My best friend Karen and I were at the gym last week walking on adjoining treadmills and chatting. Karen was telling me about a man she saw at the gym the day before. \”He was so handsome,\” she said. She went on to describe his flowing hair, piercing eyes, and great body. \”But then I saw…\” She paused as she scrunched up her face. \”…he was wearing a fanny pack.\” \r I laughed out loud. (A fanny pack, for those who don\’t know, is basically a belt bag. It\’s often used by tourists, and it is definitely considered as utility over fashion.) Karen, who likes to call herself the \”Fashion Police,\” immediately altered her high opinion of this otherwise perfect man.
So this got me thinking. What are we doing with our businesses that, although it may seem small and unimportant, can change the opinions of our prospects, sometimes without our even knowing? Every part of your business must live up to your professional image. Even a small detail overlooked can damage your reputation. Are you ignoring any aspects of your business? Are you wearing a fanny pack?
Below, I\’ve listed business elements that are often overlooked or given little attention. Make sure you take care with all of these areas.
Remember: If you are overlooking any area of your business, you can be sure that prospects will notice. Everything you put out there needs to be as fabulous as you!\r I wish you continued success.
Nika Stewart, the Designers\’ Success Coach, is the creator of Designer Blitz, a high-impact coaching system that guides interior designers to achieve their business goals. Her books, classes, articles, and one-on-one mentoring sessions have been instrumental in generating rapid results for thousands of designers. To subscribe to Nika\’s free weekly e-zine, go to http://www.WealthyDecorators.com
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One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is trying to market their product or service to a large general market instead of focusing on a small niche market. As a marketing consultant, getting my clients to focus on a niche market is the most difficult part of my job. Whenever I tell a client that they must start off small and focus on a specialized niche market, my client almost always says, But I think everybody could use my product and if I limit my market, I will get fewer sales. Then my response is, Okay, if you want to market your product to the world, how many millions of dollars do you have to invest in regional, national and international advertising campaigns? Then I get a blank stare or the phone goes quiet.
To be successful in todays hyper-competitive, over-advertised marketplace, you absolutely must focus your business and marketing on serving a specialized and preferably small niche market. This is especially true and a matter of survival if you have a small marketing budget. If you ignore this advice and try to market to a large general market before first becoming successful in at least one small niche market, I can guarantee you that you will soon go broke and be out of business. However, if you do decide to focus on serving a small niche market, you greatly increase your odds for business success with much less risk.
So what is a niche market? A niche market is group of consumers or businesses that all have a very specific need or want. For example, lets say you sell fancy and fairly expensive parrot cages. Your niche market consists of people who own parrots, and particularly people who own parrots and earn an income large enough that they can afford to buy your fancy parrot cages.
On the other hand, if you decide to market your fancy parrot cages to everybody in the United States who owns a bird, you are marketing to a fairly large general market and the money you spend on marketing will be wasted because nearly all of the people who will see your marketing will NOT have a need or interest in buying an expensive parrot cage. Yes, that sound you just heard is the sound of your money being flushed down the toilet because you ignored niche marketing.
Here is another example. Lets say you invent a new kind of ergonomic chair. This chair is very comfortable and really helps people who suffer from lower back pain. Now, what most inventors would do when they come to me to market their product is they would say, Everybody will want my ergonomic chair. I want to first market it nationally and then to the world. Then I ask my famous question of how much money do they have for marketing, and I am told it is a couple thousand dollars. So, my client wants me to launch a national marketing campaign for a brand new product nobody has ever heard of and I am supposed to do this with a few thousand dollars. Not going to happen.
My advice for how to market this new ergonomic chair product is to market it to a very specialized niche market and there are several to choose from. The key is finding the market that most needs this product as well as can afford this product. One niche market to consider would be to market the chair to assisted living centers for the elderly. Another niche market is Chiropractors who could sell this chair directly to their patients who suffer from lower back pain. There are many other niche markets that could considered too. The key is to determine who has the most desperate need for your product or service and then focus your marketing on that niche market. If you are still confused, do this exercise. Find the people who stay up at night worrying about the problem your product or service solves and you have just found your niche market.
Peter Geisheker is the CEO of The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm. Peter develops and implements strategic marketing programs for small businesses. For a free marketing plan ebook, please visit http://www.geisheker.com.
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And boy have we had our fair share of these lately!
And the confusion it causes because we can never be sure just who is telling us the right statistic (or whatever).
That the world is a different place from forty years ago when advertising was the dominant force in mass communication should not be in dispute. However it seems to me that the problems facing the advertising industry is not that it has tried hard, unsuccessfully, to modernise and change (it hasn\’t). But that they continue to misappropriate the supposed effectiveness of advertising for their own ill-advised and ineffective objectives!
Moray MacLennan, incoming President of the (British) Institute of Practitioners of Advertising (IPA) had this to say in his inaugural address:
\”An average 1 spent on advertising produces 5 in sales and 2 in profit. Based upon an annual investment in advertising of around 31.4 bn it can be calculated to add value to the UK Economy over and above the investment in media itself, of some 160 bn a year\”.
Blimeywho let him out prematurely?
Because just one word does justice to that little claim preposterous! Please tell me what little hat did he find to pull that little gem from.
Perhaps he should liase with his US counterpart a little more frequently, for Bob Liodice ANA President and CEO recently had this to say on the subject of accountability: \”there is much work to be done to accomplish total accountability\”
Moray then went on to say that \”IPA member agencies in this country may be better trained and more professional\”at what may I ask? Perhaps he means that they are better trained and more professional at dreaming up such nonsensical statistics (here I ask you to take notice that I did use the word \”statistics\”) as the one he mentions above!
Or perhaps he means that they are better trained and more professional in the recommendation and preparation of 30-second TV commercials? Well commercials are the calcified dogma within agencies.
\”Hey fellas I have just produced the most exciting idea in the history of advertisingI call it the 35-second TV commercial\”. Wow great new idea!
Meanwhile back in the real world both major Political Parties have ended their traditional billboard blitzes after they were dismissed as a waste of money by a Government-ordered inquiry!
I am sure that Moray dismissed billboards advertising from his most interesting statistic note please I did say statistic!
I recall attending a meeting with a research manager at Kraft General Foods where he informed us that he would spend hours every month trying to discover a small percentage increase in sales following on from an extensive advertising campaigneven he admitted that it was hard.
I also recall attending a meeting with Morays\’ agency, where we presented the findings of a 5 million investment in research as a result of one exposure to interactive programmes from around the world. One of his supercilious Account Directors attended, his reaction to the results? Well he informed us that \”We might have 5 million of research, which appeared to demonstrate the effectiveness of Interactive Communication, but I have a feeling in my gut\”
Perhaps Moray got the effectiveness figures mentioned a little earlier from that same source!
In engineering it is said that \”intelligence moves to the edge\”, well the same is true of advertising, there have been more good ideas killed by advertising agencies who were in the throes of the now discredited 30-second TV commercial. These ideas were dismissed out of hand and the practitioners were forced to eke out an existence with those few Clients who were prepared to experiment, safe in the knowledge that there were better ways of selling than the calcified dogma of a 30-second TV commercial. That better way is called Interactive Marketing Communication.
But for me the real interesting omission from Morays\’ inaugural speech was the fact that never once did the word \”communication ever pass his lips in any real sense of the wordno definitionno acknowledgementno nothingand isn\’t communication supposed to be what it\’s all about?
Never once did he acknowledge the mounting problems facing advertisingthose of the rising blizzard of clutter and the total lack of accountabilityso everything\’s alright in the make believe world of advertising?
Paul Ashby pioneered interactive communication to the advertising and marketing communities some twenty-five years ago. The communication issues he addresses have been neglected during the explosive grown of advertising in the 60s, 70s and 80s, these are Cognitive Dissonance, Selective Retention and Selective Exposure.
Would you like to discover the incredible results to be attained by using interactive communication? Well these are revealed for FREE at http://effectiveaccountablecommunication.blogspot.com or contact Paul directly on paul.ashby@yahoo.com
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During a recent holiday break the family and I went to a great hotel near Mombasa in Kenya. With 4 young kids the attraction was that the facilities were all-inclusive so constant requests for ice-creams etc were not a problem! So what was so great about it?
Well Im always on the look out for examples of great and poor business models and ideas, so heres the key thing that stood out the huge number of people who had been there before. One couple I spoke to had been there for the last seven years in a row with their children.
For the hotel and any other business getting repeat customers like this is akin to striking gold no marketing or recruitment costs just pure profit. And no doubt their clients spread the word amongst their friends so again no marketing cost for the hotel.
What was this hotel doing right that you can apply to your business to encourage repeat business?
1. Its a very child-friendly hotel - leave your kids at the Kids Club which had activities all day. They have spotted that family-oriented hotels will always have an edge, so they built the business and customer experience around that idea. They have spotted a niche and do everything they can to satisfy that market. Result? My kids loved it so much its clear that this is the only place they want to go. The hotel has done its job!
2. They make it feel like home as we drove through the hotel gates the driver who picked us up from the airport said Welcome home! Just think, even the lowly driver knew that the hotels philosophy is to make sure everyone feels they belong to a big family. How good are your employees at passing on your core message or values?
3. Staff recognized and warmly greeted repeaters in many cases staff clearly knew peoples names and as a minimum recognized faces. They treated these people as long lost friends. How do your employees treat regular clients? Warmly or with indifference?
4. They create a feeling of community repeat clients get tee-shirts with the hotel name and year printed on it and people wore them with pride. Not my personal taste but it clearly made most people feel very happy. The children were not forgotten either. Every activity they took part in at the Kids Club was rewarded with a points voucher which could be redeemed at the hotel shop. Do you give gifts to repeat customers by way of a thank you?
5. They reward repeaters with a 10% discount a great way to encourage people to come back and another way of saying thanks for your business. Do you offer repeat business discounts?
6. And finally, all backed up with great food and great service.
These are all simple things which you can introduce very quickly to any business. Getting repeat business is a powerful way to boost sales and profits so starting thinking about how you can encourage customers to become life-long customers.
Rob Warlow
\r Small Business Success
\r http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz
Small Business Success is a resource dedicated to helping small business owners be more successful. If you are looking for a regular flow of ideas and tips then subscribe to Small Business Success a free newsletter, which provides you with quick tips, ideas and articles. Visit http://smallbusinesssuccess.biz
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Christmas is not long past, but I saw Easter eggs in my\r local supermarket before Christmas! I think that is a bit\r crazy, but I guess they sell, otherwise they would not do it.
So why not get in on the action?
Easter is not far away and you need to start planning now.\r But what to do? We will look at a couple of ideas that you\r might try this Easter, to boost your sales or improve\r customer relationships.
A tried and tested method is to have an Easter sale.
An oldie but a goodie. Now is the time to go through you\r figures and find out what sells and what does not. Maybe you\r could use Easter to give your second or third best selling\r item a little push. How about that old stock that you have\r been hanging on to for too long? Here is an opportunity to\r give a good discount and watch it walk out the door.
Remember to look closely at your margins for each product.\r An \’across the store\’ 20% discount may just make your margin\r very slim on certain products! You could have an \’up to 50%\’\r sale, where most products only have a 10-20% discount. You\r can take 50% off those things that just will not sell\r otherwise. Get rid of them and get product on the shelves\r that will sell.
Something else could be a free giveaway with each purchase.
It can be a simple as giving everyone a small Easter egg.\r The parents will love you, because it keeps the kids happy.\r Maybe you have some old stock that you could give away? It\r does not have to be expensive. It is the thought that counts.
How about a special gift for special clients?
If your business is one that has a small amount of customers\r that buy large amounts from you, you need to look after\r them. Make this Easter one they will remember you for. How far\r you go is dependent on how much this client could be worth\r to you during your business life. Wine, fine chocolates, a\r free dinner at a nice restaurant, a massage, you know them,\r so think hard about what they would like.
It could be time to create an event.
Can you make an event out of your business. A fashion\r parade, a local band, a local comedian, an author, sporting\r personality, a character meet & greet. What can you do?
Other things to consider.
How about posters. If you are having a sale, let everyone know about\r it. You want enough to cover your shop front and have plenty for in store decorations.
Have some advertisements. Your local papers offer a direct route to your local customers. Two weeks of advertisements prior to\r the sale should help get the interest up.
Get some flyers. Get the local kids earning some money delivering\r flyers to households.
Local paper editorial. The same papers may be interested in your story,\r but you have to have an angle. Everyone has a sale. What\r will make yours different? Do you have a limited product?\r Are you giving away something with each purchase? Will your\r staff sing a song on the hour? Use your imagination.
Your sale could have a limited time. Make sure you let everyone know that this sale\r is for the Easter holidays only. You could even limit it to\r one day. Limiting the time, makes it seem more attractive.
Time to run a competition? Can you run a competition with your sale? How\r about getting customers to fill in a form to enter? That way\r you also get their mail and email addresses which allows you\r to market directly with the people who buy from you.
How about a group offer? Can you offer products or services to groups?\r Get large local businesses to buy a lot and give them a\r great discount.
Look at your web site. Do you have a web site? Can you run your sale\r online at the same time? Someone on the other side of the\r world may be just as interested in your sale.
A children\’s character. Do you get a lot of children in your shop? Why\r not have an Easter Bunny pay a visit? You could run a meet\r and greet at certain times. If the kids know about it,\r they will want to be there.
Have a look at the checklist.
Buy in extra stock, or sort out what you have and make a\r list of sale items.
Organise printing (posters, flyers, competition forms, etc)
Flyers need to go out in the week before the sale.
Get your local papers press happening early. Remember they\r work ahead a few weeks at least.
Organise extra staff for the sale.
Train your staff for the sale. They have to work hard and\r fast.
Dress your shop. Make it bright, fun, colourful. Stack sale\r items so they look plentiful. Make sure you have happy music\r playing as well.
Small gifts for customers or special gifts for clients. Get\r the ball rolling.
Using Easter as a selling device is not new, but it does\r work. Why not investigate what you can do to get those sales\r figures up for the Easter period?
Geoff McGarvey is a member of the team from Makes Business Easy. Our website is devoted to gving you real world, useable advice about business. Learn about how we made it through sixteen years of business as well as great information from our regular contributors who specialise in many areas of business. We also feature our \’Millionaire a Month\’ interview where you get to hear strategies and tips from business people who have made a million or more. We think you should hear it straight from the mouth of those that have done it.
Find out more at http://www.makesbusinesseasy.com
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Did you know that Americans give more than 7 billion greeting cards each year? According to the Greeting Card Association, we spend over $7.5 billion dollars annually on cards.
One thing to consider is that greeting cards are not just for birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays. They are also very effective tools for increasing business and sales.
Some of us only associate giving cards with special days but savvy business men and women have been using them for decades to stay in touch with customers and build name recognition. There is no faster way to connect with a client than to send them an unexpected, real greeting card in the mail.
Recently, one of the big trends on the internet has been the increased use of the e-card or electronic card. E-cards are quite popular and they allow people to send an instant message to friends and family. However, most people still prefer a real card versus the online version. Flooded email boxes and excessive spam are just a couple of the reasons why this might be the case.
It is reported that 9 out of 10 Americans surveyed actually prefer a physical letter or greeting card. That\’s probably why hundreds of people per day search for the term \”send a real greeting card\” in their quest to stay away from less personal online-only cards.
In addition to their personal appeal, a real greeting card is more likely to be opened, read, and retained when compared to other direct mail pieces.
Maybe you have heard the story of Joseph Samuel Girard. He is well known to be one of the greatest salesmen in the world. For 12 straight years, he sold more cars and trucks than any other salesperson. During a fifteen year career, he sold 13,001 cars and is listed in the Automotive Hall of Fame.
The reason Joe\’s amazing story is shared here is because it\’s said that he accomplished his phenomenal success by consistently staying in touch with his customers through written cards. It is proof that this strategy can quickly separate you from the crowd.
So, the next time you are trying to think of creative ways to generate referrals and reach out to your customers, take a few minutes to send out some personal greeting cards. They work, and the results just might surprise you.
For a brand new service that allows you to send a real greeting card instantly from your computer, visit the web site shown below.
Learn how to personalize, print, stuff, and mail a real greeting \r card right from your computer. \r Visit- http://www.AutomatedFollowUpSystem.com for free test.
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As we move into 2007, there are several distinct trends that will present an outstanding opportunity for business growth. The following paragraphs give a clear outline of the trends and how they will impact buying decisions.
Generational culture
The love affair between Generation Y, those born between 1977 and 2000, and the Internet will continue to grow. Online sites such as My Space and You Tube are becoming mega-outlets having an impact on entertainment, opinion, and marketing. More than 80% of this generation is comfortable making online purchases. Television networks have found this is an effective way to promote programming while gaining additional advertising revenue.
There continues to be significant differences between generations for gathering news. Generations X and Y are beginning to use the online sites of local newspapers as opposed to the printed versions favored by Builders, those born before 1944. Baby Boomers, born between 1943 and 1964, use both Internet and print medias on a consistent basis.
Printed phone books and home mailers continue to be a respectable marketing tool for the Builders, however this method is rapidly dwindling in popularity among Generations X and Y. The exception for the younger generations is the magazine type home mailers which can be quickly flipped through.
Economic culture
The affluent culture has also discovered the Internet. It is quickly replacing the print media as a source of news for those with household incomes of $75,000 and higher. One recent study shows that 94.3% of the affluent culture access the Internet on a regular basis. Over 48% are considered heavy users of the Internet.
Marketing studies now reveal that the affluent culture is much more likely to discuss purchase options with their friends prior to actually buying new products. There seems to be a feeling of elitism by sharing outstanding companies, products, and salespersons with their friends. Oddly, among these high earners much value is placed upon the ability to be lined up with an extraordinary deal.
At lower end of the economic scale, it is more likely that a bad shopping experience will be relayed to friends and family. The group appreciates fair prices and appreciation for their business more than other groups. Although per capita buying power is less, recognizing this trend for free positive word-of-mouth advertising can be a strong competitive advantage for businesses, resulting in a dedicated customer base.
Ethnic culture
The dominance of white Europeans continues to decline throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. In the United States and Canada, white Europeans will drop below 50% of the population within the next decade. The most immediate trend in the United States is the growth of the Asian and Hispanic population.
In 2005, Hispanic buying power became the largest minority market in the United States. Hispanics account for 10 to 15% of the available commerce dollars in every region of the country.
The growth of Asian Americans is double digit, from a low end of 19% in the western states to a high of 31% in the southern states. Indo-Americans, a sub demographic of this group, is among the most affluent Americans and buying power in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
The buying power of African-Americans also continues steady growth. Ethnic cultural buying power is nearing $1.5 trillion in the United States and is proportionately significant in Canada. This provides an excellent vehicle for growth at businesses that intelligently pursue these customers.
The continued and growing acceptance of cultures in the United States and Canada has opened up a marketplace for foreign heritage products. Manufacturers and distributors outside of North America now find a growing marketplace for their products with the Internet taking shape as a strong marketing tool.
Gender culture
The male dominance of Internet purchases is disappearing as women are buying more in cyberspace. This trend will continue in 2007 as females will account for more than 50% of Internet purchases. Particularly strong growth will be among post-college and young married woman between the ages of 24 and 36. This creates an opportunity for companies that previously bypassed the Internet to revisit their strategy.
Single women are expected to make up a larger percentage of the home buying market during 2007. This will open up opportunities for any products or services that lend themselves to this demographic. Some creativity will be necessary to use the right media to reach them.
Online culture
Online users seem to be creating their own culture, especially relative to commerce. This can be seen into emerging trends. First, online buyers want a quick and easy shopping experience. This includes the ability to search for a specific product, have ease comparing it to similar products, and being able to check out quickly. Having a restriction against hitting the back button during a part of the online purchase is a detriment among the online culture.
Second, people are looking for easy solutions. Rather than buying software to teach them how to build your own website, they would prefer online wizards to walk them through the process. In many cases they will gladly pay to have an initial website built for them that allows for quick and easy modifications on their own.
Watch for an increased acceptance of online phone calls. Internet giant eBay has added a link to Skype for their merchants. Skype offers free phone calls throughout the world using the microphone located on most PCs. Skype already has a large presence in South America and Europe and has become a part of eBay. By adding the Skype link, merchants are allowing potential customers throughout the world to call them and discuss the item at no charge. The millions of people using eBay will quickly learn the advantages to Skype, potentially moving it into a mainstream form of communication across North America.
Summary
The impact of free trade agreements and the Internet are two of the largest changes ever to impact the business world. The dust is finally settling on the changes resulting from these two global events. Consequently we are seeing extremely defined and reliable trends in the cultures listed here. Creative businesses and individuals will be able to take these trends and turn them into successful niche products, marketing, or business strategies. The key will be to carefully analyze the full array of trends in order to capitalize on multiple trends in a single global business approach.
—————–
Rick Weaver is an accomplished business executive with a wealth of experience in retail, market analysis, supply chain enhancement, project management, team building, and process improvement.
Rick career began in retailing as a stockclerk, eventually becoming the Director of Vendor Development at Kmart Corporation during its heyday. In this position he worked with hundreds of Kmarts suppliers to improve mutual processes, procedures, and profits.
As a consultant, Rick has worked with companies in various industries to develop leadership and business strategies.
As an entrepreneur, Rick has founded or co-founded six successful organizations, including non-profit and for profit.
Now in his role as president of MaxImpact, Rick uses his vast experience helping individuals connect to their dreams and teams connect to a common vision.
Ricks presentation style of blending humor, real life examples, and easy to implement ideas has made him a popular speaker at seminars, workshops, and conferences in in 43 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico.
(c) Max Impact Corporation
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Marketing promotes your business and all that your business offers to your customers, brings customers to your business, and makes your business stand out in the crowd. A solid Marketing Strategy brings consistent traffic and a constant flow of customers to your business.
The 7 Essential Principles of Strategic Marketing for Success are:
PRINCIPLE #1
Know your Target Group - An Effective Marketing Campaign will be directly focused on selling to your specific niche. Different groups of people are looking for different concepts. When you present your product to a specific niche, you increase the buyer interest exponentially, creating an opportunity for greater marketing success.
PRINCIPLE #2
Share your Genuine Passion - When you feel strongly about your product or service, the passion and enthusiasm you generate creates momentum that will ultimately sell your product or service. Your buyer will assume the same passion and begin to promote your product expanding your potential market with word of mouth marketing.
PRINCIPLE #3
Dare to be Different and Unique - In a black and white world, wear RED and stand out in the crowd. Being different exemplifies quality, value, and independence within your market. When you present your business as Unique and Differentiate between yourself and others you Brand your business with Integrity and Independence.
PRINCIPLE #4
Understand the Law of Success - Know that Success is the natural response to Marketing. Once you understand that Success is the Natural Response to Marketing its easy to accept a No with sincere grace and move on to the next customer. When you realize that making a sale is a direct result of having a product or service to sell, you can smile and walk away graciously when someone doesnt buy with confidence that they just dont need what you have to offer.
PRINCIPLE #5
Know your Business Purpose - When you understand that your purpose in business is to make sales and market your product or services, then you begin to present your product and services in everything you do. Your website promotes your business, because it sells your products and services. Your business card, your letterhead, you copy, your mannerisms sell your business because thats the purpose and goal of your Business.
PRINCIPLE #6
Find Results Oriented Solutions - Once your efforts are focused on solutions your business expands to encompass the process, developing new ways and concepts to offer solutions to your specific market. Your customers begin turning to you for all their solutions in your field and your company produces more and more solutions. The result of high quality business solutions is success.
PRINCIPLE #7
Never Give Up - Failure is part of success. When you realize that every failure you experience brings you that much closer to success, and every failure you experience is a lesson bringing you closer to success, you encounter more opportunities for success. Learn from mistakes and make consistent strides to improve your Business Marketing Strategies.
Do your Marketing Strategies Result in Business Success?
Learn Valuable Concepts and Principles that lead to Victory in The Branding Iron - Claim your FREE Subscription at http://www.brandyourmarket.com
2007 - Jan Verhoeff. All Rights Reserved.
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Believe it or not, over 90% of all menus are leaving money in the table for a number of reasons. In fact, based on my experience with restaurants over the past 20 years, the measurable impact of this loss ranges from $.25- 1.50 for every mean served in the restaurant. Based on the number of meals sold in most restaurant companies, this adds up to a lot of lost dollars!
The following list highlights the top ten factors which contribute to this huge loss of income. Use this checklist to determine how your menu stacks up.
1. Does the menu primarily have a creative orientation?\r When revising the menu, is the primary consideration the look of the menu (design, size, format, color, etc.) If the answer is yes, your menu is guaranteed to be losing money.
Rather, is it most important to first develop a well planned merchandising and marketing strategy for the menu? After this strategy is determined, creative should be used to support the strategy.
2. Is the menu democratic? Do all product names and their descriptive copy have equal appeal? To be most effective, there needs to be a product continuum of appeal which reflects what we want or need to sell. All products may taste good, but some need to be communicated as being more desirable. In other words, those products we want or need to sell should sound better than those we do not.
3. Also related to point #2, is there a clear priority for what you want to sell? We humans can process a limited amount of information and because most people prefer not to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the menu, it is critical to determine what you want or need to sell. In fact, all products should be prioritized from most preferred through least preferred.
4. Do you view the menu as real estate? In fact, the menu is the most important real estate the company owns, since it will generate the overwhelming majority of the companys sales and profits. A very important part of the menu strategy is to assign appropriate units of real estate to the individual tenants, (i.e. products) on the menu. Obviously, important tenants receive premium real estate, while less important tenants receive poorer locations.
5. It is amazing that most menus do not answer the basic questions that guests want answered:
- Whats really good?
- What are the restaurants signature items?
- What should I order right now?
How well does your menu answer these questions?
6. Can the guests read the menu quickly and process its content efficiently? Or, is the menu difficult to navigate because it contains too much information, is overwhelming, confusing, or even too stimulating? Again, because of the inherent processing and time limitations discussed before, the menu needs to help the guest process its content, not make it more difficult.
7. How focused is the menu? Are the most important categories and products clearly emphasized? A good way of understanding this point is to view the menu as needing to have a tour guide built into it. When the menu has a clear cut starting point, then the tour guide leads the reader through the menu on a very definite and strategic review of the menu. Without a tour guide, the reader will certainly get lost and have a difficult time appreciating your restaurant/menus most unique features/products.
8. Do you copy the competition? Whether it is the type or style of menu, design characteristics, or even products and merchandising, there are hazards involved with this approach. Remember the statement that 90% of all menus have problems? Then why copy other menus when they have such a high probability of being wrong? You can gain more by developing a strategy that reflects your restaurants uniqueness rather than copying somebody elses.
9. Check out the following rules of thumb and see if they apply in your restaurant:
-If you sell entre specials, do they represent at least 20% of the entre menu mix?
-Do 20% of your guests order and appetizer or dessert with their meal?
If the answer is no to either question, your menu is underachieving.
Please note: these guidelines apply to casual and dinner house restaurants. With higher priced concepts, the percentages should be even higher.
10. Finally, how are products listed within their specific categories- in one single column or in two or even three columns? Primacy and recency are psychological principles stating that people are best at processing information that they see first or last. These principles can be best applied when using single columns. Using multiple columns decreased the likelihood of definitively predicting and influencing what information the guest is processing.
So, how did you do? Did you find room for improvement in your menu? How much opportunity does your menu have to generate profit dollars?
Bill Paul is the Founder and President of The Menu Advantage in Milford, Ohio and has worked with successful restaurant companies since 1986. Bill can be reached at (513) 248-8200 or visit his website, http://www.menuadvantage.com
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There are many benefits to starting your own affiliate business. These range from the freedom to be able to start your own simple business to create a part time income all the way up to having a full network of sites that can literally make you hundreds of thousands of pounds.
It doesnt matter what knowledge you have as there is an affiliate program for just about every market out there. Your current interests or knowledge is a good place to start looking for affiliate programs you might want to promote.
If you have an interest or knowledge of makeup then you can do a search on Google for Makeup Affiliate Programs you will find many good affiliate programs for this topic. If you have in interest in playing online games then you may want to search for the game name plus the words affiliate program or partner program i.e. Casino Affiliate Program if you have an interest in this topic.
Another point to consider when researching programs to promote is that they pay you for the life of the customer. This means that if people you send to a program purchases once you get the commission but more importantly if that person goes back and buys again and again that you are credited with these sales and hence receive your commissions.
Now you know what you want to build your business around you will want to consider just how you will be making your money.
The basic premise behind any affiliate program is for you to send business that will turn into real money sales at the programs or the merchants you promote. In return for the sale the program pays you either a set amount for each sale or a generous percentage of each total sale value.
A set amount you earn for each sale is called a CPA or Cost Per Acquisition and is a one off payment for that sale. The other model is a Revenue Share or Profit Share model. This enables you to receive a percentage of the profit from the sale. Depending on the industries you are targeting these CPA and Revenue Share rates will vary greatly and over time you will learn what works best for your business.
So just how do you send business to the programs or merchants?
The most common method when starting out in an affiliate business is to build a website. Now you may think this is all very technical but the truth is websites are no longer rocket science you dont even need to learn HTML anymore to get started.
When starting out you will also want to keep your costs low so you may want to consider a blog. A blog is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more and there are even free ones available such as at www.blogger.com
Ok now that you have a site you will want to start adding content. By adding content on your chosen topic over time you will build up a presence in search engines and when people search for that topic the aim is for your site to come up in the results. Once this happens you are then able to direct these people to the merchants or programs you are promoting on your site.
As an example your chosen topic may be makeup and as such in your blog or website you have sections about, application, removal, eyeliner, makeup brands and so on.
Lets say for the section you write in regards to makeup removal that you place strategic links from the text to a product that removes make up. This is where the gold is!
So lets put this into steps\r
\r
\r
\r
\r
Simple!
Please note that links from your site to the merchant or program site are special links called a tracking link. These tracking links are set up in the affiliate area of the merchant site and are used to make sure that you get the credit for the customers you send.
Of course there is much more to learn on the subject and it will take time to build real income, but if you choose a topic you are passionate about and do research into the market and how to make a success of affiliate marketing a truly rewarding income and lifestyle can be achieved.
Roo has been involved in online marketing for more than 7 years and has extensive first hand knowledge in affiliate program management.
For more information visit http://www.jackpotjoyaffiliates.com or our blog at http://www.jackpotjoyaffiliates.com/blog/
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How To Use Ebay For Website Content And Make MoneyeBay's affiliate program is probably one of, if not the most under-utilized opportunity for making a good living that current...
Team Building Requires One Great Dynamic for True Success - MateshipA Successful Team is built around mateship, around respect for your team mates and for yourself. I am not saying that everyon...
The Amazonian KingThe "Amazonian King" is Marty White, a man with a mission to bring greater respect to Amazon's affiliate program. Within the ...
Article Marketing - Your Resource Box is an Article Marketing ToolAs an online entrepreneur who has been utilizing article marketing strategies since 2003, I have enjoyed its many benefits. T...
Affiliate Marketing Opportunity - Hard to Pass UpGourmet meat is on the rise in America as hippies, vegans, household mothers, etc. demand quality, healthy, untainted food. (...
10 Necessary Steps You Should Take If You Want To Be A Super Successful Internet MarketerInternet marketing is a growing industry with huge potential for creating wealth and financial success. As with anything, tra...
What Every Marketer Should Have In Their ArsenalThe Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner is widely conside