How Two Small Companies Are Driving Revenue Using Social Media

 

Serving up social: Marination’s Roz Edison (left) and Kamala Saxton.

It’s tough to go anywhere these days without finding a sign that begs us to “like” a business on Facebook or to follow it on Twitter. Yelp stickers in front windows are more prevalent than those from the Better Business Bureau. And all we have to do to learn about a business we’re thinking of patronizing is drop its name into a web search box and wait for the results.

But exactly how are businesses using the plethora of social tools to convert possibility into revenue? I came across two examples in vastly different industries. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, here are two businesses that offer tools for turning virtual relationships into concrete revenue.

Marination Mobile (Seattle)
Who said you couldn’t cash tacos at the bank? Founded in early 2009, Marination Mobile is the brainchild of partners Kamala Saxton and Roz Edison. Coupling the vast success of the Los Angeles food-truck business with a wine-drenched evening, they hatched the idea for a truck-based dining experience that’s gone gangbusters.

So where does social come into play? Their business plan has never been without it. “We knew that if this was ever going to be a success, we had to include the people we wanted to serve in our business plan,” Saxton says. In business-planning vernacular, that means they included social web strategies in their marketing efforts four months prior to when their food truck served its first taco.

What’s the secret sauce? They discovered Emily Resling, who not only had a knack for social marketing, but also understood their brand–she drives Marination’s online personality in ways they could have only dreamed about. She has even developed a style guide for the brand.

Today, Marination Mobile isn’t just mobile. Contrary to the traditional practice of brick-and-mortar restaurants launching food trucks, they’ve gone back-assward and now have opened a storefront location. In two years, they’ve gone from concept to two business locations, and the owners thank their audience for making that happen.

“Hey, we sell $2.25 tacos. That’s not unique,” Saxton says. “What’s unique is the audience we’ve built. We have well over 10,000 eyeballs on us between Facebook and Twitter. That means we have 10,000 supervisors and managers waiting to tell us when we do something great–or when we don’t.”

Animal General Hospital (Port St. Lucie, Fla.)
When Dr. Enrique Borrego opened his veterinary practice in 1990, location and word-of-mouth were all a vet needed to bring in clients and their furry friends. Borrego opened his current location in 2000 to better serve his neighbors in the quiet Florida town. But in 2004, Port St. Lucie became one of the fastest-growing communities in Florida, and soon there were multiple vet practices within walking distance of his office. It was clear he had to find a way to differentiate Animal General Hospital.

He tried local magazines and the Yellow Pages, but over 18 months netted no new clients. At a loss, Borrego turned to Rich Urban, a former vet tech with a savvy set of marketing tools that could reshape the local vet practice.

“I love animals. I wanted to be a doctor, not a vaccination clinic,” Borrego says. “I knew there had to be a better way to market my practice, and Rich held that key.”

Urban built a client-care strategy that spanned from the moment of first interaction to long after clients had gone home from their latest appointment. Using YouTube, Facebook and e-mail marketing, the strategy has produced some astounding results. Borrego estimates he spent $27,000 over 18 months for Yellow Pages ads. In a single 18-month online campaign combining Google advertising with Facebook ads, $3,600 in spending brought in a remarkable 250 new clients and $75,000 in revenue.

The bottom line for this vet? Interaction. “Yellow Pages ads are static. Facebook and Google–those are interactive. People in this day and age demand interaction, so we’ve built ourselves to be an online resource for our clients,” Borrego says. “Great information coupled with great care–that’s why people keep coming back. That’s the social part of social marketing.” You can find Animal General Hospital on Facebook and YouTube, and stop in for some paws-atively great care when you’re in Port St. Lucie.This article was originally published in the October 2011 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Virtual People, Real Dollars.

Attitude Adjustment: A Customer Service Reality Check

‘If it weren’t for the customer, this would be a great business’ is an old joke. But it could signal trouble.

Jokes are funny only because they’re partly true. And where there’s the smoke of truth, there’s often fire. This sort of attitude may be a signal that your business is missing opportunities to better serve your customers. Here’s a look at the folly behind this flawed mind-set and how to stop it in its tracks.

Companies do a lot of things for their own convenience — not the customer’s. Step into the customer’s shoes, and imagine how you’d feel in these scenarios:

• It’s two minutes before closing. You sprint to the store, only to have the person inside shrug, point at the clock and continue locking the store door.
• You dial the company’s number and get a brusque “hel-lo” from someone you’ve clearly interrupted in the middle of a far more compelling activity and who’s annoyed by the interruption.
• You say, “I’m not sure, just looking around,” and the salesperson visibly loses interest in you.

I could go on: the phone pitch aimed at qualifying you in or out, the obstetrician who wants to schedule the Caesarean on Thursday before Friday’s golf outing, the clerk who mumbles “thanks for shopping at XYZ” while chatting on the phone.

You might be thinking, “That’s retail or consulting. I know better. I really don’t do that sort of thing.”

What the Jobs Act Would Hold For Small Businesses

BY Diana Ransom |  

If job creation starts with the smallest businesses, here are a few measures that may get the ball rolling more quickly

In his address to a joint session of Congress last night, President Barack Obama laid out a wide-ranging — if not gutsy — plan for trimming U.S. unemployment rolls and putting U.S. workers back in paying jobs. In addition to assisting the long-term unemployed and veterans, the bill, called the American Jobs Act, proposes to provide federal aid to many of the nation’s small-business owners.

“Everyone here knows that small businesses are where most new jobs begin,” President Obama said in his speech. “For everyone who speaks so passionately about making life easier for ‘job creators,’ this plan is for you.”

In addition to tax credits for companies that hire new workers and veterans, small business owners would see their own payroll taxes cut in half. According to the President, for those with 50 employees making an average yearly salary of more than $40,000, that’s an $80,000 tax cut. Further, he noted that businesses would see an extension of the provision that allows them to write off 100 percent the cost of new equipment purchases in 2012.

A number of analysts suggest that the expense of the plan — at $447 billion — makes passage unlikely. And small-business advocates — among them, the National Federation of Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — condemned the plan for not going far enough. But some prominent Democrats and Republicans alike have suggested that at least some of the President’s proposals could win their approval.

While it’s not clear whether any or all of the elements within the President’s plan will become law, the bill he announced yesterday could certainly have an impact on businesses — both large and small.

Here’s a breakdown of 10 proposals that the President suggests will help small businesses hire:

1. Trimming the payroll tax for small businesses. 
   Rather than pay 6.2 percent of their employees’ Social Security payroll tax, all employers would see their obligation cut that in half to 3.1 percent on the first $5 million in wages.

   Related: What a Payroll Tax Holiday Could Mean for Employers 
    

2. Temporarily eliminating employer payroll taxes.
   For small businesses that create jobs or give raises above the prior year, the President is proposing a full holiday on the 6.2 percent payroll tax firms pay through 2012 for any growth in their payroll up to $50 million above the prior year.
    
3. Extend and cut in half the existing payroll tax that employees pay. 
   Currently, workers are paying two percentage points less than their 6.2 percent share of their Social Security payroll tax obligation. That amounts to a savings of $1,000 for an average household. Instead, the President proposes to reduce their tax obligation to 3.1 percent through 2012 — thereby shoring up another $500 a year for the average working family and giving them more money to spend on everyday purchases.
    
4. Provide incentives to hire unemployed workers and veterans. 
   Employers who hire long-term unemployed workers in 2012 could access an up to $4,000 tax credit. For companies that hire unemployed veterans and service-disabled veterans the credit rises to up to $5,600 and $9,600, respectively. 
    
5. Extend the 100 percent expensing provision.
   Firms large and small would continue to be able to immediately write off 100 percent of their purchase of new plants and equipment in 2012.
    
6. Cut red tape to help startup companies raise capital and go public. 
   As part of the Startup America initiative, the administration will work with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to review securities regulations from the perspective of small companies. The aim is to reduce the regulatory burdens on how small businesses access capital. For instance, the administration might expand on “crowdfunding” opportunities and increasing mini public offerings.

   Related: Cutting Out the Red Tape for Small Businesses 
    

7. Expand free trade agreements. 
   To make it easier for U.S. companies to sell their products in Panama, Colombia and South Korea, the President would sign free trade agreements with those countries. 
    
8. Eliminate loopholes and lower the corporate tax rate. 
   The President also proposed eliminating tax loopholes and deductions that are typically available only to the biggest U.S. businesses. By doing so, he says lowering the country’s corporate tax rates may also be possible. 
    
9. Speed up payments for federal contracts. 
   For small-business owners with federal government contracts, the President intends to speed up payments. Though, it’s unclear by how much. In addition, the President proposed the creation of an online portal for small businesses to access government services.
    
10. Invest in infrastructure.
    The President would devote about $140 billion toward modernizing schools and repairing roadways and help small-business contractors compete for those infrastructure contracts.http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220298

BY Matt Villano | 20 hours ago|

Social focus: Shama Kabani of the Marketing Zen Group.

Skeptics say social media hasn’t existed long enough to produce experts. Clearly, those folks haven’t met Shama Kabani. The 26-year-old wrote her master’s thesis for the University of Texas at Austin about Twitter–when it had only 2,000 users, not the 175 million it has today. She hosts a web TV show about technology. Her 2010 book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz and Increase Revenue, is the No. 4 seller about web marketing on Amazon.com.

And those are just the side projects. In 2009, at 24, Kabani founded The Marketing Zen Group, a social media marketing firm in Dallas. The company, which she launched with $1,500 of her own money, specializes in all aspects of web marketing for clients–from Facebook and Twitter to blogs and video.

That value means different things for different clients. For k9cuisine.com, a Paris, Ill.-based online retailer of dog food, Marketing Zen established blog and Twitter presences and cultivated relationships with pet-related bloggers. For Arthur Murray Dance Studios in Boston, the company optimized a website to generate more targeted sales leads.

Marketing Zen wasn’t always about social media. Kabani says her original plan was to start a general consulting agency. But she quickly realized her passions–and all the best gigs, for that matter–were in the social media space, so she tweaked her strategy.http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220221