Blog – Page 9

Grading Your Marketing

Small business owners, regardless of our line of work and our clientele, always have a shortage of time.

When our businesses are running somewhat effectively and we have enough income, we can hire others to help us get things done. One of the major time-consuming, but critical task in every business is marketing. That is why, frankly, K2M exists: to take on those time-consuming tasks so that our clients can focus on what they do best, whether it’s selling their products, serving their patients or supporting their clients.

One of the aspects of our work that we are putting more time into is creating a transparent reporting system for our clients. Every client (not just ours) who hires a marketing firm needs to know how their money is being utilized, what tangible results can be traced to marketing dollars, and where future monies should be directed or, if necessary, redirected.

Our reporting system is our own marketing report card. We thought we would share some elements of our report card. Use it to grade us or whomever you have entrusted with your marketing:

Research: How well does the marketing firm understand your line of work, your employees, your customers, your competition and your challenges?
Customer Service: How “reachable” is your marketing firm? Can you get answers and responses in a timely manner? Are matters resolved?
Brand Health? How attentive is your marketing specialist to your brand identity, in terms of logo usage, staying on message and creating marketing tools?
Social Media Presence: What is the quantity and quality of your social media presence? Are you utilizing the correct platforms? Do you have any data to indicate what the status and health of your “reach” is?
Strategic Planning: Do you have regular contact with your marketing professionals to talk about future marketing, whether it is about spending money, changes or growth in your business, new directions and phasing out old projects?
Integrating Marketing: Does your marketing professional give you advice and input about ways to conduct your business that also improve your marketing posture?

Marketing is complicated and ever-changing. For it to work well, you and your marketing professional have to communicate effectively, plan regularly and work in tandem with one another.

Report Card Marketing Lessons

It is the season of report cards. For many students, the first semester is over or ending and report cards have already been posted (or in the retro world, mailed).

As parents, teachers and students, we see the report cards differently. Seeing them through a variety of lenses means that what the report cards say may be interpreted differently for each reader.

Students want to know that the work they have done is recognized (if they are good students). And if they struggle, they want some glimmer of hope that there is an opportunity for improved grades and future success. The best report card forms give space and permission for teachers to address the students directly with guidance for improvement and space to explain the strengths of the students that they bring to the class. When report cards do not allow these longer information pieces, teachers need to find other ways to communicate with students whether it is through comments on homework and assessments, or editing marks on shared documents.

For parents, we want to know what our child excels in and what he or she needs more support in. We also want to be reassured that the teacher “gets” our child. Depending on the report card form, there may not be evidence of that. So schools and school systems have to make sure that they find ways to communicate that our child is in good, capable hands via additional tools, not just the report card.

Teachers view the report cards as the official notification from school to home on the students’ progress. Good teachers know that this document cannot be the first mode of communication if “there is trouble in River City”. Teachers undertake the task of report cards seriously, because it is the permanent record of the progress of each child.

Ultimately, report cards’ messages are disseminated in many directions, and they are, innately, a marketing tool, too. At their best, they make students feel acknowledged and understood, they underscore the choices that parents made in choosing the school or the school system and they solidify the communication between home and school.

Next week, we will discuss marketing report cards.

Year-End Exercise: Take a Walk on the Client Side

Lots of people put “exercise more” on their New Year’s Resolutions. We concur with that, but as as marketing professionals we offer a marketing exercise idea for you:

Take a Walk on the Client Side

What does this mean? To walk on the client side means to pretend that you are a real client, a real patient, a real customer. Approach doing business at your office or your establishment as a brand new person “walking in”, either through your actual front door or through the portal of your web presence. Here are some things you might want to resolve to check on:

How “findable” are you? When you Google your name, what comes up? (If you are paying for Google Ads, don’t go on and click on yourself or your website, or you’ll end up paying for the click!) Many single attorneys or doctors in a larger practice are surprised to find that their firms or their practices aren’t necessarily as visible as they would have hoped. We have met potential clients and eventual clients who were practically invisible! Typically, these clients weren’t thinking about marketing and thought “the practice” had that covered. If you think that you have paid for other internet listing services or the Yellow Pages, check your presence on those entities, too.
What are the first impressions that clients receive? How friendly is the first voice on the phone? Is a new client going to talk to a real live person? What’s the time frame for someone to return a phone call? What is your parking lot like? Is it well-maintained? Is it safe? Who sits at the front desk? Do they greet people appropriately or are they too busy multitasking? Do you have the right staff as your “line of first defense”?
What does it feel like to encounter you and your company as an outsider? Is there insider lingo in your website? If so, does it enhance your reputation to show that you are experts in your field, or is it too arcane? Does somebody have to have connections to get a return phone call or are potential new clients welcomed?
Can you even handle new customers or clients at this point? If your practice is thriving to the point that you cannot handle new patients or new customers without hiring new staff, consider what that new client experience is like. Are there lengthy wait times for appointments or meetings? Are there insufficient chairs in the reception area? Is your database or file management being taken to the brink? If you cannot handle new customers without added infrastructure expenses, you may be unwittingly turning away potential new customers, too. Consider how to prioritize your spending so you can accommodate growth, or make a decision not to grow. If you choose the latter, it’s best to put the word out that “you are not taking new clients right now”, offering to put people on a waiting list or making referrals to another trusted professional.

To Gift Card or Not to Gift Card

Photo by Tom Eppenberger, Jr.

We’re of a mixed mind regarding gift cards. Here are some great reasons to love giving gift cards:

You don’t have to agonize over purchasing a gift for someone and wonder if it meets their aesthetic standards: the right style, the right color, not to mention the right size.
The cards are certainly easy to obtain and easy to use.
If you know the recipient loves shopping, the gift cards allow them the experience without the economic pinch: fun for kids and adults.
If you know the recipient hates shopping like you do, most cards allow e-commerce, too.
At this point, most gift cards no longer expire nor reduce in value. This is not universal: spas and restaurants typically have a year expiration date. And of course, you were out of luck if you didn’t spend your Border’s cards before they went bankrupt…

And yet…there are some down sides:

The cards do seem impersonal. How much time did you spend on purchasing the gift? Not much.
There is no denying how much you spent on the gift when it’s a gift card, where as sometimes a real purchase isn’t as patently obvious.
For those of us who don’t splurge on ourselves, there is something about receiving something tangible that we never would have bought for ourselves.
We know the corporations depend on people purchasing gift cards but not utilizing them: it’s a huge business, upwards of $2 billion of unredeemed gift cards yearly! We don’t like giving the stores money for nothing in return!
If you’re going to be impersonal, maybe cash is a better gift…

Cyber Monday, Shopping Satisfaction and Sales Tax

If you are living in a cave, perhaps you have missed that today is Cyber Monday, that tradition of just a decade of pointing at an icon and then clicking as opposed to pointing at a window display and then clicking your heels inside the store.

Cyber Monday became a “thing” as a response to the perceived crazy antics of Black Friday, combined with the growing popularity of online shopping. Retailers realized the huge jump of purchases that occurred online when workers returned to their offices after a long weekend, logged on to their computers, and instead of doing actual work, began to buy a kitchen’s sink worth of stuff. Now, retailers have embraced the Cyber Monday shenanigans, offering online discounts on Cyber Monday and contacting their regular or past customers and clients to entice them to shop.

Perhaps you are under the illusion that an additional benefit of Cyber Monday is being able to buy items tax-free. Not so fast…

You still pay sales tax if the establishment from which you are making a purchase is “domiciled” in any way in the state in which you live. So, if you love Francesca’s in Birmingham and online (and we do), and you live in Michigan, then you pay a sales tax when you shop online at Francesca’s, a nationwide clothing retailer, because Francesca’s has a physical store in Michigan, several actually.

You may not have to pay a sales tax if you are buying from a place that does not have a brick and mortar store or distribution place in your state.

But that’s not all. There is a pesky other tax called a “use tax“. Essentially, you are required to pay for using the internet (I know this doesn’t seem fair). But the strange thing about the use tax is that retailers are not required to collect them. No indeed. The purchaser is responsible for filing and paying. We repeat: you are still liable for the paying the use tax, even if the establishment doesn’t collect it. The Michigan use tax is 6% and the rules about the Michigan use tax can be found right here:

Michigan Use Tax

But what about Amazon? Michiganders are in the enviable position of still enjoying a sales tax holiday on Cyber Monday with regards to Amazon (although that use tax officially does come into play). Twenty-three other states (soon it will be 24) are now paying sales tax on items purchased on Amazon. Michigan residents are not on that list.

So, the takeaway? Shop to your heart’s content on Cyber Monday. Do so with the knowledge that it is convenient, and requires no parking lots or crowds, but it may still be taxing in other ways.

Clothing Shopping: Bricks and Mortar or E-tail?

As we are approaching Thanksgiving, as well as the winter holidays, we are confronted with many different pitches for things to purchase, whether it’s the automobile ads that are in high gear right now, or the multiple Black Friday plugs, as well as the flood of sales and specials landing in our cyber inbox and our actual mailbox.

It’s interesting to consider how we ultimately make a decision whether to buy items online or to buy them in a brick and mortar store. Are we more impulsive when we point and click or are we more likely to buy when we are browsing in an actual retail establishment?

In a recent, completely unscientific spate of clothing shopping with one mother and two teenage daughters, we discovered the following:

When a specific store’s website shows a lot of varieties of dresses that look like they would be becoming on you, it’s very tempting to go to that store and try them on. Any savings on sales taxes are easily mitigated by being able to see the clothes on in person. We particularly liked going to pick out clothing with a clear idea in mind, and then being able to check out with efficient customer service assistance. Winner: Bricks and mortar
Mom, like lots of people, HATES trying on swimsuits. Finding a website that is known for flattering and not too revealing swimsuits for adult women’s bodies is an antidote to the hell that is swimsuit donning in a department store dressing room. Winner:E-tail
A visit to a department store during a non-busy time (not Black Friday weekend or any of the weekends after it) is a good beginning step in making shopping decisions. We can see how the sizes fit and what is looking “in”. Once that is done, a good website is much more enticing than spending time in the department store or the mall (this goes for Mom, Dad and kids.) When we were in stores with minimal salesperson contact, we were less likely to buy and much more likely to browse. Winner: E-tail
It was easy to stay focused and on target when we knew what we wanted to buy. The biggest impulse buying: the stop at CVS on the way home to buy “necessities”, which somehow turned into a much larger, far less focused shopping foray. Winner: Bricks and mortar
For women and girls, it is a little scary to buy shoes online, unless you really know the brands and how they fit your foot. Mom did buy a pair of winter boots online that looked like they would fit (they did), but girls stuck to the stores. Winner: Both

So, what do learn from all this? As customers, there was no one sure way to market to us. We found the information we needed, which included styles, colors and prices by surfing on the web. We made ultimate shopping decisions, depending on how certain we felt about the item, either in person or online. We tended to be loyal to stores and brands we knew, especially if we had previous good shopping experiences

The best marketing plans to entice us? Give us well-constructed websites with accurate information, including pricing and availability. Send us incentives to keep us as loyal customers. And when we arrive in your store, allow for some impulse buys, but make sure we are recipients of good customer service.

Know Yourself

Often, the hardest part of the work we all do is the lack of time we spend on reflection. We rarely take the time to ruminate. We create to-do lists, but we sometimes neglect to set goals. We take even less time to consider the essence of what we do. And yet, we are shortchanging ourselves if we don’t allot some non-interrupted, non-multitasking, purely us and our partners time for reflection accompanied by future planning.

What should we do when we reflect?

There are lots of things you can do when you reflect. You can consider how your office is functioning, how you communicate with your colleagues and with your clients. You can think about what you would most like to change or fix, if there were no obstacles, like lack of time or money or imperfect staffing. You can set some measurable, achievable goals.

But, there is one aspect of reflection that is critical in terms of marketing what you do. We all must constantly ask ourselves, who are we, what is our essence…or even to identify our brand, what makes what we do, or who we are, uniquely “us”.

Here are some questions to guide you in that reflective work:

Why should someone do business with you?
How are you different from other people who offer similar services that you do?
Do you think that your clients or patients could explain what is special about you and your business?
Do you think that strangers or visitors to your office, your store, or your website would be able to quickly understand what is unique and valuable about you?

Even at K2M, we admit that we don’t always carve enough reflection time in our days, and even in our weeks. But, when we do, we find that our work improves. When we remind ourselves what our core values are as a marketing firm (fair and transparent prices, quality product, knowing the needs of our clients, understanding our clients’ stories), we make better choices about time management and project direction and the content of our marketing is improved.

This time of year is often an incredibly busy time. Let’s not lose our way, thereby getting off track, because we forgot to consider our paths.

Remembering the Milkman

Remember the milkman? Remember him from movies? Old TV shows? Well, in my house we remember him from last month. Yes, we’re serious. It’s not because we live in a quaint little suburban town (although we do)—it’s a modern place, not a rural village. It’s not because we are super old-school (just about some things)—we like modernity!

When my youngest was about to come into this world, my neighbor gifted me a milkman who would drop off some bare necessities weekly. In those days that included toddler must-haves for the older two, like apple juice, milk, eggs, popsicles on hot days and cream for the adults’ coffees. The milkman, Bob, was a longtime businessman with a longstanding route and territory. He had clients that had been with him for over 20 years at the time.

He carried the heavy stuff to my door, made small talk, left little holiday treats for my kids and when we got a dog, included a biscuit for her with almost every delivery. After a while the milkman was clearly not necessary. I was getting out of the house daily, working again, going shopping, and managing just fine with the help of some childcare. But by then we had a relationship with Bob and I just could not bear to sever it. So Bob stuck around. Eventually, since it was less expensive by a smidge at the store, I pared down my milkman’s list to just cream and the buttermilk my European-born husband still loves to drink nightly (he swears it’s good for you.)

Many years passed and this year, once again, I considered stopping the weekly milkman deliveries. We discussed it at home—we don’t really need it, it’s silly to pay monthly for these two items delivered every week, etc. I couldn’t do it though. In fact, even though Bob himself hadn’t been coming around for a while, his son had been delivering for him during a layoff because Bob wasn’t feeling so well. I still couldn’t let go of the connection. What would Bob think if I just said I was done with the relationship? How could I explain breaking up with him? I’d have to tell him over the phone, and imagining his silence made me queasy. He was a good salesman too. Maybe he’d try to pitch me a reason to stay. That would just kill me. I’m not great at saying no to a direct appeal.

In fact, not only did I not cancel the milkman, I left him a note. Since I hadn’t seen him in a while, I added a personal note to my check. It was just a sticky with a “Hi, Bob, I haven’t seen you in a while and I wanted to say hello and see how you are doing.” Bob called me when he got the note. He was so touched to be thought of—and he had bad news. He was closing his delivery route. What? I felt blindsided. I leave a “hello” and you end it?!? It was kind of a silly feeling, as I had been considering ending the relationship myself. But there it was—how different it feels to be told it’s over than to do the telling. Bob’s health wasn’t great (I think he’s around 85 years old) and he needed to be indoors this winter, not out in the cold schlepping milk cartons in and out of his van. I understand. I’m an adult—I get it…his health is more important.

Yet, this weekend, when I had to buy a carton of half-n-half in order to enjoy my coffee, I choked up at the market. For 9 years I haven’t had to buy cream for my coffee except for a couple of times. I was really going to miss Bob. The personal connection we have because of a weekly dairy drop off touched me.

Once upon a time, every purchase anyone made was personal. There was no such thing as ordering from a stranger. Every part of one’s life was interwoven with providers and makers and givers and doers. My relationship with Bob the milkman was a holdout from the past, for sure. It was such a gift really, to have a person that brought me more than just the item. He regularly made me and my kids, and certainly our dog, smile (yes, I’m sure the dog smiles.) The relationship was a small one of the many in my life but I will feel that twinge of missing it for many years I’m sure. I can’t bring myself to dispose of the cooler from his dairy that sits on my front porch so it’ll stay there for a while. And I’ll send Bob the occasional note, or call to say hello, because really we became friends through these years. That’s the real gift my neighbor gave me I suppose—milk delivered and a friend for many years.

Media Change-Up: Baseball, Viewership and the World Series

We are in the thick of the days of October, the time of year that baseball fans, players and sportswriters live for. October is the month of heroics on the pitching mound, at the plate and in the field.

Unfortunately for baseball, the number of people watching the World Series has been getting lower and lower.

Major league baseball is probably planning some significant marketing conversations once they are done with the San Francisco Giants vs. Kansas City Royals World Series. They will have to consider what is happening, both to their sport and to viewership.

We have some guesses as to how the situation got this way:

Maybe the number of sports that people can follow is indeed finite. With the supremacy of professional football, perhaps fans just are choosing to watch and keep up with those games and foregoing baseball for the moment.
Small market teams make for small market World Series. San Francisco and certainly Kansas City both have loyal fan bases, but they pale in comparison to the size and buying power (and TV marketing presence) of a Yankees team or a Cubs team. Sadly, for Michigan the lowest World Series ratings were during the Giants vs. Tigers series in 2012.
Major league baseball has to grow their newest fans by becoming part of reaching out to young potential players. Both softball and baseball players gravitate to those sports, typically, because of some sort of family involvement in the sports. Baseball has always assumed that fathers would pass down their love of the game to their children, but there seems to be a disconnect here.
Soccer (the other football) is not only reaching more fans than baseball (World Cup viewing numbers in the U.S. eclipsed World Series Nielsen numbers so far), but more young players are playing soccer than baseball. In Michigan, high school girls have to choose between soccer and softball. Boys still can play soccer in the fall and baseball in the spring.
Baseball games require a certain patience among the viewers. It’s not a concussion a minute type of game, and there seem to be some amazing pitchers. Although the World Series has included some high scoring games, there is some evidence that scores in general are trending lower. Are low scoring games part of the problem and should this be “fixed” or is just part of the new normal?
Has the ban on steroids put a damper on sustained amazing hitters? Or did it damage the reputation of the teams in an irreparable way?

Baseball has inspired so many American generations with its combination of individual achievement and teamwork. Countless fans have enjoyed beautiful days at the ballpark, days of excitement and lulls in the action, times when the 7th inning stretch was something to look forward to, along with the Cracker Jack and the crack of the bat. I hope that Major League Baseball can find a way to perhaps rebrand themselves and make themselves relevant and visible for years to come.

The (TV Commercial) Times, They Are Changing

We’re living through an era of tremendous change. We have read about people who lived through the Industrial Revolution. Perhaps older relatives have told you about buying their first television. Lots of us and our kids can no longer conceive of a time before cell phones. (How many “Seinfeld” episodes would need to be rewritten if all of the characters would just have had cell phones?)

We are also in the midst of the television viewing revolution.

We are seeing it with our own clients, who are changing the way they purchase advertising time. Even as recently as three years ago, it was de rigeur for lots of clients to put their money first in radio and TV ads on network and smaller local stations. With their leftover money, maybe they would put a bit into improving their internet presence or other marketing initiatives.

Now, we help our clients examine how to buy that time, and even if they should buy it in the same way.

Clearly, the TV and radio landscape is changing every day. The youngest generation pretty much doesn’t listen to stations on the radio at all. That’s been the case for several years. And the radio scene is changing very quickly with so many choices: internet radio stations, SiriusXM (sattelite) radio as well as old-fashioned terrestrial radio are all competing with one another for an audience, with fewer opportunities for ad time, but bigger opportunities to really deliver to a niche or slice of the market.

But the changes in radio are dwarfed by the immense changes in how people access television or video. Dwindling, and perhaps soon gone are the days when people watched a specific program at a specific time. Now people watch on demand either through streaming services, Tivo, and on demand services. The exception to this is sporting events, which are tied of course to a certain date and time.

Cable TV is changing rapidly, too. HBO has had a very strong online streaming service called HBO GO. But to access it, you had to use a login from being a cable subscriber. This week, HBO announced an impending departure from that arrangement and will soon offer some kind of streaming without cable subscriptions, something that could save consumers who only want to watch HBO shows a lot of money. The details of this HBO streaming innovation have not yet been released, in terms of what shows will be available, what archived shows will be available and what the cost will be.

Good marketing advice incorporates all of these changes in devising a specific plan to target potential clients and customers.