10 marketing secrets from the Smart50

Businesses use “marketing” as a buzzword without actually understanding what it is, or how to go about it.

But successful businesses understand that marketing is about creating noise about your business or product. The very best companies can do that through a variety of methods, whether it’s through a blog, email marketing campaign, or social media.

The businesses that made it onto our 2012 Smart50 certainly understand the necessity of innovative marketing. Here are 10 of their best secrets.

1. Targeted social media use

Social media is very much a necessary part of marketing for many businesses, and for coffee chain Republica, that process is no different. The company says it’s been able to use one-on-one conversations with customers to help spread the word throughout the social network.

But its use of Facebook is more targeted than simply posting news items about the company. Republica says it makes sense for it to focus on its key market – women aged between 25 and 45. All of its posts are geared towards that particular demographic.

While many businesses interact on Facebook, fewer actually take the time to figure out who they should be speaking to in order to win the most engagement.

“Facebook is a great avenue to make direct connections with this market segment and it’s an inexpensive way to reach customers,” says founder Jacqueline Arias.

“It’s also totally measurable, so return on investment is pretty quickly ascertained.”

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2. Becoming experts through webinars

Setting up your company as an expert in your field is a great way to win recognition, so it makes perfect sense for web conferencing company Redback to run regular sessions for businesses on topics of value for its customers.

What’s even better is that it does this through a series of webinars – the company’s area of expertise. Founder Jeff Downs says the company sources experts in different business topics, and simply manages the discussion. By adding its own brand to the experience, Redback earns a reputation as thought leader.

It’s also extremely successful – generating 100 new business leads a month.

“Demand has grown to such an extent that we deliver two Business Skills Webinars each month and they regularly average between 100 and 150 participants.”

3. Self-motivated search engine optimisation experts

Search engine marketing is a necessity for any small business. And as online furniture seller Interior Secrets found out, you can often get the best results by hiring somebody in-house to manage your campaigns.

However, those results got even better when it informed that same marketing manager they could set their own salary.

“In addition to appointing an SEO company, hiring an in-house web marketing guru and allowing the candidate to determine his own salary based on results has been a huge success for the business.,” says founder Bill Huynh.

“We are able to compete directly with the big players such as Nick Scali, Adriatic and Harvey Norman on the online space.”

4. Go big or go home

When it doubt – go big.

Industry conferences are all well and good, and they can bring your company a lot of sales leads. But for many technology companies that are global in scope, working in the domestic economy isn’t going to get them the international attention they need.

This is why SMS Central chief executive David Freeland decided to take his company to the one conference that really matters for his industry – CeBIT 2012.

“We planned ahead of time, so we created communications tailored to the event (content marketing build up, social media, landing pages,you name it).”

“We also created tailored collateral, thinking of the key industries we would focus on during the event. The results were great: our sales pipeline was filled with new prospects and our awareness level in the industry rose substantially.”

5. Teaming up with charities

Plenty of businesses coordinate with charities, but not many create full-blown marketing campaigns around them. Jetts Fitness founder Brendon Levenson did just this with Open Heart Day, which resulted in raising $38,000 for the Heart Foundation.

All the franchisees contributed to the campaign, along with a direct mail, radio and social media campaign as well. It took several months of careful coordination with local clubs, and a lot of following up and analysing sales figures. But with thousands of members joining on just the one day, it was a worthy effort the company says it will be repeating next year.

6. Exploring the App Store

The App Store has been a great way for independent developers to make a living. But it’s also become an essential way for tech-savvy businesses to market their company and get new leads.

Geoff Austen of hospitality logistics group The Scotney Group says the release of its iPhone App has helped create new sales, while providing a good service to its existing customers.

“There has been an enormous takeup of the app (approx 10,000 in 10 weeks) and it appears to be generating an enormous amount of referrals as customers show their friends and family.”

7. Hitting the trade shows

Trade shows can be an annoying endeavour, especially when you have to prepare all the same materials again and again. But there’s something to be said for that consistency. Dream Consultancy founders Piyush Kotadiya and Ruchir Parekh say participating in these shows has been a solid business provider.

“We also introduced a referral program which is working quite well for us. For example, we generated around 25% of our total revenue through trade shows which otherwise we would have been short of.”

8. Creating a great place to work

Businesses love to promote themselves as being great places to work, and for eWeb Marketing, it’s a full-time marketing endeavour.

The company has created a website called “Paid to Learn”, where it promotes the company as a fun place to work, but also as a provider of training and career opportunities.

Founder Gary Ng says they grew tired of having to use recruitment companies to do this job for them. In the end they just treated it as another marketing endeavour. It’s paid off, with the company appearing on “Best Places to Work” lists regularly.

“We now have over 1,500 people subscribed to our newsletter, and a pool of enthusiastic candidates lined up and waiting for the opportunity to become a part of our team.”

“To get to know some of these people, we hold monthly information days where interested candidates can come in to tour our office, hear about our company history and vision, and see our workplace culture in action.”

9. Taking SEO seriously

Taking SEO seriously is critical for any business with a website – putting yourself out there online is one of the best investments you can make.

But for LX Group, taking SEO seriously goes beyond just reaching the first page. The company’s goal is to be in the top five sponsored links, preferably the top three, and it achieves that through a rigorous process including fortnightly reviews – and even twice-year training sessions with Google.

Several other guidelines include regular reviews of competitors, and the adoption of Google ad extensions, which makes ads more interactive and attractive to website visitors.

“Four weeks after implementing this new marketing strategy, LX’s Adwords successfully appeared with ad extensions and stood out from competitors who did not have ad extensions,” says founder Simon Blyth.

“However, it is not a given that throwing money at this marketing strategy will guarantee results, or even hiring a consultant, as they often don’t understand your company and how customers might find you. What’s more, you may be ranking well one week but by the very next you could have slipped down the charts.” 

10. Turning staff into experts

Many businesses on the Smart50 have advocated training up staff into experts as a way of promoting excellence from within. No more so than FirstClick, which has put more time and effort into its staff than is usual.

Managing director Grace Chu advocates turning staff into experts not just through training, but through speaking roles at conferences. The more speaking spots the company gets, the greater its reputation as a thought leader and it continues to generate sales. Staff are encouraged to speak in their area of expertise at trade shows and conferences to not only improve their own reputations, but the reputation of the company.

But this thought leader experiment goes beyond the staff, and incorporates a strategy including blog posts, white papers and overall content on the company’s site.

“The website strategy built a solid foundation to develop our content strategy to position FirstClick as the experts in the search marketing industry,” Chu says.