Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

The Price Is Right

Small businesses tend to focus on marketing when launching new products or services.  But a sometimes overlooked strategy can play a key role in profit and success: pricing.

When pricing your products or services, consider these tips to set prices that say value to potential customers and help increase your profitability:

1.  Set prices that capture value.  Set prices that capture the value customers place on a product by thinking like a customer.  Customers evaluate a product and its next best alternative(s) and then ask themselves, “Are the extra bells and whistles worth the price premium or does the discount stripped-down model make sense?”  They choose the product that provides the best deal (prices vs. attributes).

2.  Provide pick-a-plan options.  Customers are often interested in a product but refrain from purchasing simply because the pricing plan does not work for them.  While some want to purchase outright, others may prefer a selling strategy such as renting, leasing, prepaying or all-you-can-eat.  A pick-a-plan strategy activates these dormant customers.

4 Ways To Use Technology to Renovate Your Real Estate Business

In 2009, it was just an ugly year for most businesses, particularly in real estate.  Real estate agents need more than connections and hard work to get back to revenues of the year past.  Here’ s a number of newer technologies to improve productivity and save time.

1.  A great service to use is eFax, which does not require any equipment or implementation on your part other than to start giving out your 800 fax number.  If you are out of town and receive a faxed contract or lease, you can forward that e-email to your clients, have them sign and e-mail it, then send that document to all parties.

2.  Add DocuSign to your business.  It costs $19.95 per month, with no contract required.  You can cancel at any time or just order a month here and there.  With DocuSign you can get your clients’ signatures on a contract or lease, even if they do not have a printer or fax machine.  Send the contract to your clients via e-mail with a link to DocuSign; then they adapt a signature and sign and initial where indicated, and that’s it.  E-mail the signed contract to the other parties.

3.  Invest in a good camera which takes still photographs and video like Panasonic Lumix or Kodak Zi8.  Take photos of all your listings, and then upload them to your Website and to about 40 real estate portals.  You can also upload photos and videos of your new listings to Facebook and Twitter and to your blog; add more real estate-specific information on YouTube and other social media sites.  Add the following social media tools to your

Revitalize Your Business With The Help Of The Web

So you’ve come up with a hot product and a great business model.  However, like many small businesses, the recession has left you with less than stellar sales results.  And when sales are down, more often than not, profits are too.

So what are the keys to revitalize your business?  How do you stand out from the competition?  Here some are ideas:

1.  Quality is job number one.  For a perfect turnkey experience, focus on customer service even prior to the sale by understanding their problem/need, providing solution, and articulating your core difference. Keep your customers satisfied at all times and turn them into partners.  Happy customers are retained customers.

2.  Utilize YouTube.  Think visually.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, a narrated video is

Reaching Customers In A Few Well-Chosen Words

Large companies such as McDonald’s and IBM often boast marketing budgets comparable to a third world country’s gross domestic product.  So how’s a small business owner to compete?

The answer is short:  in 140 characters or less.

Well, who hasn’t heard of Twitter, a free micro-blogging service that lets users share “tweets” — brief text messages less than 140 characters long that subscribers or “followers” can read and redistribute?  Twitter’s popularity is booming.  With about 75 million users who send more than 50 million instant instant updates a day via computer or mobile phone, it’s a classic case study in frequency and reach.

No surprise, then, that industry leaders such as Starbucks (@Starbucks), Dell (@DellOutlet), and Zappos (@Zappos) all use Twitter to drive direct sales, offer promotional discounts,  and engage

Tips and Tricks To Help You Network

One factor in business success is networking – meeting people and building relationships.  For some, it is a skill that may take effort.  Here are some tips to help you connect:

1.  Set a goal to increase your list of important business connections.  Once you’ve compiled your list, reach out to each of them.

2.  Share something personal and seek a common interest.  When it’s not just about numbers and the bottom line, clients will be able to personally identify with you.  Rooting for the same sports team or volunteering at the same charity makes you relevant.

3.  Scrap the memorized pitch in favor of more natural conversation.

4.  Resist the urge to be a one-upper.  It ruins communication.

5.  An open-ended question is better than one requiring only a yes or no answer.

6.  Know your audience.  Once you know what a person wants, is interested in and responds to, you’ll be better equipped to deliver that.

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