Building Prospect Lists
A Prospect List is used to determine who is worth further expenditure in terms of time and money in order to turn them into customers. Some ways of building such a list for retail business are: Ask your customers for names of friends. Offer them an incentive — a special offer or a discount voucher […]
Why Promote?
Why bother becoming more proficient at promoting your business?Why promote in the first place? Because competitive activity — present or future — obliges us to be active in the market place. In case you’re thinking you’re off the hook because you have no direct competition in your area, think again: Anything which costs approximately the […]
Publicity for Print
Publicity is a perfect complement to your advertising and other promotional activities. If potential customers read an article about your business, they may begin to follow your adverts more closely and eventually they’ll want to try your products and services. Publicity is media exposure, a mention or complete article in your local or regional newspaper […]
Out Of Office Replies
For those of us who are frequently away from our offices for more than a day, it’s essential that we set up up an “Out of Office” autoresponder message to react to emails we receive. It’s even more essential that this is done correctly. Most autoresponder messages are pretty terse, such as: “I’m currently away, […]
What is Branding?
A brand is a visual and psychological statement about what your business stands for – the way in which you want your clients and prospects to associate your company and its products and service. To sum it up, a brand details who you are, what you do, and how you do it. Having a brand […]
Business Plans: the backbone of your business
A well-written business plan is always the backbone behind the success of most businesses. It will basically outline all the answers for the doubts that your investors or lenders might have on your new business. Below are some questions and the ways of answering them in your business plan: What is the reason behind the […]
Updating your Business Plan
Having a business plan is not the end of things. As times change, things around you change as well, in particular business environments and customer needs. Ask yourself whether your business plan is ready for those changes. Such changes might include acquiring new knowledge or technology in the field. There are many areas in your […]
Marketing Budgets for SMEs
How to prepare a marketing budget Marketing budgets can be extremely complicated animals, or at worst they are merely a thumb-suck figure. But for most SMEs all it takes is some common-sense thought. The following considerations are those most likely to apply to the small to medium business: Rule of thumb. This is simply a […]
Follow up Trade Show Prospects
You must follow up your trade show leads ! Post trade show evaluation and trade show leads follow-up are two of the most overlooked aspects of trade show participation. These activities are where many trade show exhibitors fail usually because of a couple of reasons. You return to the office to find your voicemail is […]
Trade Show Staff
Trade show staff should know your products and services inside out ! Always ensure that you agree on guidelines for interacting with trade show visitors and qualifying customers You should always ensure that you agree on guidelines for interacting with trade show visitors and qualifying customers. What makes successful exhibitors are their trade show staff […]
Trade Show Budgets
With the decision made to exhibit and the choice of the event narrowed down, the next step is to establish a trade show budget. You should remember that your participation in a trade show takes investment of both money and staff. One way, when developing a trade show budget, is to look at the objectives […]
Trade Show Training & Scheduling
Make sure your trade show staff have initimate knowledge of your products One of the most important aspects of your exhibit strategy, if not the most important aspect, is your trade show training of staff. Without dynamic trade show staff your eye-catching exhibit; pre-show publicity; product demonstrations and excellent giveaways can be wasted. Trade show […]