Christine Taylor's Core Copywriting

Microbusiness: Flying Under the Radar

Dawn Rivers Baker, editor and publisher of The MicroEnterprise Journal, recently emailed me a great comment on my recent post on microbusiness. Dawn wrote:

Hi Christine,

I was originally going to post this as a comment on your blog but it wound up being so long that I decided to email you instead.

Yes, getting good numbers on microbusinesses is a pain in the keester. The National Federation of Independent Business is the source that many people look to for information about small businesses but their data is slightly flawed. They survey their own membership for their data. That's problematic because, even though the majority of the organization's membership is composed of microbusinesses, those micros have higher average annual revenues that the overall microbusiness population.

Then, too, the NFIB is clearly a pro-Republican organization, regardless of what they say about their non-partisanship. Microbusiness owners as a group, on the other hand, probably more closely reflect the public at large in terms of their political views. That is particularly true in light of the way the demographics of small business ownership have been changing over the last ten years or so. Given all that, their membership is "meaningfully different" (as one university statistics professor put it to me) from the general population of microbusiness owners and they probably don't speak for the majority of small business owners.

On a more general note, most small business surveys don't weight their results to account for the fact that 90% of all U.S. firms are microbusinesses (as you and I both define them). That is going to make a difference to the results.

Is anybody doing this research? No. At least, not yet. The National Association for the Self-Employed has started regularly surveying their members, and the views expressed are probably as close as you're going to get -- except for the fact that they are conducting non-scientific, web-based surveys that are not exactly worded carefully to ensure the results are not biased.

As for your last question -- without specific research, I'm guessing here but the numbers say that micros don't especially want to grow their organizations (although they are perfectly willing to grow their revenues). The most recent firm size class data released by the SBA Office of Advocacy and the Census Bureau indicate that, in 2002, all the growth in the number of U.S. firms was microbusinesses. All of it. The numbers of non-micro small business and of large businesses actually shrank between 2001 and 2002. In fact, if you look over the long haul, microbusinesses as a percentage of the number of all U.S. firms has been steadily growing for about a decade, while the number of non-micro small businesses has been declining and large firms are more or less holding steady. As the director of economic research at Advocacy put it to me, "The middle is shrinking."

What that says to me is that there are a lot of micros out there who are finding that they can make enough money to enable them to live the life they like without having to saddle themselves with a larger organization than they feel comfortable with. Then, too, I believe most microbusiness owners avoid doing things with their businesses that will move them from being producers to being administrators.

I recently wrote a white paper that covers this topic and more, called The Microbusiness Way of Growth: how microbusinesses substitute operational efficiency for scale and sacrifice organizational growth for revenue growth...

My thanks to Dawn for taking the time to write down this great information. Those of you who are microbusinesses yourselves, or who consult or sell to them, will find Dawn's newsletter and blog a great informative source.

PR and the Editors

Pushing-the-edge-blogs may be trumpeting the demise of the press release in favor of the blog, but they're just pushing-the-edge-of-insanity. Press releases are still an important part of getting your client's name out there. Not the best way mind you, but a valid way and you need to know how to do it. I should know, my background is in technology journalism. This bears repeating: please don't call a broadcast list of press contacts; you'll just get variations of these two messages:

(Polite) "I'll look for it, and if it fits in with articles I'm doing I'll give you a call." Right.

(Less-than-polite) "I get 200 releases a day. Don't call." Bang!

Well, you knew that. So what do you do? Editors are so swamped with information that they must work with tunnel vision -- like horses with blinders on. They only see the messages that impact their work right now. So help them out:

• Watch the ed cals and suggest relevant interviews. Be prepared to explain why you think it's relevent. "This is the next big thing in block-based storage!" won't cut it with an editor.
• Build a relationship with the editor so they're glad to hear from you. Yes, it can happen. I'm still friends with several of the PR people who haunted my telephone door during my editorial years.
• Think way beyond the press release -- offer to write contributed articles if the magazine takes them, and query with your ideas if the magazine does not. The more the magazine depends on contributed content, as many trade journals do, the more likely you are to get a good response to your offer.

Writing bylined articles is a really good idea for a vendor to do. Listen to this: "Over 90% of engineers report that trade magazines are their number one source for getting information about suppliers." Don't depend on a hit-or-miss mention from your press release, offer to write the darned article. Read on for more on how to do this and why it's so valuable.

No, I'm Not Big

I recently ran across an interesting post from Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends. She pointed out some interesting surveys about small business optimism. The surveys had conflicting findings. I left her the below comment:

Hi Anita,

Thanks for the heads-up on small business surveys. I'm interested in finding numbers on this segment (of which I am a member) and I'll take a closer look at these.

One of the difficulties I sometimes have in pulling out useful information is that governmental definitions of "small business" are REALLY far from my reality. A manufacturing firm can have 1000 people and a large yearly revenue and still classify as a small business. That's far different than my perspective of a micro-business, which I'd define as 5 employees and under. (I know the definition varies.) It must be hard to get good numbers on this fluid segment...

Although I work with large companies and agencies, I'm a micro business -- an independent professional -- and plan to stay that way. If you're an independent professional or have less than 5 employees, do you want to grow or stay just the size you are? (Referring to your business and not the numbers on your bathroom scales of course!)

Recovering from Silly Mistakes

Yesterday I pulled two silly manuevers -- I confused a very good client with a big fat competitor  and I put in the wrong URL for my blog when I made a comment on a well-known blogger's post (David St. Lawrence of Ripples). Way to build business.

I'm sure that Patrick, my long-time client contact, thought I'd been drinking (I hadn't, I was just tired). Fortunately the mistake was confined to an email I had sent to him, and since we've worked together for years he was very nice about it. And David was kind enough to take the time to tell me about the bad link I'd put in to my blog and offered to delete the original comment so I could replace it with a new one and correct link.

I appreciate their kindness and I am taking a lesson: slow down, concentrate, and don't try to do everything at once.

Does Transactional vs. Consultative Matter?

I recently read about segmenting prospective technology buyers into two different camps: 1) transactional and 2) consultative.

The transactional prospects know what they want already -- for example, they have decided to buy 50 laptops with set specifications. They were looking for price, speed of delivery, support options. They didn't need to know what they needed, they already decided that. This camp needs sales collateral like informative brochures (really informative I mean), web copy with specs and support options clearly laid out, ROI calculators, product briefs, etc.

The consultative prospects know that they have a problem but not how to solve it and they're looking for ideas. The prospect is farther back in the selling cycle but can quickly move forward to a close with a vendor they trust and who feels understand them and their problems. Classic  marketing collateral works with them: white papers, articles in trade journal magazines, case studies.

I would add a third camp: prospects who THINK they know what they need, but don't. These are the IT folk who have decided on a solution... but it's wrong. These prospects need careful handling since the last thing an IT person wants to feel is that they've made a major mistake on an already long proposal process. These people need marketing collateral that points them in a different and better direction, emphasizing how much better a different solution will be for them, and why. A mix of marketing and sales collateral is best here, since these prospects are ready to buy once they are clear on what that should be.

How to Cash In on a Successful Customer Relationship

Sure the check in the mail is good. But don't stop there -- leverage your successful sales stories by writing customer success stories/case studies around them. They're one of the most powerful tools available to your sales force.

Why are they so popular? Because they are compelling to prospective customers. References and testimonials are great things to have but customer success stories flesh out those testimonials and give them teeth. And if you match the case study customer’s industry to the prospects, it’s clear to prospects that your company knows how to successfully operate in a given market.

Click here to read more about increasing sales with a case study program.

The B2B Collateral Difference

David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report "B2B Ain't What It Used to Be" remarked that:

The key differences between consumer marketing and B2B marketing are that business targets are harder to segment, they typically need far more details about a company's products or services prior to purchase and they usually take a longer time to reach a purchasing decision. Another key difference is that far more B2B purchases are finalized offline.

My conclusion: this is exactly why B2B marketers, especially when they're in complex sales cycle industries like technology, need to depend on long-lived marketing collateral. Collateral can offer many details about features, usage and benefits, act to keep a vendor top-of-mind during a prospect's decision cycle, and are useful both online and printed. Collateral like white paper, articles and case studies are the gifts that keep on giving.

Integrating the Core Collateral Message

Lee Odden, president of search marketing firm TopRank, visited Ad:Tech's recent conference in Chicago. He reported on a breakout session about the challenges of doing IMC (integrated marketing communications):

...there's still work to do for improved IMC between clients and multiple agencies. It's important that everyone needs to work off the same brand position. A clear vision, proper planning and effective communications are all key for effective integrated marketing communications.

Even when you're dealing with a subset of marketing communications like Core Collateral (white papers, bylined articles and case studies), the message stays the same: a clear vision for a consistent message across all types of collateral, good project planning, and effective communications between all parties involved in the project. (Parties include internal teams like marketing, sales and executives, as well as outside writers and agencies.)

I'm going to develop a form to use with my clients that will help to nail down a common marketing message, clear goal and brand identity across all Core Collateral formats; I'll share it as soon as I'm done.

A Red Letter Day

Today is a red letter day -- I'm JANE's Smart Woman Online this week, and I got my first blog comment from a Smart Man!

Jane, aka Yvonne DiVito, honored me with an interview which you can read at http://windsormedia.blogs.com/lipsticking/ ("Smart Woman Online: Christine Taylor"). I'm delighted at the opportunity to contribute to Lipsticking, one of my favorite blogs.

And my first comment on my brand-new blog came from Kevin Barefoot of Barefoot White Papers at http://www.barefootwhitepapers.com/. He also picked up part of a recent posting that reminds vendors that customers aren't their only white paper audience. Journalists are an important part of that mix too.

Why People Like White Papers

White papers have an excellent track record of getting hot leads to call you, and warm leads to warm up fast. Here’s why:

Reason #1. Many people would rather die than talk to a sales representative right off the bat, but they will read a white paper. When people start researching a product, they are not prepared to talk to a salesperson. They have no idea if the product is for them, or if they even need the technology at all. They’ll also be resistant to new and innovative technologies. Well-written, benefit-laden white papers will qualify your product to the reader, and qualify the reader to you at the next stage in the sales cycle.

Reason #2. White papers build a bridge between the prospect and your organization’s salespeople. When the salesperson does call, it’s not out of the blue. If a user has downloaded a white paper, there is an established connection between user interest and your company. The call can even be welcome if the customer has more questions and is interested in moving forward.

Reason #3. White papers are simple to host on the Web, where people can easily download and read them. In addition to your own company Website, there are numerous sites that host white papers and make it easy for prospects to download the paper. Many companies take this opportunity to capture reader information, including if the reader wants to be contacted. If they do request contact, for heaven’s sake contact them! They are coming highly qualified.

Reason #4. You’re not just reaching prospective customers with white papers, you’re also reaching journalists. Or you should be. This is why you should always include a solid technical section in a white paper: journalists don't want to download a white paper and find a brochure, it makes them cranky. But if you deliver a valuable white paper, the journalist is far more likely to speak well of you and your product. (This, of course, is the essence of media relations.)

Reason #5. And speaking of journalists, what do they do when they pick up or receive expensive press kits? They throw them away, but they do keep valuable information like booklets and white papers. As a senior editor and editor-in-chief for data storage magazines, I can’t tell you how many beautiful and pricey press kits I picked up, then threw away. What did I keep? White papers. Who did I think of when I was writing a story on that technology? The company that wrote the white paper, of course.