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Word of Mouth – Marketing that Works

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There are at least three major challenges in marketing our enterprise services:

  1. More than 90% of the population does not see what we do as relevant to them – when it comes to enterprise they are pre-contemplators
  2. Getting our messages through – what are our key messages and how to we get them where they can be heard – by the people that matter?
  3. Giving people the confidence, conviction and commitment to act on the messages – to give us a call, to come to a workshop, to make an appointment, to have a conversation

Now the default setting for the VAST majority of enterprise projects are these:

We won’t worry about the pre-contemplators – we will target those who already have ideas they want to act on or already have the belief and the conviction that they can make progress.  This makes it easier for us to hit our numbers.

Our core messages will be:

1.  we can help turn your dreams into reality (if you don’t have dreams don’t call us)

2.  We can turn your business ideas into reality (ignore the fact that the ‘Dragons’ mash up and humiliate most of the poor saps that go to them – with our help you can’t fail)

3. It is quick – and relatively easy – (if you haven’t got the skills we can teach them to you) – you can be up and running in just weeks or months.  10 000 hours to master a field – forget it – who is Malcolm Gladwell anyway? 3 half day workshops and a bit of one to one on the business plan will “see you ‘reet”. (Glad no-one is measuring survival rates on our projects!)

4.  To get people to take action we will lure them in by hinting at the availability of money, childcare, bouncy castles and food.  We will even pay them the bus fare (yes, it costs a lot to administer but – what are we to do…?)

5.  We will spend a lot of money on marketing collateral, leaflets, web sites and e-mail marketing campaigns (digital exclusion! – you mean some poor people don’t have e-mail accounts – never mind they could never become proper business people anyway – they are not our target group).

6. We will attend every possible event and push our services hard – just like those guys who sell SKY TV and Credit Cards in the Merrion Centre – “You mean we shouldn’t be selling enterprise like any other commodity?  Why not?”

We know that these approaches:

  • are expensive
  • have very low hit rates
  • attract a whole load of people who just want to get the money without putting in the work
  • attract people easily seduced by the idea of a quick fix – rather than composing a life and a livelihood
  • elicit more suspicion, frustration and cynicism than enthusiasm and engagement
  • provide us with very high customer acquisition costs.  (interesting that most entrepreneurs are very interested in this number – yet most projects funded to support entrepreneurs don’t worry about their own cost per customer acquisition at all – ‘We are below targets – lets throw some more money at marketing then!’).

What about looking at marketing approaches that work.

Word of mouth.

Reputation building, seeking referrals and recommendations – based on the fact that we are bloody good!  That we do inspire, transform, care and coach.  That we are more than interested in people and their passions.  That we are with them for the long haul.

Worrying more about what every customer says about us to their mates, in the pub, in the clubs and on the streets, rather than some abstract and easily manipulated percentage that represents ‘customer satisfaction’ – YUK!

Being the kind of people and the type of service that our customers can’t wait to recommend to their friends.

Once we start to spend time and money on developing marketing and enagement strategies  based on:

  • reputation management
  • referrals
  • introductions
  • social networking
  • gatekeepers, and
  • the needs, interests, cultures and values of the communities we serve (rather than policy goals and outcomes)

we would start to see the basics of our own businesses transformed.

  • 10% of customers influence the purchasing decisions of the other 90%
  • 91% of customers are “likely” to buy off of a recommendation
  • 92% of customers “prefer” a word of mouth recommendation

Twitter for Enterprise?

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Why should small business engage with twitter?

Well this post and video pretty quickly summed it up for me.

http://tinyurl.com/b4enb5

Early days for me using twitter – but so far it looks promising!

I am going to twittering some tips and twitter about community based enterprise and how to develop it!

Any of you twittering?  What works and what doesn’t?

If you want to you can follow my twitters at:

http://twitter.com/mikechitty

Really Social Enterprise…

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Two stories have really hit me in the last 12 months about the nature of real social enterprise in the UK.

The first was told to me by the people of Kintyre about the herring fishermen of Carradale.  Apparently when the herring boats went out, finding the schoals of fish was a pretty hit and miss affair.  Some boats would come back loaded – others would have nothing.  This would mean that some families would eat and others would not.  So instead the fisherman would wait for all of the boats to return at the end of the day and some of the days catch would be given to those boats that had not caught.   Each boat was independently owned and run on a ‘for profit’ basis. But this was not altruism.  It was recognised that although ‘I caught today; I may not catch tomorrow’ – so sharing the bounty was in everyones best interest.  Not only did this serve a genuine economic purpose – the waiting on the harbour side ensured the development of bonding social capital over a wee dram a song and a story.  I believe that there is no longer a commercial herring fishing operation in Carradale.

The second was told me by an old headmaster of mine who was reminiscing that back in the 1940s schools would organise ‘Harvest Camps’ where pupils would go to work with local (for profit) farmers in August and September to help them to bring in the harvest. A kind of early work experience that was essential if the whole community was to be fed through the winter.

Both of these examples show me how our communities used to recognise the value that entrepreneurs brought to the community – but also recognised that at time they needed help and support – and it was in everyones best interest to ensure that they got it.

Now in this day and age it is less ‘fishermen and farmers’ and more likely to be ‘graphic designers and financial advisers’ – but the enlightened community will recognise how it can best nurture and support the entrepreneurs that create real value.

It is my beleif that this deep understanding of how the wider community can support and foster good enterprise is still alive (if not that well) in many of our communities – however it needs re-inventing and re-invigorating for the 21st century.

What do you think?

Enterprise as a Precursor for Entrepreneurship – working on the demand side

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There is much policy and rhetoric about the need to transform the ‘enterprise culture’ of our communities (especially those that make higher than average use of the benefits system).

This is usually translated into a ‘need’ (for policy makers and planners that live nowhere near the targeted community) to:

  • increase the rate of business start-ups per head of population
  • increase vat registrations
  • increase self employment
  • reduce benefit dependency.

So far so good. But now the problems start. In order to try to get these metrics moving in the desired direction we tinker with the supply side on a whole series of employment/skills and business start-up interventions, designed to make them more accessible to target communities. In the local Children’s Centre or Church Hall half day workshops on ‘Turning your Business Dream into Reality’, ‘Turning your Hobby into Cash’ and ‘Employment Skills’ appear alongside workshops for ‘Tumbling Tots’ and ‘Breastfeeding for Beginners’.

Now the ‘Tumbling Tots’ and ‘Breast Feeding for Beginners’ workshops are usually pretty popular. While often the enterprise and employment workshops struggle to get the numbers they need. Even enticements of free food and the indication that grants and funding might be available often fail to get punters through the door. Although the reasons for the difference in take up are obvious they are worth re-considering for those of who are interested in stimulating enterprise.

The Health Market Place

  • A strong professional, credible and competent outreach team (Health Visitors, Midwifes, Community Nurses and associated health professionals, social enterprises and volunteers) who form long term relationships with local people over many years and sometimes generations
  • Administrative support, data protection and other professional protocols that have developed over time for the benefit of both the client and the funder – records are kept and used to plan and manage support over many years (they long ago gave up looking for the ‘quick fix’)
  • A client base (on the whole) with a pressing need and desire to engage – ‘I really do need to learn this parenting malarkey‘ – and generally a social context and peer groups that will respect and support their endeavours to be a better parent
  • Mainly trusted as being on the side of the Mum and the Baby – we really are here to help

The Enterprise Market Place

  • Often new, poorly paid and inexperienced outreach workers (who have yet to gel as a team with few established record keeping, client management and referral systems) on short term contracts looking to achieve short term outcomes.
  • A client base with little urgent or pressing desire to engage and with a psychology that may not welcome the possibility of ‘new things at which to fail’ (in spite of our best efforts to re-assure them that ‘enterprise is for all’ they recognise that this maybe a long and risky pathway)
  • An agenda (entrepreneurship) that does not chime with local social, economic, political and cultural norms – and is often seen as being imposed from the outside.
  • An agenda that carries with it significant risk of failure and social isolation (this is not what my peers spend their time doing)

Little wonder that our best efforts to expand the supply side of the enterprise market place in targeted communities in a well intended drive to increase ‘engagement’ is so often met with apparent indifference. So what can we do that might encourage the take up of more enterprise services and the transformation of the enterprise culture?

I think that the answer lies not in continuing to develop and refine the supply side.

  • Fewer half day workshops and new enterprise centres.
  • No more ambitious and expensive push marketing plans.

Instead we should focus in the short term (3-5 years?) on nurturing the demand side. Finding ways to stimulate a genuine curiosity about the enterprise agenda.

On holding conversations (open space events, knowledge cafes etc) about what a more enterprising community would look and feel like.

  • What benefits could it bring to local people?
  • What downsides?
  • What are the possibiliites that we can pursue to make progress on the enterprise agenda – building on what we already have and can do?
  • How can local people engage in driving the enteprise agenda?
  • Who can local people invite to help them transform their enterprise culture?
  • How can we make enterprise a socially inclusive sport?

On helping more local people to recognise that they can make progress on their agendas (rather than being manipulated into the agendas of others).

  • Encouraging people to set goals and aquire skills, knowledge and networks that help them to get things done
  • Promoting the real skills of enterprising people – looking for opportunities to make things better and finding ways to exploit them
  • Teaching in a way that facilitates personal growth and independence
  • Learning how to find a sense of purpose and urgency that will drive their personal development
  • Recognise the ‘well trodden pathways’ that they are on and to choose different pathways if they so wish.
  • Recognise and valuing ‘failure’ as a part of the process. To recognise the difference between people failing and their ideas failing.

On recognising that the social context and networks are crucial for supporting enterprise.

  • Encourage more people to be more supportive of their peers who are trying to make stuff happen
  • Build more social capital around the enteprise agenda – establish social technologies where specilaist support and advice can be found at low or no cost – where individuals and organisations with a stake in supporting a more enteprising culture can share ideas, exchange practice and more importantly build the trust and understanding neccessary to really co-operate on future endeavours
  • Develop connectors, mavens and salespeople at the local level who can change the ‘vibe’ around enterprise and form them into competent, credible and person centred outreach teams who are prepared to advocate enterprise. In my expereince most communities are already developing such mavens, connectors and salespeople. The neighbourhood management team, local youth groups, faith based groups and other community based projects are often an excellent place to start your search.

As a good friend of mine said, ‘going into a community that has experienced long periods of economic and social decay and prescribing an increase in entrepreneurship is a little bit like going into Burkina Faso and, on noticing that they don’t have a state of the art scientific research programme, suggesting that they invest in a large hadron collider, a stem cell research project or a programme of space exploration as a way of bringing them quickly up to world class’.

We have to develop enterprise strategies that acknowledge where people are at rather than where we want them to be. In this way I think enterprise professionals can really start to play a part in transforming the culture of some of our most disadvantaged communities.

And in time we might have local people queing up for places on our enterprise workshops and to take up space in our enterprise centres.