Posts Tagged ‘productivity’
Bundling Services Preserves Value and Offers Incentive
Posted by ddidier in advertising, small-business Thursday, 5 March 2009 17:05 No Comments
Making the Case for Bundling Services
We recently had a meeting with an Orlando, Florida based social networking company we are considering partnering with. While our services are non-competing, we still serve the same audience and seek the same customer. Both companies want to add value to our current service offerings to help entice sales. In a word, we are looking to bundle our services together.
It is my belief that people like things in a neat package they can understand. When it comes to a sale there are so many questions and concerns a customer has that rambling off a number of features leads to more confusion and lost sales. Using bundling gives the customer a complete package they can easily digest. In my experience the best salespeople are the ones that can accurately take a customers needs and provide a bundle that fulfills their needs. The features, which can be explained, are not the main focus - the problem resolution that the bundle represents is.
Starbucks: Bundling in Practice
Starbucks does not want to dilute the value they have created for their coffee. Considered "premium", if Starbucks was to lower the price and sell more latte's, they would dilute the perceived value of the coffee. It is not so easy to raise a price once it has been lowered. So, to help offset this, they turned to bundling their coffee products with some of their food products and created a value that way. Their new "pairings" enable them to maintain the margin and perceived value of their coffee and take a hit to the price of the breakfast item that is bundled with it. Customers end up spending more per transaction, but do not mind as they see a better combined overall value.
It also gives people an excuse for the guilt they feel for spending money at a Starbucks!
In advertising, and especially bathroom advertising, creating value added benefits for customers is a must. We have chosen to use our Mobile Advertising service as a free add-on to our primary offerings. Also, to display videos on our screens we have chosen to create videos at or near our cost so that the "ticket to entry" to get videos formatted for our screen is small.
Finally
When you have an opportunity, look for what offers you can bundle together for your customers. Take a couple complimentary services and combine them with a new overall price. Partner with other companies that are willing to work with you on your services as well. Sticking together is a key component to weathering out the troughs experienced in economies like today.
Call to Action – A Must in Today’s Economy
Posted by ddidier in advertising, small-business Wednesday, 4 March 2009 18:00 1 Comment
What is a Call to Action?
The online Business Dictionary defines a Call to Action as:
"Words that urge the reader, listener, or viewer of a sales promotion message to take an immediate action, such as "Write Now,” "Call Now,” or (on Internet) "Click Here.” A retail advertisement or commercial without a call-to-action is considered incomplete and ineffective."
Well put. This is a valuable lesson we have learned - a customer is less likely to act on a product or service offering without a perceived constraint encouraging them to act on the promotion.
Call to Action Pointers
Early advertisements we created centered around a display of information and an explanation of the service or product. While this helped for brand awareness, it did little to spur a customer to act. This model is close to that of a typical TV commercial showing the latest wares from a consumer goods company. The key in this day and age is to encourage a sale by pushing the customer to make a decision.
Examples would include:
- Act now while supplies last
- First 50 customers get an additional 10% off
- This offer expires February 1st
- Join our mailing list to receive a free ebook on ...
Tracking Call to Action Effectiveness
Online tracking
While creating a sense of urgency is important, it is also important to gauge effectiveness. Google offers it's analytic tools with the ability to funnel through goals to determine if your online calls to action work. Watching what keywords bring customers to your site and judging the offers by click through is an excellent way to test online call to action effectiveness.
Email marketing
Try sending different marketing emails to customers with different promotions regarding different products. See which one has the greatest effect on your sales. Use this to move distressed inventory or to boost sales of poor selling services. Give away the "dogs" when customers purchase premium offerings. You are interested in "conversion" or the amount of sales you get off the total number of emails sent.
Constant contact (among others) helps you get your email campaign started and keeps track of who opens your email - getting more "funnel" information.
Traditional marketing
For traditional marketing campaigns there are a couple tricks to try. Some of our customers set up special toll-free phone numbers that relate to certain campaigns. You can get local phone numbers through a couple of different sources including Grand Central (though this will take some time).
Steering your customers to a particular website works as well. MediaVision has it's main landing page, however we also have a site at www.mediavisionfl.com/mediabuyers which is only meant for targeting media buyers. This way you can talk directly to the customer without the clutter a generic main page puts forth.
Our Mobile Advertising service is a great way to judge the effectiveness of an ad. Immediately when a customer is interested they text our server, giving us feedback on the time and the quantity of responses. Try it out: text scooter to 407-437-5178.
Finally, the easiest way to track is to ask. Asking every customer how they found out about you is a great way of finding out if your call to action efforts are working. The problem is having a systematic way of tracking such information and being consistent in your asking.
Finally
People today are looking for value. They are fickle when it comes to customer service - today the power of the dollar rules. Give them good reasons to buy from you and track what is working so you can put your efforts towards call to actions that work.
Free is the Cost to Stay Organized with Remember the Milk
Posted by ddidier in small-business Tuesday, 27 January 2009 08:00 1 Comment
In this article I discuss a free software resource that has made my life a great deal easier. Remember the milk (www.rememberthemilk.com) is a smart, intuitive web resource that I recommend everyone try out.
One of the biggest problems being a small business owner I have is staying organized. No one is there looking over my shoulder (which is one of the reasons I ventured out on my own) and it is completely up to me to make sure that things get done on time. I have taken the Franklin Covey time management class twice, owned multiple Palm V's, and even combined the two with a Sony Clie' with the Franklin Covey software. None of those do I use today.
I think technology can solve many of our problems, so when I heard about Remember the Milk (rtm) I figured I should give it a try...hey it's free, so why not? What rtm brings is a very simple and somewhat easy to use interface that enables you to quickly prioritize your daily to-do's and group them by personal, work, or whatever to keep yourself more organized. Although it's called "Remember the Milk" it does a lot more than help you remember your grocery list. It is big on AJAX and web 2.0 technologies so there are easy undo's and hot keys everywhere.
What I find most promising is the fact that rtm is open to development and there are many people working to add bolt-on's, add-ins and other unique ways of interfacing with it. It integrates with Jott, Gmail and other popular web applications. Since it is web based as long as you have an internet connection you have a list of your daily activities.
What I don't like are the ways that you highlight some of the tasks inadvertently and end up changing statuses without meaning to. It's shortcommings are small and with it's continual development, I am sure these nuances will be fixed in the near future.
I suggest you visit their site and give it a try. Use it to augment your current task planning; or create a whole new planning system.