How to Improve Your Existing Product Sales on Your Website
September 20, 2009 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Wright Ideas
This article is for people considering a change for their products and offerings. You’ll look at 4 areas that are easily adjusted to give you more sales.
You may have a niche marketing website that just isn’t producing sales for you at the rate at which you had hoped it would. Perhaps it isn’t producing any income for you at all. One problem could be that you haven’t actually figured out that what you are selling is, in fact, a niche market product. You might need to do a little ‘tweaking’ and modify your strategies somewhat to get the site performing better. Here are a few things that you can do to improve your existing product sales.
Step #1: Bill Cosby, the famous entertainer, once said, "I don’t know what the secret of success is, but I know the secret of failure and that was trying to please everybody." He was right. You can’t please everybody and you can’t sell to everybody either. It’s possible that you may simply need to narrow you market, identify you product as a niche marketing product and advertise it accordingly.
Step #2: To improve your existing product you have likely overlooked the most obvious solution of all. You could simply ask your customers what they think. They are, after all, the end users of the product or service that you are selling. There is nobody that knows how a product can be improved better than the people who are using the product.
Step #3: Analyze the competition. Take the time and put forth the effort to look at the product or service that your competitors are offering. Identify their strengths and weaknesses. Find out what your competition cannot do, will not do or does not do well. Then set about doing those very things yourself.
Step #4: Are you selling your product at the right price? Pricing a product too low makes people think it won’t be any good, pricing too high will discourage them from buying it. Every product has a sweet spot in sales price. You need to find yours.
Seven PR Lies Business Owners Tell Themselves
September 9, 2009 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Wright Ideas
This article will give business owners ideas for publicity. Publicity is the forgotten part of marketing for most business owner. There are action items, easy steps people can take right now to create more publicity.
Lie #1 — I don’t need to do any publicity for my business
This lie is dangerous because it shortchanges your advertising budget. Publicity helps your ads go further because people will see and recognize your company name. Clients will feel good about being a customer because the media is showing them how smart they were to choose your company. The publicity keeps you top of mind, even before people need your services. Business owners should be continuously doing publicity while marketing their services, even when they are too busy to take on new customers.
Lie #2 — Any publicity is good publicity
Remember that publicity will change how people see you. Deal with negative issues assertively in the media.
Lie #3 — Reporters don’t like being reminded over and over
Pitching to reporters is a practice that had to be done. You need to let them know that there is a good story without being pain. Reports have deadlines and a lot to choose from. Make your story seem interesting and change it up for the seasons. You never know when YOU will be the story they need. Being a resource for a reporter and reading their columns is always a plus.
Lie #4 — All that time spent on Twitter is Publicity
So, you’ve been spending a lot of time on twitter and gathering thousands of followers because someone told you each tweet is it’s own web page. Social marketing is a great way to start relationships and find reporters. However it’s not the only way. Reporters are using twitter to put information out. Trying to pitch them with only 140 characters is a feat only for the most experienced publicists. Sometimes a Google alert will catch your name; however, only people on twitter who follow you will see that tweet. It’s not wide spread enough to do you any good.
Lie #5 — There is such a thing as a free lunch
Everybody would like to get something for nothing. However the free online PR distribution services only place your press release or media release as I Like to call them, online. If someone comes across it fine. It is not really sent out to anyone. It can create a link and some traffic back to your site. It does not compare to the traffic you will get if there is an actual story written about you.
Lie #6 — I’m an expert, I don’t need to update my skills
No matter how much experience you have, how many degrees you have, or how well known you have become — there is always something new to learn. Publicity is constantly changing and you need to pay attention to what is going on. Even those who delegate PR to professionals need to know what works and what does not work, in order to avoid spending money with someone who is not effective. Take time to learn a little bit about publicity and marketing each year and how they work together.
Lie #7 — What works for [Big Name Business] will work for me.
It’s easy to believe this lie. You hear, or read about how someone else achieved success and assume that the same steps that he or she took will work for you. We all love to learn from someone else’ success. You have to realize that they rarely tell the entire story. They never tell you about the connections they already had in place, or the amount of money spent on their grass roots campaign. Take the ideas and cut them down into something you can afford to do. Keep in mind that you do not know the entire story, so when something does not work, you will realize you may have missed a step that you were not aware of.
Action Items
Action Item: Create a publicity calendar for the remainder of the year. Plan and financially budget to do something everything month.
Action Item: Read your local newspaper online and make a note of the reporter who would be perfect to write about you.
Action Item: Take Twitter off your list of publicity and place it on your social marketing to do list.
Action Item: Invest in a media release that will be sending out to media.
Action Item: Create PR from big ideas. Do something you can afford to execute.
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How the Experts Get Foreign Dollars into US Projects
September 3, 2009 by Dr. Letitia Wright
Filed under Featured Articles, Wright Ideas
This article is about the EB-5 program used by entrepreneurs to bring in millions of dollars into US projects. My hope is that this will stimulate marketing ideas for those with smaller projects.
A little known immigration program is helping entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground or highly expanded. It’s called EB-5. The program is supposed to expire in September 2009 and there are senators pushing to get this renewed. Here is how the program works: The program grants temporary visas to foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in distressed areas. If an investment creates at least 10 jobs for American workers, the temporary visa can become a permanent green card. Last year, 945 EB-5 immigrants invested more than $400 million in U.S. ventures.
Some people think this is how people are buying their way to the front of the immigration line. Others feel the big benefit and helping struggling entrepreneurs with capital. Distressed areas that win "regional center" status from the U.S. government can market local ventures to overseas investors who become equity partners. Today there are 46 regional centers scattered across the country, offering investments in everything from Napa Valley vineyards to ethanol plants.
Even Aloft Hotel was able to get in on this cash infusion. There are 10,000 of these visas each year. 3,000 of them are set aside for 3,000 are set aside for those who apply under a pilot program involving a USCIS-designated "Regional Center." A Regional Center is an entity, organization or agency that has been approved as such by the Service, it focuses on a specific geographical area within the United States and seeks to promote economic growth through increased export sales, improved regional productivity, creation of new jobs, and increased domestic capital investment.
An alien investor can qualify for the program if they can demonstrate that a "qualified investment" is being made in a new commercial enterprise located within an approved Regional Center and show, using reasonable methodologies, that 10 or more jobs are actually created either directly or indirectly by the new commercial enterprise through revenues generated from increased exports, improved regional productivity, or job creation by using this pilot program. They have to invest at least $1 million dollars or $500,000 if the targeted area has experienced at least 150 times the national average of unemployment.
Vermont has been very successful in marketing this. They have welcomed 35 investors and created jobs for 350 people in Vermont. 17.5 Million dollars was brought in. They have 100% success and claim the most successful EB5 program. With this program, in 5 years an investor could be a citizen of the United States.
They also give the investors other perks. Vermont’s Jay’s Peak Program offers 2 weeks at the resort, children attending college and schools at resident rates and no day to day business management.
The main idea here what incentives can we add to what we offer to bring in investors or bring in more business? Share yours below!
