New Years Resolutions for Your Business
December 31, 2008
2009 can turn into a better year than 2008, if you set your goals early and continually work towards them. Two questions come up with this: What goals are you setting for your business in the next year? and What can you do to achieve those goals?
Setting goals is the easy part. You know you need to find ways to:
- Grow not shrink next year
- Spend your money wisely
- Serve your customers better, faster, cheaper
- Waste less time and money
- Make sure that you focus on activities that work for your business
What can you do to achieve these goals? What can you add to your business to help you do all those thing? We think that if you make smarter marketing decisions, the goals outlined above will become that much easier to achieve.
AdSymetrix is designed to help businesses grow by giving them the tools and information they need to know what works for their marketing, advertising and sales. We show you what ads generate which responses and leads and more importantly what ads are not living up to their prices. We help your sales and support staff better communicate with your customers through Call Auditing. We give you the knowledge to stop wasting money and time on activities that don’t work, allowing you to focus only on the activities that help your business grow.
Make 2009 the year your business is powered by AdSymetrix.
Is Your Business Changing With The Economy?
December 30, 2008
News reports about the bad economy either showcase someone who’s business has spectacularly flamed out or someone who’s changing with the times, bucking the trends and finding ways to take advantage of the new new economy.
Which kind of story would you rather have written about your business>
Here are three examples. One, a story about eToys going bankrupt, again. Two, an article about the changing world of shopping malls. Finally, a story of a family that bought back their namesake department store in the hopes of returning it to profitability.
The three examples show how businesses are reacting. For eToys, poor management, bad debt and low-low prices all came together to cause their parent company (The Parent Company) to file for bankruptcy. The business fell due to the problems with the credit market and consumer demand. Which begs the question, when was the last time you thought to shop at eToys? If you can go through a Christmas Shopping Season and not know the name of a toy retailer, that toy retailer is doing something wrong.
People like to shop, even when they don’t want to buy. The question that comes from that is where people will want to shop. Online shopping is easy, convenient and makes you look productive at work. Real-world shopping is a little more difficult, but can be a social event. The problem shopping malls are having is that the slowdown in sales is making it more difficult for tenants to remain in long-term leases at high rent rates. The article above makes the good point that for the most part, Malls have not evolved in the last decade. Some have made parking easier, some have renovated their decorations, but for the most part the basic mall setup remains the same. When your customers change, so must you.
Which is why we mention the story of Al Boscov and his repurchase of Boscov’s Department Store. As he says in the article, “We spent 50 years building this damn thing, I didn’t want to see it go to nothing. I wanted to see it survive and live on.” His approach is to start by listening. Finding out what his employees, his customers, his vendors and his advisers think about all the aspects of the business and then reacting to their needs. By recognizing that this is a precarious time, the old guard has come back to make some necessary changes.
So that leaves us with your business. What kind of article would be written about you? Are you moving forward as you always have, without a way to know whether what you’ve been doing works for your business? Are you going to keep with an old business model that isn’t attuned to the new economy? Are you going to allow people to not know about you, not do business with you, just because you don’t want to change how you market? Or are you going to look for opportunities to implement changes.
Listen to your customers, focus on them, understand what they’re asking about and why they’re your customers. AdSymetrix can help. We offer great response tracking tools that let you know what ads are working to generate new business and what ads are just wasting your time and money. We also offer a call review service that audits the efforts of your sales team to better close sales and connect with new customers.
When you know what works, you can grow your business, save money and quit wasting your valuable time.
Why Advertise In A Bad Economy?
December 29, 2008
Stories are coming from all corners about just how awful this economy is acting. With stories about retail sales slipping, luxury businesses cutting staff and projections for next year headed downward, it’s easy to look at the economy and wonder if there’s anything you can do to help you business.
You can: Advertise.
Why Advertise in a Bad Economy:
1. You give permission to your customers to do business with you
Advertising reminds people that you’re still in business. It gives them permission to do business with you. It says that while the rest of the economy is teetering, you and your business are still here.
2. Placing and producing advertising will be cheaper
Any business that relies on selling advertising is scared. They know that too often in a bad economy, the first cuts happen in advertising. By going against that grain, your business will be able to get better prices for producing and placing your advertisements. You could run larger ads more frequently and still save money.
3. With less competition for your ads, your potential customers will think of your business more frequently
By advertising when others aren’t, you’re placing your message in front of more people more often and cutting through the clutter of other businesses’ advertisements. Your business will be able to reach more people more often.
4. A good attitude towards the bad economy is contagious
Advertising is the public face of your business. By advertising you’re saying that you believe that there are still people out there who want to buy from you. You show your support for the customers that want to do business with you. When you show you’re support for your customers, they show their support for you.
5. Get the most out of your advertising by tracking and monitoring your responses.
This is of course the most important: response tracking and monitoring. When you know what leads are generated by what ads, you can focus your efforts to save time and money.
AdSymetrix helps your business make your advertising its most effective. Call, Click and Chat response tracking that provides your business with the tools you need to convert visitors into customers. When you know what works, you can focus your time and effort only on your most effective efforts.
Let The Year End Wrap-Ups Begin: WSJ Best and Worst of 2008
December 23, 2008
As the calendar dwindles, news organizations make room for their content creators to take some time off by comissioning year end wrap-ups. Usually, these are just puff pieces that show the reader what they already suspected. Today we look at what the Wall Street Journal thinks are the best and worst ads of the past year.
You are a smart marketer. You know that a worthless ad isn’t just one that wastes the time of the viewer, but also wastes the time and money of you, the marketer. Walk through this list and ask yourself if any of the mistakes that were made by these advertisers are mistakes that you can avoid next year.
When you know what works, you can save money and grow your business.
Signup For Our Special Report:
December 22, 2008
AdSymetrix is pleased to present our Special Report: How Successful Is Your Business; Find Out By Measuring Your Marketing & Advertising Plans.
Simply fill out this form and we’ll supply you with the link to our new report.
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How Taking a Designer Closeout Shopping Can Help You Understand How To Market Your Business.
December 22, 2008
“”Can you live elegantly and economically?” he asks, surveying the store’s vast array of closeout merchandise for the first time. “We shall see. Give me 20 minutes.”"
Even with the economy in shambles, there are ways of rethinking how you shop (and sell) to fit product/service mix to match your customers’ needs.
One example of this is the juxtaposition of high-end industrial-designer Philippe Starck and his recent shopping trip to Big Lots. The cost of one of Starck’s pieces could purchase the entire store. Still, the trip brings about important lessons.
As Starck goes through the displayed inventory, he finds pieces that would be at home at the most sophisticated tables. He points out simple, basic pieces. Pieces that are outside the lines of trends. Pieces do what they need to do, without the uncessary frills.
Ultimately, he compares the shopping trip to the current economic situation, “We have been sticking our money into the fan,” he says, miming a stack of bills being shredded by the blades of a ceiling fan. “We must be more intelligent now.”
And that intelligence is what is going to make businesses like yours succeed, regardless of the current economy.
Think about the advice Starck gave regarding buying things at Big Lots: know what works, choose to spend your money on the kinds of things that you can get the most value out of, recognize that by being smart about what you’re buying you’re being smart about what you’re saving. All of these ideas are directly related to how your business can make smarter marketing decisions to approach new customers and make more sales.
If you focus your marketing in only the areas that work, you’ll save the money you’d normally throw away by going with the trendy, more temporary and less effective efforts. If you know how people are finding you, you’ll know how to find more of them. If you prioritize what you want to get out of your marketing, you’ll be able to better refine your messages and placements to grow your business.
Smart Marketing is your best defense against a slow economy.
4 Tips for Planning Your Next Year’s Growth
December 19, 2008
Typically, the weeks leading up to the end of the year are quiet in the advertising world. All the ads have been placed, and all the creative has been produced. It’s the time when smart marketers look to the future and try to figure out what they can do to make the most of the upcoming year. Here are a few of our suggestions
1. Define Your Target Audience
Think back over the past year at what kind of people have been attracted to your business. What kind of neighborhoods to they live in, what kinds of cars do they drive, what kinds of purchases to they make? Watch closely and you’ll find that the kinds of people who are your customers are the kinds of people you need to attract as your customers. You’re defining your target audience by the people who are already interested in purchasing your products. Take that definition of your target audience and use it when you’re thinking about how, where and when to market to them.
2. Be Aware of Your Customers’ Concerns
Listening can be a powerful marketing tool. You can learn more about your business from your customers than you’d think. When your customers have concerns, be them about your service, your products or outside influencers (like the economy, their jobs, etc.), you can react to those concerns and craft products, services and marketing messages that are more likely to get them to react.
3. Focus Your Marketing
Make sure that the marketing you do over the next year is focused on the specific target audiences, located at the specific locations, interested in the specific things you are able to talk to them about. AdSymetrix is here to help, as we can show you what marketing is working and what’s just wasting your time and money. Even if you don’t use AdSymetrix to track and monitor the responses to your ads, keep your ears open as to how new customers are finding your business. As you focus your marketing, you’ll spend your money more wisely.
4. Dump The Duds
This is the other side of the previous tip: stop what doesn’t work. If you have an ad that just looks nice, but doesn’t bring in new business, you have an ad that’s just wasting your money. Dump the duds, focus on the things that work. You could save a third of your marketing budget and grow your business just by wasting less time and money.
Take some time over the next few days to plan ahead. Smart Marketers know that when they target their audiences, talk to them about things that they think are important, and focus their marketing on only the efforts that work, businesses grow.
3 More Ways To Grow Your Business in a Recession
December 18, 2008
It’s been a dreary holiday season. With stock markets continuing to fall, unempoyment continuing to soar and surprising stories of once-lauded advisors defrauding their clients, it’s easy to feel a bit, uh, recessed.
But there are ways to use this economy to your advantage and make the holiday season a bit brighter. Here aer 3 more ways to grow your business in a recession:
1. Look Past The Present
Yes, the economy is in trouble. Yes, people are scared. But that’s only right now. This week. Today. What can you do to build your business for tomorrow? Christmastime is often the best time to plan for the year ahead. What can you do in the next two weeks to plan for the next three months? Can you come up with a new way to introduce your business to potential customers? Can you find three places you’re currently marketing that aren’t working for you, and then save the time and money you use on that marketing? Take a long view and look ahead.
2. Know What Works
Yeah, we say it alot around here, but it’s important. When you know what works for your business, you can focus only on that stuff. AdSymetrix talks about knowing what works when making marketing decisions, but your business needs to know what products, people and processes work. If you look closely at your business, refine its practices and stop doing things that aren’t helping, you’ll find yourself in a better position than you are right now.
3. Make Working With You Easier Than Working Without You
No one likes to spend $4.00 a gallon for gas, but when prices were that high, people still needed to buy gas. The stations that kept their customers were the ones that made it easier to work with them. Kroger, the country’s largest grocer, tied grocery sales to discounts on gasoline. This meant that even with high prices, people would shop at Kroger just to get the ten cents off per gallon discount. When you make it easy for people to work with you, they will. That plays through customer service, product selection, pricing and the marketing messages you produce. When times are tough, people are going to buy less often, but they’re still going to buy. Make them want to buy from you.
Now take a deep breath and go make some sales.
26% of Small Businesses Plan Increased Ad Spending in 2009
December 17, 2008
The best way to work your business out of this rut of an economy is to remind people that it’s ok to do business with you. The best way to do that is through advertising. And if you prioritize your advertising so that you’re only spending on the things that work, you’re going to save money, waste less time and grow your business. Be part of this 26%. Grow in 2009.
Turn Into The Skid
December 12, 2008
Driving on ice and marketing in a recession are similar activities - so implies Bonafide Marketing Genius Marta Kagan who says “Turn IN to the skid—or kiss your sweet, scared ass goodbye.”
Not a just a fun turn of phrase, but also a great piece of advice. “Businesses that increase their marketing during recessions gain a substantial competitive advantage”. Fight the recession by telling more people that it’s ok to do business with you. Don’t believe that Bonafide Marketing Genius? How about taking the word of Professor Andrew Razghi of Kellog Business School: He says that when the going gets tough, the tough innovate. Meaning, of course, that the shrinking economy is a great time to smart market your business to growth. Focus on what works, dump the duds and build your business.