Posts filed under 'Small Business'
Tired of spending all your money on advertising and marketing that just doesn’t work? Here are 10 cheap ideas to grow your business without breaking the bank!
1) Market to Former Customers and Clients. It costs less than marketing to new customers. Make them an offer they can’t refuse, such AS $5 off their next purchase.
2) Join Associations, professional organizations, and civic and charitable clubs. Get involved and become a leader. You’ll make great contacts that can lead to future business. Also, thank new members who join your organization by offering them a coupon or sending them a postcard for a discount or something free.
3) Reward Repeat Customers. Offer a frequent-purchase card to track their spending.
4) Use Coupons to enhance your sales. Give them a reason to TRY your business.
5) Follow the Rule of Three:
*Forget cold calls. Make three warm calls a day to prospects whom others have referred to you.
*Collect at least three business cards a day.
*Send at least three notes each day to people thanking them for their business or something they did to help your business grow.
6) Encourage Word of Mouth from Your Family, Friends and Associates. Your best advocates will be those who already know you and like you. Encourage them to tell others about your products and services. Sometimes they just need the nudge to get started. And then reward them for doing so.
7) Send press releases prior to having an event or a contest or write articles for publications in your industry.
8) Create and send a newsletter or e-zine (newsletter sent via e-mail) to your customers to keep your business at the top of their minds. Include tips on flower care, positive news events, specials, discounts and coupons.
9) Give Stellar Service with a 100-percent, no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee. It will give your customers a sense of ease in doing business with you and build their trust.
10) Partner with Other Companies to promote your business. Find companies with similar customer demographics that are not in competition with your business and create ways to joint venture with them either on a one-time, long-term or event-by-event basis.
For more tips like these check out Rose Marketing on a Daisy Budget: How to Grow Your Business Without Spending a Fortune by Heidi Richards Mooney
July 27th, 2009
Set your sales on fire without extravagant spending by following these red-hot marketing tips
“In all things, success depends upon previous preparation. And without such preparation, there is sure to be failure.” – Confucius
Confucius could have had a flourishing business by following his own advice. Not only can preparation lead to success, but it also can help you do so without spending a lot of money. After all, with careful planning, you can achieve sizzling sales without the need for expensive advertising or marketing promotions.
Be smarter than the competition
In today’s ever-changing business climate, just keeping up with the competition isn’t enough. You have to outthink, outsmart and outdo them. How? By getting to know what they do and how they do it.
Find out your competition’s strengths and weaknesses and what products and services they offer. If the shop down the road sells gift baskets, offer more choices than they do—or better products. If the competition opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 5 p.m., consider opening earlier or closing later.
Look for ways to make it easier for customers to do business with you. The slightest increase in customer convenience will yield larger and even more frequent purchases. Plus, providing the products and services they want will keep them coming back.
Reward repeat customers
Design a customer-appreciation program to recognize customers who repeatedly purchase from you or who refer others to your business. Send them thank-you notes or small bouquets. Thank them in your company newsletter. Pick up the phone to thank them, then offer a special discount for their loyalty during your conversation.
One day a long-time customer came into my shop, Eden Florist & Gift Baskets, to purchase flowers. When I thanked him for doing business with us, he said, “I buy so many flowers here, I should get frequent-flower miles.” He was right! In fact, soon after his visit, we began creating a computer-generated Frequent flower petals card for that very purpose. The card rewarded customers with a free bouquet after they purchased 12 $25-minimum-price floral arrangements.
To more easily track customer purchases, our computer records each transaction. Thus, if a customer orders by phone, we still can track the number of purchases. When that person reaches 12, the employee taking the order asks the customer to whom they’d like to send their “free” bouquet. It’s not unusual for customers to send the arrangement to themselves.
If they choose this option, don’t forget to enclose a card thanking them for their business. Customers who appreciate your gesture are likely to recommend your business to family, friends and business associates.
Practice ‘rainmaking’
Rainmakers are people who connect other people through referrals, whether it is friend-to-friend or business-to-business. Referrals are the easiest and least expensive way to make your business grow. Start by instilling a referral mindset into your friends and customers. People don’t necessarily know you want more business unless you tell them. And even though your friends may buy from you, they may not think to tell their friends and family.
Though one of my greatest sources of referrals today is my friends, that wasn’t always the case. In the past, I had one or two friends who constantly sent business my way. However, the majority of my close acquaintances did not. One day, I mentioned this to a friend. Her reply, “I didn’t know you wanted more business.” She is now one of my best references.
Some people are hesitant to ask friends for referrals. Why? If you believe in your product and have a passion for your business, it’s a simple request. After all, friends want friends to succeed. And, if they know they have contributed to your success, it makes them feel good about themselves.
If you feel uncomfortable about tooting your own horn, consider the idea from the perspective of finding a great restaurant. After having a wonderful meal, most people are eager to share the experience by telling their family and friends about it. Flowers and food are both emotional purchases—purchases generally made with the heart, not the brain. When you want to eat out, you go to one of your favorite spots, or you try a new place that offers your favorite dish. The same applies to flowers. People go where they know they can find the products they want or people who understand their needs.
Based on emotion alone, referring your business will be easy for your friends and family. And, when the referrals come in, don’t forget to thank the friends and family who made the suggestions. Send them notes and a product sample. Make sure your thank-yous reflect your appreciation for the extra business. An added bonus to this technique is that you’ll surprise people when you thank them, putting you at the top of their minds when the opportunity to make a referral happens again.
Follow-up and follow-through
One of the surest ways to keep customers is to follow up after a purchase. Follow-up accomplishes two important things: It helps you find out whether the customer was satisfied, and it gives you the opportunity to build a positive relationship with that person.
Happy customers may tell as many as three people about their positive experience at your business. This may not seem like it can have much of an impact. But when you compare it to the number of people who will hear about a customer’s unhappy experience—typically estimated as eight to 10—then the number of those passing on their positive experience becomes that much more important.
Besides, if you don’t follow up with a customer, you may never even know he or she had a negative experience. Those people will simply take their business elsewhere. Taking the time to inquire about a purchase after the fact shows your customers you care about their business. It also helps build a lasting relationship with your customers. Not only that, but when you resolve a complaint favorably, you’re likely to increase the chance that the customer will refer you to others.
If your shop is too busy to follow up with every customer after the sale—then at least do some random sampling of your customers. Although a random sample may be less accurate, it will nevertheless provide you with an idea of how a portion of your customers views your business.
To make the task easier, call two or three customers/recipients each day. You’ll impress the recipients, who will want to do business with you, and both the sender and the recipient will know you care. In fact, on more than one occasion when an employee at Eden Florist has called a sender or recipient, that person has ordered an arrangement during the thank-you phone call. So your efforts can certainly pay off.
And don’t forget to follow through on anything you promise you’ll do for a customer. Make it a habit to deliver. When you do, your customers will trust and respect you. And your sales will sizzle!
For more tips like these check out Rose Marketing on a Daisy Budget: How to Grow Your Business Without Spending a Fortune by Heidi Richards Mooney
July 25th, 2009
Did you know that on this date in history 1889 Formerly known as Customers’ Afternoon Letters, the Wall Street Journal began publishing under it’s new name? “The Wall Street Journal is a special paper for people in the business and economic communities, yet it goes far beyond that designation in its treatment of the news. The Journal gives precedence to stock market tables and other financial news, but it also prints personality profiles, sociological background articles, and other items on the edges of the “hard” financial news.” (Source: TriviaLibrary.com)
Wall Street Journal Trivia:
Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser founded the Wall Street Journal in 1888 as the Customers’ Afternoon Letters.
Won its 1st Pulitzer Prize in 1947. Since then, it has won several Pulitzer Prizes.
From 1940 to 1970, the paper’s circulation grew from 35,000 to more than a million.
The Journal never prints photographs, only ink dot drawings called hedcuts, introduced in 1979, rather than photographs of people, a practice unique among major newspapers.
The Wall Street Journal Online was launched in 1996 and boasts one of the highest online paid circulations of any journalist media today.
Every Thanksgiving the editorial page publishes two famous articles that have appeared there since 1961. The first is titled “The Desolate Wilderness” (about what the Pilgrims saw when they arrived at the Plymouth Colony). The second is tited “And the Fair Land” written by Vermond C. Royster whose Christmas Article has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal every Christmas Day since 1949.
In 2005 the Journal reported a readership profile of about 60 percent top management, an average income of $191,000, an average household net worth of $2.1 million, and an average age of 55
Sources: Wikipedia and TriviaLibrary.com
Today is also Ziegfeld Follies Day!
Florenz Ziegfeld, one of America greatest theatrical producers created the Ziegfelc Follies and from 1907 until his death in 1932, his Ziegfeld Follies were a highlight of New York entertainment. The Follies were famous for their elaborate staging, big stars of the era such as Fannie Brice, Eddie Cantor, Will Rogers and W.C. Fields. The Follies became best known and loved for the trademarked beautiful chorus line. Before the Rockettes becamed a girls dream job, girls of his day dreamed of being a Ziegfeld girl!
Other notable events on this date include:
1933 Public Works Administration becomes effective
1909 1st pro baseball game, minor league, played under lights
1870 Congress authorizes registration of trademarks
1835 Liberty Bell cracks, again
1796 U.S. State Department issues 1st American passport
Source: Brainyhistory.com
July 8th, 2009
Did you know that June 27th is Sunglass Day?
Or that smoke tinted glasses were invented in China circa the early 1400′s? However, instead of using them to guard against the sun’s rays, Judges wore them in court so nobody could see their eyes. This was to keep people from figuring out what the verdict was before it was declared.
In fact, the military was among the first to commission glasses that would protect pilots from the sun’s glare. And sunglasses didn’t really become used by the public en masse until the 1960s when a sunglass manufacturer and ad agency came up with the “Who’s Behind those Foster Grants?” ad campaign.
In 2002 Sunglass Hut International joined forces with The Weather Channel as marketing partner of Rays Awareness.
Sunglass Hut supported The Weather Channel by sharing its expertise in eye safety and sunglass technology.
Each of Sunglass Hut’s 1,700 stores supported the program sending email notices and updates to consumers.
The Weather Channel featured eye safety tips and co-branded public service announcements and on-air segments promoting Rays Awareness throughout the summer.
In addition, the network shared data and statistics with local schools, civic groups and community boards.
Maybe you could contact your local advertising specialty company and order those cool sunglass clips for cars. Have them custom imprinted with your company logo. Every time your prospect unclips or clips their glasses on in the car, your company name is front and center. These items are a hit with everyone and everyone uses them! Donate a few of them to local business or civic organizations during one of their events.
Or do what Charlotte Russe (the boutique store) is doing. Charlotte Russe is running an exciting promotion with Seventeen Magazine! CR was featured in the table of contents and on the cover of the June issue. From 5/5/09-6/30/09 Seventeen readers can bring in the issue and receive a free pair of sunglasses from Charlotte Russe (while supplies last).
What company could you partner with to create a community service campaign while promoting your product or service?
June 26th, 2009
May 13th is Receptionist’s Day – Otherwise known as make friends with the gatekeepers’ day. What kind of things can you think of for the Gatekeepers of the World? How about dropping by and saying Hello! If you have been trying to get past a gatekeeper, and doing so by phone, showing up in person can really be a bonus. Make sure you don’t arrive empty handed. A small token of some sort can go a long way. Movie tickets, a box of cookies, a single flower…
May 13th, 2009
May 3-9 is Teacher Appreciation Week
– OfficeMax partnered with Marvel Entertainment and TeachersCount in a nationwide contest to find the “OfficeMax Super Hero Teacher of the Year.“ Of the 4,200 entries submitted, six winning middle school teachers and the students who nominated them were announced in June, 2008.
The 12 winners are now featured as illustrated characters in the new custom comic book.
Send your favorite teacher a card, bring an apple to school (or a whole bushel) or a beautiful bouquet of flowers!
Excerpt from the book “Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany & Non-traditional Holidays (the original holiday marketing guide) ~ www.QuirkyOffer.com
May 3rd, 2009
Blog Stats, Comments and Being a Pro
Last post I talked about adding photos and videos to your site as well as promoting your blog on social networking sites. Today’s tips are about the look of your blog, blog statistics and building relationships with your readers.
Tip # 7 ~ Make your blog look professional. Make it easy to navigate and find things. Use the tools in your blog software to add keywords, word tags and categories. Add a site map to your blog so visitors can do a quick search of topics that interest them. If a calendar will enhance the visitor experience, add a calendar. Create a blogroll of blogs you follow. This is your way of referring other blogs to your reader.
Tip #8 ~ Keep track of your blog metrics/statistics. Most blog software either has the stats feature built in or has a plugin you can use to keep track. Things to know are you most commented on posts, most popular posts, inbound links and referrals and more. What questions or keywords are being used to find your blog in the search engines? Google Analytics, Woopra, and Statcounter can give you lots of data such as where your hits are coming from.
Knowing what your most popular posts are lets you know what your readers read and are attracted to. This can help you hone in on the messages that resonate with others. Check your blog stats on a regular basis. Some bloggers check their blog stats at least once a day and others once a week. Checking blog statistics can be addicting so you must determine how often you should check the stats to get the information you need.
Tip #9 ~ Develop relationships with your readers. Respond to their comments, visit their sites and leave a comment. Drop them an email and thank them for commenting. Find out more about the people who are interested in what you have to say. If someone is leaving a comment, chances are they want to be noticed. Make sure you notice them. If you like what they have written on their own blogs or websites, find ways to mention them on yours.
Answer questions in your comments section and ask your readers questions. When you respond to your readers comments it lets them know that you are reading what they say and it validates their reasons for leaving comments in the first place. This may also encourage others to also leave a comment on your blog and others. One of the coolest tools that I just learned about is CommentLuv at www.commentluv.com. Every time someone leaves a comment on your blog it automatically shows the title of their latest blog post.
CommentLuv was recently added to all my blogs ~ I will let you know if it increases followers or not. Everyone I have spoken with who has it on their blog, loves it!
April 24th, 2009
… and get your audience to buy more of what you have to sell
Any good copywriter will tell you words sell products (and services). Many times people will look at a picture and have the desire to achieve an outcome or be like the photo portrays but it’s the words that get most people to hand over money for your product or service. Words tell the story behind the picture. Words will make your copy stand out, get noticed and more importantly get results! Before you publish a single word, here are four tips to get you started.
1. Take a look at your product or service from the customer’s perspective. Make a list of all the benefits (what the customer will gain from using your product) and features (the reasons or justification for buying the product). Prioritize your lists in order of importance.
2. Now look at what makes your product different or superior to your competitor’s products. What do you offer that your competition does not? This is called positioning. Positioning will help you develop the right strategy to sell.
“Customers don’t want to be befuddled by specialized language any more than you want to be hit with all medical lingo when you go to the doctor. So, speak, write, and present in a language and manner the audience will understand.” Dave Green
3. Who is your target audience? What are their needs, wants and motivations to buy? Are they rich, poor, educated, young, older, professionals, blue collar workers, etc.?
4. Create your plan. What do you need to say to get your point across and how many words or “copy” will you need to make your point. While it is not always the case, a general rule of thumb is that the greater the investment in a product or service, the more copy you will need to convey the message. Keep in mind, there are exceptions to this rule. Simple products/services with well-known (evident) benefits will require less explaining than those that are more complicated.
Reprinted from WORDS THAT SELL! Finding The RIGHT Words or “WRITE” Words To Get Your Point Across, Get Your Reader to Take Action and Get Your Info Products Noticed! And more importantly Sold! Including 229 Words & Phrases that PAY! This special report is available when you sign up for Cashing in on Info Products at www.cashinginoninfoproduct.com by Heidi Richards Mooney
In the next post I will share 5 more tips to jump-start your copywriting
April 8th, 2009
Amateur radio is a community of people that use radio transmitters and receivers to talk to each other. They are called ham radio operators, “hams” and even CB’rs. But, it’s more than just a high-tech hobby. Ham operators very often play a vital role in emergency communications. Ham radio has been used for years as a way to get messages out during national disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and other life-threatening incidents that happen when normal means of communication are lost.
Ham radio operators use their amateur radio station to connect with individual hams as well as participating in round table discussion groups or “rag chew sessions” on the air. In fact, some participate in regularly scheduled on-air meetings with other ham radio operators. Interestingly these meetings are called “Nets” (short for Networks). These meetings are generally moderated by a station referred to as “Net Control”
Many people start their involvement in amateur radio by finding a local club. Clubs can provide information about licensing, local operating practices and technical advice as well as educational programs. New operators can study independently by purchasing books or other materials, sometimes with the help of a mentor, teacher or friend. In addition, many countries have national amateur radio groups or societies which encourage newcomers and work with government communications regulation authorities for the benefit of all radio amateurs.
The oldest of these societies is the Wireless Institute of Australia(formed in 1910). Other notable societies include Radio Society of Great Britain, the American Radio Relay League, Radio Amateurs of Canada, the New Zealand Association of Radio Transmitters and South African Radio League.
Some Ham Radio Lingo you should know:
“Copy” indicates how well communications are received. “I have a good copy on you” also used as a question, as in “did you copy?” (means to understand all)
“Come back” means to say again or your turn to talk.
Hamfest is a ham festival, a social and commercial event at which hams meet to buy, sell, and swap equipment.
“Roger” or “Roger that” means “I understand that.”
“Handle” is someone’s personal or ham radio name.
“Mama Bear” ~ female police officer.
“Smokey (Smokey Bear)” ~ State police officer who generally wears a Smokey the Bear style ranger hat.
“73” is Best regards
“88” means Love and kisses
“807” is the ham radio operator’s term for beer.
For more Ham Radio Jargon visit http://www.ac6v.com/jargon.htm#C
To learn how Ham Radio Works, check out www.howstuffworks.com/ham-radio.htm
Check out this guide to new ham radio operators www.eham.net/newham
For a great Q & A on Ham Radio, visit www.hello-radio.org/hello/whatis.html
Even with the advent of the internet, skype, Facebook and Twitter, there are still more than 6 million ham radio operators in the world. Tie in with or become a Ham Radio Operator and you have a whole new group of people to share your knowledge, expertise and resources with.
Makes you want to say… “Time for an 807”
“73” for now.
April 7th, 2009
Did you know April is National Humor Month?
No wonder April 1st is April Fools Day ~ a day for fun pranksters to have some fun playing innocent “jokes” on others (at least they should be innocent)
And Funny Sells! Just ask Sarah Lefton! Her quirky sense of humor and her Jewish pride were the impetus for a successful home based business. As the marketing director for a Jewish summer camp at Yosemite National Park, Lefton discovered that by changing the emphasis of the word Yosemite she created “Yo Semite”. She silk screened the term on a few T-shirts for herself and wore the Yo Semite T-shirts around the streets of San Francisco. People started coming up to her and asking her where they could buy one. Two days later, she had taken orders for 36 shirts and her Internet based business, Jewish Fashion Conspiracy was born.
Her Yo Semite shirts took off and Lefton has now added additional designs to her product line. They include Chanukah panties, and a “Jews for Jeter” shirt to honor the New York Yankee’s star Derek Jeter. She created her designs as a way to celebrate being Jewish and have fun at the same time. Her ingenuity and humor has received media attention from a variety of Jewish publications as well as Time Magazine.
Beginning at midnight April 1st, I will be posting April Fools quotes, trivia, humor and history. If you’d like to join in the fun, follow me at http://twitter.com/heidi
For more great ideas like this, check out my new book Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Promote Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays.
April 1st, 2009
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