Out-Smarts Marketing Services

Still not convinced that e-commerce is the way to go? Then consider these:
1. It allows you to instantaneously access a much wider customer base and geographical reach.
2. It makes it easier for your customers to do business with you at their convenience.
3. Makes it easier to partner with affiliate companies who in turn sell your products to their customer base.
4. It means you can be open for business 24×7.
5. Adding an e-commerce site will help build awareness of your offering.
6. It increases traffic to your site.
7. Its ideal for providing product specifications, photos and other details that make the decision making process easier for buyers.
8. Lower cost of sales, distribution and process.
9. Builds customer loyalty.
10. Allows your company to hone in on a highly targeted market niche.

Business cards need to stand out in order to get noticed and creativity is key to achieving this. Odee highlights some great examples of unique cards that make a statement and stand out or even “grow” your business.

Whilst your at it you might as well check out their hilarious typos too.

Its tax time again and with the deadline looming the online tax tools like QuickTax are getting slower and slower as more people log on to get the inevitable done and filed. What better a time to consider some Canadian on-line tax tips:

• All income should be recorded and reported even Second Life income - if you sell property or make money on any of the virtual worlds remember to record it
• To speed up processing, use Netfile and or Corporations Canada online to file your taxes online.
• All expenses incurred to promote and grow your company on-line should be included in your returns.
• If your business is solely an online entity, be aware that tax rates are the same in the virtual world as they are in real life. Remember to claim expenses for your home office if applicable.

For more information on the tax considerations for e-commerce and the Internet go to CRA and Canada Business and if in doubt contact an accountant.

The sun is shining, the daffodils are blooming and Spring is in full swing.  If these weren’t enough reasons to be cheerful then here are some more on the Internet front.

The main reason to be cheerful this month is the release of the latest WordPress blog software - version 2.5.  I only started using it today but so far so great - my spacing problems have been resolved as have my cut and paste issues.I am looking forward to finding out what other goodies version 2.5 brings.  

Another discovery this month was the ThoughtFarmer knowledge sharing solution.  Aimed at providing organisations with an Intranet portal that enhances knowledge sharing and collaboration, ThoughtFarmer combines the best of wiki technology with social networking to allow organizations to deploy a unique and highly usable portal.

Suitable online invoicing systems are few and far between.  Some are good at handling expenses, others good at tracking time but I haven’t found one that does both well, one that is easy to use, customizable and can link to Paypal. Canadian online invoicing provider Freshbooks may just be the solution.

Looking for any easy way to involve your visitors on line?  PollDaddy is a great code generating tool that allows you to create a poll on your site (you define the question you want to ask and the answer criteria). Simply cut and paste the code to your web site and start polling your audience.

Another easy way to enhance your site and make the user experience more enjoyable is to add forms. Wufoo simplifies this by giving you a catalogue of templates to choose from (everything from customer surveys to registration forms).      

The blogosphere is a great way to get your message across and reach wider audiences but if you are thinking about harnessing it for PR purposes, be aware.  As with all things web 2.0 blogging for PR can be done and done well but you have to approach it in a new way.   When approaching a blogger:

1. Don’t try to sell to them or buy their good words - it won’t go over well;
2. Establish rapport up front if you can, network with them in other forums and develop a relationship that shows your sincerity;
3. Relate your offering to a blog post they may have made on an applicable subject;
4. Contact a select few bloggers via a personalized email that include links to pertinent pages or info;
5. If applicable, offer a reciprocal link;
6. Don’t use a traditional press release format - it will be perceived as too “suity”.

An article on Collective Thoughts about raising your Twitter profile got me thinking about the social media wave that is upon us. The article discusses why Twitter is a viable marketing tool and how the writer went about increasing his Twitter profile in 30 days. It has many valid points and yes Twitter can be a great marketing tool but so can blogging, social networking, wiki’ing and forums - to mention but a few. If you spend time marketing in each and everyone of these as the buzz out there would suggest, you would have very little time to spend on actual revenue generation or traditional marketing efforts (woe betide you would do those).

Its important (as with any marketing project) to do some research and planning up front when considering these new collaborative web 2.0 technologies. Don’t just rush out and start Twittering your head off just because its the latest in thing. Take time to consider your client and determine whether they are Twittering. If they are then its great to use Twitter as a marketing tool but schedule the time you spend Tweeting and set goals so that you can monitor the effectiveness of your efforts. Same goes for the other Internet networking hubs, always ask yourself first and foremost if your customer is active in these and how they are using these technologies. Plan your marketing campaign up front: time spent, strategy, goals and measures. Otherwise you might find that you get to the end of the day and Twitter has sucked up all your time and nothing else on your list has been done. Take it from me I am talking from experience!.

The reasons to be cheerful have been bountiful this month as we traveled the virtual world. Links include everything from on line CRM to complete and utter whimsy and we have more reasons than usual for February:

Myplick - never battle with uploading a Powerpoint again.

Buzzshout - want to find out about the latest web technologies? Buzzshout is the place to go.

Highrise - simple on-line CRM to allow you to easily manage your contacts. Great if you’re just starting out but not so easy if your contacts aren’t in Outlook and your forced to manually upload.

Got vmail - this service helps you manage your calls, provides toll free numbers and an answering service.

NCIX - this one is bricks and mortar and online and its great to have an alternative to the cowboys at FutureShop and Best Buy.

meez - while away your Friday afternoon creating an avator for your social networking profiles. Mine is “so meez”.

Strutta - Vancouver is a buzz with the yet to be launched Strutta. Is it a bird, is it a plane? Who knows (our launch invite got lost in the mail) but rumor has it its something to do with online video and gaming.

The last few years has brought great changes to the way we approach business and marketing is no exception: there’s a new way to approach understanding and reaching out to customers over the Internet. The problem with marketing right now is that there is a divide between two camps: the traditional marketers and the new marketers. I see this all the time with both marketing organizations and companies alike. They are either all for tried and tested marketing techniques or all for Internet approaches with very little in between. This is forging a divide in the marketing community. I notice that the new marketers are very derisive of the old way and traditional marketers frequently ignore (or perhaps are oblivious or afraid of new ways to market).

I find all this very amusing. Here at Out-Smarts we recognize that, to be effective in reaching your audience you should use all appropriate tools available. Old and new marketing approaches are simply tools that can be used to market effectively and they should always be used in conjunction with each other if you want to have maximum impact.

Using the Internet to market is a logical way to reach more people, after all over 70% of North Americans use it, but in order to do so you must understand the vital principles of traditional marketing (4Ps or 6Cs of the marketing mix). Understand who your audience is (age, location, gender and so on), what need or pain your offering fulfills and what its worth to them. Know where your audience hangs out on the Internet and what technologies they use, understand how they want to be communicated to and which messages/mediums will be effective (and which will totally put them off - most important in the new way).

To be effective in marketing these days its no use simply adopting traditional techniques, (perhaps because you don’t understand new technologies or you mistakenly think your audience isn’t online - I’ve heard that one more than once!) if you do you are ignoring a massive chunk of your potential market. If you don’t understand these new technologies and approaches then find someone who does and add them to your team. Nor is it good enough to simply market in the virtual world and ignore older methods. What works best is a mix of the two. How you mix them will depend (off course) on your customer. Understanding your customer should always come first in any marketing endeavor but you have to embrace all methodologies and do it now before the competition gains traction and beats you to it.

I remember trying to sell an e-commerce platform to Cotton Ginny back in 1995.  At that time the main issue we had to convince them of was that people would actually be willing to buy on-line despite the perceived “security” risks.   Thankfully, ecommerce has come a long way since then.   I am always fascinated to hear news from this sector and am a regular attendee at Elasticpath’s webinars.  I was excited when I was invited to live blog today’s webinar - Love Your Landing Page: Tips to Increase Ecommerce Conversion featuring Ayat Shukairt, Managing Partner, INVESP Consulting.  In listening to the discussion, its apparent that many of the factors I preach to clients when considering their web presence are also very valid for retailers using online stores such and that some issues haven’t changed in the last decade or so.  When creating your retail landing page be aware of the following points highlighted during the webinar:

• understand your audience very well and their personnas and hone in on them (cater for emotional buyers as well as logical);
• keep it visually simple with impact (by making good use of white space);
• as soon as someone comes to the page it should be obvious to them what you are selling so use that top left section of the page for impact;
• make it easy for prospects to navigate the store; 
• create urgency - use incentives to encourage your audience to act and buy (percentage incentives often work better than dollar amounts);
• product images should be clear and impressive - showcase the product well;   
• focus on what the product is going to do for the prospective buyer and not just on its features;
• test, test, test - don’t be afraid to start small (say 500 products and see what works and what doesn’t);
• deal with  anticipated concerns - yes security is still an issue. Counter their doubts and make prospects feel secure by using messages regarding the security you have in place or anti hacking guarantees;

I see that 13 years on Cotton Ginny still doesn’t have an on-line retail store which is a pity but no surprise.  I find Canadian retail organisations woefully behind both the US and the UK in their ecommerce adoption.  This was mirrored in today’s presentation as most if not all of the examples provided were US based organisations.  At Christmas I had to resort to shopping at LL Bean for North American purchases and Mark and Spencer’s for UK gifts because I couldn’t find any Canadian retailers offering a suitable service. Sad but true.So come on Canada! - check out Elasticpath or similar ecommerce offerings and start taking advantage of the vast opportunity that on-line sales brings and save me some money in customs fees when you’re at it!

Here’s blog post 2 in the series following up on my Building Valuable Business Relationships in the Virtual World presentation.

The Internet is an ideal way to grow your business and expand your network but their are risks that you should be aware of. Here are 10 tips that will help you do it safely:

1. When networking on Facebook or other social forums always use the privacy controls to limit access to your information (usually you can find these by clicking on “account”).

2. Use Facebook, LinkedIn and other networks to make people aware of what you do or want to do.

3. Google yourself to see what’s being said about you and do the Granny test on the results - if Granny wouldn’t approve then perhaps the content isn’t appropriate to enhance your business profile.

4. Don’t put up any photos, videos or images that compromise your image.

5. Portray yourself professionally as appropriate to your industry in all forums.

6. Be true to who you are, transparency leads to trust. If you have a good reputation people are more likely to do business with you.

7. Remember that you have a valid and unique opinion. Don’t be afraid to voice it.

8. Always be respectful of others, its okay to disagree but be polite about it.

9. If you are young and looking for a job be aware that a party boy or girl image may seem cool to your peers but it won’t help you get a job or grow you professional network.

10. On-line networking is a vital tool for anyone trying to build a career but don’t get sidetracked or sucked in. Avoid this by scheduling time for on-line networking and sticking to it.

11. Don’t make friends with everyone and anyone. Be selective. It will help you manage the volume of information and will also expose you to less risk.