Do You Know Your Competition?

That’s quite the question, isn’t it? Most business owners try very hard not to think, or speak about their competitors. They say it’s enough to know they are out there.

However, isn’t it better to know what you’re up against?  Isn’t it better to know what they are doing great so you can steer clear and make yourself great at something else?

If your competitor has you beat on price, why not beat them on customer service?  It isn’t always just about price. Sometimes value prevails. People buy from those they like and trust. If you offer things your clients value sometimes you get the business even if your price is a little higher.

No one wants to compete in a race to the bottom.  But a race it is and you can decide which one you are willing to enter.  Make it worth your while.  Don’t compete where you can’t win.  Compete where you can!

You can determine the kinds of products you offer; the type of service; the quality; the guarantee and lots more.

Find out what your competitor is doing and be different.  Check to see if what they offer is just standard fare. Then offer better.

Don’t be caught up in avoidance.  For your success, meet them head on.  Determine your own race and WIN!

What do you think? We would love to know someone is reading. Tell us right here on this page!

For more information visit: www.merrimacmarketing.net

Do a Twist

There are things in this world that everyone does the same as everyone else. For example, everyone sends out Christmas cards. Do you ? 

Then maybe you could do something entirely different. How be you send out Groundhog Day cards? Actually, it was Groundhog Day buttons I handed out.

Yes, on a cold February day I ventured downtown to go into businesses and give all there a button. Some were thrilled to have someone come and brighten their day. One office worker actually snarled at me. But, I did get a write up in the local paper because I did something different.

What can you do?

While some people send flowers, you send a basket filled with coffees from around the world; or maybe cheeses; or everyone’s favourite – chocolate.

While everyone is busy using email because it is fast, easy and very inexpensive, why not send your own designed hand-written cards?

Get the idea. Look at what others do, then do a twist and do something that differentiate you from the crowd.

Make a list of 10 things that everyone does in your industry. Now put your own twist on them. Take your time and think it through carefully. The best ideas always take time. Let your mind mull over your ideas as you are falling off to sleep. That way your subconscious mind works at it all night.

You don’t need to do them all; just use them as jumping off points for other ideas.

Become aware. Watch and see what is going on in other industries. Look for oddities and specialties that can be twisted and flipped and turned on their ear to create a whole new use.

For more information visit: www.merrimacmarketing.net

The Implications of Mission and Vision

Having well thought out mission and vision statements is not the end of the process for you and your business. These statements should be intimately tied to how your business is structured and how customers are treated today and long-term. Let’s take the ones developed for our business and see what that means.

Merrimac Marketing Mission – Building on the strong information foundations underpinning the Merrimac Marketing offering, we are committed to helping our clients identify solid, worthwhile, marketing goals in their businesses. We work with them as coaches to avoid the inevitable risks they face achieving them online. An important first step in our unique service offering is to facilitate the opportunity represented by establishing the unique Merrimac Marketing coaching process.

Merrimac Marketing Vision - In its community Merrimac Marketing is recognized as the first, best choice for information, products and services in the area of online marketing for small businesses. Merrimac Marketing differentiates itself by the exceptional level of personalized service and coaching that it can provide to its clients who are business startups and other small business owners. Merrimac Marketing attracts new clients regularly and easily because of the strong referrals that its clients provide.

First off, look at the structure of the website, www.merrimacmarketing.net. Notice that the business is geared to help people get established online quickly and easily without needing a lot of expertise right now. Secondly, the whole business is directed toward the development of a strong coaching relationship. We have actually built this into the process from the get-go by providing a lot of advice in the development process. (Most people select options initially without thinking about all their information needs down the road.)

The website has been based on providing information to our clients and potential customers. Eventually it will be a place where customers can find all they need to take advantage of online marketing opportunities that put them ahead of their rivals as sources of expertise and information in their chosen field. It will allow for marketing opportunities in line with modern expectations. Such positioning makes them and their business “findable” in the marketplace.

Modern customers increasingly show a marked preference for control and initiative in starting the buying process. It used to be that the business owner/marketer controlled this process. To them belonged the initiative to contact, or not. They controlled all the important information and its dissemination. Well, things have changed.

You can deliberately fashion your business to take advantage of these important demographic changes or you can leave your online efforts in “old mode”, providing brags about you and your company, your products and providing basic contact information “serious” prospects. It’s a recipe for financial ruin.

For more information please visit: http://www.merrimacmarketing.net

Day-to Day Use of Mission and Vision Statements

Talk to almost anybody about Mission and Vision statements and you will probably get a classic eye-roll in response. Everybody knows they were just a fad, right? Well, wrong! There may have been a faddish element to their development years ago. Every organization had to have one and considerable time and effort went into developing one of each. Generally, they were well done. They looked really good hanging on the wall in the lobby above the receptionist’s desk and that’s as far as they usually got in day-to day utility.

It’s a little like all the hype that surrounded brain-storming and other thinking tools that dominated business planning sessions for a while and then went off into oblivion, dismissed as ultimately over-hyped and of low utility. As Tim Hurson points out in his book, Think Better, people typically give up too soon on thinking tasks before the real rewards are reached because going deep is hard work. Typically, the low hanging fruit gets picked and people give up, blaming the task itself for their shortcomings.

Einstein summed it up well when he said, Thinking is the hardest work men do, that’s why so few do it,” or words to that effect. So it is that people give up on mission and vision statements once they are made. When the really hard work is needed, applying them in daily work and planning, most throw up their hands and walk away.

It’s tough subjecting everything you do daily and in the future to ideas and statements you created last month. A mission statement is going to be used to evaluate immediate plans and performance. It’s a standard created by the players and needs to be applied as it was meant, as a measuring stick. Take your plans or performance and ask the question, “How does this measure up against our standard?” does this activity advance our mission or push us toward achieving our vision. If the answer is no, maybe the whole thing needs to be reevaluated, or maybe just the activity in question. The point is that having a measuring stick allows all concerned to be systematic in advancing their business.

Likewise, a vision statement is a long-term measuring stick against which to measure daily activity. This is what we want to be someday. Is what we are planning and doing today going to get us there if we keep it up? If not, why are we doing it? Those can be tough questions against which to measure your business plans and performance in the short-term. It takes no small amount of will to haul those standards out and apply them in this way. Most businesspeople aren’t up to this much effort daily. Iron discipline is not that common. Unfortunately, it is the foundation of predictable success.

Share your thoughts on such statements and your business. Do you have one of each? Do you use them to guide your activity and planning daily? If not, what’s your alternative? Register and make a comment.

Automate Relationships – Not

Technology is a wonderful thing; especially when it works to save us time and money.  In business where time is money, Having things done for us automatically is a no brainer. Or is it?

Sometimes, using any form of automated communications with our customers seems like a really good idea but it isn’t always.  Our customers are savvy and very knowledgeable about automated responses. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to cut corners just to save a little time.


Today’s customer is looking for a relationship with the people who run the businesses they frequent. They want to be treated like a valued person, not some nameless cipher on a bottom line.

Today’s customer is savvy, knows they are in control and holds the purchasing power that can make or break a business. There are ways around that, of course, but that’s a story for another day.

Automation works when it is meant to deliver information but not for relationship building.  That needs to be done one on one.  So how can you do both?

By letting your customers control the automation you let them have access to the information delivered automatically. You post regularly to educate and they will ask to get it automatically in a preferred format.RSS feeds are a good example of this. The client can register to receive the blog information in a preferred format delivered automatically to a place they designate.

Your customers will appreciate your efforts.  The law of reciprocity dictates that they return favour.  And they will.  Trust them.

Blog Policy II: the downside of blogging

Since last we talked about policy for posting comments and “The Ease of Blogging” it now seems to be appropriate to deal with what is not so much fun about blogging,  and  the inbound marketing approach to marketing in general. We have been “discovered” as a business and a blog according to our traffic numbers. The problem seems to be that some of those who have discovered us are spammers. This has made looking after, or administering our blog, an ordeal and has necessitated the installation of WordPress’ spamming plugin, Akismet, for starters.

For my money, the spammers are a good place to start making changes.  As of today anybody with a nonsense comment, a vague comment or a too much used I.P. address, a non, relevant name (parts of the business name or other trivial non-name entries), bogus emails etc., all the symptoms of spam, will not be posted.

Thankfully, Word Press provides the ability to adjudicate comments. The place to start is by activating the A kismet plugin provided by Word Press as a means to help. We’ve done that as of this morning. The spammers that have found us have progressed beyond the bogus email stage. We’ll have to see what comes of our action in terms of traffic. Regardless, the spammers just make the whole thing too unpredictable. Something has to give.

Make no mistake, we will make this site successful in spite of spammers. They have tools, but so do we. Spammers are not a reason not to pursue an inbound marketing strategy any more than rats, like the one in the graphic, should prevent anybody form pursuing any other business idea.

This is definitely a down aspect of starting an SEO effort like a blog, but the end results are worth the effort
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If you are one of the unfortunates that gets their comments sidetracked by mistake, hang in there and send us a clarification via comments or email. Thankfully, again, like most everything else in Word Press, most actions are reversible. The good news is that this is almost as bad as it can get and there are tools and people to help put it right. After all, the spammers found you. That’s good news. You’ve been found, which is what you are trying to accomplish, right?