Many marketing opportunities are missed by companies relying too much on the internet, and specific keywords, in a blinkered attempt to become involved in the 'new technology'. However, it is very easy to miss out through a lack of knowledge of the limitations of online marketing.
Any business will see marketing as a critical part of making sure that the company is meeting its objectives, and more importantly, meeting with customers' needs and expectations. However, many business owners see marketing as something necessary only at the launch of the business, or when launching new products or services.
Although it does serve a crucial purpose at these times, there can be no doubt that ongoing marketing will prove valuable. It is critical that business owners have a good, solid understanding of how the business is perceived, and how it is managing to meet with customer demand.
There are many ways in which marketing can be employed, and this may well depend on the way in which your company does business. For instance, if you are based entirely online, then you may well use Google analytical data to identify keywords being used to drive customers to your site, discover what people are looking for, what your competitors are pitching their sites on, and how much they're bidding for the important keywords. This will also help you to establish or identify niche markets.
Most people think of marketing as identifying customer satisfaction and need, but in fact it's a great deal more than this, with careful identification and analysis of your rivals an important element. Marketing will also help you to identify who your main customers or clients are, as well as how they reach you. This will help you to identify who you're failing to miss, and what advertising or promotions are working well, allowing you to adapt and develop the business to attract more customers and make more efficient use of your promotional budget.
Today there are more marketing tools than ever before, so many that it can often become rather confusing knowing where to start. With many hundreds of companies and organizations online touting for business as far as offering people like you an inside view of how the marketing world works, it can almost seem an impossible task. Certainly it is true that there are many statistics online, and many ways of interpreting them, statistics don't tell the whole story.
It will be important to use and analyze those statistics, but one of the crucial truths often left out by these companies who are trying to sell you their system of analysis is that these statistics only reveal a small proportion of the truth. Not everyone who is after your business, product or service will use Google, not everyone looking for services you can provide will use the same keywords, not everyone you're trying to reach will even use the internet as their main source of information.
These statistics will reveal a great deal about the markets you may be reaching, and those that you're not, but only within the sum total of those potential markets that use the internet. All too often businesses make the mistake of becoming almost blinkered, and forgetting the real world still exists, and there really are people who search for, and find, information about products and businesses in ways which have proved successful for many, many years.
It's just a case of taking those blinkers off, realizing that there are a whole range of ways in which it is still very possible to reach new audiences and grow your business without resorting to the theoretical keyword warfare which exists online.
To a large extent, your marketing will reveal a great deal more about these hidden legions of potential customers offline than they will online, and once you have identified this gap, you can start to consider ways in which to capitalize on it. These are exciting times, and most people will tell you, but not necessarily because of the internet.
As a result of internet technology becoming the main crutch upon which so many of your rivals will be supporting themselves, through their marketing and analysis, promotions and publicity, it is now more possible than ever before to find niche markets and reach potential customers using novel methods which do not rely on the internet. To a very great extent people are tending to pay more attention to offline advertising than banners adverts, web adverts, emails and such like.
Companies taking the time and trouble to do more than simply hit a few buttons on a keyboard or outsource to a graphics company to draw a pretty, flash banner carry more weight in the minds of the average consumer. Being aware of this and turning part of your marketing strategy towards this could well reveal a great deal of potential for the growth of your business. All you have to do, once the blinkers are off, is decide how you're going to market your product and service in a way which will stand out, be recognized, and reach those clients through real world means.
Naz Daud is the CEO of CityLocal.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
September Spectacular Print Offer of The Month
Why not take up some of our fantastic printing offers of the month - for a full list of Septembers Printing.com offers please visit our website www.sdmproductionsuk.co.uk and click on offers!
Debunking the Myths of Being an Entrepreneur
It is easy to see the concept of entrepreneurialism as something which is left to other people to do, especially the city executives and the rich corporate high fliers. In truth, this couldn't be a more inaccurate picture of the world of the entrepreneur.
The reality is that most entrepreneurs are ordinary people like us, with no extraordinary backing, no massive bank balance and no high flying city background. Perhaps it would be true to suggest that most people in that kind of position wouldn't be prepared to risk their careers and their positions for the apparent gamble of starting their own business. It is often perceived as the case that entrepreneurs are gamblers, taking their own careers and gambling them on a whim.
This is another inaccurate misconception. Entrepreneurs tend to be amongst the most focused, well disciplined, cautious and well planned people in business. When the responsibility for your success lies wholly and entirely with you, the motivation to succeed, to get things right and to know where everything stands is much more tangible. Today there is no such thing as job security, and increasingly people are becoming disenchanted with uncertainty, and the feeling of being undervalued in a giant company which has lost sight of individualism.
It is these people that taste the benefits of entrepreneurialism, following their own personal dreams and ambitions, often with a wealth of planning and preparation, research and assessment. With a growing base of entrepreneurs online helping each other out in forums and discussion boards, for those considering taking the step into such a world, there is much knowledge and experience on offer, and many myths that can be dispelled.
One of the advantages of starting out on your own, running your own business, is that you have an amazing freedom of choice. You can, possibly for the first time in your life, actively pursue your own dreams and ambitions, enjoying spending time doing the things you enjoy, and in which you have a personal interest.
All too often in the normal world of office work and traditional nine to five jobs we enter a field that we may have some interest in, but after a period of time it becomes painfully obvious that it offers little in the way of personal enjoyment, or fulfilment. We lose the excitement and enthusiasm we had to begin with as we realize that we are valued very little, and that perhaps the management don't even know our name, let alone value us for the job we are doing.
In the world of business each person is able to see every day that the work they are doing is not only making a difference to their customers, but also to the business as a whole, and to them personally too. This level of satisfaction often results in the entrepreneur being amongst the happiest individuals on the planet.
This is not to suggest that it is easy, and no one should consider launching their own business idea without a good deal of forethought and research. The beautify of having so much information at our fingertips today is that often this information is easy to access. There are many thousands of people who have already left their day jobs to pursue individual careers; entrepreneurs that are just like you and me. Their experiences and advice will prove invaluable in helping to dispel myths, debunk scams and answer those specific questions or concerns you may have, from how to file your tax returns to how to market your brand or carry out effective market research.
One of the common questions many people have is: what is the difference between someone who starts out working from home, following one of the many schemes or ideas available, and someone who can be said to be an entrepreneur? There is certainly a good deal of overlap between the two, but essentially the difference boils down to the fact that most entrepreneurs are following their own ideas, pursuing their own goals, and establishing their own business idea which fits in to their own unique talents and experience, rather than implementing an out of the box package deal assembled by someone else.
There are many work from home schemes which are sold as entrepreneur packages, but unless you're creating your own image, your own stamp and following your own ambitions, this tends to be more of a franchise than anything else. But this is not to suggest that an entrepreneur has to do everything for him or herself. There are many books, publications, disks and websites with a wealth of information on starting a business to help those interested investigate the likely paths which can be pursued, and not only find answers to the questions that they have right from the start, but helps identify the questions that they hadn't even thought of yet.
Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal.
The reality is that most entrepreneurs are ordinary people like us, with no extraordinary backing, no massive bank balance and no high flying city background. Perhaps it would be true to suggest that most people in that kind of position wouldn't be prepared to risk their careers and their positions for the apparent gamble of starting their own business. It is often perceived as the case that entrepreneurs are gamblers, taking their own careers and gambling them on a whim.
This is another inaccurate misconception. Entrepreneurs tend to be amongst the most focused, well disciplined, cautious and well planned people in business. When the responsibility for your success lies wholly and entirely with you, the motivation to succeed, to get things right and to know where everything stands is much more tangible. Today there is no such thing as job security, and increasingly people are becoming disenchanted with uncertainty, and the feeling of being undervalued in a giant company which has lost sight of individualism.
It is these people that taste the benefits of entrepreneurialism, following their own personal dreams and ambitions, often with a wealth of planning and preparation, research and assessment. With a growing base of entrepreneurs online helping each other out in forums and discussion boards, for those considering taking the step into such a world, there is much knowledge and experience on offer, and many myths that can be dispelled.
One of the advantages of starting out on your own, running your own business, is that you have an amazing freedom of choice. You can, possibly for the first time in your life, actively pursue your own dreams and ambitions, enjoying spending time doing the things you enjoy, and in which you have a personal interest.
All too often in the normal world of office work and traditional nine to five jobs we enter a field that we may have some interest in, but after a period of time it becomes painfully obvious that it offers little in the way of personal enjoyment, or fulfilment. We lose the excitement and enthusiasm we had to begin with as we realize that we are valued very little, and that perhaps the management don't even know our name, let alone value us for the job we are doing.
In the world of business each person is able to see every day that the work they are doing is not only making a difference to their customers, but also to the business as a whole, and to them personally too. This level of satisfaction often results in the entrepreneur being amongst the happiest individuals on the planet.
This is not to suggest that it is easy, and no one should consider launching their own business idea without a good deal of forethought and research. The beautify of having so much information at our fingertips today is that often this information is easy to access. There are many thousands of people who have already left their day jobs to pursue individual careers; entrepreneurs that are just like you and me. Their experiences and advice will prove invaluable in helping to dispel myths, debunk scams and answer those specific questions or concerns you may have, from how to file your tax returns to how to market your brand or carry out effective market research.
One of the common questions many people have is: what is the difference between someone who starts out working from home, following one of the many schemes or ideas available, and someone who can be said to be an entrepreneur? There is certainly a good deal of overlap between the two, but essentially the difference boils down to the fact that most entrepreneurs are following their own ideas, pursuing their own goals, and establishing their own business idea which fits in to their own unique talents and experience, rather than implementing an out of the box package deal assembled by someone else.
There are many work from home schemes which are sold as entrepreneur packages, but unless you're creating your own image, your own stamp and following your own ambitions, this tends to be more of a franchise than anything else. But this is not to suggest that an entrepreneur has to do everything for him or herself. There are many books, publications, disks and websites with a wealth of information on starting a business to help those interested investigate the likely paths which can be pursued, and not only find answers to the questions that they have right from the start, but helps identify the questions that they hadn't even thought of yet.
Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal.
Friday, 11 September 2009
Customer Service and How to Fail in Business
Customer Service and How to Fail in Business
Customer service is an aspect of any business, whether a large corporate organization or small home business run by a single individual. The way a business presents itself to customers, either potential or actual, can make a huge difference in terms of promotion, loyalty and the likelihood of success.
No business succeeds without customers, and in order to attract customers, it is increasingly necessary for businesses to be approachable, contactable, and interested in communicating with customers whenever there are any queries or issues relating to the products or services available.
In the modern world of internet technology, more and more customers today are often beginning to expect that businesses can be contacted at any time, and day, and in a way which is convenient. In the twenty first century we have shed the expectations that we had of only being able to contact a business or company between the hours of 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
With international time zones, more people working weekends, and working hours no longer traditional, we all expect to be able to pick up the phone, or send an email, and have our queries or concerns dealt with promptly.
If you are seeking to buy in to a franchise or business opportunity, it will be important to understand in advance what the customer service arrangements involve. Will you be responsible for any issues that arise, and need to provide a means by which customers can contact you directly, or is there a customer service center or arrangement already in place? If you will be relying on an outsourced service center, then you may find that giving them a call yourself, alleging to be a potential customer, reveals the level of support which your own customers could face.
Although outsourcing of service centers is increasingly common, primarily as a means to cut costs and long term overheads, it can sometimes cause problems for customers who have difficulties communicating with people who do not speak the same language fluently, or have strong accents, limited knowledge of the product or service, or limited access to relevant information about you and your account.
But the issue of providing support for customers will be something you'll need to approach yourself if the responsibility with a franchise opportunity is left with you and if you are starting out on your own with your business idea as an independent entrepreneur.
If customers are not happy with the level of customer service, such as failing to have queries dealt with, having to wait excessive periods of time to wait for a response, having responses which make little sense, offer little support, express little concern or fail to resolve the issue quickly and effectively, then the chances are high that you will lose that customer.
More than this, by losing a customer, you are highly likely to lose any potential sales you may have acquired through recommendation. With so much choice available and so much variety, increasingly we are relying on personal recommendations, and online reviews, to help make up our mind on whether to commit to a retailer or service provider, especially if it is likely to be for a significant sum or a long term contractual arrangement.
Failing to provide adequate customer service can easily result in losing out on personal recommendations, and could easily result in publically viewable reviews advising against your ompany or service. The internet can easily work in your favour, but similarly it can work against you if you fail to meet expectations.
To a large extent, the importance and intensity of customer service is likely to depend on the nature of the business in which you become involved. If you're seeking to start out as an individual entrepreneur, working from home with little direct contact with customers, then you may consider the importance of customer service to be less of a priority than those entering into a business arrangement which has massive contact with customers and relies heavily on customer loyalty.
This is turn may impact on your decision when it comes to deciding what kind of business to enter into, what kind of franchise opportunity to become involved with, or the nature of any solo business you choose to initiate. Are you a people person? Do you like solving problems and offering a high level of service to customers? If not, then a business model which relies upon this may not be for you, and the issue of outsourcing the service center becomes one to consider.
Ultimately it will be important to think about customer service not from the business point of view alone, taking on board the financing, the time, the means by which issues can be filed, dealt with, followed up and referred back, but also from the point of view of your customers. Happy customers equate to customer loyalty and recommendations, which in turn results in a more profitable and successful business. Get your customer service right and you're more likely to see the business succeeding where other, perhaps larger companies are losing sight of the very blood which made them successful in the first place.
Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal.
Customer service is an aspect of any business, whether a large corporate organization or small home business run by a single individual. The way a business presents itself to customers, either potential or actual, can make a huge difference in terms of promotion, loyalty and the likelihood of success.
No business succeeds without customers, and in order to attract customers, it is increasingly necessary for businesses to be approachable, contactable, and interested in communicating with customers whenever there are any queries or issues relating to the products or services available.
In the modern world of internet technology, more and more customers today are often beginning to expect that businesses can be contacted at any time, and day, and in a way which is convenient. In the twenty first century we have shed the expectations that we had of only being able to contact a business or company between the hours of 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.
With international time zones, more people working weekends, and working hours no longer traditional, we all expect to be able to pick up the phone, or send an email, and have our queries or concerns dealt with promptly.
If you are seeking to buy in to a franchise or business opportunity, it will be important to understand in advance what the customer service arrangements involve. Will you be responsible for any issues that arise, and need to provide a means by which customers can contact you directly, or is there a customer service center or arrangement already in place? If you will be relying on an outsourced service center, then you may find that giving them a call yourself, alleging to be a potential customer, reveals the level of support which your own customers could face.
Although outsourcing of service centers is increasingly common, primarily as a means to cut costs and long term overheads, it can sometimes cause problems for customers who have difficulties communicating with people who do not speak the same language fluently, or have strong accents, limited knowledge of the product or service, or limited access to relevant information about you and your account.
But the issue of providing support for customers will be something you'll need to approach yourself if the responsibility with a franchise opportunity is left with you and if you are starting out on your own with your business idea as an independent entrepreneur.
If customers are not happy with the level of customer service, such as failing to have queries dealt with, having to wait excessive periods of time to wait for a response, having responses which make little sense, offer little support, express little concern or fail to resolve the issue quickly and effectively, then the chances are high that you will lose that customer.
More than this, by losing a customer, you are highly likely to lose any potential sales you may have acquired through recommendation. With so much choice available and so much variety, increasingly we are relying on personal recommendations, and online reviews, to help make up our mind on whether to commit to a retailer or service provider, especially if it is likely to be for a significant sum or a long term contractual arrangement.
Failing to provide adequate customer service can easily result in losing out on personal recommendations, and could easily result in publically viewable reviews advising against your ompany or service. The internet can easily work in your favour, but similarly it can work against you if you fail to meet expectations.
To a large extent, the importance and intensity of customer service is likely to depend on the nature of the business in which you become involved. If you're seeking to start out as an individual entrepreneur, working from home with little direct contact with customers, then you may consider the importance of customer service to be less of a priority than those entering into a business arrangement which has massive contact with customers and relies heavily on customer loyalty.
This is turn may impact on your decision when it comes to deciding what kind of business to enter into, what kind of franchise opportunity to become involved with, or the nature of any solo business you choose to initiate. Are you a people person? Do you like solving problems and offering a high level of service to customers? If not, then a business model which relies upon this may not be for you, and the issue of outsourcing the service center becomes one to consider.
Ultimately it will be important to think about customer service not from the business point of view alone, taking on board the financing, the time, the means by which issues can be filed, dealt with, followed up and referred back, but also from the point of view of your customers. Happy customers equate to customer loyalty and recommendations, which in turn results in a more profitable and successful business. Get your customer service right and you're more likely to see the business succeeding where other, perhaps larger companies are losing sight of the very blood which made them successful in the first place.
Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal.
Being an Entrepreneur - The Truth About Taking the Plunge
In today's uncertain financial climate, is entrepreneurialism a case of taking unnecessary risks, or securing your future and that of your family, in a more direct way? Certainly there are more and more people today leaving the humdrum of office life, or the hectic and often bureaucratic ways of what is often termed 'normal' life, and forging a new personal future as an entrepreneur.
Perhaps one of the most surprising things noticeable is that the many people we come across taking a personal stake in their work and financial future in this way are perfectly normal people. Often we can visualise entrepreneurs as being high-flyer, city business men and women with more cash in the bank than the bank, and an already secure future.
The truth is that these people are perhaps least likely to leave the well trodden path of security, and that those of us who have taken the step of creating our own business idea, and following it through, are just ordinary individuals; people, in fact, like you and me.
So why are so many normal individuals deciding to leave the security of a traditional job and its reassuring income to become solely dependent upon their own wit and determination? There are many reasons, but perhaps these are the most common:
1. Financial security. This might seem an unlikely reason, given the apparent risk. But the truth is that fewer traditional jobs these days are anywhere near secure. Each time we turn on the news, we see reports of yet another major business or company either going under, or laying off vast numbers of employees. The days of job security are long gone, and increasingly employees are not considered the blood of the company, but expendable assets. Worse still is that very often the last people to hear of any financial instability and likely action are the employees themselves. Often those facing job losses are the last to hear of it. Being reliant on other people above you can be a constant worry, and being able to cut those ties, and be responsible to no one but yourself allows you to relax a little, knowing that you know everything about how the business is doing, and where you stand.
2. Enthusiasm. Relatively few people employed in traditional jobs can claim to be enthusiastic about the work they do. Some people can, but sadly the majority of people find work merely a tedious means to an end, rather than something which excites them, and motivates them. When you wake up in the morning, do you go to work because you have to, or because you want to?
Entrepreneurialism enables people to pursue dreams and personal goals, and when combined with a personal stake and personal responsibility, this can become a powerful motivating force. Needless to say, the more motivated you are, the more likely you are to succeed. Almost exclusively, entrepreneurs enjoy a higher quality of life, and worry less because of the personal feeling of purpose, progress and success.
3. Making a difference. How much of a difference can we really make towards a business' overall success? It can be easy to feel downhearted, watching our hard work filed away for future reference, merely a tick on an agenda distantly glimpsed through a manager's door. Many entrepreneurs want to feel useful, and enjoy knowing that everything they are doing, each working day, is making a difference. That difference affects a great many people, from the person themselves, to their family, and of course those customers who take advantage of the service or product being offered.
Any of these reasons make it clear why this way of living represents a tremendous advantage in terms of the quality of life and attitude to work.
But with all these benefits, there are clearly some issues which will justifiably cause some people concern.
Often people associate being an entrepreneur with being a risk taker or a gambler, having huge financial backing or a team of people to support you.
In fact, none of these things are true or necessary. Very few entrepreneurs would consider themselves gamblers. Perhaps those workers who turn up to work each day in traditional jobs are gambling every bit as much, yet never knowing exactly how the dice is falling until they're made redundant. Those working for themselves tend to have a very good game plan, a good understanding of the way forward, of the product or service, the marketing and how best to approach the dream of running their own business.
It needs planning, certainly, and plenty of preparation. But you don't need any financial backing in many cases, and you don't need a team of people. In terms of starting your own business, what you do need to be able to set out on your own, working for yourself and running your own company, is passion, a dream, and plenty of ambition. With many forums on the web it is easier than ever to share experience and understanding of being an entrepreneur by talking with those who have already taken the plunge.
Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal.
Perhaps one of the most surprising things noticeable is that the many people we come across taking a personal stake in their work and financial future in this way are perfectly normal people. Often we can visualise entrepreneurs as being high-flyer, city business men and women with more cash in the bank than the bank, and an already secure future.
The truth is that these people are perhaps least likely to leave the well trodden path of security, and that those of us who have taken the step of creating our own business idea, and following it through, are just ordinary individuals; people, in fact, like you and me.
So why are so many normal individuals deciding to leave the security of a traditional job and its reassuring income to become solely dependent upon their own wit and determination? There are many reasons, but perhaps these are the most common:
1. Financial security. This might seem an unlikely reason, given the apparent risk. But the truth is that fewer traditional jobs these days are anywhere near secure. Each time we turn on the news, we see reports of yet another major business or company either going under, or laying off vast numbers of employees. The days of job security are long gone, and increasingly employees are not considered the blood of the company, but expendable assets. Worse still is that very often the last people to hear of any financial instability and likely action are the employees themselves. Often those facing job losses are the last to hear of it. Being reliant on other people above you can be a constant worry, and being able to cut those ties, and be responsible to no one but yourself allows you to relax a little, knowing that you know everything about how the business is doing, and where you stand.
2. Enthusiasm. Relatively few people employed in traditional jobs can claim to be enthusiastic about the work they do. Some people can, but sadly the majority of people find work merely a tedious means to an end, rather than something which excites them, and motivates them. When you wake up in the morning, do you go to work because you have to, or because you want to?
Entrepreneurialism enables people to pursue dreams and personal goals, and when combined with a personal stake and personal responsibility, this can become a powerful motivating force. Needless to say, the more motivated you are, the more likely you are to succeed. Almost exclusively, entrepreneurs enjoy a higher quality of life, and worry less because of the personal feeling of purpose, progress and success.
3. Making a difference. How much of a difference can we really make towards a business' overall success? It can be easy to feel downhearted, watching our hard work filed away for future reference, merely a tick on an agenda distantly glimpsed through a manager's door. Many entrepreneurs want to feel useful, and enjoy knowing that everything they are doing, each working day, is making a difference. That difference affects a great many people, from the person themselves, to their family, and of course those customers who take advantage of the service or product being offered.
Any of these reasons make it clear why this way of living represents a tremendous advantage in terms of the quality of life and attitude to work.
But with all these benefits, there are clearly some issues which will justifiably cause some people concern.
Often people associate being an entrepreneur with being a risk taker or a gambler, having huge financial backing or a team of people to support you.
In fact, none of these things are true or necessary. Very few entrepreneurs would consider themselves gamblers. Perhaps those workers who turn up to work each day in traditional jobs are gambling every bit as much, yet never knowing exactly how the dice is falling until they're made redundant. Those working for themselves tend to have a very good game plan, a good understanding of the way forward, of the product or service, the marketing and how best to approach the dream of running their own business.
It needs planning, certainly, and plenty of preparation. But you don't need any financial backing in many cases, and you don't need a team of people. In terms of starting your own business, what you do need to be able to set out on your own, working for yourself and running your own company, is passion, a dream, and plenty of ambition. With many forums on the web it is easier than ever to share experience and understanding of being an entrepreneur by talking with those who have already taken the plunge.
Naz Daud is the founder of CityLocal.
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