Moderator: Welcome to tonight's special event: "Home to Store Front Business/Marketing- Part 4" with Lisa Kirchner
Alan: Welcome to tonight's special event.
Alan: Tonight's special event will start with an interview, then we will open it up for questions from the audience.
Alan: Throughout the event all questions submitted to the stage, will go to an off screen moderator, to allow for grouping of questions.
Alan: Our guest tonight Lisa Kirchner with Thread Tech Embroidery
Alan: Tonight we are going to discuss:
"Home to Store Front Business/Marketing - Part 4 of our 4 part series on marketing."
Alan: Welcome Lisa,
Lisa: thank you alan
Lisa: this has been a lot of fun these past few weeks
Alan: and very educational
Lisa: I hope so
Lisa: I am armed with my arsenal of Guerrilla Marketing Books and have culled notes from all of them
Lisa: as well as using my own personal experience
Lisa: so most of the ideas I have presented I have tried
Lisa: or seen others try with successful results
Lisa: okay, on to tonights presentation.
Lisa: Okay, for your homework, I have a couple of assignments for you. First you need to spy on your competition. If you cannot go in and shop your competition, then enlist a friend to do so.
Lisa: You send them in armed with simple artwork, scanned and ask them to quote the job on pique shirts, or whatever you want. Have all the particulars ready for your spy. Have them make the following observations.
Lisa: What was their first impression going into the store? How were they greeted? Were their questions answered well? How long of a wait to complete the order? What are the specific benefits of doing business with that company? What other services do the
Lisa: What other services do they offer?
Lisa: Do this with as many of your competitors as possible. If it is not possible to go in to them, then do it buy phone. If they have to leave a voicemail, how long before it is answered? All of these features play into your marketing plan.
Lisa: After you have gathered all of this information, sit down and build a matrix comparing your business with your competitions'. What you are looking for is the one or more things that you do different or better than your competition.
Lisa: . If it is only a feature of your business, see if you can spin it into a benefit. Examples, plenty of free parking, your order ready in 5 days or you get 10% off, all work done on site, you get to speak directly to the graphics artist, etc…
Lisa: These are only examples. The bigger the benefit, the greater your selling point. What can you do different than all your competitors?
Lisa: Let's throw in a shoestring idea. How about baking? Think about the waiting rooms of car dealerships where you get free coffee and donuts while waiting for your car.
Lisa: Why can't you deliver some brownies or cookies with your order? No time to bake? How about a small assortment of hard candy or chocolate?
Lisa: These are the things that stay with the client and make your business that much more memorable.
Lisa: The next bit of homework that you should do is interview your customers. You want to call on them or have a survey on hand that they can fill out.
Lisa: . You will probably do best to call them with a list of questions on hand. The call should go something like this.
Lisa: "Hello, Mr. Smith, this is Lisa from Thread Tech Embroidery, how are you? I'm just calling to find out if everything is okay with the shirts you ordered from us recently.
Lisa: Is everything to your satisfaction? If you have a moment, I would like to ask you a few questions about your purchase to help us provide the best possible service to you.
Lisa: Is this a good time for you? What made you decide to purchase from Thread Tech Embroidery vs. one of our competitors?
Lisa: (Expand questions based on their answers)
Lisa: What would you say was the best part of your purchase experience with us? What would you say was the worst? Can you think of anything that we could have done differently to improve your experience?
Lisa: Thank you so much Mr. Smith, I really appreciate you taking the time to help us provide you with good service. We appreciate your business."
Lisa: Take thorough notes during each conversation. Now these are the questions you need to ask yourself at the end of your interviews.
Lisa: What must my business be in the minds of my customers in order for them to choose my business over everyone else?
Lisa: Can you promise something that no one else in the industry dares to?
Lisa: Last week here in chat I met an embroiderer that offers 24 hour turnaround. Now THAT'S a promise that could turn this industry on its ear!
Lisa: The other thing that was asked of me was how do you choose a location for your business. Well, the first thing you want to do is remember who your customer is.
Lisa: The idea behind satisfied customers is to make doing business with you as easy as you can. So where is there a location that is right "on the way" is easy to access (parking), and they'll drive by it frequently.
Lisa: Of course you have to take budgetary concerns into account. Look at strip mall locations. Where do you shop?
Lisa: Would you be one of your customers? Think like the customer as much as possible.
Lisa: If you are home-based looking to move to store front, ask your customers what shops they frequent.
Lisa: Ask them what location would be most convenient to them. Most people love to give you their opinion.
Lisa: Next you need to spend time at the desired location. Go there at different times of day. Is it crowded? Is there parking available?
Lisa: Don't make the mistake of choosing a location that has a lot of cars parked there and think it is busy.
Lisa: What if those are the cars of commuters and you are closed by the time they come back?
Lisa: These are the kinds of things you need to be asking of a location.
Lisa: Last week I was asked to come up with some more shoestring ideas for marketing on a budget with little money.
Lisa: Some of those ideas would be to hold drawings for prizes.
Lisa: this would include collecting names and addresses for a database to send information to.
Lisa: go ahead and include a question on the form as to what products they find most appealing in your store.
Lisa: also ask what products they had hoped to see but were missing.
Lisa: You can give free demonstrations
Lisa: offer free consultations
Lisa: Guerrilla Marketing for Free is probably the best resource for low cost ideas
Lisa: with a little creativity, you can create a plan that will work wonders for your business
Lisa: You shouldn't spend any money on advertising or anything to do with marketing, until you have spent some time working on your marketing plan
Lisa: now for some Words that help marketing materials gain attention.


Lisa: Use words that convey your benefit or something that will intrigue them
to want to read more.
Lisa: Speak as if to one person, not a group.
Lisa: Make it
personal.
Lisa: Use words like Announcing, or New. Start to tell a story with your headline.
Lisa: Studies have shown that people actually read wordy ads if they tell a story. Make it a success story.
Lisa: Or try to instruct, with words like How to, Why, Which, You or This...
Lisa: Or Act Now to create a sense of urgency.
Lisa: You can also use testimonials to attract attention.
Or put the price of an item in your ad if you are proud of it.

Lisa: I hope these chats have provided you with some useful information to help you with your marketing plan.
Lisa: One final personal story before we go to questions
Lisa: I would like to tell you about my current marketing campaign
Lisa: I found two sponsorship slots on a couple of different radio stations.
Lisa: My commitment is for 13 weeks.
Lisa: On one station I will be sponsoring the birthday readings
Lisa: listeners send in birthday wishes and they are read on the air
Lisa: I get a billboard which is a quick blurb saying my company is sponsoring the birthdays
Lisa: and my commercial runs at the end of the birthdays.
Lisa: It is widely listened to and a successful placement for most sponsors.
Lisa: the other radio station's sponsorship is for a word scramble game
Lisa: it is something of a cult phenomenom
Lisa: so it gets a good review and the listenership is excellent.
Lisa: these are the types of things a good marketing plan strives to include
Lisa: and I have already reaped good results from my radio advertising, so I know it works.
Lisa: This is the end of my four part series on marketing from home and store front
Alan: Now to the questions....
Lisa: I hope it inspires you to create a good plan of your own.
Moderator: Audience member says: "Why did you choose a "sponsorship" on the radio stations, versus just regular advertising?"
Lisa: well, a sponsorship provides me with a more captive audience
Lisa: I know that people make it a point to listen to the birthday announcements
Moderator: Audience member says: "is there a price difference for sponsorshiop versus regular ads?"
Lisa: so the chances of them hearing my ad are that much greater than if it is scattered through the broadcast
Lisa: the price difference isn't that much different. But the commitment is a little different... Typically you will have to offer some sort of coupon or prize.
Lisa: I'd say the difference is about $6 per commericial last I looked. but your area may vary
Lisa: any other questions?
Moderator: Audience member says: "Do you give a coupon or gift certificate if they fill out and return your surveys?"
Lisa: You can, it's a nice touch, but not usually necessary.
Moderator: Audience member says: "Business plan... marketing plan... where do we begin"
Moderator: Audience member says: "You've got some great ideas.... but where do I start? What is the priority of all these marketing ideas?"
Lisa: most of my customers love to share their opinion
Lisa: begin with the business plan
Lisa: if you have trouble coming up with one
Lisa: you can go to www.sba.gov
Lisa: there is SO much excellent information there available free.
Lisa: it's one of the best resources going
Lisa: the marketing plan I outlined in prior weeks
Lisa: you need to know
Lisa: who is your customer
Lisa: who is your competition
Lisa: what is your business?
Lisa: this includes positioning
Lisa: the priority of marketing ideas is to convey a benefit
Lisa: remember above all that you want to answer this question for your customer
Lisa: What is in it for me?
Moderator: Audience member says: "How often do you adjust or change your marketing plan? Is it a seasonal thing?"
Lisa: the more powerful your benefit, the better your marketing campaign will be... the more desirable your product/service will be.
Lisa: Actually, if you have a good program in place, you'll want to keep it going until it stops producing
Lisa: always test your ideas
Moderator: Audience member says: "How do you test?"
Lisa: there are so many people willing to offer an opinion if you only ask
Lisa: call a friend, another business associate... ask their opinion
Lisa: if someone comes in your store just looking... ask if they will look at something and give you their opinion.
Lisa: opinions are free, usually.
Moderator: Audience member says: "How much did you change your marketing plan when you moved from the house to the store front?"
Lisa: when I came up with my latest radio ad, I called my friend who also happens to be a restaurant owner
Lisa: I changed it a great deal.
Lisa: I knew I was adding on a great deal of overhead
Lisa: and therefore needed to implement a wider "blast" of coverage to get seen.
Lisa: I didn't do radio before the store front
Lisa: Beware of one day promotions in advertising...
Lisa: meaning one commercial one day for one special event
Lisa: if you cannot afford to be on consistently, you are better off spending your money elsewhere
Lisa: I will likely do 13 weeks on
Lisa: and then skip to another 13 weeks
Lisa: or choose a different sponsorship
Lisa: any other questions?
Moderator: Audience member says: "Did you list in the yellow pages both for the home business and storefront?"
Lisa: yes, I believe yellow pages is an important part of your marketing plan
Lisa: but you don't need a large ad to get noticed. You just need an attention getter.
Lisa: the one that gets me noticed, and I have one of the smallest ads in there
Lisa: is that my ad says, "award winning embroidery"
Lisa: from 2nd place in one category of a Stitches contest
Lisa: it was the only reason I entered the contest
Lisa: and it has been a valuable asset to providing customers with confidence that they are dealing with an "expert."
Moderator: Audience member says: "When you opened up shop at home, how long did it take before you saw some significant orders come in?"
Lisa: When I started networking is when I saw the big influx in orders.
Lisa: this was when I would attend chamber meetings and bring logos in the window cards that I talked about in a prior chat.
Lisa: any other questions?
Alan: Lisa, thanks for being with us tonight.
Alan: That is the conclusion of tonight's event, a transcript will be posted to the Embroidery Industry Calendar within the hour.
Lisa: thank you for having me
Alan: If you would like to contact Lisa,
her email is: lisa@ud.net
Alan: Thank you for your support of the EmbroideryMall.
Alan: Now everyone back to Latte's
The PalacePresents event "Home to Store Front Business/Marketing- Part 4" is over.
Thank you for attending.

Closing Log (April 6, 2004 10:31:17PM)

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