How well do you know your customers?

Lately with the economy being as it is, I've been asking myself this question. How well do I know my customers? For myself, I have to admit that it is at times trying to get to know all your customers, but lets focus on the 20% of clients which give you 80% of your business (i.e. the 80/20 rule).

How well do you know your customers? If your answer is not very well or not at all, perhaps some of these ideas could be of use to you.

1. Newsletters: Use this technique to engage your customers in a discussion. The best method to do this would be to create a newsletter which gives your customers interesting bits of information and ultimately there could also be a Q&A section where the readers of your newsletter could submit question to you to seek your advice. This would really demonstrate your expertise in your business.

2. Co host an event with another business: This would apply to companies targeting the same consumer base but not selling similar products or services. Examples could be:

- A bank hosting a small seminar with a marketing consultant to give tips and advice to customers on the best way to market their business.

- A financial planner and an insurance agent teaming up to run a talk on savings, retirement planning, etc.

- A caterer and wine specialist hosting a wine tasting and food event entitled "matching the correct food with the correct wine".

These ideas could help you to create a better relationship with a your customers and you won't have to resort to spamming them just to remind them that you are still around. These ideas are enduring and like all marketing efforts they take time to build up momentum and gain an audience.

Terms and Conditions

Its been a while since my last posting. My apologies for the absence.

Of late, I've been receiving quite a few value meal vouchers. In my last entry on delivering value, I advocated the importance of delivering value into your business. But recently, I've come across a restaurant which I felt did not quite delivery value or to be more precise, I felt they were cheating their consumers. Lets be very professional here. I've blotted out the name in order to save guard the restaurant.


When you first look at this voucher it says CRAZY FOOD OFFER... 1 For 1. But if you look at the bottom right corner of the voucher, 2 things stand out. First off, it says Saturday & Sunday Only... and of course Terms and Conditions apply. No problem with the first condition...

Most businesses always try to draw business towards their slower times and maybe for this restaurant this could be the case. But, let's take a look at the back portion of this voucher.


If you take a look at bullet number four you will notice this statement there, valid for dine-in only with a minimum spending of RM 100 (i.e. USD 27.00). My point of contention is this, for you to be able to spend RM 100 when your food meals are half priced would mean that you would probably have to order an appetizer and desert and probably booze.

So if I'm going to half to spend a minimum or RM 100 before I can get my meals at Half price then why bother giving me the discount at all...

The point is this, if you are going to create a value promotion of any kind, its important to take note of a few points:

1) That you can actually afford to and are willing to give such a discount. 50% off meals from my experience is quite a hefty discount.


2) Try not to have terms and conditions which are too stringent. If not, my bet is that the promotion will most likely not be very successful.

The above example of the restaurant clearly contradicts these 2 points, having me fork out RM 100 before I qualify to use the voucher only tells me either that the restaurants is not able to really give this kind of discounts or they are not very sincere in their marketing by inserting such ridiculous terms. Either way, my feeling is that this campaign may not do very well.

So, a good thing to remember is that in delivering value, more often than not this can be a double edge sword, do it right and you'll have a tremendous increase in sales. Be too stringent and the promotion will probably fail and could possibly hurt your brand image. Till next time.

Delivering Value

Been thinking a lot recently about the key words "value deals". As a lot of businesses are now undergoing a slowdown of sales, I've noticed recently that there has been an increase in most retail outlets using value deals as part of their marketing promotions to reach out to customers.

This is primarily happening in most if not all food service businesses. You see a lot these days on value meal promotions where restaurants are pushing set meals (i.e. lunches, tea time, dinner) which they hope the customer will see as good value deals and thus make the decision to come in to have a meal.

Now this is not necessarily a bad thing but what surprises me is this, companies are using this method more frequently now then before. I mean when times were good, I would rarely see established restaurants or business using value promotions. Most would rather just throw their money into advertising or worse still, act as if customers will visit their store because they are an established brand.

So my question is this. Is delivering value to your clients only important when times are tough? My advice to my clients is that delivering value in their products and services should be carried it irregardless of whether times are good or bad. The reason I advocate this is because, when a business is seen as delivering value in its products / services this creates a message to the consumer that the company

1) Stands for giving its customers the best possible quality product / service it can.
2) It creates the notion that although this business exists to make profit, this business has principles and one of these principles is that all its products are priced fairly and of good value.

Not matter how much advertising budget you may have, you just cannot buy perception like the above. If your products / service already has this perception in the minds of your consumers then good on you. If not, perhaps its time to start thinking of implementing this "value deal" promotion into your business?

Been thinking about the economy

Hey there, I'm sure you've been reading on the news about the current economic situation. Well, instead to just subscribing to all that doom and gloom I think perhaps we should draw our attention to what this current situation is doing to our businesses.

First and foremost you have to understand, if you believe at this juncture that what's happening now is going to make you go bust you're most certainly correct. Thus a good point to keep in mind here is attitude. Keep that attitude in check. Franklin D. Roosevelt once said during America's Depression that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself".

In a manner of speaking he's right, if we submit to the paralyzing fear of the times, we'll most likely shock ourselves into doing nothing!

Secondly, I think it important to remember that continuing your marketing efforts is a must at this point. Yes, so times are bad, you don't have much cash flow to carry out much marketing efforts. Instead of worrying how much money / cash flow you have to carry out marketing activities, why not focus on what kind of marketing activities that can be carried out at a low cost. Think guerrilla style marketing.

After all that's said and done, you can't be paralyzed by the current turn of events, instead times like these are probably a call back to real marketing efforts and a cut back from all that advertising which you've probably mistaken as marketing effort. Till next time...

Referrals marketing strategy (Part 1)

In my previous entry, we looked at the reasons behind why it was important to have a referral strategy as part of your overall marketing mix. Today, I'd like to introduce you to 3 steps which can help you create a referral marketing strategy:

1) Always have your Business Card on you:

I cannot possibly stress how important this is. How many times have you come across a person which you introduce yourself to and he / she mentions that they don't have a business card on them at the moment. Now imagine this, you're meeting someone for the first time and your introducer mentions that this individual could be interested in giving you your next million dollar deal. You check your wallet and you don't have any name cards. How is this person going to contact you? What kind of impression do you think you've made with this person? Is that the sound of a million dollar deal being thrown out the window?

So remember, always make sure that you have business cards.

2) Think Networking, not closing a sale:

Whenever you mention networking, most people equate that with closing a sale. The first time they meet you they try to hard sell you their business. Have you met individuals like that? I can tell you that I have and it sure isn't a joy to talk to them. Remember, networking is about building relationships and that TAKES TIME. Don't get their card and pitch them the next day. First and foremost it is not professional and second it makes you look desperate. Remember desperate people end up getting nowhere.

3) Join a Hard-contact Networking group:

Sure there are many avenues to networking out there, there's Kiwanis, Rotary, your local chamber of commerce but these avenues are usually open to everybody which means that you can also end up meeting a lot of people in the same business. Thus, consider joining a hard contact network. I'm borrowing this from a brilliant writer, Dr. Ivan Misner He's been called the Father of modern networking.

Now, Hard contact networks are networking group which only allow one profession / trade to be apart of the group. Thus, you will have the opportunity to meet different individuals from different professions and yet be the only profession of your type in that group. Isn't that swell? A good example of a group like this would be BNI.

So, now that you have 3 ideas to start you on the road to developing a referral based marketing strategy, its now your turn to act. There's no time like the present. I'll be back with 3 more strategies soon to develop a better and stronger referral marketing strategy. Till then, take care.

Referrals as a marketing strategy. Do you have one?

Your house pipes have broken down. Instead of reaching for the yellow pages, you instinctively pick up your phone to dial your best friend or dad, etc asking " do you know a good plumber"? How many of us have actually found ourselves in that situation?

I can sense you nodding your head. The truth is, a lot of us only want to do business with someone we know or someone we're recommended do. Its hard to sometimes just pick the yellow pages and dial the first ad you see in there.

So if we know that we only want to do business with people we trust or know, then what are we as marketeers for our business doing about building a strong referral based strategy as part of our marketing efforts? Think about it.... The first question to ask yourself, how much of my business is by referral? 20%, 50%, 80%. If 80% of your business is by referrals then you have to ask yourself, do I have a step by step process to make sure all my business translates to even more referrals?

In the next entry, I'll introduce some ways you can possibly use to develop a viable referral strategy to convert a majority of your business into more referrals for you. Till then, take care.

Company emails and websites

In my line of work with Small and Medium sized businesses, I'm constantly shocked at how little importance is placed in branding. That said, I think one of the basic requirements that all companies should have no matter how big or small is a corporate email and website.

Can you imagine meeting someone for the first time and having look through their contact details only to discover that they do not have a website and the other cardinal sin, a generic email address such as will@gmail.com or alanc@yahoo.com

Now, the first thing that comes to mind my mind when I see this is:

Is this person's business as genuine?

Is he/she going to wind up someday or is he/she here for the long term?

Having a website and proper email will help to establish in your customers mind that you are here for the long term. Bear in mind, this is to provide a psychological relief and to instill a sense of confidence in your client that you are serious in your business.

Thus, what are you waiting for? Make sure you have a website running and most of all a proper domain email. Branding wise, it will go a long way.