Responding to Customer Comments

We all hate rude comments, but we have to face them. When a customer leaves a rude comment on your Facebook, Twitter, Blog or other social media channels our first instinct is to delete it or not respond to it. Not responding to customers comments takes the personality out of your brand.

If someone leaves a nasty comment, getting to the bottom of is the comment is what is important. If the customer chooses to continue to leave one nasty comment after another. Respond one time in a respectful manner. After that let it go.

If your company does something wrong own it in a public way but be careful what you are  apologizing for. Be specific when apologizing. If not, it can be used against you.

So lesson of the day:
  1.  Respond to negative comments
  2.  Don't delete negative comments right a   way but remove it after a period of time.
  3.  Be professional.
  4.  Be specific.

Five Types of Bloggers. Which one are you?

I found this picture on Google +. I thought it was cute. Which one describes you?

Lower your Bounce Rate

 

 

What is a bounce rate?  According to Wikipedia a bounce rate is when a website or blog site visitor only views a single page on a website, then visitor(s) leaves without viewing any other pages. Which totally defeats the purpose of website. The goal is to have visitors view you're website/blog on a daily basis. So the question is;  "How do you do that?" What I found after I did some research was some fairly simple answers.

 

Focus on a simple and consistent website or blog.

 

Only publish excerpts of your blog on your home page of your website. Make  the first couple of paragraphs of your posts interesting and engaging. The goal is to get your visitors to click through more of your content.

 

Also blog posts categorizing is helpful.  Have a list that categorizing keywords to make it easy for visitors to find related posts.

 

 

Is your Idea Original or Not?

Today I was reading an article online about stealing ideas and originality. The author bought up a really good about originality. Do originality really exist? Is there a such thing of new ideas?  All ideas come from somewhere. Right?

It's important to do some research before presenting your ideas to the world. Ask your

self: "Has this idea been done before?" Is there a patent out there? What makes my idea so different from others?  All I can say is RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. You cannot do enough research. The more you research the less of a chance you will get sued.

We all know an idea come from somewhere. But make sure your ideas are original, unique and different. 

The Right Ingredients

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you're week started off good. Today, I was talking to one of my clients about a business plan. He's has an established business, but the demand for his products are going down due poor marketing. This guy makes a great deal of profits off of his products and services; never had to do much marketing. At least that's what he thought. He came to me today inquiring about a marketing plan. I gave him the The Right Ingredients to a Marketing Plan. Never heard of it...

The Right Ingredients to a Marketing Plan:

Be Prepared to Write. Before you start writing, collect all your information. When you gather your information before hand you avoid interruptions. Make sure you have information such as; Financials, Market Research,Competitors Analysis, Detail description of your product or services.

Know you Market Situation. Know your standing in the marketplace. Provide a clear and concise description of your company. Match up your products and services against your competitors products and services. How well do you stack up? Inlcude: What your products and services are. What geographical area you sell to. Describe your audience (provide demographics. Who are you competitors?

SWOT Ananlysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats & Opportunities). This section focus on the good and bad implications of the entire marketing plan.

Executive Summary. The executive plan summarizes e final part of the plan. The most important part of the plan.

Marketing Plan Outline

HAPPY SUNDAY!!  It's the beginning of a new and productive week.

I often get ask about marketing plans.  What is a marketing plan?  How do I write one?  A marketing plan is somewhat like a business plan, with a few differences.  Like a business plan; marketeing plans has an executive summary, company summary, implementation summary and financials. Depending on the nature of your plan you add detail or take it away to suit your needs.

You’ll want to customize your plan based what type products or services you are selling. Although the outline does change in some respects as a result, this is a good standard sample outline for a basic marketing plan.

Marketing plan outline

1.0 Executive Summary

2.0 Situation Analysis

2.1 Market Summary

2.1.1 Market Demographics
2.1.2 Market Needs
2.1.3 Market Trends
2.1.4 Market Growth

2.2 SWOT Analysis

2.2.1 Strengths
2.2.2 Weaknesses
2.2.3 Opportunities
2.2.4 Threats

2.3 Competition
2.4 Services
2.5 Keys to Success
2.6 Critical Issues
2.7 Channels
2.8 Macroenvironment

3.0 Marketing Strategies

3.1 Mission
3.2 Marketing Objectives
3.3 Financial Objectives
3.4 Target Marketing
3.5 Positioning
3.6 Strategy Pyramids
3.7 Marketing Mix

3.7.1 Services and Service Marketing
3.7.2 Pricing
3.7.3 Promotion
3.7.4 Service
3.7.5 Channels of Distribution

3.8 Marketing Research

4.0 Financials, Budgets, and Forecasts

4.1 Break-even Analysis
4.2 Sales Forecast

4.2.1 Sales Breakdown 1
4.2.2 Sales Breakdown 2
4.2.3 Sales Breakdown 3

4.3 Expense Forecast

4.3.1 Expense Breakdown 1
4.3.3 Expense Breakdown 2
4.3.3 Expense Breakdown 3

4.4 Linking Sales and Expenses to Strategy
4.5 Contribution Margin

5.0 Controls

5.1 Implementation Milestones
5.2 Marketing Organization
5.3 Contingency Planning

Go Ladies!!

Today I was reading an article on Women entreprenuers. I must say I am very surprised of the number of women owned businesses. All I can say is GO LADIES!!! Oh and i must add: Women owned businesses employs 40% more people than McDonalds, IBM and Walmart.