This week we hear from
Danny Iny, someone I highly respect in the area of Internet marketing and small
business communication. He has been an
entrepreneur for most of his life, quitting school when he was fifteen to start
his first successful business, and has been doing it ever since. Danny has worked with companies of all sizes,
from the very huge (Nokia, Google) to small businesses and entrepreneurs who
are just getting started.
These days, he is a
prolific blogger and educator in the Firepole Marketing training program, and
works one-on-one with client businesses to improve their marketing and help
them make more money. He’s also a fellow
author; Danny’s book about effective
communication in writing is a must have, and he’s co-authoring two other
titles that are about to be
released with co-authors that you may have heard of, like Guy Kawasaki,
Brian Clark, Mitch Joel, and many others!
Danny, thanks for sharing your thoughts with all of us on The Marketing
Blog.
1. Hi
Danny. You’ve been working with small
businesses for many years. What are some
of the unique challenges small business owners are facing today?
I think the core challenges that small businesses face today are the
same challenges that they’ve faced in the past; too much to do, too little time
in which to do it, and not enough expertise to drive it all, because they can’t
be experts in everything, and have too much on their plates. I see this
particularly in the areas of marketing, and it is even worse because marketing
is one of those fields where anyone who’s read a book or taken a course thinks
they really get it, even though in many cases they really don’t.
2. How has social media impacted the small
business owner?
Social media has impacted the small business owner by opening a new
channel through which they can connect with their audience. It’s not just
another channel, either, because it is qualitatively different from what was
previously available, both in terms of the cost structures (it’s a lot cheaper,
and is often free), and in terms of the bi-directionality (prospects and
customers can talk to you and about you as easily as you can talk to them –
more easily, in fact).
3. What type of online marketing are you
recommending to the businesses you consult for?
That really depends on the client, and you’ve actually hit on one of
the biggest mistakes that I see most small businesses making, which is assuming
that there is one “best” way to do online marketing, whether that be SEO, or
PPC, or Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever. The truth is that the only way
tactics will work for you (unless you just happen to get lucky) is by
understanding who your customer is, where they hang out, and what drives their
behavior. In other words, even if you can get very cheap clicks on a certain
medium, it doesn’t mean anything if those clicks aren’t the people you’re
trying to reach, or they’re not in the right head-space to receive your
message.
4. How can business owners grow their referral
networks online and offline?
There are two parts to this; the first is having something that people
want to talk about – that includes just having a great offering, of course, but
also making it “buzz-worthy”. There are things that people like to tell their
friends, and things that they don’t. You need to be great at what you do, but
you also need to find some remarkable way to shine through the clutter (like
BlendTec’s Will It Blend
YouTube videos). Then the next step is to make it easy for people to tell their
friends about you – for example, with easily embedded buttons that let people
share with a single click.
5. How can small businesses use the web to
compete against larger, more prominent brands in their niche?
Well, first of all, don’t try to beat big companies at their own game;
if David tries to beat Goliath by fighting like Goliath, then David gets his
butt kicked. Instead, focus on what value you can bring to the table that your
big competitors can’t – for example, since you’re smaller and more agile, you can
probably offer more personalized service to your customers, or service a market
segment that desperately needs your offering, but is too small for the big
competitor to justify investing the resources. Don’t focus on the competitor,
but rather on what can make your relationship with your customer as special as
possible.
6. Is there any other advice you can give
regarding effective online marketing and communications for the small business
owners reading this post?
What makes online marketing effective is the
same thing that makes offline marketing effective – understand your audience as
well as you possibly can, because that’s the information that you need in order
to differentiate yourself and really stand out in their minds. The “online”
part of online marketing is mostly tactical, and not that complicated or
important. Focus on knowing your customer, and serving them as well as you
possibly can – the rest can almost take care of itself.
Special thanks to Danny Iny for his contributions to The Marketing Blog. I encourage all of my readers to follow Danny and visit Firepole Marketing for GREAT marketing insights and information. Once you start reading his blog you'll be hooked!
For more free marketing advice, visit the marketing experts at http://www.MarketingScoop.com.
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