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

Small Businesses Issue HST Checklist

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is issuing a checklist on Thursday to some 42,000 members in Ontario, ahead of the tax harmonization that takes place July 1. The HST will join together the 5% federal Goods and Services Tax with the provincial sales tax (7% in British Columbia and 8% in Ontario), bringing the combined tax on goods and services to 12% in B.C. and 13% in Ontario.

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Small Business Merchants Rushed to Banks While Canadian Athletes Went On Bagging Golds

The recently published Moneris Solutions’ Vancouver 2010 spending data revealed that while Canada as a nation was taken by the Olympic fever, consumers were bitten by the shopping bug. Sales increased by 48 percent during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

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Ontario Minimum wage set to rise on March 31 to $10.25

The Ontario government announced this week that the province’s minimum wage is set to rise from $9.50 to $10.25 on March 31, 2010.

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B.C. surf town bans all franchises

Tofino, the small B.C. surf town known for its natural beauty, has boosted its anti-establishment reputation by banning all franchises within its borders.

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Shopify retailers roar past $100M in online sales

Local e-commerce firm Shopify announced Tuesday that retailers using its platform recently topped $100 million in total sales.

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Wind Mobile: Rushed launch takes wind out of newest cellphone carrier

Conventional wisdom for Canada’s newest cellphone carriers has been to be first into the market. With fierce competition overhead from established incumbents such as Rogers Communications Inc., the thinking was that the earliest in would hold a key leg up against other newcomers and reap the rewards of consumers’ pent up demand for choice.

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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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Leverage community excitement with promotions to drive traffic and sales

Alex Bilodeau brings home Gold. Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images from YSportsVancouver via Flickr

With the entire nation following and rooting for Canada’s athletes in the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics right now (including my friend John), why not celebrate with them.

Once the games got started, Randall Leavitt, our managing partner in Fredericton had an idea. He thought it would be fun to celebrate with our customers every time Canada won gold at the Olympics. He suggested that we give away free slush drinks to all our customers the day after one of our athletes won gold. (more…)