January 26, 2001
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MarketingToSmallBiz From MarketingSherpa.com
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Jan 26, 2001 Vol II, Issue 4
1. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Good news & bad news
2. NEWS: Main Street Online Seeks Partners; Antion's Tech
Advice
3. More MarketingSherpa.com Headlines
4. CASE STUDY: workz.com Grows Traffic 20% Month After Month
by Focusing on the "Wow Factor" with a Visitor-Centric Web
Redesign
5. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Terri Lonier's Advice (and Warnings)
on Marketing to the Tantalizing SOHO Marketplace
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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
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Dear MarketingtoSmallBiz Readers,
We regret to inform you that this will be our last weekly
issue. While to subject of marketing to small business is a
fascinating one for all of us, it is not something many
advertisers understood well enough to sponsor.
Our sister newsletter B-to-B MarketingBiz will continue to cover
the topic of marketing to small businesses occasionally in
special reports. (Yes! The rest of MarketingSherpa.com
continues.) Also, we plan to publish a special "Best Of"
collection that you'll be able to purchase for a reasonable
price very soon. We'll let you know where and when.
To keep yourself updated in the meantime, we are pleased to
recommend that you subscribe to Bredin Information's free
email newsletter, The Bredin Report at:
http://www.bbionline.com/tbr.htm
Every two weeks The Bredin Report delivers a snapshot of key
partnerships, alliances, and initiatives shaping online
marketing to small business. Each free issue includes
articles on the players and best practices in the business-to-
small-business (B2SB) arena.
Thanks again for your support and encouragement over this past
year. And now on with our issue!
Anne Holland, Publisher
MarketingSherpa.com's MarketingtoSmallBiz.com
anneh@marketingsherpa.com
P.S. Remember, your link for a free subscription to The
Bredin Report is: http://www.bbionline.com/tbr.htm
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NEWS
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* Switchboard Welcomes Potential Partners for its Main Streets
Online Programs
Switchboard Inc, a company who's Web site helps local
merchants "establish, manage and expand their businesses
online" funded a series of seminars for small business people
in six cities across America last year. The program, entitled
Main Streets Online, was so successful that the Company is
already planning a second series for 2001.
Spokesperson Trevor Shaw says, "Switchboard would welcome
inquires for corporations to become involved in the Main
Streets Online seminars and educational programs." Interested
partners should contact Shaw at Garfield Public Relations at
609.396.0946 x236 or email tshaw@garfieldgroup.com.
http://www.switchboard.com
http://www.mainstreetsonline.org
* Tom Antion Warns Big Business not to Overestimate Small
Business People's Internet Savvy
While leading educational seminars for the Main Streets Online
program last year, speaker Tom Antion admits although he's a
small businessperson himself, he was somewhat surprised by the
very basic nature of many attendees' questions about the
Internet. "These small business owners were experts in their
fields, but a lot of them don't even know how to use their
email effectively yet. They are busy with payroll and various
crises, learning how to use email is the last thing on their
minds." Antion notes these are not remotely stupid people --
just people who are far too busy with other things to spend
time on anything remotely non-essential.
Questions Antion encountered from small businesspeople during
his Main Streets tour included items like, "What is a URL?"
and "Are my Web page and my Web site the same thing?"
Therefore he advises, "Big business has to make it extremely
easy for these people. A lot of techies think like techies --
you've got to come down to small businesses level. The bottom
line is how can you make things as basic as possible."
Antion praises Intuit as the big business who is best at this
task both online and off. "Intuit's ease-of-use, back-up
customer service and speed really impress me. They are doing
a great job for busy small businesspeople."
http://www.antion.com
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More MarketingSherpa.com Headlines
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Don Skarzenski Shares B-to-B Banner Tactics That Make an Enormous
Difference in Click Through Rates
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1373
Action Conference Call Raises its Sales 500% Solely Through
Search Engine Optimization
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1374
Searchbutton Raises Sales by Dumping Business Magazine Ads in
Favor of Highly Targeted Marketing
http://www.marketingtowebmarketers.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1371
To learn about other MarketingSherpa free news services go to:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com
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CASE STUDY: Workz.com
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* workz.com Grows Traffic 20% Month After Month by Focusing on
the "Wow Factor" with a Visitor-Centric Web Redesign
CHALLENGE
When two-year old site workz.com hired new VP
Sales and Marketing Dennis James in June 2000, he had a clear-
cut goal: to increase traffic 15-20% a month.
workz.com was trying to get attention with a moderate budget
in a noisy, competitive, marketplace. However, James knew his
target audience, larger small businesses with an average
$200,000 Web site budget, was highly influenced by personal
referrals. He explains, "There's a Wow Factor; i.e., 'Wow! I
gotta tell Bob about this!'" James decided to focus on this
Wow Factor and hope the rest would follow.
CAMPAIGN
James used several guerrilla tactics to find out
what his target audience really wanted in a Web site like
workz.com, and then redesigned the site to match their
desires.
Luckily the site itself ran an email discussion group on the
topic of great Web design. James "read between the lines" for
ideas on how to improve workz.com for his audience as they
openly discussed the design preferences. He says, "For
example, we learned to put the newsletter sign-up in a
consistent place on every page where people can see it. You
know when you look at it, what it is and we call it what it
is. Also we reduced images and kept access fast, and
redesigned our home page to be more like a table of contents."
James also learned what users wanted, "by just asking them."
The feedback he got from emailing a group of users to ask for
their opinions convinced him that the Web site's navigational
paths needed to become more obvious. He says, "We brought all
the information to the surface so people can take a look and
make decisions about where to go without having to dive in
two-three levels deep." James and workz.com's design team also
added navigational tools on the home page to allow visitors to
search by topics such as Web design or by what he calls "How-
tos" such as how to make money.
Last but not least, James carefully analyzed the site's
traffic logs to find out exactly which topics and how-tos were
the most popular (and which the least.) He says, "Getting
started is the one of the number one click throughs on the
site." As new content was created, James made sure it matched
the most popular areas.
RESULTS
James says, "The redesign made a stunning difference
for the site. We tripled the number of pages users visited
and doubled the amount of time they spent on the site. Plus
we have a high number of people who come back."
With the help of workz.com's in-house design team, James met
his goal of 15-20% traffic growth per average month.
workz.com's total traffic as of January 2001 was about half a
million visitors a month. The site's email newsletter
subscriber lists have swollen to 170,000 opt-in subscribers.
NOTE: James is interested in talking partnerships with "any
kinds of companies that are interested in contacting small
business people who have a technical understanding. If you
have products and services that can help those people, then it
makes sense to do business!" Potential partners can contact
him at dennisj@workz.com.
http://www.workz.com
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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Terri Lonier of Working Solo
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* Terri Lonier's Advice (and Warnings) on Marketing to the
Tantalizing SOHO Marketplace
As President of the Working Solo consultancy, Terri Lonier
advises Fortune 500 firms on how to reach the rapidly growing
small office/home office (SOHO) market. Her clients have
included Microsoft, Intuit, Cisco, HP and Bank of America.
Q: What's the biggest misconception that big businesses have
about small ones?
Lonier: What always surprises me is that I'll be at a
conference and someone will say, "I just have one quick
question: how do you market to SOHOs and small businesses?"
So, the biggest misunderstanding is that they think there is
one way to market and that there is one market!
This market is not homogeneous in any way. It's composed of a
lot of micromarkets.
Q: How do you help clients who have products with a broad
appeal market across the micromarkets?
Lonier: We sit down with them and say, "Let's take a look at
your strengths and what you bring to the market already."
Some clients say, "We feel totally lost, we see X company is
having great success. Should we try that?" Our advice is
instead of jumping on the bandwagon and adapting somebody
else's marketing methods, always look at your strengths first.
It may be an installed base, or demand, etc.
You also have to have a very clear idea of what you want to
achieve. Sometimes big business marketers just have this
amorphous feeling of "We just want to do better in this
market." I try to pin them down -- is it units shipped?
Brand recognition? Dollars? Profits? There are a lot of
ways to target success. You need to be clear about the
tangible goal you want to achieve.
Q: Is there anything the micromarkets have in common?
Lonier: There are several characteristics. They crave freedom
and independence. They operate with a checkbook mentality.
(They don't have someone on the 17th floor to send invoices
to. They look at the checkbook and say, is this going to be
possible for me?)
We really focus on the SOHOs which we define as 20 employees
or less. The center of that circle are one-two people
businesses and that's what we call "working solo." They have
different motivators than a company of 35. They are what I
call a mass market of individuals.
It's a tantalizing opportunity out there. But, you can also
go through your marketing dollars so fast it will take your
breath away! It's a mixture of consumer and business markets.
They are making decisions for business reasons, but in many
ways they act like consumers because you must reach them one
at a time through consumer methods -- or more effectively
through partnerships.
Q: Which are the best partnerships to reach this solo market?
Lonier: Some of the partnerships that have been done with
telcos and ISPs seem to be working well because individual
customers are self-selecting. You can build relationships
with people who are just starting or expanding a business, and
that's a time when they're going to be investing.
This market is really loyal if you treat them well from the
first encounter.
The one mistake most companies make is saying, "We don't want
to deal with a SOHO until they're really big enough for us."
If you scorn them in their initial days, if you say, "Come
back to us when you have three years of tax returns", they'll
remember that. They don't have time to go shopping for new
suppliers all the time. They won't switch when they are "big
enough" for you unless the value proposition is significantly
better. This is a fairly conservative group.
Q: What works when marketing to SOHOs via email?
Lonier: We've seen a great interest in email newsletters.
This market is starved for information. They operate from two
spheres -- the passion sphere where they are passionate about
cabinet making or their salsa recipe, and the business sphere.
The business sphere is the one most would rather ignore, or
they feel intimidated, or they don't know much about it.
If a corporate provider can help them navigate the business
sphere effectively and painlessly (and gosh maybe even have
some fun) then that company will have greater success in this
market.
You need to act as a partner to the SOHO customer -- to help
them succeed. Selling to SOHOs is really not about standing
on one side of the counter saying "I have this, buy it." It's
really about walking around to the other side of the counter
and saying, "This is the product or service we offer.
Together we can help your business succeed." It's a subtle
distinction but a crucially important one.
NOTE: Every Summer Working Solo holds the Soho Summit, a three
day event specifically for business leaders of mainly large
companies targeting the SOHO marketplace. While the event is
an outstanding educational opportunity, Lonier feels its
greatest value may be the potential partnerships with each
other attendees walk away with. To learn more go to:
http://www.sohosummit.com
http://www.workingsolo.com
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Publisher:
Anne Holland
anneh@MarketingSherpa.com
202.232.6830
MarketingToSmallBiz is a MarketingSherpa.com service.
© Copyright 2001, MarketingSherpa, Inc.
