While many are still writhing in pain (I have accepted the inevitable, but am still not thrilled with a few details)… there are a few bright spots in the new features for business owners to enjoy.  (Download a PDF with set-up highlights here.)

One of the principle advantages is the large cover image at the top. (this is the new, wide photo at the top of the page – see our company page here: http://www.facebook.com/ByHisDesignLLC) For companies with a little savvy, this is a great opportunity to highlight your company’s image, look and culture.   But beware!  There are a few specific rules as to what may NOT appear in your cover image:

1. No web addresses, phone numbers or other contact information.
2. No Prices or Sales offers (ie: 50% off our baskets today is forbidden!)
3. No Calls to Action (ie: “Like our page” or “Call us today” are taboo.)

Violating any of the above can result in your page being shut down, so it’s advisable to follow the guidelines carefully.

Pinning Please:  Another feature likely to please business owners is the ability to “pin” an important item to the top of the page.  This feature allows you to highlight a comment or post and keep it up in clear sight when your page loads.

Messages/Recommendations: Visitors and Friends can now message you directly from your business page and they can write recommendations on the page for others to see.  These features are likely to promote interaction, which is the principle point of having a Facebook page so they get 2 thumbs up from me.

Finally, you can also detail your company’s history and character with Highlights and Milestones that span both columns of the new layout and provide the means to bring visual significance to important events, posts and more.   Here’s a screen shot of our “10 Year Anniversary Celebration” milestone from 2010…

In short, while it’s not quite perfect, it’s got several nice perks in there for businesses to stand out and connect with their communities.   Brace yourself… March 30th is coming soon.  Timeline fan or not, it’s time to get ready!

If you’ve done any reading, research or just owned a business for more than 6 months, the odds are you’ve figured out there’s a reason any marketer or designer worth his salt spends a lot of time talking about “your Target Audience.”   Small business owners often spend a fortune on branding and advertising only to find out AFTER they have parted with that hard-earned cash, it did not perform well.

Perhaps there were crickets on the phone lines, or  internet sales lagged… What was supposed to be the “key” to your growth strategy is now lining the bird cage or died a slow death in the SPAM box.  Sigh… hundreds of dollars you needed to return multiplied are now just gone.

So how do you prevent such a disaster?
Ask the six questions you learned in first grade:

1. Who? — Who do I want to see and respond to this advertising?  If you’ve been in business… take a look at your financials.  Don’t “assume” about who makes up your most valuable client base.  Where does the positive cash flow come from?

Case in Point:  Our firm recently talked with a consultant regarding a possible partnership.  The consultant made some assumptions that were quite interesting.  We are a creative firm, a NC Hub Certified Female Owned Business, and have primarily female management.  This led the consultant to assume that our primary client base was younger females.  In fact, the largest sector of our sales come from males between the ages of 35 and 65.  Lesson: Don’t just guess at your “perceived” who… find your actual who.

If your new to your industry and don’t have a sales record, do a little digging.  A few well place phone calls to peers (out of your sales area) can yield much helpful information.  You can also find helpful information for industry trends online.

2. What? — What do I want them to see, hear, feel or do?  What’s the desired outcome of your effort and expense? This may seem painfully obvious, but it’s a question that can’t be skipped or the boat sinks in the harbor.

What is your purpose?  Are you working on image control?  Community awareness?  Consumer loyalty?  Sales conversions? New markets?  This awareness of purpose will steer your efforts and help you or your marketing professional obtain the desired responses.

Whatever you want to accomplish, make it clear and make the next step easy for your “who” to complete.  Consumers make decisions based on relationship and emotion far more than just “the bottom line.”  Your marketing designs should elicit the right feelings and responses.

Case in Point: Let’s talk Customer Loyalty.  I have a favorite restaurant in town.  Yes, I love the food, but it’s more than food that keeps me coming back and parting with my cash plus 20%… it’s the way I feel.  When I walk in, I am treated like a very special guest.  Everyone I see stops, smiles and warmly greets me and my guests.  I could eat cheaper elsewhere, but I’d rather enjoy the  lunch experience.  I’m not just paying for chicken & salad… I’m paying for the feeling.  And I’m happy to pay a little more.  Have I been loyal?  You bet!  And I’ve told many friends,  taken guests, and hosted meetings there.  (Confession… I ate lunch there again today!)

3. When? – This one is easy.  When does this campaign or item need to be completed and launched?  Look at your target date for results and work backwards to set goal dates and benchmarks.  For example… if you’re looking for Christmas sales… you will probably start working on your plans in September.

Case in Point: As a professional design firm, we often are contacted by individuals or businesses who need a campaign or a website.  Sometimes it is the last piece of their implementation strategy, and sadly the last item addressed on their “to do” list.  By failing to ask “when?” and get a little timeline information in order, they can be put in a “panic mode” instead of having time to create and launch an effective strategy and reap the rewards.

4. Where? — Where will my ads, materials, video, time and money be invested?  Is this going on the side of a truck?  barrel of a pen?  staff shirts?  billboard?  magazine?  website?  internet advertising?  Having a plan for the “where” ensures you have appropriate designs and files for various applications. And as with all aspects of the process, it hinges on the “who” we started with… Where you place your advertisements and materials should be driven by who you want to reach.

Case in Point: Client:  Custom cabinet builder.  Male.  Prefers tools to chatting.  Smart, hard-working.   He may want to advertise in a tool/trade magazine.  But that’s not necessarily the way to go… He is a carpenter who loves tools, but it’s the wives who typically order cabinets for a home.  His ads need to be where women – who have the income to get custom cabinetry – will see them (hint:  this is not in a tool magazine!)

5. Why? — Why should they care?  Why is it important to take action?  It’s the old “What’s in it for me?”  And that’s not necessarily a cash discount or special offer… (Remember my favorite lunch spot?  Full price + 20%)

Why should they come back?  Why should they refer friends?  What is the “trigger” for the feeling you want to create that will make it easy for your target “who” to take the next step? Again, keep it memorable and clear.  Don’t patronize your audience… but do engage them.

Your design team can help with this, but if you’re taking it solo, look for successful models.  Don’t copy, but do model.  If you’re selling shoes, you’d be wise to note the marketing habits and decisions of Nike, for example.

And finally… drum roll, please…

6. How? — How do you start?  How do you pull all this together?  Get help!  Hire a professional.  (yes… call us.) Seriously, get a professional involved as soon as possible.

Don’t wait until you have a logo you hate (or clip art that at least a dozen others have used) plastered on cards, trucks, signs, etc. The sooner you have your brand together, product packaging and campaigns in the works, the better.

If you’re not able to hire a pro, then get lots of advice and outside input on the questions noted here.  Don’t just ask you immediate circle of folks who love you and will praise your efforts and not want to hurt your feelings…  get input from your “who” crowd, other professionals, etc.  Be willing to look at the feedback you get honestly.

Asking Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? can save you time, money, and stress.  You will have a smoother implementation and better results from your time and investment.

However, marketing & sales trends reveal that one of the most important things any business can do is to MAINTAIN their web site. That includes regular updates to the site, additional helpful information, and a blog that has information the reader can enjoy reading.

As a standard practice, take time each month to review your business website, develop fresh content and post relevant blogs on a regular basis. Gain new content from a variety of sources and also from your own business experience. Share the information in a way that is friendly and that helps your readers enjoy getting to know the company they do business with. Blogs and tips help make that happen. By keeping things new and fresh you will not only see an increase in traffic but also an increase in business.

If phone numbers or other contact information changes, be sure to reflect that on the site. Check out e-mail addresses to be sure they are still correct and links to be sure they are not broken. Add and remove photos on a regular basis and include additional media pages when this would better explain your business or service, and especially to offer helpful information to the site visitor. All of these things should become part of your regularly scheduled site maintenance plan.

It may not be the most fun or exciting thing to do, that “maintenance” thing, but if you do it properly you will reap the benefits!

Contributed by:
Lee Donald, President
Organizing Associates Inc.
www.organizingassociates.com

Cindy Edwards was recently named the 2011 Small Business Person of the Year. Read the full article at the Jacksonville Daily News.

10 Biggest Internet Marketing Myths Exposed | SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources.

Check out this interesting article on the topic:

Why AmEx Wants You to ‘Buy Local’ – BusinessWeek.

Read Full Article in Daily News here: Minority entrepreneurs, business advocate of the year named | business, year, minority – Business – Jacksonville Daily News.

via How CEOs Will Use Social Media in the Future.

SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources » Blog Archive » Do You Suffer From BlindWebsititis?.

The Must Haves:  Pay a Little Now, Save a Lot Later

A Quality Company “Look.” From logo and font selection to appropriate color choices – a quality professional’s help here can save you from costly problems later.  A trusted professional will guide you in making decisions appropriate for your target market and will provide you with the types of files and information you will need to properly utilize your logo, look and colors.

Skimping here can cost you in two big ways.  The first thing it can cost you is the appeal and iconic recognition you need with your audience to convert sales.  The second hit can run from hundreds to thousands of dollars when ineffective or poor quality items must be redesigned, replaced and/or reprinted.

A Great Message. If your customers don’t remember it, was it worth it?  You’ve heard the stories… the video that went viral.  The unknown who was suddenly platinum.  The shoes that sold 11 million dollars in a year.  It takes being noteworthy and “share-worthy.” And sometimes, it’s just this… delivering the right message at the right time.  Working with a professional helps you to test and develop the right message for your product or service and allows for greater results and longer-running campaign success.

Skimping here can cost you lost revenue in wasted advertising, lost sales, and costly development of damage-control campaigns or rebranding.

An Optimized and Targeted Website.  It’s no accident that some sites are visited often and have return traffic and sales while others simply “sit there looking pretty.”  Multiple variables are at play, but a few big factors include page layout, content relevance, call to action strategies and engagement.  These factors must be part of the planning and development of a site geared for results.  A quality professional’s help will ensure that your site is planned, created, optimized and marketed to meet your goals.

Skimping here can cost you and you’ll never realize how much.  You won’t necessarily know how many of your “visitors” check you out and buy somewhere else.  You can also spend a lot of money in advertising campaigns driving traffic to a site that just makes your prospects leave.

The Maybes:  Save a Little (or a Lot) Now

The High-Priced Phonebook Ad.  If you offer a service you should definitely be in the book.  But more and more companies are abandoning the large, expensive ads in favor of smaller ads or basic listings.  Why?  Because more people search for local services online than pick up a phone book.  It used to be that a service company’s main source of new customers was the phone book.  Not so any more.  Now the question is, “What online directories are you listed in?”  “Are you on the first page of Google SERPs or Google Places?”  You’d be better off investing in your web presence than your “shelf” presence.

Stamps/Postage. Yes, I’m saying it again… GREEN and DIGITAL.  Not only will you save 28-47 cents per piece, you will have a greater return on your investment and higher conversion rates.  Relationship-based email campaigns (newsletters, helpful tips, and more) and social media marketing are where customers are making decisions and purchases.  If you’re not yet convinced by the over half a billion users at Facebook and the many others on Twitter, YouTube, and other social sites… perhaps this will nudge you in the direction of the dollars… GO DIGITAL.

For about $15/month, you can have a CanSPAM compliant email campaign that is coordinated with your other marketing efforts that will GET to the inbox and GET you sales.   Most social marketing tools are free and can be easily connected to work together.Not only will you save money now, you’ll make money later.

Traditional Printed Letterhead.  Many smaller companies and those with a firm eye toward “Greening” their operations, are opting to go digital with much of their standard communication and reduce their printing volume.  Instead of buying printed letterhead sheets and envelopes, try working with a digital letterhead and a PDF maker to create digital copies of your documents you can email to recipients.

Remember email is not secure, so print or fax documents that contain identity or other sensitive information. Go ahead, save a few trees and save some money at the same time.

Times might be tight, but the best solution is to put your marketing dollars where they will have the greatest and most lasting impact.  (For about the cost of a billboard or phone book ad, you can have a professional website that will be seen more and will garner more sales which will work for you 24-7-365 as long as you keep it hosted online.)

“Downsize” some items, but keep the “must haves” in professional working order!