The Quality Conundrum and Small Business – PART 2

The Quality Conundrum and Small Business – PART 2

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) offers these suggestions for development of a QUALITY POLICY. A Quality Policy is part mission statement, part operational rules. When combined these procedures generate a set of standards for a company that should be fixed in stone.

One test of the value of any standard is whether it can be bent or broken. A quality policy is a formal statement from management, closely linked to the business and marketing plan and customer. Click Here to review the case for having a quality policy.

Some general standards for a QUALITY POLICY include:

red ball The quality policy is understood and followed at all levels and by all employees.
red ball Each employee works towards measurable objectives.
red ball The business makes decisions about the quality system based on recorded data.
red ball The quality system is regularly audited and evaluated for conformance and effectiveness.
red ball Records show how and where raw materials and products were processed to allow products and problems to be traced to the source.
red ball The business determines customer requirements.
red ball The business has created systems for communicating with customers about product information, inquiries, contracts, orders, feedback, and complaints.
red ball When developing new products, the business plans the stages of development, with appropriate testing at each stage. It tests and documents whether products meet design requirements,
regulatory requirements, and user needs. 
red ball Records show how and where raw materials and products were processed to allow products and problems to be traced to the source. 
red ball The business determines customer requirements.
red ball The business has created systems for communicating with customers about product information, inquiries, contracts, orders, feedback, and complaints.
red ball When developing new products, the business plans the stages of development, with appropriate testing at each stage. It tests and documents whether products meet design requirements,
regulatory requirements, and user needs.
red ball The business regularly reviews performance through audits and meetings.
red ball The business determines whether the quality system is working and what improvements can be made. It has a documented procedure for internal audits.
red ball The business deals with past problems and potential problems. It keeps records of  these activities and the resulting decisions, and monitors their effectiveness.
red ball The business has documented procedures for dealing with actual and potential  non conformance problems involving suppliers, customers, or internal problems.
red ball The business makes sure no one uses a bad product. Determines what to do with a bad product. Deals with the root cause of problem. Maintains records to use as a tool to improve the system.

Small Business Quality Conundrum – PART 1

Small Business Quality Conundrum – PART 1

Just like large businesses, small businesses are in “business” to make money. To be successful, all businesses need to focus on the quality standards of goods and services from the company. Just as important is the standard of customer engagement. It’s more than just practicing good business. Delivering high levels of customer service is the secret ingredient in many household name businesses like Amazon and Toyota.

Some industries have rigorous standards for manufacturing and production. Federal government oversees industries like pharmaceuticals or securities. Small businesses often rely on trade groups, customer reviews and competitor standards to appreciate and set criteria for business conduct. However imposed or adopted, having standard creates a greater success than what might otherwise be realized.

Every small business must have quality controls in place. Even if it seems unnecessary to your four-person team, you must make sure that goals are set. An important part of business should be to meet those goals and evaluate the results periodically to see what’s working whether operational, HR, accounting or sales and marketing. No business is too small to ensure that quality standards are established and met. When quality standards are high, customer satisfaction is higher. This means more revenue for you now and success for years to come.

Customer Service at Its Finest

Rike’s was a large prestigious department store in Dayton Ohio for decades. Rike’s sold everything from notions to major appliances. One day, an older woman came into the store. She said she wanted to return her Kenmore washing machine.  Neither the young clerk and or the department supervisor could convince the woman she had not purchased the washer in Rike’s but only from Sears’ Roebuck.  She could not be convinced. Finally, the Rike’s customer service supervisor did a return on the Kenmore confident Sears would reimburse them. Now that’s customer service.

Quality and the Small Business

Your business must perform well to succeed in today’s market. Customer expectations must be met or exceeded to beat out competition.

Larger businesses create models, studies, and statistics to measure quality in products or services. Small business should ask themselves a few sobering questions:

•  Are we meeting customers’ expectations in materials and service and do they return to buy our products and services again?

•  Are my customers writing positive reviews on social media and spreading good word of mouth?

•  Are my customers referring business our way from colleagues, family and friends?

Knowing the answers often leads the small business owner to ask “Now what? The first step is the development of quality standards for the business. Quality Standards are unique for each business consistent with unique processes, practices, policies and audience.

The ISO (International Organization for Standardization ) offers these suggestions for a Quality Policy. Part mission statement, part operational rules when combined these procedures generate a set of standards for a company that should be fixed in stone. In fact one test of the value of any standard is whether it can be bent or broken. A quality policy is a formal statement from management, closely linked to the business and marketing plan and customer.

Click here to read Part 2 of this article, we review the component statements of a QUALITY POLICY as proposed by ISO.

Subscription Marketing

Subscriptions business model is a practice where the customer has  to pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service.  First popularized by publishers of books and magazines, now is it used by many businesses and websites.  MARKETING IN A BOX is the first subscription marketing campaign service.

The subscription model aligns customer and vendor toward common goals, as both stand to benefit if the subscriber  receives value from the subscription. The subscriber who receives value is likely to renew the subscription at an increased rate. Conversely, the customer that does not find value will return to the marketplace.

Subscription pricing makes it easier to pay for expensive items.  Payments prorated over a period of time instead of being payable immediately and so makes the item seem more affordable and as a line item in a budget, becomes affordable when it might not be otherwise.

Subscribers find subscriptions convenient if they buy a product on a regular basis and that they might save money.  For repeated delivery of the product or service, the customer also saves time from not having to make a trip to a brick and mortar store for example, or even have to navigate to an online store to repurchase.

Many businesses in the technology space have adopted subscription models.  They moved from a perpetual license agreement with customers to a subscription model know as “software as a service”.  Saving accrue from not having to have such a large sales support organization whereas with the subscription model, customer service becomes important to keep existing customers happy.  The subscription model ensures a business has steady income from a stable group of customers.

Subscriptions can be a disadvantage to a buyer if they do not use the item subscribed to or uses it infrequently like the gym membership.

For smaller businesses, Subscription Marketing affords them the opportunity to fund a marketing campaign overtime and thus pre-plan for marketing.  MARKETING IN A BOX is the first subscription marketing campaign. It is an all-inclusive campaign with creative and paid media plan executed when and how the buyer desires.

Subscription Marketing Campaigns puts marketing much more in reach of small businesses. MARKETING IN A BOX’s all-inclusive nature makes doing marketing a possibility for many more businesses.

Banner Ads Perform: FACEBOOK Study

Banner Ads Perform: FACEBOOK Study

Visuals Empower. But what kind of visual content  is best?  Video or a Static Banner Ad?

Marketers love video content.  The more video, the better is the prevailing sentiment. The combination of sight, sound and motion is believed to be irresistible for getting the attention of consumers.  But Video can be expensive.  Cost of a video can range from $1,800 and up. Ad agencies charge hundreds of thousands for a single television commercial. Professional video production requires cameras, lights, audio, talent, crews even cater services to lay out sumptuous  breakfast, lunch and all-day munchies.

But how effective is video really?  Is there a less expensive and faster way to make market impact? According to a Facebook experiment, the answer is yes. The experiment  demonstrated  that static banner ad visual content deployed strategically can be more effective than video content a motivating a click-through.

Facebook did a test to determine the Optimal Creative Combination to drive more site visitors to a marketer’s website.  The results were eye-opening.  Three combinations of creative were tested over an 8-day period with two versions of visuals either video or static banner ads deployed in 4-day stints.

  1. COMBO A   consisted of a STATIC BANNER AD and VIDEO AD
  2. COMBO B consisted of a STATIC BANNER AD and another BANNER AD; no video
  3. COMBO C consisted of a VIDEO AD and a STATIC BANNER AD 

facebook experiment on static vs video

 

All the creative combinations tested were able to drive site traffic. Both video and static visual content are more effective online than doing nothing at all (the test control).

The Facebook Study revealed that COMBO B, two differently designed STATIC ADS (display banners) increased site visitors by +1.7% versus COMBO C, a Video Ad followed 4 days later with a Static Ad.  COMBO A, showing a Static Ad first and then a Video Ad for four days performed the worst of all combinations.

This is not to say Never Use Video. It has its place for sure. But if time and budget are considerations (which they usually are for smaller businesses), static visual content is the way to go.

College Marketing Ideas

College Marketing Ideas

The college market is one of the most dynamic consumer markets in existence. This is because it comprises the “youth” market, a demographic that not only sets trends for marketing, but that also is a major consumer of fast foods, fashion and entertainment products like movies and music.

It can be difficult to grab the attention of college students so a focused approach is necessary.  Reach out to organized groups on campus and college administration to forge the relationships that let you market-deep on campus.

Viral Marketing

Students can be hard to motivate especially if they think a company is trying to motivate them. Viral marketing doesn’t seem like marketing at all. A cutting-edge video clip, interactive game or even text messages get put on YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook or the college website with your logo.  If good, it spreads like a virus.

To get a virus going on campus, create a message that might suit the aims of a fraternity or sorority and get them to share it. Virals offer no guarantees but when they hit, awareness is tremendous even if short-lived.

Cause Related Marketing

College students love causes.  They’re part of the fabric of college life.  Causes come and go but there are some causes that resonant with today’s campus kids including the environment, right to life, gun control,  gay and lesbian rights.  Find a cause on campus to support and add your company’s logo to pamphlets, or promotional t-shirts, or fountain pens.

Rah-Rah College Team

Any marketing idea that ties into a school’s sports team will find currency with the college crowd especially if the team is a winning team. Contact the Athletic Department to find out how you can support their efforts to sell game day seats. Establish your credibility with the front office and be welcomed when you give away promotional items like team flags or caps with your logo on them too. Let the frenzy of team support be associated with your business.

Late Academic Scholarships

Most scholarships are awarded to 1st-year students. Sponsor an academic contest for a scholarship award is an excellent way to get the attention of college kids in their 2,3 or 4th years.

Depending on the nature of your business, the scholarship might be awarded for a technical innovation, business or marketing idea. The scholarship would bear your company’s name in perpetuity if you desire. You need to contact the Student Affairs office of the college and let them know you want to give away a scholarship.

Ludicrous Games

College kids like mindless activities that turn some tried and true way of approaching a thing totally on its ear.  Organize ludicrous sports championships like Tether Ball or Dodge Ball tournaments (add a ludicrous element like wearing blindfolds).

Organize events within the many informal sports groups on campus. Give away prizes like free food at local eateries, gasoline for a year, or concert seats.  Watch excitement grow like crazy about your product or company.

Marketing and Digital Marketing Definitions

| Marketing

Business activities related to product, price, promotion and distribution. Developing and executing strategies for business growth and efficiencies in process and savings.

| Digital Marketing

Tactical tools for digital marketing include  Search Engine Optimization, Social Media (free and paid), Online Advertising, and Email Marketing. The website should also be considered as an important tool of digital marketing.

| Search Engine Optimization

Search Engines rank websites based on their authority and influence and display top websites in their search results. Top rankings ensure high website traffic for sales, leads and dominance. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tasks position a website to achieve better rank with either humans or search engines. On-Page Technical SEO are tasks focussed on the website’s functional acuity. Off-Page Marketing SEO includes tasks related to content generation, link-building and keywords.

| Search Engine Marketing

Search is the starting point for the majority of internet visits. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) takes advantage of that fact by placing advertisements on search engine results pages. SEM compasses tasks related primarily to internet marketing including paid advertisements but also includes basic SEO activities as the foundation for pursuit of SEM.

| Social Media

Engaging current and potential customers in social media channels keeps a business engage loyalty customers while being part of the global conversation.

| Article Marketing

Article marketing is effective way to promote your business using content and achieving credibility for your business and back-links for a website.

| Email Marketing

Keep customers aware of products and services through opt-in newsletters and eMail Blasts to keep customers informed and get hot news out there quickly.

| Digital PR

Public Relations (PR) promote a company’s important activities on the web. Press releases are not only useful in getting the word out about a newsworthy event or activity but create high quality back-links.

Fixed Priced Online Media

| Display Advertising

Ad space can be purchased on search engines, social media and popular websites. The ability to target messages directly to a niche audience on the web is without equal. Pay-per-click is a popular form of online payment that’s cost efficient and effective means of reaching an audience.

| Digital Analytics

Web analytics monitor audience size, page popularity, advertising program effective in order to improve rank and reap the benefits of site popularity

| Web Design & User Interface

Whether online store or internet brochure, a website is a business’ face to the world and its customers. Good web design ensures users can navigate easily to all site content, have a seamless ecommerce experience, and spend time on pages.

| Webmaster Services

Websites can lose authority and rank if not maintained properly. Website management involves posting new content, replying to visitor queries, and ensuring generally that all site operations are functional.

| Content Generation

Search engines search for relevant content to display in search results.  Content originality and currency is a key factor in search engine calculus and audience engagement.

Winning Vintage Ad Caption -Week 1

Ouch. Pass the Java.

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Vintage Ad Caption Winner – Week 1

Winner of the 1st Week’s Vintage Ad Caption Contest. VISUAL CONTENT EMPOWERS.

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Get The Word Out! Affordable Paid Advertising Plans

Affordable, results generating small business paid advertising services to reach local or national audiences from TAG on the Web.

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Site Optimization Brings Rank and Happy Visitors

SEO TuneUp is a website technical, on-page SEO inspection and repair service. Site Optimization improves search rank and site visitors experience. A well-maintained site is good for business.

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