Lack of Congruence in Small Business Marketing

A common issue we see with small businesses is that their marketing is not congruent. For example, there's one small business I saw recently where the website has one look and feel, businesses cards have a different color scheme, and the brochure had a completely different logo! This mishmash sends an unprofessional message to the clients and customers.

Having congruent marketing throughout all your advertising and marketing pieces is becoming more and more important in the eyes of consumers. Branding is no longer for big corporations. Small businesses now need to brand themselves as well. The consistent message, look and feel, color scheme, logo and other details is very important. The consistent message sticks with people.

We're finding in our businesses, that it's taking more exposures or touches to get our future customers engaged and familiar with us. It's increased because of the Internet. In one day now, people are bombarded with more info and ads in a single day, then they were 20 years ago over a week. Having a congruent, branded marketing messages helps with your exposures and potential customers remembering you.

Does your website, business cards, billboards, brochures and store signs send a congruent message?

Website + Sales Process = Revenue

A properly designed website can definitely bring you people for your business, but one thing I want to caution people on is that it cannot close those sales for you.

People need a website and a sales process to bring in your overall revenue.  

I only state this, because I think there is a misconception out from business owners (especially new ones) that when your website generates interest which can be in the form of a phone call, email, or a form request on your website, that the people are ready to buy right at that moment.  Maybe.  But I have watched business owners take a prospect who was ready to buy and turn them into a no sale situation.

I'm not going to get into a complete sales training here, but I will break down some areas that we teach our staff in our companies.



We teach a five step sales process to our people.  The five steps are:

1)  Connect

2) Develop

3) Introduce

4) Follow-Up

5) Close

In the Connect step, you are making that initial connection and that can happen in the first five seconds, five minutes, or five hours in a conversation. It depends on what's going on, but use a typical call off your website. That usually happens in a minute to five minutes.  Once you know who they are and they know who you are, then the connection has been made.

In the Develop step, you are developing the relationship and determining why they are calling and what they need.  This is all about the person you are talking to.  This is 90% of you asking questions and 10% listening.  Once you have gathered a lot of information and the conversation starts to move where they want to hear what you have to offer them (what's in it for them), then this step is over.

At this point, you transition to the Introduce step where you introduce what you can do for them and you want to tailor your services or products to what is most important to them which is something you should have determined in the Develop step.  You are talking more hear and they may ask a question here and there and you may have to ask more questions to clarify their questions before you continue to introduce what's important.  Once you have explained everything that your business can do for them, then it's time to wrap up that part of the conversation.   At this point, the prospect will want you to send them some information that they can review (this depends on the type of personality you are dealing with) or they may ask for how do you pay you for what you have to offer.

If they want to get going,  then skip to the close.  You don't have to wait for them on follow-up if they want to buy right now.

If they want to review information, then make sure you schedule an appointment or time to follow-up to address their questions on the materials.  Schedule that follow-up time and then determine in this step what they need to make a decision.

Once they are ready to buy, then get whatever closing contracts, payment plans, etc. that is needed and close them. 

That's the "Reader's Digest" version of what we teach our people, but we felt that this would be helpful to you on a long-term basis.

Manager Your Own Advertising or Hire a Professional for Your Small Business?

Advertising your small business on the Internet can be a daunting task, especially if you try to use Google Adwords. Adwords is a very powerful advertising platform with incredible reach, but it's also incredibly confusing.  We've seen many of our clients start advertising on Google and then get stumped or run a very inefficient campaign. If you don't understand how the Adwords platform works, it's very easy to overpay for an advertisement.

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Adwords, as with many online advertisers, has a formula that calculates the cost of every ad, every time it's displayed. It takes dozens of factors into account to determine how much you will pay for the ad. The price you pay compared to another advertiser's ad right next to you, can vary by dollars. A couple of dollars many not sound like a bunch of money, but keep in mind that you pay that advertising rate every time someone clicks on your ad!

We've seen such extreme examples where one advertiser is paying around 50 cents per click, while another advertiser who is right next to the other is paying $5 or more per click! This example will drive home the point: Let's say you have a $1,000 a month for Internet advertising.  If your Google Adwords campaign is poorly managed and you're paying around $5 per click, then you can only drive 200 people ($1,000 divided by $5) to your site. Now, if you have an efficient campaign you could drive 2,000 people ($1,000 divided by $0.50).

Advertising on the Internet is not as simple as buying radio spots or newspaper ads where you can do negotiations for placement and build relationships with your rep to get better deals. Internet advertising is all about the numbers and is impersonal. People who know their numbers, understand the rules and can put the time in, get results. Unless you have the time to log into your account daily and go through regular training courses to stay on top of the latest changes, you're better off hiring a professional. And don't go with some big company as a package deal (think phone books...) because they do a horrible management job. They know their clients know very little about Internet advertising and take advantage of them. Stick with a professional that can show your numbers on a regular basis and that you can talk to directly. You want a one-on-one relationship with ad manager!

Contact us at Viginti Media for further help.