Santa Claus and Your Small BusinessWritten by Will Dylan
How Santa Claus Can Help your Small BusinessSt. Nick Offers Annual Opportunity to Build Awareness Santa Claus is coming to town, and small business owners everywhere should make sure they are out to greet him when he arrives. No, I’m not suggesting you wait by chimney with a plate of milk and cookies. Long before arrival of December 25th ,Santa and his reindeer drive right down Main Street in your town or city. You should meet him -- and thousands of potential customers – at Santa Claus Parade. With TV or major newspaper advertising out of reach for most small businesses, a good alternative to help you build awareness for your business is to be active in your community. You probably already participate in local business organizations, charitable causes, or other community events that help to build awareness of your business and serve to improve your reputation. Ironically, most businesses owners seem to ignore one of most important community events of year, local Santa Claus parade. Aside from sponsoring a float or chipping in to help fund parade, there are plenty of low budget, high impact ways that you can connect with potential customers while Santa is guiding his sleigh through town. You could give away candy canes with your business name or card attached, provide free hot chocolate to kids and complementary coffee to their parents, or give away a small toy to children along parade route. The cost of this type of hands on marketing is minimal. All of items mentioned above are inexpensive when purchased in bulk from a local warehouse or distributor. What makes Santa Claus parade different than all of other events you attend every year in an effort to promote your business?
| | Follow Up On Your Visitors & Maximize Your SalesWritten by Armand Melanson
Follow Up On Your Visitors & Maximize Your Sales Copyright 2002 lessworkmoremoney.com By Armand Melanson You know annoying popup windows that show up when you arrive or leave many websites? They offer a free subscription to a newsletter or a free eBook in return for your name & email. Those popups are responsible for up to 75% of income generated by most web sellers. Let me explain how: Let's say you've got a site selling home security products. Even if you have targeted traffic & powerful marketing copy, you won't likely sell to more than 2 out of every 100 1st time visitors. That's a conversion rate of 2%. That means that 98% of your visitors did not buy - unless you do something about it, you will never hear from them again. Instead of letting them walk away forever, you offer them a subscription to a newsletter filled with helpful info on home security topics. You will likely capture name & email address of 10%-20% of 1st time visitors this way. These 10%-20% of 1st time visitors are most valuable source of income you will have because a good number of them will actually buy one or more of your products in future. Once you have them on your e-mailing list, you will send out helpful emails at regular intervals. These emails will build trust between you & prospects and give them a good feeling about who you are. They will personalize you & make buying easy because you have built credibility that often prevents 1st time visitors from buying. Of course, you need to provide legitimate value in your newsletter. But you're an expert in home security, so you can probably bang off several helpful articles in a few hours. Over course of next few weeks, your newsletters will include subtle reminders about great products you are selling & may even offer special discounts to subscribers only. It may take up to 7 contacts between you & your prospects before they buy. So let's do math. Assuming you get 4000 unique visitors/month, your product sells for $30 and you convert 2% of your traffic: NO NEWSLETTER 2% of 4000 visitors = 80 buyers 80 buyers x $30 = $2400 in sales ===>TOTAL SALES = $2400<=== WITH NEWSLETTER 2% of 4000 = 80 buyers 80 buyers x $30 = $2400 in sales AND 15% of 4000 = 600 email subscribers 15% buy within 1 month ( 600 x 15% = 90) So 90 buyers + 80 buyers is 170 buyers 170 buyers x $30 = $5100 in sales ===>TOTAL SALES = $5100<===
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