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Applying the Easiness of Amazon to Your Own Business

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We recently bought garden mulch and the business we ordered from made it as easy as shopping on Amazon. Here’s how it went.

While sautéing dinner and listening (maybe) to his yackity wife, my husband decided we needed mulch. Not wanting to buy from a box store, he googled “local mulch Watertown WI.” Immediately Bags and Bulk Landscape Supply Yard popped up and right there, front and center, was “Free Delivery, Order Now.” Within five minutes he ordered his mulch and it was delivered the next day. 

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

An Easiness Self-Exam

Two years ago, I wrote about helping our customers BE our customers during COVID. These ideas are still relevant, not because of pandemics but because that’s just how it is. Competing with Amazon is a fact of life—when it comes to making things easy for your customer, how do you compare?

  1. How easy is it to shop from you? Can customers order online? Do you deliver? Do you accept returns?
  2. Do you take credit cards? It’s 2022 and we don’t carry cash. Even farmers market and art show customers ask to use credit cards.
  3. Does your business take reservations? If so, how? Must customers call only when you’re open or can they reserve online anytime? 
  4. How easy is to contact you? Is your contact information easy to find? How soon do you reply? 
  5. What about your website? Does the opening page provide the information your customers need most? Hint: Each industry is different. Restaurant or store customers need hours and location. Customers of a service industry, such as mine, need contact information.
  6. Lastly, most importantly, how do your customers FEEL when they’re your customers? Are you making it a pleasant experience? Do they come away feeling happy?
LET’s WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

Food, Faith and Farming Network is a caring, generous and humanitarian organization that gives voice to the sacred connections between land and people. I’m so honored to work with them. 

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, by Ingrid Fetell Lee: I read this book for design purposes, but really it applies to everyday life.
  2. How to Make Pesto Like an Italian Grandmother: Basil is coming into full season and pesto is a must.
  3. Always Home, by Fanny Singer: I’m obsessed with anything Alice Waters and want to read her daughter’s  book.
  4. Kayaking in Wisconsin: Love it, go whenever/wherever I can. Here’s a helpful podcast for Wisconsin’s best. 

Does Your Bandwagon Promote Your Brand?

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June has been a busy month. In my world alone, June is Trails Day, Dairy Month, Pollinator Week, Make Music Day and Yoga Day. I say “my world” because these are my interests, they’re the things I care about. And because I’ve branded my business according to who I am, these are also the interests of my target market. 

Yep, my customers and I are on the same bandwagon.

What’s Your Bandwagon? Does It Promote Who You Are?

A bandwagon is a cause or movement based on a shared passion. We often jump on a bandwagon simply because it’s the current trend, but ideally we should be supporting causes that speak specifically to our brand.

Supporting a cause is a first step. Talking about it is the second. Our customers want to know who we are as a business. They want to know that our ideals match theirs and we are a business they want to patronize. Speak up and let them know what you care about!

If you need help with this, let me know. I’d love to give you a hand.

How 3 Brands Showcase Their Bandwagons

  • Adunate’s target audience are women-owned businesses, sustainable agriculture and more. I’m proud to serve on the board for Women, Food & Agriculture Network (WFAN). 
  • My client Forward Mutual Insurance Company carries a longstanding heritage in Wisconsin agriculture. It regularly supports June dairy breakfasts, tractor pulls and county fairs. 
  • Hope Lake Country targets the unchurched with a goal of changing lives and eternities. Its members regularly show love by donating towards community help organizations.
LET’s WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

My Wisconsin State Park poster is hot off the press and it turned out beautifully! Get yours today!

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Grow Our Community Resilience: Save the dates for “Together We Rise, Exploring Intersectional Feminism in Agriculture”
  2. Imagine being a survivor of a school mass shooting. Let’s not set this aside. Listen to the message these survivors share.
  3. A Rare Alignment: See all the major planets bunched together in June.
  4. The Art of Fermentation. It’s that time of year when I revisit Sandor Katz and talk fermentation with Wormfarm Institute. Neither ever get old.

Are You Ready For Your Turn to Run?

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Did you watch the Kentucky Derby earlier this month? We happened to be passing through Louisville and everything—I mean EVERYTHING—was derby. And after Rich Strike’s exciting win, well, who couldn’t fall in love with that gorgeous horse?

We’re all suckers for an underdog. At 80-1 odds, neither Rich Strike nor his team were in the high rolling circuit. In fact, they were in the derby lineup only because another horse was pulled at the last minute. But if there’s one thing Rich Strike’s team was, it was ready. When the opportunity arose, they ran for the roses. That’s what made Rich Strike everyone’s darling.

How Ready is Your Product?

In this Forbes article Rich Strike’s trainer Eric Reed said, “We’re not supposed to be here, but I knew this horse loved the track. He’d been training so good all year.” Reed knew his horse and had him ready to run when put to the test. 

How well do you know your product? Is it ready to go when you have an unexpected “run for the roses?”

How Ready is Your Messaging?

Jockey Sonny Leon said, “I knew I had a horse for this race.” Owner Ric Dawson said, “We never enter a race we don’t think we can win.”

Not only was Rich Strike set to run, but his team was ready with their PR messaging. How ready are you to talk about your product? Can you run with impressive promos on the spur of the moment? (I know, I know, enough of the horsey puns.)

How Ready is Your Media?

Mercury Equine Center, the training facility owned by Reed, makes a bold online presence. Its website is supurb and the imagery is stunning.

Is your website up to date? Do you have quality photos ready for brochures, press releases and other promotions? Can people find the right information when they want to learn more about you?

Make sure you’re ready when it’s your turn to run!

LET’s WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

I’m wrapping up a new poster! It’s been professionally proofed, tweaked and readied for press. Watch for hooplas in June!

In the meantime, check out my Ice Age Trail poster for more Wisconsin highlights and make plans for your summer outdoors.

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Networking for Introverts: Four great ideas for when you need to act like an extrovert.
  2. Cool App: Everyone needs a household inventory for insurance purposes. This makes it fun and easy.
  3. Shaved Asparagus Pizza: It’s asparagus season and I love this recipe (actually I love all her recipes)!
  4. May is Small Business Month: We’re half way through the month but this site is a great resource all year long.

Information Desk: How Does Yours Compare to Your Customer’s?

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I’m sometimes surprised for what people are willing to pay me. Things that are so obvious to me, I can’t imagine people not knowing them for themselves. But then I remember what I pay others for, like my tax accountant or copyright attorney.

The fact of the matter is…

We are all experts in our own field but we aren’t in anyone else’s. If we think of our expertise as an “information desk,” I sit at mine because it’s what I do, what I study, what I practice. All day, every day. Ditto, for you and your information desk.

(By the way, this topic and desk metaphor were developed from the OG+S newsletter—a good read from great attorneys. Also a perfect followup to my March newsletter.)

Your information desk…

  • What field are you an expert in?
  • What do you know that others do not?
  • What questions do you most commonly answer?
  • What problem does your product or service solve?

…compared to your customer’s

  • What does your ideal customer NOT know?
  • What questions are they asking?
  • What are their pain points?
  • What help do they need?

Now ask yourself, “how can I communicate to my customers that I’m here and ready to help?”

LET’s WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

We wish COVID was over, but sadly it’s not. I’m honored to join with the Hispanic Health Resource Center in educating people on COVID safety and the medical care available. 

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

How Marketing Can Serve Those 87 Emotions

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Happy St. Patty’s, when we’re all Irish for a day and our emotions run green. What better time to discuss “Atlas of the Heart,” by Brené Brown.     

In her latest book, Brown explores the 87 emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human. Even though her subject isn’t marketing, it’s a must-read for those who work in marketing.

Long ago, my college marketing courses spoke of four primary emotions—joy, sadness, fear and anger—and how to use them to market to consumers, how to shout and coerce into buying. Times have changed. While we still study emotions, we now market for consumers, for serving them. As Seth Godin says, “Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem.”

Knowing the emotions of our target audience helps us help them. It helps us solve their problem.

Identifying emotions 

While reading “Atlas of the Heart,” I compiled a list of emotions my clients might be feeling. I then brainstormed ways I can help. Here are a few examples:

  1. Stress. In recent years, my clients’ stressors have multiplied exponentially. I need to communicate how I can ease their work load.
  2. Uncertainty. Many in my targeted audience pandemically pivoted into unknown waters. How can I build their confidence in new ways of doing things?
  3. Excitement. New products. New businesses. Sharing the successes of my clients is encouraging and connects me to them.

What are your customer’s emotions and how can you help? Make a list. Start marketing for your customers.

LET’s WORK TOGETHER

What I’m Working On This Month

ZoningHub needed a landing page to coincide with an ad it’s running on an industry-related site. Together we presented the problem city planners face and ZoningHub’s effective solution.

Know someone involved in city planning? Send them to ZoningHub!

What I’m Tuned In To This Month

  1. Goodwill—do you shop or donate? Here’s how thrift stores manage their wares.
  2. Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains: There’s always more to a story than we know, including the stereotypes of Kentucky’s hill country.
  3. Cardamom, I swoon. You mean it doesn’t originate in Scandinavia? 
  4. Cook for Ukraine: Ukrainian, Russian and Polish go-getters come together with a powerful message for helping others.