How Can a Few Questions Help Grow Your Business?

Ask yourself a few questions about your business. Your answers can help you make more money.

These are some of the basic questions you need to ask yourself about your business.

1. Does your product or service offer real value to your customers?




2. Who wants or needs your product?




3. How do you inform these people about your product?




4. How often do you advertise?




5. Do you collect the names and addresses or email addresses of your customers?




6. How often do you contact your regular customers?




7. How does your offer compare to the competition?

Does your product or service offer real value to your customers? If your product doesn’t fall into the food, basic clothing, shelter, or transportation categories, then you can have a difficult time selling it. Gary Halbert - http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/ - writes about finding a starving crowd. A product that serves a starving crowd is much easier to sell than one that has little or no demand.

Who wants or needs your product? Figure out who your customer is. Direct your marketing and advertising efforts specifically at this group. Don’t waste your money trying to sell wheelbarrows to inner city apartment dwellers. Focus on people already interested in what you have to sell.

How do you advertise? It’s important to find the best way to advertise your business. This is how you gain new customers. By the way, these are the most expensive customers to acquire. It’s much cheaper to get repeat business, or backend sales, from your existing customer base. That’s why it’s so important to find the most effective method of advertising your business so you don’t waste your advertising budget.

How often you advertise is based on what you sell. Study your competitors and monitor how often they advertise. Test your advertising. The only way to find out for sure what works is to test different methods and timing of your advertising. If something doesn’t work change your methods. If something does work, try to figure out why it worked so you can duplicate the success over and over again.

One way to make sure you make more backend sales is to collect the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of all your customers. This gives you a great way to contact known buyers of your products and sell them some more. If you own a retail business, you should be contacting your customers almost every week. Mail postcards once a month, send out an email newsletter once a month or every two weeks, or phone them a couple weeks before their birthday or anniversary. This can be very effective. Direct mail marketers send multiple mailings to good lists. Why? Because it works.

How often do you tell these people that you exist? Get your business and products in front of your market regularly. Marketing studies have shown people need to see or hear your ad as many as seven times before responding. Find ways to get your product or advertising seen often.

How much better is your offer than your competitor’s? Check out your competition. Offer a better product, better value, better warranty, or something else to differentiate your product. If you can’t do this then the cheapest price will likely win.

Do you give something extra of value to your customers? Discounts, a free report, frequent buyer programs, or other incentives all add value. People definitely respond to free extras.

My wife and I sold Italian Charms in our retail store. As part of the sale we offered a free business card with ten boxes on the back. The customer received one stamp for each charm they bought. Once they accumulated ten stamps, we gave them a free charm valued up to $20. People would get really upset if we didn’t offer to stamp their card. We had people coming back in trying to get extra stamps, telling us we forgot last time even though we had several signs posted telling our customers there would be no make up stamps and it was their responsibility to ask if we forgot.

The point is, we generated a huge amount of repeat business by offering something extra to our regular customers. At the peak of the fad we went through thousands of those cards. They really worked. If you have a retail business I suggest you figure out a way to reward your regular customers in some way. They will definitely come back more often.

Answer these questions and you’re on your way to building a bigger business.

Does Your Advertising Pay for Itself?

Most ads you see today, whether on TV or in print, fall into the image ad category. Not that a good image isn’t important. Every business needs one. But if you don’t ask for a response you probably won’t get one.

How can you tell if your image advertising is getting you more clients or sales? Tracking results from this type of advertising can be tricky. You can certainly track your sales weekly or monthly. But how do you know if your ad brought in those customers? They may have just seen your business while driving by or another customer may have referred them.

Direct response ads are specifically designed for an immediate response. These ads sell. In fact, the hardest working salesman you employ is your direct response ad. And if you aren’t satisfied it’s doing the job you can change a headline or a few key words or phrases and run the ad again.

Two common methods successful businesses use to track the response to an ad are coupons and response codes.

Make the entire ad a coupon. This serves two purposes. One, the customer can’t forget where you are if they have the entire ad in their hand. Just make sure your address and phone number are in the ad. Two, you can count them at the end of the day or week and tell immediately how many of your sales were generated by your ad. When we still owned our retail store, my wife used to staple a copy of the cash register sales slip to the ad. That way we not only tracked how many sales were made but we could compare the quality of the sales vs. the average sale. This kind of information is invaluable. It enables you to tweak and test your sales copy for the number of responses as well as the quality of the sales.

A good method of tracking an online ad or sales site is the offer number. You can program this function into your shopping cart or response mechanism so it is completely transparent to the customer.

Many mail-order catalog companies print a key code on the address label. When you call in to their toll free number the operator asks for this code along with your name and address. This provides automatic feedback on what is working. If you have more than one version of a catalog or your offer expires in a limited time frame the key code is a necessity.

If you run more than one yellow page ad, the simplest and most effective way to track which book is sending you the most customers is to use a different telephone number for each ad. Keep a pad by each phone and teach your employees to make a mark each time that particular phone rings. You will likely find only one or two books drive most of your sales. Another great thing about using this method of tracking is the fact you can try different ads in various books and see which one works better.

No matter what methods you use, track your ads carefully. It’s the only way to see if your ads pay for themselves or if you are just wasting your advertising dollars.

"The Web's Best-Kept Traffic Secret"

- by Jim Edwards

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(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com

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Did you realize that thousands of website operators use a
simple technique to generate targeted visitors to their
websites without paying a dime in advertising? It's true.
In fact, the technique works so well that many of them
don't want you to discover how they get those thousands of
website visitors and make so many sales on virtual "auto-
pilot."

Their method?

Creating tightly focused articles other people publish in
their ezines (online magazines and email newsletters) and
post on their websites. This method rates so powerful that
some even call it "the web's best kept traffic secret."
Now, you may ask, "Why would an ezine publisher or website
owner publish my articles for their subscribers?"

The answer: Content!

Over a 100,000 ezines and newsletters operate on the web
(along with millions of websites) covering everything from
pets and cooking to investments and real estate. Many of
them need tightly focused content and they simply can't
produce all of it themselves.

Look at it this way... it's the same reason newspapers use
the Associated Press. Individual newspapers often can't
afford staff writers to cover every story, so they accept
articles from outside their organization.

You can do the exact same thing for various ezines and
websites catering to your niche audience!
You can get valuable publicity -- exposure you often
couldn't even pay for if you wanted to -- by providing
valuable, content-rich articles in exchange for a byline
and a link to your website (called a "resource box")!

The following represent only a few of the enormous benefits
of writing and distributing simple articles online:

** Attain "Expert" Status **

Let's face it! In the eyes of virtually everyone who reads
your articles you rank as the "expert" on the subject.
Just look at people who write newspaper columns. You
may disagree with their viewpoints, but they still have an
elevated status in your mind compared to the "average Joe"
off the street.

** Pre-sell Website Visitors **

If your article appeals to a niche audience hungry for more
information on a very focused subject, you actually pre-
sell them better than any sales pitch. In their minds,
you've already delivered content they really want so when
they click over to your site you already have a
"reputation" in their minds.

** Traffic Lasts Longer **

Even though the Internet changes very quickly, webmasters
are usually very slow to remove content from their sites.
Once you get an article posted on another person's website,
you have an excellent chance of that article staying there
for weeks, months, even years.

** Increase Links To Your Site **

In a recent search I found just a dozen of my articles
posted on over 813 different websites! Not only do those
postings bring me traffic, but they also help my search
engine positioning because of my increased "Link
Popularity."

** Builds Your Affiliate Base **

Fact: Affiliates always take the path of least resistance.
If you provide excellent articles they can easily post on
their sites or copy and paste into their ezines, your
affiliates will promote you more often and more effectively
compared to those who don't give them tools.
Plus, as you make more sales and publish articles, other
people will see you providing excellent tools and will want
to sign up as your affiliate so they can use them too!

** Build a Huge "Opt-In" Email List **

You can use articles to build up a huge list of subscribers
by simply compiling several articles into a series and
delivering them at preset intervals.
Often called a "mini-course," this technique allows you not
only to prove to your subscribers that you deliver great
information, but enables you to capture their name and
email adress so you can send them articles and special
offers in the future (with their permission).

** Requires No Special Skills **

People often think they need to be a "writer" in order to
publish articles, but that's not true!
FACT: If you have a passion for a subject and can talk and
explain things like you would to a friend over a cup of
coffee, you can write articles people will love to read.
So if you operate a website selling virtually any type of
product or service (whether your own or as an affiliate),
publishing and promoting with articles should rank high on
your list of traffic generation strategies.
No other method of generating targeted traffic to your
website provides the quality, quantity and steadiness of
traffic in such a simple, straightforward, and cost-
effective manner.
----
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-
author of an amazing new ebook, "Turn Words Into Traffic,"
that will teach you how to use free articles to quickly
drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or
affiliate link! Click=> http://hop.clickbank.net/?jpdsales05/ezarticles

Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations: What's the difference?

“In good times people want to advertise. In bad times they have to.”

Bruce Barton, founder of BBDO advertising agency

Many small business owners fail to understand the difference between marketing, advertising, and public relations. Each of these help make your business successful but serve different and specific functions.

Marketing

Marketing exposes your products to the marketplace. There are several ways to accomplish this. Placing your store on the corner of Main St. and Central Ave is a marketing decision. Whether you choose image advertising or direct response advertising is a marketing decision. Giving free workshops on how to use a product you sell qualifies as marketing.

Public Relations

Any method used to inform the public about your business falls under public relations. Writing a press release for your local newspaper or trade publication is the most common form of public relations. Giving a talk at the local Kiwanis or Rotary Club is another form of public relations. Unfortunately it’s difficult to predict the results of a public relations campaign. Publications may decide your press release isn’t appropriate for print. Public relations informs people your product or service is available.

Advertising

Advertising attempts to sell your product or service. The two most common forms of advertising for a local business are space ads in the local newspaper and yellow page ads. Google Adwords, Google Adsense, and Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture) are the most common ways of advertising on the internet.

Done properly, advertising reaches your customers, convinces them to buy, and tells them how to do it. Advertising persuades prospective customers to spend their money on your product or service.

Effective advertising tells people your business exists. If done right, it creates an image that people will remember, but more importantly persuades them to buy from you. One form of advertising you don’t pay for directly and can’t control is “word of mouth” advertising. However, you can influence it by providing the best customer experience possible. Paid advertising works faster and you control what it says.

Effective advertising tells people what you sell. It educates the public about your product. No matter its form, advertising makes sure people know what your product is or does. Not only that your ad tells people where you are located. In the case of internet advertising it links people directly to your website.

Most importantly, advertising tells people why they should buy from you. You must persuade people to buy from you rather than the business down the street or at another website. Here is where excellent sales copy and design make all the difference for your business.

Flying isn’t So Fun Anymore

This week I went out of town on business for a couple of days. Not unusual but this time I flew instead of driving. My destination was Phoenix. The only direct flight from Fresno was on America West Express.

Over the years I’ve flown plenty of different airlines. I’ve even flown America West one other time. However I’ve only flown ten or twelve times since the twin towers came down on 9-11. Generally my experiences have still been positive. But my distaste for flying is growing. I am frustrated by the calisthenics you have to go through each time you go out to the gate.

Pull the laptop out of the bag, take off my belt with the metal buckle, remove the change from my pockets, stick the cell phones (yep I carry one for work and a personal one as well) in the computer bag, hope the breath mints with the foil wrapper don’t set off the metal detector, and take off my shoes. Do they really need to x-ray my tennis shoes?

I usually check a bag but this time I made the decision to stuff two days worth of clothes and my bathroom kit in my laptop bag. I didn’t need to check any luggage but they sure checked out that bag in the x-ray machine. I hope they didn’t find any holes in my socks or underwear.

Watching some of the women coming through the line is entertaining as well. They are stripping off necklaces, bracelets, watches, and other assorted metallic objects many women like to wear. I know the metal detector can’t tell the difference between jewelry and a knife or gun but it’s amazing how much stuff some women wear. Plus, since you can’t lock your checked luggage anymore so it can be searched by hand, you can’t leave any thing valuable in there. So if a woman wants to wear some jewelry when she arrives, she needs to wear it on the plane. There has got to be a better way to make it safe to fly.

One of my co-workers says he would be willing to go through some type of prescreening with a retinal scan on file so he wouldn’t have to go through this each time he flies. He might be onto something. This might be an opportunity for a savvy technology company to come up with a better way to screen people. Of course it would likely already be implemented in Israel if something were feasible. I still think a creative engineering/marketing firm might be able to capitalize on this in some way.

At least the terminals aren’t as crowded as they used to be. All the family members have to stay out beyond the security checkpoint now. Now at least more travelers can find a chair to sit in while waiting to board.

I usually don’t mind the airplane itself too much. I feel compelled to say something about the plane this time. It’s a good thing the plane was only half full. The seats were smaller than usual and they were like sitting on a board. When the flight attendant announced the seat cushions could double as a flotation device in the unlikely event of a water landing, I did a double take. These seats had no cushioning in them. They felt like a board with a piece of cloth on them. By the time I got to Phoenix my rear end was numb. Several other passengers grumbled about the lack of padding as well.

The funny thing is, on the return trip, the pilot announced that Mesa Air (the airline that operates America West) had just won the Airline of the Year award. I can guarantee the judges didn’t fly in the two planes I did. When they turned off the cabin lights it was pitch black in the cabin except for the no smoking and the fasten seat belt signs. It took me three or four minutes of poking the ceiling to hit the right button to turn on the reading light.

What’s all this mean to the small business owner you ask? I’m not completely sure. The ticket was quite expensive for an hour and a half flight. I’ve flown all the way across the country for less many times. It cost me less to fly to Hawaii last year and that was with a one-day notice.

I would recommend planning ahead as far as possible to minimize the ticket cost and bring your own seat cushion if you are going to fly America West. Oh yea, and bring something to eat. None of the airlines I’ve flown in the last year have provided a meal without asking and paying for it in advance. I don’t bother. I just take a couple of pieces of fruit and a sandwich. Believe me I have enough reserves to make to the next city without starving to death.

And I guess all those workers that used to work for the airline catering business now work for the TSA screening passengers and their luggage.

How About Those Super Bowl Commercials?

How About Those Super Bowl Commercials?

Out of the 72 commercials I counted shown between kickoff and the end of the game only three commercials from the 2006 Super Bowl made me laugh out loud.

I actually thought the Fidelity commercials did a good job of illustrating the need for their retirement planning services and asking people to contact them. They and their ad agency seem to understand the direct response form of advertising. And they did it well. I didn’t laugh but I did remember the name of the company and if I were in need of their services I would probably call them for some information.

The three that made me laugh…

Number 1. - The cell phone with the built-in anti-theft device was the best. I doubt a real cell phone would work after bouncing of someone’s head and the surrounding lockers a couple of times. But it made me laugh. Funny, I don’t remember the company name though. Although the commercial made me laugh, apparently it wasn’t real effective at getting the most important piece of information remembered. The name of the company. This can’t bode well for increased sales at that company. But I found it pretty entertaining. So did my daughter.

Number 2. - The Bud Light magic refrigerator commercial. It was sort of stupid but I still laughed. This one made my 16-year-old daughter laugh too. At least this commercial got the brand to stick in my mind. But it didn’t actually ask anyone to go out and buy Bud Light. Nor did it tell me how it tastes or why I should drink it instead of some other light beer. It did imply the beer was too valuable to share with friends, although the neighbors definitely benefited.

Number 3. – Caveman didn’t use FEDEX and the package didn’t get through. I loved the circular logic. Package didn’t get through. Did you us FEDEX? No. You should have used FEDEX. FEDEX doesn’t exist yet. That’s no excuse. I know I didn’t get the quotes right but that was the general Idea. Pretty funny. I do wonder just how much FEDEX needs to advertise. There are only two main companies doing what they do. There are a few other competitors but UPS is the main competitor. I doubt FEDEX will gain much business from this ad but I could be wrong. As a side note I like the UPS “what can brown do for you” commercials. I think they get the message across well.

One aspect of Super Bowl commercials that I hadn’t thought of in the past is their viral nature. Because so many people watch the ads and then talk about them later, they become a form of viral marketing. The more people talk about them the more the brands stay in peoples’ minds. Does this translate into more sales?

Because no matter how creative and funny the ads are, if they don’t pay for themselves then they are just a stroke to some executives ego. I believe that advertising needs to pay for itself and actually turn a profit. Maybe not on the initial acquisition of the customer but certainly on back end sales. It’s much more expensive to gain new customers than it is to sell more goods or services to an existing one. For most businesses repeat business makes the difference between good profits and bankruptcy.

I wonder how many of these companies actually do analysis on sales before and after running these commercials to see if there is an increase in revenue.

Oh, and before I forget – the dog of the ads. Burger King. Wow, this one was just bad in my opinion. Lots of dancing girls dressed up like buns, lettuce, a hamburger, etc. My daughter works there after school and she just looked at me after this one played and said “That was stupid”. I was thinking the same thing. What a huge waste of money. It’s a good thing they didn’t run it more than once. At least I only saw it once.

The big spender: by my count Budweiser. I already drink Budweiser Select once in a while any way. They may actually increase their sales from all these commercials. They did get a lot of exposure. And they now own a magic frig. That’s gotta be cool.

How much do Super Bowl ads cost?

Your advertising budget needs deep pockets to air a commercial during the Super Bowl. This year ABC is charging $2.5 million for a 30 second spot. Plus many of the advertisers spend up to another $2 million to produce the commercial.

I heard an advertising executive on the radio tonight. He was talking about some of his favorite Super Bowl ads through the years.

I agreed with him on one ad. Mean Joe Green is won over by a little boy offering him a Coke. In the end Mean Joe tosses his jersey to the kid in thanks for giving him the Coke. I liked that one a lot. I watched this one when it originally aired.

Actually I like most of the Super Bowl commercials I watch. But just how effective are they? I can’t say since I haven’t done any research on the matter. I would say it is difficult to track just how effective the advertising dollars spent on these commercials are.

But I want to get back to our ad executive for a minute. During the interview he was asked what the most important aspects of a commercial to be aired during the Super Bowl are. He said two things were important. They must start with a great idea. He stated that a great idea could be gotten for only a few hundred thousand dollars. The second important item was it must be creative. He claimed most advertisers spend more than they need to on the production of a commercial. I guess the advertisers think if it’s expensive then it must be good.

What ever happened to the idea of selling your product directly? If your ad wins an award but doesn’t increase sales enough to pay for the production and airing of the ads, what kind of service are you providing for your client?

I will be watching the Super Bowl this Sunday with great interest. I love football but I also love the ads. I will be taking notes. (I know, I’m weird) One of the things I will be looking for is if any of the ads are direct response in nature. I doubt it but you never know. There may be at least one enlightened ad agency out there. It takes two to tango though. First the agency must know the direct response format generates more sales for the client and then must be able to convince the client that this is true.

So I suspect most of the ads will be “building the brand” rather than asking for the sale. If I had a product and the budget appropriate to the Super Bowl I would forget about monkeys and all the other creative branding. Show the prospect your product. Solve their problem and give them a good reason why your product solves it best. Then ask them directly to buy from you. This can be done in a creative way, just make sure you are asking for a response, whether it’s to purchase your widget, call a toll free number for information, or what ever you want your prospect to do.

I wonder just how much more profit would be generated if these advertisers did a targeted direct response mailing campaign rather than spending $2 million on producing an ad and then another $2.5 million per 30 second slot to air it. Not all products lend themselves to direct mail or sales on the web but many do.

There’s a little food for thought. Don’t forget the Budweiser either. I always look forward to their ads.

I’m going to do a little market research too. My daughter and her best friend work at Burger King after school and on weekends. Since they are doing a huge Super Bowl promotion this year I am going ask my daughter whether they get any busier than they were before the Super Bowl. I’ll let you know if what my anecdotal non-scientific poll finds out.

That’s my two cents worth.

Dogs Are Big Business

Dogs Make Business Owners Big Bucks

Once only our best friend, our dogs are now part of the extended family. How many people do you know or see carrying a small dog in it’s own carrier or in their arms? I can remember seeing Paris Hilton and Britney Spears (on TV – not in person) both wearing a live dog as an accessory recently. The smaller the dog, the more spoiled they are. Jewel studded collars, hand knitted sweaters, and matching carriers are all the rage these days.

According to a recent article in the New York Times pet supplies added up to a $37 billion industry in 2004. Remove food and services such as grooming and there is still about $8.5 billion left over. Petco, one of the largest retail pet suppliers, claims the pet supply market is growing about 7% a year. The New York Times also reports the pet services sector is growing fast as well. Dog grooming, dog walking, and pet sitting are all growing businesses segments.

What does this all mean to a small business owner or internet marketer?

If you own a small bricks and mortar retail store you should consider adding a line of pet products. A women’s accessories retailer could add the Louis Vuitton pet carrier line and display them with their purses for instance.

An internet marketer could find several ways to ride this trend to increased business. Find a wholesale source of pet supplies and put together an e-commerce website to sell them. Develop a website that caters to the luxury dog and cat accessory market. Don't try to compete by selling food or large heavy items. The shipping cost will take the all the profit.

Find a few retired folks that love to knit. Buy them some yarn, give them the patterns, then give them a portion of the profits when the dog sweaters sell. If you know someone that likes to sew make the same deal. They sew the dog shirts and share in the profits.

Phyllis, my wife’s nail technician, owns a Chihuahua that wears a shirt or sweater everyday. This dog will not allow removal of her clothes until bedtime. If you tug on her shirt she growls and tries to bite your hand. My mother-in-law knits dog sweaters during the winter and Phyllis sells them in her salon. Since the salon’s customer base is small the sales aren’t huge but a couple of hundred extra bucks is greatly appreciated by a retired woman on a fixed income. I think this could be a good niche market on the internet.

Write an e-book and sell it on Clickbank. How about one on “Do it yourself grooming”, or “How to train a show dog to win”, or “Knitting patterns for dog sweaters”? The pet service and supply business lends itself to a wide range of information products that could be sold on Ebay or your own website.

My daughter just bought a purebred Shih Tzu a week ago. This little bundle of joy looks a lot like an Ewok in the face. Since it was her money I didn’t object too strongly but this dog didn’t even have papers, yet she paid $700. Once the rest of the accessories were added on she spent over $900. She bought a crate, food bowl, water bowl, a water bottle, several chew toys, and you guessed it. A faux leopard-skin dog carrier. Yep it’s cute when she carries it like a purse with a little Ewok face sticking out. She also bought a small sweater since puppies shouldn’t get cold.

Don’t prejudge your market. My daughter is 16, works after school, and will be paying for this dog’s care and upkeep. She has wanted a dog of her own for quite a while and made this decision on her own. Even the teenage market has money to spend.

There is a huge market demand out there. Many of your current customers own pets. Find out what type of products they want and sell them some.