Archive for September, 2009

Try Unusual Marketing Tricks

The saying what’s old is new again works well in marketing.  Often companies follow trends in marketing and by doing so become a ‘me too’ company.  Look back at some old methods to draw customers in.  Try using a postcard that recycles one of your current ad’s.  Push them to your website and follow them through the process by asking them to enter in a special offer code.  This will help track your ROI in your marketing strategy.

Get The Point

Too many advertisements pack every single thing in to them.  You’ve seen them, wordy, cluttered, ‘noisy’ just plain ugly.  After you create an ad re-write it 3 times and reduce copy, graphics by 5% each time and increase white space the same.  You will end up with a clearer message that is easy to ready.

Partner With Other Small Businesses

Almost every business service or product is bought in conjunction with another product or service. Find what your customers are purchasing when they purchase from you.  If you join forces with another company both of you will benefit.  Increase your exposure, reduce your sales overhead and ultimately increase sales.

Get Your Customers Selling For You

Your customers already trust you and value your service and will do more for you then you realize.  All you have to do is ask.  Ask your customers for testimonials, referrals and where they think you should look.  Customers have an interesting insight to your business that is often overlooked.  They will more often point you in direction you never even thought of.  This is your blue ocean of sales.

 Advertise To Sell

Don’t get caught up trying to be like the big guys.  Your business can’t afford to advertise like your larger competitor.  Create ad’s that sell, TODAY!  You can learn from them even ‘borrow’ ideas from them but don’t think you can play in there field.  A simple tip is to always include an offer in your ad.  Make it easy for your customer to respond to it and knock on your door.

Offer What They Will Buy

You may have a great product or service that is at the top of the pile.  Just remember there are customers to be had at the bottom or close by.  Don’t exclude these prospects with over selling or over pricing your product.  Have an option that you can sell for less, make a profit and attract new clients.

Capitalize On Premium Products

Just like some people won’t buy the top of the line others will.  Make sure you clearly differentiate your premium service or products.  Selling up will impact your margins greater then trying to land more orders.  Package for value and clearly show your prospects why you are the one to buy from.

Try Unusual Marketing Tricks

The saying what’s old is new again works well in marketing.  Often companies follow trends in marketing and by doing so become a ‘me too’ company.  Look back at some old methods to draw customers in.  Try using a postcard that recycles one of your current ad’s.  Push them to your website and follow them through the process by asking them to enter in a special offer code.  This will help track your ROI in your marketing strategy.

Get The Point

Too many advertisements pack every single thing in to them.  You’ve seen them, wordy, cluttered, ‘noisy’ just plain ugly.  After you create an ad re-write it 3 times and reduce copy, graphics by 5% each time and increase white space the same.  You will end up with a clearer message that is easy to ready.

Partner With Other Small Businesses

Almost every business service or product is bought in conjunction with another product or service.  Find what your customers are purchasing when they purchase from you.  If you join forces with another company both of you will benefit.  Increase your exposure, reduce your sales overhead and ultimately increase sales.

Get Your Customers Selling For You

Your customers already trust you and value your service and will do more for you then you realize.  All you have to do is ask.  Ask your customers for testimonials, referrals and where they think you should look.  Customers have an interesting insight to your business that is often overlooked.  They will more often point you in direction you never even thought of.  This is your blue ocean of sales.

By now everyone has heard of blogging, twitter, Facebook and other social media technologies.  The question many small businesses have is how does this help me?

If there was one tool or technology I would suggest ever company use it would be blogging.  Blogging is perfect for small businesses that want to reach a wider audience or to take on the big players.  When the Internet was first introduced to business at large the biggest benefit was for those who had limited budgets and limited resources.  Blogging is a perfect tool to help your business reach new customers by giving them insight to who you are and what you can do for them. 

Example of Corporate Blogging for Capital Equipment.

A great example of a Corporate Blog is the website Industrial Machinery News (http://www.industrial-machinery-news.com).  This website showcases industrial machinery utilized in many industries around the world.  Capital equipment sales has taken a big hit with the down-turn in today’s economy.  Many equipment manufactures are looking for new effective ways to drive traffic to their websites.  Industrial Machinery News has done this through targeted articles that enlighten the reader and helps to push them to the customer’s website.

3 Reasons Blogs help small business

What’s the quickest way to improve search engine ranking?

Blogs are search traffic magnets. By writing an article a day, a business can very quickly build up a massive blog archive packed with keyword rich articles! Content is food for the search engine spiders blog archives are an endless source for the spiders. If you feed them well they will in turn reward you with traffic!

Blogs build brand equity and establish you as a market leader.

People read a lot and a lot during the day.  When you blog about your business you continue to state what it is you do, why you do it and why you’re the business to go to. You build your Brand Equity and the view others have of you.  Leadership is easier to do online with a blog then by any other traditional marketing tool.

Blogs give your business a human voice

We all became a little jaded with all the sales and marketing hype over the past decade or so.  Blogs help to knock down those walls and open new doors of communication.  People are becoming engaged, passionate and motivated.

Corporate blogging does not only mean maintaining a blog, but also monitoring the blogosphere. At the rate news travel on the blogosphere, you need to be in at the right place at the right time to address any issues. Monitoring the blogosphere is no longer a choice, in my opinion. If you are not aware of what people are saying about you online, its time to turn your business offline.

 What other benefits are there in corporate blogging? Care to add to this list? 

The Durham Region Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada is currently recruiting for a Chair Person. The Chapter Chair is a member of the chapter executive team and is responsible for presiding at all meetings, oversees the general affairs of the Chapter and ensure all orders of the Board of Directors are carried out. Candidates should be members of the CCFC (or willing to obtain membership), have basic knowledge of board functions, excellent organizational skills, a sense of responsibility and bondable. To apply for this position and obtain further information, contact Debbie at (905) 683-0388 or by email at ms.durham@bellnet.ca

Read more about the Durham Region Chapter of the MS Society 

Relationship Sales: They buy from me.

Customers buy because we are the best in the industry.

We offer the most features.

We’re the lowest price.

So what is the main reason people buy capital equipment?

Relationship

The fear is that the buyer doesn’t want to make the mistake of purchasing the wrong thing.  This fear will drive a person to seek out someone who he can trust.  This trust is what is thought of as a relationship. 

Being the best

Again the buyer sees his neck on the line when they are making a purchase.  The culture within this company may be such that they need the best in order to be successful.  It’s this fear that drives them to seek out ‘the best’ based on their perspective.

Features

Some people are very fearful that they won’t get ALL the bells and whistles in a product.  This is why Chrysler made a product with 27 cup holders.

Price

This is fairly obvious.  The buyer is fearful that they will be ripped off and pay more then they need to for your type of product. 

3 Important Tips In Capital Equipment Sales

1. Find the customers ‘hot button’ 
2. Associate a fear with the ‘hot button’ and describe how you solve this fear.
3. Don’t over do the ‘fear’ association. Plant the seed and let it grow.