Man eaten alive by Polar Bear

The biggest mistake many business owners make when putting together a print ad or flyer or poster etc. is the lack of priority.
This can be split into 2 categories.
For example, if a local newspaper ad is due Wednesday at 4pm, when do most business owners write the copy or plan the layout of the ad? -3.30pm.
Unless you are a professional copywriter who works well under pressure or a brilliant marketing strategist with a long list of proven successful ads which you can easily amend, you have just wasted your money on the ad.
WHY?
How can you possible come up with a brilliant promotional idea and the headline and appropriate text in 30 mins whilst (most likely) still running day to day activities in your business.

The second problem with prioritising your ad is the required focus on the opening headline.
One of my business mentor taught me the most important thing about copy:
"Have a tried and tested attention grabbing headline!"
You see, if your potential audience is not engaged by the headline, thinking 'Oh, ok, tell me more', it matters not how good the offer is, how great the text is, how fancy the logo and fonts are or when the offer runs out.
Think about this: When reading the newspaper or a magazine, how do you subconsciously decide which article to read in full? In a split second, you evaluate the headline, i.e. 'Is this something I am interested in?!'
I spend the most amount of time on creating the headline to the electronic newsletters I send out to my clients for my various businesses. Why? Because I want them to read the newsletter.
Obviously, you want to make the headline relevant, i.e. how does it tie in with the info that's being shared in the newsletter, but I generally write 5-10 headlines per newsletter before I settle on one.
By the way, my sincerest apologies if I misled you. There was no polar bear harmed in this email and no man was eaten either. I just used that to see how many of you would read this blogpost :-)

Which leads me to my next point: I always monitor how many emails were opened this time around compared to last time to see which headline(s) worked best.
When do I start writing my headline(s) and newsletters?
At least 2-3 days before, generally in the morning BEFORE my real work day starts.
Why?
Because I can think about them and be completely focussed on the one and only task at hand.
Granted, I have written copy during the day but whenever I do, I do not take phone calls and the office door is closed. Nothing is rushed, everything is planned in advance because I want the biggest return on the time I have invested in my marketing.

Til next time, to your business success,

Andre'

What many small business owners fail to understand.....

Regardless whether or not you are starting a new business or you have been running an existing one for a while, one of the most common problems is the gap between a business owners' thoughts and ideas on great customer service and the experience an actual customer or patron has before, during and after the sales process.

I have done personal, extensive research on this, asking hundreds of customers who have shopped in dozens of small businesses or frequented dining or entertainment establishments in any given year and not only is it rare to come across excellent customer service; the most common comments are that either there was a 'lack' of customer service or feeling of 'indifference' by the staff or the business owner towards the customer.

We have all experienced walking into a retail store, pub or restaurant whilst the staff are updating their mobile phone, or reading a magazine or having a chit chat about what happened on their weekend away whilst completely ignoring us.
We loathe having to email or ring around getting quotes for a service we need done around the house only to receive few or no replies.
Most of us put up with service people setting appointments that are sometimes inconvenient for us, but we take time off work anyway, only to find that the person doesn't turn up on time or at all.

But if you ask any business owner, they will advertise verbally or even in big bright letters:
"We give great customer service!"
Why is that?
How can it be that in several customer satisfaction surveys 60-70% (!!!) of customers decided not to return to a business they bought from or a venue they booked their last function at because they felt the business was 'indifferent' to whether or not they spent their money there?

As a business owner, ask yourself these 3 questions:
1. How much does it cost you to get a customer or patron to walk into your place of business?
2. What is your average sale and what is a customer or patron worth to you, over the long-term?
3. If you ensured maximum customer spend and repeat business, what would that do to your profits?

It seems ludicrous to me to spend money on signage or flyers or newspaper ads or even radio and to not follow through by training staff or personally ensuring that the attracted prospective customers' shopping experience matches or exceeds what's being advertised!

If you have never considered this aspect and you don't know where to start....

OR

If you believe you have high customer service standards, why not have a chat with us to discuss on how we can test the performance of your team over time and improve on it?

We have a number of successful, proven systems from Secret Shoppers to Self-run Survey Evaluation Programs through Cheeky Monkey Success Training.

Start a conversation, Just click here

Til next time, to your business success!

Sincerely,

Andre' Moreitz
Business Optimizer
Marketing Strategist