myRetailer.ca

Studying what successful businesses do will teach you lessons on how to improve your own company.

Late last year, after observing my wife sift through a stack of flyers, I asked her if most people she knows do the same thing. Her answer was; “Yes. Everyone I know at least skims through the flyers they’re interested in.”

That got me thinking. If so many of the big guys are putting out flyers so often, they must work. They have to be effective in order for them to spend the money they do through that marketing medium.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Flyers? Really? That so old school, not to mention too expensive for my little retail store. I thought you were all about newer forms of advertising. Are you really talking about flyers? Well, in this case, yes. (more…)

I was recently looking for some inspiration and new topics and noticed that Bizlaunch.ca is running a series of (FREE) webinars taloired to small business owners.  They cover numerous topics and are running throughout the year.

Some topics that caught my attention:

• Simple Systems to Manage Your Time and Build a Great Business
• Sources of Finance for Business Growth – Grants, Loans and Free Money
• Low Cost No Cost Marketing Ideas You Can Use to Grow Your Business
• 7 Secrets to Building a Successful Business – A Growth Strategy
• Tax Saving Tips for Small Business
• 10 Easy Ways to Get Free Publicity for Your Small Business
• Develop a Business Plan to Boost Your Sales and Profits

The list is extensive and there’s something for everyone. I encourage you to check it out.

http://www.bizlaunch.ca/location/Web/seminars.php?&m=All

The Yays and Nays for Marketing a Small Business

Yes, Maybe or No? via Flickr from ‾olǝƃuɐ‾

Marketing is not what it used to be. What used to be all about newspaper, radio and TV advertising, is now all about internet, social media and direct mail marketing.

When you look at your own business, have you changed your marketing strategy in the past five years, or are you still trying to do the same old thing and achieve new results? In my opinion, here are a few Yays and Nays to consider:

Marketing Nays

• Newspaper – news print readership is on the decline, yet advertising is still expensive.
• Radio – with so many stations diluting the market, it no longer has impact.
• TV – very expensive and too much dilution.
• Yellow Pages – (unless yellow pages online) usage of traditional yellow pages has plummeted in recent years, replace with assorted online websites. Carrying ads on their site is also more expensive then other mediums
• Twitter – I haven’t been able to prove the  ROI / economic value to my businesses using Twitter, yet. It can be a time suck, and reach a different market then I’m intending. But, I remain optimistic and continue testing.

Marketing Yays

• Websites – make your website easy to find, informative, up to date and relevant.
• Staff Blogs – builds an online community and encourages people to visit your website regularly.
• Facebook – setup a fan page to help build an online community and to become a part of their online community. It doesn’t take a lot of time, and its an additional place to be found and push out your promotions
• Facebook Ads – a very effective marketing tool that enables you to narrow in on a very small and specific niche in the market place. They’re also less expensive then you think
• Google Adwords – a very effective advertising tool to get in front of people searching for something that you’re hopefully selling. If you know what you’re doing, this can be very effective. There’s lots of help available in this field if you want to outsource.
• YouTube Segments – this can be a very effective tool for providing informative content to your customers, and using a flipcam, video can be fun and easy to create.
• Email Campaigns – not as effective as they once were, as long as you have permission, you keep them relevant and you don’t abuse the privilege, it is still a very useful tool.  When looking at pushing out promotions, email is still king.
• TV Listing Channel Ads – if you must do TV, then do the TV listings channel. It is more reasonably priced and you’ll get more bang for the buck.
• Direct Mail – whether it is via email or snail mail, direct marketing to your customers works every time.  It may be time consuming, but know that the response rate on Direct is the highest of all channels.

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Enhance Customer Experience, Raise Prices and Increase Profitability

Take the Retailer’s Roadmap challenge and work your word of mouth advertising by enhancing your customer’s shopping experience in your store, and then increase profitability through strategically raising some of your prices.

If you provide the best shopping experience for your customers, then your customer satisfaction will go up, word of mouth will travel and you can justify higher prices.

The Retailer’s Roadmap Challenge is a 3 step challenge:

1. Decrease your overall advertising budget by 20%
   • Redirect your remaining budget mostly toward direct marketing campaigns.
2. Invest the savings into the shopping experience
   • Dollar for dollar, take the money you saved from your marketing budget and invest it into your people, your facilities and your merchandising in order to enhance your customer shopping experience. (more…)

Appearances are everything, even in the retail business

Customers love finding deals. Stay competitive by making your special sales and pricing deals visible from outside your store. Customer perception can make or break your business. Take control of how your customer feels about your retail store. Often times it doesn’t matter what reality is, perception is what holds true in the marketplace.

When we opened our new store in Moncton, NB, we constructed a brand new modern facility with the best of everything.  Although it created a superior shopping environment and huge operational efficiencies, one effect that we underestimated was how it affected customer perceptions on price. (more…)