Your Business Wisdom

YOUR e-STORE LOOKING AT ABANDONED CARTS

Shopping cart abandonment is gradually increasing, 

 according to research conducted by SeeWhy, a firm that offers abandonment recovery services. “The abandonment rate for October averaged 71 percent, an all-time high for 2009,” says SeeWhy founder Charles Nicholls. Even last week when sales and promotional offers were kicking in, shopping cart abandonment averaged 65 percent. Nicholls says that rate is several percentage points higher than last year.

Nicholls has his theories on why abandonment rates are edging higher. He believes the trend is due to more knowledgeable and discerning customers-and while the economy may have triggered the trend—he’s doubtful that the trend will reverse itself once the global financial crisis has passed.

Regardless of across the board movements, ecommerce merchants wanting to maintain their competitive advantage would be well-served to study the most common reasons cited by consumers for shopping cart abandonment.

For this Chart we look at data from Forrester Research's North American Technographics online survey, which shows factors involved in shopping cart abandonment. 

 eRetailers looking at reducing shopping cart abandonment should consider showing shipping and handling costs earlier in the process, or add a tool to their site that makes it easier for shoppers to save and compare products. The latter would especially appeal to female shoppers.

Here are a few of our tips  to assist in your Store's Processing 

• How many steps are in your checkout process? This is usually what most people focus on. Our clients' checkout processes range from one to seven steps. We've discovered the number of steps is not all that critical. One client was able to bring the checkout process from six steps down to one; we found no correlation between reduction of steps and reduction in abandonment rate. Once people found what they came for, they found the time to check out no matter how many steps were involved.
  
  Should you change the number of steps? Yes! But if you don't have an inexpensive and simple way to test, it may not be worth the time, effort, and expense of reducing the number of steps in the checkout process. Try some of these other ideas first.
  
• Include a progress indicator on each checkout page. No matter how many steps in your checkout process, let customers know where they are in the process. Number the steps, and label the task clearly for each step. Give shoppers an opportunity to review what they did in previous steps and a way to return to their current step if they go back.
  
• Provide a link back to the product. When an item is placed in the shopping cart, include a link back to the product page. Shoppers can then easily jump back to make sure they selected the right item. I was shopping for a printer and wanted to know how many and what color cartridges come with the printer. It wasn't obvious where I should click to review the product description. I had to navigate using my back button until I got my questions answered.
  
• Add pictures inside the basket. Placing a thumbnail image of the product increases conversions by as much as 10 percent.
  
• Provide shipping costs early in the process. If possible, provide an estimated cost while visitors browse. They want to buy but want the answers to all their questions when they want them. Total cost is one of those critical questions. Also, if the shipping information is the same as the billing information, include a checkbox to automatically fill in the same information.
  
• Show stock availability on the product page. Shoppers should not have to wait until checkout to learn if a product is out of stock. Also, give an estimated delivery date. Deal with the "I want it now" mentality, and let them know when they should expect to get their products.
  
• Make it obvious what to click next. Include a prominent "Next Step" or "Continue With Checkout" button on each checkout page. Make the button you want them to click next the most obvious. One top 50 e-tailer mistakenly placed its "remove from cart" and checkout buttons next to each other. Neither stood out. Many people ended up clearing their carts. When they went to check out, they found nothing in there and immediately abandoned the site in frustration.
  
• Make editing the shopping cart easy. It should be simple to change quantities or options, or delete an item from the shopping cart. If a product comes in multiple sizes or colors, make it easy to select or change values in the shopping cart.
  
• Make it your fault. If information is missing or filled out incorrectly during checkout, give a meaningful error message that's obvious to see. It should clearly tell visitors what needs to be corrected. The tone should be the system was unable to understand what was entered, not the visitor made a foolish mistake.
  
• Show them you're a real entity. People's concerns start to flare up during checkout. Let them know you're a real company by giving full contact info during the checkout process.

Good Luck and Happy Marketing

Parts of this article are reprinted Courtesy of Practical E Commerce 

ABC's TO ASSIST YOUR GROWTH

NEWS TO GROW BY . . .

The economic indicators are starting to look better, and there’s hope in the air that perhaps we are truly at the bottom of the deep well we’ve been descending into for quite some time. This is a perfect time for you to be investing in your business.

Here are three key tips for you to focus on to increase growth and profit and accelerate your business:

A. Work on your business, not in it. I start every small business training course and seminar with this statement. Think about where you need to be six months from today and ensure all of your actions are aligned with achieving those goals. When we’re busy working in the business, on a day-to-day basis, we sometimes end up doing activities that lead us astray from our real business goals.Remember if you are now growing your business, who is?  

B. Make sure you truly understand and can define what differentiates your company from your competitors. This not only includes companies that provide products or services similar to yours, but rather all of the firms that compete for the same customer dollars. For example, one of the successful entrepreneurs I know runs an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) company. In reviewing her competitors, she realized that some of her prospects were deciding between spending money on a new AC system or a new swimming pool. That makes swimming pool companies her direct competition. Competition is not always obvious and it is important you do not assume you know who your competition is. Many times as in this example it comes it different forms.

C. Remember that sales is not a four-letter word. Selling is about listening to your customers’ needs and addressing them clearly and thoughtfully. It’s not about telling somebody everything you know about your products and services. Good salespeople spend at least 75% of their time listening to their customers’ needs before talking. With a typical adult attention span of 15 to 30 seconds, that means you need to truly do your homework before you meet with a key prospect so the message you provide is clear, concise, and targeted toward providing them with a solution that is customer-focused. You must understand your potential client is ONLY concerned about fulfilling his needs and not what you need, require and want.

Good Luck and Happy Marketing - Need Sales Improvement Contact Us Today.

"LOCAL" BUSINESSES, NEED "LOCAL" HELP!

Why?  Consider this vital information. . .

46% of local searchers make in-store visits, according to data released to eMarketer by TMP Directional Marketing and comScore. The number is up 12% over last year. Meanwhile, for "general searches," 34% visited stores, but this was only up 1% over last year. Internet yellow pages searchers also came in at 34%, up from 29% last year. The overall average of searchers ending up in-store was 37%.

What local searchers are looking for are businesses that provide the products and services they're looking for. After they've found that, they look for address and location information and then a phone number.

For most business categories, local searchers used general search engines rather than more specialized local search sites or online yellow pages. Local search engines were biggest for users looking for child care and hotels, while nearly one-half of home services searchers used Internet yellow pages.

Mobile users are taking advantage of ever more sophisticated handsets to get important local info wherever they are. They were significantly more likely to access mobile content in 2009 compared with the prior year, up 40%. That includes a 127% increase in subscribers using mobile apps to get local info, as well as a 27% increase in users looking up local data via SMS.

“Buyers use numerous channels at different times and for different reasons,” said Gregg Stewart, president of TMPDM’s full-service interactive division 15miles. “But the growing demand for local business information across interactive search platforms, especially online and mobile, is creating additional opportunities for national advertisers to reach consumers with more relevance. In order to reach target audiences, marketers must think locally and focus their messages on local marketplaces where consumers shop

Learm more about Local Search

 

Good Luck and Happy Marketing - Need Help With Local Search Contact Us Today.

Reprinted Tables courtesy of EMarketer

  

TWENTY WAYS TO TWEET YOUR BUSINESS

No pun intended to Paul Simon, in  50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. . .but here is my take. . . 

 

"Should I, and how can I use Twitter for business"is one of the top 10 questions I regularly receive. Everyone hears about Twitter, but not many understand its' application for business. In fact I recently was asked this during a major client presentation by their CEO. "Tell me Ad-Guy, should we be using Twitter"...note this guy is pretty direct!

 

Luckily I found a super presentation that walks you through how to use Twitter for your business, and gives you 20 simple examples of how you can incorporate Twitter into your marketing and promotion today!

This saved me a lot of time answering emails, and surely spared me a good deal of time  of putting together my own presentation. So Here it is

20 Ways to Tweet for Your Business

The following presentation is packed with 20 easy ways you can tweet for your business. Simply click on through the presentation for the entire 20 tips. No need to navigate away, just click on the presentation.

 

20 Ways To Tweet: For Companies, Corporations & Small Businesses

Good Luck and Happy Marketing. Need Help? Contact us today.

GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE, IS NOT ENOUGH!

These days—especially with all the competition on the Web—if you want people to buy from you instead of the other guy, you’d better give them a sound reason to do so. Otherwise they probably won't. In fact, no explaining what is the offer for them, you will lose them at "Hello".

And saying you have "great customer service" isn’t going to do the trick. Everyone says that, and so few deliver on it, that this little promise has lost its luster. Have you ever been told "buy from us, even though our service stinks" . . .of course not! Everyone says, believes or advertises Great Customer Service Given Here!!!   

Convenience is a possibility. But you better make sure you really are more convenient than your competition.

Ditto experience. While experience is never bad, chances are your competition has plenty of it, too. So unless you have specific expertise, this may not convince people to buy from you either.

You could try to be the cheapest. But there’s probably someone on the Internet who can beat your prices. So this can be a slippery slope straight into a money-losing pit.

That’s why the best way to convince people to buy from you is to offer something people can get only if they purchase from you. Marketers refer to this as your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP.

 

How Do You Identify a Great-Killer UNIQUE SALES PROPOSITION?

KEY WORK IS UNIQUE.  . .

Unless you own a franchise, chances are good there’s something unique about your business, products, services, methods or results because you are unique. So, often your USP is staring you right in the face.

Try asking yourself these questions:

• "Why should someone buy from me instead of my competition?"
• "What is different—or better—about my products, services, business, methods, or the results I deliver?"

If you have a particular specialty (for example, my chiropractor specializes in triathletes), your USP may be easy to hone in on. However, you can also create a killer USP out of thin air.

When Domino’s Pizza launched "30 minutes or it’s free," they revolutionized pizza delivery! Back then, 45 minutes to an hour was standard. Instead of focusing on taste or quality, they created a guarantee that set them apart—and appealed to their target market.

Unfortunately, for many entrepreneurs finding a solid USP can seem like an impossible task. Usually because you’re so close to your business, you can’t see the forest for the trees.

That means it’s time to study the forest.

In other words, you need to spend some time looking at your competition. Because it’s impossible to know what makes you unique when you don’t know what anyone else is offering.

 

Simple Steps to Defining a Simple Yet Powerful USP

Step #1:

Create an Excel spreadsheet with these columns: Business Name; Website; Location; Services/Products offered; Pricing; Target Market; USP, Specialty; Unique features or benefits; Other Marketing/Advertising; Special Offers. You can do this with paper and pen, but it’s easier to copy and past info directly into your spreadsheet as you go.

Step #2:

Review the Websites of at least 5-10 of your top competitors. Fill out the spreadsheet for each. If your competition advertises in any print publications take a look at those as well. Ditto for the phone book (yes, some people do still use them). Now do the same for your own business.

Step #3:

Review the data and look for areas where you offer something different or better. Or, have a niche market you can focus on. Ask yourself, “Are their ways I could fill a gap in the marketplace, or solve a problem my competition isn’t addressing?” Make a list of everything you do, or could do, that’s different.

Step # 4:

Ask yourself which differences or unique benefits are most likely to matter to your ideal client, and why? Remember, a USP is only effective if it’s something your target market actually wants or cares about.

Step #5:

Test it out. Take your top 2-3 USP options and survey your current customers (or people in your target market) to see which appeals to them most.

Once you have a winner, communicate it in every piece of branding, marketing and advertising you have. Before you know it, you’ll be known for whatever it is that makes you unique—and people will be waiting in line to hire you.

Good Luck and Happy Marketing  - Need Help With Your USP Contact Us Today

HOW TO, "YOUR" TUBE!

YouTube ranks only behind Google in the number of searches on its site. This is according to comScore. the Internet measurement and analysis firm. That means there are more searches on YouTube than on Yahoo! search, or Bing, or Ask.com. However, the searches are not general searches like you would find on those search engines. They are searches specifically for video.

 
 

 From a marketing perspective, it makes sense for all people looking to drive traffic taking advantage of YouTube’s search traffic. That can be achieved in much the same way you would use traditional natural search engine optimization. Many of the same search marketing rules apply. But, you'll need to market by way of relevant video content. In other words, if you want to capture some portion of YouTube’s vast search traffic, you need to create, upload and optimize video content relevant to your ecommerce offerings.

Six Pointers to Generate Traffic Using YouTube Videos

With that in mind, here are six pointers for creating and uploading videos to YouTube:

Place Your Website Name on the Video. Remember your goal is to drive traffic to your ecommerce site. During production, place the name of your website in the video. A watermark throughout the video or at the beginning and end gives your site credit for the video whether it is viewed at YouTube or embedded in an third-party website.

Watch Your Video Quality. YouTube accepts multiple video-file formats at varying degrees of quality (YouTube will compress and convert the video), but a good standard is 320x240 pixel resolution at 512 kbps (kilobits per second, a data-transfer-rate measurement). Other resolutions will work, but always try to avoid a second-rate video. Do some tests to see how the end-result looks and sounds. Compare it to other videos, such as those of your competitors.

Use Relevant Keywords. Apply keyword research on the title, description, and tags during the video uploading process. Use keywords relevant and focused to your product or service just as you would with a new web page. Be specific for traffic

Be Careful With Tag Fields. Think of the tags field much like the meta keywords tag on a web page. Mirror the keywords used in the tags field in the title and description fields. Be consistent with traffic.

Choose a Category Carefully. Select an accurate video category. It will help point a potential customer to your video. Fish where the fish are looking to feed!

Make The Videos Enjoyable and INFORMATIVE. Remember to have some fun making the videos. If it’s fun for you, it’s more likely to be enjoyable viewing for those you are trying to reach. When was the last time you watched or looked to find a dull, boring TV show?

Beyond Optimization

Utilizing YouTube for your online marketing can go much deeper than this. You can include the use of embedded links, develop a dedicated YouTube channel, and actively participate in the YouTube community to increase positive votes for your video (which affects the results pages when a search is done). None of that will matter much, however, unless these optimization basics are applied.

YouTube search traffic is dependent upon focused keywords that surround the video. Use the same search optimization rules for YouTube that you would use for Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, and you will be on your way to increasing traffic from the world’s number two search engine.

Good Luck and Happy Marketing - Need Help Contact Us.

GET YOUR BUSINESS ON THE GOOGLE MAP- FREE

In this post, we'll show you how to ensure your business locations can be found on Google, and then we'll show you how to go a step further by promoting your locations with AdWords location extensions.

Best of all it is FREE . . .both our advice and you Google account.

 

 

Free promotion

If your business already appears as a search result on Google.com and Google Maps, you can use Local Business Center to claim your listing and add additional information, such as photos, videos, business hours and more. It's completely free. If your business doesn't currently show at all, you can create a new listing, which is also free. Local Business Center recently launched a dashboard that lets you see how many users saw your listing, how many clicked on various links in your listing, and which search queries caused your listing to appear. To get you started with Local Business Center, we've put together some helpful tips on the kind of information you can and should include in your listing.

(Click for larger image)

(Click for larger image)

Drive even more sales with paid promotion

In addition to ensuring your organic listings are up-to-date, you can use AdWords ads for additional promotion. Both location-targeted text ads and location extensions can appear on Google Search and Google Maps result pages. When you create location extensions, you'll be able to show your business addresses within your text ads. If you're a primary business owner, you can link your Local Business Center account with AdWords to ensure the most up-to-date information about your business is appearing within your ad. When you use extensions, you'll also be able to upload a custom icon that will appear when your ads show on Google Maps. This allows you to take a more active role in ensuring your business locations stand out when users look for businesses like yours in your area.

(Click for larger image)

So what are you waiting for? Take the first step and get yourself on the (Google) map by claiming or listing your business in Local Business Center.

 

Need Help, contact us today...

GOOD Luck and Happy Marketing

 

Courtesy of Google

IMPROVE YOUR SITE in 3 HOURS or LESS

5 Steps in 3 Hours or Less to Improve Your Website

Simple Steps to Improve Website Usability

 

 

 

 

 

 

#1 Eliminate the "Techno Geek Talk"

Don’t assume that all of your website visitors are going to understand your industry lingo and acronyms. Strive to use easy-to-understand language. No matter what your product or service, let friend or family review your site for both readabiity and understanding what it is you do.

#2 Focus on the YOUR Site Visitor’s Goals "WIIFM" Factor-

Subconsciously ALL visitors want & think . . ."What's In It For Me"

Think of the major objectives of your website visitors. Why are these people on your site? Make it clear right on your home page what they should do next in order to accomplish what they set out to do. People have one purpose, I came to this site to get____________, Give it to me now, fast!

#3 Get Right to the Point

State the most important information at or near the top of each page. Remember that many people do not scroll down web pages.People do not read websites, they do not surf the internet the simply skim text until their "interest button lights up"! Get to THEIR need now and often!

#4 Include Contextual Links & Make Sure All Links Work Properly

Add links to the copy within your website to guide your readers to more detailed information and answers on specific topics found on other pages in your site. Internal, contextual links is a great way to add usability without cluttering the page. There are a variety of tools on the market to automatically check the links on your site.

#5 Give the Site Visitor Options to Contact You

Make sure that you are offering your prospective customers at least three options (e.g., telephone number, email address, on line form, chat functionality, Twitter, etc.) to contact you with questions.People need a sense of comfort, can I contact these people now.  Don't forget to include your telephone # and physical address very predominantly on every page!

These are just a few suggestions to help you quickly crank out a number of usability improvements to your website. Need Help, that is what we do! Contact us today at info@phoenixonesales.com.

Good Luck and Happy Marketing

CONSIDERING SOCIAL MEDIA, CONSIDER THIS!

Wondering if "social media" is for you? Check out this video.

The numbers are impressive, and perhaps more so when you consider the challenge of reaching "the next generation" (or, another way of thinking about this is "your kids"). While relationships are an important part of doing business, communicating through multiple medium is critical to success.

Years ago, a Dr. Jeffrey Lantz from Harvard conducted research that showes you needed to communicate to people a minumim of 18 times through different mediums for your message to be heard / remembered (or consider this branding). Social media shoudl be more accurately thought of as social marketing ... how to develop a marketing strategy, using all applicable mediums, to communicate a message, in the form that your audience wants to receive it. To achieve this, a communications strategy needs to be developed to identify the right message to the right audience while understanding the level of interaction you want and that your audience will / can / wants to provide.

 

 

 

WORD OF MOUTH IS NOW CALLED SOCIAL MEDIA

The Long Time Tested & Traveled Concept Of “Word Or Mouth” Marketing Is Now Channeled Within Social Media

Many clients are asking me - "What Should We Be Doing in Social Media". . . ? These are a few of the points I am making the rounds with these days.

With the growing popularity of social media, many businesses(both large and small) feel they need to integrate it into their marketing mix, but most aren't sure where to start or how to develop a plan.  Many do not even understand what Social Media is and as important, “how does one measure results”. But one thing is certain Social Media for business is here  to stay.

Social media is useful for many types of organizations, whether it's a big brand or small business. Using social media correctly helps companies engage audiences in new ways, be more personable, develop new connections, and maintain the ones they have. Social media has taken on traditional marketing and placed it within the hands, grasp, and yes control of the “Social Media World” and Blogsphere.

This is important because, with technology being everywhere and available to all, we've been given the tools to carry on unique and individual conversations and discuss our views and vote for our favorite content (products, services, brands, and even people) online, 24/7. We now form many of our opinions and impressions from others we come in contact with online and companies walk away with unique and sometimes valuable insights into what makes their brands work.  

Understanding this principle is an important factor in building a social media approach Essentially, traditional ways of thinking won't necessarily work. Instead of studying demographics about your audience, you need to get out there and talk with them. Get involved with the conversations that are already happening online.

1.   Examine and Eavesdrop

Determine who your audience is and where they are (“hangout”) online. Blogs are a great place to start looking. Technorati is a good tool to help you find blogs related to your search queries. Review and research who is writing, what they are writing about and of course opinions being offered.

Twitter is another place to gain insight into conversations that are happeningght now. Twitscoop is one of many tools that will monitor and search for trending topics on Twitter.

After you've identified where your audience is, start listening to what they're saying. What are their issues, opinions, and needs? How does this information fit with your value proposition? Understanding this information will help you determine how to best contribute to the conversation and how best to make a contribution.

Next, find out who drives the conversations or who has a strong influence. Some call these people "influentials" because they possess the authority, respect, or experience to shape people's opinions. Look at WeFollow to find influential on Twitter.

2.   Identify Audience Goals and Objectives

In addition to company goals, you must also consider your audience's goals. You'll get much farther with social media marketing if you offer something of value first. Again, as we have always stated you must put yourself in your audience’s clothes and ask “what’s in this for me”?

Giving people something of value earns you the right to plug yourself a little. So draw a line on a piece of paper and write down your goals on one side and your audience's goals on the other. Make sure you give enough before you try to get.

3.   Develop your Plan

Map out your approach to delivering your products or services (BRAND) to satisfy the needs of your audience. Will you reach out and leverage influentials? Will you provide free material or samples? How will it be delivered?

Maybe you have products that are environmentally friendly. Will you moderate and lead a conversation about environmental issues and become a leader? There are many creative ways to approach your audience. Be innovative.

Don’t forget bringing your audience back within the “realm” and influence of your website with dedicated landing pages for that conversation.

4.   A Few Helpful Social Media Tools

There are many social media tools that can help you reach your audience. Will you build a blog or use a forum? How about developing educational material with video and delivering it on YouTube? Will you use Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn as social media tools?

There are many to choose from, and you aren't limited to just one. Make sure, however, that you have solid, relevant content on your main Web site that you can lead visitors to when they want more detailed information. You can easily negate your social media marketing efforts by leading visitors to a Web site that delivers a poor experience.

5.   Measure, Measure... Did I Mention Measure? OK Measure!

After you've done a good job setting goals and defining your objectives, it's time to see if you've met those goals. Defining your metrics for success upfront will make the measuring process go more smoothly.

Maybe you need to provide a regular report to your superiors or your team. Find out what they want and make sure you have a mechanism to measure those variables.

There are many tools to choose from. Paid tools include Scoutlabs, Radian6, Trackur. Free tools include Social Mention, TweetReach, and Google Analytics for seeing where visitors are coming from. These tools can also help with researching and listening. Not to mention you can discover cost vs. benefits in expanding your Social Media Progrms.

Measuring can be a challenge, because the medium is conversational in nature. You can measure the number of your followers, or those who are participating in the conversation. You can measure Web traffic increases due to your social media efforts. You might gauge the tone of the conversation, and what percentage of participants was influenced by your involvement.

Whatever your measuring mechanism, be sure you do it often. Pick a regular time and stick with it.

6.   Access and Always Course Correct

Good metrics will show you what is and isn't working. Don't be afraid to abandon a specific tactic or social media tool if it doesn't work. Try a different one and see if you get better results.

What works for one company might not work for you. Certain tools will emerge as better performers depending on your industry, product, or service. Also, new tools are coming out every day that might be more efficient at getting the job done.

More on this subject will come check back or subscribe now.

Good Luck and Happy Marketing

ARE YOU DISCONNECTING?

The BIG DISCONNECT

This happens all the time in business to business sales, in service marketing, in getting along with your boss and even in hiring someone.

One side thinks they have figured out a solution. They spend a long time talking about the solution, architecting it, refining it, pricing it, pitching it, delivering it. The other side ends up not liking what they get. The disconnect: the first side says, "this solution is exactly as we described it!" the other side says, "it doesn't work right."

The disconnect is caused because people focus on the solution instead of the problem you were given to solve.

It's a lot easier and much more fun to talk about features and hours spent and someone's resume and a lot more difficult to dig into the problem itself. The problem becomes avoidable but simply discussing all the features and benefits that solve multitudes of problems, regardless if this current problem in included.

This is where the obligating question becomes so critical. "If we can deliver a dam that stops the water flow, will you be delighted?" "If I can hire someone who can answer ten calls an hour and keep customers coming back, will that work?" "If this book cover receives an award for best design, will that be a win?"

The difficult conversation about the problem is far more useful than the endless effort on solutions. The reason is that people don't tell themselves (or you) about the problem they're actually solving.In many cases too many clients do not know what they are truly trying to solve. Many times they simply have a problem without even knowing it!

Sure, they'd like an employee that does x, y or z, but you know what, they'd also like that person to be really good looking and willing to do our bidding, waiting on us hand and foot. Sure, we'd like a personal computer with a lot of computing power, but we'd also like it to be light and sexy and  low cost...

You must get more clarity about what a successful solution looks like, the more likely you will be to have a delighted and satisfied customer when you're done

Good Luck and Happy Marketing

EMAIL MARKETING - TEN REASONS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER!

Ten Reasons Your Biz Should be Using Email Marketing

1. To Build Trust

Since you'll be sending informational, focused, email communication,  you will begin building trust with those on your list.

They will come to know you as a valuable source of information, and with that trust, they will actually start listening to what you have to say.

This is the most crucial step in the email marketing process. If you have an email list that trust you, you've won the battle, and we'll talk more about how you build trust in an upcoming blog post.

2. To Become Familiar

Email by nature is a *friendly* form of communication. We feel the best about emails from friends and trusted sources. We look forward to these emails, and by using an email list to market your business you will be one of those people we look forward to getting email from. If you do it right, you will become familiar to those on your list, and your emails will be opened, read, and acted upon.

Better yet, you will become the “top of the mind” supplier of what you sell for those on your list. The more familiar you are to your list, the more likely they will be to think of you when they need to product or service you offer. Why buy from a stranger when they can buy from a friend?

3. To Get Repeat Business

When used correctly email marketing is a great way to get repeat business. You'll be communicating with your list consistently, and providing opportunity for those on your list to buy from you time and again.

You'll also be building an email list of current customers, allowing them to not only buy from you the first time in person, but possibly again via an email offer.

4. To Make More Sales

Isn't that the goal of all marketing - more sales?  If you do it right, your email list generate more sales for your business. By doing a combination of everything on this Top 10 list, your email marketing will be a lean, mean, sales getting machine!

5. To Build Your Authority

Many of the emails you send will be informational by nature, and through sharing of information you'll be building your own credibility and authority as an expert on your subject. Guess who people buy from?  That’s right, the experts.

6. To Save Money

It cost next to nothing to set up and maintain a powerful email campaign. You’ll pay $50-100/month for email list management software. After that, the cost of your time to get it set up and write/send emails are your only sunk cost. Compare it against any other form of marketing I think you’ll find it’s very hard to get more for less.

7. To Create an Opt-In Market

The people on your list have asked you to send them information - It doesn't get better than this! Most marketing goes out to the crowd and you hope your message resonates with enough of them you make sales. If you have an email list you're marketing efforts are automatically targeted to a population of people who WANT what you are offering.

8. To Save Time

It doesn't take much time to send a few friendly emails a month to your list. When it comes to calculating a return on your time investment, email marketing is going to be tough to beat with other forms of more traditional ad generation. 

9. To Expand Your Reach

If I see a great commercial on TV the only way I can share it is by retelling the concept to my friends, or hoping they've seen it. With email, that's not the case. Your message can be passed on and shared with the click of a button. This essentially expands your reach beyond those on your list, to potentially everyone on the receivers "list" as well.

10. To Create Multiple Buying Opportunities

When a customer walks into a store, the place of business only has that one chance to sell them something. Once they walk out, you just have to hope they come back giving you another chance to sell.

Email marketing gives your customers multiple opportunities to buy from you. You'll be reminding them how great your products and services are on a regular basis, pulling them back.

In Summary

I think it's easy to see the benefit in building and using an email list as part of your marketing activities. If you’re not currently using email to market your products and services, I think you’re leaving a lot on the table.

GOOGLE FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES FREE SEARCH TOOLS

The Google Local Business Center is a must visit for business in general, but certainly for businesses attempting to attract customer in their local community. As you may know, Google allows you to add your business to a directory and then enhance your profile with all kinds of information about your business, products, and services. This is a free listing and every small business should take advantage of it.

Google shows these listings when someone makes what is obviously a geographic search for a product or service. The results show in what is called the Google 10 box above other listings. When someone clicks on one of these results they are taken to the profile through Google Maps.

Recently Google has added and integrated a couple of useful tools.

Now your Local Business Center account shows you analytics. You can see how many people are clicking on your profile, what search terms got them there and, for folks looking to find your business locally, where they came from based on their requests for driving directions. This is some pretty cool data, particularly for retail locations. It could help inform where you might spend some direct mail focus, for instance, and how you might optimize some of your web pages.

AdWords now allows you to connect your Google Local Profile to your AdWords account and, by doing so, you can ask Google to show your address, based on the location of the ad visitor, when someone views your ad. Google has dubbed this add-on Local Extensions. Once extensions are set up, Google will dynamically match your business locations to a user’s location or search terms and show the address with your text ads.

This could be useful for a business with multiple locations. Now, instead of having to set up multiple local ads you simply assign extensions to all your ads and Google will show the address of the best location based on where the user is located.

Good Luck and Happy Marketing

UNDERSTAND: NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU!

In less than 2 short minutes this video summarizes on-line marketing vs. traditional advertising. A short video that requires long thought

Good Luck and Happy Marketing

NOW, GET STATS FOR YOUR YOUTUBE VIDEOS

When you upload a video to YouTube, you get access to YouTube Insight, a FREE powerful analytics tool that shows you a bunch of interesting metrics about your video: who’s watching it, where, its ratings, total number of views and the like.

This info, however, was – until now – hidden from the rest of the general population, but not any more. By switching it on in the the privacy settings for your videos (located under “My Account”) you can now share this data with everyone. It’ll become visible in the “Statistics & Data” section, located under the video.

So, what can the viewers see? Besides the number of total views, comments, ratings and average ratings, one can also find out a list of top ten referrals, gender/age audience distribution, and popularity of the video in various parts of the world. Not bad for a free tool, especially for journalists and analysts who will now be able to gather some more data about a particular video (if the option is switched on, of course).

See an introductory video for YouTube Insight below; and see how it works in practice

Good Luck and Happy Marketing

THINK WRONG & YOUR FISH WILL STINK!

You have probably seen it. The fish store owner sees a decline in business, so they have less money to spend on upkeep and inventory, so they keep the fish a bit longer and don't clean up as often, so of course, business declines and then they have even less money... Eventually, you have an empty, smelly fish store that is out of business. In the end all people will remember is the stink of the store, a bitter memory.

The local doctor has fewer patients so he does not invest as much in training or staff and so some other patients choose to leave which means that there are even fewer patients...

The newspaper has fewer advertisers, so they cannot invest as much in running stories, so people stop reading it, which means advertisers have less reason to advertise which leaves less money for stories...

As Tom Peters says, "You can't shrink your way to greatness", and yet that is what so many dying businesses try to do. They hunker down and wait for things to get better, but they do not. This isn't a dip; it's a cul de sac. It's over.

Right this minute, you still have some cash, some customers, some momentum... Instead of squandering it in a long, slow, death spiral, do something else. Buy a new platform. Move. Find new products for the customers that still trust you.

Find new ways to attract new customers, develop short-term market focus, not short term accounting preparations.

"Staying in Business People" -

Think Sales and Marketing - Doing More with Le$$ - Looking for A Way to Succeed, Looking for New Ways to Grow

"Failing in Business People" -

Think Accounting - Doing Less and Saving More -Looking for a Way to Fail Safely, Looking for Ways to Keep Saving and Cutting Costs

Do nothing, and sooner or later your fish store will "stink" !

FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS, SETUP GUIDE

Facebook is no longer just a social media site for college age users. Now users of all ages are on Facebook and businesses are realizing the value in having a presence on there as well. Whether your business plans on using Facebook to sell products or to just create brand recognition, Facebook is a powerful tool to reach a wide audience. There are two main ways that you can introduce your business to the world through Facebook. You can create an actual Business Page or establish a Group around your company or brand. Here are the step by step instructions you will need to get your business noticed on Facebook:

Facebook Business Page

Approximate time to set-up: 30 minutes
A Business Page allows other users to become fans of your business, contribute to your page, and receive updates that you send. Let’s get started:

Sign in to your existing account and from your home page click on “Advertising” on the bottom. Then click on the “Pages” tab at the top and hit the “Create Page” button. Then follow these steps:

1. Pick a category
   Remember that this cannot be changed later so make sure you select the best industry available for your business.
2. Enter your company’s name
   Make sure that it is exactly as you use it on your site to maximize return.
3. Upload a profile picture
   We suggest you use your logo, a picture of your products or location, etc.
4. Add your location information
   If you do not have a physical address and are solely an ecommerce site enter general information like “Texas” instead of a full address.
5. Add content
   You will want to put in as much information about your business as you can- pictures, notes, videos, etc. Make it personal to attract the maximum number of viewers.
6. Look for networks and applications that may be applicable to your business
7. Publish the page
8. Edit settings to target users and establish privileges
   Decide whether you want to have complete control over the page or if you would like those familiar with your business or brand to contribute also.
9. Update your page regularly

Facebook Group

Approximate time to set-up 5-10 minutes
A Group allows people to join and participate alongside your business as a member of the group. This is best for encouraging a personal connection with viewers. Let’s get started:

When signed in to your personal profile go to your groups by using the search bar in the top right hand corner to find the groups application. Then click on “Create New Group.” Then follow these steps:

1. Enter your business’ name
2. Set your network
   We recommend making the group available to all users to reach the widest audience.
3. Enter a description for your group
   This can either be a description of what your company provides or what you hope to accomplish through creating this group. For instance, instead of saying something like “Volusion’s user-friendly ecommerce software gives you the power to start, grow and manage your online business with ease,” you might say “Volusion wants to hear your feedback about our software’s scalability.”
4. Select group type
   Most likely you will choose “business.”
5. Select the sub-category that best suits your business
6. Enter some “recent news” that viewers may want to hear about
7. Enter your location information
8. Upload a picture
9. Enter your URL
10. Set your options
11. Set access for your group
12. Save
    It will ask you if you want to publish the story on your profile, which you should do so that all your friends can see that the group was recently created.
13. Invite your friends to join your newly created group
14. (Optional) You can create an advertisement to announce your group’s creation by clicking “Promote Group with an Ad”
    After designing the ad, setting the targeting (which gives you the approximate reach of your ad depending on your selections) and setting the budget your ad will be ready to go.

Why Brand Matters!

 

Building a Brand

Regardless if you’ve been in business for years or are just getting started, building a brand for your company is critical for your business success. When we think of a brand the first thing that comes to mind for many of us are large, well known companies like Target®, Starbucks® or Home Depot®. These companies have done very well at cultivating their brand, and although you may not be a huge operation like one of these, there is still a lot you can learn and apply to your own businesses by gaining a better understanding of these brands.

So what is a brand?A brand is more than just your logo, company name or tagline. Simply put, a brand is a promise - a collection of perceptions in the mind of the customer that must be delivered upon consistently. A brand is different than a product or service; it is intangible and delicate. Just like a reputation you need to guard your brand carefully and listen closely to what others are saying so you can begin to influence their thoughts.

The logos of a strong brand can elicit an emotional response. For example, when you think of Target the image of a red and white bull’s-eye most likely comes to mind. Not only that, but you probably think of clean and friendly stores, shopping convenience, and helpful customer service. You’ll also notice that your experience at different Target stores will be consistent. This isn’t just by chance. Companies spend a lot of time and effort assuring that the customer experience will be consistent across stores, sales channels and within the marketing plan.

To begin building a strong brand you’ll first need to identify your brand characteristics and values. These are guiding principles for your company. Think of the adjectives, attributes, or emotions that you want your customers to say or think of when they mention your company or share a recommendation with a friend. Make sure these guiding principles align with your mission and goals. By taking the time to define your core brand characteristics you will be able to build a stronger business identity. For example, many people associate Home Depot with empowerment and helpfulness. Starbucks customers loyally return for more coffee because of the feeling of luxury and the high standards of service.  After you have your core brand values determined, only then can you think about what your brand should visually look like.

Your brand is the foundation for your business including operations, service, and products and of course, all marketing activities. Bringing your brand to life means embodying the brand in everything you do. The brand should be reflected whenever you talk to a customer or develop new products. If you are truly living your brand you’ll see your core brand values reflected in the way you attack problems, work with vendors and suppliers and even how you choose to communicate to any employees within your company. How can you be sure your brand is reflected in everything you do? Continually think about your customers. Always ask yourself, will my customers view this interaction as a reflection of my core values? Regardless if it is a support phone call, a purchase experience, or a simple interaction with an employee, every interaction will influence a customer’s perception of your brand.

We mentioned that consistency is important when refining your brand perceptions. Here are a few tools to help guide your brand.

Customer Personas
This tool will help you to understand your audience. If you take the time to really get to know your base of potential buyers you’ll be able to narrow down your audience (if necessary) and find the niche that suits your business. Here are a few steps towards building out your buyer personas.

• Read everything they read. This includes magazines, blogs, and YouTube® videos, anything relevant to your target audience.
• Attend seminars and monitor conference topics.
• Talk with sales people, suppliers and vendors.
• Gain information by talking with customers who have and have not purchased your product or service.
• Capture data through your website. For example, how did they find your website, through a Google® search or a link on a partner site?
• Conduct interviews formally or casually.

The bottom line - get to know your audience inside and out. Understand their needs, wants, and frustrations along with their habits, likes, and dislikes. Learn how they digest information, gain insight into preferred communication vehicles, and most importantly listen to what they say. Your core values, and thus your brand, should align with the behaviors and expectations of your customers.

Style Guide
A style guide is helpful in delivering consistency across your brand. It is a handbook that can be distributed through the company and even shared with vendors or contractors who are doing design work for you. Included in your style guide are guidelines for color, logo, and typography usage. You can include copy guidelines and legal requirements as well. It may seem like extra work but choosing specific colors and fonts and ensuring that those assets are used across all customer facing materials can make a difference in the level of professionalism and output of your creative elements. Additionally, if you decide to hire someone to create or update a website, flyers, or other brochure ware you’ll ensure a consistent look and feel across your marketing materials.

Elevator Pitch
This is one of the most essential elements of your brand – your elevator pitch. Also referred to as a cocktail party pitch, this tool is your 10-30 second brief on your company. We’ve all been there; someone asks you what you do or what your company does and then you are presented with an opportunity to make a lasting impression on a potential customer. You need to convey who you are, what you do, and why you do it, all within a sentence or two. It’s best to have this prepared, practiced and refined for different audiences. This is your opportunity to shine while talking about your business. If there are multiple people in your office take the time to discuss your elevator pitches with each other. The more consistent they are the better – remember every interaction with any of your employees is a chance to influence prospective buyers.

Now that we have taken a deeper look into what a brand is and how to develop it, here are some tools to help influence your brand. It is important to remember that your brand isn’t just about your company it’s about your customers and the relationship you have with them. Engage your customers in your brand marketing.

• Use testimonials and customer success stories in your marketing materials.
• Collect feedback from your customers and directly address questions, concerns, and thank them for any praise.
• Leverage a variety of marketing channels, including forums or a blog. Invite your customers to join in a conversation.
• Talk about your customers, not yourself or your company, in marketing communications; address their needs and share solutions for their problems.

It’s important to remember a brand is more than a name. It's the entire essence of your business -- who you are, what you stand for, and how you back up your promises.

Your brand lives in the perceptions of your customers and you and others can influence that perception.

BUDGET IDEAS for Marketing

Effective Marketing...on a Budget

You don't need a huge budget to snare new customers—just effective marketing.

Getting the world to beat a path to your door requires more than just a great idea. You need to let potential customers know about your services or products—and why they should buy. But the whole idea of marketing can give you heartburn. How can you compete with all the slick ads on TV, billboards, and in glossy magazines?

Relax. You don't need to worry about the high-profile marketing that comes from big corporations. These companies probably aren't your competition, and there are lots of ways to attract customers without breaking the bank. Put a marketing plan together and find your USP !!

Like much of business, marketing requires planning, and putting a marketing plan together is the best place to start when you're thinking about attracting customers.

Even if your plan is just an outline, it will give you a profile of the people who are most likely to buy your products or services: who they are, where they're located, what they like, and how much they're likely to spend on the products or services you offer.

That's why a Basic Marketing Plan Includes:

The things that make your business different—and better—than the competition
How you'll get customers to notice what you have to offer
But it's the first point—what makes your business different and better—that you need to start with. Why? Your Business Whisperer drills new business owners in the importance of USP. No, not the University of Solve Problems, but Your Unique Selling Proposition and Unique Value Proposition. This means having a very clear idea why your product or service is better than the competition and what value you provide to your customers. Once you figure this out, the rest of your marketing plan will become easier to outline. Plus, you'll be able to recite what is often called "the elevator speech," which is a quick 30-second summary of what makes your company great.

Your USP should be simple and to the point—and something you can use as a tag line that follows your business name in advertisements, listings, and on your business cards. Perhaps affordability is what differentiates you from other plumbers, which is why you use the phrase, "plumbing fit for a king and priced for the rest of us." Or if your creativity is what's most important, you might add "one-of-a-kind weddings designed just for you."

Getting people in the door takes advertising—and more - Read Our Advertising Section for some additional wisdom and advice.

Once you have your USP, you'll want to think about advertising—and getting the most bang for the buck. This means things like buying a listing in the Yellow Pages, printing coupons, and advertising in local newspapers. An additional item to consider before embarking on expensive marketing campaigns is to be certain that the trademark associated with your product or service is not already being used by a third party. You don't want to spend a lot of money advertising when a competitor may already be using your trademark, or a similar trademark, in commerce. Make sure you have registered your company trademark federally (with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office) before investing significant business dollars in marketing.

To learn more about Trademark Search & Registration see our link on the bottom of this page.

There are other advertising opportunities out there, too. If you've put some thought into who your customers are, you'll probably know whether they read trade or special interest publications. If ad rates seem too high in these magazines, you can often get great exposure by listing in the classified sections of the very same publications.

While an ad can make people interested in your business, don't forget the power of word-of-mouth marketing. If you have happy customers, use these people as a way to get more happy customers. There's absolutely nothing wrong with asking satisfied customers to mention your products and services to their friends. And if you have a Web site or brochure, see if you can include a quote or two from your customers that sing your praises.

Use a short press release to get local or trade press coverage

Aside from the obituaries, we all like the idea of seeing our names in print. While a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal is a long shot when you're first starting out, there are other places where you can get press coverage. Your first press release—a simple announcement that goes to reporters—should announce that you've started a business in a certain location to sell particular products or services.

Once you've completed the press release, get in touch with local and neighborhood newspapers to find out which editors or reporters might be interested in your announcement. And if your business is in an industry that has its own specialized trade magazines, get in touch with those publications, too. While press coverage isn't guaranteed like advertising, getting your business mentioned by a newspaper or magazine can be very effective in attracting customers.

ESSENTIAL: Have information readily available with a brochure and Web site

What kind of information do you want people to know about your business? Advertising and public relations provide the basics, but you'll probably also want customers to understand a little more about what makes your business unique. A simple two- or four-page brochure can nicely explain things like services, products, and prices with both pictures and text. Your local printer may be able to help you create an effective brochure.

Keep in mind, though, that a good brochure is straightforward and explains the benefits of what you have to offer, rather than going into exhausting detail about the products or services you provide. That's where your Web site can come into play. On your site, you can start where the brochure ends and provide as many details as you think your customers will find interesting. Also keep in mind that just having a Web site doesn't mean people will find you. So unless you want to feel like you're running a lemonade stand by the side of an abandoned road, talk to your Web hosting company about how to get the most out of search engines.

ALWAYS: Keep marketing to your existing customers

One of the exciting things about running a business is happy customers—particularly those who keep coming back because they find value in what you have to offer. Make sure you stay in touch with these people! Ask customers if they'd like to be on your mailing list so you can keep them up-to-date with special offers. Remember: a direct mailing campaign has a higher success rate when it goes to existing customers who agree that you can contact them.

You'll want to keep track of these people in a database or spreadsheet. Sound like a chore? Hardly. It will be proof that the world is beating a path to your doorstep.

Need to Learn More about Patents and Trademarks - Go Here

Need More Help or Info Contact The Ad Marketing Guy Today

NEED a Leg Up, Try "BOOT-STRAP Marketing"

One of the most frequent questions I am asked; “I don't have a lot of money with which to market my small business. How can I grow it on a limited budget?”

Consider Bootstrap Marketing as a means to get your business, off the ground and out there in front of people.

Bootstrap Marketing is a systematic marketing approach for a business that has limited time, money or technical marketing expertise.  

It is based on the saying, “ He pulled himself up by his bootstraps”, a widely-known image in the 1800’s, when men wore boots that served as a piece of transportation equipment, equally useful for walking long distances or for riding horses. Clearly, a horse could take a person further, faster than would walking. Wealthy individuals had valets or coachmen to assist them in mounting onto a horse  or atop a wagon by leveraging the straps of their boots, together with the harness and stirrups, in order to swing a leg over the other side. The required energy, strength , and individual effort.

The phrase “ he pulled himself up by his bootstraps” evolved to a situation in which a person completed the activity of mounting his horse by applying energy, strength and individual initiative, rather than either relying on support and assistance of others. He chose to get a “leg up” instead of the less ambitious alternative of simply walking.   

Thus Bootstrapping. . . a bootstrap marketer uses intelligence and know-how to muster the energy, strength, and individual initiative to employ proven marketing techniques that will enable his business to go faster and further that it possibly could otherwise.

I chose this rather detailed explanation of the term, to provide imagery into what “bootstrapping”. It does take a little homework on your part to make sure that the money that you do spend is spent wisely. But with effort and a system you can get that “leg-up”.

The first thing you must do is to analyze your potential customer base.

• Who is your target demographic?
• What sex are they, how old are they, where do they live, how much money do they make, why do they buy from you, what do they read, watch, and listen to?
• Once you have a very clear idea about who your customers are, you will have a much better idea about how to use your limited resources most effectively to REACH OUT and touch them.

For example, I know an architect with a problem similar to yours. He works out of his house and all of his business comes from word of mouth advertising. That's great, except when it stops, or the mouths move to another state, retire, or simply stop talking which was the case when I saw him recently. He needed to bring in new business, didn't have a big budget, and didn't know where to spend what he did have.

So we went through the same exercise. It turned out that because this architect worked mostly on house remodels, his ideal customer was a young homeowner with a few kids who would rather add on a new bedroom than buy a new house. Armed with this information, we devised a small ad that now runs every Thursday in the Home & Garden section of his paper. "Remodeling? Free Consultation," his ad reads. He has plenty of business, and that small ad did not break the bank.

So you have to do something similar. Once you have an idea as to whom you are looking to attract, you can earmark your marketing and advertising money much more wisely and specifically.

The next thing to consider then is how you will attract this target demographic. An ad is only one of many tools. You need to identify some marketing methods that will penetrate your designated target market. Look also at what your competitors are doing. What kind of marketing tools do they use? Can you copy those?

BEFORE, we discuss any of these I must assume you have a website already in place and online! If not, stop reading and get that website, you are trying to put on the wrong size boots at this time- Now back to bootstrapping.

Some of the options you might consider are:

• Direct mail: Direct mail merchants can generate some very specific lists that you can use to send potential customers a flyer or other info. Make certain you have your website and a landing page established to have people go to online
• Always Use the back of business cards: Ever found a business card given to you a few months before, which says “Bob Smith, director, Bob Smith Associates”.. and wondered what Bob Smith does? Use the empty space on the back of your business card to list your services or position your business. It’s cheap and will attract clients, Better yet, use the back of your business card as a coupon, people will save it until they are ready to buy. A sure fire way of having people retain that card
• Telemarketing: Telemarketers can also generate very specific lists that the telemarketers can use to sell your product or services. Do not overdue this, and make certain you only call people who have an opt-in for phone calls.
• Trade shows / Local Exhibitions: If your target market attends a certain type of trade show, then getting a booth at one may be a good idea. The architect for example might attend a Home Show.
• Signs: A big, bold sign in the right location can be both cheap and very effective.
• Media advertising: If you cater to seniors, for example, buying an ad in a local senior newspaper is much cheaper than your local daily. Also, if you call a magazine near their ad deadline, you may find that they have space they have not yet sold (sometimes called "remnant" space) which may be available at a great discount. This is also true for the electronic media. Advertising in a media outlet that your demographic uses almost always works.
• Give a BIG Guarantee: If you truly believe in your product or service, guarantee it. Offer money back if they’re not 100% satisfied. Yes, a few people will abuse your guarantee, but you’ll attract more business in the first place.
• Give away unusual freebies: Pens with your logo are boring and forgettable. Thanks to powerful digital printing techniques, there are literally thousands of things that your logo can go on. I worked with an underwear company. We decided potential clients would better remember an underwear company that gave them an edible gingerbread man with tiny pants to remove and keep. Wild Yes, but it worked! It’s different and people talked about it for a very long time.
• Have outstanding customer service: Nothing attracts customers more than positive word of mouth from other customers. Customer service is your biggest weapon against rivals, especially those run by big corporations. Make it a central part of your business. If it’s important you are seen to answer the phone quickly, promise to do it within three rings or your service is free. You’ll soon make that a priority when you start losing money!
• Change how you answer the phone: Give your staff freedom to experiment with exciting ways to answer the phone. They’ll enjoy it and your customers should too. Just remember that the phone can be the first contact with a business; be aware of answering the phone in such an odd way that it puts callers off
• Offer a discount card: These are the cheapest way to reward your existing customers for their loyalty as you only give free product away to your very best customers. When they buy your product five or six times, they get the next one free. What a great way to say thank you
• Reward Customers who refer other customers with a Free Giveaway or even a Cash Coupon
• Support a cause: This is known as cause related marketing, and is a powerful way to get your business noticed through its support for a relevant charity or organization. Pick your cause carefully, commit to it in the long-term (better still form a partnership with them), and shout about everything you do to help it.
• Do what the others can’t or won’t: Analyze your competitors and pick the things you think customers demand but no-one delivers. They will probably be hard to execute, but should be worthwhile (and it’s because they’re hard that no-one does them). Talk to customers to find out what they really want.
• Co-Op Partners: Find a marketing firm, graphics firm, ad agency, etc that is just starting out, talk to them about a sweat equity campaign. Both of you contribute to the campaign and each of you shares the results. They get a commission on every potential customer you close. It may cost you more if successful, but cost you very little if it fails. Also a nice way for both of you to do some great business building.
• Reduce rates for repeat business: Buy more, pay less. Make sure customers understand that simple rule and keep repeating it. They will respond to it.
• Pick up the phone: The phone is the cheapest marketing tool you have. Don’t waste it on cold calling. Use it to phone leads or contacts, rather than just email them. In a world swamped with electronic communication, this is a great way to stand out
• NEVER lose your enthusiasm: The most important thing you can do to stand out it… something. Businesses that do something regularly tend to perform better than those that do something brilliant now and again.

Finally, once you have chosen an outlet, make certain to track your results. That way, you know what is working and what isn't.

Today’s Wisdom: A well- written press release sent to the right media outlet can generate a free story about you and your business that can not only be used for sales, but can be reproduced and used again and again to create credibility. The key is to generating interest with your press release is to be newsworthy.

.

GROW Your Email List

5 Ways to Grow Your Email Lists

It is one of the number one questions we get asked, "How do I get a bigger email list?" It's a loaded question and the answer for us is simple, "It depends!" I know it sounds like a bit of a cop out, but here are 5 Ideas to increase your read more. . . .>