For those of you using or considering an on demand e-commerce service, here is a true story of what happened to one of my technology product-based clients just this past week during the busy holiday shopping season.
During a routine quality assurance check by my very conscientious team, it was discovered that all of the links from my client’s website pointing to the third party e-commerce service, which he selected prior to coming to work with us, were dead.
Regardless of whether you market to businesses or consumers, you are marketing to people. And people have interests outside of work. Millions of viewers, of all ages, spend hours on social websites like MySpace.com and YouTube.com.
That’s why advertisers are so willing to spend big bucks to be seen there. But why not be a participant? There are two simple ways you could accomplish this. First, create a profile on MySpace for your company. The Terms of Use state that the services “may be used for promotional purposes as well, but direct commercial endeavors may only be used if they are specifically endorsed or authorized by MySpace.” So don’t place an outright advertisement.
Instead create a profile as if your company were a person. Post pictures from events, golf outings, presentations, the Holiday Party, a volunteer service or cause event you organized or participated in, an awards ceremony etc. Demonstrate that you are more than a business, that you are a group of caring, intelligent people who participate in life.
In today’s economy many businesses are cutting back. You are under pressure to lower fixed costs of doing business, while maintaining or improving profit margins. This is an incredibly challenging, and taxing, endeavor and the choices you make will most likely have a greater long-term effect on your business than you may realize today.
Simultaneously, now more than ever, is the time to shine in your clients and prospects eyes!
Too often, business decisions are made in haste due to immediate economic conditions which, though temporarily decreasing costs on a weekly or monthly basis, actually cost the company far more in the long-run.
The key to success in business in these challenging times is not be to do or spend less necessarily, but to get more “bang for your buck” without sacrificing quality.
It’s that time of year again.
The holidays are rapidly approaching and that means different things to different businesses.
For some, it is “crunch time” for year end sales tactics and for a final push to meet projected goals. For others it’s a time to plan, and begin implementation of, Q1 initiatives while “closing the books” on ’08 and preparing end of year work / production schedules. Regardless of the different positions your specific business structure has you focusing on in the final portion of 4th Quarter 2008, one opportunity awaits you that would be a shame to pass up and cannot be recouped if you miss it…
Utilizing targeted email to cost effectively wish your clients and prospects well this holiday season.
The following is a simple comparison, but it sets a very strong foundation supporting the fact that if you market your business using traditional marketing methods, yet do not have a well developed (albeit basic for this cost example) website, odds are you are not optimizing your marketing budget.
Let’s have some fun with a mock scenario and see how the numbers play out…
(One important note here – We need to assume for this post that you have good content [text & images] already. In future posts I look forward to discussing “proper” content development)
Let’s say you are the owner of a small business that sells a product or service that warrants an average 8 page, 8.5″ X 11″ brochure to help motivate prospective clients and to establish company credibility.
The general fees associated with having a professional firm develop such a piece is (roughly) as follows:
