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Home » Business And Finance Articles » Think Small And Grow Big

Think Small And Grow Big!

In this evergrowing-techno-jungle we call the Internet, it's easy for the little guys to get overlooked. If you aren't Coca-Cola, Microsoft, or Amazon, it can be hard to compete. Small businesses are faced with the challenge of standing out in the face of giants. So how do you differentiate and survive? The key is to be SMALL in a big way by capturing the essence of YOU in your web site!

To illustrate my point I'll paint a picture. Imagine that you have a taste for a strawberry milkshake, so you head down to Joe's Ice Cream Parlor. When you walk in, Joe greets you with a smile and asks, "How you doing Sam? Do you want the usual strawberry shake?" You plop yourself down on the barstool and say, "That'd be great!" Joe asks how the wife and kids are. You ask how Joe's business is doing.

Joe pours the milkshake into a tall curved soda glass, pops a straw in, and puts not one, but two cherries on top.

What's good about this picture? It's small at it's best! It's the good ole' days of Mom and Pop stores relived. You know that when you go to Joe's you'll get more than a great milk shake you love, it's the experience of it. And the value that Joe adds to that milkshake goes a long way toward building and keeping a relationship with that client.

Let's talk about how you capture the "you" and put its power to work in your business?

STOREFRONT

It all starts when you walk into Joe's Ice Cream Shop. The nostalgic look, the music from the jukebox, the real whip cream he tops his milk shakes with. Does your web site have stopping power? If you don't capture the visitor's attention in a few seconds, you've lost their business. Through use of friendly copy, attractive graphics, and color you can add interest and set the tone for your visitors.

MOTTO:

The front door of your web site is the home page. You need to state right at the top of the page: who you are, what you do, and why customers should care!

What is your unique selling point?

Are you friendly? Are you affordable? Are you available 24/7?

Do you have a specialty? Are you a one-stop shop?

Remember those catchy phrases you can't get out of your head:

Bounty, the quicker picker upper... Burger King - we make it your way... Hertz, we try harder.... These are perfect examples of slogans that tell customers immediately WHO you are and WHY you are better than the rest.

WHAT ARE THE SPECIALS?

Joe lists his "soda for the day" right on his menu for all to see.

Similarly, you need to tell visitors about the exciting features your site has to offer. Write home page that reads like a "special of the day" menu telling customers about the free reports, the resources, the products, and other features your site has to offer them.

If you offer a free initial trial or full money back guarantee make it VISIBLE on your home page!

WORDS:

Just as Joe's conversation gave you a warm friendly shopping experience, you can put personality in your web copy to create a friendly visitor experience. Steer clear of web copy that makes you sound like a high-pressure car salesman or a fancy high profile VP of sales. Instead, write honestly with a personal approach.

Your web site copy (writing) should NOT be a laundry list pulled from your resume or simply listing your services. Instead, tell people in your own words what you have to offer them, how it will help them, how much they will save, how much easier it will make things for them, how convenient your are. Think like a customer and ask, "Why should I buy from this company versus the one down the street?" The answers to THAT will form writing for your web site.

USE OTHERS WORDS:

When your friend George said, "You've GOT to try the Milk Shakes at Joe's. You won't believe how good they are" you were SOLD! There's nothing like a heartfelt testimonial to build trust and credibility. If you don't have a big brand name and the reputation that goes with it, you'd need to give the customer a reason to believe that you or your product does what you promise.

Testimonials do this. And honest words from a happy customer will get you more customers than any high paid advertisement ever will.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS:

Joe always had a way of making you feel right at home in his shop. Similarly, by adding a picture of yourself on the web site, your customers will feel like they know you. The more customers feel they know you, the more likely they will want to do business with you.

If you don't have a good picture of yourself here's some ideas for you. Go to Sears, Glamour Shots, or JC Penny studio and get one taken. If you take "horrible" formal pictures, consider taking one of you "in action" doing what you do. If you teach, consider showing a picture of you working with students. You can even "cut" yourself out of a good casual shot, remove the background, add a shadow, and make a GREAT head shot! See my picture on about us page http://www.kcustom.com/aboutus.htm. I take TERRIBLE formal picture because I hate getting my picture taken. This one is of me in KeyWest on my honeymoon. No wonder I look so happy!

If you sell widgets, show a picture of your product on your web site. When people shop in a store they like to feel, touch, and hold the product. Recreate this experience with pictures and visual imagery with words. Don't tell customers that it's "solid leather construction", instead tell them "the seat is made with leather so soft you'll sink right into it"!

MAINTAIN FRIENDLY, RESPONSIVE COMMUNICATION WITH CUSTOMERS

Have you ever gone to a store counter and waited, and WAITED? You could see the store clerk standing up there chatting with her fellow sales clerk. You clear your throat, and try to make eye contact with her, and then FINALLY she comes over and asks, "Can I help you?" This is how your customers feel when they send your business an email and you don't respond right away.

Responses to emails should be timely. If you don't have time to answer someone's question right away, send them a note to tell them you got their inquiry and when they CAN expect an answer.

Go back in your head to the "waiting at the counter" scenario . . . when the clerk says, "I'll be right with you" it sure makes you feel better doesn't it? It tells the customer "You are important to me, I noticed you, and I will help you soon as I can"

OFFER IMPECCABLE SERVICE:

The key to Joe's success at the Ice Cream Shop wasn't just his incredible milk shakes; it was the value he added by adding the extra cherry on top. Promise 8 and deliver 9. What do you do to add value to your business? Give freely of yourself by adding those little extras.

IT'S ALL IN THE PACKAGING:

Somehow milkshakes never taste as good in a paper cup with a plastic lid. And even though the milkshake may cost $1 extra at Joe's, you don't mind because you know your are getting your money's worth. Think of ways to package your services that are attractive and convenient for your clients. Don't nickel and dime your customers to death. Sometimes $150 per hour fees can sound pretty scary to clients. Think perhaps about creating a package with a set number of offerings at a set price. You could offer a basic, a deluxe, and the GOLD package. When clients know exactly what to expect, it takes the "fear" out of their purchase.

ANSWERING THE PHONE:

I don't know about you, but there is nothing that impresses me more when I call a customer help number and actually get HUMAN live help! I want a person who listens and understands my problems. I don't want to choose options 1, 2, or 3 and push a button on the phone.

When Joe answers the phone he says "Welcome to Joe's Ice Cream Shop, this is Joe!" What a nice first impression that makes! Smile when you answer, people will hear the difference in your voice.

BE SMALL - BE YOU - You won't believe the difference it makes!

I can tell you from experience that being "myself" is what has built my business. And everyday as I build web sites for small business owners I help them put a piece of themselves into it. The importance of branding yourself cannot be overstated. Take a look at your own business. Try to look with a different set of eyes.

How do you present yourself? Does my site "feel" like a warm comfortable place to do business OR does your web site look like screaming over-hyped ad or business brochure? Remember the secret to competing with the BIG guys, lies in adding the human touch to your service, your communication, and your web site! Act small for BIG profits!

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Public Relations Mixup?

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 885 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2003.

Public Relations Mixup?

When you pay good money for public relations services, you have a right to expect its primary focus to be on your most important outside audiences, those people whose behaviors have the greatest impact on your operation.

Often, however, that primary focus is limited to a communi- cations tactics debate about the relative merits of brochures versus press releases versus newsletters instead of planning how to achieve those key audience behaviors that directly support your business objectives and make the difference between success and failure.

Nothing wrong with communications tactics. They fit in just fine later in the effort, as you will see. Only point here? Use them for what they are, tactics, not a substitute for your primary public relations effort.

To insure that you're not wasting that PR budget, you really need to stay in touch with your most important external audiences. Then carefully monitor their perceptions about your organization, their feelings and beliefs about hot topics at issue, both of which lead to predictable, follow-on behaviors.

First, you need to list those external audiences that have the most serious impacts on your organization. Rank them as to those impacts and let's work on the one at the top of the list.

Now, you and your colleagues must interact with members of that outside audience and pose a lot of questions in order to gather the information you need.

Listen carefully to what they say about your organization, its products or services, and its management. Ask questions like "What do you think of us? and Are you pleased with what you know about us? Have you heard anything that you want explained?" It's important to watch for negativity in attitudes and responses while staying alert to misconceptions, inaccuracies, dangerous rumors and unfounded beliefs and opinions.

The good news is the body of knowledge you will gather. Here are the facts you need to establish your public relations goal. That is, the actual perception change followed by the behavior change you want. Specifically, you may decide to spend your resources on clearing up a serious misconception, turning around that unfounded belief or killing that dangerous rumor once and for all.

What to DO with that completed goal comes next. Luckily, there are just three strategies to choose from when you deal with perception and opinion. You can create perception/opinion when there isn't any, you can change existing opinion, or you can reinforce it. It will be obvious which one to choose once you've set your public relations goal.

It's been real easy to this point, now you must prepare the message that will hopefully alter the perception and behavior of your target audience. It's not easy. But it must be done in a believable, persuasive and compelling manner. The message must be clear and to the point with regard to exactly what is incorrect or untruthful. Remember this about the message: its only function is to alter existing perception on the part of members of the target audience. So, the guidelines are clarity, persuasiveness and credibility.

Here we are at the "public relations stable" housing our "beasts of burden" – your communications tactics whose job it is to carry your message to the attention of those key target audience members.

There is a really long list of tactics from which you can choose. Letters-to-the-editor, news releases, speeches, briefings, personal meetings, emails, newspaper and radio interviews and dozens more. Main requirement? Do they have a proven record of reaching the members of your target audience?

Are you making progress? Short of spending some real money on professional surveys (the cost of which often exceeds the entire public relations budget!), the best way to find out is to interact again with members of that target audience. In addition to being among the very people with whom you should regularly interact anyway, you and your colleagues can now personally assess attitudes, responses and degrees of awareness of your organization as well as particular misconceptions, untruths, inaccuracies or rumors.

Now, after six or eight weeks of your communications blitz, the difference between these perceptions and those gathered during the earlier interaction is that you are looking for signs that perceptions are now moving in your direction.

Should you decide to speed up the process, you might add a few more communication tactics to the mix, and increase their frequencies. Another look at your message would also be in order to reassure yourself that its factual base, clarity and impact measure up.

Once your perception monitoring shows that you have persuaded many target audience stakeholders towards your way of thinking, you may be sure that instead of wasting your PR budget, you are moving those stakeholders to behaviors that will produce the public relations success you want.

end