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Get Scrappier: Big Tips for (Small) Business Marketers
Praise for Get scraPPier

“Michelle has mapped the wide world of marketing
with a short-cut route for small businesses. Get Scrappier
is fast and fun, witty and wise, and completely useful and
enjoyable.”

—Barbara Findlay Schenck
Author of Small Business Marketing For Dummies
and Selling Your Business For Dummies; Co-Author
of Branding For Dummies and Business Plans Kit For
Dummies (bizstrong.com)



“Get Scrappy is a wonderful resource for business
owners forced to do more with less. Michelle not only
offers a variety of marketing tactics to experiment with,
she also explains the strategy behind them.

This isn’t a guide you’ll read once and discard—you’ll find
yourself coming back to it again and again.”

—Christa Cordova
Owner of Healthy Sprouts; co-author of Get Scrappy
Contents
Readers Tips .......................................................................................................... ii

Introduction ...........................................................................................................iii

Section 1...................................... Why Marketing Matters ................................... 1

Section 2...................................... Creating & Connecting Conversations ............ 5

Section 3...................................... Simplify & Scale ............................................. 12

Special Section ............................ The Scrappy Marketer’s (Online) Toolkit ........ 16

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. 27

About the Author ................................................................................................ 28




                                                                                                                              i
readers tiPs


This is Not (Just) Another e-Guide
All information shared is based on real-world experiences. No pontification.
No classroom-only tips.

Keep it simple is the mantra, making it easy to “own it”, do it and share it
with others.

The ideas contained here won’t sit on a shelf. The guide itself is fluid and
contains concepts that any small business can apply, regardless of industry
type or target audience.

Who Will Benefit From Reading This
Small business marketers looking for inbound programs that are easy to
plan, execute and manage long-term.

Best practice seekers exploring how big box and small biz marketer
experiences converge and get applied.

Fellow marketers who simply appreciate a fresh dose of inspiration and self-
help content.

How You Can Help Spread the Word
•	 You can share (discuss) this offline over coffee or beer, but you can
   also attract other scrappy marketers in 5 easy ways: Slideshare, the Get
   Scrappy blog, ibooks/iTunes, Nook, Kindle and Lulu.

•	 If you have it and like it, share it online! If On Twitter, Add #getscrappy or
   @Getscrappymktng to your message.

                                                                                    ii
introduction

In 2009, an idea was unleashed. It wasn’t new - it wasn’t even
all that different. But with bank fall-outs, a mortgage crisis
and instability in job growth, economic conditions reminded
marketers and business owners to “get scrappy” and to
become more accountable for every dollar spent. If they didn’t,
their job or (small) business would fold.

Get Scrappier is an eGuide that outlines [Why Marketing
Matters] to making your business more profitable, and [How to
Create & Connect Conversations] about your brand or service
in a digital age.

It is also jammed with tips on how to [Simplify & Scale] your
marketing efforts based on the life stage of your business.

Last, but not least, you will receive a list of what your (online)
marketing toolkit should look like to make the most of time and
resources.

Enjoy the ride. It’s short, sweet and scrappy.




                                                                     iii
Section 1




Why MarketinG Matters

Time and money. Ask any (small) business marketer what holds them back from
creating full-fledge marketing programs and it’s usually quickly answered by
“time”, “money” or both. I am here to say, BS. Those are self-prescribed lies that
we tell ourselves, that hold us back from becoming something really great.

Time is a personal sacrifice. Everyone has time, it’s just how you/we choose
to use it. Time not spent sorting out how to market (communicate) to a larger
audience is misused energy. Your business depends on you spending more time
marketing. Without it you are building a brand underground.

Money is something you might be lucky enough to have already. But like time, it
must be allocated correctly to get the best return.

Having money does not mean inherently that you will have marketing
success. Many a marketer, big biz or small biz, has thrown money at business
challenges without a noticeable lift in sales or brand awareness.

Why? Because a monetary allowance for marketing efforts blinded the practical
planning process that actually leads to slower spending and ROI-oriented
execution.




                                                                                     1
Not having money in the first place, as you might be experiencing, can actually
be a blessing. Like life, it forces you to think outside of the box. The challenge
then is only to create your own box, a box that best defines your business, your
communication style and what money can or cannot buy in the near term.

Money is really only a luxury to do more great marketing to achieve bigger
results. It does not mean you cannot start building now, today, from nothing. You
can. It’s called getting scrappier.

Here are some guiding principles to get you started.




1. Amplify your (online) marketing now.

Let’s assume you have mastered networking events, handing out business cards
and excel at general door-knocking. So now it’s time to move the conversations
online for bigger impact.

A common misconception is that having a website, setting up a Facebook fan
page or Twitter handle means you have “done it”. Check. Move on. Eh, not so
fast.

Just like a networking event, you stick around for drinks. You shake hands, you
get to know people. And by getting to know people, you foster relationships.




                                                                                     2
Online marketing is just that, and more. Thanks to technology you can have real-
time (versus pre-scheduled) conversations with real people. Digital media and
multi-device platforms (desktop, smartphone, tablets) allow us to engage users,
business partners and the larger industry wherever they are online, at any time of
day.




2. Scrap offline advertising. (Ouch, I just said it.)

If you are operating on a lean (or no) marketing budget, there just is no time or
money for it. Even up to a few years ago, many would have argued - even for
small business - that you should create balanced marketing plans. A little online,
a little offline equated to awesome marketing. I would argue this is no longer
relevant for scrappy, tightly funded (or not funded) marketers.

Why? The more obvious reason is that consumers spend a significant amount of
their time online - socializing, consuming content and interacting with friends,
family and industry colleagues.

The less obvious reason is because digital (with the evolution of technology) has
transformed online marketing into a more visual, connective medium. A lasting
dimension of offline marketing has been it’s ability to create a very visual impact,
to strike an emotional chord with audiences. Digital simply could not compete in
the past with (boring) text copy and single image ads.




                                                                                       3
Yet now, the communication canvas has changed. Offline media no longer has
exclusive rights to resonate (emotionally) with end users.

Today, with great messaging through core digital touch points that mirror your
target audience’s online behavior, you can tell your story in a very compelling
and detailed way. All this through pictures, videos, polling tools - plug-ins galore
- and many of which are free. Sure it takes a little dedication (time) to build out
an effective online user experience, but dollar for dollar you will significantly
increase your reach (and resonate) with new and existing users of your product or
service.

So why does marketing matter to (small) businesses? Because it’s more than just
1:1 advertising and it’s more than having or creating a marketing budget. It is
about creating 1:many conversations with near real-time impact.




                                                                                       4
Section 2




creatinG & connectinG conversations

They say everyone (individually) is a either a creator, consumer or curator of
content. (To re-quote Brian Solis and Steve Rosenbaum.)

As marketers, we are challenged to do all three. Naturally, one or two of these
will fit your skill set best. Yet in the “digital age”, it is incredibly important
to leverage your communication skills to build reputation across online
communities.

You might say, I cannot find time (or money) to do this effectively. I would say,
take a minute to consider this…

Everyone talks to someone every day. And conversations, in-person or not,
create a sticky factor by which we measure a person, a service, or business. It is
our perception of all those factors that create the world in which we live.

These conversations also happen in a multiplicity of formats, times and
places. And you are actively participating in this dynamic, whether you realize
it or not. That last email you sent, could change the future of your business.
That comment you last made on an industry blog, could shape how someone
perceives your business personality. And the list goes on.




                                                                                     5
The interactions we have with people, nearly every day, can be broken
down into three distinct types of conversations. It is from these that you can
create and connect (online) conversations about your business.




Peripheral Conversations. Your News, Their News.

Whether I ever meet Dan Rather, Michele Norris, or Pete Cashmore is to be
debated; but what they say, I tune into. What they are distilling for me, I share. In
many cases, it even changes my world view; and, in turn, it has the potential to
change yours.

You might say, “I am not Pete Cashmore”. No, you probably aren’t, but within
everyone’s world there are leaders that (over time) have built their following
by very actively participating in that community or interconnected sets of
communities (e.g. technology and media). If becoming a recognized leader in
your space is a big-picture goal, then today it necessitates you to begin mingling
online.

Tips:

•	 Participate in industry-level online news forums. LinkedIn Groups and related
   blogging communities are a great place to start.

•	 Aggregate (curate) and publish interesting industry factoids from your
   website and social channels. Not only does it make you and your business
   more interesting (well-rounded), but it also reveals what influences your




                                                                                        6
business philosophy. From such, new or existing users of your product/
   service will have something to follow, versus only purchasing or signing up
   without an emotional connection to what your brand represents.




Personal Conversations.
The Circle of Trust – Family & Friends.

We listen closest to this group. What we glean from this community is not always
shared publicly, but it’s just that - it’s personal. It means something to us. And
often your best champions for what you do eat dinner with you every night or
pick up your phone call every week to discuss your latest concept.

These personal conversations can lend a significant helping hand to building or
reinforcing your brand to the larger public eye.

Their (free) advise. Good or bad, they love to give their honest opinions. Always
take it. And often, they are right.

Spreading the word first via social channels (Facebook, Twitter) by “liking”
your branded pages, retweeting something you shared, or providing general
recommendations and product mentions in their favorite online communities.

Writing and blogging on your behalf. You would be surprised how many are
willing friends and family are to promote you.




                                                                                     7
Tips:

•	 Be careful to not over-use or abuse this channel. Credibility can just as easily
   be lost if used in excess or if comes across as spam.

•	 Graciously ask and graciously give back. This is a conversation circle that will
   provide support, but is also likely request it in return. Don’t be self-serving
   with these requests or soon no one will help you out.




Professional Conversations.
Business Contacts, Industry Influencers.

This one is an extension of Peripheral Conversations, but should have more
specificity to your line of work (e.g. specifically digital magazines versus general
digital publishing).

Similar to the other conversation types mentioned, it is important to remain
consistently engaged; but, it is also important to connect the dots with original
content (blogging) and related industry content (curating) to create meaningful
conversations that readers and end users can relate to.

Tips:

•	 Start a blog. Blogging is one of the simplest ways to display personality
   and opinions to build your personal brand as a subject matter expert about
   photography, pastry making, or whatever your passion topic (and business) is.




                                                                                       8
•	 Look for unique, personal (while still professional) ways of exposing
   information about your business. Instead of always posting or re-posting
   something in a formal site update, sketch out your business model or your
   mission statement on a whiteboard. Take a picture. Post it on your site,
   Twitter, etc. Have fun with marketing your work!

The end result of bringing together these (3) conversations types is a three-
prong messaging strategy that can be a mix of:

•	 Evergreen (always on, always happening), or

•	 Event-based (a marketing campaign) with a specific start and stop time frame.

When building your marketing plan within this conversational frame, also be aware
of your tone. It will be immediately, and regularly filtered, as authentic or not.




        REAL                                 FAKE

       • Please join our beta group.         • Like us on Facebook and we’ll
         We want your awesome input            give you a Free XYZ!
         to craft our next product.
                                             • Offer, offer. Sale, sale!
       • Congratulations!
         You just accessed our (app, site)   • False advertising (company
         for the 100th time. Take $5 off       statistics with no credible
         your next visit.                      sourcing, splashy platitude
                                               campaigns when negative versus
       • Sharing your skills via your          positive product reviews are
         blog or core website                  evident on app store).
         (e.g., lighting tips for taking
         home photos).


                                                                                     9
so What, Who cares?
It is important to stay authentic with your messaging efforts because less authentic
approaches will only provide quick-hits on your site, or immediate downloads of
a free product; but it is bound to deliver the wrong (long-term) lead.

The more authentic (and transparent) you are, more genuinely interested and
engaged users will be attracted to your business.




are you just GettinG started?
The following is a quick sketch about how you can distribute and engage in
conversations, based on the life stage of your business.




                                                                                       10
BUSINESS STAGE   YOUR NEEDS                   MARKETING




                                                                                     Partners/Cross-Links




                                                                                                                                                          Display/Banenrs
                                                            Social Channels




                                                                                                                    Local Listing(s)




                                                                                                                                                                            Virtual Events
                                                  Website




                                                                                                                                       Content


                                                                                                                                                 Search
                                                                                                            Email
                                                                              Blog
Start-up /       Initial brand recognition,                                                                                      
Stealth Mode     industry or community
                 coverage and (potentially)
                 beta users or those first
                 five clients.


Emerging         You’re up and running,                                                                                                            
                 but you need to grow
                 clientele and establish
                 yourself as a credible
                 brand and go-to service.


Established      You’ve “made it”!                                                                                                                                  
                 Perhaps even to
                 profitability, but you’re
                 still seeking incremental
                 bottom line revenue growth
                 for personal financial reasons
                  to woo investors or M&A
                 opportunities.




                                                                                                                                                                                             11
Section 3




siMPlify & scale


One of the first questions I get in new client interviews is —
“what am I doing right?”

We all need positive reinforcements, but we also need to understand what we
are doing right before we can shelve what we are doing wrong. Once you have
a clear view on what is working (e.g. xyz messaging on x online channel delivers
10x new app downloads every week), then you can start to iterate and optimize
to drive even better results long-term.

The keys to creating marketing (communication) efforts that provide sustainable
business growth are:

•	 Build a learning environment within a project or program to verify that it is
   delivering results.

•	 Create flexibility for iteration.

•	 Develop programs that can achieve results with resources that scale.

Let’s dig deeper into the first key — performance expectations.




                                                                                   12
This one starts by setting goals within your business plan that tie directly into
marketing efforts. How you achieve goals may change over time, but the goals (if
set properly) should fill for a larger business gap that is essential to building your
business.

If your marketing efforts are not growing your business, take a closer look at one
or two things:

•	 The effectiveness and efficiency of (existing) conversations about your brand
   or service to deliver revenue

•	 Customer/user satisfaction with your product or service

If one or both of these are not meeting a bigger business need, it could be time
to hit the drawing boards.

Flexibility to iterate is the more important aspect of building things that scale. To
be successful long term, you must be able to create marketing events that can
be done over and over without taxing critical pieces of your business for little or
no incremental profit. Your investment in any project is human capital (yourself,
your immediate business partner, your trusty interns), financial capital (your hard
costs to doing something), and emotional capital (the wear and tear an initiative
will take on your personal time).




                                                                                         13
Tips:

Pitfalls to avoid.

•	 Sketch out the end-to-end user experience of a program before you move it
   into execution. Don’t fly blind or with too much of an assumptive “no failure
   possible” attitude.

•	 Define the resources necessary to create that experience. Ideas are awesome,
   but not every awesome idea is tangible or realistic with the resources
   available.

•	 Don’t ideate in a box. Second-opinions are not intended to kill your best
   ideas. They are to improve your intentions.

•	 If the goal is mass marketing, be certain the value-add communicated is
   “in-demand” for many, versus just a few. A good way to test this is to do
   some simple research online, survey existing customers, or get a second
   opinion from business peers.

Reinforcements to pursue.

•	 Leverage in-house resources first. Outsourcing is not your friend unless it’s
   to help understand and define the role of something in the near future (e.g.
   testing Email marketing, but needing a resource to get you started).

•	 Start out with distinct objectives. No goals, no plan, no results. Very
   few entrepreneurs and business leaders achieve success on a whim. Be
   thoughtful. Be focused. Know what you want (or need) to deliver.




                                                                                   14
•	 Craft everything as if it were art — that it will and must last forever. This is
   a work philosophy as much as it is a way of doing business. There is a vast
   difference in quality based on the attention to detail. It defines something-to-
   last solutions versus building-to-react.

•	 Find communication tools that integrate well with other tools. You do not
   want 20 tools to manage every day. Ideally, there should be fewer than five to
   assist you.

So what’s holding you back from investing in (online) conversations about your
business? Unsure which resources to use to make this happen?

Read on about the essential ingredients for your (online) marketing toolkit.




                                                                                      15
Special Section




the scraPPy Marketer’s (online) toolkit

Special Notes:

•	 There is a purposeful absence of print media in this ebook. It does not mean
   print-based conversations would not be beneficial to your business, but is not
   recommended. The ROI is hard to prove out and the ability to trace results,
   challenging.

•	 In the vein of getting scrappy, let’s keep it digital. Over 60% of a consumer’s
   day is spent online, so why wouldn’t you market there too?

•	 Yes, there are more solutions for SMB marketers than those listed. These are
   just industry favorites and those I have used and trust.




Your Website

A business’ online presence 100% starts with creating a .com user experience.
And keeping it clean and simple is more important than spending big dollars on
a web designer. You can obtain a little help for the non-HTML savvy guy or gal
here:




                                                                                     16
Blog-Only
•	 Tumblr
•	 Blogger/Google


Blog + Domain
•	 WordPress
•	 Yahoo! Small Business
•	 Microsoft Live/365




Your Social Channels

Social is about establishing presence, monitoring your brand, scheduling posts
and conversing real-time with your community.

Free, Easy to Learn & Use
•	 HootSuite
•	 Tweetdeck
•	 Bit.ly
•	 Involver (free and paid solutions)

Some Investment – Time & Dollars
•	 Wildfire
•	 Buddy Media
•	 SocialEngage (formerly Cotweet via ExactTarget)




                                                                                 17
Your Messaging

The bulk of marketing comes down to storytelling. Be it in-person via your sales
team, or virtual via email. You must be able to articulate who you are in a few
sentences. Online story telling can occur through any/all of the below. Here are
some areas to focus your energy.

SEO:

Better known as search engine optimization and organic self-made-traffic, SEO
really is a representation of your core value proposition throughout the .com
experience. When building a website and (stand-alone) landing pages, do not
forget basics like creating a title, description and meta tags for your site/page.

Don’t Outsource, But If You Must:

Hubspot: a great one-stop-shop for messaging via .com, email and social media.

I have a single recommendation for this one. I don’t trust very many SEO gurus.
If you can figure out how to control the basics via yourself or someone talented
in copywriting, you’re set for awhile. Basic index tools takes care of the rest by
crawling your site to identify matching keywords to xyz topics.

Social:

# hashtags, @ (the fancy Twitter handle), tagging on Facebook




                                                                                     18
These are basics and should not be overused, but they are also truly essential
to joining larger (online) communities and conversations. Providing online
“mentions” (tags, retweets) allows others to notice you. Start by tagging people
you know, want to know, or other businesses within your posts to involve a
broader community in an (online) discussion.

Email:

You can have an email platform, but you must also have a messaging strategy
and HTML templates. (Please do not send text-only or mixed font emails.) Email,
while often not opened (yes, true) does still function as a calling card. Make it
special, make it look good. It may be the only time you get to impress someone.

If you are (or soon become) familiar with email basics, I would suggest User
Segmentation as a must-have as early on as possible.

Below are (3) simple ways you can start to bucket users and message to them in
a more relevant way:

Prospects – You have their names and emails, purchased list or not. Sell them
ASAP on why you should be special to them.

Current, Non-Paying Users – They might have registered for something, but they
have yet to make a purchase. Email is a great way to remind them, without being
annoying, that they showed interest in something and to request permission to
continue engaging with them.




                                                                                    19
Current, Paying Users – These folks are your best customer. Many are your first.
You earned their respect. Keep it that way by messaging in a unique way from
those you may have never met.

Platforms You’d Be Smart to Put Your Time & Money Into:
•	 ExactTarget
•	 Constant Contact
•	 Vertical Response

Platforms On the Cheap:
•	 Mail Chimp
•	 iContact
•	 MadMimi

Text Links (Paid Search):

Some might bucket this as Paid Search, I call it all text links. Whether it goes live
on my own site, your site or a perfect stranger’s site, it is a text link if there are
only a few characters to describe a product or service.

Places to Be Seen & Found:
•	 Google
•	 Yahoo/Bing




                                                                                         20
Banner ads (your site and theirs)
Online banner ads can serve a wide array of messaging purposes and
functionality. And like text links, they can be targeted by geography, audience
type (e.g., travelers vs. business owners), age, demographic and so on.

Let’s assume you do not have an internal ad server to do this on your own
website. If not, you can use a 3rd party vendor to help you drive incremental
reach for your banner creative.

•	 Facebook Ads: If you have a Fan Page, you need ads to drive initial
   engagement and new user acquisition. You can create a standard offer or
   sponsored story (content links) to expose what your brand is all about to new
   users.

•	 Ad Exchanges: This too is low maintenance and a minimal upfront investment
   (a few hundred dollars for basic rich media ads creative). Explore Google, if
   just starting out. It’s also more efficient to tie other marketing efforts into the
   same platform.

•	 Affiliates: See upcoming section for more info and ideas.

•	 Local Sites vs National or Global: If your brand is localized, then explore
   banner placements on the most trafficked local websites to see what ranks
   highest.




                                                                                         21
Your Content

This space is exploding right now and below are a few worth exploring if you
want to index stand-alone content for minimal to no upfront cost.
•	 Slideshare
•	 Digg
•	 StumbleUpon
•	 Google Docs
•	 YouTube
•	 Pinterest
•	 Chime.In
•	 Visual.ly




Your Affiliate Partners

This one is for small businesses with a mid to high degree of brand awareness.
This is not likely to be something you sign-up for as a start-up; but, when you do,
it’s a great extension of existing text links (Paid Search) and banner advertising
(Display media) marketing.

Popular Affiliate Channels To Consider:
•	 Commission Junction
•	 Google Affiliate Network




                                                                                      22
Your Creative

This an essential item to address. Let’s be honest — we are not all designers.
And you need resources for this to properly (and professionally) brand yourself
across every major online touch points.
•	 Logos
•	 Lead Gen Forms
•	 Main Website
•	 Video
•	 White Papers (formatting/layout)

Alternatives to Expensive Media Designers:
•	 Crowdspring. Name your price, find your favorite resource.

•	 Rent-A-Student. This is a college and graduate student resource. Qualified
   student designers need real-world work experience. You are their ticket to
   obtaining such, while you also save significantly on costs per project.




                                                                                  23
Your Webinars

I come back to this one from Get Scrappy v1. To be transparent, webinars are
not necessary for every business. If you are in the B2B space though or hosting a
virtual cooking class, you must awesome content that lives also on your website,
archives or before mentioned content (sharing destinations). You will also likely
need a webinar tool for events you host.

Spend a Little, Get A lot:
•	 WebEx
•	 GoToMeeting
•	 Skype




Your Apps

Many confuse apps with products. In most cases though, they are content
distributors for on-to-go consumers.

If apps (applications) are on your horizon or already happening, chances are your
tech team is also pretty involved in marketing them.

Below are a few best practices to follow:

1. Don’t rely on work-of-mouth for your app(s). True, your first reviewers are
   your most loyal fans and more than happy to tell their friends, but word-of-
   mouth will also only get you so far.




                                                                                    24
2. Start with hedging support within technical (online) communities. Win
   their trust and admiration and you will build a nice grouping of (genuine) fans
   to spread the word to the general consumer.

Differentiate the messaging of apps versus .com e-store or general brand. Again,
bear in mind it’s a content distribution touch point. Some questions to raise and
expose to users: How is the content distributed, shared and stored differently
than on .com? Is there a notification/messaging center?




Your Mobile (Online) Experience

In an age of being ever-connected, always on, and accessing content through
a wide range of devices, it is invaluable to know how to market across mobile
environments. There are few (basic) considerations to make when adding mobile
elements to your conversations with end users.

•	 Create a mobile browse environment for your website via Mobify, Wirenode
   and MobilePress.

•	 If your primary target audience are tech savvy, early adopters then focus
   advertising efforts first on mobile platforms - paid search, display media. The
   same go-to resources for standard ad programs (Google, Bing) apply.

Miscellaneous things to be prepared for:
•	 Unique ad sizes
•	 Added costs for development




                                                                                     25
noW What? Go do it!

Creating, managing and optimizing online conversations is undeniably a serious
investment that you, and/or your entire team, will make; but, bear in mind you
are not alone. If you need a lending hand or moral support, ask for advice. We
are here to share and create success.

Keeping doing more on less. Get Scrappy.

Join The Conversation Today:




                                                                                 26
acknoWledGMents

A very grateful heart goes out to my family, extended family,
friends and colleagues. Without these individuals supporting
me through long days, long hours and countless discussions
about the present and the future of marketing, I would not
have written another book.

A special mention goes out to my designer, Dan Eyman. His
creative eye made this possible again.

I also want to thank my son Preston (“P”) for how he
(unknowingly) inspires me to do what I love. I hope he too will
someday understand the value of getting scrappy.




                                                                  27
aBout Michelle fitzGerald

Michelle Fitzgerald is a digital marketing expert with over ten
years of experience within high-tech start-ups and F500s.

Her past work experience includes Zinio, Yahoo!, LA Times
and CareerBuilder. Areas of expertise include trans media on
smartphone, tablet and pc, social media, online content, B2C/
B2B messaging strategy, and big data.

Outside of curating and developing content for Get Scrappy,
Michelle also speaks at industry events and consults within the
SMB community.

To reach Michelle regarding consulting engagements, speaking
opportunities or content contributions, please contact her
via email or your favorite social channel: LinkedIn, Twitter,
Facebook.




                                                                  28

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Get Scrappier: Big Tips for (Small) Business Marketers

  • 2. Praise for Get scraPPier “Michelle has mapped the wide world of marketing with a short-cut route for small businesses. Get Scrappier is fast and fun, witty and wise, and completely useful and enjoyable.” —Barbara Findlay Schenck Author of Small Business Marketing For Dummies and Selling Your Business For Dummies; Co-Author of Branding For Dummies and Business Plans Kit For Dummies (bizstrong.com) “Get Scrappy is a wonderful resource for business owners forced to do more with less. Michelle not only offers a variety of marketing tactics to experiment with, she also explains the strategy behind them. This isn’t a guide you’ll read once and discard—you’ll find yourself coming back to it again and again.” —Christa Cordova Owner of Healthy Sprouts; co-author of Get Scrappy
  • 3. Contents Readers Tips .......................................................................................................... ii Introduction ...........................................................................................................iii Section 1...................................... Why Marketing Matters ................................... 1 Section 2...................................... Creating & Connecting Conversations ............ 5 Section 3...................................... Simplify & Scale ............................................. 12 Special Section ............................ The Scrappy Marketer’s (Online) Toolkit ........ 16 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. 27 About the Author ................................................................................................ 28 i
  • 4. readers tiPs This is Not (Just) Another e-Guide All information shared is based on real-world experiences. No pontification. No classroom-only tips. Keep it simple is the mantra, making it easy to “own it”, do it and share it with others. The ideas contained here won’t sit on a shelf. The guide itself is fluid and contains concepts that any small business can apply, regardless of industry type or target audience. Who Will Benefit From Reading This Small business marketers looking for inbound programs that are easy to plan, execute and manage long-term. Best practice seekers exploring how big box and small biz marketer experiences converge and get applied. Fellow marketers who simply appreciate a fresh dose of inspiration and self- help content. How You Can Help Spread the Word • You can share (discuss) this offline over coffee or beer, but you can also attract other scrappy marketers in 5 easy ways: Slideshare, the Get Scrappy blog, ibooks/iTunes, Nook, Kindle and Lulu. • If you have it and like it, share it online! If On Twitter, Add #getscrappy or @Getscrappymktng to your message. ii
  • 5. introduction In 2009, an idea was unleashed. It wasn’t new - it wasn’t even all that different. But with bank fall-outs, a mortgage crisis and instability in job growth, economic conditions reminded marketers and business owners to “get scrappy” and to become more accountable for every dollar spent. If they didn’t, their job or (small) business would fold. Get Scrappier is an eGuide that outlines [Why Marketing Matters] to making your business more profitable, and [How to Create & Connect Conversations] about your brand or service in a digital age. It is also jammed with tips on how to [Simplify & Scale] your marketing efforts based on the life stage of your business. Last, but not least, you will receive a list of what your (online) marketing toolkit should look like to make the most of time and resources. Enjoy the ride. It’s short, sweet and scrappy. iii
  • 6. Section 1 Why MarketinG Matters Time and money. Ask any (small) business marketer what holds them back from creating full-fledge marketing programs and it’s usually quickly answered by “time”, “money” or both. I am here to say, BS. Those are self-prescribed lies that we tell ourselves, that hold us back from becoming something really great. Time is a personal sacrifice. Everyone has time, it’s just how you/we choose to use it. Time not spent sorting out how to market (communicate) to a larger audience is misused energy. Your business depends on you spending more time marketing. Without it you are building a brand underground. Money is something you might be lucky enough to have already. But like time, it must be allocated correctly to get the best return. Having money does not mean inherently that you will have marketing success. Many a marketer, big biz or small biz, has thrown money at business challenges without a noticeable lift in sales or brand awareness. Why? Because a monetary allowance for marketing efforts blinded the practical planning process that actually leads to slower spending and ROI-oriented execution. 1
  • 7. Not having money in the first place, as you might be experiencing, can actually be a blessing. Like life, it forces you to think outside of the box. The challenge then is only to create your own box, a box that best defines your business, your communication style and what money can or cannot buy in the near term. Money is really only a luxury to do more great marketing to achieve bigger results. It does not mean you cannot start building now, today, from nothing. You can. It’s called getting scrappier. Here are some guiding principles to get you started. 1. Amplify your (online) marketing now. Let’s assume you have mastered networking events, handing out business cards and excel at general door-knocking. So now it’s time to move the conversations online for bigger impact. A common misconception is that having a website, setting up a Facebook fan page or Twitter handle means you have “done it”. Check. Move on. Eh, not so fast. Just like a networking event, you stick around for drinks. You shake hands, you get to know people. And by getting to know people, you foster relationships. 2
  • 8. Online marketing is just that, and more. Thanks to technology you can have real- time (versus pre-scheduled) conversations with real people. Digital media and multi-device platforms (desktop, smartphone, tablets) allow us to engage users, business partners and the larger industry wherever they are online, at any time of day. 2. Scrap offline advertising. (Ouch, I just said it.) If you are operating on a lean (or no) marketing budget, there just is no time or money for it. Even up to a few years ago, many would have argued - even for small business - that you should create balanced marketing plans. A little online, a little offline equated to awesome marketing. I would argue this is no longer relevant for scrappy, tightly funded (or not funded) marketers. Why? The more obvious reason is that consumers spend a significant amount of their time online - socializing, consuming content and interacting with friends, family and industry colleagues. The less obvious reason is because digital (with the evolution of technology) has transformed online marketing into a more visual, connective medium. A lasting dimension of offline marketing has been it’s ability to create a very visual impact, to strike an emotional chord with audiences. Digital simply could not compete in the past with (boring) text copy and single image ads. 3
  • 9. Yet now, the communication canvas has changed. Offline media no longer has exclusive rights to resonate (emotionally) with end users. Today, with great messaging through core digital touch points that mirror your target audience’s online behavior, you can tell your story in a very compelling and detailed way. All this through pictures, videos, polling tools - plug-ins galore - and many of which are free. Sure it takes a little dedication (time) to build out an effective online user experience, but dollar for dollar you will significantly increase your reach (and resonate) with new and existing users of your product or service. So why does marketing matter to (small) businesses? Because it’s more than just 1:1 advertising and it’s more than having or creating a marketing budget. It is about creating 1:many conversations with near real-time impact. 4
  • 10. Section 2 creatinG & connectinG conversations They say everyone (individually) is a either a creator, consumer or curator of content. (To re-quote Brian Solis and Steve Rosenbaum.) As marketers, we are challenged to do all three. Naturally, one or two of these will fit your skill set best. Yet in the “digital age”, it is incredibly important to leverage your communication skills to build reputation across online communities. You might say, I cannot find time (or money) to do this effectively. I would say, take a minute to consider this… Everyone talks to someone every day. And conversations, in-person or not, create a sticky factor by which we measure a person, a service, or business. It is our perception of all those factors that create the world in which we live. These conversations also happen in a multiplicity of formats, times and places. And you are actively participating in this dynamic, whether you realize it or not. That last email you sent, could change the future of your business. That comment you last made on an industry blog, could shape how someone perceives your business personality. And the list goes on. 5
  • 11. The interactions we have with people, nearly every day, can be broken down into three distinct types of conversations. It is from these that you can create and connect (online) conversations about your business. Peripheral Conversations. Your News, Their News. Whether I ever meet Dan Rather, Michele Norris, or Pete Cashmore is to be debated; but what they say, I tune into. What they are distilling for me, I share. In many cases, it even changes my world view; and, in turn, it has the potential to change yours. You might say, “I am not Pete Cashmore”. No, you probably aren’t, but within everyone’s world there are leaders that (over time) have built their following by very actively participating in that community or interconnected sets of communities (e.g. technology and media). If becoming a recognized leader in your space is a big-picture goal, then today it necessitates you to begin mingling online. Tips: • Participate in industry-level online news forums. LinkedIn Groups and related blogging communities are a great place to start. • Aggregate (curate) and publish interesting industry factoids from your website and social channels. Not only does it make you and your business more interesting (well-rounded), but it also reveals what influences your 6
  • 12. business philosophy. From such, new or existing users of your product/ service will have something to follow, versus only purchasing or signing up without an emotional connection to what your brand represents. Personal Conversations. The Circle of Trust – Family & Friends. We listen closest to this group. What we glean from this community is not always shared publicly, but it’s just that - it’s personal. It means something to us. And often your best champions for what you do eat dinner with you every night or pick up your phone call every week to discuss your latest concept. These personal conversations can lend a significant helping hand to building or reinforcing your brand to the larger public eye. Their (free) advise. Good or bad, they love to give their honest opinions. Always take it. And often, they are right. Spreading the word first via social channels (Facebook, Twitter) by “liking” your branded pages, retweeting something you shared, or providing general recommendations and product mentions in their favorite online communities. Writing and blogging on your behalf. You would be surprised how many are willing friends and family are to promote you. 7
  • 13. Tips: • Be careful to not over-use or abuse this channel. Credibility can just as easily be lost if used in excess or if comes across as spam. • Graciously ask and graciously give back. This is a conversation circle that will provide support, but is also likely request it in return. Don’t be self-serving with these requests or soon no one will help you out. Professional Conversations. Business Contacts, Industry Influencers. This one is an extension of Peripheral Conversations, but should have more specificity to your line of work (e.g. specifically digital magazines versus general digital publishing). Similar to the other conversation types mentioned, it is important to remain consistently engaged; but, it is also important to connect the dots with original content (blogging) and related industry content (curating) to create meaningful conversations that readers and end users can relate to. Tips: • Start a blog. Blogging is one of the simplest ways to display personality and opinions to build your personal brand as a subject matter expert about photography, pastry making, or whatever your passion topic (and business) is. 8
  • 14. • Look for unique, personal (while still professional) ways of exposing information about your business. Instead of always posting or re-posting something in a formal site update, sketch out your business model or your mission statement on a whiteboard. Take a picture. Post it on your site, Twitter, etc. Have fun with marketing your work! The end result of bringing together these (3) conversations types is a three- prong messaging strategy that can be a mix of: • Evergreen (always on, always happening), or • Event-based (a marketing campaign) with a specific start and stop time frame. When building your marketing plan within this conversational frame, also be aware of your tone. It will be immediately, and regularly filtered, as authentic or not. REAL FAKE • Please join our beta group. • Like us on Facebook and we’ll We want your awesome input give you a Free XYZ! to craft our next product. • Offer, offer. Sale, sale! • Congratulations! You just accessed our (app, site) • False advertising (company for the 100th time. Take $5 off statistics with no credible your next visit. sourcing, splashy platitude campaigns when negative versus • Sharing your skills via your positive product reviews are blog or core website evident on app store). (e.g., lighting tips for taking home photos). 9
  • 15. so What, Who cares? It is important to stay authentic with your messaging efforts because less authentic approaches will only provide quick-hits on your site, or immediate downloads of a free product; but it is bound to deliver the wrong (long-term) lead. The more authentic (and transparent) you are, more genuinely interested and engaged users will be attracted to your business. are you just GettinG started? The following is a quick sketch about how you can distribute and engage in conversations, based on the life stage of your business. 10
  • 16. BUSINESS STAGE YOUR NEEDS MARKETING Partners/Cross-Links Display/Banenrs Social Channels Local Listing(s) Virtual Events Website Content Search Email Blog Start-up / Initial brand recognition,        Stealth Mode industry or community coverage and (potentially) beta users or those first five clients. Emerging You’re up and running,          but you need to grow clientele and establish yourself as a credible brand and go-to service. Established You’ve “made it”!           Perhaps even to profitability, but you’re still seeking incremental bottom line revenue growth for personal financial reasons to woo investors or M&A opportunities. 11
  • 17. Section 3 siMPlify & scale One of the first questions I get in new client interviews is — “what am I doing right?” We all need positive reinforcements, but we also need to understand what we are doing right before we can shelve what we are doing wrong. Once you have a clear view on what is working (e.g. xyz messaging on x online channel delivers 10x new app downloads every week), then you can start to iterate and optimize to drive even better results long-term. The keys to creating marketing (communication) efforts that provide sustainable business growth are: • Build a learning environment within a project or program to verify that it is delivering results. • Create flexibility for iteration. • Develop programs that can achieve results with resources that scale. Let’s dig deeper into the first key — performance expectations. 12
  • 18. This one starts by setting goals within your business plan that tie directly into marketing efforts. How you achieve goals may change over time, but the goals (if set properly) should fill for a larger business gap that is essential to building your business. If your marketing efforts are not growing your business, take a closer look at one or two things: • The effectiveness and efficiency of (existing) conversations about your brand or service to deliver revenue • Customer/user satisfaction with your product or service If one or both of these are not meeting a bigger business need, it could be time to hit the drawing boards. Flexibility to iterate is the more important aspect of building things that scale. To be successful long term, you must be able to create marketing events that can be done over and over without taxing critical pieces of your business for little or no incremental profit. Your investment in any project is human capital (yourself, your immediate business partner, your trusty interns), financial capital (your hard costs to doing something), and emotional capital (the wear and tear an initiative will take on your personal time). 13
  • 19. Tips: Pitfalls to avoid. • Sketch out the end-to-end user experience of a program before you move it into execution. Don’t fly blind or with too much of an assumptive “no failure possible” attitude. • Define the resources necessary to create that experience. Ideas are awesome, but not every awesome idea is tangible or realistic with the resources available. • Don’t ideate in a box. Second-opinions are not intended to kill your best ideas. They are to improve your intentions. • If the goal is mass marketing, be certain the value-add communicated is “in-demand” for many, versus just a few. A good way to test this is to do some simple research online, survey existing customers, or get a second opinion from business peers. Reinforcements to pursue. • Leverage in-house resources first. Outsourcing is not your friend unless it’s to help understand and define the role of something in the near future (e.g. testing Email marketing, but needing a resource to get you started). • Start out with distinct objectives. No goals, no plan, no results. Very few entrepreneurs and business leaders achieve success on a whim. Be thoughtful. Be focused. Know what you want (or need) to deliver. 14
  • 20. • Craft everything as if it were art — that it will and must last forever. This is a work philosophy as much as it is a way of doing business. There is a vast difference in quality based on the attention to detail. It defines something-to- last solutions versus building-to-react. • Find communication tools that integrate well with other tools. You do not want 20 tools to manage every day. Ideally, there should be fewer than five to assist you. So what’s holding you back from investing in (online) conversations about your business? Unsure which resources to use to make this happen? Read on about the essential ingredients for your (online) marketing toolkit. 15
  • 21. Special Section the scraPPy Marketer’s (online) toolkit Special Notes: • There is a purposeful absence of print media in this ebook. It does not mean print-based conversations would not be beneficial to your business, but is not recommended. The ROI is hard to prove out and the ability to trace results, challenging. • In the vein of getting scrappy, let’s keep it digital. Over 60% of a consumer’s day is spent online, so why wouldn’t you market there too? • Yes, there are more solutions for SMB marketers than those listed. These are just industry favorites and those I have used and trust. Your Website A business’ online presence 100% starts with creating a .com user experience. And keeping it clean and simple is more important than spending big dollars on a web designer. You can obtain a little help for the non-HTML savvy guy or gal here: 16
  • 22. Blog-Only • Tumblr • Blogger/Google Blog + Domain • WordPress • Yahoo! Small Business • Microsoft Live/365 Your Social Channels Social is about establishing presence, monitoring your brand, scheduling posts and conversing real-time with your community. Free, Easy to Learn & Use • HootSuite • Tweetdeck • Bit.ly • Involver (free and paid solutions) Some Investment – Time & Dollars • Wildfire • Buddy Media • SocialEngage (formerly Cotweet via ExactTarget) 17
  • 23. Your Messaging The bulk of marketing comes down to storytelling. Be it in-person via your sales team, or virtual via email. You must be able to articulate who you are in a few sentences. Online story telling can occur through any/all of the below. Here are some areas to focus your energy. SEO: Better known as search engine optimization and organic self-made-traffic, SEO really is a representation of your core value proposition throughout the .com experience. When building a website and (stand-alone) landing pages, do not forget basics like creating a title, description and meta tags for your site/page. Don’t Outsource, But If You Must: Hubspot: a great one-stop-shop for messaging via .com, email and social media. I have a single recommendation for this one. I don’t trust very many SEO gurus. If you can figure out how to control the basics via yourself or someone talented in copywriting, you’re set for awhile. Basic index tools takes care of the rest by crawling your site to identify matching keywords to xyz topics. Social: # hashtags, @ (the fancy Twitter handle), tagging on Facebook 18
  • 24. These are basics and should not be overused, but they are also truly essential to joining larger (online) communities and conversations. Providing online “mentions” (tags, retweets) allows others to notice you. Start by tagging people you know, want to know, or other businesses within your posts to involve a broader community in an (online) discussion. Email: You can have an email platform, but you must also have a messaging strategy and HTML templates. (Please do not send text-only or mixed font emails.) Email, while often not opened (yes, true) does still function as a calling card. Make it special, make it look good. It may be the only time you get to impress someone. If you are (or soon become) familiar with email basics, I would suggest User Segmentation as a must-have as early on as possible. Below are (3) simple ways you can start to bucket users and message to them in a more relevant way: Prospects – You have their names and emails, purchased list or not. Sell them ASAP on why you should be special to them. Current, Non-Paying Users – They might have registered for something, but they have yet to make a purchase. Email is a great way to remind them, without being annoying, that they showed interest in something and to request permission to continue engaging with them. 19
  • 25. Current, Paying Users – These folks are your best customer. Many are your first. You earned their respect. Keep it that way by messaging in a unique way from those you may have never met. Platforms You’d Be Smart to Put Your Time & Money Into: • ExactTarget • Constant Contact • Vertical Response Platforms On the Cheap: • Mail Chimp • iContact • MadMimi Text Links (Paid Search): Some might bucket this as Paid Search, I call it all text links. Whether it goes live on my own site, your site or a perfect stranger’s site, it is a text link if there are only a few characters to describe a product or service. Places to Be Seen & Found: • Google • Yahoo/Bing 20
  • 26. Banner ads (your site and theirs) Online banner ads can serve a wide array of messaging purposes and functionality. And like text links, they can be targeted by geography, audience type (e.g., travelers vs. business owners), age, demographic and so on. Let’s assume you do not have an internal ad server to do this on your own website. If not, you can use a 3rd party vendor to help you drive incremental reach for your banner creative. • Facebook Ads: If you have a Fan Page, you need ads to drive initial engagement and new user acquisition. You can create a standard offer or sponsored story (content links) to expose what your brand is all about to new users. • Ad Exchanges: This too is low maintenance and a minimal upfront investment (a few hundred dollars for basic rich media ads creative). Explore Google, if just starting out. It’s also more efficient to tie other marketing efforts into the same platform. • Affiliates: See upcoming section for more info and ideas. • Local Sites vs National or Global: If your brand is localized, then explore banner placements on the most trafficked local websites to see what ranks highest. 21
  • 27. Your Content This space is exploding right now and below are a few worth exploring if you want to index stand-alone content for minimal to no upfront cost. • Slideshare • Digg • StumbleUpon • Google Docs • YouTube • Pinterest • Chime.In • Visual.ly Your Affiliate Partners This one is for small businesses with a mid to high degree of brand awareness. This is not likely to be something you sign-up for as a start-up; but, when you do, it’s a great extension of existing text links (Paid Search) and banner advertising (Display media) marketing. Popular Affiliate Channels To Consider: • Commission Junction • Google Affiliate Network 22
  • 28. Your Creative This an essential item to address. Let’s be honest — we are not all designers. And you need resources for this to properly (and professionally) brand yourself across every major online touch points. • Logos • Lead Gen Forms • Main Website • Video • White Papers (formatting/layout) Alternatives to Expensive Media Designers: • Crowdspring. Name your price, find your favorite resource. • Rent-A-Student. This is a college and graduate student resource. Qualified student designers need real-world work experience. You are their ticket to obtaining such, while you also save significantly on costs per project. 23
  • 29. Your Webinars I come back to this one from Get Scrappy v1. To be transparent, webinars are not necessary for every business. If you are in the B2B space though or hosting a virtual cooking class, you must awesome content that lives also on your website, archives or before mentioned content (sharing destinations). You will also likely need a webinar tool for events you host. Spend a Little, Get A lot: • WebEx • GoToMeeting • Skype Your Apps Many confuse apps with products. In most cases though, they are content distributors for on-to-go consumers. If apps (applications) are on your horizon or already happening, chances are your tech team is also pretty involved in marketing them. Below are a few best practices to follow: 1. Don’t rely on work-of-mouth for your app(s). True, your first reviewers are your most loyal fans and more than happy to tell their friends, but word-of- mouth will also only get you so far. 24
  • 30. 2. Start with hedging support within technical (online) communities. Win their trust and admiration and you will build a nice grouping of (genuine) fans to spread the word to the general consumer. Differentiate the messaging of apps versus .com e-store or general brand. Again, bear in mind it’s a content distribution touch point. Some questions to raise and expose to users: How is the content distributed, shared and stored differently than on .com? Is there a notification/messaging center? Your Mobile (Online) Experience In an age of being ever-connected, always on, and accessing content through a wide range of devices, it is invaluable to know how to market across mobile environments. There are few (basic) considerations to make when adding mobile elements to your conversations with end users. • Create a mobile browse environment for your website via Mobify, Wirenode and MobilePress. • If your primary target audience are tech savvy, early adopters then focus advertising efforts first on mobile platforms - paid search, display media. The same go-to resources for standard ad programs (Google, Bing) apply. Miscellaneous things to be prepared for: • Unique ad sizes • Added costs for development 25
  • 31. noW What? Go do it! Creating, managing and optimizing online conversations is undeniably a serious investment that you, and/or your entire team, will make; but, bear in mind you are not alone. If you need a lending hand or moral support, ask for advice. We are here to share and create success. Keeping doing more on less. Get Scrappy. Join The Conversation Today: 26
  • 32. acknoWledGMents A very grateful heart goes out to my family, extended family, friends and colleagues. Without these individuals supporting me through long days, long hours and countless discussions about the present and the future of marketing, I would not have written another book. A special mention goes out to my designer, Dan Eyman. His creative eye made this possible again. I also want to thank my son Preston (“P”) for how he (unknowingly) inspires me to do what I love. I hope he too will someday understand the value of getting scrappy. 27
  • 33. aBout Michelle fitzGerald Michelle Fitzgerald is a digital marketing expert with over ten years of experience within high-tech start-ups and F500s. Her past work experience includes Zinio, Yahoo!, LA Times and CareerBuilder. Areas of expertise include trans media on smartphone, tablet and pc, social media, online content, B2C/ B2B messaging strategy, and big data. Outside of curating and developing content for Get Scrappy, Michelle also speaks at industry events and consults within the SMB community. To reach Michelle regarding consulting engagements, speaking opportunities or content contributions, please contact her via email or your favorite social channel: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook. 28