Storm Dawg Marketing

Please join us in congratulating May Volcy of ABL Case Management… our winner for October’s Free Marketing Contest!  You voted for her story, and with 93 votes she was the clear winner!  And with infoGROUP’s help, we’re going to make her business even more successful.

Here’s what May wrote in this month:

Nature of my business:
Medical Case Management services(telephonic and field) in the area of worker’s compensation. Our customers are: Third Party administrators, Insurance Companies, and Large employers. I am a registered Nurs Case Manager with twelve years of experience. My business is a certified minority business with WBENC and FRMBC. I am also a single mother of 3 grown children. I am facing the following problem/challenge: My competitors are large businesses that have a big market share with a big budget for marketing with all the big contacts. The only way I have been able to survive is by doing one on one contact with my customers in order to get business. As a one person business it’s very time consuming and I don’t have the funds to do enough marketing to increase my business volume. Meanwhile I have a staff to pay and it is getting harder and harder. I was told that I have to spend money on marketing in order to make money. I am afraid that I am spending too much and not getting any results in return. If only I could get my foot in the door of these potential customers and have the chance to present my company, I think this would be a step forward and a great success. My only competitive edge, based on what my current customers are telling me, is the excellent quality of the service I have been providing and a competitive fee schedule. It seems that I am running so hard trying to market new customers but I cannot meet any goal because I also have to do the current daily operation of everything else that has to do with running my business. Because of this struggle, I believe my company would greatly benefit from your help.

To say we are excited for May is an understatement.  Congratulations, May!  Who will be next month’s winner?  Stay tuned for some exciting new announcements about next month’s contest as well as some great success stories from previous winners!

Did you know that infoGROUP also sponsors an Internet Safety and Security blog called Spiked Security?  It’s hosted by our very own Kevin Russell, Director of Risk Management.

Today, Spike posted about steps that small businesses can (and should) take to help them stay safe online.  Check it out here.

We’re curious… what steps are you taking now to help stay safe online?

Greetings Blog fans!

We’ve been providing you with small business stories, news, research and more for nearly five months, and the response has been more than we ever expected! In August, we decided to adopt a few local businesses and help them market smarter, and it’s working! In September we kicked off our Small Business Stimulus Package… a monthly contest for FREE marketing help, sponsored by infoGROUP, and we’ve seen more than 700 small businesses write in. Now, in November, we’re excited to bring you the next evolution of our blog.

Starting this month, you’ll see a lot of more YOU in the blog. You’ve written in describing your business, what you do, what works, what doesn’t, and what you need help with. Now, in addition to sponsoring the ongoing monthly free marketing contest, we’re going to feature one of YOUR small business stories EVERY WEEK and ask YOU, the reader, to help provide support and solutions. Just imagine… YOUR recommendations will help us all learn how to succeed and thrive in any economy.

We’re bringing even more expertise and resources to your aid. Our Small Business S.W.A.T. Team will continue helping every business that writes in. In fact, the team is expanding to include more experts and new panels from across infoGROUP. This new team blends together more than three decades of experience with almost every marketing channel imaginable… from direct mail and email to interactive and social media. Think of it as a literally that… a new blend of flavors from which to sample. Keep telling us what you like, what you want more of, and we’ll make sure to serve it up.

So kick back, grab your favorite cup of joe (or tea, or flavored water… we encourage trying new things, especially in beverages). Then try some of our new flavors as you read and respond to each other. We’re excited to hear what you think!

Good morning blog fans,

You know, I was poking around the AMEX Open Forum website the other day (it really is a tremendous resource for small businesses…talented contributors, tips for marketing, strategies for managing and more…if you haven’t checked it out yet, you should.)

One article caught my attention: “Partnering for Growth: Women-Owned Businesses as the 5th Largest GDP in World” by Marcy Shinder. The title pretty much says it all. If women-owned businesses were grouped together as a single country, they would be the 5th-largest GPD in the world. This is a fact that deserves some attention and reflection.

Shinder goes on to discuss briefly some of the challenges facing women with a desire to start their own business. The biggest? MONEY! After money, the next biggest challenge is growth. Shinder gives a few tips for growing, namely through networking. Building relationships and meaningful connections, she believes, can help these small-business owners bridge the gap between where they are today and where they’d like to be tomorrow.

Are there any women-owned businesses out there with a story to share?  We’d love to hear what your biggest challenges have been, and more importantly, how you overcame them. Or maybe one of you successful business women has a story about how networking helped you build your business!

Bryan D. Jennewein

Good Morning StormDawg Fans,

Today is the last day to enter to win October’s FREE marketing contest from infoGROUP!  Just click here to submit your story, or nominate your favorite local business!

Good luck!

Bryan D Jennewein – StormDawg S.W.A.T.

Hey all,

There’s still time to enter this month’s FREE Marketing contest, sponsored by me, my S.W.A.T. team and infoGROUP. So far we’ve had 202 entries and we’re looking for even more.

Just click here to enter.

Don’t forget, you can also nominate a local business that you think should win the contest.

Finally, you can help your entry win by having your friends vote for it! Just have them click the thumbs up icon at the bottom of your story.

Deadline for entries is midnight on Monday!

Don’t work too hard!

StormDawg

Is your business protected from an online invasion?  As a business, you need to be aware of three major online threats you can face today: spam, viruses and phishing.  You have the ability to protect yourself from these things but are you?

Whether it be by online subscription services such as McAfee or SpyWare, there are many resources out there.  If you want to know about other resources, go to the National Cyber Security Alliance.  Their site offers useful information on how to protect your business.   You can also check out SpikedSecurity.com, a blog by infoGROUP’s Kevin Russell. Do some research on what solution best fits your needs.

Spending the time and money up front will save you much more in the end.  Please check out this research from our friends at ORC Guideline about how small businesses are protecting themselves & their customers and the fines that could apply if they don’t.

Thanks and like StormDawg would say, “Don’t work too hard!”

Christina Kudym, StormDawg S.W.A.T. Team

Good morning StormDawg fans,

I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Direct Marketing Association conference and have been talking to a few attendees about their thoughts on the conference and on what businesses are doing to market during thougher economic times. I’ve interviewed a few people of behalf of StormDawg, so look for those on the blog soon.

I also had the pleasure of being the infoGROUP / StormDawg prize patrol here at DMA2009. During our demos of Yesmail’s Enterprise 7, Marketzone Platinum, Marketzone GOLD, infoCONNECT and others, I gave away tons of Dell Netbooks, some Flipcams and a few iTouches.  Here are some of the videos from the demos and the winners!

Kristin Hermann talks about Marketzone GOLD

Tom MacDonald of Worldcolor wins a Netbook:

Look for more DMA updates, pics and videos soon!  And as StormDawg would say, “Don’t work too hard!”

Bryan D Jennewein – StormDawg S.W.A.T.

Hey StormDawg fans,

I saw this great article in the American Express’s OPEN Forum written by Julia Rogers of Recession Wire titled “New Business in the Downturn:  Desperate Times Do Not Call For Desperate Measures” .  I thought you might like it.

Don’t Work Too Hard – StormDawg

Hey all,

This is going to be a wild week.  I am getting ready to head out to San Diego to the annual DMA conference.  I will be interviewing folks and putting some of their comments on the blog via a webcam.  It should be fun and hopefully informative.  Later, I will be in New York speaking to a group about how the economy is affecting consumer behavior.  I will share some of that research with you all later.

My small business antennae went up last week because of a conversation I heard about one of our stimulus package contestants.  A young man named Keith Fix (who I shouted out to a couple of weeks ago) was getting interviewed by Entrepreneur magazine.  It turns out Keith has a great business model but is at a crossroads with his business.   Is he really ready to make it grow?  Check out his website: http://www.provenpowerful.com/

Keith’s business does tech support for computer owners, much like the Geek Squad, but he does it at a much lower cost.  Keith is very particular about who he hires.  He looks for people who not only have the skills but also are an exact fit for the culture of his business.  It only takes him about one hour to bring a new hire up to speed and put them to work.  The problem is,  because he is so particular, his pool of potential employees is quite small.

In order for Keith to grow his business he will have to hire more employees and he may need to compromise his standards.  This is an example of a decision that needs to be made and it might not be the economically rationale decision.  Keith is a college student and maybe he isn’t ready to have his business take off quite yet.  Maybe he should finish school?

That is Keith’s decision to make!  P.S.  14 of the top 50 billionaires dropped out of college.  14 out of how many drop-outs….the odds aren’t that great.

What do you think Keith should do?

Send in your comments and don’t work too hard!

StormDawg