Nearly every business is dependent on a constant flow of new accounts. It’s easy to ignore this because most businesses earn most of their revenue from old, established customers. The problem is that a certain percentage of old customers will drift away or change their focus every year. They’ll change their buying habits, often for reasons that you can’t influence. Read More

Even in a downturn, if you don’t get in front of people and explain your unique value proposition then your chances of selling will be restricted to current customers or accidental passersby. Marketing is what sets you up for selling. However there are three important things you should know before you start.  Read More

Successful retailing during a downturn means taking stock of your store’s appeal to the senses, providing smarter service and never, ever letting your promotional wheels grind to a halt.   Read More

Direct marketing is very much oriented towards immediate response. Direct marketers can tell you very quickly how successful (or unsuccessful) their promotion is, because they have the responses to prove it. So what is the most compelling tool that direct marketers use in order to gain that response? It’s the offer.

In general, direct marketing encourages people to respond to offers - such as, “Buy a dozen bottles of premium wine this weekend, and receive a free bottle of bubbly at no extra charge.”  It is the offer (not necessarily a bribe) that has the power to overcome ‘prospect apathy’.

To have an impact you must cleverly target the offer to appeal to the intended audience. It’s not much use offering a free trial of a newly launched lawn mower to people who live in high-rise apartments. You must design the offer in such a way that it creates interest. Read More

A good quality customer and prospect database for email or direct mail can mean the difference between business survival and failure, especially during times of slow growth. The same list, combined with smart communications, will make the good times even better. It costs more money to find new customers than it does to nurture repeat customers through regular contact, so you need to make accurate list-building a daily habit.  Read More

Customer loyalty programmes work big time for big companies but SME owners are often deterred from developing one because of worries about how much it would cost or how difficult it would be to organise and manage. As a matter of fact, the very same principles that keep customers coming back to big companies can be utilised to develop an SME scale loyalty programme without a lot of cost and drama. Read More

Every business has its share of high maintenance customers, but not every business subscribes to the 'customer is always right' philosophy and feels they have to go on supporting them no matter what. In fact, some businesses will actually 'fire' a customer they no longer want to work with and often report being happier and financially better off once having done it.  Read More

Setting up and maintaining a website isn't cheap. If your company has a website that's even slightly above the brochureware level it's probably costing you a fair sum of money each month. The good news is that a website can earn income to offset its costs, and can even become a profit spinner for your business in its own right.There are a number of ways your website can make money, some more suitable than others depending on your particular situation. For instance, unless you have millions of 'hits' each week it's hard to justify charging high rates for providing advertising or sponsorships on your site, but if you experiment with the variety of income earners that are possible you'll find you're able to cover some, if not all, of your costs. Read More

Facebook, Myspace, Second life. All examples of social networking services (SNS). Many businesses are seizing on this new technology as a channel to drive sales, promote brand and network for business opportunities. Much of it comes from marketers who are excited about the target marketing possibilities of these sites — they gather so much data about individuals that marketers are able to profile very specific demographics. At the same time there is a very real risk to small businesses. Read More

Attracting new customers and getting them to recognise the benefits of using their product is a perennial problem for SME business owners. One basic brand element with the capacity to attract attention and enhance the way the public views your business is the logo you use. Read More