(Online Journalism Review) — If you’re going to take on Groupon, you’re going to need to find a way to get more consumers in your market taking up your offers than are taking up Groupon’s. As any start-up online publisher knows, the most cost-effective way to spread the word about anything online is to get your readers to do your promotion for you.  Make it easy for your readers to redistribute your offers to their friends and family who might be interested in the deal, too. After all, if you’re trying to target better than Groupon, who knows better if a deal will appeal to someone than a friend or family member?

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(Businessweek) — Karen E. Klein: What do you see U.S. companies doing in terms of marketing to African American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American consumers?

Ricardo De La Blanca Brigati: You would think that aggressively targeting these changing American consumers would be priority one for business. But unfortunately many make little effort beyond replacing a Caucasian spokesperson with a minority.  Another thing I see in multicultural marketing is focusing on helping poor people in sad situations. It is shocking. When I see an image of someone in a Hispanic marketing campaign, the people are not really good-looking. Why would you show an image of a person that no one wants to look like or be?

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(New York Times) — MIKE LESTER, chief executive of a transportation software company on the outskirts of Minneapolis, mingles with the best in his industry — virtually, that is.   Like many businesses across the country, his small company has a budget with little room to pay the $500 to $2,500 cost, depending on the location, of attending a traditional industry gathering.  So when he heard about a recent online conference featuring transportation experts opining on topics like urban mobility and future demand for roads and subways, Mr. Lester registered. He was somewhat dubious about what he might learn from a remote event, but participation was free.

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(New York Times) — Earlier this year, Leslie Hearne, owner of a company called Cow Wow, approached our agency about doing something really different on a modest budget to promote her liquid compost product made from dairy cow waste. Ms. Hearne calls herself the Grand Poobah and is an enthusiastic believer in the “power of poo” and, after seeing her Poop Loop and hearing about the very green aspects of her product, our team was ready to go. Ms. Hearne’s only guidelines were to do something fun and engaging.  Inspired by a Texas gubernatorial election in which one of the candidates is known for his hair, our team came up with the idea to create a mobile tour with two 6-foot clay heads with the likenesses of the candidates, Rick Perry, the Republican incumbent, and Bill White, the Democratic challenger. Both heads would feature hair of ivy — nourished with Cow Wow, of course. People could interact with the heads at events and then go online to interact with the Cow Wow brand and cast their votes for the guy with the better “hair.”

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Many business owners believe that if they shell out large amounts of money to promote their products they’ll receive large returns. It’s a logical notion in theory but in practice, that’s not what typically happens. Sure, the marketer will see a return in the way of potential consumers showing interest but marketing isn’t a “one-dollar equals one customer” kind of thing.

Yes, investment and return on investment are directly related to one another but they are not constants of one another.

When it comes to return on a marketing investment, the general rule of thumb is to expect a 1% to 3% response from the total number of potential customers you’ve contacted. In simple number terms, that means that for every 100 people you contact, you can expect to have 1 to 3 people actually respond to your marketing. I know what you’re thinking: That could be a lot of money for such a small return. In reality though, it’s not; unless you spend more on your per consumer marketing than a single product / service costs, that is. Here’s an example:

Say that you’re an ink cartridge dealer and you want to send out a direct mail postcard advertising a buy one, get one half off offer to approximately 500 customers. If you purchase leads, that might cost you $50.00 ($0.10 / lead), printing for 500 postcards might cost you $50, and bulk rate postage might cost you $0.32 / mailing. That brings printing and mailing costs to $160.

Presuming that the average price of an ink cartridge was $20.00 then for every customer that responds, you stand to earn at least $30.00.

Well based on the 1%-3% rule, your sales would be $150.00 to $450.00. Now, of course you’d like to be on the 3% end to turn a profit but having that 1% return is valuable too. If you were able to get 1% of your audience in the store once, you’ll do it again (especially if you provide another special offer!) and repeat customers are the life of any business. You’ll make a profit when those customers tell their friends about your store and when that 1% returns for another set of cartridges themselves.

Prefer to see your returns sooner rather than later? Then plan out your marketing and be very specific about who you’re marketing to. Remember: The examples above are based on marketing to general audience. You’ll increase the percentage for potential returns if you research your market and focus your advertising accordingly.

Just think about it: If you sent out that same postcard out to 500 households with school age children right before school starts again, you might get a 5% – 7% response instead of the standard 1% to 3%. In that scenario, your sales would range from $750 to $1,050. Sounds better, doesn’t it? Well, give it a try and let me know how things work out for you.

As always, if you have a marketing question that you would like me to answer, send me an email at AskTanisha@TheLoftyEntrepreneur.com or ask@madamenoire.com.

Tanisha Coffey is a professional writer and marketing consultant based in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. She provides her services through the strategic marketing consulting, professional copywriting and independent author services firm Scribe, Etc.

The last article I wrote got quite a few of you entrepreneurs out there buzzing. I received a slew of emails! (Thanks!) Of those emails, there were two questions that were the most asked:

(1) “I launched my marketing campaign months ago/ am involved in various marketing activities but did not set up a system for tracking tangible data prior to starting. What do I do to measure their performance now rather than waiting another three months to collect data?”

(2) “What types of things do I need to do to be able to collect data that I can review for marketing effectiveness?”

This week, we’re going to tackle the first question and in the article after that, I’ll have the answer to question two. Sound like a plan? Great. Here we go…

I have two main pieces of advice for those of you who have marketing activities in progress but no means to track their performance. Since you don’t have unbiased data to complete an objective analysis, you must settle for a subjective analysis of the information that you do have. “What information do I have?” you say. Data you’ve created, of course!

More specifically, you’ll have to use the objectives that you set prior to launching your marketing activities. If you did not set marketing objectives prior to implementing your marketing activities, write them now.

Caution: Write only three to four objectives you hope your marketing will achieve. Be specific. Normally, you should have specific objectives for each target audience. However, to simplify the process at this juncture, set objectives are appropriate for all of your target audiences.

To begin your assessment, you should make a list of your active marketing activities. Focus only on those activities that have been underway for at least three months. Since you will be assessing multiple activities using the same criteria (ie. your objectives), I suggest that you create a chart.

Input your current marketing activities, one below the other, down the far left column; list your marketing objective(s) across the top of the chart, one beside the other. Then, sit down and prepare to complete an objective assessment of their effectiveness. Next, ask yourself: “How well is X marketing activity meeting each marketing objective I set?” Write your thoughts in the appropriate box for each marketing activity and objective.

Once you’ve filled in the entire chart, go back and review your responses. Highlight the marketing activities that meet all of your marketing objectives. Circle the activities that currently meet at least ¾ of your objectives. Finally, mark a single red line through all other marketing activities remaining.

The activities that you highlighted are those that you should definitely continue with. Activities that are circled are “fence-line” activities; they have the potential to work well but need to be adjusted to truly benefit your business. The marketing activities through which you’ve drawn a line are marketing activities that you should discontinue.

That’s not to say they are not good marketing tactics but rather than they are not right for your business as they are currently planned / implemented and will need to be redesigned if you decide to use them again in the future.

Again, this will be a highly subjective assessment of the marketing activity’s performance effectiveness. Therefore, it’s not ideal; an objective assessment based on actual data is ideal. Still, a subjective assessment is better than no assessment at all. That leads me to my second suggestion for this group: Start tracking how each of the marketing activities you plan to keep perform…this week!

As always, if you have a marketing question that you would like me to answer, send me an email at AskTanisha@TheLoftyEntrepreneur.com or ask@madamenoire.com.

Tanisha Coffey is a professional writer and marketing consultant based in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. She provides her services through the strategic marketing consulting, professional copywriting and independent author services firm Scribe, Etc.

When it comes to marketing, a lofty entrepreneur doesn’t just create professional and purposeful marketing materials; she also tracks how her marketing efforts are performing. So, in today’s article, we’re going to look at three key marketing performance indicators that every small business owner should use; they’re the first tools a business owner should use to determine whether the marketing activities they’re investing in are paying off. (Note: The following are three performance indicators that are particularly helpful for businesses involved in marketing activities designed to generate sales or sales leads.)

#1: Change In Revenue

The easiest way to gain initial insight as to whether a marketing tactic is effective is to look at the money it’s generating. So, take a moment to review your bank statements. Compare your revenue prior to launching your marketing campaign and your revenue as of today. Here are two formulas that will be helpful:

$ VALUE CHANGE IN REVENUE = (Revenue B – Revenue A)

where Revenue A is the revenue at time “t” (an initial point) and Revenue B is the revenue at point after time “t”

% CHANGE IN REVENUE = [(Revenue B – Revenue A) / Revenue A] x 100

Looking at your calculations, is there a positive change, negative change or no change at all? What is the percentage of change in revenue? The benefit of using the dollar value and percent change in revenue as a collective marketing performance assessment tool is that it’s an easy short-term financial indicator of successful (or unsuccessful) marketing activities. Simply put: If the marketing activity is helping you to generate income that you did not previously have, it is working. The question is: How well is it really working. That’s where using additional performance indicators can be useful.

#2: Return On Marketing Investment

Another popular performance indicator is return on investment (ROI). Since we’re focusing on the effectiveness of marketing specifically, we’ll focus on a derivative of ROI—return on marketing investment (ROMI). The ROMI formula can be used to assess how much your investment in your overall marketing activities is paying off. However, since our goal is to specifically determine which marketing activities are positively contributing to your bottom line, you should use the following ROMI calculation to assess your marketing activities individually. Here’s a simple formula for calculating ROMI:

ROMI = Revenue generated from X marketing activity / by the marketing budget for X activity

Using the information generated by the activity-specific ROMI, you can determine not simply whether the marketing activity is meeting your marketing objectives but whether it is a cost-efficient means for doing so based on how you’re currently implementing it; that, in turn can help you to make a plethora of decisions. For instance, you’ll be able to decide whether you need to revise your implementation strategy to allow for increased revenue, whether it’s most feasible to budget the marketing activity on a limited basis rather than an ongoing basis and how profitable that marketing activity is compared to your other marketing activities.

#3: Profit

While indicators based on revenue from marketing activities can be good performance indicators, they’re not always the most trustworthy…not on their own, at least. Why? Well revenue-focused indicators only look at half of the picture: the money coming in from specific marketing activities. Therefore, it’s also a good idea to use profit as an additional financial performance indicator; doing so will force you to not only consider the revenue you’re gaining from your marketing but also the expenses that you are incurring to maintain the marketing activity. The best indicator of this type, in my opinion: Profit. After all, the true goal of all marketing activities is to turn a profit. To calculate the profit (net gain or net loss) of your marketing activities, use this formula:

PROFIT = Revenue generated from marketing activity X – Expenses for implementing and executing marketing activity X

Change in revenue, ROMI and profit are just a few of the more simple means of assessing how well your marketing activities are performing. There are literally dozens. So, use the methods above to start. As your marketing plan becomes more complex and your business grows, you will want to add additional performance indicator assessments. For now, these should suffice to help you make an informed decision on how well your marketing activities are working and which you should continue / discontinue.

One final note…

You will not be able to assess your marketing activity effectiveness based on objective (aka unbiased) information in the absence of tangible data (ie. financial information and marketing activity statistics). You can, however, use subjective assessments. In this case, you would set the criteria you’re going to use to evaluate each marketing activity and make your decisions based on those.

As always, if you have a marketing question that you would like me to answer, send me an email at AskTanisha@TheLoftyEntrepreneur.com or ask@madamenoire.com.

Tanisha Coffey is a professional writer and marketing consultant based in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. She provides her services through the strategic marketing consulting, professional copywriting and independent author services firm Scribe, Etc.

It costs to market a business…but it doesn’t have to cost money ALL of the time. In some cases, the cost can be limited to time. Those “cases” are particularly important for new businesses that have limited marketing funds and cater primarily to local consumers. Since the number of new businesses is on the rise, most of them serving the local community, I thought I’d take a minute to highlight a few free marketing tactics that new local businesses can use to begin rounding up customers. So, without further delay, here are my top three marketing tactics that I believe every local business should invest (time) in…

Be a Host

The benefit of being a host is that it allows you to take part in experiential marketing; it provides you with an opportunity to invite others to experience you, your office / store and your products / services. So, if it’s at all possible, I recommend that you give being a host a try.

There are two ways that you can be a host. The first way is to hold your own event. For example, you may decide to offer a workshop, seminar or demonstration designed to inform potential customers about your products / services while providing value to them. Alternatively, you may host a social event that is designed primarily to brand your business and familiarize customers with your business without the sales edge. However, if you decide to go this route, understand that planning and promoting an event can be hard work in itself…especially if you’re low on cash.

If you’re not up for hosting an event on your own, consider the second way to be a host: Partner with an organization. The key to hosting events in this way is finding organizations that target audiences you’d like to attract to your business. Once you find those organizations, you can offer your building / store / office space as a locale for one of their events. This is a great way to reap the benefits of being a host while minimizing your event-related responsibilities.

Toot Your Own Horn

Media exposure is one of the best forms of marketing a business can have…but there’s a catch: The media is a diva! Small businesses solicit the media, not the other way around—at least, not when it comes to positive news stories, that is. So, tooting your own horn is my cutesy way of saying that if you want to capitalize on the potential benefits of media exposure, you’ve got to write news releases. However, you cannot just write the news release about anything related to your business; it must be newsworthy.

What’s considered newsworthy?

Well, that depends on the local media outlets to which you plan to submit your news release. However, generally speaking, newsworthy means that the information you’re conveying via your news release is relevant to the media outlet’s audience; the information must benefit the local community in some way for the media to consider it newsworthy and your news release should demonstrate how the news you’re sharing is a benefit to the media outlet’s audience. FYI: If you’re hosting an event, ALWAYS send a news release prior to the event to improve your chances of news coverage! It doesn’t guarantee that the media will cover your event, but it definitely increases your chances.

Befriend Google

If you didn’t know, Google is more than just a top search engine. The company also offers several tools to help business owners to promote themselves. Three free Google tools that can be particularly beneficial for you business owners who sell to local customers are Google Local Business Center, Google Sites and YouTube.

Google Local Business Center allows you to create a business listing and offer coupons. Customers can then print the coupons and bring them into your business or, if you enable the mobile option, they can simply show you the coupon when they visit! Meanwhile, Google Sites allows you to set up a free basic Web site to give your business a Web presence. (Note: Since Google Sites is template-based, the capabilities are limited but the features are sufficient to build a good informational Web site that gives an overview of your business.) As for YouTube, you can use this resource to create your own channel on which you can post commercials, seminar / workshop clips, tips of the day, demonstrations, answers to customer questions, etc. Any of those types of posts can help to draw attention to your business.

The common thread with each of these marketing tactics is that you, the business owner, are completely in control of the cost. You can certainly execute all of them in a professional manner without spending a dime. However, the greater benefit is that they are tactics that you can expand on once you do have a budget to invest in frills that will enhance whatever you’re doing. On a final note: Regardless of how much you spend (or don’t spend) on a marketing tactic, make sure that you’re putting your best face forward because whatever you do will reflect on you / your business. Okay, enough talk. It’s time for you to get back to work!

Do you have a marketing or self-publishing question you’d like me to answer? Email me and let me know. After all, I can’t answer a question that hasn’t been asked, can I? Right? So, send me an email at AskTanisha@TheLoftyEntrepreneur.com or ask@madamenoire.com.

Tanisha Coffey is a professional writer and marketing consultant based in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. She provides her services through the strategic marketing consulting, professional copywriting and independent author services firm Scribe, Etc.

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