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Building Your Customer Email List – Stolen Idea Made Better

I stole this idea from George Whalin.

To build your customer email database, put a fishbowl on your counter with a sign-up for your email and offer a drawing for a $25 gift certificate each month for anyone who signs up that month.

Works like a charm.

I shared this idea with some of my toy store owner friends. Tracey Harding of Kidz Enterprise in Tyngsboro, MA took it one step smarter.

She posted that the winner would be announced in her monthly email.

Guess what her open rate is?

Yeah, a lot higher than yours and mine.

Thanks, Tracey!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Follow this link for some words of wisdom I wrote on how to make an email newsletter campaign work for you. I wrote it in 2009 and the principles haven’t changed.

How I Am Marketing the Birthday Club

Thought it might be insightful to show you all I am doing to market the launch of our Birthday Club at Toy House.

  • Facebook – This is where I did a lot of research and also where we first announced it.

  • Email – I use Constant Contact to manage my email list. This particular email was the most-opened email I have sent.

  • Press Releases – I have 80 email addresses just for press releases; newspaper contacts, radio, TV, business leaders, people who publish newsletters, local organizations, etc.

  • TV – I am the daily sponsor of the JTV Birthday Club on the Bart Hawley Show. They put up a slide on the air at the end of their Birthday Club segment telling people to sign up for our Birthday Club. Plus, I will be making a live appearance next week on the show to talk about it.

  • Local Message Boards – my wife posted the announcement on two local message boards and they both immediately had positive reactions.

  • Radio – I will be doing a couple interviews on local radio soon to talk about the Birthday Club. Part of that is because I do a lot of radio advertising. Part of that is because I have cultivated relationships with our local deejays. I might run a radio ad later, but only if I think I need the extra publicity.

  • Website – Our web guy put it up on our website in conjunction with the launch. Thanks Steve!

  • In-Store Signs – We have signs all throughout the store advertising the Birthday Club.

  • This Blog – Sure, it’s more of a backdoor way of marketing, but I have customers and local people who read this blog and have learned about the Birthday Club from it.

  • Word-of-Mouth – The buzz both online and in person has been huge.

Sure, that might seem like a lot of work. But much of it is simple enough to do. And all it really cost was time.

Results? Over 150 sign-ups in the first three days.

You don’t need a big advertising budget to market your business. You need some time, some ingenuity, and a great message.

Phil
www.PhilsForum.com

PS To learn other affordable ways to market your business, check out my three free eBooks
Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget
Baby Store Marketing on a Shoestring Budget
Non-Profit Marketing on a Shoestring Budget.

The Emperor Has No Clothes

That’s where Roy H. Williams found himself in today’s Monday Morning Memo talking about Facebook & Twitter – as the boy in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale telling the truth nobody wanted to hear.

Facebook and Twitter are not the be-all-end-all fix to your marketing & advertising woes.

They are just the latest dazzling jewels being passed on as our next marketing saviours. But like many jewels that have blinded us before, Facebook and Twitter will not be your knight in shining armor. They will not lead you out of the dark. They will not transform your business into greatness.

Oh they might help a little bit. But alone they are as naked as Andersen’s Emperor. They need to be clothed with the right message.

Remember the message? Your message? The one relevant, salient, memorable point that speaks to the heart of your customer? The message that makes them feel not only a connection with you but a partnership? A loyalty?

If your business isn’t growing there are only two things to blame.

  1. Your market is shrinking. If you sell typewriters, sorry, dude, but the game is up.

  2. Your message isn’t connecting.

And not just the message you give through your advertising, but the message you give through the experience in your store. Do you echo your marketing in your services? In your attitude? Do you show the same heartfelt caring towards your customers in person as you do online (and vice versa?)

Figure out your message. Put all your time and energies into coming up with that one relevant, salient, memorable, heartfelt message. And once you have your message, make it sparkle in every single element of your business from the bathroom floor to the phone message to the way your employee says Hello.

Then it doesn’t matter which jewel you use. With the right message they all shine. Even Facebook & Twitter.

-Phil

Yeah, I like to call this “Branding”. And when you understand your brand, you have all the jewels you need.

Just For Baby Stores (and Anyone Interested in Marketing)

Last week I gave a couple presentations at the All Baby & Child (ABC) Spring Educational Conference in Fort Worth, TX.

Once again, Pricing for Profit was one of the biggest hits of the show. Many vendors were asking, “Who’s Phil?” as retailer after retailer showed them better ways to price their goods for more profit because,“Phil said…” (Love that people talk about it that way! That never grows old for me:-)

The other presentation was Baby Store Marketing on a Shoestring Budget. Unlike most retailers who rely on repeat customers, there aren’t a lot of repeat visits in the baby world. Stores that sell cribs and dressers have to constantly seek out new clientele.

Similar to Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget, the Baby Store presentation covers eight affordable ways specific to baby stores that they can market themselves without spending a ton or giving away the profits.

And the Stork has arrived!

Everything in the presentation is now available in a newly published eBook. Download it for free. Share it with your friends. More importantly, use it as a guide to get more traffic in your store. (The smart ones among you will easily adapt it to your specific product mix.)

-Phil

Are You Working ON Your Business or IN Your Business?

Morgan Freeman’s character “Red” said it in The Shawshank Redemption, “You either get busy living or get busy dying.” Never have more truer words been said about retail.

So what are you busy at right now?

Are you busy coming up with new ways to market your business?

Are you busy evaluating your inventory mix to make sure you have the right items, the right amount of items, the right prices?

Are you busy measuring your financials to make sure you have enough cash flow, are keeping expenses in line, and building profits for the future?

Are you busy training your staff, teaching them how to please your customers and make their experience both memorable and worthy of talking about?

If you want to get ahead, you have to spend just as much time working ON your business as you spend working IN your business. Maybe even more.

Here are some simple things you can do to find more time to work ON instead of IN.

  • Don’t waste your time stapling, folding, cutting or hole-punching. If you don’t have a staff person in need of a simple project, give it to your kids or grand kids. (And if that isn’t an option take it home with you and do it while you catch up on your favorite show).

  • Don’t micromanage. Train your staff how to do it. Then empower them to do it. Even encourage them to come up with their own ways to do it better.

  • Don’t ever say or think “it would be quicker for me to do it myself.” The first time, you’re right. But if you teach someone else how to do it, the first time will be your last time.

  • Hire somebody. Let them do all that day-to-day stuff that bogs you down. Not only does it free up your time, but it forces you to work ON your business just to find the money to pay them.

And if you aren’t sure where to begin working ON your business, think about it as a three-legged stool.

  • The seat of the stool is the products. Without the seat there is no need to prop it up.

  • The first leg, then, is the marketing. What are you doing to get people in to see your products?

  • The second leg is selling. How well trained is your staff? Do they know the benefits of the products?

  • The third leg is the financials. How is your cash flow? Profit? Inventory levels? Expenses?

Pick the wobbliest leg and get to work. (Let me know if I can help).

-Phil

Oops, My Fault

No, this is not a post about admitting your mistakes as a way of better customer service. I already covered that here.

This is about a mistake I made in marketing my marketing class.

Last night I gave a talk titled “Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget” to a group in Ortonville, MI sponsored by the Ortonville DDA. The talk was marketed to the 90+ member DDA, the local Chamber, and every other business in town.

Ten people showed up.

Afterward the DDA Director came up to me and said, “Phil, you know a lot about marketing. Here is what I did… …What did I do wrong?”

And then the light bulb went off. Surprised that I didn’t get it before. But it was right there in my presentation, and it was something Roy Williams has said to me many times before.

It isn’t so much about who you reach as it is what you say.

Yes, she did a great job of getting the word out about my talk. The problem was, she used the wrong word.

No matter what type of marketing you are doing, the first, last, and most important element of your marketing effort is the MESSAGE.

And the most powerful message is one that speaks to the heart. Emotions. That’s what moves us to action. Raw, powerful emotions. Rarely do we act on pure logic. Rarely do we respond to facts and data. But when you speak to our heart, we can move mountains.

And if I’m going to be doing presentations on this stuff, I need to first teach it to the organizers so that they can use it to draw up the kind of crowds for which this info would be helpful.

So to those ten wonderful people who showed up last night – thank you! And to last night’s organizer, I’m sorry. That was my bad. I promise not to do it again.

-Phil

Measuring Success

Last night was graduation for the fourth class of the Jackson Retail Success Academy. Eight weeks of Monday nights building the foundations for their success, culminating in a presentation by each student of what they learned and how they were going to apply it in their business.

How Would You Measure Success?
At the opening night I asked each student how they would measure success. How would they know if they had learned what they needed or expected to learn?

As they gave their presentations I went back to their comments the first night about measuring success. With each student I asked the question, “Based on how you said you would measure success, was this class successful for you?”

Some enthusiastically said Yes! Others said the content of the class made them completely rethink how they would measure success.

Most importantly, they all had a stick against which they could measure success.

Going Stickless
Too often we go forward with our business without having a stick, without having a way to measure our success. We plan our advertising based on the pitch from the latest ad salesperson. We base our product selection on the neatest thing our sales rep brings to our attention. We train our staff only after they make a major mistake.

Then we wonder why we aren’t getting the results we think we should. We wonder why our business seems to be sitting out this economic recovery.

Define It
Don’t leave it all to chance. Set a bar or a goal or simply a stick by which you will measure your progress and your success. Finish these sentences for your business:

I will have a great product selection if…

My advertising plan is designed to…

My staff will consistently…

Then set about figuring out how to make those sentences come true. Once you know how to measure, then you know what to manage. That is the true key to success.

-Phil

The Sincerity of Taking Risks

The earflaps of his hat were flipped down for the cold. His fingerless gloves seemed appropriate. He was holding a guitar after all.

“Can I play a song for you?”

If he had been on a street corner, my mom would have thought “panhandler” and walked on by. But here he was standing at her front door with a guitar and a satchel full of CD’s.

“Can I play a song for you?

“I’ve produced a CD and I’m selling them door-to-door. I’d like to play a song for you if I can. Your sheriff neighbor liked it and bought a CD.”

In today’s world of instant connections to thousands of people through Facebook, Twitter, and Email he was going door-to-door to make his CD sales for Christmas. Ten dollars per CD, one door at a time.

Was it efficient? Probably not. One song per door, plus walking, plus explanation, plus rejection meant a lot of time invested for a small amount of sales.

Was it risky? Sure. He put his reputation on the line with every strum of the guitar. He had to face the rejections head on. He had to brave the elements, too.

Was it sincere? As sincere as it gets. One man, one guitar, willing to put his reputation and self-esteem on the line for you just to get a $10 sale.

Did it work? Mom only had a $20 bill. She gave one CD to me, one to my uncle.

Sometimes sincerity and risk outweigh efficiency. If he hadn’t taken such a risk, I never would have heard his CD… …and it’s pretty good.

What are you willing to risk?

-Phil

PS The artist in this story is Rob Vischer. Check him out.

Measuring ROI (or in other words… Did it Work?)

John Wanamaker of Wanamaker’s Department Stores in Philadelphia is credited with the famous quote decades ago,

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Since that quote marketers have spent billions of dollars trying to measure the ROI (return on investment) of their marketing and advertising efforts. Do not follow in their footsteps.

I repeat, Do Not Follow In Their Footsteps!

Trying to calculate the ROI on your advertising is like trying to decide which butterfly in Mexico caused the tornado in Texas. The variables would make a meteorologist’s head spin.

Oh, but the experts say measuring ROI for an event or coupon is easy. Oh yeah?

Cause of Success
Was the success of your last event because you posted it on Facebook?
Or was it because you posted on FB at the optimal time; two hours earlier or two hours later and no one of any influence would have seen it.
Or was it because you ran into a friend at the gas station and mentioned the event to her while she was heading to lunch with her very influential girlfriends?
Or was it because you put up the in-store signs just in time for the newspaper reporter who happened to be out shopping on her lunch hour to see them?
Or was it because the road two blocks over was closed for temporary repair and all the traffic came down your street all three days the tent-sign was out on your sidewalk?
Or was it… you get the idea.

(Look, you can come up with a list of excuses twice that long for why you failed, why are you so willing to credit your success to one thing?)

(Note: I didn’t address coupons because I don’t believe in them, but a similar list of variables can come into play making one coupon offer work while a similar offer fails.)

Marketing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Nor should it.

Cover Your Bases
If you are hosting an event at your store, you need to be plying every avenue you can muster to draw your crowd. Facebook, Twitter, email, in-store signs, and press releases at a minimum (because they are basically free). Radio, TV, newsprint, direct mail as the budget allows. And networking, networking, networking. Get your butt out in public and talk. The more you do, the more success you’ll see. And the harder it will be to determine which method made the most difference.

So don’t worry about figuring out which method worked best.

First, you never really know. I have on my sign-up-to-win forms a question, “How did you hear about this event?” At one event 30% circled newsprint – even though there wasn’t a single mention in any newspaper!

Second, it doesn’t really matter, because you can’t fully factor all those variables listed above. So anything you learn above and beyond the simple lessons that have already smacked you in your face is no guarantee to move the needle the next time.

Third, you don’t have the budget to properly test your ROI.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
Let the MBA’s falsify their stats to prove whether one form of marketing works better than another. The reality is that if you use your chosen media right, they all work. And if you use them wrong, they all fail. And the best laid plans can be derailed by a snowstorm, an orange cone, a bad news day, or a butterfly in Mexico.

Don’t waste too much time trying to calculate ROI. If you’re hosting an event, pick the marketing where you feel most comfortable. Put your energies there with all your conviction and the results will follow.

Then get out there and sell the dickens out of the crowd you draw!

Merry Christmas!

-Phil

PS Some of you might think this runs counter to my discussion of mixed media. That discussion was geared towards long-term branding. This is about short-term event marketing. Different beasts requiring different methods.

Is Social Media Working?

In one of my online communities the question was posed…

Is Social Media working or not working? Is it making anyone’s register’s ring?

The purpose behind the question was because of mixed reactions from businesses who have found success through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc. and those who haven’t.

Personally, I think the question missed the mark. I would have asked…

HOW is Social Media working for those of you who have found it successful?

No matter what the marketing medium, some will find success with it, others will not. The problem isn’t in the medium, but in how you use it. If you use it right, the rewards are there. So I would want to know how people are using it right.

My Facebook Experience
We have found Facebook to be a lot like networking. It is about building relationships with people by getting to know them and seeing if there are any mutual benefits to our relationship.

The one thing I have learned in my experience with Facebook is that I get far more response when I ask questions than when I send out announcements. I get far more interactions when I ask for opinions and advice than when I post information. And I get a far better opportunity to interact positively with my customers when they post comments than when I just throw info at them. Most importantly, that viral aspect of Social Media kicks in the more people I include in the conversation.

The one definite ROI that I have been able to track is that my fan base grows faster the more comments and conversations I get on a post.

Mutually Beneficial
The benefits of these conversations are HUGE! We get a chance to learn what our biggest fans are thinking. Sometimes we even learn stuff we didn’t know. Sometimes we get to answer questions they forgot to ask in the store. Sometimes we get to clear up misunderstandings.

Most importantly, we have conversations, back-and-forth conversations. And conversations lead to conversions.

Make Your Registers Ring
The best sales people know that the key to successful sales is conversation. As long as the customers keep talking you have more opportunities to solve their problems and sell them what they need. If you treat your Facebook and Twitter programs as conversation starters, not information spreaders, you’ll find that the info actually spreads faster and farther and the sales will result.

Social Media, like all other forms of marketing, works when it is done right. If all you do is post info and tell, tell, tell, you won’t get the kind of return you want. If you think of it as a two-way conversation where you ask more than you tell, then you are on your way to doing it right.

-Phil