How to make your clients happy.

Happy customerIt is crucial for every business owner to realize the importance of nurturing relationships with clients. Not only do these people provide the revenue coming into the business but there also is a great feeling that comes with contributing to the success and happiness of your clients.

Part of growing a successful business is caring for your customers. Realize that we are in times where an unhappy client can share their opinion with the masses through social media and that can negatively affect your business. That’s why it’s even more important than ever to create an excellent experience for your customers to help develop your company’s relationship with them into love.

So, how would you know whether your clients are happy or not? Well, you would not know unless they or someone lets you know, right? You need to interact with them and review their feedback very often.

Below are 3 tips on how to make your clients happy.

1. Always listen to your clients.

When you have a conversation with your clients, it’s important to truly listen and take into account what changes your business should make from the feedback you will be getting, and then follow through.

2. Respect your clients and their views.

It’s very important to be respectful of a customer’s mood when trying to resolve an issue they have with your company. Keeping your patience is key to giving your customer the time to air out their issue. Don’t come on too strong even if they are wrong.

3. Talk to your clients genuinely

Don’t act as a nameless or faceless business; genuinely talk with your clients as a person representing the business. Address your customers by name, and tell them your name at the very beginning of your interaction.

Remember that a happy client normally tells 4 to 6 people about your company and its customer service. So, making your clients happy is another way to significantly influence the word of mouth about your business.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 23rd, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

3 pillars of building your business online

get-business-online-site-logo1When you go into business, you need to ensure you build a unique and profitable brand market. Market your brand effectively and have online presence. Online presence is important for a business to grow.

Here are the 4 pillars of growing your business online:

1. Website
Have a great website. A great website should be able to convert browsers into buyers. It must connect to your audience instantly and build a relationship with them.

2. Marketing
Marketing is about bringing and sharing your services with the right audience. Your product will remain unknown and useless if you don’t market it properly, so market it!

3. Communication plan

Have a clear and effective communication plan. Videos, blogs, newsletters and emails will bring a steady stream of traffic your way. Communicate what you offer in a way that will make your audience say “I got to have that now!” Every business online needs to get traffic to it’s site, but  profitable traffic is the most important.

4. Social Networks

Another way of increasing your online presence is to go the the social media route. Run ads through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or other ad networks. Many businesses have done very well on these social network platforms.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 8th, 2016|Marketing, Social Media|0 Comments

Marketing VS Advertising

Marketing vs AdvertisingSo, what is the difference between Marketing and Advertising?

Most of us do not know the difference between marketing and advertising. It seems like it’s two terms used to describe the same thing. The difference can be confusing, indeed. While these two concepts are vital in your business and work interchangeably, they are not the same and their roles are different.

Let’s first look at the definition of these two terms:

Marketing – It is a systematic planning, implementation and control of  business activities intended to bring together the seller and the buyer for the mutual exchange or transfer of products.

Advertising – It is a paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor. It is essentially spreading the word about what your company has to offer.

Now, how do we market?

When you market your product or services, you need to have studied your target audience. You need to know what their needs and wants are.

Marketing is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction. It is about meeting the needs and wants of customers.

It is is a business-wide function – not something that operates alone from other business activities. It is about understanding customers and finding ways to provide products or services which customers demand.

And, how do we advertise?

Advertising is a communication of your brand to your target audience. It essentially includes the placement of an advertisement in the media. Print, television, radio and the internet are all venues that can communicate your brand to potential buyers. It requires budget because putting an advertisement in the media need to be paid for.

These two concepts are slices of a bigger pie in your business. They work together towards the bigger goal.

 

 

By |2016-11-01T10:20:10+02:00February 16th, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

B.O.B -The sales funnel

A good marketer knows to adjusts to the ever-changing terrain of marketing without losing sight of what needs to be done to get people’s attention. Marketing is no longer a numbers game, but it remains a funnel. We are going to take you through the key steps that you can use to drive people down your sales funnel. The five below steps are pretty much straight forward and practical:

 

1. Contacts

Part of the marketing process is to make contact with the potential clients. Where ever you go, make sure to engage with people so that you can create contacts.

2. Categorize

Categorize people accordingly. Not everyone is a potential clients, but you need theses people because they might know someone who is a potential client, so you must be able to identify those and categorize them accordingly. Another category of people is those that can be customers but are not sure and ready yet. The last category is the hot customers. These are the customers that you must have immediately! They are ready, they know their needs and need your services. Sign them up today.

3. Clarify

Clarify your contacts. Make your contact details clear and what you offer clear to your clients. Send them your information. Clarify their needs that your company can meet.

4. Convert

Converting can be a lengthy process depending on what your organizations is doing. You can’t magically make it happen. You have to work on and be strategic about it. Encourage those visiting customers to engage with you on the various social platforms, the most prominent being Facebook or website.

5. Conversations

Building relations with your clients is key in marketing. It could be over lunch, via emails or wherever, make a plan to capitalize on the conversation that has been started by your client.

Watch the video on the sales funnel below:

 

 

By |2016-11-01T10:20:10+02:00February 15th, 2016|Bruce on Business|0 Comments

5 steps to make you stick with your marketing plan

MArketing StrategyIt may be tempting to abandon your long term marketing plan when you do not see it working immediately. Don’t! Stick to it and work on it every day.  Be consistent in implementing it. Give it time to work.

These 5 steps can help you make the most of your long-term marketing plan:

  1. Focus on your niche.

Become the expert in all things involving your niche. Don’t limit your knowledge to the services you offer. The more you know about your niche’s priorities and challenges, the more valuable a resource you can become to them. Become familiar with other professionals who can assist your niche with challenges outside your expertise. When you’re tempted to work with clients outside your niche, make sure the time and payoff will be worth it and won’t draw you away from your commitment.

  1. Stay close to your ideal client.

Networking, surveys, online community forums, trade magazines, and associations are all great ways to keep sharp about the things that matter to your ideal client. Also, stay on top of the news, and ask yourself how your client’s needs will be affected by changes in the business and world environment.

  1. Keep your eyes on your competition.

If your clients stop think­ing that you offer a competitive advantage in addressing their needs, you lose and the competition wins. Don’t be the last to know what your competition is doing.

  1. Make sure you’re positioned to win.

If you’re doing the first four steps, you’ll know when it’s time to change your tune, tweak your message, and speak a new language that’s more in tune with what your ideal client needs. Ask yourself, “Is my unique selling proposition still unique? Does anyone do it better? What one thing can I do to serve my clients better?” That’s how you stay unique.

  1. Take action every day.

Follow your schedule. Complete the actions you say you’ll complete in your daily sched­ule. At the end of the week, give yourself a grade for effort. Then give yourself another one for accomplishment. If you’re getting A’s for effort and C’s for accomplishment, trouble­shoot.

 

By |2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 11th, 2016|Business Resources|0 Comments

BOB 14 – Sales Cycle

A lot has been written about the attributions of sales cycle. It really is a simple  step by step process.

Here are the 5 steps of the sales cycle:

1. Inform

You’ve got to inform your customers about your product. Inform them that they have a problem. inform them that they need it. create awareness.

2. Educate

People need to be educated before you can call them potential client. Educate them about your product or your service offering. How does your product solve their problem? Educate them about how it works, where it works. Do some educating marketing.

3. Sell

Don’t jump into selling unless you’ve informed and educated. Do selling campaigning.

4. Re – selling

Remember it’s 10 times easier to re-sell to an existing client than to sell to a completely new one. Re-sell should be your strategic part of your marketing.

5. up-selling

This is about the other complementary services around your product or service offering. What else can you plug in to the initial product.

 

 

 

 

By |2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 8th, 2016|Business Resources|0 Comments

You do not want to miss our next Lunch ‘n Learn session

Our first Lunch ‘n Learn session for this year was well attended. You do not want to miss the next one next month.

This year’s sessions will be held on the first Tuesday of every month. We highly recommend Lunch ‘n Learn, because, apart from being educative and informative, these session are a great platform to network and advertise yourself or your business. We all know that networking is a really valuable way to expand your knowledge. It helps you learn from the success of others, attain new clients and tell others about your business.

The topic of the first session today was on Marketing, looking into The Importance of Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses. It was such an insightful, well-researched presentation, wherein people walked away with very helpful information on how to go about marketing their businesses.

“I found this session to be so much informative. I thought I knew a lot about marketing, but my eyes were opened to a whole lot of new things today”, said  business owner Vincent Staples who was in attendance.

As you learn how to run a business, it’s always a good idea to add variety to your content marketing strategy. Lunch ‘n Learn is one of the platforms that you can use to source information for the benefit of your business.

One of the the few things that we touched on was the Product Marketing Specification. This is about creating a persona when marketing your product or business. Do you know who your ideal clients are? What are you offering?  Do you have a strategy for turning potential clients into paying clients?

Find today’s notes on www.slideshare.com and learn more about  The Importance of Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses.

We trust that we will see you at our next Lunch ‘n Learn session next month on the first Tuesday of the month.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:11+02:00February 2nd, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

B.O.B Episode 13 – February – the marketing month

February is the marketing month, a month where people go all out to activate and launch their marketing strategies for the year.

Here at EI, we have packaged all the information about marketing for you this whole month. This is to just help you market your business the right way in order  for you to reach your target audience and grow your business. Remember, growing your business is our business.

In this video we focus on the four key factors you need to address when you do your marketing strategy:

– Get to know your product

You need to understand the problems that your product is addressing.

– Get to know your customers

Understand the problems that your customers have. Is your product trying to solve them? Understand what they need and want. Make sure it’s the problems that they want to get rid of, and not the problems that they are happy with.

– How willing are your potential customers?

Are people willing to spend their money on your product? Are they happy with their problems or are they willing to spend money to spend money on your product to solve their products?

– Learn how to connect with customers 

You identified the problem, and have a solution, so how do you then connect that to customers?

 

Watch the video below for more on this briefly explained key factors about marketing.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:12+02:00February 1st, 2016|Bruce on Business, Marketing|0 Comments

February – the Marketing month

February is Marketing month and we have some special treats for you.
Four workshops lined up to boost your business marketing to new heights for 2016.12642916_10153435760095415_4319329694582910525_n
The more you learn the more you save with our 10% off for every additional workshop you attend in February. That adds up to a total of 60% savings if you attend all four workshops.

Please book now using the link to the Meetup Group below.

4 Easy to use tools to market your business Thursday 4 Feb: 09:30 – 16:30
Marketing is not about the 4P’s or price cutting discounts anymore: our customers are demanding higher levels of service, experience and convenience from their brands. Taking your business into the Blue Water zone requires a different strategy, a new way of thinking. Blue Water Strategies will help with this paradigm shift that will make your business immune to the competition and sales negotiations around price cuts.

Taking your business into Blue Water marketing Thursday 11 Feb: 09:30 – 16:30
Marketing is not about the 4P’s or price cutting discounts anymore: our customers are demanding higher levels of service, experience and convenience from their brands. Taking your business into the Blue Water zone requires a different strategy, a new way of thinking. Blue Water Strategies will help with this paradigm shift that will make your business immune to the competition and sales negotiations around price cuts.

How to woo your customers with Narrative Marketing Thursday 18 Feb: 09:30 – 16:30
Telling stories is part of our African heritage, using stories in our marketing creates African legends. Narrative Marketing will unpack all the tools and techniques required to fill your marketing with exciting narratives that connect to and include your customers into a powerful profitable relationship.

5 Secrets to Pimp your Pitch Thursday 25 Feb: 09:30 – 15:00
Only successful business owners and managers go on to build successful businesses. One of the common traits these people have is the ability to share their ideas with others through an effective, thought provoking presentation. This skill can be learnt and when used will set you aside from those who are unable.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:12+02:00January 26th, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

Tune into the needs of your customers before its too late

Last056 week I had the task of joining another South African queue, this time at the Home Affairs office in Wynberg. When I got there, I was issued with a queue number: No 92, and told it would be about 2 hrs until I was attended to. So we stood and waited like many of others around us. Now the number system thing allowed us to not have to stand in the actual queue to claim our position, so many wandered off to get breakfast or to browse the local shops in the centre.

One shop caught my attention and perked my interest: a local coffee chop. They say location is the secret to success in retail, and this coffee shop, although small in size was located right next to the Home Affairs office and had a daily captive audience of over 300 people standing waiting right outside their doors. What an opportunity for any small business. But they have just not seen this as any sort of marketing strategy at all. The 4 hours that we were there in the queue (another story for another time) they only had one customer (in picture) who spent a whopping R15 on a take away cup of coffee.

Take a look for a moment at the photo. See the frustrated people in the queue. No look at the coffee shop, nothing, no customers, no invitation to come in, no pleasant greetings at all. Cafe Ombre needs to open their eyes and see what is right outside their doors. The owner/manager sits behind that small curtain area all day doing who knows what and the floor waitress was often just walking around the centre and not even in the shop.

A few marketing strategies are required, here are my suggestions:

  • Understand the needs of those in the queue
  • Market directly to them with a take away menu that allows then to eat and drink whist in the queue
  • Offer them a small discount if they can show their queue ticket
  • Co-brand your products with what is on their minds. Something like ID application coffee or passport cheese toasties
  • Invite people in to the coffee shop for easy fast meals that they can eat before their number is called

This is just an example of many other businesses that we come across each week that have failed to engage the opportunities that often sit right outside our doors. A simple SWOT analysis exercise will reveal a whole new world for this coffee shop.

By |2016-11-01T10:20:15+02:00December 14th, 2015|Bruce on Business, Entrepreneurship|0 Comments
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