Damien Mulley talked in his blog last week about what a desperate state Ireland is in and how things look so bleak and unpromising. However, he then went on to list some of the advantages of doing business in this environment.
It’s true: though the outlook does look very bleak there are things we can be doing to win sales, develop our business and stay ahead of the competition. And the most obvious of them is... online networking of course.
It's running, because despite what you might think it will work for you. And you're doing it on empty, because it's free. If business is slower than usual and you have some down time, then use this time to get up and running online, and here are three good reasons why:
Your customers expect you to be expert, in all things!
First off, everyone is thinking about it, so if you’re a service provider and you DON’T have an online presence then you’re looking outdated and out of touch. Customers want to know that you’re ahead of the game in all things service-oriented and digital (whether this has anything to do with your business or not). So developing and maintaining an online presence is a must.
(NOTE when I say online presence I mean on professional networks, on twitter, blogging, etc. Of course you have a decent website, that goes without saying)
It's marketing, at no cost
Secondly, it’s an inexpensive way to network and win sales, particularly if you’re cash strapped. There are no associated costs, except for your time. That beats shelling out for advertising, brochures or DM mailings for sure.
It's a great way to build your expertise
Finally, it’s a great way to easily develop your expertise. You can connect with like minded people and learn from them, all from the comfort of your own desk (or PC or mobile device). Free webinars, excellent expert blogs, tweetmeets, LinkedIn group discussions – these are all available and cover your sector or industry for sure. And if they don’t then set up a group and get people talking. Once you sort out the wheat from the chaff, and figure out which ones are bringing you real knowledge (and which are wasting your time) then you can’t help but learn. and once you start to communicate this learning with your prospects and customers, then you’re actively keeping one step ahead of the competition.
So, in a nutshell, use the downtime to get online, get your presence felt there, and use it as a long term strategy to build revenue and grow your business.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Advertising – not the be-all and end-all
I read a blog post recently about a consultant who was trying to develop his business and wanted to advertise. This person immediately began an analysis of potential costs and returns for each advertising medium, as well as some brief analysis of who their customer might be and how best to reach them.
What he hadn’t considered at all was that advertising might not be the best way for him to grow revenue.
Businesses sometimes see advertising (often mass market advertising) as being the goal of a cash rich business – have the cash, spend it on advertising and watch the business roll in. Instead it can prove a costly mistake, either as an overall strategy or in implementation.
I worked with a client who was thinking along the same lines – this business needed to grow revenue and wanted me to advise them on how best to advertise.
First a little on the company background: the business owner/managers were two ‘techies’ who had set up an online retail business. Their expertise was technical, and certainly not consumer or retail.
I immediately called ‘Whoa there’. Mass market advertising is not always the right way to go – in fact it could bring huge problems like an inability to meet demand due to stock or resource issues, leading to poor customer service and brand damage, to name but a few.
My client was in a similar boat: our research showed that mass marketing just wouldn’t work for their business: instead they needed to build their brand and market to their specific segments, thereby growing the business organically.
A key option which I explored with them was to diversify a little: we recommended that they use their technical expertise to ‘white label’ their offering to other players in the market. Our research showed that other players were struggling to move to online retailing. These companies had the retail experience but not the technical expertise (which my client had in spades).
This strategy proved a successful one: now the client is working on technical projects they are good at, enjoy, and are growing their expertise. A little targeted advertising and brand development kept their core business in growth mode too, albeit slower than they had originally envisaged.
What he hadn’t considered at all was that advertising might not be the best way for him to grow revenue.
Businesses sometimes see advertising (often mass market advertising) as being the goal of a cash rich business – have the cash, spend it on advertising and watch the business roll in. Instead it can prove a costly mistake, either as an overall strategy or in implementation.
I worked with a client who was thinking along the same lines – this business needed to grow revenue and wanted me to advise them on how best to advertise.
First a little on the company background: the business owner/managers were two ‘techies’ who had set up an online retail business. Their expertise was technical, and certainly not consumer or retail.
I immediately called ‘Whoa there’. Mass market advertising is not always the right way to go – in fact it could bring huge problems like an inability to meet demand due to stock or resource issues, leading to poor customer service and brand damage, to name but a few.
My client was in a similar boat: our research showed that mass marketing just wouldn’t work for their business: instead they needed to build their brand and market to their specific segments, thereby growing the business organically.
A key option which I explored with them was to diversify a little: we recommended that they use their technical expertise to ‘white label’ their offering to other players in the market. Our research showed that other players were struggling to move to online retailing. These companies had the retail experience but not the technical expertise (which my client had in spades).
This strategy proved a successful one: now the client is working on technical projects they are good at, enjoy, and are growing their expertise. A little targeted advertising and brand development kept their core business in growth mode too, albeit slower than they had originally envisaged.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Acceptable frequency of blog posts?
It's interesting that as soon as my day job gets busy the first thing to suffer is this blog.
There's a lesson there for all of you potential bloggers out there, and one I've evidently yet to learn myself.
Blogging must be regular - even if it's short - otherwise readers will look elsewhere, as I've done myself many times. It's the regularity of the posting that makes it up to date, relevant and interesting. A post that's more than a few weeks old smacks of half heartedness. It says to the reader: "Don't bother checking this blog again as this could have been my last post". We've enough to do every day without clicking through to an empty blog to check for a post. And those 10 seconds wasted out of anyone's day is an insult, if you ask me.
So, please accept my apologies for having having been such a lame poster in the last few weeks.
What do you all think - what's the minimum acceptable frquency of blog posts?
I know there are ways to get alerted for a new blog post but not everyone uses these, so let me have your thoughts.
Personally, I think two weeks is about the longest I'd be happy to leave a blog empty for. Ideally I'd like to post twice a week.So, I'm not happy with my recent lack of posts. In future, I'm going to try to stick with this limit, and if I can't do that, I'll stop blogging.
How's that for a promise!
There's a lesson there for all of you potential bloggers out there, and one I've evidently yet to learn myself.
Blogging must be regular - even if it's short - otherwise readers will look elsewhere, as I've done myself many times. It's the regularity of the posting that makes it up to date, relevant and interesting. A post that's more than a few weeks old smacks of half heartedness. It says to the reader: "Don't bother checking this blog again as this could have been my last post". We've enough to do every day without clicking through to an empty blog to check for a post. And those 10 seconds wasted out of anyone's day is an insult, if you ask me.
So, please accept my apologies for having having been such a lame poster in the last few weeks.
What do you all think - what's the minimum acceptable frquency of blog posts?
- Hourly
- Daily
- Twice a week
- Weekly
- Twice monthly
- Monthly
I know there are ways to get alerted for a new blog post but not everyone uses these, so let me have your thoughts.
Personally, I think two weeks is about the longest I'd be happy to leave a blog empty for. Ideally I'd like to post twice a week.So, I'm not happy with my recent lack of posts. In future, I'm going to try to stick with this limit, and if I can't do that, I'll stop blogging.
How's that for a promise!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
