The Faster They Come, The Faster They Leave

Too many businesses put on their marketing caps and think- quick sales and a lot of them, when the should actually be thinking about making sales to people that will result in the customer returning to their business, essentially bringing in the big dollar amounts. Even with web entrepreneurs, too many people just want quick hits to their site-or quick sales- so they buy AdWords ads through Google, or any other type of search ads, which usually only deliver a visit and sometimes a sale, but I highly doubt people go back to a site they got to, through search ads and then buy something again from that site. By the way, I'm not talking about affiliate marketing, I am just referring to businesses that actually buy search traffic and expect to build long term customers from that.

Back to the original discussion; every entrepreneur that wants to grow their new or existing business' customer base, should truly think about building a customer relationship. I know- you have probably heard that about a million times already, but have you thought and thought it through for your particular business? Each business is different and there is a different way of creating and continuing a strong bond with each customer for that business.

Sales and Incentives Don't Really Work.

Just about every business that exists in the world today, has probably done a sale or promotion in order to gain new customers. But from my experience, I don't really think it works. Sure- new customers do come in and sales might spike for the duration of the sale, but it goes back to normal levels after it is over. From retail experience, I can say that "deal hunters" only come out when there is a deal. If there is no deal, there is no sale. One may argue the point that you might get 1 out of every 20 people that come back, but that is a pretty small ratio.

Personally, I feel like putting a product on sale, cheapens the products overall image. Think about it- when is the last time you went to buy a Ferrari and you got a "deal" because Ferrari was having a "sale" on their F430's? I know I haven't! (And if you have, let me know, so I can go buy one.)

So, Not Giving A "DEAL" Brings In 0 New Customers, Right?

Wrong. Despite the fact that some businesses are "required" to run certain specials and sales, due to franchise requirements, if I don't have to run a sale in a business, I don't. Instead, I provide the BEST possible customer service and experience, out of any business in the industry, so I know that my customers spread the word that my location or my business is better than everyone else in the industry. You would be surprised, how many people are willing to pay top dollar, for an EXCELLENT experience. And I do mean excellent.

The point being, quality customer service not only keeps current customers happy, but helps build new customers. Going back to the fact that people talk, I always stress that building a quality and a long lasting business revolves around how loyal the customers are. From the trends I have personally seen, if a business dumps money into advertising, they will probably see some ROI, but to continue that ROI, they will need to keep advertising. Building a quality relationship with customers, keeps ROI where it is at- without those massive advertising dollars.

-I'm not discouraging advertising, but I always keep my main focus around building a qualitative customer base, not just a big one. (Having a big one is always a plus though, as long as it IS a quality one!)

Giving Stuff Away

Most of the time when people see that companies are giving stuff away...with no strings attached, it is a BIG deal among the consumers. I have mentioned before, if you have a service that is really amazing, there is no reason you should just give it away. There is however one exception to that, but it varies from case to case. Sometimes it is more beneficial to just give products away instead of putting that money towards advertising, simply because it creates more "talk" among your audience and it gives the ability to have people check out your product no matter what.

The benefits of of giving away products, definitely gets people IN your business and not just talk about it, as if they would have seen an advertisement. When someone tries out your product, it gives them an experience, whether good or bad. It will trigger them to come back or if they haven't been satisfied with the product, they won't. But giving things directly away, will definitely get the word out faster.

You usually see tons of product giveaways with retail businesses specifically food franchises because it is in particular what people want. Anyone would go out for a free dinner or dessert. It doesn't take much effort to drive people in when they aren't spending a dime.

Pros:

-Costs related to advertising and branding and minimal- Since you are just giving away what you have already produced or have in stock, you won't have to worry about setting up an advertising campaign, which can cost a lot, even though many small businesses don't have a big ad budget.

-Regain lost customers- People have bad experiences and businesses lose customers, it is just reality. However, when you giveaway products, there is a higher chance of regaining lost customers because a lot of people will be interested in getting something for free, it is the way a lot of people think. When they use your product again and see your service, they might be more inclined to come back.

-Possible media attention- Every business wants positive media attention. News channels are always on the lookout for ways to get "deals and steals" out to their viewers. Chances are if you tell neighborhood radio and TV stations about your product giveaway, they might talk about your business.

...and Cons:

-People try to play the system- We live in a world with greedy people, expect there to be people who try to play the system and get your product multiple times, it's always an issue, but at least you know your product is worth it.

-You have to be staffed- When a company is giving things away, traffic is usually double, triple, or even quadrupled. In order to provide the best service, you have to be staffed and your staff needs to know what they are talking about. If you aren't, it could negatively impact your business and break a customer base, instead of building one.

-There isn't a specific cost- Unlike when paying for set advertising, you don't know your full costs until your promotion is over with giving products away. You do incur the cost of however many products you give away, but that is a variable amount, unless you have planned to give a fixed amount away. Sometimes there can be virtually no cost if people are buying other products with their free product. You have to look at the bottom line at the end of the day.

Overall, the point of product giveaways is to drive traffic virally. Sometimes it works out well, other times it can work, but be costly if not mapped out correctly beforehand. Like always, there is a risk in business, but it is up to a business owner how risky they want to make it. You don't even have to give out massive amounts of products or even your own product. Holding a grand prize winner for a contest can drive traffic to your business by large amounts as well.

Cross Promotions

Many entrepreneurs own or are involved in multiple businesses at the same time. When involvements are in more than one business, there are numerous possibilities to grow all the businesses simultaneously. A lot of entrepreneurs, myself alike, market their ventures together. For example, I cross market my businesses in the same area, to drive customers from business A to business B. With online ventures, you can partner up your businesses so you can make the most out of traffic on all sites. If you try to get the most out of each customer, chances are that a customer that originally went to one of your locations or websites, will end up visiting two or more of your other ventures.

There are pros & cons to cross promoting your businesses:

The pros seem to outweigh the cons in my mind, but it truly depends on the situation. The maximum benefit you can get out of your cross promotion is cost effectiveness. When you market on the business you already have with one business, you aren't spending more promotion dollars to get that customer to buy more from you. You can essentially "swap" customers within your businesses and double up on revenue while spending the same in promotions.

Another good thing about cross promoting deals with reputation. When you are known to give great customer service and care with one business and people know you are behind another business, they will most likely look to that business when they wanted to buy something related to that industry. Your reputation can help you out big, when you are building new business or expanding your customer base.

If you partner up your businesses, when you are looking to sell, it may be easier to bring in the maximum dollars for your empire because the buyer will be getting multiple income streams. It might be easier to put a bigger price tag on the sale, but you have to realize if your ventures are partnered up and you want to sell only one, it might be difficult to spin off that business when people know it is a sister brand.

The big downside of promoting your businesses with relation to one and other is when something goes bad, it takes down all partnered businesses. If one of your businesses hurts its reputation or something goes wrong in the public eye, they will probably abandon all of your ventures that are partnered up with that one. People have a tendency to "boycott" sister brands so if people know that all the businesses are partnered up, they will stop using all services at once. This could destroy an entrepreneurs empire quicker than it was built, so this is one big thing to watch out for.

In conclusion, I truly believe that cross promotions are beneficial to an entrepreneur on many levels, but sometimes it is best to keep things apart. Only each business owner can decide whether or not it is best to link up their ventures.

What are your thoughts on cross promoting your businesses and brand partnerships?

Super Bowl Commericials

I'm not the only one to say this, but the Super Bowl commercials weren't really that great yesterday. However, one of the ads I always look forward to are the Budweiser commercials. They really have a reputation of having the funniest Super Bowl commercials. From what I can recall, I think they aired 5-6 ads yesterday and each commercial at $3,000,000 can add up. The question is how far should you go to strengthen your brand image?

If you look at the ROI for the Super Bowl commercials, it probably isn't as high as some other forms of advertising for Budweiser, or any company for that matter. The point of Super Bowl ads is not only reaching a large audience, but creating an ad that people talk about over and over, are entertained with, and the publicity that goes on beyond the 30 seconds during the game. I would have to say that unless an ad is worth talking about, my guess is that companies lose money overall with commercials aired during the Super Bowl.

While your business probably doesn't have the advertising budget that companies who advertise during the Super Bowl have, what should you be focused on in advertising and promoting your product?

Since I run a variety of businesses, I can say that there is no universal rule for promoting a business, but there is a general policy I follow when trying to get the most exposure. When I advertise I try to appeal to the widest audience by getting people talking about the way I promote. If you don't have creativity behind your promotions, you shouldn't expect the ROI to be as high as when people actually engage in your promotions.

-Try to get families involved-If your product is able to get families or communities to connect, chances are that your promotion will be successful. People are always looking to bring the family together every now and then so if your product or service can provide that, people will show a better response.

-Appeal to women- Studies always show that women are the main decision makers for households when there is a discussion about what product to buy. If you convince women, you might see a spike in sales after your promotions.

-Show a use for your product- Link your product or service as a way that can BENEFIT people's lives. You should adapt a universal audience when you promote, so you can relate to any age group.

-Feed the audience a reason to talk about your product- By either making something ironic or interesting, people will probably end up talking about how awesome your product seems or how stupid it may be. While you don't want to rub off as useless, you can make things ironic when you are promoting and people WILL talk about it.

It's Not Free...

The web is full of "free." Most of the stuff one the web that is "free," is just plain old garbage. Probably 95% of all blogs that give free eBooks that are "$500 values" are restating just a bunch of useless, irrelevant, and time-wasting information, in order for you to sign up to their RSS feed or capture your email address. Anything in the real world, that is given for "free," is usually useless as well. You see this a lot when companies promote their products and say "get this for FREE," but there is usually some sort of procedure with claiming your free product. Most of the "free" stuff out there is either a scam or is quite useless.

Now that I have established how much "free" is crap, let me tell you that if you have something really useful, don't say it is free. Whenever something is usually associated with the word "free," most people get the common thought of either useless or garbage, information or products. Now you will say, "Well what if my product is actually phenomenal and I want to give it away for free so people can actually use it and gain from it?"

Give away 1/2 of the product or service and charge for the remainder. Everytime I go blog-surfing around the web, I run across some money making blogs who are giving me a free eBook in return for my email address. Just to see, I have actually taken advantage of a few "free" eBooks and checked them out. Out of the 3 I read, 3 were the biggest waste of my time. Correct...100% of the "free" goods I scored, were completely useless to me. On the other hand, if the book was truly useful and I only got a few pages from it, I would have actually went ahead and PAID for the rest. Showing your audience that you have something they want by giving them a "preview" is a great way to actually promote your goods without being judged beforehand.

Blogger Timothy Sykes makes a boat load of cash each month from his blog and selling his PennyStocking DVD's also along with selling his TimAlerts service. This shows that people pay, for what is worth it. He has people paying month after month and they are only sticking around for one reason, it is because he is providing useful information that helps people.

Think about the movie trailers you see. Why do we go to the movie theaters or rent movies? Simply because the trailer shows us what to expect and if we like it we go ahead and PAY to see the movie. Your business should be no different.

But now you tell me... "Romil, you didn't answer my question, I said I wanted to GIVE AWAY my product." Well, if your product is REALLY and TRULY that amazing and you want to just give it away, then you should give it away. Know this- if your product is really great, people will spread the word about it and it will automatically market itself. But why wouldn't you want to make money off of something that is truly great? I would.

And a last thought...

Don't deliver some 1/2 baked sales scheme to the person you are trying to sell to. People aren't dumb. Don't say they are getting a deal or something is on sale, even if it is. Try to get them to get the preview or trailer of something and let THEM JUDGE. They will tell you what they think and it is their thought that really counts. If you have something great, people will NOT mind paying for it.

The Universal Approach

"Call now, and receive a free copy of ________!"

"Sir, can I ask you one question?"

"Let me know how I can help you!"

I've heard all of the above and I always ignore the above statements. All of these approaches try to get people interested to buy something, but usually never work. People these days have gotten so used to "The Universal Approach" that they really just ignore anything associated with any of the above phrases.

When you watch infomercials on TV, you usually hear statements like "Call in the next 5 min. and get extra _____" or "Receive an additional copy of so and so magazine," but have you ever questioned how many people actually buy into that? Probably not enough to turn a ridiculous profit on the product. It is because people need more. Consumers have heard the same incentives a few too many times.

"Sir, can I ask you a question?" I'm not sure how many times I hear this phrase every time I go to the mall, but it gets annoying. From one end of the mall to the other, there are probably 3 or 4 cell phone booths, where there are salesmen trying to sell me a contract with a different company by telling me "We can save you money." I feel like it is all a scam because they just want their commission, by selling me a contract for 2 years after giving me a one of those free phones. Though that is not the point, but instead the phrase "Sir, can I ask you a question," is a phrase that everyone ignores when they hear it in the mall by a salesman trying to sell a cell phone.

If you use Twitter, I'm sure you have got a direct message once or twice that says, "Hey ______, thanks for following, Check out my blog @ ________" or "Hi, __________, let me know how I can help you, check out my site." Now ask yourself if you actually read any of these messages or click through to the link sent in the message. I don't. In fact, I sometimes miss reading out on real direct messages people send because I get too many automated direct messages.

Now that I have established that there are a lot of universal catch phrases that people use in every industry, let's see how the ROI is on them. Considering I never order products from infomercials, I never stop to talk to the cell phone rep, and I never read automated direct messages on Twitter, the ROI on these phrases, are really bad!

Instead of using a universal approach of trying to attract new customers or new crowds to your website, try personalizing or changing things up. I'm pretty sure if that same cell phone salesman handed me a real cell phone to play around with, I would actually stay and listen to what he has to say. If a Twitter message had my real name in it, I would read it. By either doing the unexpected or personalizing things, the ROI in your time and efforts is drastically increased. Changing how you deal with each person you deal with whether it is trying to attract more people to your website or drawing more customers to your business, can really grab people's attention. By doing things the way your neighbor does them, will just give you the same outcome as your neighbor, which is nothing. People need change, so don't give them the same pitch everyone else is.

Social Networking to Your Advantage

Social networking is bigger than ever in today's world. Facebook, MySpace, and a bunch of other networks are growing everyday. So how do you use these to your businesses advantage?

Start up by creating accounts on the top social networks. Facebook, for example, has a great way to create a group for yourself, in this case your business, and invite people to join your group. It is a great marketing tool because the people in your group are in direct contact with what you have to offer. After people are apart of your group you can directly send them promotional offers, thus gaining advertising, without spending a dime, except for your time.
E.g. You are running a clothing company. Next time you get a new line of clothing into your store or if you have a promotion going on, give the users that are in your group an extra 10% off of their purchase. This will create a reason for users to join the group and make it easy for you to market your product, in return for a bigger deal to the customers.

Twitter is also a great tool, especially if you are an internet based business. Simply create an account on Twitter.com and people are bound to start following you. It is a simple network based on "tweets" (status updates of users), but widely used. Every time you have a promo going on you can update your status with the latest news and it will be directly sent out to all of your followers!

There are many more tools on the web that you can use to your advantage and grow your business to the next level, it is just in your hands how you want to tackle big task.

Promoting Your Business in a Sluggish Economy

As sales in most businesses are greatly impacted with a slow economy, small business owners have questions on how to improve sales. There are many things that can drive people to your business, but you should pick ways that are cost effective.

Advertising through local newspapers, at communities at events, and local sports events can be a great cost effective way of advertising. You can also donate products to local schools and have advertising work for you through sponsoring teams.

There are also ways to promote your business online by creating a website and starting promotions through the website. Create e-mail lists and frequently e-mail customers with coupons for savings.

Example: You are selling product X at your location, offer the product at a discounted rate online, or offer coupons online. This would promote your business through the internet. People would tell others in their communities about the website and you would be able to offer deals on there to get people to purchase more products.

Also for online businesses:

Team up to cross-promote your business with others in your industry. Contact other businesses at your level and advertise on each others’ websites. This would help insure more traffic to your website and in return you are directing traffic towards others.

--->Great option if you do not have much capital to invest in advertising.
Also offering deals if people purchase products within a certain time frame or offering free shipping for a limited time can potentially help people make the decision to buy something now rather than later. This would keep money flowing through the business.