|
Your EnterQuest Bulletin - Issue 255
 |
| Thought for the week: "It is not that things are difficult that we do not venture. It is because we dare not venture that they are difficult." Seneca, Roman philosopher |
|
In this week's issue:
How to measure your marketing efforts
Every small business has vital signs that tell you if the business is doing well or not. Your marketing efforts have vitals signs as well that will tell you whether you are marketing effectively. Here are three basic measurements you should be tracking on a constant basis:
- How many calls do you get per day?
- How many of those calls do you convert to leads?
- How many of those leads do you convert to sales?
How many of these do you measure and track? If you don't know your closing rate, how can you start to improve if you don't know where you stand today?
You can spend a lot of money getting your phone to ring. One of the biggest mistakes a small business owner can make is to underestimate the importance of a phone call.
The important question about measuring the incoming number of phone calls is not how many you should be getting. The question you should be asking yourself is what is the trend? Are you getting more calls than last month? Are you getting more calls than this time last year? Is your trend going up or is it coming down? Or is it a plateau? What is the relative movement of the amount of phone calls?
If you aren't tracking this number, start today. Start a phone log with names and phone numbers. The critical information that you need from every call is:
- How did the customer hear about your business?
- What is the customer's name, home address, phone number and e-mail address?
Keep a detailed log on how customers heard about you. For instance, you should be able to determine how many visitors you get from one or more of the following marketing efforts:
- Phone calls.
- Shopfront sign.
- Yellow Pages advertisement.
- Newsletter offer.
- Newspaper advertisement.
- Radio advertisement.
- Referral.
- Direct mail.
- Website visit.
If you have set up a 24-hour information line, you can track the amount of calls you get from this line as well. A 24-hour information line is normally a recorded message line that offers free information to prospects and can take names and addresses to allow you to send them follow-up information. You should see a dramatic increase in your call volume when you install a 24-hour information line.
But just because you're getting a lot more calls doesn't mean you're successful. You can get hundreds of calls and not have one customer make a purchase. This would not be good, so you need to track how many of those calls actually result in a sale.
Making promotional seminars work for you
Promotional workshops are just like more conventional seminars and workshops except your aims are slightly different. Conventional workshops are teaching venues that are an end in themselves. With a promotional workshop you want:
-
To offer an unthreatening reason to attract possible clients or customers.
-
To whet the audience's appetite to know more about the topic.
-
To give them enough real information to prove you are an expert.
-
To persuade them that you are the person or business to deal with.
-
To get some if not all of the audience to commit to further one-on-one discussions.
You probably won't charge people to attend or only charge a nominal sum. And you want to avoid any feeling that they are being sold to. To get the most out of promotional workshops here are a few simple tips:
1. Set your goal - What do you want to achieve? You may want to attract new prospects, or bind existing ones. Whatever you do, choose one goal and stick to it. If you mix goals, you could end up alienating some or all of the diverse audience.
2. Choose the topic - The more specific your topic, the more focused your delegates will be. You also want something narrow enough to cover in a short time, yet with enough depth to impress. And while you want to educate them, you don't want to give away the crown jewels.
3. Identify your target market - Promotional workshops work effectively when everybody in the room wants the same thing, from roughly the same level. It also allows you to focus better on the audience's specific needs.
4. Audience size - Audience size is very important but as usual it is horses for courses. For example, you will probably find the intense and intimate atmosphere of a workshop for a dozen serious delegates easier to manage than a 100 freebie-seekers.
5. Timing - Aim to make as small a dent in the delegates' day as possible. There are no fixed rules for when you should run your workshop but certain times of the day are better. Breakfast meetings, say 8am to 10am, ensure people come to you before they get distracted at the office.
6. Venue - Try to choose a neutral location like a hotel or business centre that is either close to public transport or out-of-town with plenty of parking and avoids rush-hour jams. Most venues can supply projection equipment and coffee.
7. Sending invitations - Plan on inviting around three times as many people as you have space for, as many people will fail to turn up for various reasons. Invite people to the session and always follow up your letter with a phone call.
8. Promotion - A genuinely informative workshop with a good title offers an ideal vehicle for PR. Use the media - local, national and trade press - to inform people about your workshops. In your press release, opt for a headline along the lines of 'A free workshop will reveal...' Remember to offer relevant journalists a free place.
 |
To receive regular tips, articles and how-to guides like these to help you run your business more effectively you can subscribe to BETTER business magazine.
To receive a free copy of BETTER business magazine simply send us your name and address to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com, putting 'EQ magazine offer' in the subject box. |
Each week we provide you with summaries of some popular or emerging business ideas in the UK and elsewhere around the world.
- City bike stations. Businesses like BikeStation offer cycling enthusiasts and cycling commuters safe and secure space to park their bikes for the day. Fees are charged on a monthly basis and customers have added benefits such as showers and lockers.
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 'nefarious'?
a) immoral or evil
b) natural or instinctive
c) self-righteous or prudish
d) spontaneous or free-spirited
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) The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has reported a jump in CPI inflation from 2.2% to 2.5% for February. Although there have been huge increases in the cost of living and gas prices, what does the ONS say is largely responsible for the increase?
a) the Budget
b) the way it records inflation information
c) the rise in oil and petrol prices
d) the turmoil in the financial markets
2) A Government White Paper has revealed that the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is to be abolished from 2010 in a bid to keep pace with the 'skills landscape'. But where will most of the funding for skills training be transferred to?
a) the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills
b) local authorities
c) charities and social enterprises
d) Chambers of Commerce and enterprise agencies
3) Research from IT support firm Connect has revealed that the average business takes 12 hours to do which specific task?
a) train a new employee
b) carry out a risk assessment
c) compile profit and loss figures for the month
d) get up and running again using back-up tapes
Answers at the end of the Bulletin.
Last chance to enter Small Business Champion Awards
The deadline for the Small Business Champion Awards is looming so entries need to be in quick. British Small Business Champions invites applications from thriving small businesses which customers hold in high esteem, and which have been trading for less than five years and employ less than 50 staff. The closing date is March 28, and full details of the awards are available from the Federation of Small Businesses website.
Tax deadlines for the new tax year
The new tax year starts in a couple of weeks and brings with it a fresh set of deadlines and dates to be aware of. To help keep you up to date with tax deadlines in the financial year 2008/09, here's a handy Key Dates and Deadlines calendar from accountants Tait Walker.
Free business forms and legal documents
Contract Store has a range of free business forms and legal documents that you can download. The notes are on a range of legal subjects and are particularly useful for construction businesses. You need to sign up before you can access the documents.
Common commencement changes in April
The Forum of Private Business has put together a round-up of the latest common commencement changes due to come into force on 6 April. There's a round-up of tax, employment law and health and safety law changes in one handy summary.
Win great new office products worth £500
EnterQuest has teamed up with Viking Direct to give readers the chance to win £500 worth of stylish new office products.
Viking Direct has an inventory of over 12,000 products and brand new for 2008 include the Leitz Vivanto filing range, the Niceday executive and ergonomic leather chairs, and the Brother MFC5860CN multi-function print, copy, fax and scan machine. And ideal for work or play are the new 7-inch digital photo frame and the iLamp - a stylish desk lamp incorporating an iPod dock and speakers.
Viking are offering two lucky readers the chance to win all these new products, together worth £500. To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the following question:
Q. What is the brand name of the executive chairs in the new Viking range?
E-mail your answer, together with your name, address and daytime telephone number, using "Viking Direct Competition" as the e-mail subject line, to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com.
All entries must be received by March 28. EnterQuest and Viking Direct will use the information you provide for their own marketing purposes only and your details will never be shared with any third parties (except to arrange delivery of the prize). Competition rules are available on request.
This book will help businesses get up to speed with new ways of communicating with their customers. Internet-based communication has massive potential for small business owners if they harness it and use it wisely, and this book tells you how to get the attention of customers without spending a fortune. Check out:
Just one word answer
The answer is a).
Nefarious means immoral or evil.
The business director was involved in some nefarious activities. |
How's your business radar? The answers
1) The answer is b) - The ONS says that because it has begun to record price changes in gas and electricity from the day they change, rather than phase changes in over a four-month period, this has had an effect on the inflation figures for February.
2) The answer is b) - Local authorities will be the main beneficiaries of the dissolution of the LSC. They will get up to £7 billion of funding to plough into skills training, but this is predominantly for 16-19-year-olds, in line with the Government's skills agenda for young people.
3) The answer is d) - Connect says that it takes around 12 hours for businesses to get up and running on their back-up tapes. |
Visit www.enterprisequest.com to access all back issues of the EnterQuest bulletin. If you have any feedback or suggestions for us to make this service more relevant please e-mail your comments to enterquest@cobwebinfo.com.
If you wish to discontinue your subscription to EnterQuest please click on the 'SafeUnsubscribe' link at the bottom of the bulletin.
Remember that we guarantee never to sell or give your e-mail address to anyone else.
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. |
