If making great profits was easy, everyone would be doing it

Many owners of small to midsize businesses say 2017 is starting out well from the economic perspective. Still, the need to build and sustain higher profits remains near the top of this year's list of concerns. Wasp Barcode Technologies' new  State of Small Business Report shows that, for businesses with anywhere from five to 100+ employees, building profit remains among the the major key challenges.

To improve the top line, companies can look to several avenues:

-Protecting the base: Improving customer experience and retention

-Cross-selling to the base: Identifying and marketing additional services or products that current customers should be getting from the company

-Growing the base: Identifying, nurturing and capturing "more customers like these" - in other words, finding additional customers similar to the ones that already patronize the company

-Expanding to new types of customers: Employing either or both the "good, better, best" model of selling up and down the quality/price scale, and/or creating new, original offerings that will attract a new breed of customers

-Diversification: Creating a whole new line of business that promises to yield strong returns

Whatever the direction, start with rigorous strategic planning and follow through with intelligent marketing and consistent sales. vSA's ongoing interactions with companies of all sorts point to the importance of rigor and a sharp focus on the realities of business in an ever-more-competitive marketplace. Remember, if making great profits was easy, everyone would be doing it.

In B2B marketing, basic truths remain

Reading industry pundits' predictions for B2B marketing in 2017 can be dizzying. So much to do! More automation, lead grading, tracking the life cycle of the customer experience; more content, less content, shorter, longer, denser; new SEO practices, the "death" of lead generation (although, as Mark Twain might have said, reports of the death of lead generation are greatly exaggerated).

At vSA, we keep up with all that's changing, so we can best serve client interests. Even so, we assure our readers that certain truths remain relevant for 2017:

-Marketing needs to be sharp, targeted and powerful. This includes the increasingly important arena of content marketing. Don't let anyone talk you into publishing dozens of poorly written, minimally valuable, less-than-targeted articles or posts... or even one.

-Lead grading is great, but if marketing outreach tactics can be implemented cost-effectively, even second-tier leads can stay on the radar. Sometimes great new customers still come from left field.

-Inbound marketing offers significant benefits to business-to-business companies, but don't exclude outbound and sales. Many products and services still require so-called "intrusive" outbound marketing. For many B2Bs, "being in the right place at the right time" to make the deal demands a mix of inbound and outbound marketing AND an active sales presence.

-Marketing still requires the long play. Product and service launches should be phased and thoughtful. Prospects and customers require frequent and often diversified touch points. Memories are short, so never assume anyone will remember what you communicated two months back.

-B2B companies must continually nurture new prospects and update their offerings. The customer life cycle is now more trackable than ever, thanks to integrated CRM and marketing automation. It demonstrates that you need to keep creating new customers at all times. Needs change, client companies merge and decision-makers leave their posts.

-Expert partners matter. Marketing is better when good minds work together, and when a client's institutional knowledge and passion is coupled with the marketing expertise of a company such as vSA that provides effective B2B marketing for clients every day.

 

Climate change: Trouble creates opportunities, needs

Business must be opportunistic. It must also provide real value to its customers and stakeholders. At its best, it can be instrumental in making positive change.

For this reason, the increasingly clear impacts, present and future, of climate change, create important business opportunities.

For building products, systems and services companies, many opportunities are clear. To name just a few: Increased needs to control mold and mildew in areas with high temperatures and humidity, building exteriors and interiors designed to withstand severe weather, designs for resiliency and minimal disruption following serious storms, better ways to generate energy while reducing carbon footprint, systems to monitor both occupied and evacuated buildings and facilities in the worst conditions, and much more.

It's not just about buildings, of course. Climate change impacts virtually every aspect of life. Hot-weather maladies and insects are coming to new regions, so new vaccines and treatments are needed for Zika and other viruses. Allergy problems become more severe for some people as the changing climate can worsen symptoms. People need ways to prepare for serious storms and disruptions in many aspects of daily life. Power generation companies need to look ahead and develop and market lower-carbon, sustainable and even local solutions. Companies will seek new ways for people to conserve water as comfortably as possible. Inventive businesses will focus on new ways to "live local"  and to create more sustainable regions and communities. The next generation should and will be educated about climate change and ways to slow it. And so much more.

Climate change has its doubters, but there will be fewer doubters each year as evidence and experience mount. If climate-change-value products serve important missions now, they will be attractive even to those who doubt that the climates of the world are inexorably shifting. Meantime, for companies that best seize the opportunities to improve lives and make a difference, the rewards will be significant. The time to start is now.

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Launch and get leads

Are you ready to launch your next B2B product or service? Be sure you're also ready to extend the steady, lasting, often diversified, effort to generate sales leads.

-DON'T assume that one tactic alone, be it enhanced SEO or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising or whatever, will meet your lead generation needs... that is not likely

-DO know that, for every message point you need to deliver, you should employ multiple media to reach more ears and wallets

-DO accordingly plan that you must make the most of every marketing dollar, which may drive some of the techniques you employ

-DO leverage every form of digital marketing appropriate – considering as well that digital marketing can be very cost-effective –  leveraging your own website (including the home page), creating an ongoing stream of relevant content marketing including a blog, issuing eblasts to your stakeholders, boosting both organic and paid SEO, and taking full advantage of social media relevant to your launch

-DON'T neglect more traditional venues, from trade shows and speaking engagements, to print and digital media relations, print and digital advertising, and direct mail to key decision-makers; being contrarian can separate you from the crowd

-DO encourage industry experts to vet and review your new offering, but not until you're confident it's ready

-DON'T stop. The old adage is still true: When you are sick and tired of delivering that same message, your intended audience may just be starting to pay attention

-DO get help. Launch marketing and lead generation is both science and art, and you will maximize your ROI by working with a strong, qualified launch marketing team.

Providing best value to the exceptionally busy client

Most days, the typical vSA client does not wake up thinking about marketing. vSA provides business-to-business (B2B) launch marketing, and our client is very often the VP of engineering or sales, a divisional manager, a product development guru, or perhaps the company president or CEO. The marketing role is a "bonus." And, in virtually every case (including when we deal with a full-time marketing executive) the vSA client is very, very busy.

Please note, we are not talking about the kind of "busy" where someone dashes about, creating a flurry of activity. No, we're referring to the productive person who travels weekly to work with multiple, distant customers; or who develops or reviews important engineering specs or new product prototypes; or answers daily to a board or parent company; or must assure a sales team meets its revenue numbers. (Sometimes this is "and" rather than "or.")

So, vSA deals with the exceptionally busy client, which means we play a role we truly relish. Often, vSA provides all the outside marketing for the company. Our client relies on us – trusts us – to meet important business goals, on time, on budget, and in a manner that makes the client company (and our client contact) shine.

Specifically, vSA must...

-Provide smart strategy and program implementation... as independently as warranted

-Assure very proactive forward movement on marketing, even when our client is devoting the lions' share of her time to other matters

-Do our homework, so that the questions we ask and the information we need isn't something we could have learned online or in the public record

-Ping the client efficiently for real needs – specific information, approvals at key junctures, etc.

-Keep the client in the loop when successes happen or milestones are achieved

-Alert the client for any challenges that require his attention, preferably also providing recommended solutions

-Supply the client with new opportunities and optimized ways to achieve business goals

-Meet and exceed the client's needs

B2B marketing – from launch marketing to social, media relations to inbound, and especially complex integrated programs – is a tremendous boon for the exceptionally busy client, assuming that client has a marketing partner who cares and knows how to make the right things happen. We do that.

 

Illustration © 2002 van Schouwen Associates, LLC, by Steve van Schouwen.

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Limited-budget quandary: Engage a marketing company or hire a marketing employee?

It's a question the van Schouwen Associates (vSA) team has heard many times over the years, and we understand the thinking behind it. Some small to midsize B2B companies have limited marketing budgets. The person "in charge of marketing" may be an owner, an engineer, a project manager, or a sales VP, all roles that leave limited time for marketing.

In such cases, the B2B company may debate the merits of the following either/or proposition: It could engage a company such as vSA to develop, implement and manage a marketing program. Or, it could hire a single marketing manager to do the job.

vSA, and other marketing companies of our caliber, are the best choice in such situations. Here's why:

-Good B2B marketing companies such as vSA are accustomed to taking full responsibility for proactively managing our clients' marketing. Our clients are often far too busy, so we make sure each program adheres to high standards of progress and ROI.

-A single entry- or mid-level marketing employee is not likely to have top-notch skills in all the areas you may require: strategic planning, writing, digital, video and print design, production management, and more. By contracting for integrated marketing with a good company, you access and leverage all those skills as well as the synergy of a team.

-Four-walls thinking avoided. Marketing companies like vSA can provide marketing that addresses your major needs while staying out of the weeds of the day-to-day trials and tribulations. We're your short-term, mid-range and futurist planners - something every company needs.

Of course, if your company can invest both in a marketing staffer and a marketing company, that's a good alternative. But if you must choose one or the other, go for the expertise, multiple complementary skills and powerful perspective of a marketing partner like vSA.

 

 

Business ethics in a not-so-ethical world

How many months or minutes has it been since you’ve been outraged by a business practice you’ve seen in the news or experienced in person?

If you have recently been alarmed, annoyed or upset by an incidence of price gouging, cheating on regulations, purchase of political favors, or other questionable business practices, you haven’t become numb yet. Congratulations.

Having been in business for three decades, and having witnessed both honor and decency and its inverse, I argue that being ethical beats the alternative. On the practical side, research indicates that good business ethics lead to better customer relationships, a stronger reputation and higher profit margins. Maintaining good ethics is also better for your conscience.

It helps to have guidelines, because it’s all too easy to get lost in the weeds of the daily struggle.

-Determine the mission and standards of your business. Decide in advance of crises what behaviors and methods are acceptable to you. How do you handle a cash crunch? How do you deal with problem employees? Difficult customers? Have standards to which you can stick in good times and bad.

-Ask yourself, in any interaction, the questions in this Arab proverb: “Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?”

-When dealing with unpleasant people, I’ve found the following technique helpful in making appropriate, ethical decisions about responses and action. I guess this is my own business proverb. “Listen to the message. Ignore the tone.”

-If ever you are asked to compromise your ethics for a customer or anyone else, remember that the bad taste of doing wrong lasts longer than the pleasure of winning a deal, making more money or evading responsibility.

And one more thing. I realize that these standards mean nothing to some people. If you have read this far, you are probably not one of them. Remember that the cheaters, corner-cutters and other dishonest types make poor employees, worse employers, bad partners, and terrible customers. Avoid them when you can, eliminate them from your circles when you must.

That last bit may not sound kind, but it is sometimes necessary.

This article, by Michelle van Schouwen, president of van Schouwen Associates, LLC, was first published in Succeeding in Small Business in July 2016.

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