When/Where:
Thursdays at 6 pm est - www.uiplive.com or download past episodes, 24/7 at this address, www.uniquenessispower.com - We broadcast from Atlanta, GA off Glenridge, north of 285.

What:
Uniqueness is Power is a marketing, business growth solutions show, centered around the idea that businesses can thrive and expand if they are given fresh ideas of how to market themselves, and shown ways to save bottom line cash each month.

Who:
Andy Greider and Lee Kantor are acknowledged marketing and business growth experts, and each week, we explore hot topics, have on a Business Booster guest (someone who can either save you money, or increase sales) and our Unique of the Week (someone standing out in a crowded industry who is willing to share how they do it.)

Why:
Hang out with us for an hour a week and find out more about how to grow your business and get more bang for the bucks you put into your marketing, communications and technology, plus on the services you use each month.  Uniqueness IS Power - and Business Growth Solutions is what we're all about.

Contact:
Send us an email (andygreider@comcast.net) or give us a call (404) 516 4204.

Uniqueness is Power will be on hiatus from now through January 8th, 2009.  Please feel free to look for our shows in the archives below.

We'll miss you while we're gone.

Andy and Lee

Working on a shoestring budget oftentimes makes people feel like there is simply nothing they can do to help attract customers or to grow their business.  They don't market, because, they rationalize - it doesn't work unless you have a lot of money.  This simply isn't true.  There are a myriad of ways to generate business that don't need to cost a small fortune (or a large one, either.)

Let's begin with some reflection on a simple rule - people covet that which is around them.  In general, establishing good connections with your community is essential as a small business owner, in order to make it.  Some thoughts on how to do this - reach out to the people within a square mile of your business. 

A simple flyer or note delivered to the door, with a handshake and smile, can do wonders. 

Work with other businesses in area who are interested in the same prospects you are - but who don't compete with you - this can lead to opportunities in immersion branding, and to potentials with networking.

Speaking of that, start a networking group with others who also want to grow and expand, with customer relations at the heart of the matter.

From there, begin to work on information that will benefit your customer - and listen to what they say - and to what your competitors clients complain about.  This is one of the most powerful ways you can tweak your business to make it appeal to the competitor's current clients.

Write online and off.  Start a blog - write some press releases (see below for tips on how.)  Oftentimes, writing can be used to help you position as an industry expert.  Also, you can tap the power of the internet through podcasting and vcasting.  To combine all of these into one locations, check out Hello World.

Keep in touch with your customers with a newsletter, blog or other form of communication.  Along with quick announcements of sales, or new products or other items of interest, a newsletter online can allow for affiliate links to related services and testimonial or endorsement space for those in the networking groups I already mentioned.

Use the power of technology to leverage your email list - and to get regular attention.  First, find an autoresponder you like - I use MMG.  Then build capture pages (it is very VERY easy to do) - and then send the page address to people who would be interested in the tips or ideas you place in the autoresponder.  For instance, my 5 free tips to increase sales and save the bottom line won me 150 subscribers to the larger, 52 tips - weekly for a year, in text, audio and video format.  Once these folks saw what the free tips did for their business, they bought in on the bigger idea.  Example of hourly rate versus what you get for $150?

One final thing you can do - earnestly offer a guarantee - place yourself in the customers shoes of being slightly wary of a new experience or service - and give them some confidence.  I tell people that if they implement 5 of my tips a year, out of 52, and don't make back their $100 or $150 they invested, I will refund the money.  Period.  No questions.  (Honestly, I know there is NO WAY they can honestly tell me that, as any two implemented over a year, will raise $100 each or more.)

If you do advertising, make sure it is not something you just "try." Work on solutions oriented sales copy, and not feature based rhetoric.  No one cares that your product complies with Code 15T7Y - what they care about is a benefit.  Since our product is registered properly to make sure you are in compliance with all local state and federal mandates, you won't have headaches there. And a laundry list of the neat things your product does is virtually useless - instead tell the consumer how what those features do benefits them. 

Obviously, this is just the start of the possibilities - but it is a good way to get some traction established with a lower budget - or augment your current plan with extras and then work towards bigger ideas on down the line.

This week, we're talking about how to best position a B to B Rewards program to be a triple winner - helping your business both attract more clients and retain more clients and even help retain and incent employees for your clients.

Ok, that sounds like a little much, doesn't it?  Maybe not.  If you consider a few aspects to all this, let's see how it can work - but not on the traditional platform.

Yes, we're stretching the boundaries again, here on UiP, trying to live up to one listener's billing of "the business man's Clark Howard."

Let's take things from this angle - you're a large supply company in an industry with a competitive market.  You have a service or product people use on a regular basis, or where split tickets are a concern with your competition.  Perhaps, you even just want to speed up the process of payment and give customers another option towards paying the bills.

You know that it won't take much to tip the scales in your favor.  And here comes the best idea of a complete program your sales force can offer in the field  without costing you a fortune.

Who can use such ideas and how ->

Shipping company that wants to get off the 30-60-90 day invoice cycle and win business they couldn't otherwise win.

Manufacturer Supplier - want to help with merging split tickets to one order with your company and not one with you for part, one with competitor #1 for part and one with another competitor for another part.  Plus bringing customers back and increases monthly average ticket sizes.

Ad sales - example instead of offering 10% off - be able to ask if they'd prefer 10% off, OR FF miles or cash back towards rewards programs?

Promotional and motivational speakers - Use it to separate from the crowd for booking purposes and then use it to up sales for the crowds at your event on the BtoB side.

Finally, how do you do this as a complete package?  If the idea intrigues you, contact us here.

Reviewing and Advising on Radio Ads for Google Ad Words

This isn't at all what GAW was even 3 months ago.  So much you can do - we'll walk you through some of it now - how you do it - plus pros and cons.  This is really a great service with a few small shortcomings.

First of all - how do you get to it.  Go to Google and click ad programs under the search bar.  Login if you have an AdWords Acct - if not, create one - Audio Ads is an extension of GAW, so you need an account.

Click the Audio Ads tab, and walk through the setup. 

You'll come to a choice of - Start Building or Find Audio Creation Specialist.  If you don't have an audio ad ready, Google gives you have the chance to have a certified person help create your ad for you, for a fee.  Or you just progress to the campaign. 

For our purposes, let's assume you have the ad.

First, you name your campaign and then assign a weekly budget.  The lowest amount I found that worked well was $100 per week.  Under that in a major market and it won't give you much return.  This is where I set the budget - $400 monthly, $100 a week.

Next, you define your area.  You can go nationwide or name and select specific cities, like GAW.  For the test campaign, I chose to use Atlanta, Macon and Savannah.

Next, choose your demographic - by gender and age.  Here, it helps to know your product and your target.  Who buys from you?  Who would you like to reach and pinpoint that you don't?  Ads can have many uses - but for now, choose who this particular ad works with.  For our purposes, we chose, M-F, 35-65.

Next, you choose your station formats - you can go for bang for the  buck or choose a specific type â?? jazz, rock, talk, sports.  And then if you are feeling like you understand who you want to speak with - you can use the advanced tab â?? complete with Arbitron Ratings.  We used basic bang for buck but would normally use Arbitron.

The next screen asks you to confirm your weekly budget, asks your max cost per 1000 listeners, and confirms start and end dates. 

The final option is to select when your ad will be played.  Since we are promoting a business show with our ad, we chose - M-F, drivetime (7-10am), (3-7 pm)

Now, it is time for the magic to begin.  Click the continue button and you'll find your final stats -

We would reach 175,000 ears within our target demo, and 203,000 gross (meaning 28,000 people who hear the ad would fall outside our selected parameters)  We would pay $2.25 per 1000 within our  target demo.  And we'd get 168 ad plays for a cost of $393 for the month.

Now, the next question is - does this scope and reach make a successful campaign?  Well, it sure could - but until we understand a little more about frequency and reach and what stations we're on, it is a little hard to tell.  For a first round of entry level user-driven programming, this is typical Google - solid, with a few small things to improve, which you can be sure they will.  Nice work Google - this is worthwhile stuff folks.

Drop me a line with any questions.

Create Your Own Logo for Under $100 - that's right, for less than one Benjamin, we have all the tools to scale out your own logo, color palette and even printing your first 500 cards - for your starting business.  And no, it won't be the same quality as a pro-shop, but it will be a lot better than clip art or most "friendly freelance" efforts.

A large part of getting the most out of your logo and your new company id is to create a color palette that works well for your business, your product, your brand and your clientele.  So, how the heck can someone without a lot of experience begin?  What if, like many small business owners, you left corporate America in part due to not wanting to pick out suits, shirts and ties that matched?

Adobe has developed kuler - and in doing so has taken a huge step in allowing online sharing of created color palettes for businesses to use.  It is fun, easy to use, and anyone who wants to learn and experiement with combining colors or creating a color palette is welcome.

Kuler is tapping into the social networking idea that top color consultant talents are now present on a "as you need it" basis - and many of the top designs are really superb blendings of colors and generate the feel you want for your logo, backgrounds, accents and more. 

Now you, the small business owner can tap into these skills and conquer, for free, one of the formerly unbeatable challenges in logo design (at least not until you paid big money.)  Cool work Adobe!

Now, let's move onto Logo Maker where you can create your own logo for free, share it with friends for feedback and then download and use it in a variety of formats for just $49.  In just a few minutes, you can be working on a logo that is professional in design and can be enough to get you through to the next level as you begin a business.  Not what a pro-shop can pull off, but then again, nowhere near the cost, either.  Coupled with Kuler, this is perfect for small startup businesses that can't afford to hire an agency or firm.

To double check yourself on the logo you create and the color shades you use, check out Color Palette Generator - a very amazing tool to use in conjunction with Kuler and Logo Maker. 

Ok, so now you have the logo, and the color palettes.  From there, you can take the designs you have created and upload them to Vista Print for fast, inexpensive and solid printing and quick delivery.

A few other words about logo, color palette and design.  Colors that are your favorites are not the ones you want to pick.  No matter how much they please you, as the owner, they need to resonate with your customer and client.  If the clients aren't feeling warm fuzzies about it, you won't hear the register ring and those initial warm fuzzies you had will go away faster than a lead against Tiger Woods on the back 9 at Augusta.

Happy logo-ing!

One of the most critical aspects to beginning a business, aside from an excellent business plan, is a name that supports that vision and path.  So, what's in a name?