customers go to for information, entertainment, discovery, sharing or connecting. The message needs to be clear and concise, letting them know how you help them and what they should do. 2. Frequency. Pick frequency over size for your advertising budget. A one or two shot deal isn't going to capture all of your target market at once. Spend your budget on a smaller ad so you can place it on a consistent schedule. 3. Monitor and measure. To determine if your advertisement works you will need to have mechanisms for monitoring and measuring. If you place an ad out in the world with no idea whether it worked you could end up wasting money on an ineffective ad or cutting sales by eliminating an effective ad. Before you do anything though, I think following the Starbucks marketing model of NO advertising. I think it is a better strategy, how about you? Image by Jason & Alyssa DeRusha via Flickr, by Creative Commons license.