But what happens? – no one buys at full price.

Now it is of course very tempting to drop your price when you have stock to move, and of course I am not suggesting that you don’t ever have sales, just don’t have them all the time.

If every email you’re sending out to your list is just what’s on sale, or that you’ve knocked xx% off ‘this weekend only’, if you send them often enough its not going to take long to wipe out all your full price sales.

There is a certain children’s mail order company that I use often to buy things for my small people from and I know that I only have to hang on for another week or so every time I want to buy something and sure enough a discount voucher will plop onto the doormat through the post. I am regular customer and so I know I don’t have to wait long. Now what’s silly about this is that yes I do buy when I get my discount voucher, but the business has lost my momentum, and also the cash I was ready to part with ‘on the spot’.

Now for a big mail order catalogue, or a large chain of furniture stores (ahem!) the continuous offers and discounting is part of a major marketing plan, but if you’re a small business you don’t always have the luxury of bigger margins and a constant flow orders. If you’re a smaller business you value every sale, and all those not at full price just mean you have to work harder or sell more (or both!). You also then set a precedent that your prices are not ‘real’ but ‘inflated’ (yes I know those DFS sofas were on sale somewhere for a week at £1500 but no-one was buying them, right?).

So stick by your guns and don’t be on ’sale’ all the time. Think about value add offers instead, or extras you can include. Once you lower your prices (which is effectively what you do when you’re always on ’sale’) its really hard to push them back up again to the same customers. Then you’re left with either finding new customers, or accepting you’ll only ever be able to sell for less.

And don’t even think about offering 5 years interest free credit if you’re a small business either! Money up front thank you very much

I was recently invited by Andy Hayes of Travel Online Partners to be a guest on his TOP radio show. Being someone who loves talking (!), of course I said “yes”.

You can listen to the recording here…

We covered a wide range of topics on the show, and most are relevant to all types of business, not just travel and hospitality related. Here’s a summary of what we covered (all credit to Andy for being able to summarise me!):

• How important it is to have a website that you can update – how can it be a vital marketing tool and so not good if you’re beholden to an agency to make updates or changes.
• Andy discussed his recent reminder that tourism providers need to travel!  They need to see the trends, see what others are doing, and experience the products and services they are selling.
• Remember who your target market is: sometimes you’ll need to market in a way that you don’t like, but it’s not about what you like it’s about what your target market likes.  That’s easy to forget if you aren’t in your target market, so keep reminding yourself.  A good feedback programme helps with this.
• Be sure that you understand the technology that you’re using – even if you’re paying someone else to do the work, you need to understand what they’re doing.  Very few things are actually as mystical and complicated as they seem!  While you don’t  need to know the dirty details of the technology, you need to know what the technology is going to do for your business and you will be using it to provide what customers are interested in.
• Analytics are a powerful tool for gauging what people are interesting in and what is useful: live marketing research.

How can businesses bring “no-nonsense” to their business marketing?

• Inspired marketing agrees that the people with the best products and services have the easiest time to product inspired business marketing!
• Business marketing is about your business and about bringing in customers, not about the brochures.  The key question is who are your customers, where are they, and how are you going to get access to them?
• Things change – you change, markets change.  It’s easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest thing, but always be asking: why am I doing this?
• Shiny object syndrome:  don’t throw away things that work in exchange for new fancy things.  It’s fine to experiment (and we’d encourage it), but if your target market likes your nice brochures, keep making them!
• Careful to avoid the fact that if your business is fun and you enjoy it, remember it’s a business: it is far too easy to waste time and money in marketing.
• Always step into the mind of the customer: are you marketing in the places where they actually will be looking for you?  If you don’t know, you either need to a) ask them, or b) try more than one thing and measure.

How can businesses build “websites that work”?

• Websites are SUCH an important marketing channel!!  It must be organised so that people can understand who you are and what you offer…in seconds.
• Websites are an unobtrusive way to learn about you and an easy way for people to compare you with your competitors.  It is almost “business suicide” not to have a good one.
• Everyone has a question when they come to your website:  are you answering it?  Any question you ever get asked should be answered on your website.  Very few websites go into enough detail.
• Do  not think in terms of number of pages.  Think in terms of everything that makes your business unique.  This is not a brochure so there isn’t a space constraint.
• Don’t have throw-away statements that everybody can use.  Instead of saying “Great for Families,” show the customer what your amenities are: pictures of the playground, lists of DVDs and toys, qualifications of your babysitters, how you can heat up your babymeals, are there kids bikes?  Not many people do that, so if you do, you’ll stand out.
• Be sure a person can tell what you are within 3-5 seconds.  People like to identify if they’re in the right place.
• You can’t demonstrate what you do by just saying something, but build the full picture: photos, video, customer testimonials, etc.
• Be clear who your target market is – be something for somebody.  Generic doesn’t cut it!
• Photos photos photos!  Be sure to label them: it’s good for SEO (search engine optimisation), and customers don’t know what they are if you don’t tell them. People will read them.
• We’re programmed to assume the worst if you leave something out, so tell us everything – be honest.  The downsides aren’t always as negative as you might think.
• Don’t make the two common mistakes in communications in your marketing and websites:
  • Assuming that you someone understood you properly
  • Assuming that everyone is like you
• People like doing business with people, so be personable and be memorable – how are you unique?  If it is a small business, a lot of it is about you: why are you unique?  A lot of small business owners carry around their reasons “why” but don’t get them out there for their customers to see!

Lucy’s Hotel Success Handbook:

• The book is designed for anyone with a hotel/boutique/B&B/campsite who need some fresh insights on revisiting all the important aspects of business.  If you’re not getting the guests that you want, when you want them, this book is for you.
• Covers both offline and online information and is a reminder that while you might have the most fantastic accommodation in the world, if people don’t know about it you’ll be enjoying it on your own!
• Have a plan, do one thing at a time, measure, and react.  The harsh reality is that on the business side of things some things aren’t that exciting but they must get done!

Entrepreneurship – It’s Hard:

• You’ve done the hard part and launched your tourism business – now you just need to make it work better.  And that’s the fun bit!
• Don’t jump on the social media bandwagon unless you remember that it is social: no overwhelming sales push.  But it’s a great way to get your personality out there.
• Don’t compete on price!  People want what you do and what you offer, so work hard because they’re out there.  People don’t just turn up.  (And by price, we don’t mean value.  Value for money is different than cheap.)

Final Thoughts:  How to Juggle All the Pieces:

• Work out and prioritise what things are fun and what things pay the bills.  Fun projects are fun, but you can’t spend all day on them.
• It’s easy to get distracted on the things you don’t like.  Either give them to someone else or buckle down and get them done.
• Say no when it’s appropriate!

If you’d like to listen to the MP3 of my chat with Andy please do! Here’s the link again…

The show lasts for just under an hour and there’s lots more info on the call you should find useful. Enjoy!

Running an online shop can mean your market instantly grows to be worldwide and your shop open 24/7. Because it’s now ‘Open All Hours‘ you should make sure your ecommerce store is:

• clearly laid out
• can handle multiple transactions
• manage stock levels dynamically (so you’re never selling what you don’t have!)
• have a secure payment process (security set-up so buyers are confident ordering from you)
• good SEO for both your shop pages and individual products
• ability to handle discounts, special offers and vouchers
• clear photos and images with zoom options

Here’s what I have to say about Venda, and the reasons I think it’s ideal for small businesses looking for a professional ecommerce solution. While Venda takes care of your shop, we make the shop look good!

There are lots of things to consider from a practical and ‘process’ point of view when setting up an ecommerce store, and we use Venda as it’s already thought of them all! I am big fan of the business philosophy ’stick to your knitting’ – which for us means we stick to the design and marketing aspects of a website, and not the coding. Building an ecommerce store from scratch is not a simple job, and is also likely to cost you quite a few £££ if you’re looking for something even slightly complex.

To use another cliche, there is also little point in re-inventing the wheel either (especially at your own expense) when it comes to selling online. It makes sense to take advantage of development that has already been proven and tested and launch your ecommerce store on the back of that. This is why we use Venda.

Venda SBS is a subscription based ecommerce ‘content management system’ which allows you to update your online store just by accessing the site online. It costs just £49.99 a month for hosting, support and access to the ecommerce platform. To make your Venda site look good – we offer a custom design service.

The really helpful Your Business Channel is packed with videos and shows to watch online, that have an incredible range of advice and tips for business owners from a huge range of experts (lots of which are quite famous) – and now me too!

Here’s the video:

Hope you weren’t disappointed I wasn’t actually speaking in it – but I’ll save that for next time

If you want more advice about understanding your customers – read these earlier posts from me here, here and here.

OK, so I finally succumbed to writing a post about Twitter. Now I am no Stephen Fry (419k+ followers and counting), but I do like Twitter and what it can do for my business.

Twitter is huge and growing every day. In the UK, it’s now the 50th most visited web site. And traffic has increased to a 32-fold from March ‘08—to March ‘09. There’s a lot of people to Tweet to.

I’m quoted in this article explaining why I think small businesses need to use Twitter (and other social media) as its possible to become very visible with little more cost than the time you put in. Certainly something to think about if your marketing budgets are tight (or non existent!).

So here are a few ways that I use Twitter — and that any small business or individual can use it for too (and I have this conversation a lot with the un-Twitter-initiated, so now I can just point them here!).

1. I learn stuff: I follow people and companies and publications that share great articles, blogs, videos and their own wisdom. I see it as my personal info-feed.
2. I share stuff: I’ll ‘RT’ (re-tweet – the Twitter equivalent of forwarding) info, links, messages and ideas that I like.
3. I tell people what I am doing (and not just ‘what I had for breakfast — the non-Twitterers over used comeback!). By ‘what I am doing’ I mean: personal and business stuff. I’ll Tweet about projects I’m working on, meetings I have, partnerships I’m working on, new blogs and articles I’ve written or been featured in — the ‘look at me’ things! But I’ll balance all the business updates with personal things too like what I’m reading, comment on current affairs, write about places I’ve visited and posts on my travel blog, for example.
4. I meet new people: From all over the world. Like with all social networking sites, I get to connect to people I have no idea how I would have found otherwise. People with similar interests, or not – anyone who I think has something interesting to say. I can search on keywords and phrases to find people, or just look through people I already follow, and see if I want to follow their followers or who they follow (if you follow?!).
5. I can get help and answers: If I need something or someone I can Tweet out a question or request and get an answer. I did this recently when I need a photographer in an area I have no contacts (Wales), and within 15 mins of my Tweet I got a couple of replies and one got the job. Too easy!
6. I can use the power of networks (multiplied): If I want to connect with way more people than I can reach (and know) on my own, I can ask for ReTweets and suddenly my audience rockets.
7. I can do really quick market research: asking a question or posting a survey to get a response when I need it fast.
8. I’m first to know of deals and news: Well, not always first, but near the top A lot of people use Twitter as their ‘first port of call’ when promoting a new offer or deal and if you’re looking then you can jump on it.
9. I can run promotions or Twitter-only offers: so that it makes it worth while following me.
10. I am building up a network of people who are interested in what I have to say (I assume!), and that I can communicate to every day. This network may include potential customers, partners and suppliers so all pretty important people to my business!

And what don’t I do on Twitter — I don’t SELL stuff. This isn’t what it’s for. Of course I link to a page on my bio that shows people what I do,  and I will mention offers and my own articles and projects, but I don’t set up a stall and sell sell sell ! (And I’ll stop following anyone who does this).

So how am working on using Twitter better?

Well, I’m working my way through the fabulous Nikki Pilkington’s Tweet Mentor Course (100 lessons in Tweeting on email) and just watch this space… or actually this one www.twitter.com/LucyWhittington

See you on Twitter!

Now, maybe you subscribe to the ‘Alan Sugar’ point-and-shout school of management (actually, I quite like his approach to delegating, as he always sends his assistants out on all the ‘Apprentice’ errands, and just keeps the good ‘you’re fired!’ stuff for himself). But being aggressive or rude in business can often cost you money.

If we look into the customer service side of things, then it’s a well known fact that a ‘bad story’ can escalate and get much further reach than a ‘good news’ story: “Airlines getting luggage to passengers every time”… ever read that headline? But “mountains of suitcases at Terminal 5” when it opened — days’ worth of headlines!

So you need to remember what you do and say as a business, or as a person representing your business, can make a big difference to your sales and profits.

But it’s not just customer service; you should also be thinking about how you work with other businesses too.

One of the best ways to promote your business is to set up a Joint Venture with other businesses that complement what you do. If you’re an Accountant specialising in small businesses, for example, you could set up joint ventures with solicitors, or HR advisors, or marketing firms. A joint venture as a ‘host recipient‘ arrangement will mean you can each promote your services to the other company’s client list, introducing them as a partner you have chosen to work with can offer a valuable service that you endorse. This is always a powerful ‘introduction’ to new prospects for your business from a source they already trust and buy from.

And don’t be rude to your competition either — they may be able to help you. Some of your competitors won’t compete with you in every part of your market place, and could be a source of leads for you. Approach some of your competitors and ask if they have names on their database that they have just not been able to sell any services to ever — offer them a deal in that you mail their list, and anything you sell to that list then they can receive a commission. This is a win-win situation, as they are getting revenue where they have not been able to get it before, and you are getting new customers.

Or get together with your competitors to promote your industry or market. You might get more PR and Marketing impact for your products and services as an ‘organisation’ or ‘industry body’ than individually. Of course, there will be things you will not want to share, but if you can collectively raise the profile of the products or services, you sell then you should all benefit from the increased awareness and demand.

And another thing I believe: don’t be worried about your competition — just be different. There will be something that you can do better, cheaper, faster, more knowledgeably, more convienently, smarter, brighter (or whatever the difference) than your competitors can. This is your USP. This is what you always promote.

And remember: play nice. Business is fun!

Now don’t panic, this doesn’t mean you need a different product or service for every single person in the world   but it does explain why customer segmentation is so important if you want to sell more to your best customers.

Once you know who your best customers are, you can put them into ’segments’ and market to them separately. The theory behind customer segmentation is that not all customers want the same product or service at the same price at the same time.

So once you have looked at who your ‘best customers’ are, segmenting them into groups, you can identify who spends what and when, and design new products, services and marketing campaigns to get them buying more.

Unless you do have just one product or service that’s suited for just one type of customer, you cannot have a one-size-fits-all message in your Marketing.

So how do you research your customer segments?

If you have customer relationship management software (CRM), use the data that gives you to look at past purchases to identify trends. If this data isn’t available, you will need to survey your best customers to find out why they buy from you. You can also look at independent market research on your target markets to get more insight.

When you understand the customer ’segments’ that are best for your business, you can plan your marketing around where these types of customers will see and respond to your messages. You can also develop new products (or repackage existing ones) to suit different the different ‘best customer’ segments you have.

A business coach, for example, has one core service, but customer segmentation might identify one or several ‘best customer’ audiences they have e.g. design companies, start-ups or health professionals. By changing the look of adverts and where they advertise, the business coach can position themselves as an expert rather than a ‘general practitioner’, and are likely to get more customers as a result.

And customer segmentation doesn’t need to mean you have to multiply the amount of marketing budget you have by the number segments you want to focus on. Email is a very cheap and effective way to target different market segments with different messages. Another low cost way of reaching your segmented target markets is having one-page ‘landing page’ web sites with specific offers tailored to each segment of your ideal customer base.

…and don’t forget your web site

Update your existing web site to reflect the customer segments you want to focus on.  If you currently promote the business as offering one product or service that ‘fits-all’, split your home page into different sections. If you are targeting business buyers, this might be clearly signposting different sizes of businesses (e.g. SME, International). If you are you targeting different types of consumers then have clear destinations for different ages, or price ranges, for example. Signpost your segments on your web site so that visitors know which information is for them.

Start with a key ‘best customer’ segment you’ve identified, focus on getting the messages right for this market, then move on to add more and more of your ‘best customers’ to your Marketing plan.  The more you segment and focus, the more likely you’ll be getting on everyone’s agenda and selling more.

This is a really important exercise to undertake. Your perfect customer ideally is already your most profitable ‘best customer’(s), but it might not be…

Make a list — what are all the attributes of your perfect customer?

Answer all these questions (and more that are relevant to you as a business owner, and your business):

• What are your perfect customer’s likes and dislikes?
• What is your perfect customer’s budget ?
• How does your perfect customer define ‘Value for Money’?
• What level of service does your perfect customer expect?
• How often does your perfect customer buy the product or service you sell?
• How does your perfect customer use your product or service?
• Where else/who else do your perfect customers buy from?
• How do your perfect customers like buy?
• If consumers: what ‘demographic’ are your perfect customers? (age, interests, family status etc)
• If businesses: what ‘vertical’, ’size’ or ‘type’ of business are your ideal customers?
• What other things does your perfect customer spend their budget on (this is a very relevant question, as this identifies competition for you. Remember your competition might not be an alternative supplier of what you sell, but something else they spend money on… )

What description would you give your perfect customers? You can write a couple of lines or more for this.

And now you can see if your perfect customer ‘looks like’ your best customers.

If they do — great! You know what to do now — get marketing to them!

If they don’t, then you need to make a decision: can you package your existing products and services to appeal to your perfect customer(s)? Or do you need to find something new to sell them?

Your perfect customers exist — you just need to have what they want, and tell them about it.

Let me explain…

What I am talking about here is customer segmentation, and identifying the ‘best’ customers for your business.

The old Pareto Effect (80:20 rule) comes into play very often when analysing customers — where it’s typical to find 80% of your profit coming from 20% of your customers. This is WHY all customers are not created equal — some of them make you a lot more profit!

When I work with business owners on their Marketing, it’s a typical request to be asked to “get more customers” for the business, to which I always reply, “no, you want to get more of the RIGHT customers“. Sometimes this is a bit of a revelation (and a d’oh moment!). But as soon as you know in business who your ‘best’ customers are, you can start to be strategic in your Marketing (and usually by ‘best’ we’re talking most profitable customers — but it can be other measures).

Before I make business owners work out their most profitable customers, I always remind them to look at this over TIME. It is the LIFETIME VALUE of customers that is important in analysing your customer base i.e. how much revenue and profit you will make from a customer over the lifetime that they buy from you, and not just the first or one-off purchase that they make.

It’s not uncommon for a customer to ‘try’ a new supplier with a small transaction to help establish trust and a relationship that then, over time, can lead to more, and increasingly higher revenue or more profitable purchases. This is accepted buying behaviour which you need to understand.
There’s a great article on Lifetime Value here from the expert business Marketer Paul Gorman.

So once you’ve found out who your best customers are, what do you do?

Easy — you find more of them. It’s as simple as that. You know who they are, you know what they buy, how they buy, what they pay — now find more of them. And if you don’t know the answers to these questions, now is the time to ask your customers and find out the answers.

Remember you don’t just want ‘more customers’, you want more of your ‘best customers’.

But don’t worry, this isn’t another ‘get rich quick even without a computer’ email (I never understand those — how do you make money on the internet not being on the internet?! I digress…)

Back to the subject in hand: how DO you make MONEY from your web site? Or how I like to think about it: how can your web site make your business more successful?

Well, I am not going to list everything you can do here in detail, but if you boil it down, it’s essentially about getting a few key things right.

You need to:

• get the RIGHT traffic to your web site i.e. the type of visitor you want who is looking for, and willing to pay for, what you are selling
• get the VOLUME of traffic you need to make your business profitable
• offer what your visitors want to buy (and try and capture the details of everyone who is a potential customer)
• sell or ‘convert’ as many of your web site visitors as possible

If you are making the effort to maximise all these things then that is how you make money from your Web site.

But how do you do this?

Well, you need to look at lots of different ways of promoting your web site, including online and offline ads, email marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), to make sure you’re found on searches, get online PR working for you with articles, list yourself in good directories, use social networking to drive traffic, and set up PPC advertising (like Google Adwords) to guarantee you are found in search engines.

You need to work really hard on testing your web site and its content for optimal conversions. Look hard at your stats, and work out why people are visiting your site, and what they are looking at. How many visitors leave without buying, or at least telling you who they are? Don’t underestimate the power of changing the detail on your web site. Even just swapping around your layout on pages can make a HUGE difference to conversion (which you can set up so it’s automatical, making it even easier, with a free tool called Google Optimizer)

So, the 2 things you must be thinking about ALL the time are:

1. How can I get more ‘qualified’ traffic to my site (not just numbers, but real, targeted, ready-to-buy traffic)?
2. How can I get as many of my visitors on the site to buy, or sign up to my database, while they are there?

That’s it, in a nutshell! But of course, you will want to know HOW to do this. And you want tried and tested methods…

So let me introduce my friend Ed Rivis, who is an expert on Internet Marketing. Ed has today released the first UK-focused monthly internet marketing newsletter (as opposed to US-focused, as a lot of internet marketing ideas are). He’s offering the first copy to everyone for FREE (including free postage — you really do pay nothing) just by signing up here…

I can’t wait for the postman to arrive with my copy, as I know it will be PACKED with real, useful web marketing ideas to help me make money from my web sites.

And none of Ed’s ideas are ‘tricks’, by the way. They are straightforward, tried out and tested (a lot) ‘how to’ articles about internet marketing that works. I’d order your free copy today if you’re really serious about making money from your web site.  You’ll be increasing your profits before you can say ‘highly-targeted Landing Page’.