Tags |
|
|
Links |
|
|
Write You - The Top Seven Marketing Mistakes
Every business owner naturally wants to grow his/her business fast!Some businesses achieve this goal through effective marketing campaigns. But, for many others it is not so easy to take their businesses to the next level in a relatively short period of time; sometimes it takes years to acknowledge a real growth, mostly due to insufficient knowledge, resources, time and money.To grow a business fast, you must utilize some of the general marketing strategies listed below:* You should specialize in the communications disciplines ranging from branding, design and advertising to technology, financial, and corporate public relations. You have to be able to implement totally integrated marketing solutions.* You have to have expertise in more efficient approach to integrated marketing than your competition has.* You should specialize in launching strategic and creative promotional campaigns. You have to search for the big idea, which is translatable into relevant and effective communication.* You should compete with int
5. Management has no method of accurately measuring the results from its advertising investments. This is especially so with so-called image advertising.
Solution: The way this is done is to seek a direct response in each promotion. This can be a coupon, telephone call or store visit. Code each promotion. Then when an order is received or a customer visits your establishment, you can appropriately trace it to the particular promotion.
The coding system can be numbers or letters. If you use the telephone you can utilize separate telephone numbers for each advertisement. Or you can simply ask the caller which ad or letter they are responding to.
6. As many companies begin to enjoy some early success, many develop a disease that I call "Big-Company-Itis." They start having endless, non-productive meetings. They become bureaucratic. They move as slow as molasses.
Instead of continuing to insist upon a high level of employee performance and keeping a close watch and control over costs, management takes its foot off the brake. Costs can spiral out of control. Employee morale can suffer. Soon the company is in deep trouble.<
The best contact centers must be leading providers of high quality contact center services. A contact center is the central point in an enterprise from which all customer contacts are managed. The contact center usually includes one or more online call centers but may also maintain other types of customer contact as well, such as e-mail newsletters, postal mail catalogs, website inquiries and chats, etc. A contact center is primarily meant for customer relationship management.The best contact centers will have ideal infrastructure that will enable the customer service representatives to attend personally to each customer. The customer service representatives are well trained in language skills and knowledgeable in U.S. business practices and customer service standards. Good contact centers will have good managers as well. The centers will have special software that would allow contact information to be directed to the correct people. The software should ideally be able to track contacts and gather relevant data in minimum time.Ideal contact
Undercapitalization, inexperience, or poor management are usually blamed for all business disasters.
Of course, there can be one or several more causes that result in a business going "belly up."
However, from what I've seen, marketing mistakes are by far the primary reason businesses do not survive. This includes companies which consider themselves direct marketers as well as those who do not.
Here are the seven most common marketing mistakes:
1. Management treats marketing as a business expense or simply a department rather than a necessary business investment.
Solution: Marketing should be treated as the driving force of any company. It is the only function that brings in cash. The other major functions in a company are necessary. But they all spend cash. This includes the primary business departments of finance, production and research.
To market any product or service successfully, the company must do two things:
A. Provide marketing with sufficient resources
B. Put marketing at the heart of its business strategy
The whole company should be focused on the needs and wants of customers and be prepared to satisfy their demands.
Marketing must be part of the philosophy of all entrepreneurs and managers.
2. Management does not know specifically what it costs to recruit a new customer. Plus, there are no accurate statistics on the average customer lifetime value.
Without this knowledge, it is impossible to make sound decisions. You cannot determine how much to invest in marketing. If you spend more to gain a customer than their lifetime value, ultimately you will go broke. In the absence of this information, many businesses can and often do fail. To make matters worse, few of the casualties understand why they failed.
Solution: Before you invest large sums on marketing, determine the average lifetime value of a customer. An excellent book that I highly recommend on this topic is The Loyalty Factor by Frederick Reicheld.
3. Management makes no attempt to build a customer database. This is especially so with most retailers, restauranteurs and department store owners. However, I've seen this in many other businesses.
Solution: A company's database of customers is potentially its biggest asset. It's much more valuable than equipment, inventory, etc. This is not only true of companies that utilize mail order or Internet marketing. Every single company that wants to survive and prosper needs to build a database.
4. The company does not communicate often enough with its customers. The result is lower sales and profits than are otherwise possible.
Solution: Contact your customers a minimum of once a month. When I started my first business at age 21, I too made many mistakes. The business somehow survived and became a chain of retail confectionery stores called Peterson's House of Fudge. At first I sent my customers an offer every six months. So I tried sending a sales letter every three months. My business doubled. I then began mailing every other month. My business again increased proportionately.
I wound up with the ideal and most profitable interval-- once a month.
At first I thought contacting customers every 30 days might be too often and that customers would get turned off.
But that didn't happen. I got great feedback as well as higher sales. Providing your customers like, or even love, your product or service, as they should, they want to hear from you frequently.
This, of course, is in the context of your sending excellent offers, excellent copy and excellent information.
Indeed, if you are not in frequent contact, your customers will quickly begin to forget about you. Many will start buying from your competitors.
I urge you to contact your customers at least every 30 days (occasionally with special offers a week apart is perfectly fine too).
Your form of contact can be an e-mail, postcard, catalog, telephone call or personal visit. I've found the most effective method of regular contact is with a well-written sales letter.
Rarely do I find a company of any kind which systematically mines the real gold in any business--the customer database. Make sure you do not make this mistake.
Making offers to your customer database is often referred to as the "back end" in direct marketing jargon. But every business should cash in on the huge potential of existing customers by simply making frequent offers to them and giving them more opportunities to do business with you.
5. Management has no method of accurately measuring the results from its advertising investments. This is especially so with so-called image advertising.
Solution: The way this is done is to seek a direct response in each promotion. This can be a coupon, telephone call or store visit. Code each promotion. Then when an order is received or a customer visits your establishment, you can appropriately trace it to the particular promotion.
The coding system can be numbers or letters. If you use the telephone you can utilize separate telephone numbers for each advertisement. Or you can simply ask the caller which ad or letter they are responding to.
6. As many companies begin to enjoy some early success, many develop a disease that I call "Big-Company-Itis." They start having endless, non-productive meetings. They become bureaucratic. They move as slow as molasses.
Instead of continuing to insist upon a high level of employee performance and keeping a close watch and control over costs, management takes its foot off the brake. Costs can spiral out of control. Employee morale can suffer. Soon the company is in deep trouble. Inspiration for the Entrepreneur
The new entrepreneur is the internet entrepreneur. Plain and simple. After the eve of the bubble burst, the internet is once again the place to be. With words like Adsense, affiliate marketing and CPM internet entrepreneurs and webmasters alike flock to get a piece of the pie. And from those many there are a handful few big guys (or girls). These few have mastered their arena and serve as an example for the rest of us. Yes, we would never say no to a six-figure MONTHLY residual income, but those of us who are truly entrepreneurs see it as a guarantee. We know that if they can do it, so can we. One of these big guys is Lee Dodd of forumtrends.com. Listen, Learn and Enjoy.Name: Lee DoddAge: 27What do you do?: I run an online media company that operates a large network of websites and online communities.Your Business Name: Zydeca Media GroupPlug your current project: Less than 3 months ago, I started a new online community, www.earnersforum.com for money makers to
The whole company should be focused on the needs and wants of customers and be prepared to satisfy their demands.
Marketing must be part of the philosophy of all entrepreneurs and managers.
2. Management does not know specifically what it costs to recruit a new customer. Plus, there are no accurate statistics on the average customer lifetime value.
Without this knowledge, it is impossible to make sound decisions. You cannot determine how much to invest in marketing. If you spend more to gain a customer than their lifetime value, ultimately you will go broke. In the absence of this information, many businesses can and often do fail. To make matters worse, few of the casualties understand why they failed.
Solution: Before you invest large sums on marketing, determine the average lifetime value of a customer. An excellent book that I highly recommend on this topic is The Loyalty Factor by Frederick Reicheld.
3. Management makes no attempt to build a customer database. This is especially so with most retailers, restauranteurs and department store owners. However, I've seen this in many other businesses.
Solution: A company's database of customers is potentially its biggest asset. It's much more valuable than equipment, inventory, etc. This is not only true of companies that utilize mail order or Internet marketing. Every single company that wants to survive and prosper needs to build a database.
4. The company does not communicate often enough with its customers. The result is lower sales and profits than are otherwise possible.
Solution: Contact your customers a minimum of once a month. When I started my first business at age 21, I too made many mistakes. The business somehow survived and became a chain of retail confectionery stores called Peterson's House of Fudge. At first I sent my customers an offer every six months. So I tried sending a sales letter every three months. My business doubled. I then began mailing every other month. My business again increased proportionately.
I wound up with the ideal and most profitable interval-- once a month.
At first I thought contacting customers every 30 days might be too often and that customers would get turned off.
But that didn't happen. I got great feedback as well as higher sales. Providing your customers like, or even love, your product or service, as they should, they want to hear from you frequently.
This, of course, is in the context of your sending excellent offers, excellent copy and excellent information.
Indeed, if you are not in frequent contact, your customers will quickly begin to forget about you. Many will start buying from your competitors.
I urge you to contact your customers at least every 30 days (occasionally with special offers a week apart is perfectly fine too).
Your form of contact can be an e-mail, postcard, catalog, telephone call or personal visit. I've found the most effective method of regular contact is with a well-written sales letter.
Rarely do I find a company of any kind which systematically mines the real gold in any business--the customer database. Make sure you do not make this mistake.
Making offers to your customer database is often referred to as the "back end" in direct marketing jargon. But every business should cash in on the huge potential of existing customers by simply making frequent offers to them and giving them more opportunities to do business with you.
5. Management has no method of accurately measuring the results from its advertising investments. This is especially so with so-called image advertising.
Solution: The way this is done is to seek a direct response in each promotion. This can be a coupon, telephone call or store visit. Code each promotion. Then when an order is received or a customer visits your establishment, you can appropriately trace it to the particular promotion.
The coding system can be numbers or letters. If you use the telephone you can utilize separate telephone numbers for each advertisement. Or you can simply ask the caller which ad or letter they are responding to.
6. As many companies begin to enjoy some early success, many develop a disease that I call "Big-Company-Itis." They start having endless, non-productive meetings. They become bureaucratic. They move as slow as molasses.
Instead of continuing to insist upon a high level of employee performance and keeping a close watch and control over costs, management takes its foot off the brake. Costs can spiral out of control. Employee morale can suffer. Soon the company is in deep trouble.<
After crossing a river, get as far away from its bank as possible and move on. When an invading force of the enemy is crossing a river, never engage it in the midst of the river itself. Rather, let half of its force cross the river first, then attack it so that you can gain the advantage. If you are eager to attack an invading enemy, never engage him at the point where he plans to cross a river. For a commanding view and to ensure better chances of survival against the enemy, occupy high grounds. Never move upstream to engage an enemy. These are the principles for deploying troops in marine battles. - Chapter Nine, Sun Zi Art of War Above are the principles when engaging enemies in marine battles. Let us look at how these principles can be applied to business.Business Application After crossing a river, get as far away from its bank as possible and move on. The reason why we need to get as far away from the bank after we cross the river is because we do not want to trap ourselves between the body o
4. The company does not communicate often enough with its customers. The result is lower sales and profits than are otherwise possible.
Solution: Contact your customers a minimum of once a month. When I started my first business at age 21, I too made many mistakes. The business somehow survived and became a chain of retail confectionery stores called Peterson's House of Fudge. At first I sent my customers an offer every six months. So I tried sending a sales letter every three months. My business doubled. I then began mailing every other month. My business again increased proportionately.
I wound up with the ideal and most profitable interval-- once a month.
At first I thought contacting customers every 30 days might be too often and that customers would get turned off.
But that didn't happen. I got great feedback as well as higher sales. Providing your customers like, or even love, your product or service, as they should, they want to hear from you frequently.
This, of course, is in the context of your sending excellent offers, excellent copy and excellent information.
Indeed, if you are not in frequent contact, your customers will quickly begin to forget about you. Many will start buying from your competitors.
I urge you to contact your customers at least every 30 days (occasionally with special offers a week apart is perfectly fine too).
Your form of contact can be an e-mail, postcard, catalog, telephone call or personal visit. I've found the most effective method of regular contact is with a well-written sales letter.
Rarely do I find a company of any kind which systematically mines the real gold in any business--the customer database. Make sure you do not make this mistake.
Making offers to your customer database is often referred to as the "back end" in direct marketing jargon. But every business should cash in on the huge potential of existing customers by simply making frequent offers to them and giving them more opportunities to do business with you.
5. Management has no method of accurately measuring the results from its advertising investments. This is especially so with so-called image advertising.
Solution: The way this is done is to seek a direct response in each promotion. This can be a coupon, telephone call or store visit. Code each promotion. Then when an order is received or a customer visits your establishment, you can appropriately trace it to the particular promotion.
The coding system can be numbers or letters. If you use the telephone you can utilize separate telephone numbers for each advertisement. Or you can simply ask the caller which ad or letter they are responding to.
6. As many companies begin to enjoy some early success, many develop a disease that I call "Big-Company-Itis." They start having endless, non-productive meetings. They become bureaucratic. They move as slow as molasses.
Instead of continuing to insist upon a high level of employee performance and keeping a close watch and control over costs, management takes its foot off the brake. Costs can spiral out of control. Employee morale can suffer. Soon the company is in deep trouble.<
Many companies treat customer service as a necessary evil, an afterthought, only needed if mistakes and problems arise. This viewpoint is best reflected in the antiquated mindset: ‘No news is good news!’When it comes to customers, that’s bad news! Here’s why:If you have a customer who is happy and you do not give them a chance to tell you, you lose one of the strongest opportunities to increase customer loyalty. The need to be internally consistent is a driving force in shaping future behavior. In other words, if customers tell you how and why they are happy, they are very likely to repeat the behavior that caused them such satisfaction – which was doing business with you!And what if you have a customer who is not happy? Who would you rather they tell all about it – you, or your prospects, competitors and other customers?Key Learning PointTheodore Levitt said it best: `One of the surest signs of a bad or declining relationship with a customer is the absence of complaints (or compliments!). Nobody is ever that satisfied,
This, of course, is in the context of your sending excellent offers, excellent copy and excellent information.
Indeed, if you are not in frequent contact, your customers will quickly begin to forget about you. Many will start buying from your competitors.
I urge you to contact your customers at least every 30 days (occasionally with special offers a week apart is perfectly fine too).
Your form of contact can be an e-mail, postcard, catalog, telephone call or personal visit. I've found the most effective method of regular contact is with a well-written sales letter.
Rarely do I find a company of any kind which systematically mines the real gold in any business--the customer database. Make sure you do not make this mistake.
Making offers to your customer database is often referred to as the "back end" in direct marketing jargon. But every business should cash in on the huge potential of existing customers by simply making frequent offers to them and giving them more opportunities to do business with you.
5. Management has no method of accurately measuring the results from its advertising investments. This is especially so with so-called image advertising.
Solution: The way this is done is to seek a direct response in each promotion. This can be a coupon, telephone call or store visit. Code each promotion. Then when an order is received or a customer visits your establishment, you can appropriately trace it to the particular promotion.
The coding system can be numbers or letters. If you use the telephone you can utilize separate telephone numbers for each advertisement. Or you can simply ask the caller which ad or letter they are responding to.
6. As many companies begin to enjoy some early success, many develop a disease that I call "Big-Company-Itis." They start having endless, non-productive meetings. They become bureaucratic. They move as slow as molasses.
Instead of continuing to insist upon a high level of employee performance and keeping a close watch and control over costs, management takes its foot off the brake. Costs can spiral out of control. Employee morale can suffer. Soon the company is in deep trouble.<
What exactly is a performance appraisal system?Well,it’s exactly what the phrase implies. A performance appraisal system is the term used to describe all the components of your employee performance which is written up into an appraisal; from the introduction of the performance appraisal form, to the post appraisal tools such as established evaluation intervals, mentoring programs, and upcoming goals and objectives for the next year.The performance appraisal system is a necessary as the performance appraisal. Why? Because once you have performed the appraisal, the information you have is no good if you don’t have a system in place with which to work with that information, and use it profitably.There are several key areas in the performance appraisal system that should be covered as an overview of the complete system. Introduction of the performance appraisal is simply an opportunity to introduce the process to new employees, or older employees if it’s the appraisal that’s new.The next phase deals with the planning and prepar
5. Management has no method of accurately measuring the results from its advertising investments. This is especially so with so-called image advertising.
Solution: The way this is done is to seek a direct response in each promotion. This can be a coupon, telephone call or store visit. Code each promotion. Then when an order is received or a customer visits your establishment, you can appropriately trace it to the particular promotion.
The coding system can be numbers or letters. If you use the telephone you can utilize separate telephone numbers for each advertisement. Or you can simply ask the caller which ad or letter they are responding to.
6. As many companies begin to enjoy some early success, many develop a disease that I call "Big-Company-Itis." They start having endless, non-productive meetings. They become bureaucratic. They move as slow as molasses.
Instead of continuing to insist upon a high level of employee performance and keeping a close watch and control over costs, management takes its foot off the brake. Costs can spiral out of control. Employee morale can suffer. Soon the company is in deep trouble.
Solution: The secret is to think big but operate much like a small business. Well-managed, large organizations that are highly successful are run more like a small entrepreneurial business. Managers have profit center responsibility. Their job is to help increase revenue or reduce costs, or both. They are held accountable. They maintain the financial controls and quick response of a lean and mean small business.
7. Management has no systemized upselling procedure in place to upgrade both new and existing customers to a larger sale. Result? Lower sales volume and lower profits than otherwise could be obtained.
Surprisingly, companies I've observed that market direct to consumers, such as mail-order businesses, tend to be incredibly poor at telephone communications and upselling.
Well-managed and properly trained customer service people can add 30%-60% in added sales volume without any increase in marketing or administrative costs. Your only cost is the cost of goods sold. Best of all, your customers are the beneficiaries of more value and variety for their money. Everyone wins.
But here is where it becomes really interesting. Your gross sales will be much higher. But your net profit will increase by a huge multiple. I've helped companies achieve huge increases in their net profit just by learning effective and professional telephone techniques. It's not unusual to increase profits as much as 5 or even 10 times!
Effective telephone communications and upselling are the main reasons for the huge success of my own companies. My clients for whom I conduct training of their customer service representatives have experienced similar results.
Solution: Develop a strategy which includes the following:
A. Create an incentive compensation plan for your customer service representatives (CSR's) based on added sales. Depending on your profit margins, this can be for example 5% to 10% of additional sales.
B. Run a daily special offered as an "add on" that provides great value for the customer. For example, you can offer a new product at half price.
C. Prepare a verbatim script on how to present the special.
Tip: The selling price. Your special offer should not exceed 30% of your average order. This makes the decision to accept the special an easy one.
D. Provide your CSR's with some basic telephone training. This should include the principles of active listening, voice pitch, pacing, learning to present things in a hearable way, and some gentle closing-the-sale techniques. A big factor is learning the secrets of boosting the sales without any pressure whatsoever.
Regards,
Ted Nicholas
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.writeyou.net/article/29901/writeyou-The-Top-Seven-Marketing-Mistakes.html">The Top Seven Marketing Mistakes</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.writeyou.net/article/29901/writeyou-The-Top-Seven-Marketing-Mistakes.html]The Top Seven Marketing Mistakes[/url]
Related Articles:
Should You Take One of Their Free Customer Reward Cards?
Choosing the Automated Parking System that is Right for You!
Do You Have Wining Shop Signs?
Bookmark it:
|