Archives for March 2013

Planning a family reunion?

March 28, 2013 by

Family reunions are a wonderful way for extended families to come together. Having family reunions take place on a fairly frequent basis allows families to stay connected to one another as well as to honor the older generation, celebrate roots and renew familial bonds.

All families have their own unique way of celebrating, be it having a banquet or a picnic, going on a cruise or a retreat, or going camping together. Regardless of what activity is taking place during the reunion, it is a chance for everyone involved to be given a memory of family love that will last a lifetime.

family-reunionPlanning a family reunion can be a good deal of work, of course, but there are some helpful pieces of advice that can simplify things somewhat. One good tip is to give yourself plenty of time to plan things out, give each person his or her own tasks to help out with, and make sure that locations and dates are secured early on.

Another good tip is to prepare your budget for the reunion early on. Decide on the type of reunion you want and budget accordingly.

Filed Under: ezine

Tips for Entrepreneurs

March 28, 2013 by

tips-to-be-an-entrepeneurAny budding entrepreneur will agree that setting out on a brand-new venture can be a very daunting experience. Many entrepreneurs will be forced to dip into their own personal savings in order to find the capital to start and then operate and scale their new business, and it is often quite difficult to separate personal finances from professional expenditures, although there are some ways to avoid the more common pitfalls.

 

One of the main reasons many new ventures fail is a founder’s poor management of his or her own personal finances. The use of credit cards to satisfy cash requirements can result in a growing level of debt that is not registered on a balance sheet, and a company’s credit history can be affected by any debt that is not immediately paid off. The general rule is not to use credit cards at all.

 

The right kind of insurance policy is another crucial point, and personal insurance should never be used in order to fund business expenses. Separate insurance for your venture is the right way to protect your business.

Filed Under: ezine

Would You Like Bites With That?

March 28, 2013 by

The other day Hollie and I were on our way up to Perth and as usual the kids were in the back seat getting a little rowdy. So to keep them quiet we bribed them with a kids meal from Red Rooster.

Now I try not to frequent fast-food places very often, but when you’ve got kids in a car on a long trip… There’s not much else to bribe them with.

This particular instance of going through the drive-through, I ordered the kids their meals and ordered something for Hollie and I. Expecting them to come back with the total and ask me to drive forward (like they always do). So I was taken by surprise by what the little voice came back with next…

“Would you like to try 3 apple bites for just $1”

Now, why was it such a surprise to me that I was asked If I’d like something that I didn’t ask for?

Because it rarely happens in the big chain fast-food stores these days. I find it strange when you think that the “would you like fries with that?” concept was virtually made known by the fast-food industry.

It really is just cross-selling 101.

The customer comes in and buys product X, and you simply ask “Would you like to buy product Y for $” or if you want to be a bit more advanced you can educate them on why they would benefit from having product Y too.

Or even better, stack cross-selling on top of each other. A typical stacked cross-sell would be when you buy a video camera and then the sales-guy tell you why you need the fancy camera case to protect your camera, then he tells you how great your photos will look if you buy the tripod and finally you really must upgrade to the 32GB SD Card to make sure you never have to delete a photo…

The main reason that you want to cross-sell is that it increases the transaction value.

If we take the camera example, to make the math easy, let’s say that the camera is $500, and they bundle the case, tripod and SD Card for $200.

If every year, they sold 1000 Cameras, they are making $500,000 per year in camera sales.

Lets pretend that we instruct all the sales-people to say the following after someone purchases a camera “Did you know that we have this great camera essentials bundle pack that will allow you to protect your camera, take steady shots and make sure you never run out of memory on your camer!. It’s valued at over $300, but you can have it today for just $200”.you-want-fries-with-that

It costs ZERO dollars to implement this strategy but lets look at the results.

If 1/20 say yes they increase sales by $10,000
If 1/10 say yes they increase sales by $20,000
If 1/5 say yes they increase sales by $40,000

It’s possible that the results could be even better than that, but still $40,000 extra sales simply by asking a question 1000 times is pretty good in anyone’s book… I struggle to comprehend why the fast-food cross-sell is such a rare occurrence these days.

Just letting your customers know that you have additional products is the first step to cross-selling, and some great non-sales approaches to educating your clients about what you sell is with social media, ezines and of course our favourite – The monthly printed customer Newsletter!

So my challenge to you is with every customer simply ask “Would you like to buy Y too?”

Filed Under: Blog, ezine

Read My Face

March 26, 2013 by

red-my-faceThe old idea about the truth being written all over someone’s face may be closer to reality than most people realize. Aside from all those nonverbal signals that give away what someone is truly thinking and feeling, the state of our skin can also reveal a lot about what is happening to us healthwise, both physically and emotionally.

Although facial diagnostics is far from an exact science, it can certainly indicate whether we need to lead healthier lifestyles. One thing to look out for is the condition of a person’s skin in the mid-cheek area. The respiratory system is linked to our cheeks, so a mild rash could actually be an indication that a body is being starved of oxygen, and the individual may need to work on deepening his or her breath. Meanwhile, the mouth correlates to the stomach, and discoloration around the lips can be a sign of a poor appetite, bloating or even poor bowel movements.

Filed Under: ezine

Making the Online Learning Experience More Personal

March 26, 2013 by

online-learning-experienceOnline learning offers a number of distinct advantages, including the lack of commuting, greater flexibility and lower cost. On the downside, however, there can be an isolating quality to online learning. But the good news is that this does not necessarily have to be the case.

Students can help make their online learning experience that much more personal by taking note of some tips. Sharing with student peers through social media channels is one such tip. OnlinePlus, for one, is attempting to build communities for its students via Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Another tip is to join a discussion group. Most online courses come with discussion groups; a topic is chosen by a teacher and students are able to discuss it. This is also a terrific way to stay in touch and take conversations beyond the classroom.

Simply “being real” is another good tip. If people on a student site open up and share their real names and photographs, they can learn about one another and, in effect, become people to interact with rather than just usernames on a screen.

 

Filed Under: ezine

What Does It Mean To Be Someone Who Gets It?

March 26, 2013 by

people-who-get-itBen and I were speaking on the phone the other day. We were having an interesting conversation about the difference between people that get marketing and those that don’t.

I’ll back up a little – what has brought this conversation on is we’ve done a few newsletter suitability audits for business owners who “just didn’t get it.” This has always led to the person doing the suitability audit to shrug and say “some get it, some don’t.” Which is a little lazy, considering we just spent all this time, energy and effort to do the audit in the first place.

This time, for whatever reason we were a little more philosophical about the whole situation.

After much rumination it turns out there two key factors that people who ‘get it’ have that people that ‘don’t get it,’ don’t have. The two are:

Be Willing And Able To Track Results

The bottom line is unless you can attribute your results to specific marketing activities then every time you are asked to spend money you are going to be sceptical. I hate wasting money and I’m sure you do too. It drives me nuts to think that I have to spend money and not know what I am getting for it.

First and foremost, you need to be able to track results in order to ‘get it.’ It emotionally becomes much easier because you’ll quickly know if you’ve made a wise investment or else you’ve got a dud on your hands – then you have two choices: fix the dud or else stop spending the money.

The inability or unwillingness of the business owners to track results has led to advertising being sold the way it is these days. It also has led to many business owners being ‘irrationally cheap’ – expecting too much from too little.

The Ability To Use ‘Risk’ Wisely.

Due to the incessant babble of Stock Market and Finance experts the entire western world is conditioned to think that you need to take huge risks in order to reap huge rewards. This is not necessarily the case. The world is full of low-risk, high-reward situations.

For a couple thousand dollars I can get a half page ad in an industry magazine – I know that I only need one customer coming from this ad to say “yes” in order to cover the costs – that is a fairly low risk idea. I also understand that it could take more than a single insertion to get the average of one yes a month – it might take 3. And three ‘yes’s’ come in the third month.

There is a chance that it will fall flat on its face but by the same token there is a chance that it will work quite well too. A risk worth taking – the rewards of success are high relative to the risk of ‘failure.’

Marketing is psychology and maths. Great maths can overcome poor psychology, but great psychology can’t overcome poor maths. First and foremost you need to know your marketing maths. That’s what it really means to get it. Get it?

Filed Under: Blog, ezine

9 Reasons That A Monthly Newsletter Is A Must For Any Business, Big or Small!

March 19, 2013 by

Discover how newsletters can help you transform your business into a super successful entity with hoards of ‘raving fans’?

1 – Newsletters Can Help You Keep Customers

We all know that getting someone to buy a second time costs about 1/6th the effort as getting a new customer. But where do we spend most of our marketing dollars? On getting new customers…

Why is this? Mostly it is habit. We think that we need more business, and therefore we need new customers. But we don’t need as many new customers if your existing customer base is well-nurtured and feels looked after. Existing customers generally need to repeat purchase at some point – there are very few genuine ‘one-and-done’ businesses around, so continuing to stay in touch with them between purchases means they are more likely to buy from you the next time they need your products and services.

A print newsletter is a way to keep marketing to your existing customers without them realizing they are being marketed to. You can show up in their letter box every month. You can deliver great value to them with fun, interesting relevant content making their lives a little better. You aren’t perceived as selling overtly. And you can make them an offer every month too – giving them a chance to repeat. Point-black, there is a simple formula you need to follow if you want to keep your customers. We call it the 12 to 24X formula.

2 – Customer Retention And The 12 To 24X Formula

Let’s you look at your business like a farming operation. Your aim is to work a lot like a rice farmer. You see rice paddies actually get more productive the more fertiliser and hard work you put on them. You know those small family plots in rural Japan and China — the farmers are willing to work them so hard because they know that no matter how much they put in they will be rewarded even more come harvest time.

You can achieve something similar by understanding that your customers are similar to those rice fields. The more you put into them, the more you can get out of them. The way to do it is with the 12-24X formula.

Basically, you will stay in your customers’ minds and they won’t wander off or be swept away with your competitions’ offers if you stay in touch with them 12-24 times a year. This means you need to get in touch with each customer 12-24 times a year outside of sales offers and outright/blatant pitches.

With a monthly newsletter, you get the bare minimum 12 touches and then you can look to add season greetings, such as birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Anniversaries of conducting business, whatever is right for your customers.

But that monthly customer newsletter is the bedrock of the 12-24X formula. Of course you could take it to a whole new level using the internet, by sending out a touch every week or every day. It is entirely up to you. Before we get carried away with ourselves, start with the basics: a monthly print newsletter in their mailbox every month.

3 – Get New Customers

Newsletters have great pass-along value. More so than any other sort of marketing materials. They even seem to do better than education materials, such as case studies and reports or white papers. If an article in a newsletter is relevant, the recipient will pass it along to other people for the sake of keeping them in the loop.

So, say you sell shoes, and your newsletter has an article about how to know which shoes stay comfortable the longest, then one of your customers is probably going to pass it along to other people they know if they mention that their shoes are making their feet hurt… And odds are, they will tell that person:

A) they are a customer of yours, and

B) will point out to the prospect exactly what they should be reading…

Ta-dah. Referral.

How good is that?

How does that compare to other ways to get referrals? Most of them are a little less subtle.

Things like posters on the wall for choice of gifts with referral… Sending out referral solicitations…. Share with friends links in emails… Asking for referrals to the client’s face. None of them are as natural as passing along your newsletter and honestly telling the another person that they should be doing business with you.

Probably the best company in the world at getting referrals is Disney, and they work really hard at it. Their mission is to make your experience at Disney Land so magical that you can’t help but go home and tell seven people about it. That is a lot of work. It is also outside the budget of most of us mere mortals. A customer newsletter is very cheap by comparison, and it can be made to stealthily obligate customers into referring without them evening knowing it.

4 – Make Yourself The Credible Expert

Who publishes newsletters?

That’s right, experts.

So if you want to be seen as the expert in your market, then what should you do?

That’s right, publish a newsletter. Experts know more than other ‘vendors’ and by logical extension, more competent. However, in many cases they know as much as their competition. They just do a better job of explaining their expertise by giving out useful advice in their newsletters.

It is no secret that ‘gurus’ and ‘experts’ get paid more than their competition and that everyone wants to do business with the best in that particular market. So if you want to be been seen as the vendor of choice and be able to charge more for your products and services with less price resistance, then you need to publish a newsletter.

5 – Stand Out From The Crowd For A Few Bucks A Month.

How many of your competitors do a printed customer newsletter? Zero? Did I hear that correctly, none of them?

So you can stand out in a crowded market place by increasing the chances of your customers repeating and referring their friends, family and colleagues to your business just by printing and mailing a monthly customer newsletter.

That is a massive competitive edge and when your competitors figure out what you have done, they will try to copy you, but by then your newsletter will be on autopilot and you will be implementing more cutting-edge marketing strategies to increase the amount of business you are doing. All the while your competition is trying to catch up with their newsletter.

6 – Make You More Than Just Another Vendor

How do most business owners treat their customers? We have already discussed this a bit. They treat them like prey. To be hunted down and a few dollars extracted from their pockets. As you know this is a very short term way of thinking.

You should be in the business to make a sale to get a customer, not get a customer to make a sale. If you want to be getting customers and selling to them over and over again, then you need to build a relationship with them and you need to be more than the competition in the eyes of your customers and market.

The easiest differentiator you can implement is a monthly customer newsletter. It does more to make you appear to be more than another vendor in your market, than any other marketing tactic you can employ.

7 – Newsletters Have A Long ‘Shelf Life.’

In general, people are going to hold on to newsletters the longest out of any form of marketing. People keep newsletters until they have read them and may even save an article they like for later. Most other forms of marketing will be put in the ‘round file’ and promptly forgotten about the moment it is received or immediately after it is read.

Finally because they show up, bring fun, good cheer and useful information, newsletters are often passed along from one person to other people who might be interested in what you have to say. This means you get free marketing.

8 – Shows You Are Willing To Invest In Your Customers

What’s the difference between an eBirthday card and a Birthday card. One shows you care more than the other. The birthday card shows you got dressed and then went to the shops, browsed through the endless isles of cards, found one that was just right for the birthday boy or girl. Then you wrote them a personalised message and put their address and a stamp on the envelope and mailed it to them.

The eBirthday card shows you went to your computer (probably in your pyjamas) Googled ‘electronic birthday card’ and emailed them all without leaving your house and quite possibly your bedroom.

Which one is more highly prized by the birthday boy or girl? The real birthday card? It will sit on display for weeks or possibly months while the eBirthday card will be opened, read and left in the inbox where nobody will ever see it or it is deleted.

Which do you want? A newsletter that is read once and left in the inbox or something that is out on display for days, weeks or months for others to discover, look at and read?

Your newsletter is the same. Sending a ‘real newsletter’ shows that you are willing not only to write and design something to send your customers, you are willing to get it printed, put it in an envelope, write their address on it and mail it to them.

A world of difference in the perceived level of effort. Then your customers get the joy of opening the present in the mail every month. Even though they are expecting it, they still get excited when your newsletter arrives, every month.

Also, because it shows up in the mail every month, you can be sure that it is seen like their subscription to a magazine, a welcome guest that they are looking forward to.

9 – People Are Less Resistant To Reading Newsletters

People will read marketing materials with all their sales defences on. Conversely, your newsletter is seen as information. Not advertising. So they read it with their defences down. So all you have to do is leave your blatant selling out of your newsletter and educate the reader about your area of expertise a little at a time and you will be able to sell to your prospects without selling to them.

It can take a while for this sort of marketing to build up to the point where your customers will actually spend money with you again. Unfortunately you can’t predict when. When they do it is a sum of all the efforts you’ve made to keep in touch that has done it, not just the last newsletter.

To keep them reading your newsletter, it has to bring good cheer, be fun to read and provide them with some useful information, (nobody is as interested in your field as you are). They will keep reading with their sales defences down and they will be subtly brought round to see you as the expert, the ‘go-to-guy’ in your field and they will bring their business to you and refer their friends, family and colleagues to you.

Need More Information About Newsletters?

If you have read the above information and are still unclear if a newsletter would suit your business and would like some advice and guidance, then please request our Newsletter Suitability Assessment by clicking here or calling 1300 120 106.

Filed Under: Blog, Newsletter