Only cut the stuff that doesn’t work
Cutting marketing costs might be the first reaction to a downturn. But, those that thrive during tough times take advantage of the fact that their competition is cutting back. They actually forge forward and spend more on marketing (only on stuff they know works) in order to eat up market share while others are struggling.
I bring this up because I’m curious about what you are doing during the recession. What specific actions you’re taking to increase sales in these tougher times?
The recession can actually give you the benefit of lower advertising and marketing costs which allow you to test different marketing strategies more cost effectively so that when the recession ends you will be in a strong position to know what works for your business.
Note that I also said only to spend on marketing that works. All to often business owners are not aware of which marketing they are doing which produces a positive ROI. One part of gettting smarter with your marketing is learning how to properly measure and track what you are doing. It doesn’t have to be complicated but unless you do it you are shooting in the dark.
Starting Your Own Business in Ireland? Test Small First
A recent post on http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=114094 was from a PAYE worker looking at starting a business.
His post starts by saying “I am considering starting a small business. I have a business idea and i have spotted a premises that would suit.”
When I read or hear something like this then alarm bells start to ring. This sounds very much like putting the cart before the horse. Unfortunately it is all too common that people have an idea then spend a lot of money setting up the infrastructure such as leasing premises and shopfitting before really identifying if there is a demand for a service and what people will actually pay for it and whether it can be sold in enough volume to not only cover costs but also to return a profit.
Over the past 10 years with the booming Irish Economy some people might have been able to take this approach and get away with it. There was so much demand out there in the economy that if you had a half decent idea it could work. However no things have changed considerably.
When considering any business idea the number one consideration should be can I clearly identify my target market and can I reach them cost effectively?
In order to do this you need to carry out a degree of market research. The thought of this research also fills people with dread, you mean I need to stand there in the high street and ask people if they would be interested in this kind of service? Often people don’t like the idea and so decide to ask their family and friends if they think their idea is a “good idea” invariably this is totally meaningless and family and friends will most likely not be impartial and they may not actuially properly into the target audience.
In fact doing Market research in the form of a survey in my experience is of limited value. People often answer differently from what they would actually do. Saying they would hypothetically be interested in something and actually being convinced enough to hand over hard earned cash are not the same thing.
So how can you test a business idea to see if there is real demand without actually losing your shirt? The best way to do this is simulate what you would actually do to sell the product or service. Take out an advert, set up a website and drive traffic to it, take a stall at a market, send a direct mail campaign to the target market. In other words implement the same marketing campaing that you would plan to use once you had everything set up perfectly. From this you will be able to guage response.
If you are not in a position to actually fulfill the product or service in the research phase it doesn’t matter. How about measuring the response and then just telling would be purchasers that you are currently fully booked or sold out and taking their details for when you are ready to go properly.
This approach will give you a much better idea of whether the projections you have in your business plan are realistic. It also makes you think about how you are going to attract paying customers before investing large amounts in infrastrucure and premises. Far better to find out you can’t sell your idea to people before you have invested thousands of Euro getting it to market.
Don’t blame the recession for your business failure if you don’t have your house in order
With all the doom and gloom in the air and business owners complaining that the recession is killing their business. It surprises me that some of them seem to have just given up.
For example 4 days ago I sent an email asking for a quote to 5 different businesses. 4 days later and only one of them has bothered to reply to me.
This is not a unique experience. On the 21st April I submitted a web form enquiry for one company and they finally got around to replying to me on 3rd May! Either the businesses I am contacting are in the lucky position of having all the work they need and they don’t need to bother replying to prospects, or there are severe holes in their customer service processes.
So before you moan about the recession and how it is killing your business, you had better be sure that you and your staff are doing absolutely everything they can to maiximise the leads that you are already getting.
I know of plenty of busineses who are applying sound marketing and other business processes and are in fact growing their businesses in the current economic climate, when others all around them are dropping the ball.
Irish retailers how to cut thousands off your rent bill with simple marketing
On a recent family shopping trip to the Outlet in Banbridge we got some great deals on clothing and shoes for all the family. Coupled with that we found the service of the staff in just about all the shops to be streets ahead of their equivalents in Dublin.
Still the reason for this article is not to extol the virtues of the Outlet but to highlight a very simply step that one of these retailers took which can have significant impact on their bottom line. And it is so simple that just about any retailer (or other business) can adapt it for use within their business.
When I was in the Clarks shop buying shoes I brought them up to the cash register and the assistant asked me simply “Do you want to keep the shoes looking their best?”. I wasn’t expecting this question and so entered into a discussion with her and ended up spending and extra £3.50 on a small shoe shine kit.
With these 10 extra words she was able to upsell me to buying a shoe shine kit when previously I had not even considered this. This is a very simple and effective strategy and one similar to the fabled McDonalds phrase of “Do you want fries with that?”.
Lets look at the impact this can have to a businesses bottom line. Lets assume that this store serves 100 customers per day and out of this 20% agree to the upsell that is an extra revenue of £70 that day that the store wouldn’t have otherwise got. It may not seem like a lot but over the course of a year based on a 6 day week it comes to £21,000. Which I’m sure would go a long way to helping pay the rent or a staff members wages.
So how can you apply this to your business? When your customers are already about to buy and have their wallets in hand is an excellent time to ask them if there is anything else they need. After all you are there to serve them by meeting their needs, you owe it to them to make sure you have met as many needs as possible.
In these challenging economic times it is all to easy to admit defeat or whine that rents are expensive, but sometimes implementing a simple strategy, like this upsell, could make a significant difference to your bottom line.
Irish Spa and salon marketing course
Better Business Results have teamed up with ISSS and Uisce Day Spa with to bring you a brand new course designed to help you break through the economic doom and gloom and show you…
What Really Works in Irish Spa & Salon Marketing
Who is this course for?
This comprehensive 1 day workshop is for self employed Spa industry professionals and the owners of spa businesses.
Are you struggling to get new customers and do you find that your existing marketing is ineffective?
Are you frustrated because you are a really skilled therapist but just can’t seem to atract enough paying customers?
If the survival of your business in the current economic climate is keeping you awake at night then this course is definitely for you.
What does the course include?
The course is broken into 12 key areas:
1. The Misleading Myths and Lies You May have been told about Marketing
2. What Marketing Really is
3. The 3 Ways to Grow Your Spa/Salon Business
4. What is a USP, Why you need one, and How to create one
5. Understanding the Life Time Value of a Customer
6. How to Drive Low Cost leads into Your Salon
7. How to Win More Sales – Turn looker into Buyers
8. How to Get Customers to Spend more each time they visit
9. How to Keep your customers coming back for more and more often.
10. Why Your Customers are your quickest way to more sales
11. How to partner with other complementary businesses
12. How to Advertise for maximum response following a simple formula that works
You will leave with a detailed business growth blueprint which details specific tasks you and your team need to take to dramatically increase the turnover of your business.
You will also walk away with a marketing manual that contains many more marketing secrets for you to apply to your business.
What will I learn from the course?
- 9 low costs ways to get all the leads you will ever need
- 12 ways to increase the value of each customer
- Keeping your customers coming back for more
Course Details
Course fee: Normal price €350 special introductory fee of €250
Date: Sunday 10th May 2009 - starts 9.30am and finishes at 5.00pm
Location: Uisce Day Spa, Suite 2, Celbridge Town Centre, Celbridge, Co. Kildare
For bookings please call: 01 6279899
Find out what your competitors are upto online
Have you ever wondered how your competitors seem to rank above you in the google adwords listings? Or perhaps you would like to kno just how much they are spending to get that coveted position?
Well there is a handy resource that allows you to spy on them and see all this information and more. Keyword Spy is a very easy to use tool and you can get a lot of vlaue out of it by just using the free trial version.
I started to use it recently and it does become quite addictive to see what people are bidding on and typically how much it can cost per click in different industries for different keywords.
The paid version of the service gives you even more detail and lots of very valuable information. If you are using pay per click marketing in your marketing arsenal then you should definately give Keywordspy a try
Play to your strengths
If you think back to why you started your business more than likely it was because you had a talent or a high level of know how on how to do something.
You started your business with high hopes knowing that you could do a great job making your special widget or offering a great service.
Fast forward to now and more than likely you are finding that you are having to spend an increasing amount of time on things that you aren’t necessarily good at or don’t like to do.
Things that every business needs like accounting, financial management and of course sales and marketing.
The trouble is if you don’t like doing these things then often you will end up leaving them on the long finger and instead doing the tasks you enjoy.
Over time this can have a very detrimental effect on your business as your new leads and customers will dry up.
Better Business Results has the solution. We can take care of your marketing for you. Not just telling you what to do but actually implementing it and managing it for you.
Rather like you having your own in house marketing deprtment but at a fraction of the cost.
So if you are too busy with the day to day of running your business why not let us take care of your marketing. We love doing it, it is our strength, and we will get you results.
To find out more contact us now
Do some marketing every day
One of the best pieces of advice for any business owner is to make sure you do at least one thing each day to market your business. On your task list each day should be one marketing activity.
I try very hard to follow this advice within my own business. So even when I am knee deep in client work and business is booming I try to do at least one thing to keep the pumps primed for the future.
So what can you do today that might pay dividends in the future? Here are some ideas to get you started:
Identify a potential joint venture partner, contact them with a view to opening a discussion about working together
Write an article and submit it to an article directory with a link back to you website in the resource box (we recommend this to really leverage your time http://www.betterbusinessresults.com/resources/uniquearticlewizard.html)
Set up a Google pay per click campaign to drive targetted traffic to your website
Send an offer out to all of your past customers
Post on your blog (you do have a blog don’t you?)
Write a press release and submit it using something like http://www.prweb.com/
Cut out and send an article of interest to a past client
I’m sure you get the picture. What have you done today to market your business. Doing one small thing each day will equate to over 200 things in a year – do it, it will make a significant difference to your bottom line.
Why 1 is not the magic number
One may have been the magic number in Jill Scotts song, however when it comes to the marketing of your business it really shouldn’t be.
In order to build a firm foundation for your business you need multiple marketing channels, this way if one suddenly stops working then your business can continue. How many different marketing methods are you using in your business? If it is just one or two then you are taking a big risk.
Don’t make it hard for your customers to do business with you.
I need to get my car serviced so remembering a flyer I received from a garage in Maynooth I decided to give them a call to book my car in. The phone was answered after a number of rings by a guy called Gary. I asked him for details of their service. ‘Sorry’ he replied ‘you need to speak to Damian he deals with the bookings. He’s not here at the moment can you call back in 15 minutes?’
I was stunned, here this business had a hot prospect on the phone and he was asking me to call them back in 15 minutes? This is like flushing money down the toilet. How much better would it have been to say ‘I’m really sorry but Damian, the person who manages the bookings is not here. Please can I take you name, number and make and model of your car so he can give you a call back with a price when he gets back in the office’. Had this happened I would have happily given my details. Damian could then have called me when he was back and this garage would have secured itself something in the region of €300 worth of business.
All too often business owners focus all of their money and effort on advertising for new clients. When new clients do not materialise they blame the advert, however often the problem can lie closer to home.
There is not much point walking 5 miles to a well to collect water if you have a leaky bucket. In the same way there is little value in spending money to attract leads if you do not have a proper process to treat them properly and try and convert them.
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