Get comfortable with saying “No.” It is the most important word in your small business vocabulary. One of the predominant issues that small businesses face, due largely to the absence of a CCI – Customer Composite Index (see previous post), is their inability to say “No” to a prospect or customer when they should.

Here’s how it works; they (small business) have a sales opportunity but it’s really not what they do. But, the customers or prospect trusts them, perhaps due to a pre-existing relationship. And that prospect or customer really needs whatever “it” is. Rather than saying, “I’m sorry, we don’t do that. But, I’d be happy to help you find someone who does.” Or, “I know exactly who to point you to, let me make a phone call…” The small business decides that there’s an opportunity to make a quick buck, and “it” really isn’t that far-afield…

Well, I think you probably know the rest of the story (thank you Paul Harvey). The small business takes the job and ends up scrambling (i.e., jumping through hoops) to get it done. They don’t really understand what they are doing so the quality isn’t there. They won’t deliver on time and they spent too much money building or delivering “it.”

Net, net…
Net result? A big looser! Not only did they alienate everyone within their own small business, they lost money on the job, (they would know this if they kept track of such things). And most egregious of all, they broke the trust of a customer who may very well tell all her friends and neighbors about what a pathetic job the small business did for her. Don’t even get me started about the social media implecations of such a message getting out about you. That’s called Word Of Mouth and in this case, it’s not good!

I wish I could say this doesn’t happen very often but I can pretty much guarantee that if you are reading this you have either been involved in such a debacle, been on the receiveing end or, you know of one first hand. Solution? Do what you do best and forget the rest! Your customers, your employees and your banker will love you for it!

This content continues to get a ton of traffic elsewhere on the web so, I figured I would include it here for your viewing pleasure. This is extremely relevant information related to the development of effective communications with your potential customers.

Everything in this post is as relevant today in the Social Marketing space as it is in the dirt-world. As you will see, it’s all about communication…

Unlike the Broadway musical of the same name, the AIDA that I am referring to is not the story of timeless love between a Nubian princess and an Egyptian prince, but rather the 4 “timeless” fundamental elements of effective marketing communications.

Attention
Your audience is barraged by thousands of different marketing messages and communication inputs every day of their lives. This is only going to get worse now that we have embarked on yet another communications revolution on the web (Social Media). Ensuring that your message is seen and read will mean the difference between success and failure.

Keep in mind that “It’s Not About You!” Get your ego out of it. Your headline, in the case of an ad, or subject line, in the case of an email communication, or blog post, should be a bold and compelling benefit statement that “hits the reader where they live.” It should address some aspect of their need, that you are responding to, or the problem that you are solving. Make it as personal as you possibly can!

A good starting point is to make sure you know who you are communicating with or who you would like to communicate your message to. Remember that Search engines feed on blog posts and all other forms of online communications (web pages, twitter feeds, etc). Make sure that your content will draw the right crowd.

Most email management programs on the market today will allow you to personalize your message with the recipient’s name in the subject line, which has been shown to be highly effective in getting email messages noticed and read. By the way, non-spam email is still the highest rate of conversion on the web today.

I heard an interesting interview with Chris Brogan the other day. Chris, who is recognized as an expert in the social media space, was being interviewed about his use of Twitter, the micro-blogging utility that has become so popular of late. Among the various and sundry ideas that were tossed around was a comment about how he loathes getting blatant sales pitches from people who he doesn’t know, who are following him. No one on the interview had a good term, or any term for that matter, to describe this Twitter equivalent to junk mail or SPAM.

Well divine light has shown down upon me. Ladies and gentlemen, I have that term! And the term is, “TWACK.” Now I realize that sounds kind of goofy but, follow my logic. As with all words in the twitter lexicon, it begins with the letters T & W, as in Twittonary (Twitter Dictionary). This is a cool tool you can use to look up the meaning of anything and everything on twitter. “TWACK” also sounds like Elmer Fudd in hot pursuit of Bugs Bunny. “Be vewy, vewy quiet. I’m twack-ing a wabbit! Huhuhuhuhu…” LOL

Most birds chirp and tweet, the later being the term used to describe a micro-post (140 characters or less) by anyone on twitter. These chirps and tweets are melodious sounds that are pleasing to the ear. Ducks, by comparison, quack which to anyone but a duck hunter is not a melodious or pleasing sound. A “Quack” is also a derogatory term used to describe a doctor of ill repute or perhaps a shyster. The word “Quack” is rather abrasive and obnoxious, which is in keeping with the previous comment. The term “TWACK” is also rather abrupt and harsh, when you say it. Try it out. It also sounds similar to “whack,” which is to hit or strike something with a resounding blow.

Law #3 — Significance:

Understand this… There is a very basic law that governs information on the Internet. This law, as viewed from the recipient’s standpoint, is simply this: Information should be FREE! Break this law at your own risk.

Actually, there’s a bit more to it than that. You must first establish Trust with your audience before you can start asking them to pay for anything. Trust is a byproduct of Value and value is in the eye of the beholder.

If your audience gives your information a positive valuation, you are well on your way to establishing trust. The common currency used for this exchange on the Internet is obviously information. A key variable in this Value + Trust = Customer Loyalty equation is the significance of the information provided.

By significance I do not mean quantity. What I am talking about is the quality of your information. If you can communicate your special value to your audience in a single page, so much the better.

Perhaps you have a valuable piece of information (a whitepaper, a one-page matrix, a graph or spreadsheet, or perhaps informational tools) that would be useful to your audience. Great! Let them have it! Don’t be bashful about letting them know this information is theirs to use for FREE! There is a natural inclination (innate tendency) within all of us to return the favor. We’ve also heard this referred to as “pay it forward.”

By giving away significant information (content) you are tapping into this most basic of all human instincts. Your audience will reciprocate!

Good Content Law #2 – Current

Your information may very well be what your prospects and customers are looking for. However, if it’s outdated it’s as good as yesterday’s news! No one wants to read a newspaper from several days or weeks ago. In their quest for information, your prospects are looking for cutting edge data that will answer their questions and solve their problems. This certainly puts the burden of responsibility squarely on your shoulders.

This point speaks to a basic misconception that exists with many small business people about the Internet. The misconception is that somehow Internet Marketing requires less effort than traditional marketing. To this I respond with what I tell everyone who thinks there is some get-rich-quick formula that they haven’t yet discovered online: “You get back what you put out!” This is a simple truth that applies to everything in life including Internet Marketing. Another way to put this is “You get what you pay for.”

Fear not! Information is what the Internet is all about. There is literally an unlimited supply of information available online that you can provide to your interested eyeballs (prospects and customers). This will probably require you to change your view about using OPI — Other Peoples Information, and generally force you to take a less parochial view of the manner in which you service your customers’ need for information.

The upshot of this part of the discussion is that in gaining access to “good” content online, you will be presented with the opportunity to think more broadly about your business model. Actually, forced to think more broadly accurately describes the situation that you face. Again I say, fear not! This is opportunity knocking! Openly sharing information is one of the foundational principles that Social Media is based on.

I originally published this information over 5 years ago. As with many things online it’s as relevant today as it ever was.

Your content must first and foremost adhere to The 4 Laws of Good Content. For our purposes in this article, your content is defined as the information that you provide to your community members, prospects and customers. In the final analysis it must be:

Law #1 — Relevant
If the information that you are providing to someone who has taken the time to seek you out is not meaningful to them, or more importantly does not address their need(s), they will leave. The oft-quoted figure is 8 seconds. You have 8 seconds to capture someone’s attention and interest or they’re gone, never to return! Pretty harsh for sure, but that’s life on the Internet! Frankly, your lucky if you get 8 seconds. People (your potential customers) recognize full well that there is an endless supply of information out there, waiting for them to find it.

This aspect of good content has most to do with effectively targeting your prospects and customers. It’s very important that when you set out to do business on the Internet, you do so with a very clear picture of who your “ideal” customers are. Miss this point, develop a muddled focus on your website, in your ezine or other e-communications, and your potential for doing business successfully on the Internet is pretty close to “0.”

Worse yet is the situation where web surfers end up at a site that appears to have no bearing whatsoever on what they were searching for originally. This type of online duping goes on all the time and has become a serious annoyance. Don’t even consider doing such a thing in an effort to get more web traffic!

In developing your website, it is important to keep in mind that your web site is essentially a document, or series of documents, that your web visitors will be reading. Understand that this is the expectation that they are coming to your website with as well.

Recent readability studies prove that the eye is immediately attracted to text, not pictures or graphics on a web site. This may be bad news for website designers out there who have a penchant for developing very elaborate Flash animations, but it’s good news for you. It saves you the time, trouble and expense of developing such things.

Creativity Killed the Customer
Recently, a web designer (former creative director for an advertising agency) colleague called me up excited to show me a website that he had just developed. When I got to his office and saw his latest masterpiece I was a little concerned. He had indeed developed a magnificent dynamic, database driven web site. Unfortunately at his customer’s request he had also developed a 2 minute long Flash animation. This was the first thing a web visitor encountered when they went to this particular company’s homepage.

This was quite literally the rally cry that swept the nation after gold was discovered at Sutter’s Creek. By 1864 the gold rush had ended, leaving in its wake tens of thousands of broken men and women who had gone out to California seeking their fortunes.

We have seen some semblance of this phenomenon in the past related to all things Internet. In the mid nineties we experienced the cyber rush as companies and individuals sought their fortunes online. Dotcom mania swept our nation like gold fever, with a similar net effect. How quickly we forget the past…

The vast majority of the forty-niners did not strike it rich. The real money was made by the industrious entrepreneurs of the day who realized that these miners needed to be fed and clothed. They also needed a place to stay and equipment with which to ply their trade.

William Randolph Hurst III, direct descendant of the man who won the San Francisco Examiner in a hand of poker during that era, is credited with the first use of the term “picks and shovels” as it relates to the Internet. You see, Mr. Hurst understood that it was the farmers, restaurant owners, inn keepers and suppliers of everything from shovels to newspapers who made the real money. People with names like Stanford, Levi and Straus. These tycoons, and many others, made fortunes on everything from blue jeans to prostitution.

To date, it has been the “picks and shovels” companies that have flourished and prospered online. These companies have implemented business plans geared towards helping other businesses harness the true value of the Internet – community, collaboration and communication. This is especially significant as we move from an economy based on the valuation of tangible assets to one based on the real value of information.

Opportunities abound for today’s enterprising Netrepreneur. For example, the applications service provider or ASP business model also referred to as SaaS (software as a service), which is the automation and outsourcing of business functions, in many cases dealing with the distribution and use of software utilizing the Internet as the primary medium, has grown exponentially to a multi-billion dollar industry in the last several years. Furthermore, this model has grown faster than eCommerce originally did.

In addition to back office automation we are confronted with the ever present need to find and use information effectively. Websites and blogs online that support this function are called Portals. These websites rely on the sharing of information among customers, business partners, vendors, stakeholders and constituents, centered on a general topic area or industry. The Portal owner benefits financially from the affiliate relationships that he or she has with numerous vendors and suppliers represented on the site. An excellent example of a Social Media portal is none other than The Social Media Portal (SMP), Which bills itself as a resource that maps global social media, social networks and user generated content (UGC).

Portals that address a very specific need, application or segment of an industry are called Vortals or vertical portals. Vortals provide seemingly endless amounts of information and support to all involved on a relatively narrow subject area. The Vortal business model lends itself to the entrepreneur or small business owner who has a very particular interest, passion or skill.

Let’s not forget about information aggregators or intermediaries, Infomediaries for short. These websites  and blogs provide specialized information to producers of goods and services and their potential customers, increasing the value through aggregation. Infomediaries provide valuable data about consumers and their buying habits. These data are made more valuable when they are carefully analyzed and used in target marketing campaigns.

Do you have information you want to sell? Could you do it online? You may want to consider it. The online information industry will grow dramatically over the next several years, further offsetting the traditional publishing and media industries!

These are but a few of the information centric “picks and shovels” company types presently supporting real commerce on the Internet. Others include, knowledge networks or expert sites, efficiency based manufacturing models, virtual merchants, advertising, marketing, branding and promotions… If you can think it up you can come up with an application on the web.

So, do it!