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Your EnterQuest Bulletin - Issue 344
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| Thought for the week: "We don't have a monopoly. We have market share. There's a difference." Stephen Ballmer |
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In this week's issue:
Turn your weaknesses into strengths
Before you begin a new marketing campaign, a good starting point is to identify your product or service's weakest points. By doing this first, you will be better able to modify your product offering and make it more attractive to buy. You'll also be able to make your sales copy and marketing messages more appealing to your prospects.
A good way to do this weakness elimination exercise is to list your key weaknesses or purchase barriers on one side of a piece of paper, and write a solution that removes the barriers alongside each one.
The idea is to identify and then remove all the barriers that could prevent your customers from buying your product.
For example, if the barrier is that customers think your price is too high, the solution would be to explain the cost savings over the longer term, or the extra costs that would be incurred by the customer if they didn't buy your product.
The trick is to then turn the weakness into a strength, by describing it as a benefit as early as possible in your sales message. For example:
"Buy this product today and you'll save £00s over the next three years" or, "Pay for quality and reliability now and save on replacements and repairs you'd need with cheaper versions".
To summarise:
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Identify your weaknesses and any barriers that could prevent customers buying from you.
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Think of ways to turn these into solutions or benefits that will appeal to customers.
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Describe the benefits as early as possible in your sales or advertising messages.
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For more marketing techniques and ideas, check out The UK Small Business Marketing Bible, which contains hundreds more tips and tactics for boosting your sales using proven marketing strategies that work no matter what product or service you sell. |
Each week we provide you with summaries of some popular or emerging business ideas in the UK and elsewhere around the world.
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Spare desk rental idea. Desk Space Genie is a website that helps businesses to earn a little extra income by renting out spare desks to remote workers and freelancers who simply need access to broadband Internet and space in an office for their work. The Desk Space Genie site itself earns money through advertising.
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Food retailers launch mobile websites. Food retailers in the US are becoming increasingly mobile-savvy and are launching new sites to suit the mobile commerce age. For example, Texan chain Whole Foods Market has devised a site featuring store directions, special offer features and personal recipe archives for shoppers on the go.
Regularly improving your vocabulary is not just about learning a new word and its meaning. It will improve your general knowledge and make you feel and act smarter in all sorts of personal and business situations.
Do you know the meaning of the word 'abrogate'?
a) abolish
b) break the law
c) please
d) stimulate
Answer at the end of the Bulletin.
The following topical business issues have been recently reported in the media. Did your radar pick them up?
1) Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rose to 1.9% in November, up from 1.5% the month before, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). What was the main driver behind the increase?
a) food prices
b) transport fuel prices
c) utilities prices
d) pharmaceutical product prices
2) A meeting this week by the Payments Council has decided the fate of which of the following payment methods, meaning it will be phased out by the end of 2018?
a) Direct Debit
b) cheque
c) Chip and PIN
d) card payments over the telephone
3) A quarterly survey carried out by Clifton Asset Management has revealed that over a third of small business owners have not heard of which Government flagship scheme specifically designed to help businesses through the recession?
a) the Regional Venture Capital Fund
b) the Early Growth Fund
c) the Enterprise Finance Guarantee
d) the Grant for Business Investment
Answers at the end of the Bulletin.
Facebook guidelines for promoters
If you're planning to run a viral marketing campaign or launch a new product using Facebook, this article from PR firm Ogilvy PR provides a run-down of Facebook's marketing and promotion guidelines, along with five handy tips to consider when organising your campaign.
Ideas for writing pay-per-click ads
This blog post lists ideas for keywords to use in pay-per-click adverts, which many business owners find difficult to write copy for. The post is useful to bookmark if you get stuck in a rut when researching and writing copy for these ads.
Search trends and information using real-time search engine
Scoopler is a real-time search engine that can be used to search the latest posts and updates from social networking and media sites, including Twitter, Flickr and Delicious. Use it to keep up to date with the latest developments in your industry.
Widget search engine
Widgipedia is a search engine that can be used to find the latest widgets for your desktop. They're displayed in a widget gallery, where more information can be found about each widget's practical uses, along with download instructions.
You can get access to hundreds more online business tools, how-to articles, checklists, standard forms and business development resources by subscribing to the Better Business Adviser.
Win a Bluetooth mobile printer worth £199
The PrintStik from mobile working solutions firm PlanOn is the world's smallest full-page printer that makes it possible for users to print documents anywhere, any time, while on the road.
PrintStik offers full-feature printing capabilities on a self-contained, 20-page roll of A4 paper. It is extremely user-friendly and syncs easily with a variety of devices including laptops, PDAs and smart phones, transferring images and documents clearly with no smudging or bleeding.
EnterQuest has teamed up with PlanOn to offer readers the chance to win this really useful device, worth £199.
To be in with a chance of winning this great prize, just answer the following question:
Q: The Office for National Statistics measures inflation via two indexes. One is the Consumer Price Index but which is the other?
a) Retail Price Index
b) Business Price Index
E-mail your answer, together with your name, address and daytime phone number, using 'PlanOn PrintStik competition' in the subject line, to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com.
All entries must be received by 31 January. Full competition rules are available on request.
This book is aimed at small business owners and entrepreneurs who are striving to make their businesses the best in their field. It discusses seven disciplines that can help you control and develop your business - strategy, planning, marketing management, finance, team building, customer commitment and personal development. Check out:
Just one word answer
The answer is a).
Abrogate means abolish.
The Chancellor announced his decision to abrogate some of the regulations on employment law. |
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Good luck
The EnterQuest Team
This information is meant as a starting point only. Whilst all reasonable efforts have been made, the publisher makes no warranties that the information is accurate and up-to-date and will not be responsible for any errors or omissions in the information nor any consequences of any errors or omissions. Professional advice should be sought where appropriate. |
