Month: May 2012

Categories
Operations

10 Ways Envelopes Boost Direct Mail Sales

Article Presented by Ace-Envelopes

Direct mail can be used for everything from selling, raising funds, to generating more foot and web traffic to your store, restaurant, trade show or office. Besides just routing through the post, direct mail envelopes can be used for a variety of purposes. Below are some reasons to consider using printed envelopes for direct mail.

1. Establish company identity: Just as any other entity announces itself on printed material, so should businesses when it comes to their direct mail. Custom envelopes serve to let a potential customer know who you are, while also helping to cement your identity.

2. Professional impression: Before a piece of direct mail is opened, the envelope is the most important aspect of your communication. It is more professional at all times to use an envelope that represents your business.

3. Build Familiarity: A custom envelope, over time, allows customers to get to know who you are. On that basis alone, many will open your mail. This can only be accomplished with a custom direct mail envelope.

4. Special deal announcements: Everyone loves a sale or a special deal. Use the outside of the envelope to entice potential customers. Direct mail writers have always understood that the writing on the outside of an envelope can increase response.

5. Use colour to entice customers: A custom designed printed envelope can make a statement worth looking into. That’s the goal: to get the recipient to look inside of the envelope.

Vibrant colours go a long way toward achieving that goal. Use vibrant colours if you can, to make your mail stand out. You may find that various colours evoke certain responses, so don’t be afraid to change the colours frequently. One idea is to colour code according to holidays and societal events.

6. Change up the sizes: By changing the average size of the envelope somewhat, to set your direct mail apart from others. Try using both smaller and larger envelopes and note the responses you receive.

7. Graphics, illustration and design: Only a custom envelope can include the kinds of illustration, graphics and photography that include action and movement. Today’s audience expects to see graphics. The visual aspects of advertising are very powerful. Use them to convey your message and to effectively promote your products and services.

8. Personalize the message: Only a custom envelope may be used to personalize the company message. Use your company message on the outside of the envelope to draw attention. The more that people see your message, the sooner they will remember your company. The more familiar people become with your mailings, the better the chance that they will respond.

9. Try different ways of printing on the envelope: Use a flap side envelope. Use plastic or try a continuous form. Anything that is different will set your direct mail out from the pack, which means it could entice more interest. Try more bold colours; change the size, typeface and other adjustments.

10. Use the front and back of printed envelopes: Make every piece of “real estate” count. Figure out creative ways to say some of the same things or expound upon what was said on the back. This can be a very attention getting tactic and an opportunity to get the most out of your direct mail efforts, with custom envelopes.

Article Presented by Ace-Envelopes

Ace-Envelopes is one of UK’s leading suppliers of over 700 types of plain envelopes, bespoke custom made envelopes, business envelopes and printed envelopes fornext day delivery service to meet your business needs. For more information about envelopes from Ace-Envelopes please visit – http://www.ace-envelopes.co.uk/

Categories
Customer Service

5 Questions Customers Just Love To Hear From You

Article Contributed by Laura Moisei

We all like to be prompted with the right questions. Showed that our opinion matters. Involved in other people’s lives.

Questions are effective means to find valuable insights and to engage people by your side. As Dorothy Leeds points out, knowing how to ask helps you mend things even before they are broken. The right question at the right time may boost your carrier as an entrepreneur and transform your business for the very best.

In your early years of childhood, this is what you did: ask questions all the time and evolve by doing this. It’s exactly the same for a first time entrepreneur. You are in a special stage of your business life, when you should try to deeply understand your existing customers and start a long term commitment to show courtesy towards everyone.

So what questions do people like to hear?

“How satisfied are you with our service?”

There are countless variations for this one, as well as an infinite number of possible answers. A well-known retailer in my area has its checkout employees ask every customer “Was everything ok in the store?” when handing them the receipt. They seize an opportunity of obtaining feedback that would otherwise slip away as each customer passes by.

Think of the all times customer question: “What am I getting from this?” A wise business representative would reframe it into something like: “Look, this is what’s in there for you. Did you actually get what you wanted?” This means you are presenting your offer and the Unique Selling Proposition in a comprehensive manner while asking the customer for feedback.

“What can I do to make you happy?”

Of course, a more common alternative is the typical support question “How may I help you?”. This is more than just etiquette. It should reflect openness and real concern to fulfilling people’s needs. It’s very important to use “what” or “how” instead of “Is there anything I can do for you?”. The last one is already a closed question, with yes/no type of answer and you risk to get a direct “no” with no further nuances. Generally speaking, it’s best to ask precise questions that prompt for direct answers, but not closed ones.

“What can we bring around that wasn’t possible before?”

This means asking for people’s suggestion on new areas of improvement for your business. Customers will really appreciate your proactive attitude and your willing to involve them in important changes.

You may argue that research and planning are already part of your core missions as a manager. Indeed it is your part, but haven’t you ever experienced a gap of inspiration? There are moments when you get such gaps out of too much involvement. This is when you can very much use some ideas from outside, so ask for them!

“Do my actions show respect for you and your time?”

With so many things to do in one day’s time, it’s actually a little miracle when someone stops to talk to you, so be thankful for that. Check whether you didn’t exceed the unspoken limits. Of course, this may depend on people’s momentarily mood, but it’s always good to ask.

This kind of question is particularly useful in customer surveys. Place it as a self-evaluating question at the end of the questionnaire. It can be something like “How much time did this take you to fill in?” and a likert scale asking “How comfortable this was to you?”. It tells people that you value their effort and consequently allows you to tweak your communication strategy.

What are the best questions I’m not even considering?

We are only humans and we sometimes skip the essence while trying to stick to a plan. As you exchange viewpoints with your customers, show openness towards unplanned topics too. People like to speak their minds without having the feeling they are undergoing a fixed interview. It’s always instructive to hear their own points of interest around your business.

Go ahead and use variations of these questions in your customer surveys to make them yield on useful data. Have those questions as part of your face to face interaction with customers. Post them on your Facebook wall as polls. Asking these proves you are a social wise entrepreneur with respect for your customer experience.

As for any business process, timing is crucial. Lose no time in asking the right questions. Typically, it’s good to ask for feedback in a reasonable time span from the relevant experience, when the impression is still strong, so that answers won’t be biased by the pressure of the moment but neither diluted by oblivion.

Ask the proper questions and people will love to interact with you. It even happens for the question itself to be the answer. You can win people over just by daring to ask. Go on!

About the Author

Laura Moisei writes for 123ContactForm online survey builder that helps small businesses get in touch with their customers. Laura is a dedicated blogger and small business consultant with a drive for technology.

Categories
Operations

5 Time Saving Systems Must Haves for the Small Business Owner

Contributed by Suzen Pettit

If you’re looking to grow you can’t do it all on your own. You just can’t. Your foundation must be laid so that you can be freed up to do your thing. You know, your thing? The thing that makes you money.

As much as we may look like Wonder Woman, or so as not to be sexist, Superman, and feel like them too, we cannot be a one person band and expect that the everything will just fall into place. It’ll fall alright, down, into bed, if you make it that far, from exhaustion.

A smart and successful small biz owner has back up, and I’d love to share my back up tricks honed from trial and error throughout the years that have saved me countless hours of unproductive work.

One of the best tips I’ve gotten to be constantly reminding ourselves of what is a time waster and what is a productive money making action for our day is from the wonderful business coach Jane Pollak, that goes like this: when creating your day to day tasks, use a green marker and mark which daily tasks are your business growth, money making tasks, and which are not. I usually make my list and then mark the moneymaking tasks with a green dot. If nothing else this will be a wake up call. Are you wasting way too much time on your proposals? There’s a system for that! Are you crunching all your numbers yourself for an hour a day? No need for that! Invoicing taking too long? There are a number of great programs for that.

Here’s my top 5 time saving and either free or really inexpensive systems, as I am a tightwad when it comes to these things… all designed to free you up so you can spend your day tackling the big stuff:

1) A really intuitive invoicing system: I use Freshbooks. Not only does it invoice really easily, but it sends them either by snail mail or email, does all kinds of cool numbers crunching, runs reports, allows you to send estimates that can convert to an invoice, and so much more. Bookkeeping — which I personally can’t stand to do so this forces me to do it in a fun and quick way — made easy, and quick.  A nominal cost well worth the expense. Allows for customization as well

2) A proposal/Contract system — which used to take me half a day to do — try Quotegine. It allows you to create, save, customize and re-use templates in a library, sends it out with a click of a button and allows for an e-signature on your clients end so that they don’t even have to print out, excepting for themselves or mail, attach, or fax back. Just pressing a button lands it back in your hands within a fraction of the time it would take otherwise, allowing you to get going on your next project. Free up until a certain amount of clients, and again, allows you to white label it.

3) A CRM system, otherwise known as a Contact Relationship Management System. Other wise known as a database. If you’re not already on Outlook, look no further than cloud based Highrise, run by the same cool, uber smart folks who created Freshbooks. If you are using your email contacts list as your database I might have to come over there and smack you. Highrise has all the bells and whistles you could ask for to allow you to keep on top of all of your prospects, clients and important business affiliates and contacts in an organized manner, create and schedule tasks and have them appear in your inbox when they come due, as a reminder to ‘get on that!’ It can also be synced with Freshbooks so that your whole client profile, jobs as well as the payments and invoicing are under one heading.

4) Housecleaning! I know that this involves money, but again, if you are trying to be all things to all people including a family of 4 back home, something is going to cave if you’re working hard all day and then expected to come home and clean the house as well. Even if you bring someone in just once per month to do the heavy cleaning, or pay your kids to do it. A scary thought I know. The money you spend here will make itself up to you in ROI if you’re taking the time where you would have been under the bed cleaning dust bunnies to instead contact 3 more warm leads to invite them to lunch. Time much better spent. I’d give you the name of mine as a referral but am afraid she’d be spread too thin and not have time for me. Selfish, I know, but some things are more precious than others. I do know that the team at The Maids are great though. Ask for Melissa.

5) Social Media tools. I have a confession. Social media is not my biggest strength. Other than LinkedIn, I do it because I have to, not because I want to, and I make no bones about it to my clients, as they need to do it as well. What has made it tolerable for me has been a little tool called Onlywire, which allows me to share what you’re reading right here with a load of social media and bookmarking sites instead of spending oodles of time uploading things separately when I could be interacting with folks online and off. Great for the SEO.

Hope these help you be more efficient and use your time more effectively. Now run to that networking meeting!

About the Author:

Suzen Pettit blogs at http://omaginarium.com/blog/, a site that guides small businesses through the maze of technology to help them grow their online presence with successful SEO.

Categories
Planning & Management

Planning The Perfect Small Business Fund Raising Event

Contributed by SBA

Each year you will discover hundreds of fund raising events happening everywhere. They vary from very large fund raising events for major companies to fund raising events for small groups or businesses. If someone is planning the perfect small business fund raising event, he or she will be trying to figure out what to do to make it successful. Some tips or steps can help an individual prepare and plan for the perfect event, while avoiding any potential problems.

Tips to Plan the Perfect Small Business Fund Raising Event

  • Before starting to plan the event, an individual will need to check with the local ordinances of the area to make sure what licenses or permits may be needed. Some laws may restrict certain events for that area, and it is better to know before the event is planned what is permitted for the area and what is not.
  • To have a successful fund raising event, the entire community and businesses will need to get involved. By involving the local business owners, an individual can sometimes obtain discounts on advertising for the event.

Businesses in other towns may also benefit from helping with a fund raising event, and they may be willing to help support the event through advertising at their establishment or by offering monetary support. A fund raising event will be more successful if it has better exposure, and this can be accomplished by going into other nearby towns for support. The event needs great exposure from the local areas as well as other areas.

A small business takes funding to be successful and at SBA.com, an individual can find the funding necessary to get started. Then, they can plan additional fund raising events to keep the business going for years. The fund raising event can be rewarding for the organization as well as for the ones involved in the process.

Sometimes planning an event can seem like an overwhelming task, but if someone wants it to happen, it can. A fund raising event is beneficial for everyone involved since individuals get involved in helping others. There are many fund raising ideas available and with the right steps, the event is simple to prepare and plan.

Steps to Prepare or Plan for A Fund Raising Event

  1. Choose the reason for the event. A fund raising event needs to have a purpose to obtain interest and involvement from other people. An event without a purpose will not gain as much attention.
  2. Set a time for the event, and then aim to stay on track to meet that time schedule.
  3. A location for the event will need to be chosen. The venue will need to be chosen according to the number of people expected to participate and the types of activities planned. Any other important factors that might relate to the event will also need to be taken into consideration when choosing the location.
  4. Choose a team to help organize the fund raising event. One person cannot do everything that is involved in planning and creating the perfect small business fund raising event. A few extra volunteers will always be welcomed.
  5. Promoting and advertising the event is the key to success of any venture. If other people do not know about an event, they cannot support it or attend the event. An individual can make flyers to distribute to the community, make announcements at gatherings, announce the event on radio and television stations if possible, advertise in newspapers and visit local businesses to inform them of the upcoming event. The more people informed means the greater success for the event and a bigger profit.
  6. Prepare for the day by gathering volunteers and making sure that each one knows what needs to be done. If the event day arrives and there is not enough help, the event will not be perfect. Assign duties to volunteers in advance to avoid any confusion later at the event.

Planning, preparing and promoting is the three keys to the perfect small business fund raising event. The event will be easy to do when these tips and steps are followed. Careful planning followed by preparation with a great team of individuals will lead to a perfect event.

For more resources on funding a small business start-up, visit http://www.sba.com/funding-a-business.

Categories
Planning & Management

Ten Tips for Working Smarter, Not Harder

Work Hacks
From: BestMastersDegrees.com

Some simple mental tricks can improve your efficiency and the quality of your work while reducing job stress – without keeping you in the office all night.

At Best Masters Degrees we decided to bring together some the best job hacks all in one place for easy reference. Here are the 10 best that we came up with:

Tip 1: Keep a progress bar for a key project and fill in the sections as you complete a task. This will give you a sense of accomplishment and progress and help you visualize the project broken down into more manageable tasks.

Tip 2: If you don’t need to respond to an email or speak up in a meeting this very second, wait five minutes. This period can help you form a response, and the added time may make you rethink your position entirely.

Tip 3: Prime the pump. Keep your mind sharp by reading things that challenge your assumptions or beliefs. Read something new and challenging every day.

Tip 4: If you’ve got a particularly challenging issue or project you always seem to put off, devote 30 to 60 minutes a day to that problem and that problem only. If you find yourself with an excuse not to do it, simply repeat, “Do it now.”

Tip 5: Work in 20-minute chunks, followed by a few minutes of physical activity such as walking to the water cooler or going to the restroom and taking a longer route back to your desk. Even throw in a few pushups or jumping jacks if your are brave. Studies have shown that humans work best in 10-20 minute concentrated chunks and the physical activity will keep you from hitting that brick wall.

Tip 6: Got a job with a million little tasks? Break them into chunks; set a timer and get as many of the tasks done as you can within that time.

Tip 7: Sometimes you just need to punt and try it again tomorrow. Don’t feel hopeless and beat yourself up if you feel like you’re dragging your feet in mud. Remember that with a good night’s sleep you’ll have renewed energy the next day.

Tip 8: Keep a file of positive feedback and revisit it when you are feeling particularly stumped or less than appreciated.

Tip 9: Don’t let roadblocks put you in a funk. Pick some smaller tasks you know you can truly complete. Use that momentum to create a snowball effect.

Tip 10: Don’t allow your instant communication methods dictate what you get done in a day. Set certain periods of time throughout the day (say, three 30-minute periods) to tackle your email, cell phone and instant messaging). Turn them off the rest of the day so that you can focus and work more efficiently.