Small Business Commando News

My family is moving from Carlsbad, California to Chicago.  You now have proof that I’m insane.

We have 14 years of “stuff” that needs to go away.  When it comes down to it, about the only truly precious possessions are photos.

After the local charities had their fill, we held our first ever moving sale.

I was thrilled to find good owners of a few cherished belongings.  For example, I had two signed lithographs from the Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge Tour.  I received the framed art from the band after I signed a deal to market their first CD- ROM in the early 90’s.  I still love their music, but it was time for the prints to be gone.

A 9-year-old girl with big brown eyes almost freaked when she saw them.  She’s a raving Stones fan, and I knew that she’d love those prints the way I once did.  I made her Dad an offer that he couldn’t refuse, and for the price of a pizza, his daughter owned a piece of rock history.

From the moving sale, I found several great marketing lessons that apply to all businesses.

The first and most fundamental lesson is this:

There are two types of customers and they require two types of advertising.

1.  People who don’t know they want to go to a moving sale, and
2.  People who do know they want to go to a moving sale.

If you understand this principle, you’re way ahead of most marketers.

To reach people who don’t know they want to go to a moving sale, ads generally consist of strategically placed signs.  These people are opportunists.

The vast majority of advertising is directed at this group.  Television, radio, newspaper, direct mail and outdoor advertising are used to persuade customers who were not actively making a purchase.  These ads create demand.

This advertising creates brand awareness, influences future decisions, and makes shoppers aware of problems that need solving.  Used properly, you’ll greatly increase your potential customer base and spur demand.  The downsides of this advertising are that it’s harder to target prospects and requires multiple impressions and continuity to have an impact.

To reach the people who want to go to moving sales, you need to advertise where they look for moving sales.  This includes classified advertising in newspapers, online sites such as Craigslist and Kijiji, and community bulletin boards where sales are posted.

For most businesses, this is the best possible audience.  They’re actively looking to buy and are gathering information to make the buying decision.  The three biggest types of advertising to a seeking audience are Yellow Pages, search engine marketing and classified advertising.  This type of advertising is called “directional” because it directs customers to specific businesses.

The beauty of this advertising is that the audience is highly motivated and is far along the buying cycle.  The downsides are that this group is a small subsection of the potential market and the advertising is highly competitive.

Balance advertising for creating demand and directing demand, and you’ll drive both quality and quantity of customers to your business.

 Lessons from our Moving Sale [4:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(This is a post of the recent Small Business Commando Newsletter)

My 80-year-old father is in a nursing home, and I’m fortunate to spend time with him weekly.

My daughter and the Bishop, our 8-pound Maltese puppy, join me on every visit.

Dad’s doing pretty well, but he misses his old friends. He can’t talk on the phone, use a computer or write a letter, so he’s pretty much cut off in that respect.

To help him reach out, I snapped a photo of Dad holding the Bishop and made a greeting card. My Dad has a great sense of humor, so I put little thought bubbles on the photo.

Both Dad and dog were thinking the same thing, “I hope he doesn’t pee.”

Then I wrote a few paragraphs in my Dad’s voice to let his friends know how he is doing.

The online card service printed the cards with my message inside, stamped and mailed the cards via first class mail. His friends were hysterical and were thrilled to hear from him.

This greeting card is a great example of how technology allows us to personalize communication. I would never take the time to physically print and write two dozen cards, but using an Internet service, I was able to complete the task in a few minutes with much greater impact than if I had sent a fancy Hallmark card or an email.

This teaches us a powerful message about advertising and marketing.

As you market your business, look for ways that you can personalize the message, inject humor, and make the recipient happy to hear from you.

That’s the real power of technology. It gives us the ability to target and personalize our communication.

See you next week.

By the way, if you’d like to see a copy of the card, email me your postal address. I’ll be happy to send it.