On mission - in business

Brenda and I are at the beautiful little town of Walnut Creek, OH spending time with many friends from across the country at the BOOST retreat. This is an annual business retreat that we got involved with several years ago that moves around to several different communities in the midwest and provides a time for followers of Jesus who happen to be business people to get together and refocus, network and re-energize.

This year we have a number of different speakers presenting in their areas of expertise. First up this morning was Glenda Lehman Ervin, vp of marketing from Lehman's Hardware in Kidron, OH. Glenda brought us a wealth of experience and information in the area of marketing and communication. I will post a video shortly that will show you her entire presentation. Some take away's to ponder and act on:

• Customers have choices – they want to be in charge
• We compete for wallet share
• Brand your product in such a way that you differentiate yourself from the competitor.
• There are multi channels for marketing communication - use them. Glenda named this brick, flip, click. Brick being the brick and mortar store front, flip as in catalogs and click on the internet. Of course, depending on your particular business you may have other avenues or you may only use several of these. But all should be considered as potential ways to build relationships with your customers and friends. Speaking of the internet, it was so important for me to hear her confirming the proper use of social media like twitter, facebook and you tube. Positive word of mouth is the best source of advertising, the internet is word of mouth on turbo. Great, great insight!
  
• Facebook is a free, immediate, international focus group
• Use Google alerts to track comments about you or your services/products.
• 2/3rd of people on the internet use some form of social media...think FB, Twitter etc...

• TESTIMONIALS!!! a potential customer needs an average of 6 testimonials about your product or service in order to click the "buy" button. Immediate take-away...get testimonials posted on your site.
  
• Track everything. Measure the effectiveness of your marketing by tracking everything. Know how people find you. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this. One is to use Google alerts. Do a little research and you'll find other ways as well. The easiest form of tracking if you have verbal communication is to ask. Simple, but most of us don't do it.
  
• Change happens very quickly - be prepared.


• Glenda's recommended reading is The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.