March brings spring break, St. Patrick’s Day, March Madness — and tax preparation. The Nerds have tips for using your credit cards for all of these events. Take a spring break trip If you’re hitting the road with your family for a spring getaway, you’ll want to save money however you can. Saving on gas is...
Thirty-year and 15-year fixed rates, as well as 5/1 ARM rates, are all higher once again today, according to a NerdWallet survey of mortgage rates published by national lenders Wednesday morning. The stock market rallied again at the open this morning, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged over 21,000. The prospects of the Federal Reserve raising short-term interest...
If you’ve read any of the student-debt success stories circulated in the media lately, you might think the only way to pay down your debt is to give up coffee, your social life and your apartment. “It seems like borrowers are told that they have to live on beans in a shantytown and pay off...
It would be wonderful if businesses could keep all of their customers forever. Obviously, this would lead to long-term sustainable growth and immense success. Unfortunately, this is wishful thinking at best.
Assuming every customer cannot be retained, then the next best thing is for a business to retain the majority of its customers—and indeed its best customers. Retaining customers, however, takes more than continuous marketing campaigns, introduction of new products or services, or having competitive pricing.
Undoubtedly, a business must provide benefits that customers seek, solutions to problems, quality, value, and a certain amount of service before, during, and after a sale, depending on the product or service sold.
Customer retention is dependent upon the following six techniques:
While it is easier to build relationships in some businesses and industries than in others, relationship building should be the goal for all businesses. Relationships normally are not built quickly; it takes time to nurture true relationships.
When there is a lengthy sales cycle, lasting relationships can be more easily built as salespeople and customers have time to get to know each other. Although, the primary goal should be to build business relationships, becoming better acquainted with each other on a personal level can help achieve this goal.
Even for businesses that have short sales cycles, relationships can still be fostered between salespeople and customers. In this situation, relationships must be developed quickly during the initial interaction, and by having the right attitude, showing concern, asking relevant questions, and providing prompt service.
One important reason to have strong relationships with customers is so that business can continue, even if something in the sales or customer service process does not go as planned.
When customers understand what to expect and expectations are met, customers become satisfied with the product or service they have purchased. It is when expectations are not met that customers seek competitive businesses that can provide expected results.
The old adage of “under promise and over deliver” is an axiom that sounds good for business; however, it is more important for a business to deliver what is promised and expected rather than something less. While customers might be generally pleased and pleasantly surprised to receive more than what’s expected, receiving anything less will have as a much greater negative impact than the positive impact of receiving more than what was expected.
One factor of customer retention is dependent upon delivering the right message. Customers are more likely to stay with businesses that deliver messages they understand.
Although a business might sell the same product or service to different markets, this does not mean that the same message should be delivered unchanged to all markets. Different markets may require different messages, and messages should target the specific needs of customers. The best message for one market segment may be totally ineffective for another segment. The retention process is enhanced when products and services are matched with the right customers through targeted messages.
Today’s customer wants to be educated, and thanks to the internet and social media, information is only a click away. Because of the ease of information that is freely and easily transmitted, it is imperative for businesses to furnish relevant content to its customers. This does not mean that the only form of product or service information should be obtained from electronic sources. Sales reps and employees need to be equally informed about what a business is selling and in order to communicate this information to customers. Purchasers want relevant information to help them make informed decisions.
There’s no better way for businesses to find out what customers want than to ask them. After that, a business can then focus on what customers find favorable and make necessary changes to better accommodate customers’ wants and needs. Employees that deal directly with customers are another important source of information about customer satisfaction levels. They hear directly what customers are saying about a company, its products, pricing, levels of customer service, and even the competition.
Keeping a business’s best customers requires providing top-level customer service at all times. This should not only occur when customers become dissatisfied. Building loyalty through customer service is not a hit or miss proposition; it cannot exist one day but not the next. Customer service is letting customers know they are “number one” all the time. A high level of customer service can make the difference between one isolated sale or continuous repeat business.
Since it takes considerably more cost, time, and effort to obtain new customers than it takes to retain current customers, businesses should concentrate on cultivating ordinary customers into extraordinary customers.
Competition is also intense in almost every business sector. Once a customer is lost to the competition, rarely does that customer return, and the investment of both financial and human capital is lost as well.
Use these six techniques to build a stronger customer base of extraordinary business patrons.
The post Customer Retention: 6 Techniques to Cultivate and Build a Stronger Customer Base appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post Customer Retention: 6 Techniques to Cultivate and Build a Stronger Customer Base appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Richard Weinberger, PhD, CPA.
If there is just one thing that we have learned from our journeys online, it’s that the internet can have a dramatic ability to level the playing field.
Even when there is already a large, established name in a particular vertical, a scrappy little startup still has a shot at carving out its own niche.
Google certainly wasn’t the web’s first search engine, and it entered into a space that already had a number of established players, but look at how far Google has come since its humble beginnings. Just because there’s a big brand doesn’t mean the “little guy” can’t compete.
Here are three terrific examples that are already making big waves across the internet.
Once upon a time, Netflix was the underdog seeking to disrupt an industry that was already dominated by the likes of Blockbuster brick-and-mortar stores. How times have changed.
While other big brands like Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Video are working hard to make strides of their own, there’s another online video streaming service that’s looking to shake things up too. It’s called Vidgo and it was originally announced at CES 2016 last January. The service is currently being tested in select markets in the United States, but the startup hopes to expand its service offering to more areas very soon.
A key component of Vidgo’s strategy is to capitalize on Netflix’s biggest weakness: live TV. As vast as the Netflix catalog may be, it does not offer access to local and national live television, particularly when it comes to news, sports, and live events. Even Vidgo’s basic package will provide “hundreds of channels” and premium tiers will unlock channels comparable to what you’d get from Comcast or Time Warner.
The appeal of Vidgo is that it can combine an experience equivalent to regular cable TV, including local channels with 30 days of cloud DVR and a large catalog of on-demand content. It’s the best of both worlds and it’ll work on a variety of devices, from Roku streaming boxes and Amazon Fire TV to your Apple iPad and desktop computer. This so-called “over-the-top” streaming service aims to provide the most comprehensive content choice at the most affordable prices.
One of the biggest trends to emerge on the internet in recent memory is the desire to turn to a very large number of people for support rather than looking to a single individual. Instead of seeking angel investors, a startup might place their project up on Kickstarter or Indiegogo; the same is true for small businesses that need design work.
Companies will host a “contest” among several professionals and simply select the one they like the best—all for the same price (or less) as hiring a single designer. One of the more prominent names in this space is 99Designs, which boasts over one million designers from around the world.
In contrast, Designhill has a smaller pool of designers, and its pricing scheme makes it much more attractive to small businesses with more modest budgets. The cheapest logo design package at 99Designs starts at $299 with access to only their “good” designers and not their “better,” “expert,” or “exceptional” designers who cost more. By contrast, the smallest logo package from Designhill is just $149. Both offer money back guarantees; optional upgrades, like getting your contest featured or highlighted, are also cheaper with Designhill.
Designhill started from a place of passion for the two brothers who co-founded it in 2014. They embrace feedback and pride themselves in customer satisfaction. The company’s strong social media presence also has further emboldened the brand.
Where Designhill is winning is by offering a largely identical product for about half the price. You want to crowdsource a logo? Both 99Designs and Designhill can do that. You want to attract a large number of designs to choose from? Both of them offer that too. This shows that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, so long as your wheel is almost as good as the one with the brand name sticker on the side.
Whereas web conferencing was once purely the domain of larger companies and organizations, that is simply no longer the case. Independent bloggers, tech startups, and affiliate marketers alike have found great value in hosting live webinars as a means of conveying information in a much more engaging and interactive way. This has also opened up greater competition in this space beyond providers who have otherwise focused their efforts on enterprise and corporate applications.
GoToWebinar by Citrix has come to be recognized as the Skype of the web conferencing world, largely because it is trusted by so many large brands. More than 60 million people attend a GoToWebinar event each year, but it is not the only game in town. ClickMeeting is making waves by providing more options and key features in its offering.
While many of the primary features and benefits appear to be reasonably comparable, pricing can vary. The cheapest package from ClickMeeting is about $30 a month (for up to 25 attendees), while the Starter plan with GoToWebinar is $89 a month (for up to 100 participants). By focusing of its efforts on smaller sized businesses, ClickMeeting is addressing a growing need in the marketplace—no wonder it was named best overall video conference system by Business News Daily.
Freelancers can use GoToWebinar, but they may find ClickMeeting more appealing, more approachable, and more affordable. It’s very user-friendly and no credit card is required. The ability to create a unique URL for your webinar is also a definite plus.
Remember that GoPro entered a market where massive brands like Canon and Nikon already dominated. Remember that Facebook grew in an environment where MySpace looked like an unstoppable force.
Startups continue to carve out new niches and push innovation forward. Vidgo, Designhill, and ClickMeeting are three of the best examples of this trend and they only represent the tip of the iceberg. Who will be the next breakout star?
The post 3 Scrappy Startups Making Big Moves Against Big Brands appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post 3 Scrappy Startups Making Big Moves Against Big Brands appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Zac Johnson.
SEO. It is an acronym you read about all the time, and it can be confusing if you are new to marketing online. Regardless of your expertise on the subject, I am here to tell you that you need to learn everything you can about it if you want to have a successful online marketing plan.
SEO (or search engine optimization) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine’s unpaid results. This process is often referred to as natural or organic search as it involves bringing traffic to your website without paid advertising.
Search engine optimization is a unique marketing process focused on growing your online visibility. Simply put, SEO is sometimes just a matter of making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines understand, including having a quality homepage and site navigation.
I came across SEO by accident many years ago when I created a simple website for the sole purpose of hosting my freelance portfolio. I began receiving inquiry emails a short time later, and wanted to find out how people found me. So, what happened as an accident sent me on my way to find out everything I could about the industry.
Many businesses overlook SEO since they don’t sell products online. They believe that being a brick-and-mortar business doesn’t require them to drive people to their website as they don’t get any revenue from it.
I’m here to tell you that this is WRONG!
People research before they buy. Even if you don’t sell online, people are still going to search for what you are selling in the store. And if you don’t have a strong online presence, they will likely find your competitor instead and drive over to make a purchase without even knowing you exist.
Think about this: When was the last time you were out and about and decided to go out somewhere new to eat? Did you go door-to-door and ask someone if they knew a good place? Not likely.
If you are like everyone else, you went to your phone and searched for restaurants in your area. There are obviously some paid results in your search, but the majority of what you saw was presented to you because of good SEO efforts on the part of those businesses.
Some businesses know that SEO is important but still decide not to pursue it. There could be multiple reasons why.
“For starters, people need to communicate with other people,” says Eddie Madan, CEO of Canadian internet marketing firm Edkent Media. “Many individuals feel greater in the event that they can see you before they buy from you. Real life face-to-face interactions and constant communications have an expansive influence in client relationship building.”
Madan points out that although some businesses know SEO is important, they seem to put more weight into face-to-face connections and ignore how people found them in the first place (likely the internet).
There are also so many changes happening in the world of SEO that people often give up trying to use it. I wrote about this last year in an article on AllBusiness: “For some reason, webmasters and marketers think that it’s time to abandon SEO every time there is a major shift in its practice. Not sure if they are scared of change or simply too lazy, but there are some who are always trying to find a reason to get out of SEO.”
Bad SEO professionals have also scared people away from the industry. Promises of ranking quickly that end up penalizing websites have caused distrust.
“Of course, there have never really been any absolute guarantees when it comes to SEO,” says SEO expert and author Stephan Spencer. “You should run away screaming from any SEO practitioner who promises one.”
It has gotten so bad that some SEO professionals have even abandoned the profession, such as digital marketing consultant Ryan Stewart. In documenting why he no longer sells SEO services, Stewart says, “I mean, come on people. Look around. We need to stop trying to jam websites where they don’t belong. The SERPs have changed.”
Don’t let what I said above sour you from hiring an SEO service. There are plenty of good ones out there if you know the right questions to ask.
Digital marketing consultant Pratik Dholakiya put together a nice list of questions you can use to vet any potential SEO provider. Use these to weed out those who know what they are doing and get rid of those likely to get you in trouble with Google.
Chances are you already use social media. This is a great place to help increase organic traffic. You can attract more clients and customers through social media simply by posting and sharing content and interacting with others. Google will see user interactions (an important element in factoring rank), and reward you accordingly.
If you are unsure of where to start, use one of the free SEO audit tools available online. You will likely receive sales calls and emails once you do, but at least you will have a starting point and know which direction you need to go.
Most importantly, read everything you can about search engine optimization. Keep in mind the “trust but verify” principle when doing so as there is a ton of bad advice out there. Subscribe to Kindle Unlimited as there are quite a few e-books with tips and tricks on SEO that you can read in under an hour.
Like it or not, SEO is here to stay—maybe not in the traditional sense of the word, but search engine optimization will still be the way to increase your organic presence for years to come. Even if you don’t sell online, you will still need to use it if you want people to find you.
Learning as much as you can about the industry will help you determine if you need to hire someone or you can go it alone. Vet any professional you want to hire and don’t blindly believe everything you read. Put all of these tips together and hopefully you will be able to increase your digital footprint.
The post Why You Need to Know About SEO—Even If You Don’t Sell Online appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post Why You Need to Know About SEO—Even If You Don’t Sell Online appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Mike Wood.
Whether you’re obsessed with keeping your Snapstreaks going or have no idea what that means, you may be itching to invest in this week’s initial public offering of Snap Inc., parent company of the popular Snapchat app. The appeal is understandable. For users of the app, owning shares of a company you use every day...
