Tune Into What Customers Really Want

Customer relationship marketing is powerful in theory, but troubled in practice. We need to take time to figure out how and why we are undermining our own best efforts.

Perhaps we’re overlooking the fundamental elements of a good customer relationship program. With the means to connect with customers easily, maybe we’re rushing to cash in on the potential rewards, while forgetting the essentials of all relationships: intimacy and trust.

Close examination reveals that re…

Keywords:
marketing,communication,business,blogs,buzz,word of mouth

Customer relationship marketing is powerful in theory, but troubled in practice. We need to take time to figure out how and why we are undermining our own best efforts.

Perhaps we’re overlooking the fundamental elements of a good customer relationship program. With the means to connect with customers easily, maybe we’re rushing to cash in on the potential rewards, while forgetting the essentials of all relationships: intimacy and trust.

Close examination reveals that relationships between companies and consumers are suffering. U.S. satisfaction rates are at an all-time low. Complaints, boycotts and growing unhappiness with big corporations are strong indicators that most CRM isn’t working.

Ironically, the very steps marketers are taking to build relationships with customers are often responsible for destroying these connections. Companies may delight in learning more about their customers and providing services to please them, but customers are fed up. They’re tired of irrelevant survey questions, overwhelming product choices, features they’ll never use in phone plans and cars, and rebate-driven buyer reward programs.

The New Frontier: Mining the Internet

With the proliferation of online stores that complement traditional outlets, companies now have a tremendous source of information about consumers’ preferences. Because a traditional store may not always have a product on its shelves, purchase results are not always a good measurement of desires. Online stores can track consumer demand patterns more precisely, as they offer extensive ranges of products to national and global customers.

The web is more than a sales channel; it is a powerful means of collecting data in real time. The Internet is truly the new frontier in connecting with the customer, offering a huge opportunity for companies to improve customer relationships.

The New Social Marketing: Buzz and Word of Mouth

Where does marketing enter the mix? Some experts claim the old days of “push” marketing are over, where a company shoved a one-way message to customers via print or TV. Corporations are asking themselves just how much return on investment there really is from a 30-second Super Bowl commercial.

Consumers are turning away from media and, instead, tuning into each other. Engagement and word of mouth marketing are the buzzwords of this new era. Customers are doing their market research online and listening to each other. Unfortunately, many marketers continue to look at engagement in a one-sided way.

Corporate blogs have become an excellent resource for CEOs and others to connect with customers in a personal manner. In spite of the possible pitfalls in opening two-way communication between the public and employees, there is much to be gained by being personable, accessible, authentic and transparent.

Customers are already communicating with each other online about products and experiences with your company. If you can join the conversation in a real way, in real time, you’ll have an advantage over those who remain silent and inaccessible behind corporate doors.

Now there is finally a way to discover what customers want, and a way to connect with them authentically. But there are risks involved in being honest and transparent. Will you and your company take the risk?

Share This

E-marketing Basics: Pro And Cons Of Hour Targeting

One of the main advantages of advanced internet technologies is the possibility of hour targeting for ads served to web sites.

Exactly how such targeting is done, that is a tech issue far beyond our e-Marketing topic. What is important to us, e-Marketers, is to be aware of this facility web servers have and use it towards making online campaigns more efficient.

Hour targeting is especially useful when:

- we already know the online buying habits of our target;
- we w…

Keywords:
marketing, strategy, hour, targeting, target, e-marketing, emarketing, internet marketing, online

One of the main advantages of advanced internet technologies is the possibility of hour targeting for ads served to web sites.

Exactly how such targeting is done, that is a tech issue far beyond our e-Marketing topic. What is important to us, e-Marketers, is to be aware of this facility web servers have and use it towards making online campaigns more efficient.

Hour targeting is especially useful when:

- we already know the online buying habits of our target;
- we want to create an association between our products and a certain time of the day when interest might be higher;
- we try to avoid a certain category of customers that are known to be more active at a certain hour interval;
- we know from previous researches that sites where we are advertising have different categories of visitors, with different interests and behaviour, active at certain hours.

Let us try imagining some examples of justified hour targeting:

- Premium IT products (such as laptops) could probably use a business hours targeting, on the premises that active, working professionals have more buying power. Similarly, off-hours and weekend targeting could be used when promoting basic desktop systems with a lower price to a more younger audience with less buying power and/or buying decision.

- FMCG products might benefit from targeting ads within hour intervals when these products are more likely to be utilized. We would probably want to place ads for coffee on news-delivering web sites during the morning hours; and advertising creams and gels for muscular pains later in the afternoon or evening, when such pains are more likely to occur.

- It is widely known that surfers using a dial-up connexion get online in the evening and at night. Therefore, if we are to promote products or services destined to dial-up users (modems, access cards, offers to switch to a superior connexion) it only makes more business sense to target late hours.

Interesting enough, such hour targeting is not always successful. A media planner might be blinded by the revelation of a cool method to raise efficiency of online campaigns like an adserver, only to realise at a later time that it can be more of a bother. For example, a banner for a banking product placed on a business portal would not need hour targeting, as professionals visiting such portals usually have permanent internet connection whether it is at office, at home, or is using a mobile solution. A regular reader of Financial Times online might opt to access the site in the evening, from the comfort of his home, long after the regular “business hours”, and would be a missed target if we employ hour targeting.

To conclude, hour targeting for online campaigns makes a very powerful and efficient tool, but needs to be performed after carefully assessing surfing and buying behaviours of the visitors on web sites where we advertise.

Share This

Driven to Success by Digital Business Cards

In essence, digital business cards are pocket size CD-ROM roughly the same size as a typical business card that can be played in most electronic equipment that have CD drivers.

Keywords:
business, cards, printing, digital

For years, businesses have been using business cards to entice new customers or to keep contact with existing ones. But as society changes and technology evolves, promotional materials including business cards have become more and more high-tech. Needless to say, it is essential for every business that their advertising materials communicates effectively what is distinctive about their business and what sets them apart from their competitors.

Today, there is a better and more cost effective way of marketing your products and services – that is through digital business cards. But what exactly are these digital business cards? In essence, it is a pocket size CD-ROM roughly the same size as a typical business card that can be played in most electronic equipment that have CD drivers. With digital business cards, your customers can actually access your site, know your products and services and have up to date information with just a click of the mouse. Compared to brochures, catalogs and newsletters which need to be printed every month or every quarter to include new additions in products or services, digital business cards eliminate the need to print brochures every month. You only need to change or improve your website to accommodate new products. From the digital business card itself, customers will already be able to know whatever new products you have. Hence, handing out digital business cards can better provide your customers with better and fuller access to what you have to offer.

Imagine providing your customers large volumes of information for less than the cost of a standard catalog printing. You can better equip your customers with what they need to know regarding your products and perhaps you can encourage them to try your services. Doing so, your marketing tactic will have a new life and meaning when you start to use this technologically advanced advertising tool.

Digital business cards can also make you stay ahead of the competition. Envision you and your competitor handing out business cards at the same time. Your competitor is giving out the standard business card strategy while you are handing out digital business cards. You would notice that your unique strategy would create good impression to you and your business. Customers would also be fascinated with your distinctive tactic and would be encourage to visit your web site and better yet avail of your products and services. Hence, this is a good way to get noticed and stand out among the rest.

Digital business card is becoming the ‘it’ tool in the business market today. The endless possibilities it offers and the savvy professional look that it gives can really offer several benefits to businesses. It has, in fact, become one of the most cost effective and good marketing tool to hit the electronic media business.

Share This

What’s So Great About Popup Displays

PopUp Displays are currently the most common form of low priced trade show and event display. A Popup Display is not a trade show “booth” as much as it is a backdrop or background wall for your display area.

A popup display normally has only two main components, with two or three other optional accessories. The most substantial part of a popup display is the folding frame which is normally made of either fibreglass or aluminum tubes. The frame serves as a skeleton that yo…

Keywords:
popup displays, trade show displays, portable displays, portable backdrops

PopUp Displays are currently the most common form of low priced trade show and event display. A Popup Display is not a trade show “booth” as much as it is a backdrop or background wall for your display area.

A popup display normally has only two main components, with two or three other optional accessories. The most substantial part of a popup display is the folding frame which is normally made of either fibreglass or aluminum tubes. The frame serves as a skeleton that you cover with display panels — either velcro-ready fabric panels, or graphic panels made of a material like Duralex which are lexan panels that have already been printed, normally using a high resolution large format printing process.

Before the frame is made to “popup”, it comes folded down to a unit approximately 8″ square by 30″ wide. When it is unfolded, the frame “pops up” to a skeleton approximately 8′ (or 10′) wide by usually) about 8′ high. This frame normally weighs about 15 lbs. and is stable enough to just sit on the floor without any anchoring or external support. For exact specifications and measurements, see the links below.

The panels (either fabric panels or graphic panels) are normally about 30″ wide by 8′ high. There are usually either 4 or 5 panels required to cover the frame, with extra “end cap” panels made of the same material to wrap around the ends of the frame. These panels are flexible enough to be rolled up so they fit in the lightweight carrying case. They are normally adhered to the frame by means of magentic strips applied to their back surface. These are attracted to the magnetized bars that are part of the skeleton frame. Once the panels are applied to the frame, it gains even greater stability.

If your popup display has duralex graphic panels, then the display is complete once the panels are applied to the frame. If you use the more generic fabric panels, then you will probably have a number of graphics that are adhered to the fabric with velcro strips. These graphics can be duralex (as above), flexible vinyl — essentially indoor vinyl banners — or posters (display prints) printed on paper and laminated so they are both flexible and durable.

Often, the display is finished off with two or three halogen lights that are attached at the top of the frame and illuminate your graphics.

The entire display — frame, magnetic bars, fabric and graphic panels, and lights can be packaged up in a sturdy, lightweight carrying case with wheels. The carrying case often doubles as a display counter or podium with its own special top (normally an optional accessory) and wrap around graphics (also optional).

A normal case for an 8′ or 10′ display is small enough to fit in the trunk or back seat of most cars, and normally weighs around 40 lbs., depending on the type of graphics and accessories included. This makes it light enough to be easily moved around by most people.

A normal popup display can be assembled by one person of average height in about 20 minutes. If you are shorter than about 5′6″ you may need a small ladder to reach the top. Normally a chair works too.

If a popup display seems like overkill, or if you think you will be in situations where setting up a popup display will be difficult or impractical, you may want to consider an alternative like a Banner Stand or retractable Jiffy Roll. These units come in their own lightweight “over the shoulder” carrying cases and can normally be set up in less than one or two minutes.

Share This

Scheduling Retail Employees

Scheduling my team has always been one of my least favorite tasks as a retail manager. It’s tedious, it takes hours and even when I think I have it right, I probably don’t. What makes scheduling a challenge is that you are balancing the demands of individuals on your team with the demands of your business. This can be a very time consuming and frustrating.

Lets say you complete a schedule which took you 2 hours to create. You have carefully made sure everyone has at least…

Keywords:
retail, management, manager, selling, scheduling, employees, sales, profit

Scheduling my team has always been one of my least favorite tasks as a retail manager. It’s tedious, it takes hours and even when I think I have it right, I probably don’t. What makes scheduling a challenge is that you are balancing the demands of individuals on your team with the demands of your business. This can be a very time consuming and frustrating.

Lets say you complete a schedule which took you 2 hours to create. You have carefully made sure everyone has at least two days off, and all approved requests for days and vacations have been honored. You post the schedule and then you are informed that someone on your sales team needs different days off. This may seem simple, however you have to virtually build another schedule, to make the adjustment. You will have to review each individual and day again to insure that all needs are met. Don’t you hate when that happens.

How can you make this process simpler and less tedious. My first solution was to train my assistant to do schedules and to delegate this task to him. Problem solved. Well, not quite. I was freed from scheduling, but the problem still existed. Instead of me spending 2 to 3 hours per schedule, my assistant was. However, as a result of him doing it I learned one of the solutions to our problem – “Set Schedules.” When he took over the schedule he partnered with each salesperson to ascertain what was their preferred schedule. He then created a schedule primarily based on business needs and secondarily based on individual preferences.

This worked out great. Some people prefer to work mornings, some evenings, some liked weekends off, while others saw weekends as money days. I was always averse to set schedules since I felt it locked me into giving someone certain days off. However, my team understands that in retail the schedule will vary from time to time. They also understand that evenings and weekends are when most retail business is done. They understand this, because we communicate these ideas regularly – which is the next solution.

If you communicate and inform your team and they communicate and inform you, many of your scheduling woes will vanish. I ask that my team inform me of all requests at least two weeks in advance and that they inform me of vacation requests 4 weeks in advance. I in turn publish 2 weeks of schedules at all times. During meetings I let them know that schedule is variable and I also inform them of days that I will need extra coverage. I emphasize dates in which no vacation request will be honored.

Communicating requests officially vary from company to company. One company I worked for actually had a form for employees to fill out to officially request days off. Strict as this may sound, it worked well. It gave me and the employee a way to keep track of approved requests. Once approved, I enter the request in my planning calendar and then file it in the “Approved Requests File.” This is a tidy way of managing requests.

I approve requests on a first come first serve basis. My team knows that asking is not a guarantee, however they also know that I will bend over backwards to give them off the days they want. To keep the approvals fair I restrict hoarding by allowing only two consecutive premium requests. For example, If someone requests Memorial Day off, 4th of July off and Labor Day off, they may get the 1st two, but may not get the 3rd – even if they were 1st to request it. By doing this I limit one person from hoarding all the premium days off. My team understands and agree that it’s not fair for one person to get every premium day off. This keeps requests fair and balanced.

People want to have lives outside of work and you should respect and encourage it. Even though I ask for a two week minimum on requests I will approve a request on shorter notice – rules are made to be broken occasionally.

My priority when scheduling is that I want to have my best people work on the busiest days. In other words my focus in scheduling is driving business, through scheduling. In commissioned environments this is great for your top people but it sucks for your laggards. I have had salespeople get downright indignant over not getting more Saturdays and evenings. In hourly environments it may be a harder sale to your better reps as to why they work a larger share of weekends, for example. You’ll have to find the balance.

Scheduling is one of the toughest tasks you have because you have to manage competing personal demands against the needs of your business. How will you manage the wills of your team and prioritize those against the needs of your business. This time consuming task is manageable if you follow a few proven guidelines:

1. Use a Set Schedule whenever possible
2. Set Scheduling rules & guidelines
3. Communicate the guidelines
4. Document requests
5. Make the request process fair
6. Make business the priority

Share This

Four Marketing Myths That Steal Sales

How many times has bad advice gotten you into trouble? Yeah, everybody’s saying and doing it, so you jump on the band wagon…and guess what…you get the same results as they get. Maybe it’s a comfort to know that you’re not the only one who played the part of the fool, but when it comes to marketing…you may not have enough leeway to count the loss and go on.

Keywords:
marketing, sales, advertising

How many times has bad advice gotten you into trouble? Yeah, everybody’s saying and doing it, so you jump on the band wagon… and guess what… you get the same results as they get. Maybe it’s a comfort to know that you’re not the only one who played the part of the fool, but when it comes to marketing…you may not have enough leeway to count the loss and go on.

Yeah, there sure are a LOT of ideas out there about what will and what won’t skyrocket sales numbers and profit margins! And to be truthful, a lot of those ideas are just a bunch of bunk. Yep, you’ve got to be on your toes and know the truth about marketing tales. Here are a few of the lines of misinformation that you’ve probably heard before…

You’ve Got To Have The Cheapest Prices In Town To Be Competitive

Let me ask you this…Do you always buy the cheapest product on the shelf, or always shop at the store that has the lowest prices? No, I don’t either. What you and I know that these people don’t is, that value counts for a lot. Oh yeah, sure… there are a few people out there who only buy the cheapest things in town, but most of us understand that the cheapest isn’t always the best buy for our buck.

How does this apply to you? Here’s something you can try…make it a little test to see just how true this myth is. Find a low-cost way to enhance the perceived value of your product or service, then raise the cost a little. See what happens! Don’t be surprised if your sales and profits shoot up!

Advertisements Need To Be Changed To Keep The Public From Becoming Bored

This one reminds me of one of my cousins. He’s famous for breaking things that are fixed. Yeah, he’ll go out and buy a perfectly good running car, but every time you see him, he’s under the hood tinkering with something. Before long…you guessed it…the car won’t run and has to go to the garage for repairs.

It makes no sense to run a business like Cousin Jim and his cars. Hey, if it’s working why try to fix it? Think about it…what’s the goal for advertising? Yeah, to attract new customers. Once the new customer comes through the door, the advertisement has effectively done its job. Does that customer need to be affected by the same ad? No, so let the ad do its job for the rest of the people out there who haven’t seen it yet.

Now, I’m not saying that you should never change your advertisement… just never abandon a winner midstream. A good rule of thumb is to spend 80 percent of your advertising money on proven methods, and to risk 20 percent on experimental advertisements. Keep the tried and proven working for you, while you test the waters for new ideas that might work even better.

The More Choices A Customer Has, The More Likely He Is To Buy

Yeah, yeah…they say variety is the spice of life and all that, but too many choices can lead to procrastination. We all know what happens when we procrastinate. Yep, we never get back to it!

Do you know what happens when a customer can’t decide?… you lose a sale that you already had in your pocket. Yep he came in to get it, saw more options, stopped to make up his mind, then walked out still thinking about it…maybe to never return.

A tip for the wise marketer – limit your customer’s decisions to either yes or no. Let them decide either yes I’ll buy or no, I won’t buy. Don’t risk confusing them and losing the sale.

Everybody Needs My Product/Service So I Don’t Need To Advertise

Hey, building a business is a lot of hard work! There aren’t many free rides along the way. Chances are, your potential customers need to be convinced that they NEED to choose your service/product. Yep, finding the customer, convincing him to use your service/product, then closing the deal is a process that can’t be easily bypassed. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re any different! It could be hazardous to your profits.

A friend of mine owned the only dog grooming shop in her town. Hey, no competition means you don’t need to advertise…right? After an initial anouncement of her grand opening, this lady did no advertising. Business slowly trickled in and barely covered the overhead. Finally in a desperate attempt to get business off the ground she began putting flyers in all of the local veterinarian clinics and ads in the local newspaper. Bingo! Business began pouring in… and most of the people said, “I didn’t even know you were here!” or “Fifi’s been needing groomed for quite some time. When I saw your ad, I decided to go ahead and get it done.”

Let’s face it, people are often….well, lazy. They don’t always go out of their way to find the phone number to contact you, even when in the back of their mind they know they need to do something. Yeah, advertisements are often the little prod they need to get motivated. Don’t shortchange yourself by neglecting to advertise.

How about you? Have you ever driven by a business for a long time without even noticing it? Yep, we all get too busy to pay attention sometimes.

Hey, you’ve learned a few of the misguided marketing myths that many people are fooled by…now you can apply the REAL marketing concepts to your own advertising campaign and watch the results!

Share This

WHEN TIMES ARE TOUGH, DON’T CUT MARKETING

Although on the books, marketing is an expense, it’s really not when you stop and think about it. What do you need to do to generate sales? You have to let people know what you do and what you can offer them. It’s called marketing.

So when times are tough, why would you stop using your main resource outside of referrals to get more money in the company? With that in mind, forget what your accountant labels marketing as, you have to treat it as an investment.

Keywords:
business advice, small business help, marketing, sales, advertising

Although on the books, marketing is an expense, it’s really not when you stop and think about it. What do you need to do to generate sales? You have to let people know what you do and what you can offer them. It’s called marketing.

So when times are tough, why would you stop using your main resource outside of referrals to get more money in the company? With that in mind, forget what your accountant labels marketing as, you have to treat it as an investment.

Allow me to go further on the subject to clear it up. In accounting, sure, marketing IS an expense. But here’s what happens when marketing is viewed purely as an expense:

You think of marketing solely as an expense. When business gets slow, you cut marketing. Now you are letting less people know about your products and services.
Results: You get even less business.

If you think of marketing only as an expense, the odds are, your marketing is nowhere near as effective as it could be.

Here’s how you think of marketing as an investment. When you spend money and buy stock, that’s an expense AND an investment. When you buy a rental property, that’s an
expense AND an investment

When marketing is looked at as an investment, it is seen in a much different light. You start to require that it make money. You will begin to look for a return on investment.
For example:

You view marketing as an investment. Every time you spend marketing dollars, you track how much business it brings. Now you can see what’s working and what’s not.
Try new things and get rid of methods that were working and now are not.
Results: You get more sales and waste less money.

You don’t need to put in a lot of time to find out what works. Notice how other businesses track their response.

Every time you see a commercial that says “Mention this ad for a free gift,” they are tracking how well that ad works. Every coupon you see is a way for a company to track an ad. Every time someone asks, “How did you hear about us?” they are tracking what works.

When your marketing is an investment instead of just another expense, you’ll hold it accountable. It’s a small but important change in viewpoint that can add to your bottom line. Try it. It’s a little more work but I am sure it will pay off… and save your marketing budget.

Share This

Using The Search Engines To Get Visitors To Your Website

To get good web traffic, you need to submit your website to the search engines. However, this alone will not guarantee that your site will receive a good steady flow of visitors. You really must work to get your website recognized. It is best to focus your efforts on the important search engines rather than chasing traffic from all search engines.

Keywords:
search engine, web traffic, website, visitor, traffic, search, free, marketing, internet

To get good web traffic, you need to submit your website to the search engines. However, this alone will not guarantee that your site will receive a good steady flow of visitors. You really must work to get your website recognized. It is best to focus your efforts on the important search engines rather than chasing traffic from all search engines.

If the web search engines do not have your site indexed, then it might as well not exist. You will probably get some traffic through referrals, but this will not be enough to guarantee the success of your site. You cannot afford to put all your time and effort into making the perfect site. No matter how much effort you put into getting your site just right, including that flashy flash intro and the extensive links page complete with animated gifs, without traffic your time has been wasted.

You will need to ensure you allocate some time to promoting your site. The first search engine you need to focus on is Google. There are a great many search engines on the web but the reality today is it comes down to just one: Google. It is the most popular search engine on the net and provides the most search results. Therefore, you need to ensure that your site is listed on Google.

Of course, Yahoo is important too. Once you are listed in Google, you then focus on getting listed on Yahoo. If you can get a good, high rating in these two web search engines, you will most probably receive good volumes of traffic to your site. The third search engine I would consider is MSN Search. None of the other free web search engines have the ability to provide you with the volume of visitors that these three can. Therefore, there is no need to put time into ensuring your site is indexed with them or ranks well.

The best way to ensure that your website gets a lot of traffic is to have a high search engine rank, especially in Google. When your website has a high search engine rank, it will appear within the first few pages of results returned by Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others. This can make a significant difference to the number of visitors that go to your website.

Just think about the way you conduct your own searches. When you enter a term into Google, you probably click most of the links on the first page of results, and a few on the second page. Do you ever make it as far as page seven or page 10? It’s not likely. So you can see why a good search engine rank is critical to the success of your business.

Websites that have a high search engine rank have a couple of characteristics in common. First, they feature pages and pages of relevant content. This means if you’re selling accounting services, you should have a lot of articles about accounting, taxes, and bookkeeping. When you do this, your website will naturally contain numerous keywords that people searching for accounting services would enter into Google, Yahoo, etc.

The more keywords you have, the better your search engine rank. Another characteristic of successful websites is the number of links they have to and from other sites. When other websites link to yours and when you link to others, it makes your website appear more important, relevant, and legitimate. This results in a higher search engine rank.

At this point, you might be thinking to yourself that only fantastic marketers are able to achieve a high search engine rank for their websites. That’s not entirely true. Since a good search engine rank is so critical to web-based businesses these days, there are a lot of companies that specialize in getting you the best placement possible. They can provide you with original, targeted content for your site; give you tips on how to effectively market your site; and submit your URL to Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other engines for consideration. If they do their job the right way, you’ll have a prime search engine rank within a few months.

The importance of a high search engine rank shouldn’t be underestimated. Before you start selling on the Internet, you should consider hiring professionals to help you quickly achieve good placement for your website. The difference between appearing on the first page or the tenth could literally amount to tens of thousands of dollars, so do what you have to in order to get a high search engine rank as soon as possible.

Share This

To Use or Not To Use Posters

For any business enterprise, posters are a great help in marketing a product or service. Aside from offering large visual image, posters are also an excellent means of information that is apt for introducing your products and services.

Keywords:
poster, printing, online, print

Posters have been used since the 19th century to advertise new products. Since then the use of posters as promotional materials for opera shows and any major events have been widespread. Today, aside from being great advertising materials they are also used to communicate messages or announce any upcoming events.

For any business enterprise, posters are a great help in marketing a product or service. Aside from offering large visual image, posters are also an excellent means of information that is apt for introducing your products and services. The different formats available in poster printing allow them to be used in large or small scale and for indoor or outdoor campaigns.

But increasing profit means increasing sales through less spending. But you are probably wondering, doesn’t poster printing cost much? They used to. But with the combination of hardware and software automation, the previously time consuming and costly method of printing has made it possible to get quality prints completed in less time and for less money. These days modern printing technologies allows you to get even more information onto your document making it an especially good choice for important presentations. Additionally, with these advancements and the introduction of the digital printing process, there are endless possibilities when it comes to what you could put on your posters. Printers can now reproduce digital pictures and print them in large format without having to sacrifice original quality.

Nevertheless, technology is not the only thing important in creating a captivating poster. You have to make sure that the design is distinct and striking to make it stand among the rest. A good thing to do to make it more unique and charming is to include your photo in it. You can flaunt your friendly, warm and professionally taken photos in your posters because they can help build trust with those less than familiar with you and your products or services. Your photos can also help in name recognition. Isn’t it a great feeling when the people you meet in the street come to you and tell you they recognize you and have tried your products or services? Well, this sure is a hint that your marketing strategy works. And when strategies work this means bigger sale and profits for you.

So the question now is, will you or will you not use posters? The answer is up to you. Choose wisely!

Share This

Establishing A Customer Loyalty Program

A lot of companies nowadays are coming up with various customer loyalty programs to ensure bigger profits for their companies. This may seem to be quite a worn idea already for a customer loyalty program but people, no matter how wealthy they are, actually enjoy getting freebies every now and then.

1. The Concept

Let’s try to further discuss the concept behind this customer loyalty program. With a rewards-based customer loyalty program, the customer will have fun spend…

Keywords:
customer loyalty program,company customer loyalty research survey,customer firm loyalty research survey,card customer loyalty,customer loyalty survey

A lot of companies nowadays are coming up with various customer loyalty programs to ensure bigger profits for their companies. This may seem to be quite a worn idea already for a customer loyalty program but people, no matter how wealthy they are, actually enjoy getting freebies every now and then.

1. The Concept

Let’s try to further discuss the concept behind this customer loyalty program. With a rewards-based customer loyalty program, the customer will have fun spending more on your company due to your company’s promise that the bigger points the a loyal customer receives from their purchases the greater the rewards that they will soon get from the company. From having free expensive designer items to even an all-expenses paid grand vacation trip courtesy of the company. It really doesn’t matter – the point is, it is a small amount to pay considering the years of loyal purchases that these customers have brought in to your company. Of course, this all sounds good on paper, but a truly excellent loyalty program doesn’t just pamper customers, it entices them to continue patronizing your business, or even tell their friends about it, offering your business some invaluable word-of-mouth advertising.

2. Rebate Programs

A less fancy customer loyalty programs is the rebate program. This is wherein the customer will be able to get a percentage back from the amount of their purchases as coupons that they can use to pay for more stuff from your company. It really is a simpler customer loyalty program as compared to the rewards system. Not only will it be easier on your company’s pocketbooks, it will also give your business some added profits because through the rebate customer loyalty program your customers will, in the end, end up spending more on your company because the coupons cannot be exchanged for real currency or used anywhere else. In actuality, there is no real incentive for customers to use the program.

3. Loyal = Profitable?

A lot of people still view being able to provide your loyal customers with great service does not automatically ensure a company that their customers will stay. This is why there is a great need for an effective (but still profit-oriented) customer loyalty program. While great customer service can result in a customer making a purchase more than once, a well-designed customer loyalty program will ensure they wouldn’t even ever dream of going to your competitors, and in fact, would even recommend friends to use your services.

4. The What If’s

The biggest concern that most CEO’s have is thus: a strong customer loyalty program can keep customers that are already loyal loyal, but what about the next generation of shoppers? And even worse, an ill-planned loyalty program, built with little or no data about your existing loyal customers, will be doomed to fail. Find ways to collect this incredibly important data months in advance of launching your program. Invest heavily in a statistics specialist, and ensure he has the latest statistics software such as SPSS. Remember, even if you have an abundance of data, it will be completely useless to you if you can’t make sense of it. Worse still is having data that wasn’t collected scientifically to be an accurate representation of the population being sampled.

Share This