Monday, June 11, 2012

Fitness Marketing: A Surefire Way of Bringing In Prospect Clients

There are many marketing techniques that you can use to entice new customers and keep the old ones as well. Although, you need to understand that different businesses means using different marketing techniques. You also need to consider your marketing budget and see how long you can keep up with the monthly payments. You need to determine the right marketing technique and allocate your budget to avoid wasting money and getting into future financial crises. The marketing technique you choose could determine the success of your business. Be competent. Don't let yourself be left out in the dark by your fellow competitors. You need to study and determine the right marketing technique for your business. If you are a gym owner and you want to learn which fitness marketing technique best suits your business, then you first need to understand your client's wants and needs. Know your client and determine what they want. Different clients also have different wants and taste. The best way to know what your client's wants and needs are by asking them directly or have them fill-up information sheets. You can also put suggestion boxes somewhere in your gym for your customers.

Undoubtedly, customers are your business's lifeblood. Without them, your business will not flourish and is sure to fall into a dark, cold abyss in a month's time. This is exactly the reason why you need to know your clients if you want to gain their loyalty as well as attract potential prospects into joining your gym. Build a relationship with your client; a relationship that will not falter just because of some misunderstanding. Talk to your clients. Ask them about how their day was. Give five minutes of your time and see that they are well accommodated. Conduct a monthly competition and give away freebies as rewards to those who attended. Your freebies don't need to be expensive. You can give away t-shirts and jackets. You can have them printed with your gym logo. Put the logo at the back so that everyone will see. People might become interested in joining your gym when they see your business logo. Your customers might even refer more of their friends to join. Your customers are very important. Building a relationship with them can bring loads of benefits. These are only some of the fitness marketing techniques that you can choose to follow.

Gym marketing is one way of building a relationship with your old customers. You can conduct friendly competitions each month. Freebies such as t-shirts and jackets are great to be given as rewards. Friendly competitions can help gain your customers loyalty. The best part about this is that, they might even ask some of their friends to join. Be friendly and get loads of money. Find other marketing techniques that you can use and see the benefits it can bring.



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Why Are Your Customers Considering Leaving?

There are a number of variables that account for customer attrition. However, indifference towards the customer by an employee or employees finds itself as the leading catalyst for customers choosing to leave a company in favor of a competitor.

Author and lecturer, Tom Peters reinforces this point in his book, In Search of Excellence. Over the course of 20 years, Peters conducted an extensive study to determine the primary reasons consumers quit purchasing from one business and switched to a business offering similar products and/or services

The study showed that customers left for the following reasons

  • 3%-Move Away
  • 5%-Other Friendships
  • 9%-Competitive Reasons
  • 14%-Product Dissatisfaction
  • 68%-Indifference Towards Customer by an Employee or Employees

Companies can't control families relocating out of their service area, but they can address feelings of indifference and lack of appreciation among customers head-on with the implementation of an employee incentive program that works to reduce customer attrition rates and improve customer retention, while invigorating apathetic employees and maximizing performance.

A well developed employee incentive program that motivates, incentivizes and rewards employees for their commitment to customer service can significantly reduce attrition, increase sales and long-term profitability through customer retention.

A Serco Study conducted over the course of three years found that engaged employees improved customer satisfaction 12% which results in decreased levels of attrition.

Furthermore, a PNC Bank Corp. survey concluded that knowledgeable and attentive employees account for 80% of the reasons customers feel satisfied. We all know satisfied customers are loyal customers.

Additional evidence suggests that engaged employees are crucial to the bottom-line. A Towers Watson study determined that companies with a highly engaged workforce improved operating income 19.2% over the course of 12 months, while low levels of engagement among employees reduce operating income 32.7% over the same period.

Focus on your Employees to Reduce Attrition

Many marketers fight attrition by focusing on customer retention. Specifically, they direct their marketing resources directly at the customer. There is little doubt that this approach is necessary and essential to long-term profitability. However, far too few companies consider implementing an employee incentive program in conjunction with customer retention efforts.

It's no secret that committed and engaged employees improve customer satisfaction and reduce churn, but their impact on revenue is significant. IES found that a 1% increase in employee commitment leads to a 9% increase in sales in as little as one month.

Marketers can greatly enhance their customer retention efforts if they harness the power of their employees through an effective and well executed employee incentive promotion.

The Award Zone is comprehensive employee incentive program designed to motivate, incentivize and reward employees for their commitment to customer satisfaction.

The Award Zone harnesses the power of technology to provide a turn-key employee incentive program for marketers that requires little to no effort on their end, allowing them to focus on core-competencies.

Employees earn tangible rewards for their commitment to customer satisfaction and marketers reap the benefits of reduced attrition and increased revenue.

Additional information regarding The Award Zone can be obtained by contacting the author.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Why Using Promotional Pens Can Be Good For You and Your Business

The advertising world has understood the power of promotional items for a very long time. All of the big companies have entire departments dedicated solely to creating the desired image for the company and for its goods and services. Not everyone has access to those kinds of resources but that does not mean that they cannot benefit from promotional items, as well. With just a little bit of patience and research anyone can learn hot promotions can be use as very effective marketing products and how they can use this to their advantage.

There is an incredible amount of items which can be used for promotional purposes. In theory, you can take any item in the world, slap your company's name or logo on it and give it away and it will serve as a promotional item, but obviously that not all items work as well. In fact, there are very few that are more effective than promotional pens. They work great at generating more brand exposure for yourself and making your business better known.

One thing that makes promotional pens a lot more effective as brand enhancers than, for example, fliers or pamphlets are the gift mentality. Most people when they get handed a flier on the street will throw it away in the nearest bin without even looking at it. These usually contain too much information for someone who is walking down the street to focus on. Even if they are interested in what your company might have to offer, they quickly skim through the title and the first few sentences before they lose interest. A pen has a much smaller surface to work with so it forces you to shorten your message. This actually works in your favor as there is a bigger chance that your entire message is actually read and understood by people. Then comes the perception of the pen as a gift. Nobody would gift a pamphlet to someone else so people are likely to get rid of it. However, a pen is viewed as a present by many so they will find it harder to throw away.

Another great reason why pens make efficient marketing products is that they are useful. Everybody needs an extra pen, regardless of how many they have. They never know when they might need it. This increases the likelihood that the promotional item will be used a lot by the people that receive them and your company's message will be right there, in front of them. Try to think back to a time when you were writing in a completely disinterested way and you were bored. Your attention started shifting to everything else except work and, more often than not, what was the first item you looked at? Your pen. People scan, observe and read every little detail on their pens when they have nothing better to do.

Lastly comes another great reason why promotional pens are such a good idea from a business perspective: they are inexpensive. They are inexpensive to make, inexpensive to buy and inexpensive to distribute. You can get these in massive, bulk orders where you only have to pay cents for each pen made. Considering how long they will last with the people that receive them and the high likelihood of them seeing your logo and reading about your business, it is one of the best investments you can make for your company.



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Friday, June 8, 2012

The Advantage of Promotional Products: Pens and Similar Items

With so many alternatives to advertisement and promotions, finding a promotional products supplier has become secondary to finding firms to improve company websites and internet identities. Is the effectiveness of promotional products outdated? Are there still advantages to setting aside a budget to give out these things to clients and prospective customers?

The advantage of promo items like pens is simple-people like getting free things. It does not matter whether you spend for a fancy freebie or just give out generic and token items just to implant your name into clients, people will most likely be grateful for whatever you give them. This instantly gives you a good reputation before clients even do business with you.

Promo products like pens are long term marketing strategies. They can still get you new clients years after you give them out. This is the reason big corporations, like pharmaceutical companies, do not let go of their promotional products despite being popular brand names. It is a cost effective method compared to other outbound marketing strategies.

As there are still advantages to finding a promo products supplier and giving your clients free things to remember you by, the question now becomes about which product to attach your name. When selecting products, look for usability. Things like notepads and pens are always relevant no matter who you give them to.

If it is possible, avoid products that cannot be lent or are easily disposed of. People discarding your pens or lending them to someone else is still beneficial. Someone can easily pick it up and use it, exposing your company to a different circle. T-shirts might be fun to give your employees but not your big named clients as the chances of them wearing your company shirt are slim.

Whatever product you choose to advertise on, try to make it as relevant as possible. It makes for easier association if you are a law firm and you give away pens and papers instead of giving away totes. This also shows creativity. If this is not possible for you, you can use your imagination and find an innovative items supplier to give away unique items instead.

Make the promotional product as relevant to your target audience. If you have a company that will benefit from many young clients, make your product appealing and useful to the youth. Try the weather and time of year if you are planning to give away fans or umbrellas. If you give weather sensitive products off-season, you run the risk of clients keeping them in storage, leaving you without exposure at all.

More companies may be forgoing promo items like pens to improve their internet relevance but providing customers freebies are tried and tested ways to keep in their good graces. As important as it is to invest in good advertising, keep providing these items if you can afford it. The indirect promotions you get from these products are invaluable in the end.



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A Marketing Strategy to Beat Your Competition and Double Your Profit, Fast

You have built your business and it has been going along nicely, you have a great team of people in your company and you now have found that you need to ramp things up. Recently you have noticed your competitor is doing well and taking a larger and larger share of your business market so you need to rethink your strategies on how to combat this now. You do know that you need to face this head on now or there may not be a business in a couple of years.

How much should you spend to get the best return on your money with marketing?

This is often the stumbling block for companies as the need to build the business is high and the belief that this is going to cost a lot of money can be the catch twenty two. The economic situation worldwide has been a determining factor in business and I will show you what should you do to grow your business without having to borrow more at this time.

Successful entrepreneurs in business see difficulties as challenges and not setbacks, they do not procrastinate and they definitely do not give up.

There are definitely ways to combat your competition and do it fast. Competition is not bad for business it is good and essential to the development and survival of any business. It keeps the juices flowing and you keep improving products and service. Having competitors means the market is healthy and that there are profits to be made, your goal however to get the a majority share of the business.

Learn the Art of Competition Crushing.

  • Understand your customers and what makes them tick- Talk to your long term repeat customers; find out what made them change from a prospect into a customer. Once you have an understanding of the decision making process of your customer you will then be able to harness this information for marketing purposes.
  • Find out what makes them stay as your customer as these customers often have a lifetime value far exceeding newer, less loyal customers. To be able to build on this you need to really understand your customer. This will also help you identify your ideal customer and build on these relationships to capture the marketing power your business has at its disposal.

So for the first part of this exercise, you need to make contact with your clients and ask the questions. I have always found that actually by talking to your clients and telling them that you are conducting a short survey on how your business is meeting clients expectations and most customers are only too happy to oblige. Often you uncover further business just by the fact you have made contact as well as a lot of extremely useful information for a future marketing campaign.

One of my clients was right up against the wall. They run a school for people who had left school early without gaining the required standards and training needed for future employment. They offered secretarial courses, computer courses etc.They were always very busy working in the business and not on the business and that was why they were in this precarious situation. I suggested that they put aside time for all their teachers to get on the phone and contact all their past students. They were to find out what their old students were doing, what jobs they were in and to mention the new courses the school was now offering. At the end of that financial year they posted the biggest profit ever and now every year they use the same process. So communicate, communicate, and communicate. Build trust and rock solid loyalty from your customers. Remember it is how you deal with a difficult challenge determines the likelihood of achieving great success.

Printing Services and Marketing

Marketing is an integral part of any business and the success of a business venture depends to a large extent on the marketing techniques adopted. If you use the right marketing techniques you will be able to reach the right target audience and thereby give your business the boost it requires. While looking at marketing of your products it is very important that you consider a good mix of different marketing techniques such as online marketing as well as print marketing.

As far as print marketing is concerned it is of utmost importance that you use quality materials. Only when you do this will you be able to attract the attention of the reader. The materials that you usually use are pamphlets, advertisements, brochures, flyers, business cards and more. These are the items that offer the customer all the information about your venture and the products or services that you have to offer.

This is where you will find online publishing services quite handy. Locating professionals online is quite easy these days as there are quite a few service providers offering their services online. However you will have to take some time out and do your homework by reading up on the printer and the services that the printer offers and the printers' credibility before deciding on whom to work with. You will also have to check if the online service providers meet deadlines as meeting deadlines is very important. You do not want to be in a situation where you have planned a marketing event for you business and your print media is not available as your printer has not met his timelines. Only when you do your homework can you be rest assured that you will get your money's worth.

Once you have decided on the online services you want all you have to do is discuss your requirements with the printer. Check out the different publishing methods they plan to use to complete your project. If you have specialized needs, you will have to discuss the same with the printer so that they will be able to customize their services for you.

Online service providers also have a dedicated customer support system that will attend to all your queries and concerns. Once you have ironed out all the details, place your order and wait for your materials to be delivered. So you no longer have to worry about visiting printers across the town for the best commercial printing services. All you have to do is log on to the internet and find the printer you want to work with.



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Dealing With Your Marketing Needs

Many small business owners find that they are required to carry out multiple roles within the business. This seems to go with the territory, although it's fair to say that some do find it frustrating. If you spend all of your time trying to fight fires, then you may discover that you're unable to have the desired impact.

Put simply, you end up in a position where you are busy dealing with emergencies. You may find that you seem to be faced with a never-ending stream of tasks that need to be completed urgently. What this means is that you're unable to take a step back and think in a more strategic manner. Should this be a cause for concern?

I would argue that it's something that certainly needs to be given an appropriate level of consideration. One of the problems here is that some tasks do require a fair degree of planning. You can't be expected to produce and implement a marketing plan, for instance, without setting aside enough time.

It might be more prudent to even consider whether you have a marketing plan in place. I'm always surprised when I discuss this subject with business owners and discover that they haven't given this area much thought. Getting your marketing right is likely to be critical to the long-term success of your business. Indeed, it's also likely that it will have a massive impact on the short-term situation that you face.

How you approach this issue will be individual to you. I would suggest, however, that you should certainly note down a number of steps that you intend to take. You may be able to get some inspiration from the approaches that are taken by your competitors. By their very nature, such strategies should be visible to you.

There's also an issue here that's associated with the budget that you have available to you. It would be nice to think that you could achieve all of your marketing aims without spending any money, but the reality is that you're likely to need to spend some. The money should be seen as an investment and this indicates that there's a real need to measure performance levels.

However you approach the situation, you should aim for a level of transparency. You'll want to know exactly what you are getting in return for the money that you are spending. If you've decided to distribute leaflets to other small businesses, for example, then how will you go about measuring the impact of those leaflets?

The same will be true when emailing other business owners, or producing brochures for potential and existing clients. You need to be focused on producing a sensible strategy that will produce results for your business.



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