Hear ye, Hear ye! Interested citizens of The Internet, you are invited to the second gathering of the Marketers RoundTable.

Whereas marketers like to congregate and discuss marketing,

And Whereas I am a marketer with a podcast,

Therefore, let them gather at The Marketers RoundTable to discuss marketing issues for all to hear on Power to the Small Business.

Guests:
Al Lautenslager – Author of Guerrilla Marketing in 30 Days
Stephen Denny – President, Denny Marketing
Connie Reece – Chief Community Officer, New Media Lab
Jay Ehret – (Host) Chief Officer of Awesomeness at The Marketing Spot
Length: 34 minutes

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Marketers’ RoundTable – A discussion of current marketing issues:

Selected quotes from the show:

ON MARKETING PLANS:

AL LAUTENSLAGER: “People want to plan it out just right, get it perfect. I have an old saying: “Done is better than perfect.”

STEPHEN DENNY: “Very often it’s just more important to get something going than it is to be absolutely, positively, 100% that you’re absolutely, positively right.”

JAY EHRET: “There are no tactics that are right for everyone.”

ON SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND LISTENING FIRST:

STEPHEN DENNY: “So much is social media centers around this idea of listening and dialog, and interestingly I’ve found that it’s the other way around that makes more sense.”

JAY EHRET: “Can you imagine Jesus sitting down with the 12 disciples and saying: “Ok, tell me where you think I should be on this issue.”

CONNIE REECE “It’s useless to talk or listen, if you haven’t decided what your business is at its very core. Know thyself. That’s just fundamental.”

ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING:

JAY EHRET: “Social media marketing, while I like it…I think this notion that it’s better than all other forms of marketing is unproven. There’s no data to back it up.”

CONNIE REECE: “It’s one tool in the arsenal. I don’t ever think anybody should say, ‘oh, we’re just going to do social media marketing. It needs to be a compliment to the traditional marketing you’re doing.”

STEPHEN DENNY: “Blogging, social media, Facebook, Twitter, whatever you happen to be engaged with is almost as much a cultural decision as it is a business decision.”

AL LAUTENSLAGER: “The ‘I’ in ROI is free, but time is money.”

ON MARKETING OF BOOKS BY AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS:

AL LAUTENSLAGER: “I’ll take that risk every time of over-promoting a book…Because people will sometimes just buy the book, take you home with them and put it on the bookshelf.”

STEPHEN DENNY: “The marketing starts before the book writing starts.”

CONNIE REECE: “If writers want to continue being published, they have to learn how to join their marketing efforts with the publishers.”

JAY EHRET: “Publishers do want the authors to promote their own books, and if that’s the case, …do you really need a publisher?”

Show Links:

Stephen Denny: Denny Marketing, Note to CMO
Al Lautenslager: Market for Profits, Certified Social Media
Connie Reece: Every Dot Connects, New Media Lab
Jay Ehret: The Marketing Spot, Power to the Small Business

Businesses cannot survive on marketing alone. At some point you need to sell something and that’s where sales comes in. Marketing is the plan and selling is making the plan come to fruition. Whether you have defined sales department or not, you should have a defined sales system and a regular sales training program.

Tom Hopkins is recognized as the world’s leading authority on selling techniques and salesmanship. In this episode of Power to the Small Business, master sales trainer and best-selling author Tom Hopkins discusses the relationship between sales and marketing. How do sales and marketing work together in a small business? Tom also addresses the myth of the natural born salesperson.

Guest: Tom Hopkins – Tom Hopkins International, Scottsdale, Arizona
Length: 25 minutes

Email subscribers and feed readers – If you don’t see the player, click here to listen toPower to the Small Business
You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #40(for personal use only)

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Comments, questions? Please share it in the comment section below or call our brand new audio comment line: 254-433-8529.

Show Notes:

Selected quotes from Tom Hopkins:

“If you really want to have profits, you have to work as a team. Don’t let barriers get built between groups…or separating marketing from selling.”

“Leadership…has to let everybody know that from the top of this company to the very bottom, we are all in sales.”

“Don’t wait to hear it’s better to start working, start working now and you’ll be way ahead of the competition”

Show Links:

Tom Hopkins International
Book: How to Master the Art of Selling
Book: Selling in Tough Times

It’s easy to get marketing advice from a marketer, not so easy to get front-line marketing advice from a small business owner who know’s what she’s talking about. So we shift the paradigm in this episode of the Power to the Small Business podcast, to bring you a discussion with Megan Duckett, an entrepreneur with the heart of a marketer. Megan is just like most small-business owners. She learned about business and marketing after she started what is now a successful theatrical curtain business: SewWhat.

In this episode of Power to the Small Business, Megan Duckett shares what she’s learned about marketing in 13 years of building a successful business.

Guest: Megan Duckett – Owner of SewWhat, Rancho Domingo, California
Length: 24 minutes

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You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #39(for personal use only)

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Press the play button on the Box player above and get started. Comments, questions? Please share it in the comment section below or call our brand new audio comment line: 254-433-8529.

Show Notes:

Selected quotes from Megan Duckett:

“You have to understand what you’re selling, you have to know the people you’re selling it to. It’s just not enough to have a good idea, I don’t think that flies.”

“Price point and service don’t always meet in the middle. You cannot be the provider of the greatest service and the lowest price point.”

“If you can re-direct your mind to consider the customer’s need, not was is easiest for (you). Making decisions that make the customer’s day simpler, friendlier, easier…. A client will pay more for that type of value.”

Show Links:

Megan Duckett’s Company: SewWhat

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Hear ye, Hear ye! Interested citizens of The Internet, you are invited to the first gathering of the Marketers RoundTable.

Whereas marketers like to congregate and discuss marketing,

And Whereas I am a marketer with a podcast,

Therefore, let them gather at The Marketers RoundTable to discuss marketing issues for all to hear on Power to the Small Business.

Guests:
Paula Pollock – Director/Owner of Pollack Marketing Group, San Francisco, California
Steve McKee – President of McKee Wallwork Cleveland Advertising, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Esteban Kolsky – Principle/Founder of Think Jar , Reno Nevada
Jay Ehret – Chief Officer of Awesomeness at The Marketing Spot, Waco, Texas

Length: 34 minutes

Email subscribers and feed readers – If you don’t see the player, click here to listen toPower to the Small Business
You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #37(for personal use only)

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Everyone is connected, connect your business to everyone. Why all the hoopla about being connected? That’s the question Mitch Joel answers in his new book, Six Pixels of Separation. Mitch Joel has been called the “Rock Star of Digital Marketing.” In this episode of Power to the Small Business Mitch discusses his new book and why any, and almost every, business should be engaged in the online world of digital marketing.

Guest: Mitch Joel, Author of Six Pixels of Separation
Length: 28 minutes

Email subscribers and feed readers – If you don’t see the player, click here to listen toPower to the Small Business
You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #36(for personal use only)

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Mitch Joel- Six Pixels of Separation Show Notes

Selected quotes from the show:

“It’s not a question of why we would want to be connected, we all are connected.”

“That’s fundamentally what someone who’s buying from anybody wants, they want a real connection with someone.”

“It is never too late, because it’s not a question of being the first in or the last in, it’s a question of people providing, and giving tremendous value.”

“People say blogging is dead, fine, here’s what I think: The ability for you to have a thought and be able to publish that thought instantly to the world in any platform you desire, in text, images, audio, video, and it comes up immediately, is brand spanking new.”

“Everything is with, not instead of.”

“Which businesses are willing to stand up and say: business has fundamentally changed.”

Show Links:

Mitch Joel’s Book: Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone.
Mitch’s blog and podcast: Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch Joel on Twitter

Bonus Link: Social Media: What to do for your business.

Search engines can be the number one source of traffic to your website. But it’s not that simple. Your website content has to be indexed properly by the search engines, then ranked high enough in the results so people will see your site. Thus the need for search engine optimization, or SEO.

In this episode of Power to the Small Business, you get the meat and potatoes of search engine optimization. Practical tips on how to tune up your website so that you will get more website traffic through better rankings in organic search engine results.

Guests: Sri Nagubandi, SEO Director at Rosetta, an interactive agency in New York.
Length: 25 minutes

SEO Primer

Before listening to this episode, there are some basic terms you need to know:

Anchor Text – The actual text you see on a page that contains a link to another site. It is often underlined or highlighted in another color (most often, but not always, blue).
Keywords – The the words people might search to find your business on a search engine.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization, optimizing your website to increase your rankings in search engine results.
Titles – The titles you see in the top title bar of a web browser.
URL – A website address. For example: http://www.yoursite.com/contact-page
WordPress – A free, open-source, website content management system. (Tutorial: Build a Website with WordPress)

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You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #35(for personal use only)

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

10 Years ago Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore published the classic book: The Experience Economy, in which they said a business is what it charges for. If your business is competing solely on price, then you’re a commodity. Pine and Gilmore said that instead, businesses should be a stage; creating memorable events, thereby allowing them to charge a premium.

In this episode of Power to the Small Business, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Experience Economy with a look back and a look forward at the relationship between business and the customer’s experience. Are businesses engaging customers in memorable experiences? How can they earn a premium and create customer loyalty?

Guests: Joe Pine, Jim Gilmore authors of The Experience Economy: Work is Theater & Every business a Stage
Length: 31 minutes

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You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #34 (for personal use only)

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The Experience Economy Show Notes

Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore

Selected quotes from the show:

“You are what you charge for. If you charge for undifferentiated stuff, you’re in the commodity business. If companies, because of this recession, treat their offerings as just stuff, then they’re commoditizing themselves.”

“Advertising today is a phoniness generating machine.”

“Place-making should rise to rival marketing as the dominant discipline of demand creation in businesses.”

What’s the state of the customer experience in the economy? There has not been enough of charging explicitly for the experience. …To a great extent it accounts for the economic difficulties that the United States and other countries find themselves today.

Determine what business are you in:

1. If you charge for tangible things, you are in the goods business.
2. If you charge for the activities your employees perform, you are in the service business.
3. If, and only if, you charge for the time your customers spend with you, are you in the experience business.

“Increasingly, people decide what to buy based on how authentic they perceive it to be, and that authenticity is self-defined.”

The Key Standards of Authenticity:

• Being true to self – Does this offer match the company that’s offering it.
• Being what you say to others – What you say is actually what the customer encounters.

The most difficult step to participating in the experience economy is your theme. The theme is your organizing principle around which your experience is created.

Show Links:

Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore – Strategic Horizons
The Books: The Experience Economy & Authenticity

joie de vivre Hotels
Think About Event and Manifesto

The Customer Experience Map – Download and instructions

In this episode of Power to the Small Business, we focus the lens on local marketing. What can local and small businesses do to increase the effectiveness of their marketing and advertising. Bob Lauck is owner of Lauck Marketing in Woodway, Texas, just outside of Waco. He joins host Jay Ehret as they discuss marketing ideas for local business. Listen to the show and view the show notes below.

Guest: Bob Lauck, Owner of Lauck Marketing, a local marketing firm in Central Texas.
Length: 25 minutes

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You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #33 (for personal use only)

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Local Marketing Show Notes

Bob Lauck – Lauck Marketing

Customer service is number one. If you have a customer service issue, it doesn’t matter what kind of marketing you’re doing.

Ideas:

• The owner should take personal interest in customer service. Handle some service calls, call customers.
• Develop a staff training program. Train on specific situations. Your employees have likely never received the service that you are asking them to give.
• Take immediate action when a customer has a complaint or issue.

Get some outside advice – Don’t try to do everything yourself. Get a professional opinion on your branding and marketing plan.

Get involved with the new media and social media tools – Make sure you apply them the right way. Social media is largely over-hyped. Put social media marketing into perspective. Remember the lessons of the internet boom and dot.com bust. Social media is at that stage right now.

Ideas:

• Have a clear strategy
• Define how it will fit with what you are already doing.

Traditional Media is not dead – It is changing and does have to be used differently than in the past. It can still be a powerful form of marketing on a local level.

Improve your product – Are you presenting your product the same way you always have? Is there a new and improved version of what you’re selling? What is different, remarkable and unusual?

Local community marketing – Getting involved selectively with causes. Make sure you maximize your involvement in those causes. What can you get out of a sponsorship to increase your exposure. Be important in the cause you are involved in and be recognized for your contribution.

Show Links:

Bob Lauck – Lauck Marketing
Register for the free webinar: What is a BRAND and how do I get one?

Peter Montoya says there are three types of brands. Corporate branding is where you’re branding a corporate entity or a business. Product and service branding is branding the product or service itself. And then there’s personal branding where there is a human being at the center of the brand. In episode 32 of Power to the Small Business, personal branding expert Peter Montoya gives practical advice on building your personal brand. The author of The Brand Called You defines what a personal brand is, gives us the steps to building a personal brand, and then describes the tools that make up our personal brand identity.

Guest: Peter Montoya, Personal branding expert and author of The Brand Called You.
Length: 22 minutes

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You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #32 (for personal use only)

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Personal Branding Show Notes

Peter Montoya – Personal Branding Expert

“The easiest way to define a personal brand is your specialization and the relationships you have with people who know you.”

“The number one goal of an identity is to make sure people remember it, can find it, and can refer it.”

“Branding really has two goals. The first goal is to get clients. The second goal is to keep clients.”

Steps to Personal Branding:

1. Specialize the brand – Refine your products and services to a defined target market.
   – The more competition you have, the more specialized you should be.
2. Identify the unmet need.

Branding Tools:

A. Website – It’s your credibility building tool. You must have one with at least four basic pages:

1. Home page – Explains who you are and what you do.
2. Product or Services pages – Information about your products and services
3. History / Personnel page – Talks about the people inside your company
4. Contact page – Map, phone number, address.

B. Logo – The logo has three components. All three combined becomes your coat of arms.

1. Name
2. Slogan
3. Icon

C. Stationary

1. Business Card
2. Letterhead
3. Envelopes
4. Mailing Label
5. Note cards

D. Presentation Folder – Essential for professional services business with a multiple-step selling process.

E. Personal Brochure – Use as a prospecting tool for a referral-based business. Have one created using a non-standard size.

F. Personal postcard or personal flyer

G. Advertising

H. PowerPoint Presentation

I. Billboard

J. Building signage

Show Links:

Buy the book: The Brand Called You
Peter Montoya’s Website

Word of mouth may be the most powerful form of marketing. ft that’s true, then you need a plan. John Moore has a recipe that can spark conversation for your business. In this episode of Power to the Small Business we discuss how you can create word of mouth that gets people talking.

Guest: John Moore, WOM Enthusiast at WOMMA, The Word of Mouth Marketing Association, and Marketingologist at Brand Autopsy.
Length: 26 minutes

(Email subscribers and feed readers – Click here to listen if you don’t see the player)
You can also download the mp3 file here: Download Power to the Small Business #31 (for personal use only)

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Word of Mouth Show Notes

John Moore – WOM Enthusiast, WOMMA

“A company’s personality is its best form of advertising.”

“It comes down to five simple words: Remarkable things get remarked about.”

“There are two ways to generate word of mouth. You can bake it, or you can make it. You just don’t want to fake it.”

Bake it: You bake it inside how a company does business every day. It’s a part of a company’s culture.
Make it: Layer it on to the marketing mix of activities your company is doing.
Don’t fake it: Not deceiving consumers and being truthful.

• 90% of word of mouth happens in the physical world / 10% in the digital world.
• 76% of consumers believe that companies are untruthful in their advertising.
• 78% of consumers trust completely or somewhat, the recommendations of other consumers.
• 91% of people would be likely to use a product recommended by someone who had used it themselves.
• 22% of all word-of-mouth conversations are the result of interesting ads a person sees.

Word of Mouth Books:

Anatomy of Buzz Revisited – Emanuel Rosen
Word of Mouth Marketing – Andy Sernovitz
Creating Customer Evangelists – Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba
Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing – George Silverman

Other Resources:

WOMMA downloadable resources
Word-of-Mouth Tips from Jackie Huba podcast
Creating Your Word-of-Mouth Message – from The Marketing Spot Blog
The Conversation Playbook – from The Marketing Spot Blog

Find John Moore on the web:
All Things WOM Blog
John’s Brand Autopsy Blog
Brand Autopsy Marketing Practice
Twitter: @BrandAutopsy