Archive for the 'Marketing' Category

Free Webinar: The Strategy and Tactics of Marketing

Published on April 13, 2011 in Marketing and News. 0 Comments Tags: branding, differentiation, Marketing, webinars.

The Strategy and Tactics of Marketing webinar on April 19 will help you understand what makes your company different and better and how to create a brand and a message out of that knowledge that will provide compelling reasons for targets to work with your company. Tactical Marketing Programs will also be discussed illustrating ways to create programs to help your targets get what they need by using your company.

This webinar can help if:

You haven’t yet discovered what’s different and better about your restoration company.
You know that your salespeople could be communicating more effectively to targets in a position to hire, refer or work with your company.
You’re looking to develop marketing programs that set your company apart from your competition.

Click here to register for this free webinar on Tuesday, April 19 at 11 a.m. Central Time.

What Are They Saying About Your Company?

Published on February 22, 2011 in Marketing and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: Marketing, online reputation management, Social Media, social reputation, twitter.

Just because you’re not active with social media doesn’t mean others aren’t talking about you and your cleaning and restoration business.

Customers flock to Facebook and Twitter to communicate both positive and negative consumer experiences. Social review sites like Yelp are exclusively devoted to letting customers talk to each other about businesses and service providers.

This is how the world communicates now, for better or for worse. You never know who may be talking about your business. But you need to know when they are. Don’t let everything you’ve worked so hard for be tarnished because you didn’t have the knowledge and tools to protect your reputation.

Remember LeVar Burton? He’s an actor that was in several high-profile projects, including Roots and Reading Rainbow. He’s most well known for playing the role of Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Burton has a lot of followers on Twitter. A lot of followers that one day saw this:

When Burton tweeted this, he had more than 1,400,000 followers. This message was then retweeted (forwarded, or rebroadcast) by more than 20 other Twitter users to their followers, whether or not they followed Burton themselves. Those retweets included the link in Burton’s original message, which takes you here:

Did 1,400,000 people actually see this? Of course not, but you can bet a lot of them did. Those looking for a rug dealers or carpet cleaner in that market surely saw it because it’s easily found on the first page of Google search results.

And how did the proprietor of the rug cleaner company respond? Either he failed to reach out to Burton to try to solve the problem or he flat out failed to notice. More than a year later, Burton’s negative review is still there and the company’s Yelp page still links to it.

What can you do to avoid this happening to your company? First, set up a Google Alert for your company’s name so you can monitor when people mention your business online. Turn the positives into testimonials to attract new business and address any negative issues swiftly to demonstrate that your company doesn’t tolerate poor customer service.

When you do reach out to dissatisfied customers, don’t be defensive and don’t be aggressive. Don’t focus on the merits of the issue. Focus on the problem and make it clear you want to solve it. Listen and ask questions until you find the pain, and then fix it.

There are plenty of Internet users who just enjoy complaining, but you’ll find that most people with a legitimate customer service issue just want their problem solved. They will be happy to remove or correct a negative review as long as you just take care of them.

Are You Helping Your Agents Communicate Value?

Published on January 19, 2011 in Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: insurance agents, Marketing.

As I was driving to the office the other day, I heard a radio ad for an online insurance retailer that boasted, “Technology when you want it. People when you don’t.” It seems as if online insurers are starting to realize what we’ve been preaching for some time now: there are a lot of claims that can’t be addressed properly by call centers and computers alone.

As we become more and more engaged in an app driven, instant gratification model of life, it’s easy to forget that the actual experience of filing and settling a claim is not always an easy one. More often than not, it requires the help of a real-life professional to navigate successfully.”

Can technology assist in the process of filing and managing a claim? Of course it can. But regardless of how beneficial technology can be, people still desire the comfort, empathy and responsiveness of dealing with other people like themselves in a time of crisis.

Consumers don’t need to deal with an agent when they buy or renew policies. The financial numbers for online insurers like Geico and Progressive make that abundantly clear. But the tradeoff is that they don’t have an advocate on their side when they actually need claims service.

Helping agents communicate this idea to their policyholders – how they provide the people part of the equation when it’s needed most – should be a key component of any restorer’s agency marketing program.

My question to you is how is your restoration company helping the agencies in your market make their policyholders recognize the importance of having a real live agent on their side?

Restorers Adopting Social Media Can Gain a Competitive Edge

Published on December 21, 2010 in Marketing and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: linkedin, Marketing, Social Media.

Social media is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool for restoration contractors, and those who take advantage of it can reap a significant competitive advantage.

While a successful social media program requires a sizeable time commitment, the returns can justify it. Social media lets you build relationships with people you normally wouldn’t get face to face opportunities with. There are no gatekeepers on LinkedIn or Twitter to keep you away.

We recommend our clients start their social media programs with a blog. It’s not always feasible, and you can participate in social media without one, but there are some real benefits to having a blog.

First and foremost, it gives you more relevant content for your Web site. That’s “relevant” both in attracting your target audiences and “relevant” to the kind of information a search engine looks for in ranking a site. Think of a blog as one of the quickest ways to attract and engage prospects while improving your SEO position, and that is often enough to justify having one.

Even more important to your social media marketing program is that everything you use on the blog can be used on other social media platforms. Just as a quick example, I could create a Tweet that says “A blog makes SMM easier. Do you have one?” and link back to this post. This increases the chances of your message being seen by someone who would get value from it.

Blog or no blog, though, there is one social media platform every restorer should be involved in: LinkedIn. Twitter and Facebook may get the press, but LinkedIn gets the business.

As important as homeowners are to a restoration contractor, it’s referrals from professionals that that really grow your business and LinkedIn is by, about and for business people connecting with business people. Participating opens up tremendous opportunities you can’t find elsewhere.

Why I Hate Thrifty

Published on November 30, 2010 in Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: branding, car rental, customer service.

I hate Thrifty. No two ways about it.

I recently took my first family vacation with my wife and toddler. Because I have only flown once with my now two-year old, this trip caused me no little anxiety and I did a lot of pre-planning to try and get it right.

When it came to the rental car that we’d be using for eight days, I used the Travelocity feature and got the lowest price for the class of car I needed for the dirt roads in North Central New Mexico, a Jeep Grand Cherokee.

We began our trek and everything went great all the way to Albuquerque. At the car rental counter my son was running around joyfully (with my wife hovering close by) while I waited to deal with the car.

I wait patiently in line. When I finally get to the counter, fully expecting to get my Grand Cherokee, I’m told they don’t have my Cherokee but they do have a Jeep Liberty.

My comment, “Isn’t that smaller?”

His answer, “It’s built on the same frame.” A non-answer if I ever heard one!

He then said, “Well, how many people do you have, five?”

First, that’s none of his business. Second, that’s not the point! The point is that I was promised a Grand Cherokee or similar size vehicle and no amount of “lip judo” is going to convince me that getting a smaller one is going to be a positive experience for me.

Well, I thought, at least the smaller Liberty would be cheaper.

Nope. The two are the same price. But the only other choice was a minivan, which, of course, was no choice at all.

In reality, that’s not much different from any other car rental company. Some are better than others, of course, but they all operate on a first-come, first-served basis. Like airlines, they overbook to cover the inevitably high number of no-shows.

That’s not why I hate Thrifty.

I hate Thrifty not just because I was essentially made to pay more for less, but because I was left with the distinct impression that they didn’t care how I felt. In fact, I got the feeling that this is the way Thrifty does business, that it’s an acceptable way to do business, and that I was being unreasonable for expecting them to deliver what they promised.

Well, there are plenty of other car rental companies out there that will be more than happy to take my money. Thrifty, I’m voting with my feet.

How many of your customers hate you? How many are voting against you with their feet? And what are they saying about you to others?

There’s only one way to know: Ask them!

If you’d like a free, amazingly easy-to-use tool to get the kind of feedback that will prevent your company from becoming a Thrifty, just send me an email.

Are Your “Crappy” Competitors Roaring Up Behind You?

Published on November 16, 2010 in Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: competition, Marketing.

Remember when Hyundai first came into the market? They built and sold cheap, but arguably crappy, cars. Their price point let them fill a niche abandoned by Toyota, Honda and Nissan as they concentrated on more upscale offerings. But nobody considered Hyundai a real threat.

Well, Hyundai addressed the quality issue by building better cars. Then they offered the industry’s longest vehicle warranty to prove it. All while improving styling and comfort and maintaining their lower prices.

In the meantime, Toyota announced recall after recall, Nissan continued its run of building good cars nobody wanted to buy and Honda just chugged along, making no big mistakes but doing nothing special.

So when I was in Atlanta recently and had my choice of mid-size SUVs, I thought this would be a good chance to see just how far Hyundai has come. So I chose a Hyundai Santa Fe.

The Santa Fe is a really nice vehicle. It has excellent performance, really good fit and finish, looks great and has the most comfortable driver’s seat I have ever sat in. The gas mileage (even with my “Rental Car Rally” driving) is outstanding.

The only problem I have with it is that the seat doesn’t go far back enough for me to drive long distances comfortably (I’m 6′2″ tall). But they’ve given a lot of thought to driver comfort and the Santa Fe fits what I call the “elbow test” of having comfortable places to rest my elbows when driving.

The point is that Hyundai, a brand once thought of as “crappy,” is now producing high quality, competitively-priced vehicles that have caught Toyota, Honda, Nissan and even Ford and GM napping.

It’s easy to dismiss your competition as crappy or otherwise no threat for any number of reasons. And it’s just as easy to become the Toyota to their Hyundai.

One of my clients thought that a competitor was too small to be of any concern, only to find that they had landed two half-million dollar contracts that my client wasn’t even aware of.

So be sure to keep an eye on your competition. Pay attention and make developing intelligence on the competition part of your ongoing marketing activities. Don’t let the next time you think about the competition be as you’re watching them pass you by.

Why Be Different?

Published on November 11, 2010 in Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: branding, differentiation, Marketing.

What is different about your company in the eyes of the people that you are trying to sell to? This is a crucial and fundamental element of your marketing plan, and yet most restorers give almost zero thought to it.

How do I know this?

Because all of their salespeople sound the same. They always talk about their company and how great they are. They always hit the same points. They always say the same thing. It doesn’t matter who they are talking to. Policyholder, agent, adjuster, real estate agent, hygienist, plumber – there’s no difference.

Given that most restorers’ targets are already using another restorer, not demonstrating a difference translates as, “Well, no reason to make a switch here.”

And, in the wonderful situation where there is no “incumbent supplier” (meaning no competitor) this same “me, me, me” talk gives the prospect no reason to consider working with a new restorer.

So a successful sale starts with being different. That’s why discovering, understanding and articulating that difference is the first thing we do when we start working with a restorer.

Practicing What We Preach

Published on November 8, 2010 in Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: Marketing, marketing plan.

As the first step in the consulting process that I use with our clients, I spend a full day at their facility conducting a marketing planning meeting. Since we practice what we preach, we recently spent the entire day putting BDA through that same on-site consulting process.

While the process really delivered some important information that will help us better serve our clients and continue to grow, part of the exercise was to better help us understand the process from our clients’ point of view.

At the beginning of our meeting I noticed the emotions that I had running through me. I was a bit nervous about a number of things. I was opening up my entire company, that I have put my heart and soul into, to the criticism of my employees. I was nervous about what it might take to accomplish my goals. I was even worried that perhaps I had overestimated what was possible and would have to rethink everything.

But, having done this with so many clients, I was comfortable that the outcome would be positive, and I would have a much improved understanding of our business, our current marketing situation and what would have to be accomplished to achieve our goals.

The day flew by (for me at least ). And running through the processes I use with clients proved to be extremely valuable, especially with the insights of my team. It really impressed me how involved they are in our business and how much insight they have in areas that to some extent were blind spots for me.

I was really wiped out by the end of the day, but had a much clearer understanding of the true nature of the business and, even more importantly, that we could accomplish my goals and had a roadmap to follow.

While certain aspects of exactly how we will get there will be clarified in the final marketing plan, I now had a specific understanding of what activities were priorities in terms of accomplishing our goals and which were less important. I am using this understanding every day to better manage my team. It’s a great feeling to know that a decision and a task that we are completing today is moving us another step closer to our ultimate goals.