NGA Webinars Have Value: Marketing

Frank Reed, Managing Editor of leading Internet marketing blog, Marketing Pilgrim, led a webinar for NGA members early this month.  This webinar was free to all members. Frank went over the basics of social media for local business and ave an overview of the social media landscape including Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and location based services like Foursquare.

NGA members can view Frank's session anytime! And can attend the NGA member webinar series for free. https://www.glass.org/education-training-webinars.html

• If you would like to watch the Social Media webinar, click here and enter the password ngamember.
• If you want to learn more from Frank, you can download his July 2011 webinar: Maximize Your Local Marketing Efforts with Google Places. Click here and enter the password ngamember to download the recording.

Visit www.glass.org/education-training-webinars.html to view a webinar schedule. These webinars and are only available to NGA members. Webinars are just one of the benefits you get by being an NGA member. Learn more about your NGA membership benefits.

Harness the power of earned media

It's harder than ever to break through the competitive clutter.  Traditional advertising is becoming more and more expensive, and less and less effective.

Many companies have learned that a sophisticated public relations campaign -- designed to generate news coverage of their people, their company and their products and services -- can provide a much bigger bang for their buck than advertising.  Positive PR can give a needed boost to your next product launch, generate new customer leads, increase your top-of-mind awareness and dramatically improve your search engine visibility. 

Champion Management specializes in providing marketing and public relations support to small- and mid-sized businesses that don't have the internal expertise or resources to do it themselves. Champion has designed a package of public relations services exclusively for WDDA and NGA members. We can also customize services to address your unique market challenges, starting with a strategic assessment of your marketing/public relations approach. All consulting services will be discounted at least 25% for NGA and WDDA members.

Contact us to get started today, and be sure to tell us you're an NGA or WDDA member for your special rate.  We look forward to hearing from you.

Ladd Biro, President
Champion Management WDDA  NGA
lbiro@championmgt.com
972/930-9933

Let us get the media working for you!

When was the last time your local newspaper ran an article about your company?  How often are you asked by a reporter for your expert opinion?  What do you find when you Google your company's name. If you don't like the way you answered those questions, we can help.  Champion Management specializes in providing marketing and public relations support to small- and mid-sized businesses that don't have the internal expertise or resources to do it themselves. 

A sophisticated and effective PR campaign can give a needed boost to your next product/service launch, generate new customer leads, increase your top-of-mind awareness and dramatically improve your search engine visibility.  Done right, PR provides a much bigger bang for your buck than traditional advertising.

Champion has designed a package of public relations services exclusively for WDDA members. We can also customize services to address your unique market challenges, starting with a comprehensive strategic assessment of your marketing/public relations approach. Those services will be discounted at least 25% for WDDA members. Contact us to get started today, and be sure to tell us you're an WDDA member for your special rate.

Ladd Biro
Champion Management
lbiro@championmgt.com
972.724.3039

Feed A Bully – A Strategy For Local Business Internet Marketing

What do the entries on the list below share in common?

• Google.com 
• Local.yahoo.com 
• Yellowpages.com 
• Yelp.com 
• Yellowpages.aol.com 
• Local.com
• Mojopages.com 
• Localsearch.com

Answer: The opportunity to make or break your company’s reputation.

The funny, or not so funny thing about the Internet’s evolution is how powerful it has become. At times, like a bully, it demands that you either play or be crushed. That’s the predicament many companies find themselves in today with regard to the proliferation of online local listings that include reviews.

The above list is only a partial list and reflects a growing trend of what might be called yellow page sites or sites that aggregate business listings. Because these are paid sites they will more than likely trump other search engine optimization strategies you might be deploying.

Check this out for yourself by Googling the city where your business is located and your business keywords. For example, I Googled San Jose window dealers. If your search produces a non-paid listing, of your company, somewhere on pages one through five, congratulations. But, the reality is that the rules for SEO, which serve to get your company’s natural listings to appear at the top of the search heap, aren’t working like they used to. Not against this new wave of paid listings. And as I mentioned earlier, these sites wield the crushing power of a bully unless you play.

Not only do they buy their search ranking, they are collecting and publishing reviews about your company. How can you proactively manage this new trend?

The first thing is to get listed with Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, and other key local Yellow Page like listings in your area. You do this by simply registering on the website.

The second thing you do is to ask your customers for reviews on these sites. You need lots of good reviews. I’m often asked how does a company counteract a bad review? You can proactively combat a bad review by having lots of good reviews. When a client thanks you, mention how much you’d appreciate an online comment and give them a site location. Why not put a link to your Google local business profile in your signature line, with an invitation to leave a review?

A good class on bullying will teach you that a technique to reduce the chance of being bullied is to ignore a bully. I’m telling you, don’t use that technique here. First of all there’s more than one potential bully and second, they simply want to be fed. Feed them reviews and watch what happens.

Sharon Aby
Beyond Ideas Marketing LLC

Truth In Advertising Brought To You

Google Truth In Advertising, and you have a reading list that will keep you busy for a month.  Or if you attended the Window & Door Dealers Forum at GlassBuild a couple of  weeks ago, you got all you need to know.  Or more likely, you now know what you don’t know. 

The WDDA sponsored it’s 2^nd Annual Forum, which included a wake up call from D.S. Berenson, counsel to the remodeling and home improvement industry, which addressed the participants.  

How is it that good people, like us, get in trouble with the law? Most often, it’s truth in advertising claims.

How many times have you asked someone on your staff to whip up a flyer to advertise a window promotion? How many times do allow an advertisement to go out without proofreading it? How many times do you create an agreement by cut and pasting from another document?  Or how many times do you sign a contract with a developer, builder, architect or designer without reading the fine print or including disclaimers of your own?  Well, we all do these things, all the time, and with the expectation that 2012 will continue to bring more regulations aimed at our industry, expect more legal exposure.

There’s a lot to know about truthful advertising but a good rule of thumb and a first line of defense is this. When you write advertising copy, promote your product or make promises to customers, use a litmus test to determine if your ad cries foul. Always proof read the ad and scrutinize your promises from the customer’s perspective. If you are the customer, what did the advertisement suggest to you? Your litmus test is to take the consumer’s point of view. 

That’s what the Federal Trade Commission will do if a claim is made against your company. They will take the customer’s point of view. Protect yourself by putting on your consumer hat and ask yourself the following questions about your advertising or promotion.

1. Are there any express and implied claims?
2. What does my ad NOT say? Have you clarified the specific terms?
3. Did you make something material to the decision to buy?
4. Can you support your advertising claims with facts?

Keeping ourselves informed is a time consuming endeavor, but there are a lot of great resources out there to help us. The FTC website mentioned above provides small business tips and in-depth rules. Other useful resources include: www.consumer.gov, www.bbb.com or www.nari.org.  

Remember, if you want to keep your company out of trouble you can do two simple things, use the consumer perspective litmus test to review your advertising and second, attend the WDDA Forum next September at the Glassbuild Show in Las Vegas – where the have the things you need to know brought to you.

Sharon Aby
Beyond Ideas

The Value of Earned Media

Are you reaching your customers, and potential customers, in the most cost-efficient manner?  Are you pouring marketing dollars into advertising that may not be delivering enough bang for your buck? The NGA and WDDA understand the value of "earned media" -- favorable publicity generated by non-advertising such as public relations.

Champion Management - a partner of the NGA and WDDA - specializes in providing marketing and PR support to small- and mid-sized businesses that need outside expertise to support new product/service launches, lead generation, increased awareness and/or improved branding/image with contractors or the consumer public.  

We offer a package of services exclusively for members - tailored to the specific needs of glass and window & door companies.  Champion can also customize services to address your unique market challenges, starting with a comprehensive strategic assessment of your marketing/public relations approach.  Those services will be discounted at least 25% for members.

Contact me to get started today. Be sure to tell me you are an NGA or WDDA member to secure the special rate.

Ladd Biro
Champion Management WDDA NGA

Ladd Biro is president of Champion Management LLC, a leading marketing and public relations agency.  For more information about the NGA’s new PR services offered through Champion, please email lbiro@championmgt.com or call 972.724.3039.

Creative Marketing for Small Businesses

I just read an article in Fast Company that got my attention: Creative Marketing for Mom and Pop Shops. 

Effective branding and communication does not need to cost a gazillion dollars. It does, however, require a whole lot of creative thinking, great storytelling skills, and, of course, you’ve got to be doing a great job and offering impeccable service. With that in mind, here are three real examples of businesses that found creative solutions to their marketing problems.

No matter the size of your business, the glass and window & door industries have felt the impact of the economy over the last couple of years.  Have you changed your marketing strategy to creatively engage your customer base?

The NGA and WDDA would like to help you engage your potential customers.  We've partnered with three companies that can help you get the word out about your business (and you get a discount if you're a member):

• Champion Management NGA WDDA
  Are you reaching your customers, and potential customers, in the most cost-efficient manner?  Are you pouring marketing dollars into advertising that may not be delivering enough bang for your buck? Champion Management has public relations services that can help you find your customers.
• LocalBasix NGA WDDA
  LocalBasix consults with small and medium businesses to help them learn, understand, and navigate the quickly changing world of internet marketing. LocalBasix is prepared to train and empower your business by giving you insights into search marketing, social media, blogging, mobile and more.
• Marketing Pilgrim NGA WDDA
  Can your customers find your business on Google? Are your competitors number one on Google, while your site languishes on the fifth page of results? Marketing Pilgrim can help you boost your web presence today with expert online reputation management.

Already have a creative strategy?  Let us know what you're doing!

What are your Social Media Do's and Don'ts?

At the NGA and WDDA, we try to have an active social media presence. We tweet and post articles on Facebook a couple of times each work day and we post on this blog almost every Monday and Wednesday. Just today I was reading a new White Paper from PR Newswire "Mastering Public Relations in Social Media" and trying to figure out ways we can improve our social media presence (you can sign-up for a free copy of the paper here).

We are always looking at ways to interact with our members on social media, and the list of dos and don'ts in this white paper mention a couple of things that we need to work on.  Here's the list:

• Do... establish a set of social media principles
• Don’t... forget to review/rethink them on a regular basis
• Do... collaborate across departments
• Don’t... put up too many internal roadblocks
• Do... replenish the content flow early and often
• Don’t... limit or frustrate transparency
• Do... set goals and measure yourself against them
• Don’t... be a jerk

How does your social media strategy stack up?

And don't forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter!

Alyssa Kirkman

NGA WDDA

Public relations should be part of your marketing mix

Glass shops and window and door companies typically invest significant sums in local market advertising to promote their businesses.  But many of these firms are missing one of the most important ingredients of any successful marketing mix: public relations. 

Here are just a few reasons why public relations should be a frequently used arrow in your marketing quiver.

1. No one can tell your story better than you.  In the absence of a proactive public relations strategy, you risk letting someone else establish your brand identity in the marketplace.  Whether that’s the media, your customers or – worst of all – your competitors, no one should be allowed to define your public image other than you.  A well-crafted series of timely press releases and article submissions can enable you to break through the clutter and distinguish your business from the competition.  Embracing social media and establishing a corporate spokesperson as a respected authority in your industry and/or local market can further elevate your brand and position your shop to capture a premium share of the market.
   
   
2. It’s cost-efficient.  A sophisticated PR campaign can be executed at a fraction of the cost of most advertising campaigns.  Advertising – broadcast, print and even online – can be very expensive, particularly in larger markets.  PR placements, often called “earned media,” can result in editorial visibility in the same news outlets in which you advertise without virtually any out-of-pocket cost.  Many small- and mid-sized firms have found that diverting as little as 10 to 20 percent of their advertising budgets to public relations pays significant dividends in terms of increased name/brand recognition, enhanced image and new customer recruitment.
   
   
3. It’s more credible.  Advertising is paid self-promotion, and consumers are rightly skeptical of it.  Public relations carries the imprimatur of a third-party endorsement, which dramatically increases its credibility.  As a rule of thumb, a positive article written about your firm is worth five to 10 times the value of the same amount of advertising space, simply because the editorial placement is more likely to be read, and believed, by the audience.
   
   
4. Building relationships with reporters can make all the difference.  The time to develop positive relationships with the news media is not when disaster strikes.  Reaching out to reporters in your area, as well as within your industry, when times are good can pay huge dividends in times of crisis.  One of the most effective ways to develop a level of trust and positive rapport with the media is by helping reporters working on deadline.  Always return their calls promptly, even if you aren’t certain why they’re calling.  You can always diplomatically decline to answer their questions, or ask to go “off the record.”
   
   
5. It’s a virtuous cycle.  A robust PR campaign goes beyond generating positive headlines.  The more visible you become, the more the press will seek you out for your expert opinion on other pertinent stories, which further increases your media currency.  A high-profile local glazier could be seen as a third-party expert on the residential construction market, for example.  An auto glass professional could be asked for his explanation about how the windshield protected a family from harm in an ugly car accident.  In addition, media hits can dramatically improve your web site’s search engine rankings.  The more online mentions of, and links to, your company, the higher your site will appear on Google and other leading search engines.

Ladd Biro
Champion Management WDDA NGA

Ladd Biro is president of Champion Management LLC, a leading marketing and public relations agency.  For more information about the NGA’s new PR services offered through Champion, please email lbiro@championmgt.com or call 972.724.3039.

Create Demand For Energy Efficient Windows: Home Score Survey Insights

Market research is like reading a great mystery book you can’t put it down.  That’s because behind the headlines and the carefully chosen words lies the transcripts and data.  That information holds the keys to the direction of the marketplace. Thus was my recent experience while researching the Department of Energy’s (DOE) pilot program, Home Energy Score (HES).   Of immediate interest is the customer research that uncovers real opportunities for window and door dealers, installers and manufacturers to create demand.

According to homeowners’ surveyed, the number one reason they gave for making improvements, by a wide margin, was to save money.  If it could be shown that they save money by replacing old windows, doors and other home building products that would make the decision for them. And by the way, your word on that won’t be enough, according to the survey, they mistrust information coming from a sales person, contractor, or manufacturer.

When asked what would motivate them to make the investment in saving money, they want the following evidence:

• Clear easy to follow information about the cost benefits.
• Testimonials and recommendations from friends, family and associates.
• Information from trusted professionals, 3rd party, utility or government source.

They did not want to finance their home improvements in this depressed housing market because of the difficulty getting home equity loans.

Put these clues together, 1) save money, 2) clear easy and trusted information, and 3) simple and affordable financing and you can create demand for energy efficient windows.

• Create marketing materials and selling guides that include statistical data and information from trusted sources.
• Create a “home improvement bundle” to be installed by your contractors.
• Pre-arrange short-term bank financing.
• Include the cost of a 3rd party auditor in the financing package to assure the work was done properly.

Anyone who owns a home is keenly aware of the rising costs of utilities.  Couple that with the reality that they may be living in their home much longer due to the slow housing market.  It’s the perfect time to sell energy efficient replacement windows and doors.  Create a marketing message about your “home improvement bundles”, give your salespeople energy savings data, arrange financing and create some spring sales. For more information about The Home Energy Score Program is available at www.wddalliance.org or www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/homeenergyscore/. The survey, Motivations For Home Energy Improvements, can be found in the links.

Sharon Aby
Beyond Ideas

Money Saving Trick: Marketing and PR Services

We are always trying to think of ways we can help our member companies save and make money.  We are currently partnered with a variety of companies that offer discounts on everything from shipping to insurance (you can view what we offer here: NGA or WDDA).  In April we are focused on helping you reach your customers and make more sales by partnering with Local Basix and Champion Management.  

The majority of our members are small to medium-sized businesses who either don't have a full time marketing or public relations person on staff or don't have these resources at all.  Both of these new profit-improving services are designed to help your small business maximize your visibility and reach. Along with Marketing Pilgrim, these two companies aim to help solve your marketing and public relations issues. 

• Champion Management is a PR service company who has designed a package of services exclusivly for NGA and WDDA members.  These services are tailored for glass and window and door companies so that you  can experience the benefits of a comprehensive, targeted media relations campaign.
• LocalBasix is prepared to help small and medium businesses learn, understand, and navigate the quickly changing world of Internet Marketing. LocalBasix is prepared to train and empower your business by giving you insights into search marketing, social media, blogging, mobile and more.
• Marketing Pilgrim is a search engine optimization and branding company that will provide members with an exclusive analysis and audit. Marketing Pilgrim will help you boost your search engine rankings, customer inquiries, and sales.

Take advantage of these services so you will be positioned to succeed when the market recover. 

“Social Media Change” Is Superfluous

I’m regularly sent articles announcing new Social Media changes and I’m beginning to think that the very use of the words Social Media Change is superfluous.  Like any redundant expression: absolutely essential, join together or unexpected surprise, Social Media Change is redundant.  Social Media is synonymous with change.  It’s always changing and it changes everything. There is no other way to think about it.

So how do we engage with something that is forever changing?  How do you step onto a moving walkway for the first time? You watch, wait, experiment, try it and learn what works or not.  It’s the same approach with Social Media only I wouldn’t advise waiting too long.

Social Media is something you need to experience to understand how it works.  I recommend experimenting first with the media and channel that feels most comfortable to you. A good place to start is by studying The CMO’s Guide To The Social Media Landscape at www.cmo.com.  If you’re unfamiliar with CMO, it is a informational website sponsored by Adobe aimed at Chief Marketing Officers. 

The beauty of their guide is how it identifies the most important considerations you need to make when evaluating the right social media sites to use.  The guide looks at four key attributes: 1) customer communications, 2) brand exposure, 3) Traffic to your site and 4) SEO (Search Engine Optimization capability) for the nine most used sites for 2011.  In addition, it ranks each site on how effectively it delivers the four key attributes. There is also a PDF version of this useful guide that you can download from the site.

It is absolutely essential, at the risk of sounding superfluous, that you that you make it a top priority to educate yourself and experiment with Social Media while it’s still a moving walkway so you’ll be ready for the speedramps.

Sharon Aby
Beyond Ideas

Sell Customer Solutions Not Products

Most products or services are looking for a market.  You must stand out in the marketplace by creating solutions for real problems in your customer’s lives.

I did an unscientific survey of window and door dealer websites. I put on my customer hat and went looking for windows for our old house.  I was so confused and felt bombarded by products looking for customers. With few exceptions window and door dealer websites all look the same to me.

• OUR HISTORY
• ENERGY EFFICIENCY
• SECURITY
• WARRANTY
• COLOR AND GRID OPTIONS
• KINDS OF WINDOWS
• ALUMINUM
• FIBERGLASS
• VINYL
• WOOD
• MANUFACTURER CHOICES

So you’re looking for customers who want your stuff and I’m a customer looking for solutions to my situation.  We’re playing the Match Game.  I click in and out of the selections looking for a match until I tire of the effort and leave your website.

Reverse your perspective from featuring product solutions to customer solutions.  What is your customer’s environment?  Maybe it looks more like this:

• OLD HOMES
• NEW HOMES
• BADLY BUILT HOMES
• COLD CLIMATES
• HOT CLIMATES
• CUSTOMERS
• HOME OWNERS
• BUILDERS / ARCHITECTS
• REMODELERS
• HOA

If your perspective is that windows are fundamental, that is a basic necessity, then it stands to reason you’d also think a house is a house is a house.

I suggest dealers get a new perspective on windows.  There is no opportunity in windows being fundamental.  The opportunity is to show customers that windows are solutions to their lives and that you can create that.

Sharon Aby
Beyond Ideas

Communication: Keeping it Simple

I was reading a couple of blogs last week when I came upon a link to a fun video explaining Social Media in Plain English.  Eventually I ended up at the company's web site - http://www.commoncraft.com - and spent the next hour clicking through videos.  After learning a couple of things about social media (and fighting zombies), I started thinking about the simple and direct way the videos communicated. At first glance the videos are nothing but voiceover and hand drawn images, but I couldn't look away.

We are surrounded by news updates and information everywhere we go. If a marketing email, blog, or article doesn't catch my interest in the first two paragraphs, I don't read the rest.   Some ads I see in magazines have so many words or images I don't even know what they are selling. How can we make sure that people are getting the messages we are trying to send?

We can all take a lesson or two from Common Craft - when communicating with our customers, we need to make sure that our messages are clear and concise. Whether we are selling sealant or installation services (or trying to survive a zombie attack), we don't want our messages to get lost in the noise. Creativity in marketing is important, but so is keeping it simple.

Alyssa Kirkman
Sr. Manager