When being chided about why she had never married, the not-quite-old maid replied, “It takes a really good husband to be better than no husband at all.”  Most employers feel the same way about employees: if they aren’t really good, the company is better off without them.  Sadly, a bad employee can do damage that seems far beyond what one person should be capable of!  But finding – and keeping – good people are a persistent challenge. This post deals with the issues surrounding how you go about finding and hiring just the right people.

One Man Band

Many e-businesses get started with only one employee – you – and maybe a couple of others –

your partners. In the beginning it may only take the one or two of you to keep the music playing, but it doesn’t take much company growth to create a need for more help.

So now, you are faced with a situation that you probably have always wanted anyway – the opportunity to select your own coworkers.  No more having to work with people with all those annoying habits and poor work skills that who-knows-who hired; you can pick and choose just who you want!  Hopefully, that is exactly how the hiring process always works out for you, and your chances for success only increase with some knowledge of what’s involved and some time spent in planning on the front end.

Employee Leasing

Instead of shouldering the entire burden of hiring, managing payroll, paying employment tax liabilities, and filing quarterly and yearly reports, you might want to consider using an employment service.  For a fee, usually from 10% to 40% of payroll, the agency actually employs the people who work for you, and handles all the payroll and tax issues.  You let them know each person’s wage and how many hours worked that week, and the agency creates the paychecks.

As a small employer, you may not be able to offer your employees health benefits, but you can provide them through the agency.  In addition, an agency can supply worker’s compensation insurance coverage for your business, which is often difficult for a small employer to obtain, and it is quite expensive.  The agency locates people who meet your criteria, and lets you interview and approve them before hire.  If you enter “employment services + your city” into your favorite search engine, you can find your choice of local leasing services.

Or, a temp may be just the thing.  Manpower (http://www.us.manpower.com/) is perhaps one of the most widely known temporary employee agencies, and you may find that hiring a temp fills your need quite nicely.  You can usually hire a temp full-time down the road if things work out well.  Go to Manpower’s website to find local affiliates.

Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready

Now is your chance to show that you never would have hired those bozos you used to work with.  Or, perhaps you will find that hiring good people is not as easy as it sounds.  Not only must you know what position needs to be filled, and therefore what skills and traits you need to hire, you must also be aware of your company’s particular personality.  A super-efficient juggernaut of an administrative assistant may ruin your laid back department.  But being a super-efficient juggernaut is not a requirement for being a good admin; good administrative assistants can be laid-back, too.

So spend time up front deciding what skills, abilities, and traits are important to you, and how you are going to recognize them.  Large companies generally have implemented HR (Human Resources) systems complete with job descriptions, compensation schedules, interviewing and hiring procedures, and performance evaluations.  You may feel that you are not big enough for this (yet), but you can glean some of their best practices, starting with job descriptions.

What’s in a Job?

Basically, a job description outlines the purpose of a particular position, the duties and responsibilities involved, and the reporting structure.  Even without a formal job description, you still must outline the responsibilities so that you have a basis for seeking candidates and planning to interview them.  This outline also helps you later, after you have hired the person, as a first point of communication about what job performance is expected.  A helpful website is http://www.businessballs.com/jobdescription.htm, which lists many generic job responsibilities for a number of positions, from which you can pick-and-choose what you really need.  Once you recognize what you are looking for, then you are ready to begin looking.

Finding the Seekers

If you need a local person, it’s best to advertise locally, or use your network of friends and business associates for word-of-mouth referrals.  The Classifieds section of the newspaper is almost certainly being read by those locals looking for jobs.  Usually, a Classifieds ad is short (you are charged by the word or line) and just hits the highlights – job title, level of experience, type of work environment (laid-back, fast-paced, detail-oriented), a few words about duties, a place to send a resume or a number and time to call, and a person to ask for, if applicable.

The current ads that are running are a good resource to pattern your ad after.  Often, the staff at the Classifieds office will help you write your ad, and help you determine when it should run and for how long.  Wednesday and Sunday are typically heavy readership days.  Many newspapers are now online, an extra convenience for you and the potential candidates.  Plus, online local listings are valuable to web based companies since most of the candidates that search these sites are computer literate.

Although the traditional model is to have employees who work with you in your location, it is very common for web companies to employ people who work out of their own offices, which may be hundreds of miles away.  In fact, you might never meet these people face-to-face, and they are not employees, per se, but independent contractors. But more on that later.

You source both employees and independent contractors the same way. Let’s discuss the procedures for hiring on-site employees first.

If a local search has not yielded sufficient results, you can certainly use the internet to attract candidates.  Monster (http://www.monster.com/), HotJobs (http://www.hotjobs.com/), and Career Builder (http://www.careerbuilder.com/) are some of the well known job search sites.  Log into the Employer sections where you can find out their particular requirements and costs.  In addition to the usual info needed for creating an account (name, address, tax id, etc.) you will most likely also need:

• Info about your company (your chance to sell yourself!)
• A job title
• A pretty well developed job description
• A listing of job duties
• Required years of experience
• Job level (Management, Executive, Administrative, Independent Contributor, etc)
• Salary range, but this may be omitted entirely
• Whether you will cover travel expenses for an on-site interview
• Whether relocation is paid for (If you don’t intend to pay for relocation, you need to let candidates know this up front.  Relocation can be quite involved, so check out a site such as http://moving.move.com/ for some valuable info.)
• Procedure for submitting resume and cover letter.

The sourcing company forwards resumes online to you for review, and then you decide which candidates to contact for interviews.  Your phone calls to set up the interview appointment and to make travel arrangements probably will not be lengthy, but you can conduct a ”mini-interview” to get a feel for the candidates before you commit to the time and expense of bringing them in.  You can begin the conversation by saying something such as, “I was looking over the resume you submitted for my XXXXX opening, and I just had a couple of quick questions for you.”

Then ask something specific about a statement in the cover letter or some of their relevant job experiences.  If you like what you hear, make arrangements.  If not, thank them for their time, remind them that you are still reviewing candidates, and cordially sign off.  You don’t need to promise that you will get back to them, but many employers send form letters to all unsuccessful candidates, such as those offered at http://www.informing1.com/sampleletterforms.html.

If you are seeking independent contractors, you can follow the same sourcing procedure, except that relocation is not an issue.  You generally don’t need to bring them in for an on-site interview, unless you simply would like to meet them.  For them, you conduct a phone interview and work out the details of how work gets passed back and forth, what your expectations are, how to submit invoices for payment, etc.  There are wonderful online services that make this process possible and painless such as Basecamp (http://www.basecamphq.com/.)   Independent contractors are generally paid after submitting invoices and are issued a Form 1099-MISC instead of a W-2.

Another place to search for potential employees is in trade journals and industry websites.  You can place journal classified ads in much the same way as in a newspaper, although these ads tend to cost considerably more, and usually have to be submitted a month in advance.  You can find pretty quick turn-around with a trade website, however.

The Employment Application

Once you have selected candidates to interview and made appointments, you want to have your employment application ready for them to complete when they arrive.  There are some questions which you can’t ask on the application, which are the same ones you must avoid during the interview – mainly those that could result in discrimination based on age, gender, disability, national origin, race, religion, or pregnancy.

A couple of solid sample applications are listed at http://www.nhlink.net/employme/example.htm.   You can print these out and personalize them with your company info, if you like, or use them to pattern your own.   Also, there are a number of other sites and print materials that contain sample forms – check out Amazon’s business section.  Notice that you can ask the candidate to voluntarily answer some of the sensitive questions, but don’t hold it against them if they choose not to answer.

If you employ 15 or more people, make sure you keep applications and employee records for at least a year, as a requirement of the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.)  Fewer than 15, you may choose to keep them for a time, in case of other openings, or if this position comes open again.

The Interview

After the candidate has completed the application, it’s time to meet him or her face-to-face.  After the pleasantries – make sure you don’t small talk any of the taboo areas – you are ready to begin.  Review the application and ask any questions that occur – any gap in employment history, more details about a previous position, etc. Take note of the salary history for future reference.

Also note how quickly the candidate advanced in the company or whether he changed companies every couple of years.  If he rose quickly in one company, it can indicate that he is either a top producer or very political – find out which.  If he is a job-hopper, he may get bored easily, be difficult to work with, or come across better in interviews than he actually performs on the job.  Or it may be that this was the only way that he could advance and grow his salary, due to the characteristics of the companies he worked for.  It is up to you, by the quality of the interview questions you ask and your sound assessment of the answers, to determine if this is a good hire. It is good practice to have a prepared interview form or at least a prepared list of questions, if you find a form too confining for your style.  Having a list helps ensure that you ask everything you feel is important.  You may make notes during the interview, or shortly after while responses are still fresh in your mind.  A good list of typical questions can be found at http://www.datsi.fi.upm.es/~frosal/docs/25mdq.html.  Choose those that will help you accomplish your purpose, but make sure that you include some behavior-based questions.

Behavior-based Interview Questions

This type of question helps you get at what a person has actually done in previous positions.  The basic premise behind behavior-based interviewing is that people can answer ”what would you do if…“ questions any way they think will impress you. That’s not true with ”what did you do when…“ questions.  To answer these, candidates have to stop and think of something that really happened, and the way they proceed to answer gives you a good indication of how well they think on their feet and process information, in addition to how they have managed some real-work experiences.

You may want to include a mix of question types, but be sure to ask some that require the candidate to relay some actual experiences.  Behavior-based questions typically begin with:

• Describe a time when you had to…
• Tell me about how you were able to…
• What did you do when…

A website to visit for a good listing of behavior-based questions is http://www.seekingsuccess.com/articles/art108.php3.

If you are hiring a young person for an entry-level position, he or she may not have work experiences to relay, but very likely has participated in school and volunteer groups.  Women who have been out of the workforce while child rearing also have many alternative situations to describe, which will give you a read on their abilities.

Two Good to be True

Suppose you find two really good candidates.  You can arrange for them to come back for second interviews with others in your company.  Then you can take them out to dinner, or to a meeting, to see how they act in a different setting.  This is also a great time to have them take a personality assessment such as the tried-and-true DiSC assessment at http://learningbeam.com/ or StrengthFinder (https://www.strengthsfinder.com/).

These assessments are among the most straightforward to interpret.  StrengthFinder is a web-based assessment of normal personality from the perspective of positive psychology. There are 180 items presented to the user over a secure connection. Each item lists a pair of potential self-descriptors such as, “I read instructions carefully” and “I like to jump right into things.” The participant is asked to choose which statement best describes him or her and to what extent.  The more you know about your own company and its personality the more helpful these kinds of assessments will be in making your hiring decision.

A Word About Discrimination

Discrimination in hiring and Affirmative Action are still very much in the headlines, so perhaps these few comments will give you a useful perspective:  The very fact that you intend to choose one candidate out of a field of possibilities means that you have to discriminate among them.  So, discriminating is necessary.  However, it is the basis for discrimination that is at issue.  A person’s age, gender, religion, disability, or race does not give a clear picture of his or her skills and abilities to perform the job, so a fair hiring decision can’t be based on any of these.  The good news is that behavior-based questions help you make a good, sound hiring decision and keep you from venturing into the murky waters of unfair discrimination.

Preparing to Make an Offer

Now, you and your hiring team, if others are involved, have reviewed all the resumes, applications, and interview responses, and you have zeroed in on one or two top choices.  Your next step is to call the employers and references listed on the applications.  During the interview, be sure to ask candidates if it is all right to call the present employer because they may not want to make it known that they are considering leaving.

Many times, previous employers will only confirm dates of work, job title, and salary; do not be surprised if they do not even tell you why the person left, much less what kind of employee he or she was.  This is true of even great employees, so you can’t make any assumptions about the candidate based on this company policy.  If they do share information, find out what you can about the candidate’s specific job duties, how they got along with coworkers, their attendance and tardiness, and use some of the behavior-based questions you also asked the candidates (What did she do when…).  Make sure to record the answers and keep these in the candidates’ application files.

When calling references, find out how long and under what circumstances this person has known the candidate.  If the reference is a former coworker, ask the same as of a former employer – specific job duties, how they got along with coworkers, and some behavior-based questioning.  Several websites contain good lists of questions to ask a reference;

http://www.how-to.com/Operations/employee-references.htm is a good one to check out.

Background Checks

Before you make that final decision, it is a good idea to perform a background search, mainly to find out about things such as criminal record, driving record, workers compensation claims, and credit history.  Your employment application should contain a section to inform candidates that a background check will be performed. Have them read and sign this section, so you have their permission to do this.

There are many reputable online services to consider, usually for a fairly low fee. Sites like http://www.ussearch.com/, http://www.employeescreen.com/, and http://www.crimcheck.com/ are worth checking out.

Making the Offer

Once you have made your selection, you call the person and give him the good news!  Part of that good news includes the salary and benefits you offer.  You may have to do a bit of negotiating over salary at this point.  Assuming you get a “yes,” you may want to consider scheduling a drug test, especially for workers who may be working with dangerous equipment.

Usually, results are back to you within a few days, and when they are, you call the candidate and finalize the offer.  Then, set the date for them to start, remembering that it is customary to give a current employer two-week’s notice.

The First Day

When your new hire arrives, make sure that you, or whoever is to receive him, are available; nothing makes a person feel more unimportant than having to sit cooling his heels, waiting for someone to show up.  You can be there and show the same level of enthusiasm you want him to show as your employee.  Whether before or after the paperwork, give them a tour and introduce the new coworkers, go through the break room, etc.  If you have company materials, give him those.  Also have a job description on hand so you can go over in more detail the job responsibilities.

The INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) requires that all employees show proof of eligibility to work in the USA.  This is accomplished by completing Form I-9, and making photocopies of the appropriate documentation, such as driver’s license, birth certificate, passport, green card, citizenship papers.  The form is available for download at http://www.formi9.com/i-9.pdf.   When this form with photocopies is completed, do not file it with the employee’s other papers, but have a separate file for all employee I-9’s.

For the IRS, the new hire needs to complete a W-4, which can be downloaded from http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf?portlet=3. This, of course, tells your payroll department about withholding exemptions for federal income tax.

If your state requires the completion of some forms, have those on hand, as well.  Some states require that you report new hires, which can usually be done online at your state’s website for corporations.

Also have any company forms ready, which may be as simple as the form for logging everybody’s birthdays for office parties, to your insurance and 401k enrollment forms.

In Summary

Bringing quality people into your organization can be tricky, and there are many issues to consider.  By deciding what skills, abilities, and traits are important to you, you know who to look for and how to begin interviewing them.  Good paperwork practices aid the process, whether it’s the employment application, or the interview form, or the many new hire forms that must be completed.  Being ready goes a long way in making the process successful for you and your new hire.

IMPress Action Checklist

Use this checklist to guide you as you work through the hiring process.  Check each item off as it’s completed:

• Decide the skills, abilities, and employee traits that promote your success
• Decide whether to hire or lease employees
• To lease, contact the employee leasing company with your requirements
• Decide whether you need employees or independent contractors
• Prepare a job description
• Advertise locally or over the internet
• Screen resumes
• Set up interview appointments
• Prepare company job application
• Prepare interview questions
• Narrow choices to top one or two
• Arrange second interviews, if needed
• Perform personality assessment
• Check references
• Check background
• Extend offer, conditioned on passing pre-employment physical
• Schedule physical
• Extend finalized offer
• Schedule start date
• Complete necessary paperwork: I-9 & W-4, plus any others

If you’ve read the post “Understanding the Basics of Marketing to Current Customers,” you know that up to 80% of your sales can come from return business or customer referrals. With that said, think of how many potential profits exist in your current database! Reach out to these customers often with frequent communication and it will pay off in return sales.

Producing a newsletter is an excellent way to touch base with your customer base and increase the odds of a return visit. Customers must be kept up-to-date on your products, your business, industry trends and other newsworthy topics. The most straightforward and efficient way to educate your customers on these subjects is with an ongoing newsletter.

Sure, you can send out regular promotions and sales that will compel customers to buy, but those messages begin to lose their meaning if you send them out all the time. Newsletters are a great way to supplement your email advertising because you’re providing a service — the gift of information. All the while, you can infuse your stories with promotional incentives that drive return business. This eBook will help you balance educational and sales content and give you ideas for a well designed, well written newsletter that keep customers reading…and returning.

Concept Your Content

As with any good marketing tool, you must address topics that are important to your reader. If you are selling camping equipment, your buyers are likely interested in exploring new places, so inform them about the latest and greatest camping spots around the country. You might also feature travel advice, news about park systems and eco-friendly tips.

Coming up with concepts and writing newsletters is no easy task, especially if you plan to send out a newsletter frequently. Get help by dividing articles amongst staff or pay an assistant to help you. College students who are English or writing majors may be willing to work for inexpensive rates to gain some experience in the field.

Your newsletter should have a variety of stories, long and short. Fill it with articles like:

• Company updates
• Customer testimonials
• Industry news
• Customer tips
• Health tips
• Links to additional education

Brainstorm with Staff, Friends and Family

Ask different people to contribute story ideas. We all watch the news and understand what makes an interesting story. Ideas can pop up at anytime, perhaps during a conversation with a customer, or while watching television at home. Keep an ongoing list of story ideas that you can refer to when you are planning content for each issue.

Trade Publications

Page through industry magazines and search other industry websites for concepts. For camping-related ideas, you might subscribe to Outdoor magazine or read Gorp.com to see what’s timely.

Customer Contributions

Ask customers to contribute to a “Customer Corner” segment of your newsletter and, in return, offer them a discount on their next purchase. Or, send out a survey asking customers what kinds of things they’d like to read about.
Press releases: Search online at news distribution sites like http://www.pr.com/, http://www.prnewswire.com ,http://www.prweb.com, and http://www.press-base.com to see what the latest news is in industries related to your product line. For camping equipment, you may search the travel and park system categories. Then, take the interesting press releases and spin them into your own stories.

Vendor Content

If you sell books, contact the authors to ask if you can feature an excerpt of their content (of course, you will cite and promote the book in return).  Ask your manufacturers if they have anything to contribute. Some have newsletters of their own and you may be able to recycle some of their material.

Determine the Timeline

Remember, consistency counts. How often will your newsletter be published? Quarterly? Monthly? Weekly? Although your initial thought might be to commit to a weekly publication, take these factors into consideration.

Resources

Who will write and design your newsletter? Realistically, how much time do you or your staff have to devote to the project?

Content

Do you have enough newsworthy stories to fill a weekly publication?

Cost

The more often the newsletter is produced, the more it will cost. Even if you’re not spending a dime in printing because you publish online, you’re still spending time on it…and your time is valuable.

Your Reader

Sending frequent newsletters may work against you because your readers may get bogged down with information and just hit delete. You want to contact them enough to stay timely, but not too much or you’ll become an annoyance.

Once you’ve selected your publication dates, stick to them. Your customers will come to expect a newsletter from you every week, month or quarter. Don’t let them down! Because you’re busy doing a thousand different tasks, it’s easy to get pulled away and let two or three months go by with no newsletter. This damages the credibility of your publication and customers won’t anticipate and look forward to reading the newsletter if it’s produced sporadically. Set deadlines and stick to them

Determine the Format

Since you’re an e-commerce shop, you’ll likely produce your newsletter online and send it to your customers via email. You can also devote a page on your website to newsletter archives and allow customers to download PDFs of your content.

Email newsletters are created in either HTML or text format. NEVER send an attached PDF file; no one will take the time to open it. HTML is your best bet for capturing attention because it allows you to include colors, graphic elements and images that make your content much more interesting. If you create your newsletter in HTML, then a text format must be created as well, because some customers do not have HTML capability or choose not to view HTML.

In either case, think about your newsletter format as if it were printed on 81/2” x 11” standard-size paper. This will help you visualize how much space you have to work with when developing content. A good rule of thumb: a 2-sided, 81/2”  x 11” newsletter provides lots of information, without being too overwhelming.

If you are struggling for content, use the “one” side until you are more experienced in newsletter development. Or, use larger type and more images to help fill space. Whatever format you select, stick to it. Consistency in the publication’s style creates a familiarity among readers. You newsletter will become a product that they recognize and look forward to reading.

Select a Look

A unique look gives your newsletter personality. A masthead is the design that runs across the top of the newsletter and features the name of your publication. When sending via email, keep in mind that many people have “preview” screens that they use to scan emails quickly. Your masthead will be the first, and possibly only, thing they’ll see before moving on. Keep it simple but be sure that it’s designed to capture attention.

Here are some other tips to help you develop a great look:

Use an Online Email Marketing Service

Collaborate with an online company that specializes in email marketing to tailor a newsletter template for your needs. Companies like iContact (http://www.icontact.com/), Constant Contact (http://www.constantcontact.com/), VerticalResponse (http://www.verticalresponse.com/) and MailChimp (http://mailchimp.com/) are good choices for this service. Then, you can fill your custom-created template with new information and images each time for a do-it-yourself approach that will save money in the long run.

Invest in Desktop Publishing Software

Much like the online template option, unless you want to pay someone to design your newsletter every time, you should invest in, and learn to use, software that provides templates to help you do it yourself such as High Impact eMail (http://www.templatezone.com/email-marketing-templates.php). When you employ these types of programs, you’ll use the Webpage: Newsletter option and then save it into HTML format by saving it as a single file webpage.

There are some free or inexpensive email marketing templates available on the web such as FreeMailTemplates.com (http://freemailtemplates.com/), however you need to me able to edit the HTML code with a program like Dreamweaver.

Hire a Freelance Designer

If you have a web designer, employ him or her to create a look that stays true to your website. They have all the design elements in their arsenal they need to develop something quickly and easily. Once again, consider college students as a cost-effective option. Graphic design majors, in particular, are always looking for ways to gain experience. A newsletter is a relatively simple job that they’ll excel at.

Use Photos

A picture is worth a thousand words. Photos and other design elements make your newsletter look much nicer, and break up long columns of text. Readers are much more likely to read a short story with an interesting photo than three columns of straight text.

Dreamstime.com (http://www.dreamstime.com) and Fotolia.com (http://www.fotolia.com) offers a great selection of images at very affordable rates based of the term of your subscription. You can also purchase high quality images from sites like Getty Images (http://www.gettyimages.com/). Be sure to use “royalty free” images so that you can use the image wherever and whenever you’d like; otherwise, the company requires you to pay a fee for each use. If you’ve been taking pictures for your site, reuse them whenever possible. For details on how to take purchase-friendly pictures, look for an upcoming eBook on photography for the web.

Note: Be careful not to overuse photography. Too much photography can take a long time to download and your audience will not wait. Run your web images through the tools at Optiview (http://www.optiview.com/) to check their effectiveness.

Run a Test

Before you send your newsletter to hundreds or thousands of people in your database, be sure you send it to yourself first. Take a step back and put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Does it make sense? Does it download quickly? Does it look like something that would catch your eye?

Write the Right Way

Now that you’ve got your list of article ideas, it’s time to develop your stories. Here are some tips that may inspire you to get in front of a keyboard and start writing! For additional writing tips, see the eBook on, “Writing Effectively for the Web.”

Consider Content Length

Longer is not better since most people don’t take the time to read, especially online. Remember, you’re not writing a book. One way to break up text and make the publication skimmable is through “tidbits” of information: bullets or tips. This creates white space, which is far less intimidating than a full page of text with no breaks. Let the content of the story determine its length. If you are writing about what to take on a camping trip, for instance, give the “top ten things to pack.”

Create Compelling Headlines

Your headlines must scream “Read this story now!” The headline’s job is to draw readers into the story and make them want to read on. Some quick advice on headline writing:

• Sum up the story in a way that entices readers. Pick the most interesting, most important part of the story and make it the headline.
• Use active words. Words that show action make the headline (and the story) more interesting.
• Have a little fun. If readers get a kick out of the headline, they’re more likely to read the story. Also, try puns or a play on popular song or movie titles. But use humor sparingly. If all headlines are funny, your newsletter loses credibility.

Proofread. Proofread. Proofread.

This point cannot be stressed enough. Mistakes are deadly. You can create a beautiful newsletter, complete with compelling stories, catchy headlines and distinctive artwork, but if it’s filled with typos, it will lose credibility. Before you send out your newsletter, have several people read it in its entirety, checking for grammatical errors and other mistakes. One tip for successful proofing: read the newsletter backwards. When you do this, your mind doesn’t focus so much on overall content but rather individual sentences and words.

Give Your Readers a Voice

Include an op-ed section where readers can write in with their thoughts on your products, service or the industry in general. To solicit letters from readers, send an email inviting them to write in or include a statement like this within your newsletter:

Tell us what you think: This section is devoted to customers. Write in your thoughts, opinions, critiques and they will be published here. We’d like to hear from you on this newsletter and the stories that appear in it, our industry trends, your successes with our products. Submit your letters via email to: Newsletters@websiteaddress.com.

Remember to Sell!

Sure, sending informational and entertaining newsletters is a nice, goodwill gesture to your customers, but never lose sight of the real objective: To get them to come back and buy from you. Therefore, your newsletter should always include some incentive to return. Once you finish your first newsletter draft, take a step back and think about how you can incorporate promotional messaging into your educational content. You may use sidebars for quick, stand alone promotions or transform a new product addition into a story idea such as, “GreatCampingStuff.com stocks up for summer season. Large inventory means huge savings!”

Here are some ideas to inspire purchasing incentives:

• New product additions
• Product spotlights
• Inventory updates
• Upcoming sales
• Coupons
• Customer testimonials

In Summary

A newsletter is a worthwhile marketing approach that establishes you as an authority in your field. It’s one more way for you to stand apart, and step ahead, of your competitors. Meanwhile, your customers are learning something new with every newsletter, which they’ll appreciate and reward with return business. Don’t forget to give them the added incentive that will compel them to take action. A good newsletter is only great when it translates into increased sales.

IMP Action Checklist

Below is a list of the steps necessary to create a newsletter. Be sure to check off each task as you complete it to ensure a professional look and read that your customers will come to value.

• Create a timeline
• Brainstorm a content list
• Employ resources to assist you
• Determine format
• Develop a look
• Write content, including an incentive to visit the site

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is the ideal way to promote your website to as many people as possible while keeping your advertising costs to a minimum. PPC can be a smart investment for small online retailers because you only pay when someone clicks your ad and visits your website.

Here’s how it works: You bid on keywords or phrases with a main search engine (see the “Where Do You Bid?” section, below), then, when someone searches for those words, your ad will appear in the search results. The higher you bid, the better your odds of achieving prime position at, or near, the top of the list.

When skillfully managed, PPC advertising can help you attract prospects to your website and convert them into paying customers. Unfortunately, many e-commerce retailers throw money away on PPC advertising because they don’t put in the effort to learn the tricks of the trade or to track their results. A basic understanding of PPC strategy and planning could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars on your PPC campaign each year.

Where Do You Bid?

First and foremost, you need to decide where to bid. There are a number of popular options with major search engines. Start with one and see how it works or, if you have PPC experience, choose two or three to gauge the differences and maximize opportunity for exposure.

Google Adwords

(https://adwords.google.com/):

This is probably the most popular pay-per-click option for small businesses because of its ease of use and high return rate. It allows users to control expenses by setting daily maximums for each ad – a huge plus if you’re on a tight budget.

Yahoo Advertising Solutions

(http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/):

Yahoo has designed its search pages to cater to “sponsors,” or PPC customers. It offers all the benefits of content match and easy tutorials to get started.

Microsoft Advertising adCenter

(https://adcenter.microsoft.com/):

Clicks. Leads. Sales. We’re here to help you grow your business. Pay only when someone clicks your ad.

Know Your Objectives & Budget

As with any marketing effort, determine your budget and objectives before you invest. In this particular case, your objectives may drive your budget. Set your expectations upfront so that you have some basis of measurement for decision-making as you spend, spend, spend.

Your objective may be to…

Acquire New Customers

Increasing traffic is a great idea to start because you want to encourage as many visitors as possible to get to know your website. Here, you shouldn’t expect immediate profit and instead focus on generating more and more traffic. If your budget allows, bid big. Go for the top. Break even on the first sale and you’ll likely enjoy repeat business that won’t cost you a cent over the long-term.

Drive Revenue

Achieving immediate sales requires the most PPC attention. You must track and evaluate every word that’s bid. Shut down wasteful words – those that generate traffic, but don’t convert to sales. Invest in words that convert, even if you experience less traffic. The name of the game here is quality, not quantity.

Build awareness

It’s estimated that the average consumer sees 3,000 promotional messages every day. The more your name appears in this mix, the more likely you’ll be remembered for a later purchase. Still, awareness building is often reserved for online retailers with an established customer base. They never stop spending with PPC, even if they’re doing well organically. It’s a smart strategy; the more they appear on the page, the more likely they’ll create a lasting and frequent impression with consumers.

As you can see from the above information, your spending is dependent on your objectives. Spend more to acquire new customers; spend less to build awareness. Again, no matter what your strategy or how successful your sales, never stop spending.

Of course, PPC can become quite expensive if you’re not smart about it. Here’s a formula to determine how to maintain a PPC plan that you can afford. Answer these questions and follow the example to keep your spending in line with your profits.

1. What’s your conversion rate?
   Ex: 3%

2. How much does it cost to bring 100 people to the site?
   Ex: $1.00 per click = $100

3. What is the Cost of Acquisition (COA)?
   Ex: 3% of $100 = $33

4. What is your Gross Product Margin (GPM) percentage (the difference between what you pay for the product and what you sell it for)?
   Ex:  40%

5. What must your average order be to break even on your pay-per-click spending (COA) / (GPM%)?
   Ex: $33 / .4 = $82.50

For this example: Thus, at a 3% conversion rate, you must sell an average order of $82.50 to cover your PPC costs.

Advantages to Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Immediate Results

There’s no doubt about it. You’ll definitely see more traffic at your site with a PPC campaign. But the question is: Is it quality traffic? Are these customers willing to buy…or just window shoppers? Remember, if your objective is revenue-driven, be sure to focus on the keywords that generate conversions, not traffic.

Quick and Easy

Because this is a pay-per-performance structure, you can easily track how much business you acquired through your PPC campaign. Drill deeper into these statistics to find your cost-per-conversion rates and continually evaluate your return on investment (ROI).

Increased Exposure in Competitive Categories

If you sell in a popular product category, say digital cameras, it may be difficult to compete with large corporations. These companies spend tens of thousands on search engine optimization (SEO) efforts each year, and you’re not likely to break through on the first page of a search engine listing using SEO alone. With PPC, you can get on that page if you’re willing to bid high enough on your keywords.

Evaluation and Change

PPC allows you to experiment with your efforts and make immediate changes if you don’t see results. This comes in handy when you’re researching potential keywords and come across one that may work, but is questionable. You can try it out with little risk and change it right away if it doesn’t perform. Over time, you’ll learn what your best performing words and phrases are – both for traffic and conversion – and incorporate them into your site for enhanced SEO.

Drawbacks to Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Short-term Gratification

When compared to SEO, which requires some upfront investment that can give you free traffic for years, PPC traffic lasts only as long as you continue to pay for it. On the flip side, this makes it the perfect marketing vehicle to promote a temporary sale.

Variable (and potentially expensive) Costs

You’ll pay top dollar for keywords in competitive categories, and watch out for holiday increases as well. Keywords can go up as much as 100% during December. In one study, 57% of respondents felt that their desired keywords are “too expensive” while 51% expressed concern that they are overpaying for keywords.

Jaded Consumers

Consumers are growing increasingly weary of sponsored listings. Research showed that search users are up to six times more likely to click on the first few organic results than they are to choose the paid results. Why? Searchers don’t always trust paid listings and some even see them as a nuisance. Users also find organic search engine results more relevant.

Visitor Value

Trends have shown that more sales convert through organic SEO than PPC. In fact, the overall conversion rate is 17% higher for unpaid search results than the rate for sponsored links.

Tips for a Successful Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign

Given the cost, competition and consumer behavior, it’s easy to see why PPC can be overwhelming to some inexperienced e-commerce marketers. Here are some tips to help you succeed:

Analyze Keywords

A well-defined keyword strategy is key to a successful PPC campaign. Brainstorm a list of words that consumers may use when searching for your product. Then, use a keyword research tool such as the one available within Google AdWords or  WordTracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/) to further target your list.

Track and Test

When you first start your testing, be sure to monitor your progress at least every 1,000 visitors. Think of testing as a series of tests that are strung together — not just one big project with a beginning and end. It’s a constant evolution that leads to slow, continuous growth.

Shoot for the Top

Obviously, the first three sponsored site listings receive the most traffic. These top spots cost more, but if you can justify the expense with increased sales, you’re bound to turn a profit. Don’t be afraid of spending high as long as your site is converting visitors into buyers.

Write an Effective Ad

If you find that your click thru rate is low (shoot for 3-5%), take a look at your ad. You only have a few words to catch your customer’s eye. Are you making the most of that message with phrases that communicate quality, value and trust? Use phrases like “100% guaranteed,” “best selection,” or “best deals on the web” to communicate your site’s advantages. If you’re at a loss for words, look at what your competitors are saying in their ads and write something better.

Start with One Platform and Grow with Experience

Sure, you can go to Google, Yahoo and Bing for maximum exposure, but if you’re new to the game, start with one. You can learn the rules and how to write effective ads (more than 25% of ads are rejected, requiring multiple revisions!) before you juggle two or three.

Evaluate Your Site

Increased traffic doesn’t always mean success, especially if you’re not making sales. If you’re generating traffic, not sales, it could be because your keyword strategy needs refined, your site isn’t optimized for conversion, your pricing is off, or your product descriptions are not comprehensive. To enhance your conversion rates, look for an upcoming eBook on how to convert window shoppers into buyers.

In Summary

Pay-per-click is the easiest and most immediate way to increase traffic to your site. It should not be your sole approach to online advertising, however. PPC should be employed as an essential and continuous part of any SEO plan. Be sure to review, “Understanding the Basics Search Engine Optimization (SEO).” Because SEO can take up to six months to see results, smart e-commerce entrepreneurs use pay-per-click as a supplemental measure to garner initial interest, drive revenue and build awareness. After all, where else can you connect with potential customers at the exact moment they’re searching for products like yours, at no upfront cost?

Remember, there’s always room for improvement with a pay-per-click plan. It’s a process of experimentation that requires constant attention and assessment. Your purpose drives your plan. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. Be attentive. Track. Analyze. Evolve. Repeat. Avoid knee-jerk reactions. If you tweak your plan slightly instead of starting all over, you’re more likely to learn what works and what doesn’t. It takes time, so start slowly and spend more once you get good at it. The more money you spend, the more you’ll make — as long as you’re smart about it.

IMPress Action Checklist

• Establish your objective
• Determine your maximum PPC budget
• Define keyword strategy
• Choose a PPC platform
• Bid on keywords
• Track results: traffic & conversion
• Refine your PPC plan

As an entrepreneur, you’ve invested your money, time and expertise in developing a way to deliver products and services that people can use. How do you let the world know? Further, how do you compete with the big organizations that have significantly greater resources for promotion and advertising? And how do you do it within your budget?

If you say that you can’t, then you are missing out on a tremendous opportunity called Public Relations (PR). Opportunity? Yes, the opportunity to tell your story to your audiences and, in many cases, the most it will cost you is your time. 

The Enigma of Public Relations

Ask ten people to define PR and most likely you will get that many different definitions. Venture to say that it may be one of the most misunderstood disciplines in the field of communications. In fact, it seems to make more sense to start explaining what PR is by telling you what it isn’t.

What PR Isn’t

PR is not advertising. In fact they are pretty much on opposite ends of the spectrum. Here’s the difference: An advertising message is a paid endorsement with a specific and controlled message. It’s harder to establish credibility with an advertisement because the public knows the advertiser has paid for the space.

Public Relations efforts get editorial coverage when the media determines that the messages are newsworthy. The editorial earned with PR carries with it a degree of credibility and can be more persuasive than an ad. But, unlike an ad there are no guarantees on when, if and how your message will be conveyed to your audiences.

PR is not publicity. Publicity and public relations are not interchangeable terms. Publicity is only one phase of a total public relations effort. Publicity is the actual coverage you receive from a PR campaign – the news stories, interviews, etc. Publicity is the distribution of information to gain public awareness and it is just one tactic in the PR arsenal.

PR is not a quick fix. Public Relations is not something that just happens. And it really shouldn’t be part of a last minute effort when all else has failed. Contrary to what you might get from the nightly news, it’s not all about spin-doctors, celebrities or front-page headlines. PR is a valuable tool for creating awareness, establishing credibility, building relationships and even, in many cases, boosting sales. None of these things happens overnight. They take time and effort, well-directed effort, and a well thought out plan of action. PR is ongoing.

You can’t expect to do a “little PR” and get great results. One press release does not constitute a public relations program. The impact of public relations builds over time, with repetition of key messages in a variety of contexts.

What It Is

Rather than give you a list of the many “textbook” definitions of PR, this post will speak to its purpose and the elements that confirm its overall goals.

So do you think that PR is relating to the public? Communicating with the public? You’re right. But there’s a lot more to it. It is disciplined communications. That means that it follows certain guidelines and rules and uses specialized tools to create and maintain relationships with your target audiences. These relationships are of equal benefit to each audience and can often mean the difference between the success and the failure of an organization.

Why is Public Relations Important?

Face it, in order to succeed with your business you need to focus on attracting customers who will buy your product or service. PR is one way of attracting them. Remember, PR is about relationships – creating them, building them and maintaining them. You deal with customers, suppliers, competitors, and media daily. That interaction forms their perception of you and your company.

The reality is that almost any organization that has a stake in its public image needs a solid public relations program. Well-planned, effective communications are becoming even more necessary to companies in today’s changing world.

Every organization depends on people – their attitudes, understanding, and motivation can be often make or break an organization, a program or an idea. PR is part of the overall marketing picture and can be very effective when used well. It can shape images, sway opinions and even change behaviors.  A good campaign will educate, inform and persuade those audiences significant to your success. When done right, PR works!

Everyone has a Story – What’s Yours?

Public relations tells a “story” – your story – to the public.  Not a fairy tale, once upon a time story, but the real story. Whether it’s a personal story, a company story or an organization’s story, a credible PR program helps shape that story and the organization and the way it performs.

Think about your story.

• What do you want to tell people?
• What do they need to know?
• What makes you – or your business, or product or service – different?
• How does that benefit your customers?
• How is it of interest to them?

Maybe you’ve never even thought about your story let alone put it in a message that goes to a variety of different audiences. If that’s the case, don’t panic. Start by writing down your thoughts. When you have developed a fairly good list, stop and read what you have written. You’ll start to notice a pattern that will make it easier to create your story, your message and a base from which to create your PR program.

Chart Your Course

Okay, you have your story, you’re fairly confident in what you want to say, so now what’s the plan? How do you take your message and get it to the people most important to your business? You need a plan – a map that will help you reach your destination.

First you need to do some research to help evaluate public attitudes and opinions. Take the temperature of your community. Find out:

• What do people already know about your company?
• What do they think of your product or services?
• What do they know about your competition?
• What is the public’s perception of your company?

This is extremely important information. Ever hear the phrase “Perception is reality?” Believe it.

Using that information you get from this research will help you create an effective communications programs.  Here are few more things to make sure you address when you start to form the outline for your PR plan:

• What makes you different and how does that give you an advantage?
• Who are you talking to? Who are your customers and how do they impact your business?
• What about your story is important to each of your audiences?
• What do you really want them to hear?
• Does you message really define your company in the best way?
• Will it help you achieve your goals?
• Will people understand it?
• How will you get the word out?

Tools of the Trade

Now that you have your message defined you need to communicate it. There are many tools available to help create a well-planned, effective public relations program. Press releases are the most common tool for communicating with the press. Advanced tools like press kits, press conferences, special events, speeches, trade shows and the web are all part of a PR professional’s tool kit:

• Using the Web as PR Tool – Understand the importance of including a press room on your website; how you can reach bloggers and other industry partners issuing e-newsletter; what you can do to increase a story’s visibility on search engines; and how you can use webcasts and podcasts to tell you story.

•   Holding a Press Conference – When there’s a timely, high profile story to tell, holding a press conference can help you get your message out to the masses.

•   Using Special Events to Effectively Make an Impact – When your company is holding an event – a fundraiser, educational forum, anniversary party, grand opening, etc. – this is an opportunity to get your name in the news.

•   Using Press Kits to Package Your Message – A press kit is an opportunity to educate the media about your organization and press them tools they can use to cover your news.

•   Using Public Speaking to Establish Yourself as an Expert – The more you speak about a topic in public, the more you will be viewed as an expert source by journalists.

•   Taking Advantage of Trade Shows – Trade shows are an excellent way to expose your product to customers and other potential industry partners. Equally important, trade shows offer you a valuable opportunity to showcase your products and services to the press.

Each tool has a specific purpose. Not all of them will be used every time. For every PR program, campaign, new product launch, or company event, it will be important for you to decide which tools will work best in that specific case.

Targeting the Media

Where does your target audience go to get the information they need to make business decisions, purchase decisions or to just be informed? Is it the business section of your local paper? Is it a trade magazine that covers your industry? Is it a local radio or television broadcast? The answers will help you define the appropriate media for you to target with your PR efforts.

The media you select will vary depending on the nature of your story. Is it a human-interest story that would appeal more to the local media? Or is it an exciting new product launch that would interest industry trade magazines?  For example, if you run an auto parts business and you have just launched a retail website, you certainly want to make sure your news gets to automotive magazines – both trade and consumer – because these are publications your customers read.

Once you define the right sources, you can create a list of media outlets and contacts at each outlet that specifically cover the news related to your business, your industry or the specific story you want to pitch.

Building Relationships with the Media

We’ve looked at how you might determine what media outlets will help you reach your target.  But, how do you build a relationship with the journalist who will cover your news? There are some basic dos and don’ts in dealing with the press.

Do…

• Know what is newsworthy
• Know who you are contacting
• Know what you are going to say
• Be persistent

Don’t…

• Give them fluff
• Call a reporter on deadline
• Make assumptions
• Let opportunities slip away

Crisis Communications

Perhaps one of the greatest communications challenges in the realm of public relations is effectively handling a crisis. What do you do when your manufacturing facility is destroyed in a natural disaster, a key employee dies or your security systems are breached? The short answer is that you have let your employees and customers know what has happened and what needs to happen next.

There’s a lot you can do in a crisis to assuage concerns and maintain confidence in your company. It’s simply a matter of having a plan developed in advance.

In Summary

A well-planned, well-managed, targeted public relations program can help your business grow. But, you need to start by gaining an understanding of what PR is all about.  Taking the time to understand that PR is about planned communications and building solid relationships with your publics, de-mystifies the public relations process. Knowing what tools are available to communicate your message to the right audience is critical to the success of your program. So is your ability to build strong relationships with target media.  PR takes time, but when it works, its priceless!

IMPress Action Checklist

Below is a list of the steps that will help you as you approach public relations for your company. Check off each step as you complete it to keep track of your progress.

1. Make sure you know what public relations is and what it isn’t before you decide to create your own program.
2. Define realistic expectations for what PR can do for you. Be prepared to spend the time needed to make your program effective.
3. Create your story and your messaging. This is what you want your public to know about you and your company.
4. Get familiar with the tools that you can use to communicate with your audiences.
5. Know your media – what they cover, who to contact, respect their deadlines and their time.
6. Establish a relationship with them and nurture it by giving them “news.” Gain their trust and respect by knowing and following their guidelines.

We’ve all seen it happen on the Big Screen:  The critical point has been reached and our Hero is totally stumped.  His sidekick starts making some irrelevant small talk when – BAM! – something he says ”clicks” and our Hero sees just what to do to save the world from total destruction, or whatever the crisis de jour is.

This Hollywood formula is such a staple in movie making because it rings true.  While most of us have never been faced with saving the world, we have all experienced that flash of insight that comes from a source somewhat removed from the context of the problem that has us in its grip.  As satisfying as that flash is, both in the movies and in real life, we would like to be able to get that illumination before everything is coming down around our ears.  Can we really hope to become creative on demand? Or is creativity reserved for a few artists and eccentrics?

This post will examine how the way you think encourages or discourages your creativity, and will give you a couple of techniques that have consistently proven themselves fruitful, to apply to your business situations.  And don’t be surprised if you think up something creative by the time you finish reading!

Defining Creativity

You are probably more creative than you think you are simply because of the way you define the term.  If you think that being creative only means that you ‘invent something new — such as a gadget, painting, play, book, musical — then most of us would have to say we are not creative.

But creativity, in essence, is coming up with something that has not quite existed before – whether that be any of those things previously mentioned, or a new or different way of doing something, a satisfying solution to an employee problem, a good way to use up an overstocked item, ad copy that appeals to women aged 19-34, a company slogan, a way to get a $3000 bang for a $300 buck, and the list goes on.

When you bring together bits of information and apply them in a novel or specific way, you are definitely being creative.  So some of the thinking processes you already employ can be commandeered for your more creative pursuits, perhaps simply by pushing past the first thing that occurs to you.

Example

Let’s take on the age-old problem of employees congregating around the water cooler.  The most common solution is an edict from management that says “don’t congregate around the water cooler.”  Then management has to occasionally police the area to make the edict work.  But what are some other ways to discourage congregating?

Consider location:  Would they congregate if it were right outside your office door?  Would they congregate if there were no room to stand around it?  What if the cooler was right in the middle of a bustling area, offering no privacy?

Now consider the problem from another point of view:  Is there a way to make congregating a productive use of time?  After all, congregating people often come up with good ideas!  How about posting data that might provoke thought and discussion – latest sales figures, number of days left until new product launch, the new product’s prototype, info on the competition.  What if you put the suggestion box next to the cooler?  What about write-ups on employee accomplishments?  Or about your biggest customers?

Anything that gives an alternative something-to-talk-about that is positive, company-oriented, and productive may not cut down on the time spent at the cooler, but may make that time worth more money.

Is there currently nagging problem in your business that you can try thinking of from a new point of view?

They Aren’t Called Free Thinkers for Nothing!

Brain researchers have confirmed what we have suspected all along: our minds prefer to take information and fit it into its proper place. That place was often carved out when we were young, and since then we have only put things into new places when we had to.  Most of us might rightly be called, Controlled Thinkers.  Free Thinkers, on the other hand, are people who have their proper places open for debate.  Admittedly, some Free Thinkers are just plain annoying, either because they come up with oddball stuff too often, or because they don’t even try to make it fit anywhere.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could come up with stuff – oddball or not – and make it fit somewhere?  Maybe the Controlled Thinkers can learn a thing or two from the Free Thinkers, and vice versa.

Did you hear about the two dogs named Timex and Rolex?  They were watch dogs.

We appreciate humor because we can see that we were being led down one path and then  jumped over to another at the punch line.  We appreciate this after the fact, of course.  What about the person who made up this joke?  What were they thinking?  This particular joke seems so simple now that you may feel like you could have made it up, and creative ideas do tend to have that characteristic – they make sense.  We can see that what was required to make this joke work was to play on the two meanings of the word ”watch.“  Two unrelated ideas had a common meeting ground.  In a similar way, you can take two unrelated ideas and make them fit.

Example

A group was given the assignment to pick up an object in one room of the house and deposit it in another room.  They had to leave the object there until they came up with a novel idea.  One person grabbed a hammer on the way in from the garage and set it down in the bedroom.  Now what could possibly make a hammer at home in a bedroom?

After thinking about all the pounding, prying, paper-weighting types of things, she thought about a hammer in a child’s bedroom.  This sparked a vision of a child’s little plastic workbench with hammer, screwdriver, wrench, plastic nails and screws.

Then she remembered that some children’s beds are made of formed plastic.  Why not make a child’s bed with the headboard shaped like a tool cabinet with little plastic tools in it?  The frame of the bed could have a couple of non-essential plastic planks that could be hammered and screwed into place, moved around, etc.

The bedspread and pillows could look like a workbench top.  The child could even have pajamas that look like a red flannel shirt and jeans with an image of a carpenter’s tool belt slung low on the hips and slippers that look like work boots!

Try this today yourself.  Just pick up something when you walk from one place to another and see where your mind goes when you try to make it fit into the new surroundings.

Force an Association

This method of generating ideas by forcing two unrelated ideas together has proven the most valuable to many people.  It requires little preparation, no special training, and often does not even take much time to produce results.  It can be as simple as taking an object out of context, as in the hammer example, or choosing a word at random to see what it makes you think in relation to the problem at hand.  You can find a random word by just looking at the newspaper, opening the dictionary to any page, or with word-generating software available at sites like Random Word Generator (http://www.gammadyne.com/rndword.htm ) or CreativityGames.net (http://creativitygames.net/random-word-generator/ ). CreativityGames.net offers other fun games, challenges and resources to develop your creativity as well.

You hear so much about ”thinking out of the box,” and that is exactly what this method is intended to make happen.  The normal places your mind has put stuff are disrupted, so your mind will try to form a new association.  Websites such as MindTools.com/ (http://www.mindtools.com/ ) or CreatingMinds.org (http://creatingminds.org/ ) suggest several activities along these lines, and include articles and reference books with many more to try.  Forcing an association can be done alone or with a group.  Most times it is fun, but people should be forewarned that there is a certain amount of mental uneasiness (called cognitive dissonance) involved in this, so they need to cut themselves – and each other – some slack.

Example

A manager was being constantly interrupted during the workday by phone calls and employees.  He needed ideas about how to cut down that number, and his random word was ”mosquito.“   He could see immediately that the interruptions were like mosquitoes that he wanted to swat, but that was not the purpose of this exercise!

He began by listing what he knew about mosquitoes: they bite, the bites itch, they suck blood to get their nutrients, they are drawn to some people more than others, they are most active at dawn and dusk, deet repels them, deet stinks, they can breed in the smallest amounts of water, they buzz, they bite you more than once until they are full, and so on.

Not all of these ideas were helpful, but he saw that he had made himself too juicy a target and needed to delegate some responsibilities so that people would not always be seeking him out for answers.  He also thought he could repel interruptions by not being physically available during certain times, and that he could shift some of his productive time to the early morning, since employees came in later, and he was a morning person anyway.

He also realized that he had one employee in particular who would keep coming back until he was sucked dry, so he tried setting up a scheduled time with that person to lay out a plan for her workday, and cover all the issues she could think of all at once.

Now you try this.  Start small so you can get a quick result.  Describe your problem or issue then find a word at random.  List its definitions or characteristics and see which you can apply to your issue.  If you don’t get anything right away, give yourself a little more time and put some additional thought into it.  If you are still getting nowhere, choose another word and start over.  Actually, you may want to select a second word just for the fun of seeing what else you can come up with!

Define the Boundaries

Another method that often produces good results is to define the boundaries, parameters, or criteria that an idea has to fulfill or meet.  Many times, solutions to problems or new product ideas must meet some specifics, and knowing these specifics can force you to think outside the box.

It’s like saying, Product Z has to meet conditions A, B, and C, and fit criteria L and M.  These criteria often compete with each other, and you must balance the trade-offs in order to find a winner.  For instance, time and money often compete:  to accomplish something in less time will require spending more money, but spending less money may draw it out too long.  (For example: printing, cutting, and assembling a company catalog yourself vs sending it out to the printer.)

Example

An employee had to write a feature article for the company’s newsletter.  The boss said that the article had to be about 200 words, feature one of the new products each month, give the sales reps insight into what the customer would be thinking about the product, imply a response to the customer without outright telling the sales reps what to say, and be infused with the personality of the employee writing the article.

These became the parameters the employee used when deciding what to write.  Each article’s theme and selection of wording had to be compared to this list, with the employee in turn accepting, rejecting, and modifying until it fit all of them.

Now you try this with one of your issues.  List the specifics that the product or solution must meet, and run each idea by all of them until it fits perfectly.

Weeding Out the Good from the Not So-Good

Nobody loves your brainchild as much as you do, and it seems totally unfair that after you expend so much effort to birth the thing that everybody else wouldn’t love it, too.  Some brainchildren only need a bit of tweaking, others demand a total overhaul; some may even need to be scrapped.

Your creative approach must include a way for you to decide which ideas pass muster.  One of the most thorough treatments is deBono’s “Six Thinking Hats” method, described more fully at Debonogroup.com.  Basically, this six-step process takes you from generating ideas to finding the keepers.  This activity can be done alone or with others, but preferably with others, since they will bring a variety of insights.  DeBono uses the hat colors to help key in on the activity involved at each stage:

Green Hat thinking is for thinking creatively and coming up with new ideas, which is the color hat you have been wearing so far, employing the techniques described above.  The questions you ask when wearing the Green Hat are, “We have a problem; could we do this in a different way?  Here is a situation where we need some new approaches; any ideas?  This is how things appear; could there be another explanation?  Can we come up with some alternatives?  What new toy/widget/apparel can we make?  Is there another way of using a paper clip/hammer/accounting program?” 

Red Hat thinking has to do with feelings and intuition.  Some people rely too much on their feelings and some people don’t pay enough attention to theirs.  But people who buy things often make emotional decisions.  That’s one good reason to get emotional with your ideas.  But more importantly, you want to be able to use your gut feelings and intuitions without getting so caught up in them that you don’t see your idea clearly.  So, agree to spend a specific time on this, and fit what you find out into the overall picture.  Red Hat thinking says things like:  “This is how I feel about this.  My gut reaction is that people won’t like this.  I sense this will be a real hit with younger women.  My intuition tells me this will take longer to do than we’re planning on.  I believe that we are onto something here but we need to make a slight change in it along these lines.”

When you use Yellow Hat thinking, you are going to be only positive and optimistic, while remaining logical.  You want to identify some of the benefits and strong points of an idea.  You look for ways to make the idea work, believing that is feasible.  These are some ways to employ Yellow Hat thinking:  Begin to verbalize why the customers would want this, how it would benefit them.  Further identify ways to make it of more value to them.  You can note what you really like about the idea, and what you find really interesting about it.

Black Hat thinking, as you can imagine, is the critical judgment hat.  It is often far too easy to find fault, and you want to get the benefit from scrutinizing your ideas without killing them in the process.  This hat helps you identify potential problems to avoid.  Here, spend time looking for what can go wrong, what you need to be cautious about, why some idea might not be profitable, what customers might dislike about it.  You can imagine what could go wrong in the marketplace that you would be liable for.  You can question how much a trade-off there is among time, money, resources, employee skills, equipment requirements, etc.

White Hat thinking makes an assessment of information pertinent to the idea.  Every idea has to fit into some context, be measured against some criteria, be launched in some location.  You should make every attempt to know as much about this context as possible, hence the age-old question, “Will it play in Peoria?”  You take an inventory of what you know, what you need to know, what you don’t know, and where you can find the missing info.  You can ask if there is something you would like to know, and decide if there is a place to find the answers.  For instance, do you know enough about Peoria to know if it will play there? 

When you put on the Blue Hat, you are stepping outside yourself and viewing the goings-on of your Hat-thinking process.  Are you spending too much time criticizing, or are you leaning too far into optimism?  Is the process being dominated by an individual to the exclusion of other valid points of view?  Blue hats stop to summarize, make conclusions, come to decisions.  Blue hats sense when it’s a good time to take a break, or revisit a point brought up earlier.  With your Blue Hat on, you plan your next steps, give out group assignments, set a time to meet again.  The Blue Hat pulls the output from all the other Hats together and lets you measure your progress.

The end result of this process should be an idea that has been toughened up to the point where everyone is confident of its value.  It may not be the exact brainchild that you first birthed, but it should now be one that has a chance at a productive life.  This scrutinizing process often also yields ideas about the procedures it will take to make the idea happen, and how you will need to go about marketing it.

In Summary

Nothing changes until someone changes their own thinking, and then that of others.  Since our minds prefer order and stability, we have to shake up their status quo if we want to produce a creative idea.  We can do this by using some simple but effective methods that make our brains build new associations, and then work over those ideas to make them solid enough to stand on.

IMPress Action Checklist

Use this list to help you work your way through to generating creative ideas:

• Define a problem or
• Identify an issue or
• Think about a new product
• Force an association using unrelated objects or random words
• Define the boundaries and come up with an idea that fits
• Hone the idea by viewing it from a number of perspectives
• Finalize your idea and game plan

There are literally thousands of hosting companies in the world, with services ranging from basic to all-inclusive, offered at a dizzying array of price points. How do you know where your site belongs in this virtual whirlwind? Is it possible to get a good deal and still receive all the performance you need? This post will help you shop around, weigh your options and make the right choice.

Many websites make the mistake of choosing the first or cheapest hosting company they can find. Then, they’re surprised to experience slow functionality and costly downtime. The truth is, your hosting company ensures site performance, security and, most importantly, it keeps you open for business 24/7. In order to succeed, it’s imperative that you carefully research your options and choose the one hosting company that will best work for you.

Terms to Know

One of the reasons most website owners don’t put a lot of thought into choosing a hosting company is because a lack of high-tech knowledge can make the decision seem difficult or overwhelming. Try not to get caught up in the technicalities. You should have a general technological foundation to discuss the maintenance of your site and make smart decisions, but you don’t need to be fluent in all the complex back-end technologies available.

Terms to know:

Server: A computer that “serves” your website by providing files or data in response to request from individual desktop computers.

Uptime: The percentage of time when a website is functional. A hosting company should guarantee this number – typically at 99% or above — and provide some sort of refund if it falls short of its promise.

Redundancy: Using one or more components to serve as back up if a glitch occurs on the primary system.

Service Level Agreement (SLA): This contract may cover such key topics as: an uptime guarantee, maximum downtime, redundancy, time requirements, etc.

Data Transfer: The amount of bytes transferred from your site to users as they browse. Also referred to as bandwidth or traffic.

Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance: An industry standard list of twelve requirements that helps ensure the security of credit card and other important data.

Top Considerations

Reliability

The bottom line is that, if there is a problem at your hosting company, your site could be down for hours, even days, costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars in lost sales. Ask yourself: How much will 24 hours of downtime cost my business? If you’re selling just two products a day at $100/each, it may not be that much. But if smaller priced items that are flying off your virtual shelves, this cost could be quite detrimental. When potential buyers cannot access your website, not only do you lose revenue, but the downtime could also result in lost credibility and loyalty.

How these failures are handled depends on your hosting arrangement and service level agreement (SLA). The following questions are helpful in determining a host’s reliability:

• Do you offer a documented uptime guarantee? This motivates the hosting company to stay on top of potential issues and ensures that you are at least partially covered if problems arise.
• Are your systems redundant? This may increase the cost of the hosting service, but it will give you peace of mind in knowing that your site will have back up if failure occurs.
• How do you handle server emergencies? There should be someone on call 24-hours a day to provide support and address problems right away. Otherwise, you may not know you’ve lost income until you receive an e-mail report after it’s too late.

Disk Space & Speed of Access

At the start, you’ll probably host your site on the hosting company’s shared server. You may also choose to purchase your own server to handle this job, but this can prove to be a potentially expensive and time-consuming affair for the website owner who is not skilled in technology troubleshooting. If your company needs a whole dedicated server, Rackspace.com and Verio.com offer dedicated servers which they manage for you.

Watch out for those hosts touting “unlimited disk space.” Most websites need less than 5MB of web space, so if the hosting company tempts you with 400MB, 800MB, or even unlimited space, keep in mind that this is too much to factor into consideration as you comparative shop.

Instead, it’s important to know how many other sites are sharing space on the same server. Many “free” or “discount” hosting companies pack their servers with as many websites as possible to save money. This self-serving practice may put you at risk for slow performance during peak hours. Like rush hour, the more traffic on the shared server, the more likely your customers are to experience slow navigation. As a result, they may leave in search of another store that can sell them the same product, but faster. If you’ll be sharing server space at your hosting company, here are some things you’ll want to know:

• How much disk space will be allotted to my site? You might start with 20 – 50MB of hard disk space, but consider your growth and find out the cost and procedure for buying more space in the future.
• What server technologies do you support? You must make sure that the technology used to build your site will be compatible with the hosting company. Most hosting companies will not install new technologies just because you happen to use them.
• How do peak traffic times impact your servers? Inquire about how many sites are hosted on a single server and ask how the company handles increases in traffic.

SECURITY

Since you’re in the business of e-commerce, you’ll likely be handling secure data such as customer addresses and credit card numbers. Protecting the security of this information is crucial to your success. Unless you can assure customers that their private data is confidential and safe, they will go somewhere else to buy.

Not only will you lose credibility with your customers, you may also be at risk for large government fines associated with loose security. Get specific details from your hosting company to learn all you can about their approach to this subject. Before you agree to any terms, you must have a complete understanding of responsibilities and liabilities on behalf of each party. Use these questions to start your discussion:

• What security measures are in place? At the very least, the host should have encryption capabilities, firewalls and other methods for making the building itself secure. Find out if the security only covers their network or protects your server’s security as well.
• Are the systems in place PCI compliant? This will confirm that your hosting company is going above and beyond to protect your customers’ data, but this extra security may come at a higher price tag.

SUPPORT

As noted above, three days of downtime can seem like an eternity on the web, especially when profits are at stake. Just because a company says they offer technical support 24/7 does not always mean this is true. Test them by emailing questions at odd times of the day or night. If you don’t receive an immediate response to your Sunday morning emails, you may want to reconsider their claims.

Email should not be the only means of support. Getting someone on the phone to help you troubleshoot potential problems can take a lot of mystery out of the process. Larger web hosting companies like NetworkSolutions.com will offer toll-free phone support and weekend hours, which can be a great benefit to you. Other questions to ask include:

• Who can l I talk to when problems arise? It would be nice to have a single point of contact, but hosting companies often have several teams working different shifts, so you’re likely to speak with any number of people. Be sure that they are qualified technical experts, not just customer service or sales associates who are unable to help.
• Will you automatically notify me when problems arise? You wouldn’t want to discover that the site is down just when you’re presenting your store to a business partner or vendor.

DATA TRANSFER LIMITATIONS

You may come across hosting companies that offer “unlimited bandwidth.” Don’t believe it. Bandwidth costs the host money and, if it were limitless, the company would be out of business in no time. This is a promotional ploy to sign you up with their services and the exact amount is often specified in the small print of policy documentation. You might start within the “unlimited” amount and, as your site grows, you’ll receive an unexpected and exorbitant bill for somehow exceeding that amount.

Think of your data transfer requirements like your cell phone plan minutes. There are likely to be overage charges associated with going over the contracted amount, so before entering an agreement, you need to have a general idea of what you’ll use. Generally, start up websites should look for an arrangement that offers around 1000 Megabytes of bandwidth a month. You may need more once your site gains in visitors and links, so it’s a good idea to continually evaluate your needs and upgrade as necessary. Additional questions to ask include:

• What are my data transfer options? Just like a cell phone plan, a host company should give you choices on the level of data transfer. You should comparison shop to find the best deals.
• Is there a published charge for overages? Hosts should be upfront about their overage charges – beware of those who try to hide these costs in the small print.
• Will I be expected to prepay for potential overages? It is best not to choose a host who insists on a prepay arrangement since it is difficult to forecast if and when your website will exceed its bandwidth.

Research Your Options

You’ve shopped around and have picked some solid candidates for consideration. But before you make your final decision, it’s always worthwhile to search behind the scenes and find out if your top choices have any negative feedback. Just type in the company name at www.Google.com and see what comes up. If you do unearth a bad review, look closely to be sure that it’s not a competitor trying to undermine their credibility. You can also go to www.webhostingtalk.com to do a search on different hosting companies. Thousands of users post the good and the bad on the most popular options out there.

In Summary

Imagine if you drove to the store during business hours to buy a much-needed item, only to find that it was closed. You might think twice about going there again and drive to a competitor store to purchase your item instead. This is the same way your potential buyers would feel if they went to your site to make a purchase, only to find that it was down.

Just like anything else in life, preventative measures should be taken to lessen the risk. Downtime, slow performance and security issues can cost you your business. Your best bet is to choose a reliable hosting company with a reputation for consistent and secure performance. A small upfront investment will help prevent expensive downtime and costly security issues in the future.

IMPress Action Checklist:

Below is a list of the steps necessary to choose a hosting company that works for you. Be sure to check off each task as you complete it to make a smart and educated decision about this vital business vendor.

1.  Familiarize yourself with basic technical terms
2.  Evaluate a list of hosting companies using these considerations:
3.  Reliability
4.  Disk space & speed of access
5.  Security
6.  Support
7.  Data Transfer
8.  Research your top choices online
9.  Review your SLA closely, including small print

Your buyers could be online right now, looking for products and information on search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and others. That’s why entrepreneurs work hard to maximize their chances of getting noticed by employing smart search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. SEO should be a key part of your marketing strategy. If you build and maintain your site to interact well with search engines, you’ll make it easy for your audience to find you.

Consider how you use search engines to find specific information. How often do you look beyond the first few pages of listings before you end your search? Most of us don’t go beyond page five before trying other keyword options and combinations. In fact, 80% of web surfers don’t make it past page two. That’s why it’s so important to work your way to the top.

Of course, everyone wants to be at the top of a list on a search engine, but only a handful make it there. Contrary to popular belief, there aren’t any complex, hacker-esque secrets that get them in premier positions. These fortunate few understand how search engines work and use many of the techniques discussed in this post to increase their standings on the listing pages. This is what SEO is all about.

Understand the Process

As with any business initiative, you should first have a plan in place before you take action. Apply the same philosophy to search engine optimization (SEO). It’s not rocket science, but it does require some forethought to maximize your efforts. Generally, the process goes something like this:

Optimize

Now you should build or alter your site to rank well for particular terms. This is a focused and strategic action plan to increase your odds of top list placement. The section “Tricks of the Trade,” provides a basic overview of tips to help you accomplish this.

Submit

This should be your first step to getting noticed. Website submission is like raising your hand to let the search engines know you exist. In most cases, it’s free and it’s simple. Go to the most popular search engines’ submission sites:

Google (http://www.google.com/addurl/): 71% of search traffic

Yahoo! (http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html): 14% of search traffic

Bing (https://ssl.bing.com/webmaster/SubmitSitePage.aspx): 9% of search traffic

Ask (http://www.ask.com/about/help/webmasters): 2% of search traffic

AOL Search (handled by http://www.dmoz.org/add.html): 1% of search traffic

Register your site and voila! Mission accomplished. You’re one (very) small step closer to the top. Don’t expect immediate results, however. Sometimes this easy action could take months to increase your standing, especially if it’s the only action you’ve taken. Be patient; there is no need to submit your site multiple times. In fact, you risk being disqualified if you re-submit your site more than once monthly. You can submit different pages of your site, especially those with the most hyperlinks, like site maps, to enhance your presence.

Track

The only way you’ll know if your efforts are successful is if you check your search engine placement on a regular basis. Where do you rank in the search listings? What keywords have you ranking the highest? You can attempt to do this on your own, by typing in keywords into various search engines and hoping for the best. But there’s an easier way.

There are a number of different software providers that will help you track your success. First, start by downloading the Google Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/tour/toolbar.html. Other sites that will help you determine your ranking include: WebCEO.com and WebPosition.com. You can also use free online tools such as SeoBook.com and Thumbshots.com.

Adjust

Now that you’ve seen your plan in action, look for opportunities where it can be modified for improvement. What is your objective? Naturally, everyone would prefer to be in the top ten listings, but determine what keywords can bring you the best results. Then, plan your strategy in phases so you can track what works and what doesn’t, keeping in mind that some tactics require a longer lead-time to achieve results. Sites that will help you in this endeavor are WebCEO.com and SeoBook.com.

The Inner Workings of a Search Engine

There are literally thousands of search engines out there, but only a few that matter to most of us – the top crawler-based search engines listed above. These sites create their listings by using complex formulas, or algorithms, to search and find what visitors seek. Each search engine has its own formula, which explains why your results will slightly differ at each different site. But the methodology is the same. Here’s how it works:

Spider

This is another name for crawler. The spidering software will reach out to a website, read it and follow links contained within the site to other places in the site. It returns to the site every few weeks to check for changes. Everything it finds is placed into an index.

Index

This is also known as a catalog, since it’s like an enormous book that contains all the content that’s identified by the spider. It’s updated with the latest changes that are discovered, but this process is not immediate. Your site may be spidered, but it’s not relevant to a web search until the information is added to the index.

Search engine software

This is where the magic happens. The search engine software sifts through millions of pages of information within the index to find matches to a search. It uses engine-specific algorithms to determine relevancy and ranking.

There are also human powered search engines such as dMoz.com, LookSmart.com, Gimpsy.com, GoGuides.com and Zeal.com that find and rank websites in a more basic way. They depend on human submissions of website descriptions, and then identify search matches based on relevance to these descriptions.

For the purposes of this post, we’ve focused on common approaches to SEO with crawler-based search engines because that is where you’ll receive most of your traffic. Still, you should not ignore human-powered search engines all together because some of your customers may be searching there. Strategic descriptions and creative use of keywords play a large role in your success in this area.

Location. Location. Location. (And Frequency!)

Type in the same keyword into two different search engines and you’re likely to get different results. That’s because there are so many variables to each search engine’s algorithm, you’ll never know exactly how to crack it. But there are two constants that you can count on to help you rank well:

Location

Search engines are busy by nature, so they skim through web page content as quickly as possible. Where’s the first place they look? Your page titles, of course. Keywords that appear in the HTML title tag are likely to be more relevant than others to your topic. If you sell camping gear, for example, you should always include the word “camp” along with the product name in your titles.

The second place search engines look for keywords are in content near the top of your web pages. Pack your headlines and introductory paragraphs with as many search-relevant terms as possible.

Frequency

The second key factor to determining your ranking is how often keywords appear within the site. Search engines will assess the number of times these words are found in your web copy compared to other words on the page. Those with higher frequency are deemed more relevant and thus, ranked higher.

In the past, webmasters have tried to trick search engines with a number of different schemes that attempt to take advantage of these rules. In response, the algorithms have become smarter. Here are some ways that search engines combat spammers and tricky webmasters.

Page exclusion

If spamming is detected, a search engine will ignore it. For instance, when a word is repeated hundreds of times on a page, the search engines recognize it as a fraud. They also rely on complaints from their users to weed out non-relevant pages.

“Off the page” factors

Webmasters used to change their sites frequently so that crawlers would continually update them in their indexes. This “new” content helped the site rank higher, even if it wasn’t any more relevant than the old content. So search engines look for factors that cannot easily be changed by webmasters to overcome this problem. The main factor is link analysis. If your site links to multiple pages of content, it helps the search engine find the most important content to boost rankings. See more on this below.

Click thru measurement

Simply put, the search engine will watch the results of keyword searches. Then, if top ranking sites aren’t pulling in traffic, it will increase the ranking of the lower ranking pages that do.

SEO Tricks of the Trade

Choose Your Keywords Carefully

If you were searching for your products, what words would you type into Google? Conduct a quick brainstorming session to come up with a list that reflects your products and their attributes. You can also use tools from WebCEO.com, SeoBook.com and KeyCompete.com to help you develop targeted lists.

If you’re selling a common item, such as tents, you’ll probably have plenty of competition. Be more specific to stand apart. Use detailed phrases with two or more words, such as “Family tents,” “Ultra light tents” or “Self-assembly tents.”

Additionally, you can also use variations on the same keyword within your text as an easy way to broaden your list without seeming reiterative. You may sell camp equipment, but pepper your text with references to “camping” or “campers” to reinforce your relevancy in a logical way.

Write Great Metatags

In the past, metatags were one surefire way to enhance your ranking on the search engines. Today, they’re less essential in the formula, but they’re still a key factor. One of the biggest benefits of using metatags is that you can have some control over how your site is described by search engines.

Some search engines pull directly from the metatag for the descriptions, others pull from the content. Regardless, you’ll want to infuse your metatag with keywords so that search engines pick it up. Be careful not to overload it, however, because it may be the statement that compels someone to click through to your site. You want it to make sense to both your audience and the search engines.

So what’s a metatag? The full definition is too complex to provide here but, at the most basic level, it’s information inserted into the technical areas of your web pages that human visitors may not be concerned about. It helps direct the browsers and communicates behind the scenes information that supports site functionality. For SEO purposes, there are a few types of metatags that you may want to know: Meta Robots, Meta Description and Meta Keywords.

Integrate Keywords Into Content

As noted above, keyword location is imperative to being identified by a search engine. Be sure to include your best keywords in high-profile locations of each web page, including HTML title tags, heading titles (h1 & h2) and introductory paragraphs. However, be careful that your title tags are related to the topic at hand. Your title words must be reflected in the page content for the search engines to deem it relevant.

Be careful not to bog down your text with words that don’t fit the context. Writing nonsensical, overly long paragraphs filled with keywords will not help you sell product. It will only annoy your customers. First and foremost, your content should relate to what’s on the page. Think short and sweet when writing headlines and be descriptive with your product detail. Then, your keywords should come into play naturally.

Keep Design in Mind

Make sure your text is in HTML, not graphics or art. Many times designers will use creative fonts that must be transitioned into graphics to be placed on a site. It may look great, but it’s invisible to search engines.

Another rule of thumb is that if your content is hardly visible to your readers’ eyes – small fonts or colored text – you can bet the search engine may have a hard time finding it as well. Some web designers have attempted to “hide” content from the reader by making it the same color as the background. In theory, your customer won’t see this content, but the search engine will. Not so! The search engines have caught on to this trick and will ignore your efforts.

Direct your graphic artist to design with SEO in mind. Use formatted text for almost all of your content – product descriptions, company information, etc. But be sure to integrate imagery to make a strong visual impact and set your site apart.

Make Connections with Hyperlinks

Your home page may not be your most relevant page to any search, especially if your product pages are rich with descriptive content. Help the search engines find this valuable copy by linking to pages inside your site within your home page text. You may think that your navigation bars are enough, but search engines aren’t likely to read these image map links.

HTML hyperlinks not only assist your readers, but they increase your relevancy dramatically. Here’s an example:

Welcome to GreatCampingGear.com. We’ve got all the equipment and clothing you need to make your next great escape a great success…

Then, once the reader/search engine clicks on one of these hyperlinks, they’ll be taken to a page with even more hyperlinks:

Looking for quality camping equipment? You’ve come to the right place. Here, you’ll find everything from tents and sleeping bags to headlamps and boot gators.

Finally, if you have an extensive or diverse product listing, you should also include a site map page with text links to all pages on your site. If you submit this page to the search engines, it will help them locate pages within your site.

Link with Others

Search engines find relevancy in websites that link to other sites. This is because it is difficult for webmasters to “fake” quality links, so a site with link listings tells crawlers that your site is legitimate. The more websites that link to your site, the more legitimate you seem as well.

You should aim for quality over quantity when you build link partnerships. All links that go to and from your site must be related to your product listing in some way. Create a “favorite links” page on your site. Then, approach popular websites where your potential buyers may be visiting. Your links may include some friendly competitors, but think creatively to determine categories that are indirectly associated with your products. For example, campers may be seeking out deals on travel sites or looking for maps on park sites. Type some of your keywords into a search engine, and then contact some of the top listings for link sharing opportunities.

In Summary

SEO is often the first step online retailers take to get noticed among a growing stream of competitors. Why? Landing at the top of a search list can increase traffic exponentially. Plus, initial investment is virtually non-existent and a few strategic enhancements can pay off big time. Still, you should consider SEO to be a small, but necessary, part in an overall marketing strategy. It may take some time and experimentation to see tangible results, but remember to be patient and track carefully. Keeping a cautious eye on keywords, design and links to increase the odds of success.

IMPress Action Checklist

Increase your rank and exposure to potential customers by optimizing your site for search engine crawlers. This action list will help you put your SEO plan into action. Check off each step as you complete it to keep track of your progress.

1. Familiarize yourself with basic search engine methodologies
1. Location/Frequency
2. Brainstorm keywords
3. Integrate keywords into title pages, headlines and introductory copy
4. Double check design for search engine roadblocks
1. Tables
2. JavaScript
3. Frame links
5. Submit your website to popular crawler-based search engines
6. Build link partnerships with other sites
7. Track your results
8. Adjust your keywords as necessary

As you start out, your primary marketing objective may be to generate traffic and bring in new customers. But once you’ve built a database of customers, you should capitalize on their familiarity with your products or services and positive experiences with your store to have them coming back for more.

Did you know…

• Up to 80% of total sales comes from return customers or customer referrals?
• It’s less expensive to retain customers than bring in new ones?

As discussed in the post Understanding the Basics of Marketing and Branding, the key to successful selling is knowing your target customer. But once you make a few sales, you have accumulated all the information you need in order to make contact again and again for repeat business long into the future.

This post will uncover the many opportunities to reach out and communicate with your customers in ways that encourage them to return and buy. Consider this post to be the start of your research on this subject.

Up Sell. Up Sell. Up Sell.

Don’t let your customers get away without offering a little something extra. More often than not, when you capitalize on the impulse buy, customers will take the bait. Why? Your customer may NEED the product in his shopping cart, but he may WANT some other things as well. Here are a few ways you can increase your average sale before you close the deal:

• Remind customers at checkout and in follow up communications of items that complement their purchase.
• Invest in shopping cart software that recommends items to customers based on their shopping patterns.
• If you’re taking an order over the phone, suggest small complementary items, such as a special cleaner to wash the new product, and offer a special “package” price.
• Offer customers a discount on shipping if they spend a certain amount.

All successful businesses are fluent in up selling techniques and these suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg.

Unlock the Sales Within Your Database

Once you’ve made the sale, your customer information is sent to a secure database that you access for billing, shipping and tracking. But beyond these practical purposes, your database holds incredible sales potential…if you have the right software and know how to use it.

Invest in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to make the most of your customer base. Vendors that provide CRM software include: SalesForce (http://www.salesforce.com/), Zoho CRM (http://www.zoho.com/crm/), and Sugar CRM (http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/). Some shopping cart providers offer software packages that include CRM solutions as well, such as NetSuite (http://www.netsuite.com/).  Your CRM software can be a fully robust package that helps you service your customers in the best way possible.  But how can it help you manage your database to improve communications with your current customers?

Your CRM software lets you gather information about your customer – contact information, buying history, etc.  This lets you personalize communications with very little effort.  For instance, when your customer buys from your website, you can send her back a personalized email thanking her for her business (e.g. Dear Jane Smith).  People like to receive messages that don’t have a cookie-cutter, formulaic feel.  They don’t want to feel like a number.  CRM software can actually automate this process.

Once you accumulate information about your customers’ buying habits, your software can help you assess behavioral patterns and develop promotions based on common themes.  For example, if you know a customer likes to buy a certain brand of merchandise from your site, you can send him an email promotion offering a discount on his next purchase, which may encourage him to come back to buy.

CRM software allows you to market to your customers in a number of ways.  That said, you should evaluate the ways that this software can work best for you based on your overall business operations plan. Once you’re familiar with the nuances of this subject, you’ll find that it will make your work life much more productive and profitable.

Get a Good Excuse

Most people don’t like to be solicited on a regular basis. Think about all the junk mail in your mailbox or inbox. You didn’t ask for it, but somehow, these companies find you, especially if you’ve bought from them in the past. If you don’t have good reason to contact your customers, your marketing materials could join the growing mountain of others in the trash.  Here are a couple of ‘good excuses’ to integrate:

Sales & Promotions

Start brainstorming some promotional and sales strategies that will turn heads. You might send out sales notifications on occasion, especially if you’re conducting an end-of-season or super clearance sale. Or, you could reward top spenders in your database with VIP customer discounts. And don’t forget to let customers know of any new additions to your product line. Use messaging like, “If you liked this product, you’ll REALLY like this product.”

Value-added Education

Your customers may be intrigued by promotions that might save them money on the latest and greatest product on your site, but they might also appreciate learning a thing or two as well.

A newsletter is a great way to offer them value. It gives them must-know, relevant information while promoting your brand and your products. For example, if you are selling baby clothes on your site, you could send out a newsletter that educates your customers about everything from pregnancy to childrearing.

As a part of this newsletter, you can highlight your newest offering. Of course, the products that are featured in your newsletter should also be featured on your site to make them easy to find and purchase when customers come looking for them.

Sometimes, coming up with new information on a regular basis can be challenging. Or, you might think designing a newsletter is out of your league. Internet Marketing Press can provide these services, if you need assistance.

Choose Your Mode of Communication

Once you’ve determined your reason for contact, now you must decide how you’ll touch base. This decision is based on a number of variables including the importance and frequency of your message and your budget. For instance, if you plan to send out weekly newsletters, you’ll likely do it via email to avoid printing and mailing costs. But if you’re running a one-time, “biggest sale of the year,” you might want to invest in a direct mail piece and send it via US mail.

Email

E-mail is one of the fastest, cheapest and most effective marketing tools. As a result, it has become the marketing approach of choice for most companies. That said, you should use it for immediate follow-ups during order processing, and occasional sales promotions. You may also choose to use it for your newsletters, but be careful – today’s spam filtering services are ensuring that promotional emails get sent to the users’ junk folders. Here are a few companies which can help; iContact.com, Benchmarkemail.com, ConstantContact.com and GetResponse.com

Email is useful throughout the post-sale process for order confirmation, shipping notification and general thank you messages. Although your primary purpose for communication may be informative, don’t miss the opportunity to promote related products.

Direct Mail

You may have noticed that your mailbox is getting more traffic lately. That’s because many companies are choosing to forgo the inbox in lieu of the mailbox. Direct mail is one of the most commonly used marketing tactics and comes in a number of different forms – catalogs, self-mailers, and post cards, just to name a few.

Direct mail is a great way to reach out to your current customers; however, there are costs involved.  Sometimes, these costs can be substantial depending upon the direct mail piece and the number of people you are trying to reach. Before you send out a sweeping direct mail campaign, you must first evaluate if it’s worth the expense. To maximize your marketing dollar, do a test run and gauge effectiveness. Then, consider your sales objectives within the context of your planned spending to determine potential cost per customer figures. Sound confusing? It can be if you aren’t fluent in direct mail principles.

Product Fulfillment

As we’ve established, the sale doesn’t stop when you ship the product. One of the best ways you can encourage customers to return is by including incentives inside the packaging. This may include a flyer or postcard that offers:

• Free shipping on the next order
• Discount coupon for the next order – 15% off your next purchase, etc.
• Free product or sample with purchase

One low-cost direct mail tactic is to include your product catalog with every order you mail out. Many times, consumers keep product catalogs to browse at a later time, such as around the holidays. This will ensure that your business stays around the house for future buying opportunities.

Overall, product fulfillment is a valuable opportunity to make a memorable impression. Use creative packaging. Surprise your customers with a freebie inside the box – one that stays around the home for future reference.

Transform Your Customers Into Brand Advocates

Word-of-mouth is one of the best ways to get new customers to come to your site.  If your existing customers tell their friends and family about your site, then you’ve won half the battle!  There are a variety of ways that you can encourage your customers to spread the word about your business.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth, also known as “viral marketing” in the advertising world, is one technique that you can use to capitalize on pre-existing social networks to drive traffic to your site.  Think of this process like the spread of an epidemic. The message is often delivered word-of-mouth and then enhanced online.  Here’s an example of a viral marketing tactic:  You send out an email to your current customers offering 25% off their next purchase if they forward the email to five friends.  If they take the bait, five more people will be informed about your site.

Viral marketing doesn’t always need to occur via email. You can send coupons or gift certificates in your packaging for your customers to pass out to their friends. These types of referrals are valuable because they’re coming from a trustworthy source.

Social Marketing

The fastest growing viral marketing technique it social marketing. Facebook.com and Twitter.com, as well as the numerous other websites out there, have changed the landscape of viral marketing.

Shopping Cart Features

You can encourage customers to recommend your site to friends with enhanced shopping cart functionality. Incorporate features like “Email a Friend,” “Gift Registry,” and “Wish Lists” to the structure of your site. This way, if customers see something they like, they can add it to a list or registry for friends and family to purchase. Or, if they see a product that’s perfect for a friend, they can quickly and easily send the friend an email with a link to the product page.

This additional functionality is a win/win situation for both you and your customers. You use it as a way to draw new people to your site, but your customers perceive it as a convenience that has been added for their benefit.

In Summary

Your current customers are like gold to your business. Once you have an established customer database, you definitely want to spend the greater portion of your marketing budget trying to retain their business. Be careful not to harass your customers with frequent sales messages; they’ll quickly tune you out. Instead, make sure each contact is meaningful and carries your brand. Teach them something. Reward them with value. Incentivize them to tell friends and family. Only when you engage this audience will you be successful in getting them to return.

IMPress Action Checklist

Below is a list of the steps that will help you as you market to current customers. Check off each step as you complete it to keep track of your progress.

1. Upsell. Upsell. Upsell.
2. Develop an approach to CRM and select software that can help you make the most of your database.
3. Evaluate your reasons for contact
1. Sales/Promotion
2. Education/Newsletter
4. Determine the best mode of communication
1. Email
2. Direct Mail
3. Product Fulfillment
5. Personalize your contact
6. Incentivize customers to spread the word about your site
1. Viral marketing
2. Social marketing
3. Enhanced shopping cart features

How can I help you? Did you find what you were looking for today? Thank you for your business. What do all these statements have in common?  They are all designed to enhance a customer’s experience and make them feel appreciated. Using these few simple words can have a powerful affect on your customer’s perception of your business.

The bottom line is that regardless of what products or services you offer, you are also in the business of servicing customers. And your approach to customer service can make or break your business.

Even if you have the luxury of being the only company providing your particular product or service, you should always work to provide outstanding customer service. The truth is that new businesses appear on the horizon all the time. You can easily lose customers to a competitor who excels at dealing with customers, even if your product is less expensive or better. This is especially true with web-based businesses, since it is often easy to find someone else with just a few mouse clicks.

This post will help you to understand the importance of quality customer service and introduce you to some of the ways you can go about delivering it.

What Constitutes “Good” Customer Service?

Good customer service occurs when all aspects of a business seek to give customers what they want and need. To evaluate your business’ customer service practices, ask yourself the following questions:

• How well does your product or service meet a customer’s needs/wants?
• Does it deliver whatever qualities your customer is looking for in this type of product?
• How well is it priced in their eyes?
• How easy is it to find out about your products?
• What will they see when they visit your website?  Will it encourage them to shop?
• How easy is it to navigate your website?
• How easy is it to place an order?
• How secure do customers feel when placing an order?
• How will you get the product to them?
• Are your shipping terms reasonable/competitive?
• Will the product arrive quickly and intact?
• What could go wrong, and what will you do about it?
• How will you handle complaints and problems?
• What do you need to keep track of, and how will you do it?
• How are you going to interact with your customers?

If you can’t answer these questions or you aren’t providing favorable answers, you need to spend some time honing your approach.  All of these elements go into effectively serving your customers. And, it’s not just up to the “frontline face” to handle customer service; it’s built into every step of the process.

Taking a Customer-Focused Approach

Walking in Your Customer’s Shoes

Often, when you ask customers what they want, you may find that they really don’t know, or can’t express, what they want, or sometimes even what they need.  Perhaps what one customer finds extraordinary strikes the next one as barely passable.  Even what a customer likes one day may not quite do it for them the next.

You may be tempted to throw up your hands and despair over the futility of trying to work with such fickle people…until you realize that you have been there yourself.  Remember that your customer has experienced everything that you have experienced as a consumer – a product that is not quite what you wanted; merchandise that breaks and then no one returns your calls; late shipments; the wrong color; and the list goes on…

Remember this:  With good customer service, the Golden Rule expands into the Gold Rule: Doing for others as you like it done for you wins repeat business.

The Benefit of the Doubt

Whenever possible, give your customers the benefit of doubt.  Always try to keep the peace by avoiding engaging them in an argument just to prove who is right. This is hard to do and you may fail at times.  You may have to say something like, “Let me ask my supervisor about this,“ just so you can put them on hold to give them – and yourself – a chance to calm down and take another run at this.

There are customers who are totally unreasonable and completely wrong, but you may have to swallow your sense of justice, smile and discount the price on the sale or even go negative on profit.  However, this is part of good customer service and, in the long run, you will win!

Resolve All Disagreements

When it comes to conflict resolution it is always in your company’s best interests to come to some sort of agreement with customers.  If the customer doesn’t like something about their purchase, either promptly refund their money or exchange the product.  The last thing you want is a chargeback.  Any customer who uses a credit card to purchase has the right to contest the charge with their credit card company.  When this happens merchant services debits this amount from your bank account until the disagreement is resolved.

Usually this process takes about 6 weeks to resolve and requires about 1-3 pages of response from you. When it gets right down to the decision, you will probably lose… about 98% of the time merchant services sides with the customer.  Chargebacks are rare, but it is far less complicated to resolve the issue directly with the customer than to go through the detailed process of dispute.

Make Good on Your Errors

Hey, stuff happens!  A large order that is expensive to ship gets sent to the wrong address. A box gets packed with the wrong item. A customer is billed for the wrong order. To be honest, the temptation to place blame on someone else will be there.  It’s difficult to eat the cost of sending and retrieving a product that costs $70 shipping each way! However if you make a mistake, be sure to make good on it promptly… your customers will appreciate you for it.

A tip: if you make a shipping error sometimes it’s much cheaper to discount the product if the customer agrees to keep it.  Ask them and see!

Moving Beyond Face-to-Face Communication

Your business may not be handling customer transactions face-to-face, but that does not mean that courtesy and decorum are thrown out the window. It’s important that your smile be heard even over the phone and your enthusiasm is conveyed in the text of an email.

Providing good service through email or over the phone can be a challenging proposition.  When you aren’t communicating in person, there is a lot left to interpretation. Sometimes when using these forms of communication the meaning of our words are lost in translation. Just think of when you receive an email from a friend in capitalized letters. Perhaps this friend intended to send you a friendly correspondence that came across as a ranting chastisement simply because they hit “shift” and “caps lock” on their keyboard.

So, if you didn’t sleep well the previous night and you pick up the phone sounding groggy, or if you craft abrupt responses to customer emails, remember that you are likely to alienate them. Think twice before you pick up that line or hit send on that email. Always make sure you are putting your best foot forward and your customer feels like you value their business and you are there to help.  Otherwise, they will more than likely go elsewhere.

Dealing with Exchanges & Refunds

To keep the customer happy it’s important to refund their money as soon as possible and without question. Major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Target have set the standard here.  If you want to return anything at anytime for any reason to one of these retailers, they will take that item back, no questions asked. Do they lose sometimes? Of course they do, but they gain so much more as customers keep coming back.

Make sure you post your return policy on your website. This policy may evolve over time as you encounter and resolve situations. Here’s a suggested policy statement to begin with:

“XYZ Corporation gladly exchanges products or refunds your money (less shipping charges) for products that are returned in the original package and in resalable condition within 30 days of purchase. Washed or used items are not accepted. All defective products must be exchanged within 60 days of purchase”

What if they want to return a product that was purchased 45 days ago?  Should you refund? The answer is yes, most definitely. If a customer wants to return an item purchased 4 months ago, why not compromise and give a store credit?  It’s a judgment call; try to please the customer with a fair solution. Most companies, however, do not refund shipping costs as this is paid directly to the carrier and is non-refundable.

With exchange items you should implement the same philosophy. Be liberal and fair with exchanges.  Many companies offer free shipping on exchanges, or you can charge actual shipping costs.

What do you do with returned products? If you are not able to resell the product as new (such as the packaging is destroyed or a small scratch), then you have a few option to consider before throwing it in the trash. You could offer the product at a discount or sell it on eBay.com. Remember, it is important to disclose ALL product flaws. Customer are sometimes willing to purchase a product at a discount with a small scratch.

The Benefits of Technology

Many businesses have found that the speed and convenience of the internet is a God-send from the customer’s point of view, evidenced by the fact that more and more are joining the ranks of cyber-buyers every day.  And cyber-buyers continue to choose their favorites and establish their loyalties just as they do in traditional retailing, if they find that all goes well in their dealings with you.

Technology even allows for some customer service bonuses – such as point-of-purchase product reviews, customer comments, and product popularity rankings – that are just not feasible in the brick-and-mortar store. Amazon and E-bay have set a new standard, and what they do is by no means beyond your reach. You may not have yet achieved the same volume as these e-commerce giants, but picture having to handle thousands of transactions per minute, nearly flawlessly.  And that’s just the beginning.

How do you keep track of all those customers and their buying habits?  Send them word about specials that they may find interesting?  Resolve issues with as little hassle as possible?  Since customers can shop and buy so quickly, they expect you to be able to handle their concerns just as quickly.  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solutions allow you to do just this.

CRM providers, like SalesForce (http://www.salesforce.com/), Zoho CRM (http://www.zoho.com/crm/), and Sugar CRM (http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/) offer software that integrates processes across departments – marketing, sales, distribution, manufacturing, inventory, and customer support.  This keeps everyone in the loop by contributing and analyzing data on prospects, customers, manufacturing capacities, inventory levels, customer experiences, shipping concerns, and reasons for lost sales.

Watch for Fraudsters

An unfortunate side issue related to customer service involves dealing with the dishonest few that may attempt to purchase from you on the web. It is your responsibility to verify that all transactions are legit. Even if you receive an approval on the transaction, all fraudulent transactions result in a chargeback.  Mistakes come out of your pocket each time. In most instances the law does very little to investigate fraud of this nature. More than likely you will not catch the perpetrators nor hear back from the police. Stopping the fraudsters from the get-go is the only cure.

The good news is that you can eliminate 99% of fraudulent transactions by taking a few simple steps. Utilizing fraud tools like Address Verification Service (AVS) and Card Verification Number (CVN) checking can help keep your business safe.

In Summary

Your customers are your partners in business and taking their wants and needs into account is your primary concern. Use each contact as an opportunity to win your customer’s trust and loyalty. Make good on your mistakes, quickly and with a positive attitude. Be sure your smile is heard when handling inquiries and complaints, whether through e-mail or over the phone. Make full use of technology to gather, analyze, and use customer data in such a way that it helps you better serve them.

IMPress Action Checklist

Below is a list of the steps that will help you as you begin to integrate customer service into your business processes. Check off each step as you complete it to keep track of your progress.

1. Evaluate your approach to customer service
2. Work to take a customer-focused approach
3. Develop a return policy that’s liberal and fair to your customer
4. Take advantage of technologies that will help you to service your customers better

Traditional advertising is what most people think of when the word “ad” comes up in conversation. Print, radio, television and outdoor are media that have long been successful to gain exposure and new business. The reason we call them “traditional” is to set them apart from the mass of modern-day advertising options, including viral (i.e. Word-of-Mouth) and online marketing initiatives.

When prospective customers see your company’s name outside their computer screens, it suddenly becomes more valid. Online, you’re just a virtual presence that can be changed or deleted with a click of a mouse. But in print or on television, you’re just like any brick-and-mortar retailer – committed to growing your business for the long-term. This also translates into even more sales from unlikely sources, including audiences who aren’t likely to be online often, but may make an exception to purchase your product.

This post provides an overview of your traditional advertising options and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Use it as a reference guide as you consider traditional advertising methods for your overall marketing plan.

The Buck Starts Here

There are so many options for traditional advertising; it may seem overwhelming at first. Take a step back and look at the big picture. This is especially important because traditional advertising can be much more expensive than many online alternatives. Ask yourself these questions before you invest hundreds or even thousands of dollars in any ad:

What are my objectives?

Before creating any plan, you must begin with solid objectives to measure the plan’s success. Your goals may be to generate traffic and increase sales, but be more specific. Write down figures that represent your ideal goals, no matter how ambitious. These are your long-term goals. Then, think about the financial resources to reach those goals and adjust your numbers to be more realistic for the short-term. This will help you prioritize which tactics are appropriate for your goals.

Who is my audience?

You must first understand who your audience is before you can figure out where they might be. Use the tips in “Understanding the Basics of Marketing and Branding” to learn how to figure out your target and secondary demographics. Then, brainstorm a list of places they might be seeking information. For example, if you’re selling fishing equipment, your target customers may subscribe to a variety of fishing or sportsman magazines. These publications could be very effective advertising vehicles for your website.

What is my budget?

Remember, you can’t afford NOT to advertise, but you may not have the luxury to spend thousands of dollars on one ad. Start small and appropriate more funds to your advertising budget as you grow. No matter what your budget, there are options available. The more you meet your sales goals, the more you should spend on marketing.

How can I stand apart?

Evaluate the competition’s advertising and consider creative alternatives to the norm.  “Traditional” does not necessarily mean “conventional.” If your competition is running ads that are cluttered and boring, develop a creative concept that’s in line with your brand but cuts through the others.

Where should I advertise?

Once you have the answers to the above questions, you can start to research your traditional advertising options. Read on for a basic overview of the pros and cons of each media.

Newspaper

Think about it. Almost everyone you know receives a newspaper. And if they don’t, perhaps their workplace does. That’s why newspaper advertising can be one of the most effective ways to extend your reach to the masses…and one of the most expensive buys of the bunch.

Advantages

• Somewhat targeted: There’s something for everyone in the newspaper. Sports, Entertainment, Classifieds, Fashion, etc. You can reach members of your target audience by placing section-specific ads.
• Ad heavy: People expect there to be plenty of advertising in the newspaper. In fact, some people read the paper just to learn about the latest deals and promotions.
• Placement on short notice: Production time is at a minimum for newspaper placement, so you can contact your sales rep a day or two in advance and still make the insertion deadline.
• Variable sizing: Newspapers offer many, many different size ads so you can pick and choose one (or a series) that suits your budget.

Disadvantages

• Short lifespan: Some local papers or special sections may remain around the house for a week or longer, but most newspapers are thrown out by the end of the day.
• Low-quality print: Although newspapers have come a long way in the clarity of the newsprint, print quality is still not the best, especially compared to magazines. Keep your ad design simple and this shouldn’t be a problem.
• Ad heavy: This is also a disadvantage because you’ll be competing with many other ads for attention.
• Variable placement: Aside from the section, you probably won’t be able to control exactly where your ad is placed in the paper. And, if the page doesn’t have anything newsworthy to say, your audience may skip it all together.

Magazines

Do a little research on this topic and you might be surprised at how many magazines are out there nowadays. Trade-specific publications have cropped up more and more in recent years, so if you look beyond the supermarket bookshelf, you’ll find dozens of magazines on everything from woodworking to quilt making. Use this to your advantage when shopping for magazine ad space. Seek out highly-targeted publications with readership that fits your demographic profiles.

Advantages

• High quality print: Magazine print allows your design to be much more detailed than newspaper. Because the print quality is superior, the design should be as well. Consider using an advertising agency or graphic designer who is fluent in all the technical press requirements.
• Creative potential: Magazine ads are often more conceptual and less about price. Put your creative mind to work and brainstorm an idea that expresses your company’s distinctive advantages in a memorable, stylish way.
• Longer shelf life: People often keep magazines around for weeks or months. They might also pass them along to friends so the opportunity for exposure is greater than a newspaper, which may be thrown away after a day.
• Targeted Options: Large circulation isn’t always better. Purchase less expensive ad space in smaller, highly-targeted publications and you may see similar, if not better, results. Some national publications also have regional advertising sections that offer affordable options.

Disadvantages

• Lead-time: Magazines often require you to submit an ad up to a month in advance, so plan early!
• Expense: Ad cost is almost always based on circulation (the more people who may see your ad, the more expensive it is) so evaluate those numbers carefully. You can always start small, even if it means a listing in the “advertising” section of the magazine and evaluate the results to see if it’s worth a larger expense in the future.
• Clutter: Magazines are a popular form of advertising but, unlike newspapers, most people read the magazines for the content not the ads. Before you purchase ad space, be sure to review the magazine and seek out creative opportunities to stand apart.

Radio

Since the advent of satellite radio, there has been some controversy about how effective radio commercials really are. This is a valid concern, but given the significant ratings of popular radio channels across the nation, it’s safe to say that radio still attracts plenty of listeners. People are listening at work, in their cars, or as they relax.

Tap into this market with some smart buying strategies. You don’t need to purchase the typical 30-second commercial to be effective.

Advantages

• Engaging: Radio is often called “theater of the mind” because it compels listeners to use their imaginations, giving them something to remember.
• Segments: Radio stations offer news, weather, traffic in addition to music. Consider purchasing a “tag” that allows you to sponsor one of these segments. For example, you may “This weather report brought to you by GreatFishingGear.com, who encourages you to get out and enjoy the fall temperatures with a new reel from Bass Pro!”
• Negotiation-power: Your radio rep is more likely to negotiate better rates than your print advertising rep. You can discuss creative ways to add value to your buy.
• Quick changes: With one call to the radio station, you can add to or change your script. If you were running an ad in Sunday’s paper, you could say, “Look for our ad in the Sunday Times for details!”
• Different formats: The most cost-effective way to buy radio space to give the station a script and have one of their personalities read it. This is called a “voiceover read.” You can also hire talent, go into a studio and record a “produced” spot, which can cost thousands, but is more likely to stand out. 

Disadvantages

• Inability to review: Once the commercial plays, it’s done. If your audience missed the message, they can’t go back and listen again.
• Timing is everything: Popular listening times, like rush hour, can be very expensive, but ratings drop significantly during the night and mid-day. Beware of sales reps who offer spots during these times because there will be very few people listening.
• Mass marketing: Your listening audiences are loosely targeted and attract a diversity of listeners, so your message will be heard by a number of people who aren’t remotely interested in your product.

Television

More people spend more hours watching television than any other medium. The most recent study upped the national average to over eight hours a day! TV has the power to extend your reach to millions of people nationwide. So why do we typically only see commercials for the “big guns” like eBay.com or Amazon.com? Obviously, television advertising can be very expensive. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t more affordable options available to fit your budget.

Advantages

• Highly targeted: Television shows each have their own set of demographics associated with them. There audience who watches Trading Spaces is much different than those who watch Monday night football.  Buy time associated with your audience. There might even be a program directly associated with your product, such as fishing shows for GreatFishingGear.com.
• Creative potential: With television, you have the chance to make a memorable impression with a conceptual and highly visual representation of your product. Work with a professional production house and/or advertising agency to help you craft a spot that will tell your story in the most impactful way possible. 
• Large audiences: There’s no doubt about it, you’ll reach the most people with this medium. Remember, “more” doesn’t always mean “better,” so be sure to evaluate your options closely before you purchase.

Disadvantages

• Production: In addition to your media buy, you must also invest in the creation of the commercial, which is likely to cost you thousands of dollars because television audiences expect high-quality production. But once you do, you can use it over and over, until you’re ready to create a new spot.
• Expense: Your media costs are based on the number of viewers who watch the program and the time of day the program airs. A 30-second commercial during prime time viewing hours can cost 10-30 times more than one radio spot during prime listening time. Seek out inexpensive options. The fishing program that airs at 5:00am may be a smart buy because almost everyone watching will be potential customers.
• Inability to review: Just like radio, once the commercial plays, it’s done. If your audience missed the message, they can’t go back and see it again.

Outdoor

Outdoor advertising is much more than billboards! This unique and creative medium encompasses signage in and around our cities, including busses, subways, taxis and trains. With outdoor, you have the option to make an impression with potential customers in places your competition normally wouldn’t consider.

Advantages

• Captive audience: Your audience may be able to tune outdoor advertising out, but they can’t turn it off. So, in a sense, they are a “captured audience,” who will see your ad whether they want to or not. Think of the last time you were in traffic behind a bus. You probably read the message in front of you, simply because it was there.
• Location specific: While outdoor is a medium that markets to the masses, you can also look for locations where your audience may be. For GreatFishingGear.com, it would make sense to purchase a billboard on common routes to popular lakes around the country.

Disadvantages

• Quick read: You don’t have much time to get your message across since outdoor advertising draws, on average, 2-3 seconds of your reader’s time. Keep your message concise (5-7 words max.) to
• Contracts: Typically, you need to commit to a minimum of three months when purchasing any outdoor space. This may be outside your budget or too large of an investment for experimental purposes.
  

Direct Mail

Research shows that direct mail is the third largest media expenditure behind television and radio. This explains the growing number of unsolicited sales messages in your mailbox, which is exactly why you should make extra effort to stand apart so your direct mail doesn’t become junk mail.

Advantages

• Highly targeted: More and more marketers are turning to direct mail because it is one of the easiest ways to target specific audiences by region and household income. This is especially important if you’re selling high-end products – you wouldn’t want to promote your products to people couldn’t afford them, so you would restrict your mailing list to include people in ritzy neighborhoods.
• Creative potential: Remember, your mailing doesn’t need to take the form of a letter. You can do postcards, self-addressed reply cards and three-dimensional mailings to increase the odds that your message will be read.

Disadvantages

• Expense: It can be expensive to produce an effective direct mail piece and a targeted list. Investing in the services of an experienced advertising agency may be in your best interest if you are not familiar with these practices.
• Blending in: Once your mailing reaches its destination, there’s no guarantee that your audience will read it. If your message doesn’t catch their attention, it will find its way to the garbage and your investment is wasted.

Media Buying Overview

Buying media is tricky business because advertising sales reps are trained negotiators who are not always working in your best interest. Your representatives at the traditional media outlets can be both friends and foes.

You may want to enlist the services of an agency or freelance media buyer who specializes in media buys to purchase the space for you, because the newspaper, magazine or outdoor outlet pays the agency a commission and it doesn’t cost you a dime.

Ask for a media kit

This ad package is typically a folder that includes demographic information, distribution, rates and a sample of the publication. This will help you evaluate if the newspaper or magazine is right for you without having to speak to anyone.

Ask for suggestions

Your rep can keep you posted on special sections or promotions that are related to your business. The travel section may be running a feature on the “Best Places to Fish in the US.” These are great opportunities to increase your exposure with your target audience.

Ask for editorial contacts

Express an interest in getting your story in front of journalists. Look for our upcoming post on Public Relations. Although sales and editorial staff are entirely separate entities to protect journalistic integrity, your rep can probably point you in the right direction to enhance your PR efforts.

In Summary

Ultimately, traditional advertising can be expensive, but it can be highly effective with the right planning. Consider your objectives, your audience and your competitive landscape before rushing into any media buy. If you’ve never launched a traditional ad campaign before, you may want to enlist the services of the pros for both creative development and media negotiations. And, always remember, no matter what you spend, investing in advertising is the smartest way to grow your business.

IMPress Action Checklist

Below is a list of the steps necessary to create a traditional advertising plan. Be sure to check off each task as you complete it to ensure a comprehensive approach from start to finish.

1. Plan wisely
1. Objectives
2. Audience
3. Budget
2. Choose your media
1. Newspaper
2. Magazine
3. Radio
4. Television
5. Outdoor
6. Direct Mail
3. Negotiate your costs
4. Brainstorm great creative
5. Measure the results
6. Evolve your plan