Spoke is excited to announce our new monthly column called Marketing Works starting in January’s issue of Small Business Monthly. The goal of this column is to review award-winning marketing tactics and explain why they worked and how small business owners can apply these tactics to their own business.

Read our first article reviewing a self-promotional postcard campaign from Atomicdust.

If you like fine print, you’re in luck. In the first major revision to product endorsement guidelines since 1980, the Federal Trade Commission now specifically requires online marketers to disclose any ‘material connection’ they have with a product or service they mention.

You’ve no doubt seen disclaimers in marketing efforts:

• not a real doctor

• past performance does not guarantee future results

• results not typical

Because social media, blogging, and word-of-mouth marketing make it especially difficult for consumers to identify paid endorsements, the new regulation requires that these relationships be made clear to the intended audience. If a company is providing free product or cash to someone to promote their product, the marketer must disclose it.

This is a good thing.

The FTC exists to (among other things) protect consumers and prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices. By holding ‘mommy bloggers’ to the same standards as traditional sources of advertising, the FTC hopes to make consumers less susceptible to unsubstantiated or false claims (looks like the acai berry diet’s days are numbered).

In full disclosure: as a writer I love to use purple, extra fine point Sharpie pens. The Sanford corporation does not pay me to say this…but if they’d like to, I’m available (Wait!?! Is that Mont Blanc on the other line…?).

There’s a handyman at my house today.

I’m not exactly sure what the problem is, but something is leaking somewhere. Honestly, I didn’t even try to figure out what the problem was before I left the house. All I know is – there is water where it shouldn’t be, and somebody needs to set my pipes straight.

I had just the man for the job (and it wasn’t me). For the record, I’m not the least bit handy. If you give me a screwdriver, I hope it has a swizzle stick in it (and perhaps a nice orange wedge garnish).

That said, I could try to fix it myself, it doesn’t seem entirely impossible. With a few hours work, I could probably dig around in the house, look up things on the Internet, and even ask the folks at the hardware store…heck…

I might even fix the problem.

But. I could also:

• waste valuable time, and not fix the problem

• do more harm than good

In this case, outsourcing was my best solution. In the time my handyman fixes the leak, I will have written (and edited) this post, written copy for one client, sketched out ideas for a new campaign for another, and outlined two statements of work for new business.

By outsourcing to a trusted expert, I was able to do what I do best, and empower somebody else to do what they do best.

Anything else seems like flushing common sense down the drain.

As a marketing professional, I get a kick out of the cavalcade of corporate holiday cards that arrive in the mail each year.

For most companies, this is the only time of the year that they send their clients anything besides a product or an invoice. And for many of them, it pops up on the radar around November.

I can almost hear the internal conversations:
- let’s be religious…
- let’s be secular…
- let’s be funny…
and of course…
- let’s include a team photo

All of these are great topics to discuss, but there are two major problems with this scenario:
- it’s a month away
- they are discussing a ‘one-off’ marketing piece

Your clients are the lifeblood of your business, and even the very best Holiday card in the whole-wide-world can’t do it all. “Dear client, your business means a lot to us…and here is a bunch of other stuff you should buy…”

If you think you might fall into this category, here’s a suggestion; before the new year, make a resolution to create a marketing plan.

• Who were your best clients this year? How can I get more like them?
• How did you get their business? How do I repeat this?
• Consider industry events and seasonality when you plot the frequency and timing of your messaging.
• Make a budget.

It doesn’t have to be perfect (because it will most-likely change), but it does need to help you consistently deliver your message throughout the year.

Think about how you use email and networking. Write articles in industry publications, speak at events, try new tactics…but most importantly have a plan!

Then, next November…instead of panicking about a Holiday card, you’ll be improving your plan for 2011.

Update 6/11/2009: The video from KSDK appears at the bottom of this post

Dan was featured on “Today in St. Louis” on KSDK, St. Louis’ NBC Affiliate. Here are tips Dan shared for smart marketing in a bad economy:

1. Don’t stop marketing! Invest in marketing and grow market share.
   Most businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and the marketing budget is an easy short term target; don’t do it!  Invest wisely for the long term.
   1. Chances are your competitors are cutting their budgets, so it will be easier to stand out from the crowd.
   2. If print, TV and radio are your usual channels, this media has never been cheaper and today you can get greater reach with the same budget. Utilize this to again stand out from the crowd.
2. Know your customers. Listen to them and speak directly to them.Most large brands have a ‘mass media mindset’ and the giant budgets that go with it. This is great if you’re a big brand, but most likely you aren’t and you don’t have the budget to reach everyone, so you will need to focus on targeted marketing.If you looked around a room of 100 people chances are there are 2 or 3 qualified prospects that you need to reach. It would be much cheaper to talk to those 2 or 3 people directly than blast a general message to everyone and hope it finds the few people who care. Get to know who these potential clients are and deliver a message that is relevant to them.
3. It’s all about word of mouth. Especially in St. Louis.It seems everyone in St. Louis is connected by 1 or 2 degrees of separation. Word of mouth is the most authentic and affordable way for a person to learn about your business, but you need to make it easy for people to tell your story. I always use the line: ‘You haven’t told your story until someone else can tell it’.  To do this you need to learn to make your story unique, memorable and specific.It also helps to tell your story in several different ways – speak at events, write on a blog and use other social media (facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc) as ways to share stories with others.  For example, I was at newly re-opened Chuy’s restaurant and posted on Facebook: “I’m sitting on the patio at Chuy’s enjoying fajitas and a margarita”. Within a half hour there was 10 unsolicited comments. This is a great example of word of mouth.
4. Everyone is online – but are they doing it right? Online marketing doesn’t just mean just having a website anymore, it means using it right – using search engine optimization, pay-per-click, blogs, twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more. These can be inexpensive, but they can also be time consuming and confusing.Business owners think they have to do it all at the same time, we like to tell our clients it’s better to do one thing right than do them all wrong.  You should focus, pick a tactic / strategy, master it and then move on to the next tactic.
5. This thing called guerrilla marketing Guerrilla marketing is the use of unconventional and unexpected tactics. To do them, you have to think differently. Take it to the street, right where your buyers will be. For example, our client ANY LAB TEST NOW does STD testing, they hire attractive women to go into night clubs handing out risque messages, promoting their STD testing services. And in this case they are reaching their buyers with a memorable (and inexpensive) message.
6. Have a plan
   Don’t go blindly into marketing. The typical business owner’s next tactic is often dictated by the last sales person that walk in their door.  We all know plans change, but going through the discipline of creating one makes it more likely to be followed.When you create a plan, create it with the thought the plan itself is a marketing tactic (this will help you actually finish it) and if you need a loan or are trying to raise money, a marketing plan will help show the decision makers how the money will be spent.