The most important advice I could ever give to anyone struggling with marketing their business effectively (or new entrepreneurs just starting on the road of learning how to sell a thing they’ve created) is to start with a plan for measuring the results of that activity before you write a word or place a single ad.

Far too many small businesses out there like to throw $#&% at a wall …

That’s fine, but most of them never take the time after the feces-flinging to look andsee what sticks.

Instead, they just keep throwing the same stuff at the same wall until none of it works anymore and they’re at a loss for what do to next.

This was the topic of the most recent episode of my podcast this week, an episode that has quickly become my favorite episode so far!

Watch the YouTube video below or head over to our Anchor profile to stream the audio or find the link for your favorite podcast app! https://lnkd.in/djCxWjp

We receive calls every day from new marketers looking to buy printing without any prior experience doing so.

It’s extremely easy to spot right away, and often results in a lengthy back-and-forth to try to develop project specs to provide someone with a quote.

In an effort to help marketers that are new to the print buying process, the latest episode of The Messengers podcast focused on providing an overview of the basics.

By the end of the episode, you should have everything you need to make the phone call and work with a company that can deliver exactly what you need.

No matter how you got here — maybe you just started (or are thinking of starting) your first business, maybe you’re just getting started in a career in marketing, or maybe you’re just taking on an expanded role at your current company or organization — this should help clarify the process!

If you like this video, please like, share, or subscribe on your favorite platform!

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All-too-often we see businesses going out of their way to fish in the same pond as all of their competitors.

Price fixed menus at Valentine’s Day are a prime example of this type of activity. Not only are customers beginning to reject the holiday because they know they’re going to pay more and get less, but those restaurants are missing out on a huge opportunity to promote themselves in a number of different ways that run counter to the crowd.

Rob Seifert joined me for the first time on this episode of The Messengers podcast to discuss some of these opportunities that occur on Valentine’s Day and throughout the year.

If you like this video, please like, share, subscribe, or distribute on your favorite platform!

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The most successful companies aren’t the ones that take on any business that walks through the door, but ones that know their ideal customer and have the courage to say no to customers that aren’t right for them so they can focus on the ones that are.

For companies of all sizes, it’s imperative to know who you’re building your company to serve. Once you’ve clearly defined that, it’s even more important that you stick to your guns, even when you have the difficult job of saying no to guaranteed work.

In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Rob and I discuss the importance of saying no, along with some of the mistakes we’ve made personally saying yes when we should have said no, and some recent examples of turning down work that just wasn’t right.

If you like this video, please like, share, subscribe, or distribute on the platform of your choice!

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I have a 15 month old son.

As anybody with small children can attest, the market for “innovative” baby products is a bit overwhelming.

I put the word innovative in quotes because, while some are truly fantastic inventions that make the lives of parents much easier, others are — to be blunt — gimmicky pieces of crap.

Recently, I had experiences with two different baby-product companies that got ;me thinking about customer service and customer experiences in the social media age.

Quality customer service has never so critical to your company’s success; customers have never had a megaphone like they have with social media.

Through social media, a single happy or unhappy customer can have a massive positive or negative affect on a brand.

From a brand’s perspective, it’s also never been this easy to show customers how much or how little you care about them.

Which brings me to my two stories. (Yes, links are affiliate links.)

Tale #1: It’s My Fault

Meet the Munchkin Miracle 360 Trainer Cup, maybe one of the best baby products on the market today.

My wife and I were introduced to this cup through my sister-in-law.

It’s not completely spill-proof (anybody with a one-year old can tell you that’s a dream that may never be fulfilled), but it’s definitely the best we’ve found by far.

The cup has one serious flaw, however, and it’s sole cause of every negative review I’ve seen.

The seal between the body of the cup and the removable top is created with a small rubber o-ring.

The o-ring retains some water between itself and the cap, and after a week or two’s worth of use some mold begins to grow behind the ring.

Apparently, Munchkin distributes cleaning instructions with these cups now to help prevent this problem.

We never saw those instructions, and according to online reviews, neither did a lot of people.

That being said, we eventually just pulled the o-ring off to clean both it and the space it covers on the cap.

The worry was that pulling it off my break or stretch the o-ring to the point where it wouldn’t seal the cup anymore.

As it turns out, this is exactly what you’re supposed to do every week or so to avoid this problem in the first place.

During one of these routine cleanings while we were away visiting family, we lost the o-ring.

Unfortunately, Munchkin doesn’t sell just the o-ring, so it looked like we were out of luck with 98% of a cup we loved but could no longer use.

So I turned to social media and reached out to Munchkin on Facebook to see if I could purchase just an o-ring somewhere or directly through them.

It was about 7:30 pm when I sent them my first Facebook message.

It took them until the following day to respond around 3:30 in the afternoon.

Once they did, they apologized that they didn’t sell just the o-ring, and offered to send me an entirely new top instead, at no cost, not even shipping, all within 10 minutes.

Not only was it completely our fault that we lost the o-ring, I had also offered to pay for a replacement.

Instead, in minutes I was offered a free replacement (they actually sent two).

Not missing an opportunity to capitalize, they also requested that I share my experience on social media.

And why not! Well done on all parts.

(Guys, I hope this article will suffice in place of the social media share I promised. Thank you for the great experience and for making a great product.)

Tale #2: It’s Your Fault

My second story has to do with a plate we bought from Tommee Tippee.

We bought these because of the ability to suction cup the bowls and plates to the table.

In general, it’s a good product. We have a few of them, and they work mostly as advertised.

I say mostly because anybody that’s ever had a one year old knows they’ll find a way to throw food on the floor in large quantities.

My son has of course found ways to separate the plate from the suction cup or just pulled the entire matt off the table.

But, just as the Miracle 360 still spills when thrown to the floor from a highchair, even the best baby products are never foolproof.

The point is, overall we’re happy with the product and the purchase decision we made.

That is, even in spite of the fact that one of the plates caught fire in our microwave a few weeks back.

Now, I’m not an alarmist by any means, but that seems like kind of a big deal to me.

We didn’t freak out or overreact, but I did reach out to Tommee Tippee to let them know what happened, and this time I was actually hoping for some sort of restitution in the form of a replacement for the plate we had to (obviously) throw out.

I also wanted to alert them to the situation as I certainly would want to know if one of the products I sold caught on fire.

My expectation was that the customer service reps at Tommee Tippee would be shocked and horrified that this happened, would immediately send me a replacement, and that replacement would include a return slip in the box to send them the defective plate so they could investigate further.

Instead, what I received was a lesson in how to use a microwave, and a week-long back and forth that had me waiting at times up to three days just to get a response.

Here are the most important excerpts from that conversation:

Grill function? To this day, I didn’t even know that was a thing, and my microwave absolutely does not have a “grill function” (and confirmed that with them by sending a picture of my standard LG microwave with no grill function or any other strange features).

My final response was this:

“So this is not the first time this has been reported? Do we have to worry about this new one or our existing ones doing the same thing or has the problem been fixed?”

To which I received the following response:

I’m not a reporter that heard something second-hand from a source and was looking for comment.

I literally just told you mine caught on fire without a grill setting in the span of about 10 seconds.

This back and forth took a grand total of a week to get to this point so I didn’t push it further (although, looking back, I probably should have).

(As a side note, I wanted to put the plate back in the microwave to get it on video to send to them but my wife had already thrown the plate away at that point, so no luck there.)

Either way, this should have been a 10 minute back-and-forth, and their contribution to the conversation should have been this:

“Hi Chris, we’re very sorry to hear you had an experience like that with one of our products. We take great pride in ensuring the health and safety of everyone involved in using our products and I’m hoping to get some more information from you so we can ensure everything we sell is safe to use. Can you please provide the make and model of your microwave, as well as the conditions surrounding the issue (what was on the plate, what (if anything) else was in the microwave at the time, how long was it in the microwave before the issue occurred)? Also, we’ll absolutely send you a replacement but we’d appreciate it if you could save the defective plate and return it in the box we send your replacement in with the return slip we’ll provide so we can investigate this issue further and ensure no other units are affected. We’ll also be sure to follow up with you once we do to let you know what happened and what we’re doing to prevent it from happening again in the future.”

However, looking at some of the other issues they’ve had in the past, it’s not hard to see why I had the experience I had.

Earlier this year, they also issued a recall for a their Electric Bottle & Food Warmer (because some of them were catching on fire).

The beginning of the recall statement reads, “This is an electrical issue caused by our external supplier failing to follow our instructions, which could stop safety features from working properly.”

If that’s not a “pass the buck” statement, I don’t know what is.

Sorry guys, but it’s your product, and you’re responsible for product quality and safety regardless of where you source the individual parts.

Two completely different issues, one my fault, one theirs.

In the first instance, not only did they not do anything wrong (granted, the mold behind the o-ring issue isn’t pleasant but it is avoidable with a little extra time cleaning) but they took care of my problem in a day and I left with an awesome feeling about the company.

In the second, they were absolutely in the wrong, took a week to deal with the issue, and not once ever admitted fault, all while telling me that the only way this could happen is that I was so stupid I didn’t even know how to reheat food in a microwave.

It seemed as if the only concern was avoiding the blame, rather than trying to identify and fix a real problem.

In both cases, the company replaced the product at no charge, yet, I left the experience with Munchkin feeling great, and left Tommee Tippee certain I’d never buy from them again.

There’s more to customer service than sending a free replacement of a defective product.

These days, speed is a huge factor given how easy it is for customers and brands to communicate with each other.

Speed shows you care and that your customers matter as much to you as they should.

Tone matters too. I’ve dealt with my share of customer issues that were absolutely due to “user error” so-to-speak.

[Read: Debunking the myth that the customer is always right]

As a quick corollary, I once spent an hour on the phone with a client who’s computer wasn’t working only to find out that the first thing I told them to check (“Are all the cables in the back plugged in and secure?”) was actually the problem.

Yes, an hour because when I first asked them to check that the computer was plugged in they thought it was such a silly question that they didn’t even bother to check.

You also wouldn’t believe the way some people speak to you when they’re using a service you provide for free and it doesn’t quite perform as expected.

It’s very difficult to remain calm and supportive in those instances. It’s also critical to the success of your company in the social media era.

And while those customers will never take to social media to tell everyone how patient you were with them after they did something so silly like not checking that their computer was plugged in, they would absolutely share how rude or impatient you were.

Please learn from these stories and remember that every customer interaction is a chance at positive press.

We spend so much time in our businesses trying to get press coverage, sometimes we forget that every single one of our customers has as big of a voice as your local news outlet.

Give them a reason to rave about you, and don’t give them a reason to share a bad experience.

I’ve even seen some companies go so far as to ask for five star reviews and request that if you won’t rate their product or company with five stars, that you email the CEO immediately to let them know why so they can fix the problem.

There’s no reason you can’t do the same.

When you care about your customers, it shows in everything you do. The opposite is also true.

Be the company that cares and lets it show.

Originally published at www.searlesgraphics.com.

A Tale of Two Customer Service Stories was originally published in Small Business Forum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A few years back I was serving on the board of directors of a local chamber of commerce.

During my tenure on the board, Walmart was attempting to build a new store about 5 miles down the road from the small village the chamber served.

I honestly couldn’t believe the level of freak-out that ensued, or the lengths that both individuals, and the chamber as a whole (on behalf of the members that would have been negatively affected), went to block the store from coming to the area (successfully, I might add).

At the time, this small village still had a variety store that had been around for decades.

It was even colloquially referred to by long-time locals as “the five-and-dime.”

The amount of fear that a new Walmart would force local retailers out of business made no sense to me.

Why? Because, it’s 2016. If Walmart can put you out of business in the year 2016, you’re in the wrong business!

See also: Why We Don’t Price Match in a Price-Competitive Industry

So, what ended up happening? Walmart never did come to town, and the five-and-dime still went out of business.

I’ll use Walmart somewhat metaphorically in the remainder of this article for simplicity, but when I refer to Walmart, I don’t only mean Walmart.

I’m talking about big box stores, e-commerce giants like Amazon, and/or whatever your own particular “Walmart” might be.

For example, the majority of Searles Graphics’ revenue still comes from commercial printing services, where our “Walmart” is Vistaprint.

Vistaprint is honestly a fantastic place to order small quantities of standard print products like business cards or postcards.

As of this writing, 500 basic business cards costs about $30.

For a client that sees those products as commodities, uses very small quantities, is ok with a canned design template, and cares primarily about price, that’s a great deal; I probably can’t even turn my press on for that price.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you can’t “out-Walmart” Walmart.

Using my own business as an example, this means we need to find a way to differentiate ourselves from the Vistaprint’s of the world, and we do so in a number of ways.

Searles Graphics may have started as a commercial printer, but we’re now a full-service marketing and creative agency.

That means our clients value the effectiveness of the marketing materials they put in the world.

They value cohesiveness and originality in their brands, they care about tracking the effectiveness of a marketing piece, and look to us for advice and counsel on how to maximize their precious marketing dollars instead of just throwing darts at a wall.

That’s what keeps us from competing against commodity brokers like Vistaprint.

No matter what you do, there’s nothing wrong with changing your business, products, and services to remain relevant.

In fact, it’s a requirement if you want to stay in business for any significant period of time.

The fastest way to go out of business is to believe your product or service IS your business.

Doesn’t make sense?

Think about it this way: If we defined Searles Graphics as a commercial printing business (as many printers do), we’d be on our way to becoming obsolete.

That’s not to say that commercial printing is dead (I believe the exact opposite, in fact), but the fact is that there are so many ways to get your message out these days that none of enjoy the same market share that print held for so long.

By defining ourselves instead as a company that exists to help entrepreneurs, businesses, and organizations achieve their goals through effective marketing and communication, we’re able to transition our core competencies into new products and services without hesitation.

But enough about us, what should you do if you’re that local five-and-dime staring down the barrel of a brand-new Walmart?

The question you need to answer is, “Why does your store exist?”

You probably started your business to provide a variety of useful everyday and household items local people wanted and couldn’t easily acquire elsewhere.

So instead of carrying Hallmark greeting cards, generic stationery, pens and pencils, toilet paper, and paper towels, maybe it’s time to transition into organic, all-natural products from local producers and custom stationery featuring the work of local photographers.

None of which can be found on the shelves at Walmart; all of which will be promoted by the individuals to whom you’re giving an outlet for their work.

You could organize a weekly farmers market with one of your local CSA’s every Saturday morning offering fresh, organic produce that was harvested just yesterday.

You could work with local artisans and craftsmen to carry their products on consignment, costing you nothing but some shelf-space up-front.

The five-and-dime was once the hub of your community, it still could be, you just have to figure out how.

This strategy isn’t new or novel.

There are some amazing, thriving downtown communities in this country that are succeeding because business owners and entrepreneurs have already figured out how to run small retail operations profitably, even with a Walmart down the road.

In my area alone, there are high-end bicycle shops that compete with the giant sporting goods stores of the world (and win) by providing expert advice and guidance, high-quality repair services, and a greater selection than can be found at Dick’s.

I see olive oil stores, cheese shops, natural and organic food stores, wine bars, and craft beer bars and supply stores popping up everywhere.

The most successful of these ventures also find creative ways to co-market themselves.

This might be a local wine bar pairing up with a cheese shop to offer a wine and cheese pairing night, or a local running store getting together with the bike shop down the street to work with triathletes.

This doesn’t only apply to retail businesses either.

As another example from our business, we offer web design and development services in an era where DIY web design services like Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix, and GoDaddy run rampant.

But someone who rather pay $20 / month to spend their valuable time learning web design and digital marketing instead of selling their own product or service or managing their business would have been a terrible client for us in the first place.

That person will likely never value the services that we offer, and that’s ok!

[Additional Reading: Stop Worrying About Cost and Start Focusing on Value]

We differentiate ourselves from those services by bringing expertise you can’t learn in a week (or a month, or a year for that matter).

In the long run, choosing one of those alternatives will cost most of our potential clients much more in lost time and lost revenue than the added dollars they’ll spend up-front with us.

That’s how we stay in business in the face of so many Walmarts.

You’re not alone in feeling pressure from low-cost, high-volume providers that appeal to a specific market.

For example, tax preparers everywhere understand what it’s like to compete against the TurboTax’s of the world.

And while that software works great for individuals with extraordinarily simple returns, there are huge volumes of people that pay more than they should every year because they don’t have a good tax accountant.

Spending $300 to save $1,000 is an incredible investment, it’s just your job to illustrate that to your prospects (and then deliver on that promise).

There’s always going to be another Walmart, no matter what industry you’re in.

Every product eventually becomes commoditized. It’s the businesses that can continue to innovate and lead (or even create) markets that last.

It doesn’t matter if you run a small, local retail shop, or if you’re one of the large steel mills that slowly (and voluntarily) ceded market share to cutting edge mini-mills in the late 20th century, stagnation means death in any industry.

So stop worrying so much about what your competitors are doing and start finding ways to put yourself out of business!

If you can regularly put yourself out of business, you’ll always be one step ahead, capturing the remaining value of your current products and service while you lead the charge and ride the next wave to the top.

Not sure how to make those changes in your business? Ask for help in the comments!

If you enjoyed this article, please click the little ‘heart’ below or share on social media to help others find it!

Originally published at www.searlesgraphics.com.

If Walmart Can Put You Out of Business, You’re in the Wrong Business was originally published in Small Business Forum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Pokémon Go is going to be a passing fad (although the franchise has had tremendous staying power since it’s introduction to the market in 1995).

Don’t get me wrong, it will stick around in some capacity for a long time, but certainly not with the amount of media attention it has right now.

You might think that it’s ridiculous to see people (adults even, can you believe it!) walking around staring down at their phones, trying to catch imaginary creatures.

Maybe you even contribute to the hysteria, sharing articles from click-hungry media outlets on social media denouncing the game for the few incidents that have occurred in its name.

Either way, it’s time to stop being a hater.

Why? Because haters never win.

I know, I used to be one, and I missed out on some amazing opportunities because of it.

(Similarly, this article about Snapchat and their custom Geofilters option is worth a read too.)

The TL;DR version is this: You can complain about Pokémon Go while others take advantage and make money off of it, or you can be the one that takes advantage while everyone else complains (details on how to do that included below).

There was a time I was a Facebook hater. And a Twitter hater. And an Instagram hater. And, believe it or not, a smartphone hater.

Yes, for those of you who know me, it seems quite difficult to believe I wouldn’t have been itching to get my hands on a mobile computer.

When my wife (my girlfriend at the time) asked an old roommate of mine what she should get me for my birthday, his response was “If it takes batteries or you can plug it in you’re all set.”

And while I’ve always been an early tech adopter, none of those things seemed to bring much value or enjoyment to my life at first.

I still don’t love spending time on social media or on my phone in general. I’d honestly rather be doing just about anything else. (Golf, anyone?)

But I understand the importance of these tools and I utilize them because I know how valuable they are for my business and my clients.

So it’s time you come to the same realization that I have and take advantage of this Pokémon Go trend while you still can.

Here’s how.

Step 1, download the app.

Yes, you heard me. I don’t care that you’re embarrassed to have the app on your phone like all of the people you’ve been criticizing.

Get over it. Install the app.

I’m going to go through the basics you need to know in this article, but for a lot more detail you can check out the official Pokémon Go subreddit.

(As a side note, if you have no idea what a subreddit is, read this.)

The game works by allowing people to walk around the real world catching Pokémon (little digital creatures) whenever and wherever they happen to appear.

We caught this one hanging out in the office!

This is what’s known as “augmented reality” because it’s obviously not reality, nor is it virtual reality (being completely immersed in a virtual world).

Sometimes they appear at random, but there are landmarks designated in the game that allow you to use items to lure Pokémon to that location, and those items can be earned in the game or purchased.

These in-game landmarks generally correspond to real-life landmarks, buildings, or yes, even businesses.

The landmarks in the game are broken up into two different types, PokéStops and Pokémon Gyms.

Bear with me now and trust me that you want to get to the end to see how the math works out on this one …

To find out if your business is one of these such landmarks, just open up the app while you’re at work. You’ll immediately see the markers (if there are any in your area) that designate gyms and PokéStops.

If you’re a PokéStop or a Gym already, you have a major advantage.

PokéStops allow you to use an in-game item called a “lure” to — big surprise — lure pokémon to that area.

In-game items are purchased with in-game currency, called pokécoins, which are in turn purchased for real money.

If we do the math, 14,500 pokécoins costs $100, giving us an exchange rate of 1 pokécoin = $0.0069.

8 lure modules cost 680 pokécoins, or 85 pc each. 85 x $0.0069 = $0.59 per module.

Each of these lasts for 30 minutes, meaning your cost of driving customers to your business using this model is $1.18 per hour.

If I told you there was a way to drive hundreds (and yes, even thousands) of people to your business every day for $1.18 per hour, would you really be all that picky about the way it was done?

Obviously, this strategy works best for specific types of business, most notably main street retail locations.

(A B2B company like Searles Graphics, which is located in an industrial park and does almost no walk-in business would have a much more difficult time getting commensurate value from this strategy.)

If you’re not a PokéStop (or there’s not one close enough to your location), maybe you’re a Gym, in which case you really don’t have to do anything (and you’ve probably already seen the traffic because of it).

The game sorts players onto one of three different teams, and those teams fight to control the gyms.

In order to do that, you have to physically be in the proximity of the gym you’re fighting to control.

Offering a discount, a free drink, or something similar to anybody on the team that currently controls the gym would be a great way to encourage those team members to come in and buy something.

Additionally, it would also encourage competing players to come in, stay, and try to win back the gym to get the discount (while they sit and eat or drink something, of course!).

If you’re neither of these, get creative. Does your business lend itself to a road show?

Can you pack up some inventory and work a deal to set up shop in a temporary location outside or near existing stops or gyms?

How about co-organizing an event for players at one of those locations that is complementary to your business?

For example, if you run a local cheese shop, and there’s a bar that is also Pokémon Gym, you could set up a Pokémon-themed wine and cheese pairing with the owner of the bar.

Don’t believe me? This Queens, NY pizzeria reported a 75% increase after spending just $10 in the app.

Of course, a plan to be able to pay to make your business a PokéStop or Gym is in the works as we speak, and McDonalds will be the first to purchase “sponsored locations” at 3000 of their restaurants in Japan tomorrow.

It won’t be long until this makes it’s way to the United States (or your country).

What do you do as soon as you’ve discovered or planned any of the above?

Promote it on social media!

Pokémon Go meets every definition of a craze, so get all of the social value out of it you can while you can.

Take those who are extremely passionate about the game and make them passionate about you and what you’re doing to cater to them.

Use them to spread word about your product or business.

The bottom line: Don’t be a hater, figure out how to use the hype and hysteria to your advantage and then implement a plan that drives business!

If you liked this article, I would appreciate it if you’d click the heart icon below to help others find it and keep me motivated to write more!!!

Originally published at www.searlesgraphics.com. | Photo: Adam Purves

How to Make Pokemon Go Work for Your Business was originally published in Small Business Forum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Instagram’s Blatant Snapchat Ripoff Might Actually Work

Last week Instagram released a brand new feature called Stories. The idea was a good one.

We know that already because it’s been working extremely well for Snapchat for the last three years.

To understand the feature and why Instagram decided to introduce it, it’s important to understand both Instagram and Snapchat at a core level.

Instagram has always been the place to share your best photos, whereas Facebook (and more recently Snapchat) are where you post ALL your photos.

Instagram gained in popularity because it allowed amateur photographers to add filters quickly and easily to their photos to make them look like professional shots.

The strategy worked amazingly well, making Instagram one of the largest social media networks in the world today.

With the “best pictures” setup, however, comes with it an important limitation: You’re not supposed to post a lot of pictures on Instagram.

In fact, I’ve even given the advice to enforce a strict two-posts-per-day maximum on your Instagram account (and even that is probably too much if you post every day).

Snapchat saw this limitation and filled the gap, becoming the go-to social media platform for sharing pictures of your every day life.

This made a lot of sense on Snapchat where all pictures were designed to disappear after a very short period of time (10 seconds maximum for sharing direct with other users, 24 hours for pictures shared on your story).

Snapchat saw this limitation and filled the gap, and has become the go-to social media platform for sharing pictures of your everyday life.

This made a lot of sense on Snapchat where all pictures were designed to disappear after a very short period of time (10 seconds maximum for sharing direct with other users, 24 hours for pictures shared on your story).

Snapchat brought filters of their own designed just for fun rather than to make your pictures look professional.

Users responded and have been flocking to Snapchat as of late to share the more common events of their day.

Instagram responded to Snapchat once with their “Direct” feature designed to send images to a single user at a time.

Even at the time, it was obvious this was an attempt to respond to the success of Snapchat by providing the same feature Snapchat was known for, just without the auto-delete feature.

However, the latest data I can find on the subject shows that only about 25% of Instagram users utilize the feature, and I personally have received only a handful of direct messages on Instagram.

Yes, this was a Snapchat ripoff but at least Instagram had the common courtesy to come up with their own name for the feature.

Enter Instagram Stories.

With Stories, Instagram has blatantly ripped off Snapchat’s most popular feature, and they didn’t even bother trying to come up with a new name this time.

Photos and videos added to your Instagram story disappear after 24 hours, you can doodle on them, you can add filters and overlays, videos are limited to 10 seconds … aside from some very subtle differences, it’s a complete copy of Snapchat.

But, all of that doesn’t mean it won’t be effective.

In fact, brands in particular have traditionally had a very hard time finding a way to utilize Snapchat to promote their businesses outside of the paid options Snapchat has made available.

Instagram on the other hand has been entirely responsible for a large number of success stories.

The primary reason is that Snapchat was built around privacy and secrecy, where Instagram was built for discovery.

Discovery on Snapchat is non-existent; you need to have someone’s username or phone number to add them on Snapchat (or a snapcode).

Instagram has powerful hashtag, geolocation, and search features built into the core of the platform and has always been primarily about discovering great photographs and interesting users.

And while Snapchat has been on a tremendous growth spurt, Instagram’s still boasts a larger active user base, and it’s a lot easier to get an existing user to try a new feature than it is to attract a new user.

That’s why Instagram’s imitation play might actually pay off big. While older users are still hesitant to install Snapchat, there are very few Snapchat users that aren’t also Instagram users.

For brands, it’s also a way to reach the existing follower list they’ve spent years building up rather than trying to find a way to develop a brand new following on a platform that doesn’t seem to offer a good way to do so.

This is a factor that is not to be overlooked. As social media networks mature, brand loyalty boils down to being where your followers are.

Have you tried Instagram Stories yet? Share your experiences in the comments and let me know what you think!

If you liked this article, please click that little heart below, it will help others find it and will make my day! :-)

Originally published at www.searlesgraphics.com.

Instagram’s Blatant Snapchat Ripoff Might Actually Work was originally published in Small Business Forum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Promoting a business isn’t easy, I get it. But how hard are you really trying?

Chances are, if you’re reading this article, you’re at least trying a little bit, which is a good start.

Do me a favor though, before you even continue reading to the end of this article, ask yourself one question (and be brutally honest with your answer).

After all, you’re only talking to youself, so if you can’t be honest with yourself, who can you be honest with?

Here’s the question:

Are you reading this article hoping there’s a magic formula I have that you can implement in less than twenty minutes, then sit back and just watch the orders roll in?

I have news for you, it doesn’t exist.

There are no magic formulas, no secrets only known to a chosen few, no shortcuts to building a successful business.

Seth Godin did a great job in describing that mentality in his fantastic book, The Dip.

If you answered yes to that question, buy Seth’s book (it’s a quick read), then come back if you still want to read the rest of this article.

In the rest of this article, I’m going to provide you with ideas that do actually work, but you have to be willing to put in the time to implement them.

That’s all. Just a little good-old-fashioned hard work and effort.

Easy enough, right?

1. Use Social Media

Yes, you knew that already (hopefully). But are you using it properly?

I see so many small businesses complain that social media isn’t working for them or, even worse, have no idea that it could be working for them in the first place.

The problem isn’t with the platform, millions of brands use social media every day to reach new and existing customers in amazing ways.

The problem is in the way you’re using them (or not using them).

Just like I wrote in my intro, social media isn’t a magic bullet where you can post a couple links and expect your product or business to go viral overnight.

It takes effort, research, subject-area expertise, and perhaps most importantly, time, to do it right and see a return.

Check out this article for detailed steps on using social media for your business, complete with a bunch of useful resources at the end.

2. Video, Video, Video!

Creating and sharing video content is the absolute best way right now to reach huge numbers of people.

The best part? You don’t have to spend a dime!

I’m assuming you have a cell phone that can shoot video. If you don’t, borrow one from somebody that does, or try your local library to see if they can help you out.

For example, my library has a GoPro that anyone with a library card can check out for the day.

Come up with a concept that either requires no editing at all, or use the free editing software for your operating system (iMovie for Mac users or Windows Movie Maker).

You can download free music and sound effects from YouTube for use in your video (or upload it to YouTube first and overlay the audio in the YouTube Creator Studio).

When you’re done, upload the raw video (not a link to the YouTube version) to whatever social media platforms you can and share it with everyone you can.

A quick tip: Try to keep your video under 1-minute in length unless you need more.

Instagram allows videos up to 1-minute in length (the smallest limit of the major players aside from Snapchat, but that’s a completely different animal) so you’ll be able to get the full video on all major platforms if you can stick to that limit.

3. Create Killer Content

Content marketing is a topic in-and-of itself, and there are already volumes written on the subject.

The gist is that thought leadership in your niche or industry matters.

It helps drive website traffic through referrals and search engines, builds trust with consumers, and helps turn cold prospects into warm leads that are ready to convert.

If you already have a blog on your website, use it.

If not, head to Medium and create a publication for your business or niche.

View the instructions on pointing a subdomain to Medium (i.e. “blog.yourbusiness.com”) here and then link to your blog from your website.

It’s a new option from Medium so the process is a bit clunky but well worth the minor effort and inconvenience.

Spend time creating high-quality, useful content that’s related to your niche but doesn’t try to sell your product or service.

Then, spend 4–5 times longer than that promoting your content and getting people to see and read it.

There are a huge number of ways to do that, and this Neil Patel guide is one of the best out there (and a terrific example of what high quality content looks like).

Keep this up a few times a week for 12–18 months and measure your results.

Yes, you read that right, 12-to-18 MONTHS!

I told you there was no magic formula, just good old grind-it-out style hard work that will pay off in the long run if you stick it out and trust the process.

4. Mine Your Local Chamber of Commerce’s Website for Leads or Partnerships

If you sell B2B, especially to smaller businesses, often this is one of the only sources of leads you may need.

While I would encourage you to join your local chamber, this article is about free ways to promote your business, and you don’t need to be a member of the chamber to access the list of members.

Go through the list and identify qualified prospects and copy and paste their information into a spreadsheet (Google Sheets is completely free with a free Google account).

Set up your leads in your first column, and identify the steps you’re going to take to make contact and follow up with each prospect, and track your progress in the spreadsheet.

Remember, it’s easy to make a single call and give up, it’s far more difficult to put in the real work of being persistent (but not annoying or pushy) enough to get a meeting and close a deal.

If you sell to consumers, use the list to identify potential partners or retailers for your product or service.

Retailers are self-explanatory, but partners can come in a number of forms.

Try setting up a marketing partnership with a business that offers a complementary product or service where they recommend you to their clients and you do the same to yours (they’re probably in the market for some free promotion too!).

5. Join and Participate in Relevant Facebook Groups

What if I told you there was a place out there where people went out of their way to categorize themselves as perfect targets for your business?

What would you pay for access to that kind of information?

Well that service exists, it’s completely free, and it’s called Facebook Groups.

Whether you’re looking for pet owners in Cleveland, local moms in Burlington, or movie buffs around the world, you’ll have a hard time not finding a group that is relevant to your niche.

(I promise I made all of those up off the top of my head as I was writing and found each of those groups in a grand total of about 45 seconds.)

Join the group and participate, don’t sell!

Once you’ve built up enough of a reputation in the community, feel free to drop a link or two to some of your content when it makes sense.

Remember, you’re not the only one that’s ever gotten this advice or thought to try to use this feature for your business, so you need to be a genuine member of the community, not just another marketer looking to push product on anyone and everyone.

You’ll start to draw some targeted page views for your website where your awesome content will get shared, create return visits, and hopefully generate some email sign-ups.

And speaking of email …

6. Use Email

Email is still huge (read this).

If you don’t already have one, head over to MailChimp and create a free account (here’s why I recommend MailChimp if you’re curious).

Use the tools they provide to add sign-up tools to your website so you can capture email addresses from your visitors.

To do that, click on “Lists” at the top of the page.

Select the list you want users to sign up for (or click the button on the top right to create a new one).

Then click the tab for “Signup forms” and select the best option for your integration (you can reach me on Twitter if you have questions).

Then actually follow up with your list and send AT LEAST a monthly email, but ideally you’ll send 1–2 per week.

Any more than that and you’ll get a lot of unsubscribers, less and you risk not being top-of-mind for those who would have otherwise bought from you.

7. Use Reddit

(Technically speaking, Reddit is a social media network, but it’s so vastly different from the more “mainstream” social media networks that it requires it’s own separate conversation.)

I make this recommendation with a bit of trepidation.

Reddit is extremely tricky and it takes some time to get used to the community before you can really take advantage of its power, but once you do, it can be a game changer.

If you’re not familiar with Reddit, know that likely 99.9% of the stuff you see in your Facebook feed was originally discovered on Reddit.

Bloggers are known to troll sites like Reddit looking for new content that’s getting a positive response (or perhaps is causing a stir and some controversy).

It’s a litmus test for them that ensures what they’re publishing elicits a response and will hopefully generate some page views.

You can do the same to find quality topics in your niche to write about.

Once you’ve created an account with Reddit, do a search for subreddits in your niche.

Subreddits are what Reddit uses to categorize content (again, all that work is already done for you!).

Subscribe to some of the popular sub’s in your niche and spend a few weeks getting to know each sub.

Each one has it’s own style, rules (Redditors are HUGE on following rules, break them at risk of having your account “shadow banned” for life without even knowing it happened), and guidelines on what should be posted in the sub.

With Reddit, starting out by commenting on other’s posts is the best way to get started (many subs won’t even let you create your own thread until you’ve commented and engaged a certain number of times).

Once you’ve built up some “karma” (Reddit’s measure of how valuable your contributions to the community have been), start submitting high quality posts that don’t link to your own stuff.

If you’re getting started, check out r/FreeKarma for a little boost.

Your best bet if you want to use Reddit to drive page views on your own site is to do so only with someone’s explicit permission to share the link.

You can do that by publishing a unique piece of content and indicating at the end that you have a link to share with anyone that’s interested.

Wait for someone to ask for it before you post it, and only post it in a way that’s allowed in the rules of the sub you’re posting to.

Your other option is to include links in high-quality comments to other people’s posts. Follow the same rules as above and get permission first.

Here’s a much more in-depth article from Kissmetrics that only deals with marketing on Reddit.

8. Network at Local Meetups

Once again, there’s a group for that.

Meetup.com is a great resource for local like-minded people to get together for just about any reason you can think of.

It’s quick and easy to search for meetups that are already happening in your area related to your business or market segment.

If it doesn’t exist, start one!

Use the Facebook groups you’ve joined, existing business contacts, existing customers, your email list, Twitter, Instagram, and anything else you can think of to try to attract people to your meetup.

(This is a good introduction to Twitter article if you still have no idea what it’s all about.)

Inviting people to a meetup of like-minded locals or professionals makes it much easier to find passionate people in your industry that you can build a genuine relationship with, rather than just trying to convert a quick sale.

There’s that long game again …

9. Ask for Referrals

It always surprises me how few business owners actively solicit referrals from existing customers.

Hopefully you’ve provided an amazing product or service to your customers already (if not, you should probably start there and come back to this article only after you offer a world-class product or service).

If you’ve truly done that, your customers will be more than happy to recommend you, sometimes they just need a little push.

Reach out to them any way you can; email, social media, on the phone, in person, whatever you need to do to try to drive them to recommend your company to a friend.

A great option from a client of ours is a new website called Frendex, where the anonymous reviews are forgone in place of a simple recommendation from friends.

I love the concept because it eliminates bogus reviews and reviews from people you’ve never met and whose opinions you don’t value.

Visit Frendex, create an account, invite friends and ask them to recommend your business in the appropriate category.

At the time of writing, the site is limited to home service providers like contractors, painters, plumbers, and electricians, but I reached out to the founders and they assure me that adding more categories is their top priority and will be available shortly.

Check out their blog (on Medium, no less!) for updates.

10. Peddle Your Wares Anywhere You Can

It may not be glamorous, but starting a growing a business rarely is (the fake garbage you see on Instagram notwithstanding).

Please pay no attention to this guy (or anybody else like him):

Real success comes from grinding it out and hustling to make a sale whenever and wherever you can.

Have a product that would appeal to homeowners who have a pool?

Go on Google Maps, scroll around until you find a neighborhood where you see a high concentration of pools, make note of every address that has one, and knock on doors after work or on the weekends to try to close a few sales.

Targeting parents of young children? Talk to local day care centers and see if they’ll allow you to set up a table outside during pickup hours (not drop-off, mom or dad obviously needs to get to work!).

Have an amazing product for the beach? Go to the busiest beach in your area and use it, with a giant sign attached somewhere to tell people to come try it out or ask you about it!

These are just a few examples but if you want to reach out to me for a few ideas specific to your business, please do!

Hopefully by now you’ve gotten my point that there are opportunities to be had, you just need to be willing to take advantage of them and put in the work that’s required when you don’t have the cash to pay someone else to do it for you!

If you liked this article, it would mean a lot if you click the little heart below to help other people find it!

Originally published at www.searlesgraphics.com.

10 Completely Free Ways to Promote Your Business was originally published in Small Business Forum on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You asked, we answered!

Since releasing the first version of Frendex the single biggest request we received was to add more categories so you could use the service more.

Well, we responded in a big way with nearly 60 new categories for you to choose from!

You’ll also notice a completely redesigned user experience, from an updated color scheme, to a new search feature in place of the old drop down list to help you navigate through all the new categories.

We’ve also redesigned your homepage a bit to show you what friends you can help find a provider right when you log in.

Finally, we’ve also added the ability to add a phone number to your own recommendations to help your friends get in touch as quickly as possible.

Head over to Frendex.com right now to take a look at all the updates and let us know what you think!

Massive Update Available Now! was originally published in Frendex on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.