In my relentless search for I don't know what, I found an article in the December 1, 2008 edition of Nation's Restaurant News, the trade journal of the restaurant industry, headlined: "Operators Bank On Profit And Loss Scrutiny To Stay Afloat." It made me laugh out loud. The article states that "maximizing the profit and loss statement has become a mantra for restaurant operators during the current economic downturn."
This is then presented as some sort of horrific torture imposed on the owners by a vicious economy. What is not said, but should be, is that maximizing profit shouldn't be paid attention to only after dire economic conditions occur, to be given temporary priority, only until 'things get better.' It's supposed to be what anybody responsible for operating a business does everyday. Including what's then described in the article: ferreting out and cutting wasteful spending, controlling labor and administrative costs; creating products, offers and price propositions customers really want. Any business owner complaining about having to attend to these priorities because of a recession is a moron, and any trade-journal writer taking them seriously is dumber than a sandbox.
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Topics:
finance,
Business Growth,
Business Plan
Odds are, your business lost a lot of customers last year. There are holes in your bucket. And odds are, you can't say for sure how many you lost, who you lost, why you lost them or where they went and are now. If you do nothing different, I can send you this same fax next year too. A great way to make more money is to stop losing customers, beginning with the next one you are about to lose.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Marketing education,
business planning
It is not easy being a business owner - you have to oversee every part of the operations, manage your employees and clients, and make decisions that can have major consequences. It is understandable that you clearly don't have time to micromanage your marketing output. Even worse, it can be daunting being the only one in your business' marketing department. No second opinion. No team support. You need help! Here are some indicators that your business needs a marketing agency.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
time management,
Marketing education
When you’re a small business, it feels like there are endless articles and advice columns all about how to market your business but very few tell you what to actually focus on or even just how to start!
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Marketing education,
Web site,
pixel estate,
As a small business owner, you end up wearing many hats.
Writer is one of them.
Writing copy is a vital part of marketing
your business but it can be difficult to know where to start if you’ve never done it before.
Thankfully, writing copy is a creative endeavour so with some ke
y ideas and a bit of creativity,
you can start on your copywriting journey with ease.
To start, it is essential to think about the overall message you want to give your audience. T
here’s two parts to this.
One, you need to identify your audience. What
age demographic does
your business cater to? Where do they live? Do they have children? Do they have pets? What psychographic information do you have about them? What do they read? Where do they eat? What sports do they like? What are their goals and values.
Two, identify the key elements you want to include in
your writing that sets you apart from your comp
etition. These can be things like eco
-
friendly
products and services, a family
-
oriented business environment, pet
-
friendly locations. The
possibilities are endless!
The next step is to identify the pain points that customers might have. Pain points are
u
sually problems your audience experiences and can be things like the pandemic, seasonal
changes, annual events, or day
-
to
-
day life inconveniences. You can be as serious or as playful
as you like but the main focus should be on relatability and how you can
solve the problem your
audience experiences. If you own a coffee shop, you can talk about the Monday blues and how
coffee can get you through your day. If you own a building and maintenance company, you can
talk about the safety precautions you take to kee
p clients safe during the pandemic.
Once you are writing, remember to keep your message clear and your writing short. You
do not need to write entire essays to make your point. Clear, consistent messages to your
audience means that they will read and und
erstand your marketing. Only writing as much as you
need will feel more enjoyable to your readers too.
Good planning is also a part of the writing
process. If you’re using email and social media to market your company, make sure you plan out
your posts in
advance so you can keep your message consistent over multiple posts and you
don’t bombard your audience. If you have an event coming up or an important promotion, post
about it over the month not through multiple messages just before the event! Your aud
ience will
feel overwhelmed and then stop reading your copy, making all that hard work for nothing.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Marketing education
In this day and age, we’re all looking for credible information! So much of the information we consume every day comes from non-credible sources or is from a good source but goes uncredited. For many of your clients, they can easily become frustrated if they cannot verify where you got information from and if it is from a good source. Poor information management can really hurt your business. I worked with a client last year who put information on their website that they did not fact check or cite correctly. As a result, they had clients asking them about the strange information on their website, and ultimately, they lost customers.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
authority marketing,
Marketing education,
credibility
Six months into a post Covid world and there’s one thing that we know for sure….
EVERYTHING has changed!
Entrepreneurial businesses are closing in droves. Millions of people each month are filing for unemployment benefits. (More than anytime in the history of the program!)
People are working from home and not going out to shop or for entertainment.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Marketing education,
pixel estate,,
online presence
For thousands of years local businesses and professional practices have relied on their location to drive a substantial amount of their business.
The real estate determined the success or failure of the business.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Marketing education,
pixel estate,,
online presence
Let’s play a game.
I want to ask you to design the perfect race car for me. Something that is fast and can win a race.
You might say the first thing it needs is a powerful motor and a strong, resilient transmission and drivetrain.
Then you might say it needs to be aerodynamic, have a low center of gravity, and a stiff suspension so we can reduce wind drag and help corner the track at higher speed
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Marketing education
Today we have a guest post from top copywriter and marketing expert, Everte Farnell.
Everte writes for some of eLauncher’s best clients, and they keep asking him to write for them because his copy converts.
He is going to tell you a story about how he ALMOST became a legend, but missed the boat because he thought he knew better than the expert. Enjoy.
Parthiv
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Topics:
Business Growth,
elaunchers,
Marketing education
