A S m a r t. S m a r t S m a l l B u s i n e s s

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1 A S m a r t S t a r t f o r t h e S m a r t S m a l l B u s i n e s s Everything marketing starts and ends with your customers cater to them, listen to them and react to them. The results will amaze you. 1

2 Many Marketing Challenges Confront a Small Business Each and Every Day to help you make the right marketing decisions, you need an ally, a small business who has the experience, the know-how, and the determination to help your company grow using marketing that works. Not just any type of marketing, but marketing that your customers respond to and what you and your employees know how to use. Here are three reasons why you should consider Marketing Communication Group as a trusted business ally: 1. At first glance on our home page, you probably noticed marketing evaluation, customer-centric marketing, customer-contact management, marketing information, customer communications, and even free content like papers and links to other information sources. Knowledge from experience is the life blood for a successful small business. 2. When you work with small business owners (since 1984) you gain knowledge first hand on how each business marketing works and what is needed to make it work better. Because each customer and business is unique, it s important for us to gain an understanding of your business model, you, your employees, your company and its goals. 3. There are a lot of small business models to use in a small business today. The successful ones apply a significant amount of time learning and responding appropriately to customer needs. What they learn from their customers enables them to create a better customer profile, a pleased customer, and convincing more prospects to use their products or services. If you like our reasoning, frustrated by poor marketing results, and you want your business to grow, MCG s Smart Start for the Smart Small Business is just what the doctor ordered. M arketing results are measured for a better customer buying experience. 2

3 T here is a game changer that was added to our Smart Start program. The game changer is our use of marketing analytics. With analytics we now know what type of marketing works, how marketing works and what can be added to make marketing work better. You see, with a customer-centric marketing strategy, there is a strong focus on customer satisfaction. Customers are encouraged to share information of a company s product or service they already use. The advent of social media and its many channels increases a company s ability to collect better marketing information, expose prospects to new product sources, and to collect more marketing data. Reacting to the collected data via analytics and reaching out in additional customer segments and communication channels, increases a company s marketing effectiveness. Knowledge, learning, measurement and response, are the basic tools present in our Smart Start for the Smart Small Business to add to your marketing business model. It s the type of business marketing a small company has waited for. Join the movement today. Marketing analytics is a true game changer. What is a Smart Start? Marketing Communications Group s (MCG) Smart Start for a Smart Small Business is a program that has evolved over the past twenty years from a personalized marketing analysis to a program that also teaches a small business that unique marketing is a requirement for successful marketing. In fact today, with the right mindset, marketing is easy. Most small businesses ignore the ABC s of marketing and get caught up in the latest tactical tools. That s like driving down an icy road in the country on bald tires. What you do need before jumping on all the marketing tactics and channels is an investment in time to create a Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy. Smart Start is a great start to get the traction you need to transform your company marketing for today s market. It uses a team approach to get everyone in the company to focus on customer needs and service. Smart Start is an analysis of what a company is doing right, wrong and what they need to add to make their marketing functions move to the next level. Smart Start and Customer-Centric Marketing is based on over 30 years of small business experience in advertising, sales and marketing. 3

4 S mart Start Gets Results. Smart Start shows how to get a company to focus on customers, to learn more about your customers and the best way to connect with them. At each connection, there s an opportunity to gain more information, and how to use that information to offer a better customer experience. If you value a better customer experience and it s one of your personal goals that can improve your business, read the following checklist of what the Smart Start for a Smart Small Business is all about. Each item teaches your company on how to create stronger bonds with your customers. Now that s smart business. Analysis of your present marketing operations Current options and opportunities in your company brand and position The value proposition of a Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy Customization of a Marketing Strategy Creating a distinctive Unique Selling and Value Proposition Customer Contact Management and the value of your company data Marketing Communications, channels and tactics Content Marketing Google Analytics Teaching marketing to your employees is the most significant difference from any of the socalled marketing systems available for the small business today. Once an employee learn how marketing works for your company and customers, marketing becomes easy. Why is a customer-centric marketing strategy so important? Here s a simple diagram to help answer this question. At the center core of your business world (dark blue) are the customers. These customers need to understand your product and service features and benefits. In turn, you need to know what they want and why they buy. In the outer core (lighter blue) are the two main marketing elements incorporated into our Smart Start. 4

5 T he first one in the outer circle is a customer-contact management system. A system is required to house your collected customer data. Our very first recommendation is to create customer profiles based on your customers buying decision segments and demographics. As additional data is collected, personal profiles become more complex. The second piece is a custom marketing strategy that is predicated on existing customer profiles. Analyzing the data and customer profiles, creating theories and testing these theories to determine which will work best, is the end-result of MCG s Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy. As additional customer information is collected, the strategy grows to remain inline with the company s goals and objectives. Finally, circling around in the outer core is the universe of a few tactical marketing communication channels available today. Some are the traditional channels such as direct mail or display and print advertising. Other channels are social media and whatever new technology that may start revolving around your business planet. All you need to care or know about is what your customers prefer to use. It s what your company says and how the message is delivered. That can make a significant difference in how success is measured. How many communication channels are needed? At present, there are many communication channels to reach your market. One small business owner even said it was a total head numbing experience. Another asked if she should use traditional communications, such as direct mail, or should she move more dollars into the social media channels. There are many more questions and numerous answers to this small business dilemma. Marketing Communications Group helps you get the correct answers, personalized and customized for your company. Analytics will point us to the correct marketing channels to make a sound connection. In fact, analytics may lead us to unique ways to connect, such as the appropriate time There is a case study on how Pabst, a brewer of beer, used Customer-Centric Marketing to grow their niche marketing segment and introduce the beer to new customers. Their way of two-way communication was clever and produced results. It s truly amazing what you are able to learn once you start communicating and listening. Click here to get your free copy. The internet graphic was Created by bestedsites.com. 5

6 T eaching the art of marketing Don t take your marketing for granted. The best form of marketing is the combination of art and science because change in businesses accelerate each and every year. What marketing tactic that was effective just 6 months ago may now be a fading memory. Customer service must have the ability to learn and respond to each one of your customer needs and potential customer questions. It s the small but beneficial way that the power of teaching is incorporated in the Smart Start program and the person who built the program. Built by an entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience as a small business owner. The marketing evaluation and analysis uses your company s products and information to make the teaching experience specific and more highly productive. Marketing experiences are shared with you and your employees using two-way communication, gamesmanship and Q&A which encourages greater participation and learning. Ask any small-business owner or manager about their experience with employee training and education seminars, you ll get a mixed bag of OK or disappointment as a response. That doesn t happen when you select Marketing Communications Group, Smart Start for the Smart Small Business. It s teaching that s the difference. If you can t measure your marketing, why do it? A small business must value the importance of having a customer focus, learning more about them and their needs. Many small businesses in a variety of industries don t understand how important it is to keep pace with change and react to it with an appropriate response. Today, using analytics, the information arrives quicker and a company can respond accordingly. In a post on the MarketingDoc blog, Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive, provided the headline to this section. She understands once you start collecting the data and analyzing it, you ll have clearer picture of your customers. A clearer customer picture usually means a better understanding of the business relationship between customer and company, which results in more sales. That s a real win-win. When you work in the B2B market, most people are never totally happy with their sales and lead generation activities. No matter what your situation may be, now is a good day to start the analysis on your present selling activities and plan for the future. If you don t know where to start, start thinking more about analytics. I know some people think analytics is a big scary word. We don t have that kind of money for a so called magic potion, is no longer true. 6

7 S top and think for a minute. What if you mailed a direct mail piece to (x) amount of people, directing them to your web site, then received (y) inquires and (z) people signed up for your newsletter? Or the campaign that went to contacts that have not made a purchase in 90 days, received a 25% response rate from a specific industry to your offer of free shipping on an automatic reorder program? If that previous paragraph got you thinking, all of this data is available to you today and some is even free! When it comes to analytics keep it simple and then add on to it when you re comfortable with the results. This is especially important if you ever want your marketing to be more efficient. Not every business is the same but the one similar characteristic that is available to everyone is analytics. This analytical data from your present marketing and selling efforts is the backbone of your future marketing and selling ideas. Remember your customers change and your marketing must as well. These are where the hidden gems exist. Guessing no longer works in this day of instant communication and sneaky competitors. Analytics is the game changer in today s marketing activities and critical to the success of A Smart Start for the Smart Small Business. Who is the owner of Marketing Communications Group? His name is Mike Deuerling. His first business was an ad agency which opened in The target market was other small, B2B companies. He wanted to keep a local geographic focus and avoid travel. Today they are no longer an ad agency. Mike embraces change. Three years after starting the ad agency, the transformation toward marketing programs began. MCG works with company owners that small business marketing is not complicated when you follow the basics. Our focus is to assist small business owners to understand and learn smarter marketing. Here are a three points to ponder, as you consider A SMART START for the SMART SMALL business. Point #1. Your customers are fickle. In my first business, I started to build customer profiles and made a few assumptions. I started with a direct mail sales letter to test my assumptions. Each letter was followed up with a phone call so I could learn if my profile made sense and if my assumptions were right on or out in left field. I used the information I gathered to fine tune my profiles. If I was going to sell them something, I might as well know what they needed, and at times, I knew what they needed before they did. 7

8 Point #2. Marketing is subjective. As a new business model moved forward, Mike kept making assumptions and tested them with target market profiles. He learned early on in his research, change in the B2B market was a sure constant. First hand, he have learned how valuable it is for a business to maintain a customer focus, learning more about them and their needs. He began working with many small businesses in a variety of industries, and understand how important it is to keep pace with changes and react to them with an appropriate response. Only today, he gets the information much quicker by using analytics. Point #3. Invest time and money to learn how marketing works and what will advance your business goals. Today, more than ever, it s important to know as much as possible about your target customers by increasing communication and sharing your industry knowledge. Leadership and trust are very important elements of B2B marketing. When in doubt, call on a professional. One who knows how marketing works with another business owner (you) who is an expert in what he does. It s one plus one equals two for success. Price This is determined by the size of your company and the people involved in the program. Every company we have worked with has had their own personality and a specific way to transact their business. It assures us that everyone gets their full value of our programs. Sometimes when opportunity knocks, no one answers the door. This is a great opportunity for you to gain an outside perspective of your company and its marketing operations. It was created to make sure that any business who engages our services by using the marketing assessment, will gain more from the results many times over the initial price. We guarantee it. Questions? or MD@dmcm.net. There is never a cost or obligation. Never NORTH 4360th Road, Sheridan, IL Toll Free Marketing Communications group, Inc. All product names and/or logos are copyrights and trademarks of their respective owners. None of these owners has authorized, sponsored, endorsed, or approved this publication. The opinions expressed are those of the author and publisher. The author and publisher have made the best efforts to produce a high-quality, informative and helpful report, but they make no representation or warranties of any kind with regard to the completeness or accuracy of the contents of the report. They accept no liability of any kind for any losses or damages caused or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, from using information contained within. Photographs are purchased from such companies as I-Stock, Windows Clip Art or John Deuerling. No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or reproduced in any way, including but not limited to digital copying and printing without the prior agreement and written permission of the publisher. 8