Facebook Crashes Through the 800 Million Barrier Mark

It's incredible to me that so recently I was having a discussion with a student telling them about Facebook's amazing growth to 400 million, and here we are a year or so later and it has redoubled in size to 800 million. Newsflash then. Facebook is for real and isn't going anywhere so get on board now.

With this in mind the last couple of weeks has also seen the latest set of changes made to the Facebook layout.

Of the latest batch with include:

- Changes to the News Feed: Where Facebook now ranks them according to what you've been interested in the past, and the recent stories are in chronological order.

- Smart Lists: The ability to subdivide our network into separate subgroups e.g. co-workers, friends, family, etc. where we have the ability to follow the messaging of individuals within a specific group.

- The Subscribe Button: A new feature that allows an individual the choice of making their personal data more accessible to the public by allowing them to be able to see your public updates.

As is with most of the changes in recent times the jury is still out on what will be and wont be significant from a business point of view.

What do you think the most major change has been and how do you plan to leverage it for your business?

As always thanks for reading and until next time, good marketing and good luck.

Daniele.

New YouTube Video Editing Capability

It is interesting to hear that as of this week, YouTube have included a video editing facility, which now allows users to make changes to existing videos rather than have to redo the video away from the platform.

For example if you wanted to change an existing element of the existing piece such as adding sound effects, changing the soundtrack, or remove part of the video you can now make these edits routinely.

The other big advantage to making any proposed changes on the YouTube platform is that it allows you not forgo your existing video counts with any comments already made by way of retaining your original video identification.

This feature will essentially allow members to make on the run improvements to the quality of videos and by inference the capacity for them to be more likely to be shared around.

Obviously as the worlds second biggest search engine, ensuring that your videos have all the right SEO boxes ticked will always be a key success factor to get the best ranking, but with tools like this you can now look to improve the quality of the video as well as it's organic ranking.

Google Offers Growing

As the feedback around Google Plus continues to clog the internet highway and the unending comparisons between it and Facebook continue, one potentially very useful product that is largely going under the wire is Google Offers (currently in beta in Austin, Boston, Washington D.C., Denver and Seattle. The product has been available for some months in the Californian Bay Area, New York and Portland. Essentially Google Offers is an incentive form of online advertising.

It has tremendous potential especially in its ability to drive more local traffic. The offer made by a business is made up of a heading, pictures, a Google Places listing with the businesses address and general backgrounder of both your businesses function and exactly what you're offering your audience.

By way of the Google platform, any interested consumers can register with Google Offers and periodically receive communications via e-mails from Google on daily offers from their local. Consumers taking up the offer will pay online and download redeemable vouchers that they exchange with the business at the time of the purchase or transaction.

The concept used here is not new, but is proving to be very effective and no doubt will be expanded to include non US markets in the future as the search for value is certainly a universally attractive concept.

The cost to the businesses in the US is around 2 to 3% of the transaction cost, as well as a minimal transaction fee of 30 cents.

As marketers continue to find new and exciting ways to target qualified prospects and add value to them, Google Offers may when it hits our shores present us with another viable option to blend in with our other existing online and offline promotional tools.

Please let us know how do you think your business may utilise this type of service and of course don't forget to follow us for automatic notifications for all updates.

And until next time, good marketing and good luck.

Daniele.

The Five Don't Do's for Retail Marketers

Last week we look at things you should do as a retail marketer. So this week let's look at the opposite side and focused on the 5 things you should never do.

1. Assume you know what the customer’s needs are.
Perhaps the fast way to ensure any retailer fails is to assume you know what the customer wants.
Leading Australian market researcher, Frank Domantay (Managing Director of Decision Insights) says: “Successful businesses routinely do customer research that allows them to understand what they are doing well and what they are not doing so well.”
This research can be in the form of a survey, one on one interview or focus group. With the results directly feeding in to strategic planning for the retailer and
often being the first indication for the need to change some aspect of the business or it's product offerings.
For example a recent survey done by a local Melbourne based, medical clinic found great dissatisfaction by patients in the approach by the front office staff.
As a result, the staff was retrained on both customer relations and social style training.

2. Try to market yourself exactly like your competitors do.
To fully understand how important this point is, you need to understand that the customers need is really made up of 2 things. Firstly:
The met portion of the need which are the elements that customers are already satisfied with and secondly, the even more important unmet need, which is where the real
opportunity lies to standout from the crowd. Now if you for example, your business follows your competitors blindly and mimics everything they do, you will basically be meeting the same met portion of the need and leaving the same unmet portion of the need.
An example of a retailer that did not follow its larger rival's example, was Dial a Dino's Pizza. They were the first to include free home delivery and as a result differentiated themselves in a
way that not only made them successful, but ultimately compelled the market leading Pizza Hut to buy them out or risk losing market share.

3. Take your customers for granted.
The ongoing support of key customers must also be acknowledged with incentive schemes designed to reward and maintain customer loyalty, as well as drive demand for future purchases.
These schemes do not need to be complex. Trendy cafe Buddha’s Belly offers a simple scheme on their business card, where they offer a free coffee after 5 purchases. Simple but effective.
Larger organisations like Subway have a similar card that offers a free drink after 8 purchases of their subway sandwich. These are simple ideas that work.
It's important to remember that for a lot of businesses the 80 / 20 rule applies. That is that 20% of your customers generate 80% of your business.
The bottom line is, know who the 20% are and reward them for their support.

4. Fail to strengthen areas you have identified in your business as weak.
There is no doubt that a business is only as strong as its weakest link.
You may have a great product but if it is incorrectly priced, poorly promoted or not consistently available in the store due to unreliable suppliers, it will fail. These or any other ongoing weaknesses must be promptly addressed to ensure the businesses ongoing success.
For example, critically acclaimed 12 part miniseries Camelot, after its first 2 issues, suffered from an irregular printing schedule due to unreliable product suppliers which caused the
series to fail. Today's consumers are more aware and less tolerant than they have ever been and any ongoing weakness your business has that it does not seek to overcome, will translate into lost customer loyalty and sales.

5. Lose your overall perspective and work / life balance.
As important as it is to perform well and run a profitable business, retailers must always be wary that the business has the potential to take over your life and leave you with an imbalance between your work and the rest of your life. This is a complex issue but there are some key strategies that can help.
1. Schedule time outs and honour them.
2. Take a time management course that will teach you to be more efficient with your time.
3. Learn the power of delegation, once you have established that an individual is capable of doing that task or role.


Summary:
It is well recognised that many retail businesses fail in their first 5 years of operation.
Many of those who have failed, failed to respect the 5 must do's and the 5 must not do's of small business.
By following these rules laid out in this and the previous post, you will maximise your chances of not joining their ranks.

Please let us know if you feel that there is another key don’t do you’d like added to this list.

And until next time, good marketing and good luck.


Daniele.

Five Must Do's For Retail Marketing

As the retail sector becomes increasingly competitive and even major retail chains are known to be struggling to meet financial objectives, it becomes even more important to focus on the key strategies known to drive performance.

Here are five that you may want to consider and apply to your retail business.

1. Observe your market carefully to capture opportunities and trends early.
Businesses need to be able to look at the key factors such as technological changes, in social attitudes, changes in government and legal regulations, which can profoundly affect their business.
This is to both take advantage of possible opportunities for growth and also to help avoid threats that may harm their business. Usually the business will have no control over these market factors but still needs to react quickly to their presence.
For example: Many successful retailer selling fur coats suffered greatly reduced demand and sales because attitudes towards killing animals for fur changed drastically in the eighties and made fur coats virtually redundant.
Another example is that one third of all photo printing stores that operated in Australia ten years ago have now shut down. This is because the technology changed from traditional film processing to digital photography. This meant new equipment, more training for staff, the need for more capital, etc., with the result being that those who were not well prepared or able to afford the change went out of business.
From a positive perspective of following positive trends early, renowned cellular skin specialist has positioned herself as the ‘celebrity skin guru’ by regularly updating her expertise abroad by studying with the recognized authorities in cellular regeneration in Switzerland and the United States.


2. Be aware of your businesses relative strengths and weaknesses.
Any retailer (especially an SME) must be very objective about it's relative strengths and weaknesses if it's to survive and grow. Unlike external opportunities and threats that the market offers you which you can not control, internal strengths and weaknesses can be controlled and changed by the retailer. For example: leading Melbourne based, creative design firm Fine Design realising that only one staff member had expertise operating a newly available printing software CAD program, quickly arranged for additional training to raise the skill level of the other employees to protect itself if this one employee were unable to use the program. As well by having a complete inventory of your strengths you will be in a better position to take advantage of any opportunities that may be around.

3. Look for groups of customers with similar unmet needs you can meet.
In most markets, you will find smaller groups of customers that exist within the overall market that have similar needs and can be grouped into market segments or niches.
If the retailer can provide a product or service that can meet this common need, then it will do well by targeting that market niche.
For example: Retailer: Easy Tone Studio in Melbourne offers an exercise studio that offers exercise equipment with a difference. Rather than the standard gym equipment, it offers assisted exercise where the machine exercises that area of the body passively. This can be used for: older people, people recovering from illness, injured athletes, etc.
Although these are all different groups, they have a similar need for assisted exercise. Suffice to say, Easy Tone has differentiated itself from other gyms, and is highly successful as a result.

4. Know exactly who your customer is and what you need to deliver to keep them satisfied.
Most small businesses retailers make the mistake of mass marketing. In other words they try to sell their product or service to everyone in the market. Simply put, different people need different things.
Therefore it is critical to look at your market and make a decision about exactly what part of the market you want to target for your business and what their specific needs will be.
For example, The Athletes Foot sells only running shoes for athletes and runners. They are known to have the best range of brands, shoe sizes, fitting equipment and general expertise in fitting to ensure the correct size and shoe for any foot. In short they have an area of proven excellence. They know who their customers are and they deliver a personalised product for each. This is the true essence of marketing.

5. Acknowledge and reward those people who contribute to your success.
In most businesses, your staff will be a combination of high performers, average contributors and occasionally low performers.
Suffice to say, it is imperative that you identify your top performers so that you can acknowledge their efforts and reward them accordingly.
Traditionally larger firms lead the way by having incentive packages that not only reward individuals for the period just gone, but also involve rolling incentives over 2 or 3 years, to act as an effective retention tool for key staff over a longer period.

What are some other key's you think we should add to this list. Please let us know.

Next time to balance the ledger, we'll look at the 5 don't s for retail marketing.
But until then, good luck and good marketing.

Daniele.