If you fail, never give up because FAIL stands for First Attempt In Learning.

End is not the end. End stands for Effort Never Dies.

If you get no as an answer, remember that NO stands for Next Opportunity.

Be positive!

Steve ShaloskyBusiness Advisor with the Collin SBDC

Has been with the Collin SBDC since August 2016

Owned a business for over 5 years

Over 12 years of corporate marketing experience at Fortune 500 companies like IBM, Dell, Abbott Laboratories and Dial (Henkel). Specific expertise in US brand marketing strategy, retailer specific marketing strategy, and tactical development.

MBA, WP Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

Contact info: sshalosky@collin.edu

MARKETING STRATEGY AND TACTICS FOR SMALL

BUSINESSCollin Small Business Development Center

www.CollinSBDC.com

Collin College Courtyard Center

4800 Preston Park Blvd., Suite 114 Plano, TX 75093

972-985-3770The Collin SBDC is a partnership program of the U.S. Small Business Administration and Collin College.

Assumption before creating a marketing strategy

  You are already in business.

  You have already created a business strategy.

  A business strategy includes the following:1. Mission Statement – one sentence that summarizes what you want to do2. Objectives – identify three organizational objectives3. Value proposition – for each objective, why do you stand out, what makes you

unique, why would someone choose my products over others4. Should have an elevator pitch – who am I and what do I do5. Establish financial goals

Example of a business strategy

Business Name H+ Sports

Mission Statement Encourage active lifestyles by offering ethically sourced nutritional products

Objectives Sell nutritional products. Be socially responsible.

Receive validation from the athletic community.

Financial Goals Increase Revenues by 10%

Increase margin by 50 basis points (0.5%)

Sell 20% more of the higher margin items (detail)

Value Proposition Scientifically proven to work Local community involvement

Certifications from ethical and eco boards.

Elevator Pitch H+ creates nutritional products to improve athletic performance.

Four Areas of Focus for successful business owners

  DRIVE AWARENESS of your products, service, and business (Marketing)

  Manage to profitability (Finance/Accounting)

  Deliver on your promise (i.e. Management control and Quality Control)

  Focus on the future (Innovation)

If you forget most everything else, remember this!

  Create a MARKETING PLAN ANNUALLY!

  SPEND money on marketing!

  You MUST have a website and it MUST be mobile friendly

  SPEND time thinking about the future of your business!

Need to pay bills, transfer money

Issues with extended family – problems and/or fun with Mom, Dad, grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews, nieces

Issues with friends – problems and fun

Make MealsIssues with colleagues– problems and/or fun

WORK, WORK & MORE WORK

Volunteering –church, causes, clubs, alumni, kids, extracurricular

Kids extracurricular – drop off/pick up, games: sports, dance, cheerleading, music lessons, band, friends, social activitiesKid’s extracurricular 2: Extra practice with parents

Vacations – planning and enjoying

Illness/Health issues

Time with spouse

Coordination stress

Your or your spouse education issues

Balance the checkbookInvestment review

Car issues

Clean the houseMow the lawn & other yard work

Clean the pool and other pool care

Walk the dog Pet issues: Vet visits , injuries, health, play, pick up droppings

Exercise Grocery shopping

Clothes shopping

Reading for pleasure

Watch TV/Movies/videosHouse maintenance – water heater, roof, cable, TV, foundation, etc.

Laundry, lots of laundry

Garbage and Recycling

Gift buyingHolidays

Birthdays

Job searches

Home refinancing

Remodeling

KIDS – caring for: food, grooming, education, clothing, social, teaching, smart devices, toys, discipline, chores, activities, friends, school year prep, shopping

Watch Sports – college football, NFL, golf, college basketball, hockey, tennis, soccer, etc.

Dry cleaning

ATTENTION PLEASE!

THIS IS XYZ COMPANY WITH A MESSAGE FOR YOU!

Car maintenance

Budget review

I DON’T CARE– LEAVE ME ALONE!

Cell phone issues: Cracked screens, new carriers, new plans, data issues, OS updates, recharging

Annual benefits selections

Religious service

Put gas in the car

Business travel

Go through junk mail

Take phone calls

Find a place to eat and drive time

Read email

Update Facebook

Fix pictures

DrivingMusic listening

TextingHaircutNails done

Other grooming

Computer issues – virus, printer, OS upgrade, backups

Play sports

Put on makeup

What is marketing?

Official definition: The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives

My graduate marketing class textbook

Your product or service: The 4 P’s ( Your Marketing mix)

  Price (determining the sales price that product or service)

  Product (designing and defining the product or service)

  Promotion (communication – creating awareness, reminding)

  Place (where customers buy the product or service -- online, offline)

How do I drive awareness?

Through multiple impressions!

Impression An effect, feeling or image retained by a targeted consumer from an advertisement

Advertisement Any public notice designed to sell goods or publicize something

Impressions driven by tactics

• Traditional Advertising – Print, OOH, Radio, TV• Direct marketing • Electronic mail • Online – Social media, SEO, Advertising (Google Adwords,

Facebook), You Tube • Personal selling (telephone (telemarketing), face to face)• Public Relations (Publicity, events, lobbying, image management)• Other (quality control, word of mouth , business cards,

sponsorships, networking, customer facing processes, etc.)

Marketing plan

Marketing calendar

Niche/position

Name of company

Identity

Logo

Stationary

Outside signage

Inside signage

Theme

Business cards

Cause marketing

Phone demeanor

Toll free phone number

Free consultations

Free seminars/clinics or free estimates/appraisalsFree demos

Free samples

Giver versus taker stance

Fusion marketing

Hours of operation

Days o

f oper

atio

n

Win

dow

dis

play

Website home page

Flexibility

Word of Mouth

Community in

volvement

Barter

Club and association memberships

Partial payment/credit

Employee attire

Marketing on telephone hold

Past success stories

Service/customer blissFollow-up/lis

tening

The company owners and employees

Gifts

Cat

alog

Newsle

tter

Articles in publication

Competitive advantages

Ben

efits

list

Posters

Net

wor

king

Linked-in ad

Google ads

Facebook adsSocial m

edia posts

Email

Past success storiesProduct/Service offerings

Customer contact time

How

staff says hello/good-bye

Public relations

Media contacts

Email contact

Nea

tnes

s

Referral plan

Guarantee

Telemarketing

Gift certificates

Brochures

Business location

Print AdvertisingTV/Radio Ads

Sales Training

Networking

Quality product/service

Upgrade options

Contests/Sweepstakes

You Tube videosDirect Mail

OOH Advertising

Special Events

Trade shows

Test

imon

ials

/Rev

iew

s

Sponsorships

Ease o

f doin

g busin

ess

What is the ultimate goal of an impression?

• A: Attention – grabs the attention of the consumer – standing apart from the clutter

• B: Brand – reinforces the name/brand of your product, service or company

• C: Connection – makes a connection with your consumer

How many Impressions does it take?

  1980’s:   1 – Make consumer aware  2 – Arouse Interest in consumer  3 – Consumer takes action

  By 2001: Up to 9 impressions to induce action  By 2016 : 18 and growing impressions to induce action

  Why growing? Volume of total impressions growing – digital and online growth -- messaging now very congested, consumers are overwhelmed with messages

Let’s make cookies from scratch……

Chocolate chip cookies!Please provide the recipe to make two dozen cookies!

Marketing Plan: Your roadmap

• Marketing plan is a must!

• It is a roadmap – It establishes your goals and directs you toward them.

• It is similar (condensed) to a business plan but for existing businesses

• Rule of thumb: • Start four months prior to beginning of fiscal year• Finish one month prior

Marketing plan: 1. Analysis of trends, usage and awareness

Analysis of the following (if applicable) Market/Industry TrendsConsumer TrendsUsageAwareness of your products, services or company

Learnings – what do you know?Implications – what does it mean?Action – what can you do about it?

Marketing plan: 2. Analysis of target consumer

• Understanding who your “consumer” is determines which tactics you choose.

• Who is your target customer? -- Demographics (Age, kids, gender, ethnicity, occupation, education, income level, sales volume, industries)-- Who are they? Where are they? How many of them are there? What

do they need? How can I reach this customer?

Marketing plan: Target consumer = Buyer Persona

Marketing plan: 3. SWOT Analysis

For you and your top competitors

• Strengths: What do you do well, what unique resources can you draw on?

• Weaknesses: What can you improve? Where do you have fewer resources than others?

• Opportunities: What trends or weaknesses of your competitors can you take advantage of?

• Threats: What trends could harm your business? What are your competitors doing that could impact your business? Look at governmental threats as well.

Marketing plan: 4. Categorize targets

• New potential customers

• Potential customers who you have already contacted

• Potential customers who have contacted you in the past

• Potential customers who you have qualified

• Customers

Marketing plan: 5. Marketing Tactics/Commo strategy (calendar)

• List all the activities that you are planning

Month of execution

Projected costs

Customer type

Goals (Drive awareness, increase sales, etc.)

How you plan to measure?

Marketing plan: Share and commit

• Involve your employees

• Ask for feedback

• Spread the enthusiasm

• Commit

Impressions and tactics

• The first mistake: Unrealistic expectations• No way to perfectly predict buying cycles• No magic bullet

Impressions and tactics

• The second mistake: They stop• And so will sales

Impressions and tactics

• Realistic expectations• Trial then gauge success or failure, but DO• Most tactics are equity building/awareness creating • Consumers may not yet be in the buying cycle

Tactic planning is a “trial and error” exercise

• Try to capture a response’s source (source codes, vary discounts/coupons)

• Don’t expect many responses – awareness generation

• There is no “magic bullet” -- even the biggest companies test!

• Most tactics will be equity building, driving awareness or reminding consumers…..

• Treat marketing spending like a tax

All talk about Social Media….

• Retail Top customer acquisition & retention platforms/tactics

Website

Politically incorrect commercials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66mQz44pPY4

Marketing spending plans

Marketing Budget

Online Marketing Activities

30-35%65-70%

Traditional Marketing Activities

Online Advertising (Google Adwords, Facebook)

34%

Source: Forrester Research

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

47%

Mobile and Other

13%6%Social media

Marketing Budget

• General rule: 5-7% of gross sales

• Start-ups higher: 10-30%+ of gross sales projections

What do companies spend on marketing?

• Companies spend on average 10.2% of annual revenue on marketing 1

• Companies with annual revenues of $25 million or less spent on average 11%on marketing 2

• B2B Product business: 10.6%• B2B Service business: 10.1%• B2C Product business: 16.3%• B2C Service business: 10.9%

• Marketing budgets are between 7-12% of total revenue 3

• B2C’s spend more on marketing compared to B2B’s• Smaller companies spend more on marketing as a % of TTL Revenue.

1- 2014 Gartner Research study, 2- 2014 CMO survey from AMA and Duke Univ., 3-2016 Annual CMO survey

Marketing works!

Online Marketing

Must have a website

• Website must be mobile friendly!-- 75% of internet users went online via a mobile device end of 2015

(GlobalWebIndex)-- 73% of people always have their mobile devices with them (Facebook)-- People spend on average 86 minutes/day using mobile web, compared to 36 minutes using desktop internet (Zenith Media consumption forecast)-- In North America, 72% of internet consumption is on a mobile device.-- In 2018, Google will penalize websites (ranking lower) if not mobile friendly

Mobile surges

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

2007 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Number of Global Users (Millions)

Mobile Desktop

Source: Morgan Stanley Research

Search – how do people find me?

• Two types (Google):1. Paid (Google)• Position: Top and bottom of first page• Bid on words or series of words• Can be expensive

2. Organic/Natural/Earned• Position: Starts just below paid search• Depends on SEO (Search Engine Optimization)• Is time-consuming and may be costly

Paid

Display Ad: Paid

Organic

Google search:7 Paid

10 Organic

Organic

Organic

Paid

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• How does a search engine determine organic rank?Algorithm (web crawlers, spiders or software robots)

• What is an algorithm?Software code developed by Search enginesIt changes periodically throughout year

Google: 2014: 152015: 52016: 112017: 12

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• What is included in an algorithm?1. Back links (referral websites, directories)2. Meta data in Meta tags (text in HTML) and copy on website3. Relevant recent content (blogs, updates)4. Social media and news links (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in)5. Advertising (Google Adwords, online)6. Trustworthiness (Yelp, testimonials, reviews)7. Mobile usability8. Website load speeds/errors of your website9. Security (SSL added to go from http to https)

If you aren’t on first or second page, you don’t exist.

• It is a myth that if you build it, they will come.• It is a myth that consumers don’t scroll, but…..

• 91% of searches don’t go past the first page

• Top 3 results: 58.4% - 62.7% (Page 1)• Results 4-10: 27.2% -32.8% (Page 1)• Results 11-20: 4.5%-14.4% (Mostly page 1)• Below 20: <1% (Pages 2-3+)

PPC

Organic

PPC vs. Organic: Budgeting

• If you aren’t on the first page for searches for your business then:

PPC

Organic

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Over time, SEO improves

Organic

PPC

“TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY FOR SEO: THAT IS THE QUESTION……

• If search is the primary way your prospective customers find you then you need to hire an SEO specialist.

• They can show you ways to help improve your SEO by showing you how to create quality backlinks (blog posts, reviews, articles, videos).

• They will optimize your site to improve the web crawlers’ ability to find you (Google changes its algorithm 5-15 times a year).

• They will recommend other strategies to improve your native rank (reviews, social media, speed, site improvements).

Web page design helpful hints

• Mobile friendly!!! 76% of consumers won’t use website if it isn’t mobile optimized. 1

• 1/3 white space, 1/3 pictures, 1/3 copy, KISS*, limit copy and images, balance your page2

• Avoid large animations and widgets, no background sound

• Look at competitors – copy essence (be mindful of IP laws)

1- AT&T Business Circle 2- Kasia Johnson, CEO, Merge Forward * - KISS= Keep it simple smarty

Funny advertisinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOJNMNczZKU

“Fancy 4 star Motel”

“Phone ET for your home”“I pity the stool”

“I show up” “We guarantee fast service no matter how long it takes”

Social Media Marketing

Social Media

Social Media Usage

Social Media Marketing usage

Source: Simply Measured

Face

book

Inst

agra

m

Twitt

er

You

Tube

Link

ed in

Pint

eres

t

Goo

gle

plus

Snap

cha

t Wha

t’sA

pp(m

essa

ging

–VO

IP)

Redd

it(w

eb c

onte

nt ra

ting

, soc

ial n

ews

disc

ussi

on)

Tum

blr (

mic

robl

oggi

ng &

soc

ial n

etw

orki

ng)

Peris

cope

(vid

eo st

ream

ing)

Sina

Wei

bo (C

hine

se m

icro

blog

ging

)

Vine

(vid

eo h

ostin

g)

Flic

kr (i

mag

e an

d vi

deo

host

ing)

Soun

dclo

ud(m

usic

shar

ing)

Mee

rkat

(live

vid

eo st

ream

ing)

Social Media Spending

Source: Simply Measured

Social Media: Demographics

Social Media

• 5 step social media marketing plan

1. What are people saying about your business?-- Search Google & Twitter for your business name. (Google Alerts)

-- Are bloggers talking about you (Google Blog Search)

2. What platforms do your competitors use?

3. Create a policy -- what will you talk about? What do your clients want from you, who will handle it?

Source: Smallbizdaily

Social Media

• 5 step social media marketing plan (con’t)

4. Be consistent-- Can be very time consuming-- Schedule it (TweetDeck, Hootsuite, Buffer, Postcron)

-- Two parts Posting & Responding

5. Social Media IS MARKETING-- Make connections. Provide information. Dive traffic to your blog, website or business

Source: Smallbizdaily

Social Media

• Don’t try to conquer all social platforms at once

Start where your customers are

Tackle 1 or 2 then move to the next

Source: Smallbizdaily

Social Media takes time

Social Media ROI

• Measuring ROI most commonly cited challenge facing social media marketers 1

• Attributing social marketing spending to media to business goals is another challenge

• Proxy metrics (likes, comments, shares, retweets , views and brand lift) were traditional ways to measure, but many executives want to tie views to sales metrics

1 Source: Simply Measured survey of 1000 ad agencies worldwide

Social Media

• Best times to post --depends on industry, but in general:

7pm, Thursday

4pm, Thursday

8am, Wednesday

12am, Friday

Source: Trackmaven: (https://trackmaven.com/blog/best-times-to-post-social-media/)

6pm, FridayInstagram

Linked-in

Twitter

Facebook

Pinterest

Algorithm based on client engagement so, you want to post when users are most active

Social Media

• Resources for assisting with social media

Hootsuite www.hootsuite.com (manages messages across multiple social media)

99 Dollar Social www.99dollarsocial.com (finds content, creates custom posts)

Social oomph www.socialoomph.com (schedule updates, monitor activity, etc.)

Buffer, Postcron, TweetDeck *(schedule posts) (* twitter only)

InstaQuote application based (creates text pictures for )

Word Swag application based (creates text designs for )

Tumblr

Joke time

WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO HIDE A DEAD BODY?

Your Future…..

Focus on the future!

• Ideation is NECESSARY for your future –

--You must be thinking about what is next

-- How can I acquire new business

-- Come up with new products, services, customers

Focus on the future!

• Ideation is NECESSARY for your future –

-- Try setting aside time monthly – ideation sessionGet out of the office – go somewhere quiet, start in the AM before you get caught up in the minutia of the day

-- Fill an “Innovation pipeline”– ideas for new products, services or even new customers (high to low execution)

-- Create a stair step chart to map your future

Focus on the future!

Near term

Few ideas: highly refined

Many ideas: Loosely defined

Long term

Innovation pipeline Stair step chart

Execution timing

Execution Timing

New idea A: $x in revenue

New idea B: $x in revenue

New idea C: $x in revenue

6 months Year 1 Year 2

Several ideas: Somewhat defined

X

X +A+B+C

Reve

nue

X=Revenue

Focus on the future!

• What do the following large and successful brands have in common?

For more information or additional education in Marketing

• For class options, please go to the Collin College Continuing Education online career skills training catalog: www.collin.edu/ce/

• To register for a class, please call 972-985-3711 or http://cougarweb.collin.edu

Advice and Questions

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!”

Benjamin Franklin

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”

Unknown, but it’s old

“Marketing is a NEVER ending process. You should always be marketing! In up or down economies….”

Jay Conrad Levin, Marketing and Ad guru

The answer……

Ingredients: 1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)1 cup white sugar1 cup packed brown sugar2 eggs1 tsp vanilla extract3 cups all-purpose flour1 tsp baking soda2 tsp hot water½ tsp salt2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.

3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.