Traditional Methods of Marketing

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about businesses stopping direct mail campaigns due to budget concerns amid the recession. (See Article Here in New Window) This is just another reminder that sometimes you have to spend money to make money. And sometimes it is the traditional methods that work the best.

I am not suggesting that you unnecessarily spend money for the sake of spending money. You do have to be smart about it. But even in today's economy, with microscopic budgets in every aspect of the company, you still have to get the word out to your customers and potential customers. Your business is not a field of dreams, and the customers will not come because "you built it."

For small businesses, particularly in service industries, you are often selling yourself. This means that you have to do what politicians call "pressing the flesh." You have to network and meet people. Not everything can be done with social media interactions. Attending a live, in-person event can be the best thing that ever happened to your business.

For all businesses, whether providing a service or a good, traditional methods of marketing, like the direct mail campaigns mentioned in the WSJ article, are still viable methods in today's economy. You still see real agents putting out signs in front yards. You still see insurance agents giving out pens with their names and phone numbers on them. Why? Because these are tried and true methods that get their names in front of their potential customers.

Don't forget that you have to market offline as well as online.

Hiring in a Depressed Economy

The overall economy may look as depressing as the clouds outside today, but that does not mean there that the sun is not shining behind the clouds. Your company may still be doing well, even thriving, right now. You may even be looking to hire additional employees right now. Congratulations if you are in this boat.

So where do you look to find help? Most likely, using the local newspaper to place a job ad no longer works to find qualified applicants. Even those individuals that are looking for a job without a high school diploma are looking online. Of course, you already know this. So where do you post a job ad?

First, start with the free places. Your company's website should have a place for job seekers. This is even good for your clients to see. If you are hiring, you are more likely to be here tomorrow and able to continue providing your services or goods. There are other websites that allow free job postings as well. Try your local chamber of commerce and other local websites.

LinkedIn also offers job postings, but they are $195 for 30 days. Remember that their audience tends to be educated professionals and students about to graduate. If this is what you are looking for, then it is a great place to find someone. If you want to reach a broader market, you can also try Craigslist. For $25, you get a job listing in the Atlanta market for 30 days. There are additional job search boards - from Monster to Indeed - that also require fees to post an open position.

Once you have the position publicized, then you get to start collecting resumes. I do recommend that you don't use your primary email address to collect the resumes as you will be bombarded with them. Set up a new email address on your website or get a free one from Gmail.

One thing that you will quickly realize in this market is that you will be receiving resumes from people that are obviously overqualified. Sometimes this is good, as you can bring in a wealth of knowledge and experience for a salary less than you would otherwise. But there are some major drawbacks. Your new employee will not be happy for long in the new position for which she is overqualified. This could lead to a continued job search or asking for a promotion to a position for which she is qualified. Her salary expectations will most likely not be in line with what you are offering. Don't expect her to stay in the job for very long.

If you find that you are not receiving enough qualified applications, it may be time to turn to a placement firm. There are many out there, some of a general nature, some targeted to specific industries or job types. I have worked with several over the years, in different industries. Contact me if you need a referral to one that will meet your needs.

Remember that during the hiring process, you should follow all applicable anti-discrimination and equal employment laws and principles. You don't want to put your thriving business in trouble by being accused of discriminating.

Social Media and the Small Business

Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter. These are just a few of the most popular social media outlets out there today. Then there are a myriad of options out there in specific industries. For example, I maintain profiles on legal sites like AVVO and JD Supra. There are bound to be several such sites for every industry imaginable.

So what is a small business owner to do? There are several items that must be considered. First and foremost, the small business owner wants to use social media to get the word out to current, former, and potential clients. This is the direct marketing that most pundits promote, so I am not going to spend much time on it. There is a wealth of information out there on how to use social media to promote your products or services.

But wait, there’s more for you as the small business owner to consider. You probably want to claim all the generic terms and pages out there for your company so as to control negative attacks on your business. In the age of instant communication, you must be willing and able to respond to attacks on your reputation. Sometimes that means just being able to hit the search engines with more good publicity to overwhelm the bad publicity. Sometimes it means talking directly to those with the bad opinions. But you must be aware of it, even if you do not like to read about it.

Also, as the owner, you may want to delegate the tasks of maintaining your social media presence to an outside company or a staff member. Before you make the delegation, you should understand all the basics and create basic policies and guidelines for others to follow. How often do you want them updating your presence? What happens if there is negative coverage out there? How well do they know your business?

Finally, you may also want to consider creating policies about employee’s use of social media. While you will not be able to stop them from using the various outlets for personal reasons, you may want to include policies about their use of your business name or mention of your business.

Returning With A New Name

I'm back! At the end of 2009, I ended an 18 month consulting job with a regional law firm. I had been working with them, part as outside consultant and then as an employee, to help their business run better. It was a case study in turning around a company.

When I started in June 2008, there was a lot of work to be done. Clients had to be billed. Office policies had to be put into place. Vendor relationships had to be properly established, including some re-negotiations on existing contacts. Company visions had to be developed. Human Resources files had to be created. Technology solutions had to be evaluated, investigated, and improved. All the while, the practice of law had to continue. It is a litigation firm, after all, and the courts wait for no one. So for 18 months, I worked with the partners (the make-up of which changed over time) to make the business run. By the end of 2009, the firm was a different beast than when we started.

With that consulting beast tamed and running better than ever, I am able to expand my pursuits to more businesses. As part of that, I am re-launching this blog as a FREE resource to all those business owners and managers out there that can benefit from my continuing experiences and knowledge.

So, here's to a successful 2010 for all the small businesses out there!