Marketing in a Bad Economy

People are spending less and less these days, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t spending. Small businesses and big businesses both need to be aware of this and figure out 1) how do we make people spend money and 2) how do we make people spend their money on our products and our services?

Think about what makes your business unique and better than the competition. Why should people buy from you? What are people looking for? How can you present your products and services in a way that is desirable to people?

While people are still buying, they are shopping around a lot more to see which business offers the lowest price and best products or services. They also want their shopping experience to be smooth and quick. Efficiency is important.

The other day I was helping a friend look for bulk blank Gildan Heavyweight Cotton t-shirts at the cheapest price with quick delivery. We wanted specific colors and specific sizes including youth sizes. Price was the most important along with delivery. We visited over 10 websites and wrote down prices, shipping prices, and shipping times. Once we found something we liked, we used that as the baseline. Is this next website cheaper? If it’s not, then we move on. We were looking for a good deal and we found it. We ended up with great prices and delivery was only 2 days!

Your customers will probably be looking for the same thing. Can you offer them a discount? People want a bargain. People also like free things, can you offer a Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) special? How about throwing in a free gift? Free shipping is also huge these days! Think about what you can offer and present it in an appealing way. Think like the customer not like the business owner.

Image courtesy of epicharmus

Analytics: Customer Shopping Times

Customer behavior is very important analytical data that can be used to help boost business. Whether your business is on the web or you have a store, it is very important to pay attention to your customers. I have a feeling that many people have web analytics installed on their website but never really dig in deep to study information. While it can be time consuming, you may just find something to help your business. Today’s specific topic in analytics is reviewing the times (hours) which your customers visit your site or store and also what time they usually purchase items.

Knowing when your customers visit your store or site and when they purchase allows you to do a few things. If you know when your customers primarily visit your store or site, you can offer specials or sales during certain hours. Also, if you have certain hours or days where sales are slow, you can offer something special during those hours or days to boost sales. For example, if you notice, many restaurants have specials early in the week, like Taco Tuesdays. This is because people tend to eat out later in the week around Thursday through Saturday. Another example is stores or websites offering a great deal until noon.

One example that I constantly think of is Baskin Robbins. Baskin Robbins started offering $1 scoops on Tuesday evenings. Most stores near me started this deal originally at 6pm. However, it got changed to 5pm. Why is this? Well, when I think about it, most people get off work sometime between 5pm and 6pm. It would be convenient for them to start earlier, so people can stop by right after work instead of either waiting until 6pm to leave work or have to go home and then go out again. Also, if you are bringing kids to get ice cream, kids get off school much earlier in the day. For the same reason, the earlier they start it, the better. I bet Baskin Robbin’s sales increased so much more after they moved it to 5pm. In fact, that makes me even more likely to go get ice cream after work on Tuesdays.

Analytics are very important to every business. Take some time to analyze your customer behavior this week to see how you can drive those additional sales!

Email Marketing for Local Businesses

Email marketing is such a simple and easy way for all businesses to promote their products or services. After seeing Mary Bowling’s article on “Why Local Businesses Need Email Marketing,” I would like to summarize her points for our audience here.

High ROI
You would send your email promotions out to people who are interested or more inclined to purchase your products or services. This is a targeted group, not everyone so the return is going to be much higher.

Inexpensive
Emailing your customers cost virtually nothing! All you need is an email account and there are many free email providers out there if you don’t have one with your company already. If you would like to get fancy and use pre-made templates or customize your emails, you can opt for a simple email provider.

Self-Service
You can create your own emails! You know the business, you will be able to deliver a clear appealing message to your customers. Keep it simple and to the point. No need to flood the email with paragraphs of text.

Stay Connected
People gave you their email addresses because they are interested in hearing from you. Make sure you confirm with each person that they do indeed would like to receive your special offers and promotions before sending out your promos.

Keep in Touch
Your products and services may not be needed on a constant basis. Use email marketing to remind your customers of your service and offerings so that when they do need you, they remember to come back to you.

Be Focused
Make sure the message you send out to your customers delivers a clear and focused message. Do not give too much info and do not leave out any info. Keep it concise and to the point so people will read your emails.

Targeted Messages
If you know your customers well, you can target specific messages towards one set of customers and a different message to another group of customers. Perhaps one group of people enjoyed your dark chocolate chip cookies and the other group favored the white chocolate chip cookies. You may want to give them special pricing on the cookie they like or even introduce the dark chocolate group to the white chocolate chip cookies and vice versa.

Searchable
Most email programs are sophisticated enough to have a search function. Keep this in mind so that when customers want to search for that specific coupon using certain words they can. Make it easy for customers to refer back to that specific email or forward to a friend.

Mobile Phones
A large amount of people view their emails from their cell phones these days. Take advantage of this to offer specials they can take advantage of immediately. The example in the article includes offering a discount good for one day only, giving up to date information about new books or movies being released.

Quickly Reaches Audience
Emails can reach your audience in seconds! Use emails to bring in new sales or to boost down sales. You have your customer’s attention in your immediate reach.

By following these simple tips, you can get your own email marketing program started! I can tell you that these tips work because as a consumer myself, before I go out to buy something or to eat at a restaurant, I always go check my email for any specials being offered. If a restaurant is offering a coupon or special, I am more inclined to eat at their restaurant.

Creative Marketing Works

With the situation of the economy, companies need to work harder and harder to come up with marketing ideas and promotions that work. People are less reluctant to buy nowadays, so how can we as marketers entice consumer to pull out their wallets once again? The answer here is being creative. Here are just a few examples of how companies are rethinking their marketing strategies and creating marketing promotions that are worthwhile for the customer and for the company.

This past Tuesday, Denny’s had a HUGE marketing promotion inviting everyone in America to come eat a FREE grand slam breakfast meal at their restaurants. Denny’s whole marketing message was that during these hard times, you could still get a filling breakfast at an affordable price. The more I think about it, the more I realize that Denny’s marketing plan was brilliant. Denny’s doesn’t have many advertisements (at least I haven’t seen that many), and for them to show up with an ad at the Super Bowl with this type of promotion is a big deal. Offering something FREE, now that’s smart because people love FREE. People will get in line for an hour or two in the freezing cold to get FREE breakfast when they could have probably cooked their own breakfast in the comfort of their warm home. The Super Bowl ad may have cost Denny’s around $3 million and giving out FREE meals to about 2 million people surely has some up front cost. But with people ordering drinks with their meals and the cost of breakfast food be fairly low, they should probably break even because the margin on drinks is usually very high. The amount of publicity they’ve received from this promotion is worth way more than the cost of the ad and breakfasts. Way to go Denny’s.

Think about Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest that happens every July 4th. The throngs of people that gather together to watch this contest in person or even on TV is insane. This contest is a big deal and brings in competitors and I’m sure even viewers from all over the world to watch people consume massive amounts of hot dogs in minimal amounts of time. Not only that, many of the spectators are lined up to order their very own Nathan’s hot dog. This creative way to promote Nathan’s Hot Dog has gained worldwide attention and surely has helped increase sales each year.

A little different type of creative marketing comes from Sam’s club. In order to boost sales, they are now offering a $10 gift card for people who sign up a new membership which costs $40 a year. I like this idea because it gives the customers something. People always want to know “what’s in it for me?” If there is nothing in it for them, why should they bother? This is a good promotion for Sam’s club because it gives customers 25% off their membership fee and gives them a $10 to spend right at Sam’s club. So while, the customer feels that they are getting a discount, that money does go right back to Sam’s club.

The key takeaway from all this is to think a little differently. How can you as a business, no matter what size you are, draw in your audience? Sometimes it may take a little up-front cost, but if you are willing to take the risk, you might be surprised at the return.

Photo courtesy of beastandbean