The Perils of Small Businesses Imitating the Corporate Web

It’s one of the great insights about growing and sustaining your small business that you can adopt and adapt many of the processes found in corporate life. I utilize corporate interaction tools – from calendar invites for meetings to action items to status updates. Corporate standards like specification documents, sign-off on scope of work, followup points, and appropriate deliverables are also part of our processes. This is all well and good. One great thing that corporations have developed is internal processes that yield standardized, repeatable, sustainable results with consistent payoff. We can all learn from that.

It’s one thing to borrow corporate processes, but there are some real perils in borrowing corporate style. Web sites are a prime example. So often, web design for small business revolves around trying to look like a corporate site. Everything bland, everything under one brand, very little connectivity, most of the effort is spent on trying to limit the footprint, control the visitor, and keep everything under one roof. Disaster for small business. A better model is Web 2.0 startups. Startup businesses who are doing on the web what the corporate committees are afraid to, are doing it quite successfully, and are taking a huge chunk out of corporate market share.

Corporate web sites try to brand everything themselves, and omit anything that would require sharing space or credit. They pay extra to put their own name on other people’s services.
Web 2.0 startup web sites collaborate with lots of brands, giving that collaboration prominence. When you see “we integrate with Harvest, Outright, and Shoeboxed” you’re in a Web 2.0 environment.

Corporations focus on the web as a medium for transactions. A virtual cash register or billboard. They are slow to catch on to social media, blogging, and other forms of interactivity. Most sites still provide only a contact page. Or if there’s more, they make it secondary. Their first entrance into social media is usually like their site content – a form of advertising, which most people treat a lot like spam.
Web 2.0 startups make staying in their orbit primary. Social media links are prominent. The focus is on brand loyalty by joyous participation. They cultivate their “tribe” by adding value constantly – blogging free information, insights, and advice – instead of making everything a sales pitch.

Corporate sites make everything clean, pristine, and formal. The better ones have a real-ish mascot person (Progressive’s girl, Subway’s guy). But the interaction that would actually come with real people is pushed to the back.
Web 2.0 sites give you some genuine human scruff. There’s plain talk, photos of real people, and your comments are often part of the front page. They not only say they want feedback, they often feature tough questions from clients.

Corporate web sites take feedback from a contact form. In response, you get a form letter, as the first try.
Web 2.0 web sites make feedback part of the site itself. They include a forum, or invite public blog comments, and usually the response is personal – from either a ranking employee or a captain or guide among dedicated fans invited to help newbies along.

Corporations hire a firm to get research on what you think, want, and will buy.
Web 2.0 startups crowdsource their ideas. They ask you what you right on the site, and in external social mediums like Twitter.

Corporate web sites put their services above everything. The focus is top down. ‘Here is what we offer. Which one do you want?’ The landing page is mostly static. It’s as though social interaction were an afterthought. The equivalent is that person we all know who shakes hands and then asks who is your insurance carrier.
Web 2.0 web sites include generous dynamic content on their landing page, which not only gives them better search engine optimization (SEO), it seems like someone is home. Services don’t take a back seat, but the site is also not just an ad sheet.

Corporations are trying to extend their brand into social media (like Facebook and Twitter), but they really don’t get it. Mostly, contacts revolve around their web site, and their service or product offerings.
Web 2.0 startups start out in social media first, often while the web site is under construction. They often build a community *before* offering products or services. Their brand is not dependent on the web site. The site becomes the central hub of their marketing, but not the sum of it.

Comparisons are plentiful, but the point is this: Anyone can throw up a corporate-style web site. There’s actually a formula – just like there is for most corporate processes. A lot of research has gone into it. Some of it’s right, and some of it used to be right, but hasn’t been in what, for the web, is a long time. You do need the basics – a Contact Us page, an About Us page, a Privacy Statement, some Terms of Service (TOS) for online participation. But merely duplicating the corporate footprint and slapping a blog and some social media icons on top of it, does not make you effective in a web 2.0 world. What does, actually, is rethinking your interactions with prospects so that you can attract new types of clients to build your tribe (again, referencing Seth Godin’s book Tribes) and compensate for client turnover.

In other words, it’s not all about the web site, and it’s not about tossing up the right pages, which can be done in a few hours. It’s about completely re-envisioning how relationships with consumers are built. That’s what web 2.0 means for small business. It means you can’t just copy anymore, because consumers have gotten smarter than that. It means you can’t just build it and expect that they will come. It means, more than anything else, that you’ve got to be involved. Small businesses that won’t hear that won’t be successful in this medium, the new web, the internet market not as it will be, but as it has already become.

So next time you’re looking at web sites to imitate, whether it’s corporate ones or your competitors, stop. Instead, look for people to imitate. That’s the meaning of the new web, also. The web site doesn’t mean half a damn, if you’re not doing what the successful people are doing. Even if you just duplicate some web 2.0 site, it doesn’t mean it will be successful for you. And not because your industry is different, or your clients are special. It’s because copying doesn’t work anymore – not the way it once did. What good is throwing up a blog if you’re not going to do with it what businesses who have been successful with blogging are doing with theirs? What good is having a new logo and a presence on Facebook, if you’re just going to camp there and wait for people to find you – that’s not what successful web 2.0 businesses are doing with their logo and facebook account.

You’re going to need a marketing plan – an approach that goes beyond merely acquiring widgets to add to your web site. It may be an unpleasant truth to businesses that aren’t prepared to change, both how they do marketing, and some internal processes accordingly, which is what consumers influenced by web 2.0, whether they realize they have been or not, will require. If cultural change is not part of your small business culture, then you have something else to learn from corporations. It’s not how to build a web site. Those guys are still back in the 90s on that one. But what corporations often have down, or at least pay good lipservice to, is the need for change management as a routine part of the business. The need to adapt as the public changes. One can easily find a lot of small businesses, especially single-owner shops that, in the face of a changing outside world, just keep their heads down and keep plowing away with all the more vigour at the same old thing. And with varying degrees of success. You often get something for working twice as hard – it’s just that it’s not usually twice as much success.

If you don’t know much about how to approach the new web, the new consumer, and what to do about your internet marketing, that’s when you need an internet marketing consultant. I’m really not trying to tout our services. There are lots of qualified people. We’re here, of course, but our approach is to keep giving away insights, advice, and information, for free, and we figure those people who should become our clients will be. If we take care of everyone, some, by offering tips, tricks, and not shirking on the substance, people will take care of us, too. That’s how we do web 2.0. Now, if you’ve read this far, you’ve got to ask yourself how you are doing it. And if you represent a corporation, you already got this information from those firms you hire to give it to you. Whether you heard it or not, well – that’s really the question.

Telling it like it is. Market Moose.

Why Should Anyone Do Business With You?

Defining Your Market Differentiators

What’s really different about your business? It’s not uncommon to hear a plumber say “I do everything” or a lanscaper to say “I do the same things as every other landscaper”. If that’s so, your marketing has either come to an abrupt end – pack it up and go home – you’ll have to survive without it – or it’s just beginning because, starting from nothing is different is a great way to *begin* your marketing.

First, if it’s really true that you’re not doing anything any differently than anyone else in your field, then why should anyone pick you over anyone else? Sometimes the answer is, “I don’t know. You’re the marketing guy, you tell me.” All right, I will. There isn’t any reason. There isn’t any reason, and mere SEO isn’t going to help you. All those SEO gurus out there selling you on how you’ll be first? No you won’t – the guy who is different will get more business than you.

Second, often it’s just a lack of imagination. Someone once said, “all real estate appraisers do the same thing.” Really? Are you sure? I’ve dealt with a ton of them, and I can tell you that is absolutely not true. Your competitors are coming up with unique ways to add value all the time, because that’s how they’re getting clients that you are not. Some people guarantee a response to all queries within 6 hours. Some guarantee one-day turnaround on any drive-by appraisal. Some include satellite photos with every report. Some send all reports by both PDF and mail. Some include a 3D sketch. It’s not that hard. Useless, you say? Really? Their clients don’t think so.

You should get a copy of The Purple Cow by Seth Godin. And if you can’t take advice on learning something new, frankly, you don’t deserve new clients, so I feel free to recommend books here. Seth will give you a lot of case histories of companies that did unusual things that didn’t even necessarily add tangible value. Some added perceived value, some added a perk, some added just something to get attention. That’s the purple cow. It works, folks. It really does.

In a related profession, Home Inspector, there are a lot of people who focus on just the report. “What?” they ask. “Should I use a bigger font?” Maybe. I’ve known one professional whose secret was the quality of the deliverable. It was full color, highly illustrated, graphic bullets, and clean, clear headers, etc. Clients gave him referral business by showing off the quality of his reports vs. his competitors. So did it make a difference? Hell yeah! What about the inspector that includes infrared imagery? “Silly gadgetry,” I’ve heard some grumble. So? So freaking what? He’s being silly all the way to the bank, while you’re just clowning around trying to pay for more directory listings. It makes him stand out. It makes him rock in the eyes of the people shelling out cash for his work. So even if he spends $750 on the tool and doesn’t charge a dime more for his reports, how much is one more referral source worth to you? If you’re in his business, it had better be worth more than that or you’re seriously underpaid.

Third, market differentiators aren’t horse manure. They’re actions. Put verbs on them. If it doesn’t come with an “I include,” “I deliver”, “I provide,” it’s not a market differentiator. People aren’t buying more talk, they’re buying action. If your market differentiators run something like this, “we have the experience, the quality, to deliver in an ethical, full-service environment… blah blah blah” then yeah, you’re just like everybody else. You’ve got to find your purple cow. Even if it’s just a professionally produced report cover, or something. But the best market differentiators are ones that you can describe – on your web site, in your e-mail tagline, in your voice mail (you *are* using those for marketing, aren’t you?). The best differentiators are ones that, even if a client says “I don’t need that.” you can respond with a warm smile, “That’s OK. It’s just one of the little premium extras we like to provide our clients at no extra cost.” Now that’s kick-ass marketing!

So do it now. Sit down and create three things you do differently that the client can see. If you get 2, give yourself a B. If you got none, then it’s time to decide on what they’re going to be. You can’t sell boredom, sameness, blandness, and ‘the usual’ in restaurants. Even McDonalds is always trying to add something new. You can’t sell “our cars have indistinct, non-descript lines, ordinary motors, suspensions, and wheels” unless you’re also saying (ahem… Kia) that you’re kicking in a 10year warranty, a super low price, and a refund program. And if you wouldn’t buy it, why would anyone else? Get on it! Go sit down in a cafe, send the waitress away to avoid interruption, and write down whatever comes to mind in a notebook. It may quite possibly be the best hour you’ll ever spend on your marketing. And we’re here, not to tout ourselves, but if you need consulting time to help nail some of this down, we can do that. We succeed for one reason – well, two – we’ll tell you the truth rather than sell you a false instant fix – and our only goal is your success. If we think about that, and that alone, people will take care of us. This might give you a hint at some of our marketing differentiators.

Market Moose – Difference is Devastating