Less than an hour later, I received an email from Ross, the manager, thanking me for reviewing the restaurant. At first I thought, “What courtesy! How kind! How unusual!”

But then I thought… “Why isn’t every consumer business doing this?” Ross’s simple message turned me into a raving fan. I’m even giving them publicity on my blog. And it only took five minutes of his time.

How long would it take you to write a short thank-you message on Yelp to each of your reviewers?

Beyond thanking positive reviewers, what if you could repair customer relationships that resulted in negative reviews? Usually, it wouldn’t take more than an apology and a token of your sincerity.

Wouldn’t that be valuable to your business?

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The problem is that your customers don’t care about your inside baseball. Your internal realities have little meaning for your customers. Just because a product is a popular seller doesn’t mean it’s going to fit a customer’s specific needs. And what could be less meaningful to a retail customer than who manages a business? She just wants a good experience.

If you find yourself using the following phrases in your marketing descriptions, you probably need to get to know your customers better:

• Top-selling
• New-and-improved
• Under new management
• Inventory reduction

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Almost everyone needs a vehicle. And, these days, everyone 12 and older seems to need a mobile phone as well. These are product categories that almost everyone watching television in the United States is going to buy. In a report compiled by mobile agency mobiThinking, authors state that by the end of 2011, “Mobile subscribers in the developed world has reached [the] saturation point with at least one cell phone subscription per person.”

Having a nearly universal market isn’t enough to justify television advertising, though. Since advertising on television is expensive, low-margin businesses like produce growers or gas station retailers rarely get a good ROI on this advertising medium. Costs include both airtime and production of the commercial.

To answer the title question, TV advertising only makes sense when your market includes all consumers who watch TV and when your margins are high enough to support the cost of the advertising. All of the niche small businesses out there can scratch TV advertising from their marketing plans (and lots of large businesses should, too).

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Listen or download below:

Marketing Podcast: Facebook Timeline for Business (3.1MB)

This segment first aired during “Getting Down to Business” on Alaska’s Fox News Talk 1020.

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So, what is it, then?

Your brand is the essence, the soul, of your business. Your brand is what your business values. It’s what makes your business valuable and useful to customers, suppliers, employees– and yourself. Your brand is why your business exists.

See, it’s pretty important, eh?

The excellent movie, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, shows a beautiful example of branding. From the film’s introduction:

“JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious 3 star Michelin review, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimages, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar.”

Jiro Ono has spent his entire working life (since he was nine years old!) honing his brand. He goes so far as to ensure his suppliers put their heart and soul into their businesses, as well. His son, Yoshikazu, says, “Our tuna vendor only sells tuna. Our octopus vendor only sells octopus.” And their rice vendor refuses to sell Jiro’s special rice blend to anyone but Jiro, claiming no one else could possibly prepare it properly.

The soul, or brand, of every business in this film is ever-present. They put their heart and honor into being the very best and consciously defining what they do and who they are.

Perfection is not just a platitude for these businesses. If the tuna dealer can’t find any fish he considers perfect, there’s no tuna for sale that day. Jiro’s apprentices spend 45 minutes massaging the octopus to ensure it is tender enough to serve.

Watch the trailer: Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Watch the trailer: Jiro Dreams of Sushi

When a business knows its brand, marketing decisions become much easier. Sukiyabashi Jiro would never consider switching suppliers to lower costs or starting mass sushi production, because it wouldn’t fit their purpose. They know who they are, so they also know who they aren’t.

To truly direct a business and its employees, a brand must be specific enough to escape being generic. It has to answer the question, “Why does this business exist?” Answers like, “To be the most trusted provider of…” aren’t meaningful or unique enough to give your brand life– on the whole, aren’t your competitors pretty trustworthy, too?

For defining a compelling and meaningful brand, small businesses have the advantage over big ones. The soul is a unified thing, and it’s hard for large businesses to unify behind one purpose and set of values. Small businesses have the vision of one person (or a small group of people) to give them a truly purposeful brand. Don’t you think it’s worth answering the question, “What is my business’s brand?”

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“One person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. Errors typically accumulate in the retellings, so the statement announced by the last player differs significantly, and often amusingly, from the one uttered by the first.”

It’s a fun game, where phrases like, “Run to the store,” turn into, “Fun to be a bore.” The game also illustrates the danger of placing too much importance on consensus in your business.

Relying on consensus for marketing strategy direction and project decisions is like whispering the key to your company’s success in someone’s ear, then implementing a mangled and confused version of that plan once it makes its way through committees and competing interests.

Marketing projects are commonly subject to planning by consensus because many areas of the business might be affected by a given marketing project. If a business undergoes a website redesign, it will affect call centers, sales, accounting and other departments. But if every department or person shares in the design decisions, the website team focuses on “making everyone happy” instead of making your customers happy.

The best approach for any project, whether it be in marketing, HR or elsewhere in the business, is to designate a project manager who is responsible for making the project a success. This person gathers input from all relevant team members and makes final decisions.

While decisions need to be made by one person (or a small group of focused people), brainstorming can be the responsibility of the entire company. Gathering ideas and perspectives is imperative for a project to be successful– how can you know what will create a great customer experience unless you talk to people who interact with the customers? The project manager serves to direct and organize this brainstorming process.

With a project manager, marketing projects are cohesive and well-planned– not a game of telephone.

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A Simply Measured study released at the end of March shows that brands received, on average, a 46% increase in engagement when updating to the timeline. Photo and video post engagement increased an impressive 65%. Engagement includes commenting on or sharing a post. Engaging with customers is what makes Facebook a powerful marketing tool, so these increases can be very valuable for businesses.

Customization is another great benefit to the Facebook timeline design– now businesses can uniquely portray their brand with a cover image, highlighted stories and important events in the business’s history. Before, all business Facebook pages looked pretty much the same, and it was difficult to communicate your brand rather than Facebook’s brand. Facebook now tries to put the emphasis on the business, not themselves.

Before the timeline, it was easy for a business’s Facebook page to become cluttered with posts, comments or complaints from customers. Now, there is much better organization for this content. Businesses can also send and receive private messages from Facebook users. For most businesses, this will help keep their Facebook marketing communication free from confusion– a customer who asks a question or makes a complaint can now receive a private answer.

To see some examples of how other businesses and brands are marketing with Facebook, I recommend checking out Facebook’s own page – “Introducing New Facebook Pages.” There’s also a brief overview of new features. If you still have questions, or need some help, send me an email – amanda@zooinajungle.com. I’m always glad to talk small business marketing!

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Back up your marketing files

The most important thing a small business can do is develop and implement a back-up process. The hard drive containing all of  your marketing information is simply a mechanical device. And like any other machine with moving parts, eventually it’s going to fail. It’s certain that your hard drive is going to crash someday.

Fortunately, back-ups are pretty easy these days. If you use Macs, the included Time Machine app makes it simple to back up to an external hard drive. Windows 7 also has a Windows Backup utility.

For added protection, consider an off-site back-up service like Carbonite. This way your files are protected from catastrophes like fire.

Be smart with passwords

Social media marketing is great… unless your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or blog accounts are hacked and subject customers to spam communications. I hate seeing this happen, especially since creating secure passwords is easy. Make sure you and your employees are considering security when they set up social media accounts. Microsoft has some nice guidelines for secure passwords here.

Buy professional equipment

I’m always amazed when I see a marketing professional editing video or switching between five PowerPoint presentations on a consumer-grade computer. The extra cost of a more powerful computer is well worth the investment when you consider the value of you and your employees’ time.

Go for the big screens

One of the biggest boosts to productivity is adding screen size– whether that be buying a bigger display or a adding a second display. Apple, in an attempt to sell more Cinema Displays, published an interesting study on productivity and screen size. Here’s a graph from the study:

If you don’t trust Apple to be impartial (and I wouldn’t blame you!), the Wall Street Journal also has an article on the topic.

Calibrate your devices

If you are regularly disappointed that the colors you see on your display don’t match the colors on your final printed piece, try calibrating your devices. Calibration will ensure your display is showing colors correctly. X-Rite is one company providing this service with their i1 Display product.

These are just a few tips to get your small business started on your marketing department’s IT setup. The perfect setup for your small business depends on your goals, marketing partners, kinds of productivity you want to optimize for and how much protection is required. I recommend every small business take some time to think about what they really need. Too often, I uncover serious marketing problems for my clients that could have been prevented with a little planning.

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In this podcast, I go further into creating specials and the kinds of specials various businesses should use.

Listen or download below:

Marketing Podcast: Marketing With Foursquare (6.1 MB)

This segment first aired during “Getting Down to Business” on Alaska’s Fox News Talk 1020.

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Savvy businesses already know that Facebook is launching a mandatory page design update for all businesses on March 30, 2012. This quick primer will help your business get ready for the switch and outline a few of the marketing benefits of the new design.

First, to see the new page design in action, visit Zoo in a Jungle Marketing’s Facebook Page. Here’s a screenshot for you to preview:

How to update your business’s Facebook Page

When you visit the admin section of your Facebook Page, you’ll be encouraged to take a tour of the new layout. Throughout the tour, you’ll have an opportunity to upload key graphics and learn how to update the content.

1. The first step is to create and upload a “cover photo,” an image 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. I chose a photo I took at the Cincinnati Zoo with my tagline, “Uncage Your Potential!” Get creative with your cover photo, but be cautious about making it too promotional. Facebook won’t accept an image with too much text, pricing information or calls-to-action.
2. The next step is to ensure the image containing your logo is square, with a minimum size of 180 pixels by 180 pixels. A rectangular image will not display properly.
3. Finally, you’ll be given a chance to organize your content, highlight important updates and learn how to interact with Facebook users.

Benefits of the new Facebook Page design

• Businesses can develop a richer experience for the customers on the new page. Details like “milestones” allow businesses to share more with customers than they could before.
• The “cover photo” makes the Facebook Page look more polished, like the important marketing communications tool it is.
• Businesses can customize the new page to fit their brand and business goals.
• In my opinion, the information on the page is better organized, allowing for faster communication.

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