On Demand Advertising Solutions

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update, Five Key Reasons Your Small Business Needs A Marketing Platform, Podcast #18

Posted on May 21, 2017May 21, 2017 by jverlin

There are five key reasons a small business needs a marketing platform.

marketing platform infographic cropped — The new small business storefront.

I’m amazed in talking to small business owners how many either don’t have the money, time or awareness to build a marketing platform for their businesses.

marketing platform dynamics infograph — Why you need a small business marketing platform.

As you can see from the above infographic–the marketing platform is the nerve center for all advertising, marketing, prospect and customer engagement.

It’s the “entity” that you lead radio, TV, print, direct mail advertising to. All roads lead to the marketing platform.

These are what we do for our clients…but it all starts with our three-point strategy to determine your best approach and content.

You may also schedule a free consultation for us to best determine the most effective marketing platform for your business.

Listen to all of our strictly audio podcasts here.

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

5 Key Reasons Your Small Business Needs A Marketing Platform:

Podcast #18

Host: John D. Verlin

TRANSCRIPT:

Good afternoon, John Verlin with On Demand Advertising Solutions, Digital Marketing Update, podcast #18.

I wanted to get right to it.

I wanted to talk to you today about the importance of a marketing platform for your small business. I know I brought this up before in a previous podcast, but I wanted to go into more detail today.

I was at a chamber coffee this morning talking to a young chiropractor. He was a member of a chiropractic team in the town I live in. We were actually kind of talking about this, and I went in and explained to him why this is so important.

They hired a marketing person. Plan to hire myself or someone to do their social media.

But, as we were talking about what elements make up this marketing platform, and his eyes kind of lit up. When I touched on some of this because he hadn’t really thought of it. He’s on their marketing board.And they weren’t even aware of it.

So, that’s why I want to go in to this. This is something I’m seeing quite a bit, to be honest with you.

Is a lack of understanding of the importance of a marketing platform for most small businesses.

They look at it like, not everybody, but I’m seeing this as an afterthought, a luxury. Ah, I can’t really afford this. It’s kind of a hassle. An afterthought.

So, five things you need to be aware of, of why a marketing platform is so critical to your business.

Imagine that we were out west, and there was an old saloon storefront. Facade. Like in an old western movie set.

And I come running out yelling at people, come on in. Check out our saloon! People come in and they go to the saloon. As they get closer, they realize there are no walls. And, there’s nothing in there!

It’s a facade! It’s a storefront movie set facade. There’s nothing there, except this frame. Well that’s kind of, maybe not a great analogy, but your online storefront is your website.

Now, whether you like it or not, that’s how people are perceiving businesses today. Think about your own experience. When you find a product in print, an email, TV, radio…whatever. You’re interested, what do you do? What’s the process?

It used to be ten or fifteen years ago, you’d get in your car, you might call them. Get in their car, go to the store and check it out. Do you do that today? Probably not.

My guess is, you’re going to grab your smartphone, and say, Hey, Siri—show me where I can get fifty percent off pizzas. Or the closest Pizza Hut.

Because I just saw their ad on TV.

And you can probably order it through your phone. You’re not going to get up and go to the Pizza Hut. Because of the conveniences today. The technology platform

And the same is true of a lot of services. You might end up going to that site. And what are you going to do when you get to that site? You’re going to check them out. Customer testimonials, services they offer. Products featured. Does it match what you thought?

All those sort of things. That’s the online storefront. That’s why a website is so important. And a quality website. It’s got to look good, because that’s your branding.

I talk about the marketing platform, in our three part strategy. But it’s your branding that you’re selling. The image you’re selling. This is why all of this is so important.

If you’re a small business, and you don’t have one, what are people going to do? What are they going to think? Those are the two things that you have to control.

Why do you have to do this? What’s your competition doing? Do you think they’re sitting on the sideline not doing this? Or haven’t considered it?

So, unless you’ve got a line of referrals…banging on the door to come in and give money to you. You need to consider a solid marketing platform.

So the first point, it’s your online storefront. This is how people are doing business today. It starts with searching most likely. Do that or keyword search and they want to check you out, is really what it comes down to.

The second feature of the marketing platform, is a blog. Well, we don’t have a blog. We don’t think it’s important. Well, it’s real important because it’s your sales people. Now again, go back to the saloon.

Let’s switch that to say a general store. A come out and yell, hey come here and check out these axes we have. Great for chopping wood! Blah, blah, blah. They come to the storefront and they see, through the window, beautiful axes, all lined up, all on display.

Beautiful items. Goods. Whatever. Now they want to go in the store. Because it matches what I described and they get to see the product. They see it.

Ok. Well, this is what a blog is. It’s the sales people bringing in the people with stuff you know have to show them.Yes, you have pages about who you are. But not real in-depth.

That’s where the blog comes in. They see one point after another of your content of expertise. And it usually could be, should be through an engaging medium. Like a video, a podcast.

And that’s why we recommend those two things. Because it’s engaging. It grabs your attention. It’s not just one-thousand words to read.

Not that that is not important. Because it is, because Google will search things. But you want to grab and sell them your service or your product. So the blog acts as a sales storefront.

Next point, number three. I’m going to call it—it provides for a resident place to direct media to. When I do an ad on Facebook, TV, print, radio, email marketing. What are you doing? You want to direct them somewhere. Where are you going to send them? Come by our storefront, here’s our address if you get a chance. It doesn’t do a very good job of selling if you just give them a business card.

But if you give them a website, they go visit that and then they can SEE. Yeah, check out blog #5. It’s talking about what you and I were just talking about out at the chamber coffee. Oh! Now they have a chance to be sold. Because they’re engaged in the content you’re offering them on your blog.

And again, they’re going to compare this to who? Your competition. See how this makes you stand out from the crowd? You have a mechanism to direct people through your advertising.

And outreach to them to come in to your storefront and SEE everything you’re all about…and tell your story.

That’s what this is. And how many small businesses don’t have a mechanism with which to tell their story?

Point number four, and this is real important from the search engine standpoint. It allows you to provide fresh content, each week, to highlight your expertise. With engaging content.

I call it engaging…i’m referring to podcasting, videos…things that cause people to want to watch or listen and experience…as opposed to just reading.

Ok? And this separates you again from your competition! Because the probably, may or may not be doing podcasts, or even know how to produce them or even want to produce them. Or even have the resources for them.

Or produce videos. SEE the difference? You’re doing something…yeah, it takes some work. But guess what? It’s permanent.

You just have to do it once a week, and it’s there on your skeletal platform…your marketing platform to constantly promote.

You’ve got meat, flesh and bones.

And the fifth reason, it provides on-going, keyword search relevance through Google search engines.

Not that a website won’t, yeah, you’ve got a lot of words on the website. Relevant words hopefully to what you’re promoting. But the blog extends all of that. Every week you’re adding content.

And you’re doing this so that you’re selling your prospects. But you’re also getting the back end deal here.

Google is searching it…and suddenly, when people type in keywords, you’re pages of the blog start to come up.

And all of this is relevant to what they’re looking for. It narrows it down in their mind of who they should do business with.

Because now, when they visit your storefront on the web, and see your blog and all of the content that you have…they become engaged with you.

Now they want to go. You’ve ignited some passion here of your knowledge and expertise!

Do you SEE the difference? And this is why it’s important to have a good, solid marketing platform. And on-going fresh content.

It’s an on-going thing to market yourself. You’re always selling. What was that line Alec Baldwin said in Glengerry, Glenross? Always be selling! Always be selling (closing)!

Nothing happens until someone sells something! Ok, so that’s why it’s so important to have a good marketing platform.

It’s on that infographic here on the blog. You can see how it all integrates together. And this is new.

This is the new way we’re doing business. It’s critical for small businesses to get this. And don’t just through it out there as an add-on. This is critical to selling yourself for future.

At any rate, I can be reached at jverlin1@yahoo.com.

Website: www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

Look forward to hearing from you! Email me questions if you have any. We’d love to hear from you.

Check out our website for samples of the content on the blog, videos, content that I’m talking about.

Have a great day, we’ll talk to you next week

From the Blog: Telling Your Unique Small Business Story, Cartoon Video #15

Posted on May 16, 2017 by jverlin

It’s not always telling your unique small business story in :60 or less. However, as our Cartoon video #15 shows–using podcasts on blogs and promoted with high-testing video’s on social media, can be very effective.

Particularly in differentiating your business from the competition.

We help small business owners stand out and increase their web traffic and SEO using these techniques. It all starts with a three-part strategy customizing content for each client.

Learn more about our three-part strategy and set up a free consultation to see how we might assist your business!

Enjoy the video!

From the Blog: Linkedin Article, Lessons I Learned On My Journey To Eagle Scout+

Posted on May 16, 2017May 16, 2017 by jverlin

By John D. Verlin

Four years ago, as I was packing to make a move after selling my home, I ran across an old Boy Scout shirt, with a burn mark on a area by the collar and on the sleeve.

The short sleeved shirt brought back a ton of boyhood memories–just as the burn mark did (was from a campfire spark–I promise).

From hiking/backpacking in Philmont Scout Ranch for two-weeks, the hours working on achieving Brotherhood Member of Order of the Arrow–one emblem stood out.

The cloth Eagle Scout badge hemmed on the front pocket still looked as silky smooth as it did 45 years ago when I received it.

It got me to thinking back when I joined Cub Scouts, then Webelos, then became an official Boy Scout.

From the peanut brittle candy sales (I won a Tensor desk lamp–thanks Kirk and my brother Ron for helping me!), to freezing cold tents collapsing in the overnight snow, to one merit badge after another…after another…

The journey began when I was in grade school at age 11. I remember going to Cub Scout meetings as our dad later became our Troop Leader or Scoutmaster. I remember receiving the Bobcat pin as my first badge in Cub Scouts and how proud I was to wear it.

I did a report in fourth grade on Tornadoes, Hurricanes and Blizzards (was given an 8×10 black and white picture of the Katherine Carpenter Tornado taken by a friend of my fathers only several miles away (April, 1966) and I used it in my report. I remember talking to Sandy Miller, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service who gave me several NWS brochures on tornadoes and hurricanes.

This experience helped me achieve the Weather merit badge and my life long love of weather (science fair weather station, teaching Weather at Camp Naish Nature Dept., etc).

The next year I did a report in fifth grade on the Atomic Bomb–and remember writing the Dept. of Energy receiving brochures about atomic energy, etc. That led to me getting a merit badge in Atomic Energy. Then on to a report in sixth grade on Apollo 11–which led to me writing NASA and receiving brochures as well. And you guessed it–Space Exploration merit badge.

Naturally–when visiting the Kennedy Space Center last fall I was like a kid in a candy store seeing the actual site of Cape Canaveral and the Saturn V rocket.

Thus began my love of science and eventually history as I began to accumulate more merit badges and rank. From Tenderfoot to Star, Life and then Eagle.

These experiences led me to consider today what are most boys age 12 or 13 doing with their lives? Playing soccer? Baseball? (I did both as well). Or video games? Hanging out?

Of course visiting Shiloh military battlefield or Springfield, Illinois and hiking the 20 mile Lincoln trail gave me a real appreciation for history with experiences that I would never have known if it weren’t for the Scouting program.

My last two summers in Boy Scouts, I taught at Camp Theodore Naish (who left his land in Edwardsville, Kansas to the Scouts after he died on the Lusitania) in the Nature Department. I taught Weather, Conservation of Natural Resources and Mammals merit badges. We had a nature building with snakes, rabbits, a de-scented skunk and a boa constrictor we called Victor.

I also was “tapped out” to be an ordeal member in Order of the Arrow. A Native American tradition of honoring their braves (Delaware basin, Lenni Lenape). I remember going through a day of “ordeal”. Camping out at night in a field with a blanket and groundcloth, working all day in the forest cutting down trees and digging mud/concrete out of a pool in 90 degree weather. Having very little food, etc.

All in the teaching of brotherhood, helping and loving one another. A year later, I received the Brotherhood Member of Order of the Arrow designation.

By teaching the last two summers of my Scouting experience at Camp Naish, I was able to achieve the Eagle Rank (of which my father achieved and my brother).

While I was fortunate enough to have a father that took interest in the Scouting program (he served as our Cubmaster and Scoutmaster)–it was one special moment that I still remember to this day and transformed my mind. It taught me important lessons I use to this day in business.

About the time I had received the Life rank (one below Eagle), I had to take Personal Fitness merit badge as a required merit badge towards Eagle.

I had to track for one month, push ups, sit ups, jumping rope, pull ups, etc. One of the requirements was walking a balance beam (which my father built with 2×4’s) forwards and backwards without falling off.

Simple enough. But my chubby self kept falling off. I didn’t have good balance. Years later, I was to learn that I had a hearing loss in each ear which could have affect equilibrium. But at the time–it was just hard. Plain frustration.

To a point, I remember being in our basement where everything was set up. I told my dad--“that’s it, I quit”!

I’ll never forget the look in his eye. Being brought up by his mother in the 1930’s and learning to play baseball (was scouted as a catcher by St. Louis Cardinals right before America entered WWII)…becoming a Seabee in WWII, getting an engineering degree at MU…becoming a project engineer as a career–all on his own. The idea that he faced his own Field of Dreams by going to college on the GI Bill and forsaking baseball to become an engineer.

But it was that look that he gave me as he pushed me up against the basement wall. I felt my right hand ball up into a fist! As he held me up against that wall…he pointed his finger at me and said, “Don’t you EVER say quit”! You get back up on that beam and finish!

I’ll never forget how mad I was at him. I wanted to haul off and hit him in the face! But gradually, I did find a way to finish.

I went on one more year getting merit badges–and then had to pass Lifesaving for my final merit badge to Eagle. At camp–I kept pulling my fellow scout, Paul Lundstrom in with a cross-chest tow, per the requirement I was attempting to pass.

Paul was tall and lean (still is at our 40 year reunion!), and kept sliding off my hip going underwater as I ferried him in. Unfortunately–camp ended and I didn’t pass.

That upcoming Fall–I took that requirement again with a Lifesaving merit badge counselor at my local high school pool. He was like 6-3 and 300 lbs! I FINALLY ferried him in moving about a centimeter every minute to pass.

Then Paul and I received our Eagles together at our Eagle Court of Honor presentation. Friends, relatives, the local Congressman all celebrated my achievement and told me that one day this will be an important accomplishment in my life.

I stayed in Scouting two more years after achieving Eagle and taught at Camp Naish–also gathering more merit badges. Besides receiving the Brotherhood Member in Order of the Arrow, I received bronze, silver and gold palms (for five additional merit badges each above Eagle). The fifteen additional merit badges I received by the time I was almost 16 barely fit on the front and backside of my Scout merit badge sash.

At the final dinner for our Troop. The Scoutmaster Arnold Waxman presented me with the final gold palm and announced that having achieved Eagle with three palms, made me the highest ranking Scout in the 27 year history of our troop!

During those five years in Scouting, I never really counted all the merit badges. I just kept doing–partly out of interest and the rest out of a feeling of accomplishment.

Looking back today–it was probably the proudest moment of my life–as my father’s been dead over 25 years now. He and my mother were proud of me.

After further checking with the national Scout council a number of years ago–I discovered that less than 5% of Scouts get Eagle–and less than 1/2 of 1% get Eagle with all three palms.

I think about many men I’ve met today or told me they never finished Scouting. Or wished they would have attained Eagle. For all those young men who have attained their Eagle rank, I salute you.

The lessons that journey teaches are the lessons many of us carry into our careers and our lives. Those lessons bring to fruition the discipline, perserverence, focus and determination to achieve. The twelve points of the Scout Law summarize those lessons perfectly:

A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.

Our businesses, relationships and world would be a better place if we all upheld these twelve points and would make our journeys in life more meaningful!

Learn more about John D. Verlin here.

Learn more about On Demand Advertising Solutions and their three-point strategy for small business success here.

The above was originally posted on Linkedin May 15, 2017. Copyright John D. Verlin, 2017: https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/lessons-i-learned-my-journey-eagle-scout-john-d-verlin

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update Podcast #17, What If The Beatles Had Failed? Sir Paul McCartney’s Rules For Success!

Posted on May 14, 2017May 15, 2017 by jverlin

PI recently watched a neat Youtube video that i’m going to link to for you to watch at your leisure–because it’s the subject of my podcast today.

It is a series of interviews by Sir Paul McCartney of the Beatles fame about what they did to become successful.

It was put together by Evan Carmichael and promoted as “Sir Paul McCartney’s 10 Rules For Success”! Which I think is a great idea!

I’m going to comment from my experience on each one of them in this podcast–but I do encourage you to watch the video, as it captures Paul’s actual answers in context how how the Beatles did it at each stage of their careers.

We work with small businesses to achieve their success by offering unique and innovative ways to engage their prospects and customers. It begins with a three-point strategy for success.

Learn more about how our small business three-point strategy and services can grow your business–by scheduling a FREE CONSULTATION!

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

What If the Beatles Had Failed?
Podcast #17

Host: John D. Verlin

TRANSCRIPT:
What If The Beatles Had Failed? Sir Paul McCartney’s 10 Steps To Success:
Podcast #17

Host: John D. Verlin

TRANSCRIPT:

Good afternoon John Verlin, On Demand Advertising Solutions, with another podcast, number 15 Digital Marketing Update.

I was going to talk about something else today, but I saw a video that’s really cool. And it dawned on me, what if the Beatles had never made it and they had failed?

I’m sure this has been talked about in the past. I mean the timing, creativity–all the things that they influenced, hair styles clothing music poetry photography. Arts, everything. An entire culture. Even to this day we see the influence. Even the teenagers today are becoming Beatle fans to some degree.

So, but it dawned on me from a business standpoint what would the world be different if they would have failed? What would have happened? How would the world be different if they had failed?

I happened to catch on YouTube a really cool video, you’ll see on the blog a little video link by Evan Carmichael. He put together, he calls it, “Sir Paul McCartney’s 10 Rules For Success”. And I think it’s a great idea. He put together video clips of interviews throughout the years, with Paul McCartney about what the Beatles did to be successful.

And it stands to reason, maybe we could learn something for small businesses, if we could do similar things that Paul McCartney and the Beatles did to be successful. Now obviously, timing—he couldn’t really plan that. The beginning of the ’60’s, everything changed after Elvis Presley and that kind of thing.

But here are the things he basically touches on, what they did to be successful.

The first thing he said was to “do it because you can’t help it”. Whatever your hobby is..their songwriting actually started out, according to Paul, as a hobby.

They had covered Little Richard, Chuck Berry, a number of the American black artists and Rhythm and Blues artists when they played the clubs in Hamburg,Germany.

The problem was everybody else is playing those songs. So, to stand out and be different, they would do “b” sides of certain songs, or to stand out—starting writing their own. So when they got up to play, nobody would be copying them. It would be unique and different and people would stay and listen.

So, it was a hobby for them originally. And he just said, “do it because you can’t help it”.

Whatever that passion is, and that’s true with your business. Maybe you started doing something on the side, you’re good at it. You found your talents. And you just do it because you’re passionate about it.

The second thing Paul said, and this was Evan Carmichael’s favorite, was “to be different”. You know we hear about a unique selling proposition, what value do you bring and that kind of thing to small business.

But Paul was saying, the Beatles were always a little more artsy than a typical band. John and Paul had gone to grammar school. John had also gone to art school.

Actually, George and Paul went to grammar school. John had gone to art school. And so they were going to be a little different in the form of being a little more artsy than other bands. And that made them different.

The haircuts, the collarless jackets, the way they dressed. They way they kidded around. The fun they had. Made them different than typical bands. They weren’t boring.

The other thing he says is to “find your drive”. What’s that thing that drives you? Whatever that is. Is it to get a new car? A new home? They would think about these things. And that would be a motivation. Maybe it’s deeper seated. A fear you had growing up. Or whatever—but find the drive and something that will keep you motivated.

The fourth thing he said was to take it a “step at a time”. Step by step. When they started out, maybe they had a number one hit. They would just keep doing these things. Obviously, luck played a part in all of that. You begin to get a feeling for who you are. What your business is so to speak. They would take it a step at a time.

Create one it. Turn around, do another one. Keep in mind, they’re still plodding ahead doing really what you’ve always have done. As a matter of fact, George Harrison was quoted when they interviewed him about this.

Well you know, did you change after success happened? He said no, but everybody else did.

They have been doing the same thing step by step for years and nothing happened. And then suddenly, it all happened. And I think that’s something we can look at too for small businesses. You keep doing what you’re doing and you don’t know when the right thing is going to happen.

And it may take a while. The fifth thing he said is just “get out and do it”. Just do what that passion is. There are so many books I’ve read, posts I’ve read that talk about the fear of failure. You are never going to know until you try. Yeah, it is a little scary.

But if you just get out and do it, you may be surprised at what you can do. And if you’re running a business right now you know everything that Paul’s talking about most likely.

You’ve experienced this. But again, you have to be consistent. Don’t give up. Stay at it.

The next thing Paul talked about is “fighting for yourself”. They were in reference to this talking about when the Beatles broke up. Paul had to sue the other three to get rights to all of the songs.

Not just the manager they had, but the entity was the other three as well. So he had to fight for himself. Obviously it was a painful breakup with the band. But sometimes you got to hang in there, go for it and fight for yourself.

The next thing he said was “produce what you like” A lot of times we think you’ve got to do a formula. You got it go with your gut I guess it’s the best way to describe it. Something that you like. You can’t please everybody.

You can kind of try. But most successful people, artists, musicians, businesses. Yeah, you may do marketing research, product research…whatever. But it all comes down to what are you really–what are you happy with?

What can you live with that you enjoy? And that really is the extension of your passion. Your idea.You know you’ve heard countless stories of Steve Jobs who was relentless in pursuing an idea for the mac and that sort of thing.

Not all of them are going to hit. If you do what you like you can be proud of that. You can stand back and say, you know, this is my passion. I achieved it. Maybe I tested it a whole lot. But I finally found something that worked.

And that really is what he’s getting at is that you do what you enjoy. The next step, number eight, is to “find a creative process”. What is that?

Do you get up everyday and write lists of ideas? Or, ways to improve your business. Whatever that is, find that process. Discover that and stick with that.

With he and John, one of them would come up with an idea and then and then the other one might play off that—and then suddenly another idea popped out of the whole thing. That wasn’t there to begin with. Like a third person. Brain-storming is good for that. But find that creative process.

That will keep things fresh and moving and may allow you to build upon something you had already come up with.

He finally talks about, the ninth one is to “have integrity”. They talked about this when Michael Jackson bought the Beatles catalog—about how did Paul feel.

He felt bad, particularly because Michael Jackson had allowed Revolution to be on a commercial. Paul was like, that really bothered him. Because they never sold out. They never allowed commercialization. Even though it was tempting to get a huge bunch of cash, and he said they had a lot of offers.

But they felt like they’d be selling out. And he never did that. And that’s the idea of keeping their integrity. Keeping their catalog within themselves and not selling out. So having integrity.

Obviously you have to live with yourself. You wake up the next day and have buyers remorse. Sellers remorse for something you maybe shouldn’t have done. Looking back you can’t say I had integrity for doing that.

And the last point Paul says is to “have fun”. Have a good time. Enjoy your business. Enjoy doing what you’re doing. Really that’s what brings you pleasure. That’s what brings you a total reward. Particularly after you’ve achieved success, money, whatever you want to label that as.

The fact you’re having fun. And that really I guess is what the entrepreneurial journey comes down to. Enjoying what you’re doing. And if you make money at it. So much the better.

John Verlin, On Demand Advertising Solutions. Contact me at jverlin1@yahoo.com. www.OnDemand AdvertisingSolutions.com is the website and if you have questions comment love to hear from you my number is 816-223-2105 and we’ll talk next week. Have a great day

All podcasts recorded at Verlin Studios, Gardner, Kansas.

Copyright John D. Verlin, 2017

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update Podcast #16, Complacency In Small Business Marketing!

Posted on May 7, 2017 by jverlin

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a social media post from a law firm, retail shop, etc that is promoting something with only a blogpost or business page to link to! Or perhaps a cheaply printed business card that tells me they don’t care enough about their “brand” or image to invest in themselves.

Images are of one of the earliest known “logos” or brands. The Viking-era Ubrecht sword. This sword-maker understood the value of promoting his brand!

Promoting a brand is hard work. How long does it take to build a reputation and “trust” factor with prospects. How much advertising is spent developing and promoting it?

(This is #mydayoftherant)! Why then in the great advertising kingdom does a so-called professional brand themselves with one page on a blog or business platform?

You might as well just post it on the side of a horses’ derriere!

Our work with small businesses encourage building a marketing platform that begins with a three-part strategy to measure customer needs, create podcast content and promote via social media. This insures proper branding of your expertise as more prospects search online about your business.

Today’s video podcast discusses an issue that affects all businesses, particularly small businesses trying to get a brand and image established.

For whatever reason—businesses can become complacent in their marketing efforts which can eventually kill growth, employee morale, online presence, etc.

Learn more about our three-part strategy and how we can help your business be pro-active in your marketing with proven tactics. Schedule a free consultation!

Hear all of our strictly audio podcasts here!

Complacency in Small Business Marketing!
Podcast #16

Host: John D. Verlin

TRANSCRIPT:

Good afternoon John Verlin back with you again with on On Demand Advertising Solutions, podast #16, Digital Marketing Update.

Last week I said I was going to rant this week and I am!

I’m going to do it–getting right to it There was a piece that I’m going to tie in some of the comments this person made. Brent Gleason had a great piece last month in Inc. magazine.

He is a former Navy SEAL and it ties in with what I want to talk about–and that is complacency in small business. Now he’s referring to complacency in larger businesses. It’s the same basic stuff.

What I’m shocked at to be honest with you, I see small businesses—and they don’t have a website…don’t have a Facebook business page. They barely have a business card. And if they do, it’s cheap-looking, flimsy.

And I’m sitting here thinking to myself, what are they thinking?

There was on Linkedin, a 500 million member platform, world-wide right?

A couple of weeks ago, I see a lawyer making a post on Linkedin, “we specialize in blah, blah, blah…legal services, etc. Click here to learn more about us.

Hashtag legal, hashtag about ten other cities in the area. And maybe he was thinking of Instagram. Or copied them from an Instagram photo because he had so many hastagged words.

But my first reaction was, what is this a joke? That’s literally my first reaction. This is a lawyer that posted this on Linkedin.

So I click on the link—and guess what I get? A one page blog. That’s it. And I’m sitting there thinking to myself, this guy is a lawyer for crying out loud. Did someone not tell him at lawyer school to make yourself look presentable and look good in your marketing?

Well I guess lawyers don’t market. They didn’t used to. But it’s so competitive today. And I’m sitting there thinking to myself, what is this guy thinking? He either doesn’t care or nobody’s told him…but that’s, that’s lazy. It has a terrible presence.

Now, keep in mind—you’ve heard this before, you may have read blog posts about this—in this new age with digital platforms, shifting from brick and mortar and we’re seeing this happen. Your storefront is now online, whether you like it or not.

And it is going to be researched and they’re going to want to know about this lawyer. And they are going to go search for him. And if they see a blog page come up, and that’s it…what do you think they’re going to think, before they even call him? Or maybe they saw the Linkedin post and they want to find out more about him.

People search and then they go. And that’s kind of the thing…they want to know about about the business.

You don’t have a web presence that looks good, looks functioning. On top of that, a blog.

Where you’re posting content on a regular basis. And this is what we talk about, that we do for our clients.

It’s critical because this is your storefront. This is the image people see. And Mr. Gleason talked about the complacency he sees from leadership on down. There’s a lack of…he says there are a number of reasons for complacency.

The lack of any real visible crisis…the wrong performance measurement criteria. Too many leaders drinking their own Kool-Aid. Too much positive communication with a fear of transparency. A culture based on self-preservation rather than calculated risk.

I don’t know why small businesses are complacent. And this may be part of it. They think they’re great. Maybe they created something where they have a lot of orders upfront and they think they’re great and they don’t need anything else.

I don’t know. But that’s a complacent attitude, and one of these days, their competitors will come in and eat their lunch. And then they’ll go, well, what should I have done differently?

And I’m saying there’s a lack of urgency and alignment that businesses are going through. And this is like an epidemic countrywide. I mean it’s amazing. It really is a leadership wake up call for anybody in any organization.

But particularly small businesses because this is it. You could be a mom and pop business and this is what you’re doing as a second gig, or maybe a primary business.

Mr. Gleason talks about this—and I love this. He talks about what they learned in Navy SEALs. And that what set them apart from their peers, was speed, surprise and violence of action.

Now, most organizations continue to succeed and innovate. They have a culture poised for positive change and taking risk. And they don’t wait for the ship to spring a leak.

They are proactive and constantly set aggressive goals, Mr. Gleason says. And I love all of that. He says they tell the good, bad and ugly—with brutal transparent communication.

Now, you’ve got particularly with a small business—you’ve got to be proactive. And that’s what I’m talking about…get things…get your ducks in a row.

Get your online presence so that when people click on to search for you, they find a website they find a blog. You’ve got business cards that match.

You maybe have a uniform—I’m a big proponent of, if you’re doing networking, wearing a shirt with your logo on it. And that’s your brand.

All of this is your brand. It’s all linked. But be proactive about it and making it work.

Promote it through social media. Advertise it. Whatever. But have a presence online. This is what I’m just shocked at. Like I say, I think there are a lot of small businesses lacking.

Sales materials, Marketing materials. Regular communication with your customers. You can do this online now with social media. It should be a given. Answer questions. Get back with emails. Whatever it is—this is all from leadership. This is all you as a leader.

So taking this proactive look critically. Of course, if you have employees—it’s your leadership from the top down. You’ve got to communicate with them, to empower them and you’ve got to reward behaviors that align with these goals. These are a few things Mr. Gleason talks about to prevent this complacency.

And if you, yourself that is a small business, or you and another person, you’ve got to take action—pro-active action to get your ducks in order to promote your business, so that when people do come to you online, they have a fluid experience.

That’s the beginning of the customer experience. And it’s critical from day one. Otherwise, they think you’re just some fly by night operation.

These are all perceptions, and we’ve talked about them in the past on other podcasts. And that’s why having an engaged marketing platform, I call it is so important because that’s the first thing they see, is online, typically. Or a business card when they first meet you.

They will make assumptions. If you’ve got a crappy looking business card, or website..i’ve seen websites that they’ve spend $8-$10k and it looked like it was thrown together.

And just did not have a good presentation. That’s really critical. That’s your major real estate investment—even if you have a brick and mortar storefront, the online search, online they’re checking you out before the waste gas and time to go to your storefront is equally as important.

Because, it they have seen you’ve got a badly-linked website. Or very little content. No blog posts. Maybe no reviews. Whatever. They’re going to make a judgment before they even drive out.

Think about how many times you might have done that in your own life. You wanted to get a new pair of shoes, so you checked them out online. And it barely showed up. So, what did you do? You probably went to the next one that had a bigger presence.

So that’s why the marketing platform is so critical and promoting it on a regular basis. So, that’s my rant!

Small business owners, have a presence. Promote it. Make it look good. I know it’s a shoestring. But there’s platforms today like WordPress.

A bunch of them where you can get websites…not that expensive. Have somebody, pay them to put it together to give you a decent online piece of real estate.

It’s critical. Your marketing materials and then your promotion. That’s pretty much it. Because if you don’t have good quality promotional things, online and in person, people are going to make judgement calls.

The thing you want to do is start off with a positive image. And it’s critical.

jverlin1@yahoo.com is my email.

Website: www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

I’ll see you next week. We’ll be talking about ways to make podcasts attractive, to educate your prospects, to get them engaged with you before they even come out to your business or go online to your website. Because you can bring them in and draw them in.

Have a great week—we’ll talk to you later!

All podcasts recorded at Verlin Studios, Gardner, Kansas.

Copyright John D. Verlin, 2017

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update Podcast #15, If Podcasting Is Good Enough For This Billionaire, It’s Good Enough For Me.

Posted on May 5, 2017May 5, 2017 by jverlin

Podcasting itself is not new. Radio stations have recorded live shows and podcast them on their websites for years to draw digital listeners and web traffic.

Even today, you can hear great radio shows from the ’30’s and 40’s via podcasts on iTunes and other digital sources.

But when Virgin Atlantic founder, Sir Richard Branson posted a link on Linkedin about their latest podcast entrepreneur series–I took note.

In a statement from their head of marketing:

“Virgin Atlantic believes that business is an epic adventure, and we wanted to bring that concept to life by sharing some of the most fascinating business stories out there,” said Jenna Lloyd, head of marketing, Virgin Atlantic, North America. “Podcasts have intrigued us for a while; we know it’s a format that resonates with many of our flyers, especially our business travellers, and one that would allow us to dive deep into intriguing pioneers and explore what we can all learn from their stories.”

That ability to “dive deep” is what allows podcasting to provide storytelling functions for small business advertisers.

Today’s podcast talks about this unique ability for podcasts to engage prospects emotionally with memorable moments!

We use a three-point strategy to help our clients determine from their customers the best content that can be the most useful in their industry.

Learn more about how our small business three-point strategy and services can grow your business–by scheduling a FREE CONSULTATION!

All of our strictly audio podcasts can be heard here.

Enjoy our video podcast!

If Podcasting Is Good Enough For This Billionaire It’s Good Enough For Me:
Podcast #15

Host: John D. Verlin

TRANSCRIPT:

Good afternoon John Verlin again with On Demand Advertising Solutions another Digital Marketing Update podcast #15.

I was going to rant today..I posted this a few days ago on Facebook and Twitter, about what really pisses me off.

And I had it all planned out, even brought up a post from a former Navy Seal, was kind of going on about the same thing incorporate his thoughts into mine as well.

I’m going to hold off till next week on my rant. The reason is, there was a Linkedin post this morning that got me kind of excited…and it was from Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group. The founder of Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic.Virgin airlines, owns a Virgin island.

I have an interesting connection with him, actually. My brother was the bass player of the rock and roll band, Shooting Star. Back in 1980 they were the first American band to sign to Virgin Records.

They were over in London and they were wondering why they were in London. They were actually there visiting a friend of ours that we grew up with. At any rate, so that’s my indirect connection to Richard Branson. Back in 1980, Virgin Records signed Shooting Star to a record deal, and they were the first American band to be signed.

Sir Richard had an exciting post that I thought was kind of cool. I put this on this blog so you can see a link to their site what I’m talking about.

By the way, if you haven’t followed me yet on Facebook, On Demand Advertising Solutions is the Facebook page. Go ahead and “like” me if you would please—and also on Twitter, my Twitter handle is johnverlin1. Go ahead if you like and follow me on Twitter.

I’m going to be putting a bunch of posts out, over the next month. All hours of the day and night. A little edgy—kind of fun. I’ll have some points about small business marketing. I think you’ll get a kick out of it.

Sir Richard put a post out about some of their new podcasts. I was really excited about that so I put this up.

They have a link, it’s Virgin Atlantic and it’s called the Venture. And they’ve got a series of podcasts for entrepreneurs and about entrepreneurs. They say for example, that behind every business maverick lies a colorful, grueling story. And they have some new podcasts

Their story, in which they are allowed to dive deep into the background of these people which is really what podcasting and can do that so great for marketing.

Because you can really get to know the company or in your case as a small business owner your customers your prospects can get to know you by getting this diving deep thing going on with a podcast.

And that’s why I love these.

Their head of marketing basically said that a podcast “we know it’s a format that resonates with many of our flyers especially our business travelers”. It allows us to dive deep into intriguing pioneers and explore what we can all learn from their stories.
And that’s what this is about. Content as podcasts that allow you to dive deep and share your company share your personality, your beliefs…be exposed. So that forms a pattern. That forms a bond.

So, it’s just a really cool thing that you can do this for your prospects, your customers and share your expertise just like these entrepreneurs with Sir Richard Branson. These maverick feature podcasts.

So podcasting can be many things. You can imagine if you’re flying and you’ve got five hours to fly, you can catch up on a lot of podcasts.

You can learn a lot, and so can your customers and prospects. It’s portable…I was listening to one the other day one of my own, on my phone as I’m sure many of you are doing now.

So it just gives you the flexibility that you can’t do as readily. You don’t even have to have your eyes open.

You could be listening to me right now and get all the nuances…as I talk softly or get high-pitched, or get all excited. That’s the beauty of a podcast.

I try to keep mine under 10 minutes because I know there are some people who have 30 minute to an hour-long podcast.I don’t mind doing that but I just think smaller segments are better because people can save those and can always go back and listen to them.

But it doesn’t take up a lot of time and we’re kind of short in today’s society for time.
People, they move on quickly.

And I’ve been entitled this podcast post: If podcasts are good enough for this billionaire, they’re good enough for me.

We’re seeing more of these. I noticed Bill O’Reilly, he was let go of Fox News…and he came back the next day with a podcast.

Sort of describing his situation as best he could. So, podcasting is becoming more and more, and in this case with this article, that they are intrigued by them at Virgin Atlantic.

And they should be because they were a record label. They started that way.
And it’s just that this portable ability to entice and engage your prospects and customer…every small business in my opinion, should take advantage of this.

I realize not a lot of marketing firms do this–and this is my background. My background was radio production, advertising and all of that. I understand they don’t have the time to do this and promote it, and that’s why they hire me.

If you have the ability or you know somebody who can do this—a series of podcasts, on-going, every week like I’m doing. Great idea. Great way to market your company. And that’s not going away.

Radio has been here forever, and radio station’s have been doing podcasting for years. You know they interview somebody, say check out our website, and you know they get a lot of traffic to their website. So it’s the exact same thing you can do for your business.

This is what I try to do for my clients.

Is provide that level of expertise that you know, you may have to go to a radio station or production company–pay a lot of money to get somebody to produce podcasts or interview you or whatever.

Or you may have to be running a radio schedule to even get this kind of exposure. But it’s well worth it in my opinion, because you can do a series of them, post them on your website, blog…promote them through video, on social media, however you want to do it.

And they’re always there to give content and engagement be able to learn more about you and see more about your business. So, podcasting, great idea.

I’ve got a link to Virgin Atlantic and their page about their podcasts for entrepreneurs that you can listen to.

You can obviously listen to this and and other podcasts that we have on our blog covering different topics.

If you have any questions, I’m at jverlin1@yahoo.com. Like I said, if you haven’t gone to our Facebook page and “liked” us, please do so or our Twitter page and follow us. You can call us at 816-223-2105.

Our website is www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

We’ll look forward to seeing you again next week for another podcast! And I promise, I will be ranting next week about one thing that really pisses me off about small business that I think needs to be corrected! We’ll go into it more and a former Navy Seal agrees with me! We’ll tell you more about what he thinks too!

Hope you have a great week, and we’ll see you next week!

All podcasts recorded at Verlin Studios, Gardner, Kansas.

From the Blog: On Demand Advertising Solutions Promotional Video #14

Posted on April 23, 2017May 2, 2017 by jverlin

Our latest promotional video shared on social media is about our Storytelling Formats to boost small business advertising.

Our concepts begin with a three-part strategy to gauge customer need and response.

You can also take advantage of our free offer for first time clients! Learn more about us here!

Enjoy our video!

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update Podcast #14, The Power of Storytelling.

Posted on April 23, 2017May 2, 2017 by jverlin

We all love to hear a good story. So does your prospects and customers!

Storytelling is one of the best marketing tools we have in our small business toolkit.

On Demand Advertising Solutions uses a three-point strategy to develop customer-based content that targets key issues they may be having and your answers/solutions to them.

Learn more about how our small business three-point strategy and services can grow your business–by scheduling a FREE CONSULTATION!

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

The Power of Storytelling.
Podcast #14

Host: John D. Verlin

Transcript:

Good afternoon, John Verlin with you with On Demand Advertising Solutions, Digital Marketing Update, podcast #14.

Boy, I tell you—I’ve had a lot of stuff going on this past week. I want to talk about four main things today, I wan to talk to you today about something…you remember when your grandfather used to say, “you know, I remember when I was a boy…your dad and I used to go down to the pond and blah, blah…”?

You’d sit there…you know, bedtime story…you’d listen to him and get enthralled when he’d talk about the frogs they heard, or catching a fish…or whatever it was they did, grandpa’s storytelling really stood out and you remember those things even as a grown up years later.

You recall back when your grandfather would tell you things. Storytelling is what I want to talk about today.

It’s kind of a culmination of a lot of things I picked up in my radio career. We would find as announcer’s or whatever, when you would interview people. Or when you’d personally share your experience.

With radio, people just like in the 1930s would huddle around that speaker—listening to every word that announcer was saying, that personality was saying.

And they would tell a story many times. And that story captivated the audience. They would tune in every day to listen to that program or whatever it is.

Well, these are some of the things we need to do as entrepreneurs with small businesses. To tell your story.

Storytelling is a really powerful technique that works across the board. But with podcasts like I’m doing now it’s even more intense because you get the emotion. You get the feeling, the nuances. So the power of a good story is really big in your marketing of your small business. And particularly when you’re brand new.

That’s what I’ve tried to share in a number of my podcasts, some of my experiences. One of the big things you need to do is talk about your “why”. Why are you in business? Why did you start your business? Maybe you made sweet rolls that you sold at state fairs. You may have had a lot of people buy them…well tell us about that.

Tell us about behind the scenes. Of what it was about your business or idea that got you going.

People love to hear a good story. I mentioned this in an earlier podcast about the “Harley and the Davidsons” feature that I watched on Amazon prime. I learned a lot about Harley in that six part series.

As a matter of fact—I was almost tempted to go out and buy one, although I didn’t. But I could see how someone might. Because I learned about their background. I even went online to read and watch some of the shows afterwards about how they made it. How they created early model of the Harley. They actually rebuilt them. That engaged me to want to learn more.

That’s what you want to do when you tell a good story about your business, is to talk about why you got into the business.

And be really honest about it too. And that’s what I found out as an announcer, a DJ on the air. If I messed up the info…people would call in…tease me, laugh. They enjoyed that. For some reason we identify with people when they mess up. The bloopers, that kind of thing. So be honest in your storytelling.

People want to know. We want to know what happened. We want to know what you went through. Everybody does and they identify with that. Really display this story…however you want to do it.

I do these on podcasts, it’s what we do for our clients. We encourage them to do podcast interviews. We bring these stories up and put them on their blog. That is content that we can drive traffic to through social media. Radio advertising, TV, magazine advertising, direct mail. Find out about how we did this or so and so. But all of this is content being picked up by the Google search engine. These podcasts…and then we promote it through these video’s through social media, Facebook, Twitter.

That combination is a one two punch…on top of the fact you’ve got the Google search engine. So, all of this works together. These marketing things work together. But if you tell a good story, and do this to show your expertise in various areas of your business…

Maybe it’s all about your first hire. You first produced that first product that fizzled. Of course we all love to hear the story of Apple and Steve Jobs going out there and getting his first sale. And have to fake that fact that he was working out of a garage. Having to get some of these computer guys to start selling his little circuit board.

Those are really engaging. We love to hear those. Storytelling can be a big part of your marketing. And it should be really because that’s the heart of what you’re all about.

Doing it with a podcast like this, to me is even more powerful because you get the emotion. It’s like doing a radio show as I’ve mentioned before.

So, the power of a good story, you can’t leave that out. It’s part of the DNA of your business. Customers need to know this. All of this good content will increase your ratings in the search engine. Allows you a platform as I’ve mentioned before..a marketing platform through your blog.

Think of it as your website is your storefront. Your blog are the sales people in the store. And the social media promotion are the sales people going out and grabbing customers and prospects in bringing them in.

And so, by bringing them into this blog…people are seeing this content and getting to hear these podcast stories so to speak, and they become believers in you.

They learn about you. They become emboldened to the brand. This is how you do it step by step. Bit by bit is telling a really good story and make sure as I’ve said before, you tell why you got in the business.

Deal in the various aspects of how you got started. Be honest about it. Put it up front and center. Let them know this is who you really are.

Because people today in social media, they demand transparency. This is one way of doing it. Even when you screw up, let them know what that is. “Yeah, I did such and such…I was so embarrassed. I ran out of inventory. We had to re-order. It shut us down.”

People want to know these things because they’re going through them. They want to know what you did to overcome them.

You should captivate your followers, your audience. People that come in on the social media to hear these podcasts. I’ve had a number of people retweet tweets I’ve put out about my podcasts. And I’m thankful for it. So if you have…I really appreciate that.

And you build an audience out. I don’t know how many people I’ve seen from other countries go to my podcast page, or my blog to listen to some podcasts. I had someone from Australia actually call me the other day.

So, you never know who you’re going to reach. This is how you can build your brand using podcasts for your content. Put them on your blog as I have done on my website and then promote them through social media.

Four killer ways to promote storytelling and really make it work for promoting your business.

jverlin1@yahoo.com is my email and you can visit www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com.

If I can help you with your business. If you have questions or comments. My phone number is 816-223-2105 if you’d like to contact me. I’ll be glad to answer any questions.

This stuff is evolving. Just this past week, Facebook had their big annual meeting and they’re talking about virtual realty. Wearing glasses. We’ll no longer need a video monitor. Just look on the wall in 3-D or whatever.

As a matter of fact, they just announced Elon Musk has a new company…Neuro something…I can’t remember the exact name where they’ll have chips in your brain to do things telepathically. I made a joke about it about a month ago, and said, “yeah, one day we’ll be telecommuting…telepathy…whatever.

And here we go…there’s already a chip now. Elon Musk, apparently is doing this to help with brain malfunctions. At any rate, it’s exciting but a little scary. Welcome to a new world.

It’s great to talk with you. We’ll talk to you next week on another podcast from On Demand Advertising Solutions. Have a great day!

All podcasts recorded at Verlin Studios, Gardner, Kansas.

From the Blog: On Demand Advertising Solutions, Promotional Video #9 TOO!

Posted on April 21, 2017April 24, 2017 by jverlin

One thing we love to do is record podcasts for our blog content, then promote them with videos. The preceding link is to our podcast page (which is another searchable platform) but you may find our podcasts throughout this blog.

This is allows prospects to learn about our services effectively via social media in :30 with an engaging video.

We drive them to our blog podcasts–which in turn, they can share with others. More traffic comes to our website via our blog and social media posts.

We can do the same for our clients–which is why we’re in business! Here’s a revision of one of our favorite promotional videos!

You can learn more about our three-point strategy using these tools here. You may also learn more about our free offer, here!

From the Blog: Digital Marketing Update Podcast #13, How To Advertise Your Small Business In Times of Uncertainty.

Posted on April 13, 2017May 2, 2017 by jverlin

With recent activity against Syria and unknown’s about tax reform and healthcare, small business owners may be facing anxiety about how to market their businesses going forward.

To that end, today’s podcast, How To Advertise Your Small Business In Times of Uncertainty will help address those issues.

While we can’t always know the future–knowing our history can help us adjust to current situations.

At On Demand Advertising Solutions–we specialize in innovative content that can take your advertising to the next level. But it all starts with our three-point strategy in forming and targeting that content.

Learn more about how our small business three-point strategy and services can grow your business–by signing up for our monthly newsletter and scheduling a FREE CONSULTATION!

You can listen to all of our strictly audio podcasts here!

Now, enjoy the video podcast!

All podcasts recorded and produced at Verlin Studios / Gardner, Kansas

Advertising Your Small Business During Times of Uncertainty:
Podcast #3

Host: John D. Verlin

TRANSCRIPT:

Good afternoon, John Verlin of On Demand Advertising Solutions, Digital Marketing Update, this is podcast #13.

I was going to talk with you today about another subject, but due to recent events, I want to go ahead and share this with you as a point of knowledge, and education but also comfort.

This past week, the U.S. Bombed Syria. I know that’s caused a lot of unsettling feelings as well as worry if the President can pass tax reform. It affects small businesses. A lot of small business owners are sitting tight, not knowing what taxes may come down or not come down.

Let me give you some pointers here that actually come from Hartford Insurance. It’s a blogpost they have that’s very helpful.

I will also tell you some of my thoughts as well. It’s the idea of what to do…how can you market your business or advertise it during times of uncertainty.

Small business consistently has to be marketing themselves, as do most businesses because we rely so much on growth on a monthly basis.

And this can be affected by war, you lose a key employee, a disaster…all of these are kinds of uncertainty. Things that small businesses need to plan for.

During times like this—refine your small business plan. Take a look at your value proposition.

During times of uncertainty, it can give you a good opportunity to review everything. Research competitors, talk to your customers…make an inventory of your positives, your strengths and weaknesses…opportunities…

Update your business plan during a time of uncertainty helps you navigate and switch, refocus your goals to prioritize.

Prioritize your expense. Cut what you can. Expand programs that will gain business growth. Years ago, I had a client when the Gulf War started, who was nervous. We talked about this. The Wall Street Journal published an article that I quoted him.

It said that in times of uncertainty, like a war… Continue doing what you’re doing marketing-wise—and maybe expand on it!

And that’s what Harford is talking about in their blogpost. The reason for that is, most people are creatures of habit and will not cut back their spending unless there are prolonged times of uncertainty and fear.

We’re not just going to cut back automatically. People are creatures of habit. We have weathered storms before. We have weathered wars, recession…and it didn’t dramatically change the economy.

Yeah, there were some painful months. In essence, with your competitors, there first knee jerk reaction is to cut back. Quit spending. Stop the advertising. Cancel the insurance. Whatever.

You can step in and ramp it up some. And buy market share so to speak. When this crisis passes. You’ll be picking up market share and ramping it up

So competitors may drop off and you can just move right in. Anyway, consistently keep doing your plan in marketing. Cut your expenses. They actually say to focus on marketing. Get rid of expenses that are not business critical.

Improve your cash flow. Try to get payments as soon as possible. Delay making payments as long as you can. Invoice immediately. Let customers know you expect to get paid immediately.

Prospect for new clients. It can be a challenge. Promote your expertise, your service. Go where the customers are.

Join business associations, attend local or regional trade shows…speak at events. Start a newsletter. That’s what we do for our clients. This is one reason why. Write articles for industry publications. One reason that we do podcasts is to expand your expertise—it’s why we do these for our clients.

Getting your name out there consistently in front of your prospects by demonstrating that expertise and projecting that professional polish. That will set you apart. That’s another reason why we recommend doing things like these podcasts for our clients because you can showcase your expertise.

Consistently build relationships with your customers. Really important. Keeping them happy. Add value to your products or services.

Stay in touch. One reason we recommend monthly email blasts for your newsletter…consistently being in touch. Consistent with posting.

Consistently doing these things for social media. And of course if they have a brick and mortar store, going by and visit.

Keep yourself top of mind. That’s why these little reminders, the social media. The regular drip, drip, drip of a raindrop eventually can form a big puddle.

That’s what you want to do with your customers.

Build an online presence and i’m still amazed at how many businesses don’t have websites or blogs. It’s really economical now.

We help out with our clients but we really do the blog part of it because that’s consistent content on a regular basis.

Which will build a presence. And build a presence on social media. Like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter.

You need to hire a professional to do these services. But these are critical things that you should be doing, keep in mind, on-going anyway—but particularly in times of slowdown, war or anything really.

Look at your internal operations. Streamline the processes. Take a step back. Look for opportunities to do better.

Tap employees for their ideas. A lot of times we may forget that they could be our best idea generators.

And take care of your employees. This is really…let them know their value. Give them training opportunities for new skills to bring new value. Be honest with them. Let them know the finances.

Let them know what’s going on. They’ll reward you by including them in the decision-making processes.

And finally, plan for emergencies. If it’s a disaster—obviously you can get insurance for disasters and things like that…but plan for the unexpected.

The final point is to protect your investment. In some cases it may be to buy an insurance policy. Some sort of back up for your data for the unexpected.

Those are some of the thoughts I had during times of uncertainty.

Just remember what, 27 years ago when the Gulf War started…to the client I talked to then.

He was worried. You could see the fear in his face. Because we had just started bombing Iraq. He ended up doing extremely well in his business years later. He didn’t change his course of marketing. He kept doing it.

I had another client that sold high-end homes and typically wanted to cut off their advertising in the fall. This is radio advertising.

I told him no…keep it going year round. He said, “well no one is going to want to buy a home in the winter…” I said to him, you don’t know that. The problem is—you don’t know when your customer is in the market.

And this is true of anything. Find that niche…target it and be relentless. Consistent…within your budget of course.

Well, guess what? They said let’s go ahead and continue for this year through December.

On December 13th I got a phone call, and the client told me he had just sold a million dollar home to a customer and it was twenty below zero!

The customer had been thinking about it…heard their messages a month or two earlier. Finally decided to pull the switch.

This is why that consistency in marketing, regardless of what’s going on out there…that consistency is just like investing. Long term investing. Dollar cost averaging. You do the same thing with your marketing. Why?

Because you don’t know when your customer is in the market. You keep reminding your customers that you’re there and top of mind on a regular basis.

More importantly, and you see this over time…your competition may pull back. You get in there and you buy market share.

So…bit’s of wisdom here. I want to thank Hartford for that info from their blog. It’s very helpful.

We’ll see you next week…if you need to email me, jverlin1@yahoo.com. Website is www.OnDemandAdvertisingSolutions.com. Learn more about what we do if I can help you.

My number by the way is 816-223-2105…if you have questions/comments. Feel free to call. Have a great day and we’ll do another podcast next week!

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The Power of Storytelling. Podcast #14

Host: John D. Verlin

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The Power of Storytelling.
Podcast #14