February 2002 Marketing Tips

Marketing Tips for
Your Small Business

Visibility Pays

The best
marketing plan
begins with brand
identity and the
commitment to never
stop selling yourself

By Kevin Brafford

Related story: 10 warning signs that you need marketing help

Carl Webb (right) knows the skinny when it comes to marketing a small company. He knows the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the peaks and valleys — whatever parameters you want to enlist, he’s likely experienced them.

He knows them all because that’s what his company does and because that’s what his company is. “How we present ourselves,” says Webb, along with Jim Patterson the founders and owners of Webb Patterson Communications in Durham, “is precisely representative of what we offer to our clients. If we can’t do a good job of marketing ourselves, then why should a company think that we can market them?”

Successfully answering that question was one of many challenges the two men faced when they decided to go into business together in 1993. Webb was working for an advertising firm in Durham, and Patterson was doing likewise in public relations for a firm in High Point. Their friendship had grown through the years and a business partnership seemed the next natural step.

“There was a lot of anxiety,” says Webb. “It was us and two other employees and we were trying to compete against established major advertising and public relations firms.”

So Webb and Patterson did just what they tell their clients to do to this day — they developed several specialized services that separated them from others in their field. It was brand identity, albeit in a nontraditional form.

“We worked on developing a labor relations program between senior managers and their employees,” Webb says, “and we looked at marketing services and public relations services for mid-sized to small colleges, who up to that point had done things in-house.

“We also wanted to specialize in community relations, which was also sort of a new area. What we’d do is go out in the community and assess what the real problems were, what products and services were offered, and what improvements could be made.”

The strategy worked. Webb Patterson has grown gradually through the years, overcoming several roadblocks along the way — Hurricane Fran wiped out the company’s building in September 1996 and “we almost had to start the business over,” Webb says.

Today the firm boasts 10 employees and a client list that includes GlaxoSmithKline, Capitol Broadcasting, Duke University, Winston-Salem State University and North Carolina A&T. Webb Patterson also played an active role in public relations efforts for the educational segment in the $3.1 billion higher education bonds campaign that was overwhelmingly approved by the state’s voters in 2000.

“We wouldn’t be where we are right now if it wasn’t for the identity that we established for ourselves initially,” Webb says, noting that the firm determined its customer base, targeted it aggressively and has been rewarded handsomely.

That begs the question: Can any small business expect reasonable success from an advertising, marketing and public relations program — elements that go hand in hand? Those in the industry say yes.

Media Fragmentation
It was just a few decades ago that major advertising programs were budgeted only by the nation’s largest companies. Interstate billboards hawked everything from soft drinks to automobiles, and the regional ABC, CBS and NBC television affiliates extolled the virtues of any company’s product that was willing to pay the steep price.

Locally, ads on local radio stations and in daily newspapers were the most cost-effective ways for small companies to promote their products and target an audience that was close by. Advances in technology, as they have elsewhere, altered the landscape drastically. The emergence of cable television and its myriad of available channels provided not only more choices to viewers but to advertisers.

“Twenty years ago, people sort of knew what cable TV was,” says Don Williams of Lewis Advertising in Rocky Mount. “Some had it in their homes and some didn’t. Once it became widespread, there were more choices. We call it media fragmentation,” he adds, “but it really means kind of the opposite of that — that more media choices have been added to the mix.”

Now there’s the Internet, a tool that companies use in different ways. All successful businesses have a web site as a component of their marketing plan, Webb says, and some also choose to advertise on other sources’ sites if there is a product or service to be sold. “We recommend to our clients that they have a very first-class, polished web site,” Webb says. “And the biggest part of that is content. It can have all of the flash and sizzle, but if you don’t have anything to say it doesn’t matter.”

Technology also has helped educate small business owners as to their marketing needs, says Gary Walker of Walker Marketing in Concord. “Clients now are able to leverage more of their resources — time, people and money — and it has streamlined this industry and made it a lot more efficient. Clients simply are more educated and more informed. Because of the Internet, they’re exposed to a lot more marketing concepts.”

Thus, they’re more savvy — and often less patient. “Eight to 10 years ago,” says Webb, “people knew that they had to advertise just because that’s what you did. Now they want to know exactly what and when they’re going to get out of it. “They’re looking for measurable results more quickly than they used to. That’s just the nature of all business today.”

That said, Jim Tobin of Brogan & Partners in Cary believes owners can get too close to their companies for their own good when it comes to marketing. “Sometimes we’ll have a client that’s too immersed in their product,” he says. “That’s when the agency has to step in. Certainly, you want to understand your client and their business, but you don’t want to get too close because you stop adding value.”

And value is one of the bottom lines. The proliferation of advertising mediums has made targeted advertising and marketing a must, Tobin says, especially for successful small companies. “A mistake that I see many small companies make is trying to get to everyone who might buy their product,” he says. “Instead, they should focus on reaching a defined target group, which then needs to be narrowed and narrowed again.

“You want to find people who both have the greatest inclination and the ability to buy your product. There was a science publication a while back that was marketing mainly to scientists and getting limited results. Then they started marketing to regulators and libraries and those groups had the funds to make the publication profitable.

“There’s no question that the number of vehicles for advertising has ballooned,” he adds. “It’s harder to reach everyone. But at the same time, if you do your segmentation and know your target audience you can be more effective than ever.”

“Advertisers who back off in tough economic times can lose their market share. It’s very likely that if you’re out of sight, then you can fall out of mind very quickly."

-- Don Williams,
Lewis Advertising

Follow these
marketing tips
What guidelines can small business owners follow to develop an effective advertising, marketing and public relations program for their company?

Those in the field agree that many of the principles of maintaining sound business and personal relationships apply foremost. “I know this will sound really corny,” says Gary Walker of Walker Marketing in Concord, “but I truly believe that the best guidebook for anybody selling themselves or a product to is buy a copy of Dale Carnegie’s book, ‘Lifetime Plan For Success’. It lays on a table at my house right now.”

So heed what you can from the book, and also heed these tips from Webb Patterson.

Develop a brand image. “It’s not important to claim that you can do everything when you really only can do two or three things well,” Carl Webb says. “Spreading yourself too thin will do more harm than good. Develop an image that’s credible and believable and concentrate on those two or three things.”

Stay in front of clients and customers. “We believe that people do business with people, not companies,” he says, “so you should examine the opportunities you have to be in front of those who impact your business. Community and civic involvement is important, not just for the company’s owners but for the employees as well.”

Utilize media opportunities. “It’s important to have a good relationship with the print and broadcast media,” he says. “Provide information for stories to writers. Give speeches to trade associations. Develop your own newsletter. Make yourself available at all times — you never know when it might pay off.”

Seek third-party endorsements. “This is often overlooked but extremely important,” he says. “Are there things you can do to receive praise from others? It can be in the form of an award or another kind of honor. You can’t look at self-promotion as a negative thing, because sometimes if you don’t talk about yourself, nobody will. But nothing carries more weight than an endorsement from a third party.”

Take advantage of those who know more than you. “At some point, you should look at hiring or at least consulting with a public relations firm,” he says, “someone who has specific training in getting your business promoted. You also might need an advertising or marketing firm — a company that knows how to promote what’s special about you in a distinctive way. You want to stand out from the competition.”

And that’s where Williams’ firm, Lewis Advertising, can help. “You have to figure out what you need to spend to be competitive,” he says. “The trap that a lot of small businesses get in is that they want to spend too little — they’ll need to be aggressive in their spending and instead they’ll do just the opposite.”

That’s especially true, he notes, during a lean economy. “Advertisers who back off in tough economic times can lose their market share,” he says. “It’s very likely that if you’re out of sight, then you can fall out of mind very quickly.

“Right now, for example, is a great time for small businesses to set up a media plan for 2002. You absolutely can get more bang for your buck because the prices are right.”

Cherish Client Relationships
Alphanumeric Systems is a prime example of a company that has marketed itself superbly while maintaining a sterling public relations image. The Raleigh hardware, software and technical support supplier has grown so rapidly — from 25 employees a decade ago to 150 five years ago to about 250 today — that it’s no longer considered a small company.

Lauren Parker oversees the company’s marketing efforts and says its success has been built on a foundation that would make Dale Carnegie proud — one put in place by Darleen Johns, who founded Alphanumeric Systems in 1979 as a word processor reseller with three employees.

“The biggest guiding factor for us has been the client relationships that Darleen has established and maintained through the years,” says Parker. “It truly is more than a sterile client relationship, and that’s been embedded in our customers from day one. We’re going to do what’s right and we’re going to treat you the way we’d want to be treated.”

Parker says Alphanumeric Systems has also succeeded in large part because the expectation between the company and a client is clearly stated at the outset of the relationship. That’s a vital, yet often overlooked, component of a solid marketing, advertising and public relations program, says Tobin of Brogan & Partners.

“The thing we try to build in is that you’re spending x amount of dollars on this program, then what results are going to make you happy,” he says. “What is your expected success for this amount of money?

“Agreeing beforehand what that measurement is, whether it’s a PR program or a direct mail campaign or whatever, is critical to the relationship.”

There is also the need to maintain a steady course forward, says Webb of Webb Patterson. “As a small business owner, you can never stop selling yourself or your business,” he says, “no matter how much business you have today. That’s because you’re going to lose business at some point that has little to do with performance and more to do with change. You can’t control that, but you can control other things that will make you profitable.”

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