About Jodi Kaplan

Freebie Friday! – Free Resources to Plan and Start Your Business

Posted on February 27, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Freebie Friday is a new once-a-month post on the last Friday of each month. It will feature small business resources, email statistics and marketing reports, marketing white papers, and maybe a book or two.

Here are this month’s links:

Business news and company information

CEO Express This helpful site has links to world and business news, financial market information, online search resources, reference materials, phone and zip code directories.

Hoovers Search thousands of companies by name or stock ticker. Get information on stock prices, SEC filings, and financials. Subscribers gain access to smaller and mid-sized company information.

Advice for small businesses and start ups

CCH Business Toolkit A comprehensive guide that will take you through every step of planning, starting,and running your new business. “Ask Alice!” columns offer advice on managing your accounting, insurance, marketing, taxes, and other critical business functions.

Small Business Administration Information on government regulations, financing options, loan requirements, and business plans.

Magazines for entrepreneurs

Inc. Resources, useful articles, and advice for small business owners.

BtoB Focuses on all aspects of business-to-buisiness marketing (both on- and off-line). They also offer e-newsletters and host events devoted to topics such as blogs, internet marketing,and integrating multi-channel marketing efforts.

Planning and starting your business

Service Corps of Retired Executives Free and confidential help from retired executives. Search by city, industry, or area of expertise. Plus, the web site has lots of “how to” articles and business templates.

Free sample business plans

Office Depot Business forms . Free, downloadable forms for organizing your business, operating agreements, employee management, and tax forms.

Legal Information

Basic legal forms and information (does not substitute for a lawyer, but will give you a basic outline).

Findlaw Business Contracts, Profit and Loss Statements, How to Read a Balance Sheet, Mergers and Finance

Photo: thetruthabout

Relevancy is King

Posted on February 26, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

The greatest offer and the best design and copy ever won’t work if it isn’t relevant. Or, to put it another way, you can’t sell snowshoes to Bedouins. So, carefully research your market, and your subscribers, to find out what they need and how they feel about the information you’re sharing with them.

Ask Your Readers

Survey your readers, or your opt-in list, and find out what they like (or don’t like) about your newsletter. Ask them what they’d like to see more of, what they find interesting, and which topics are a complete bore. Use the comments to refocus your content and give them more of what they want.

Make It Easy to Comment and Subscribe

Don’t require a login to comment; it just creates an extra barrier. Make it easy to subscribe (and unsubscribe). Put a tab in your newsletter with preferences. Feature your RSS feed button (the bright orange semi-circle on the upper right of this blog) prominently. Have periodic “subscription” drives, with instructions on how to sign up for newsletter delivery.

How to Stand Out from Your Competition (and Get More Customers)

Posted on February 25, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Art on the Marketing Professionals Know How Exchange needs a slogan for a hardware store. The client wants to promise affordable prices and quality products, but, as Art said, that’s pretty “cliche”. Anybody (and everybody) promises quality, more for less, or affordability – it’s not remarkable in any way. He’s struggling because the client insists that quality and price must be included. He’s got slogans such as “price and quality – always the best” and “top quality – within your budget.”

The trouble is that this approach is “broken marketing.” The slogans are all generic. They don’t tell a story, or set the company apart in any way that’s noteworthy or memorable. They’ll never compete on price or quality. The big stores can beat them on price, and they probably all sell the same stuff.

Don’t Be Generic: Specialize

What if, instead, the company decided to specialize. Offer special services, hard to find tools, or organized the store by tasks: Here’s everything you need to fix a leaky sink.

Or, what if they offered help with your projects? Or classes for do-it-yourselfers who need lots of help doing it themselves.

What about delivery?

Maybe a rent-a-hardware expert for people who can’t (or don’t want to) do it themselves.

Have a Hardware Help Desk/Genius Bar

A real-life example, I have a drying rack (for hand-washing) that’s broken. I have no idea how to fix it, but it would be simple if I knew how. How about someone to help me out? I’d happily pay for it.

How About a Hardware Hotline?

A slogan (and strategy) like that would get people talking. “Hey, that’s the store with the hotline!” “I’d been struggling with my new bookshelves for hours, but the Mr. Fixit guy showed me what to do in ten minutes.”

How can you stand out?

Photo: leplaf.geo

How to Engage Your Customers With Email

Posted on February 24, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Direct magazine reported today (2/24/09) that “[e]-mail and social media marketing boosts customer loyalty and has a positive influence on purchasing decisions.”The magazine says that according to two recently published studies, recipients of permission-based email are 56% more likely to buy something in a store and 48% feel more loyal towards retailers.

87% of the people who have opted-in to receive marketing email use it to learn about new products, and like receiving personalized offers based on previous purchases.

Approximately 77% of consumers take online reviews and ratings from other consumers into consideration when making purchases.

What does this mean for your business?

Engage your customers

It means that it’s critical that you interact with your customers. Allow them to rate and review your products online. Have someone answer questions and respond to complaints (if any) in public. Don’t hide behind a wall of FAQ’s. Make it easy for your customers to contact you if they have a question or problem, and respond quickly when they do.

Segment your list

Don’t send the same offer to your entire database. Review customer behavior and break up your list into smaller pieces. Use past purchase history, inquiries, and areas of interest. Suggest new purchases based on older ones, and adjust your message and product offers to fit each segment. Personalized, relevant messages will get better response rates, and increase loyalty to your brand.

Don’t abuse the privilege

Tell your customers upfront how often you will contact them. Don’t automatically sign them up for new offerings or communications. Ask first.

Photo: MK Media Productions

How To Keep Your Customers

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

In a worldwide recession, keeping your customers happy is critical. And, at any time, it’s always cheaper to retain new customers than to acquire new ones. One way to do this is with great service. Here are two examples of companies that got service right.

A book newsletter recently featured an offer for free chocolate. Send your name and address and get chocolate! I was all over that and immediately responded.

A few days later, I got back a very nice note from the VP of marketing and sales at the chocolate company, saying that due to overwhelming demand (and cross-posting of the offer in places it didn’t belong), they could only offer the chocolate to bookstores and retailers.

However, as a consolation prize, they offered a discount to anyone who ordered a box of chocolate from their site before Valentine’s Day.

I was disappointed (though not completely surprised) to be told I was ineligible for the free chocolate, but I sent back a note asking if they could send the chocolate instead to the indie bookstore down the street (and included the name and address) – as a random act of kindness.

Well, I got another note back asking for my address, and saying that they would try to send me some chocolate after all!

Now, that’s service, and bravo to them all around!

Meanwhile, Bernd reports that great service is taken very seriously in Japan:
“Once it was butter in a glass jar. Upon opening we found a black residue in the cap and near the top rim. My wife called the toll-free number, the area salesman (who normally visits the retailers) came by the same day to pick it up, with profuse apologies.

Few days later we got a ready-made postcard, apologies for the inconvenience, case under investigation.

Week later a letter, with apologies for the inconvenience, “what looked like mold was confirmed to be mold. We are investigating the manufacturing process to prevent recurrence.” Letter was in a box with more butter jars than we had bought and two other products from the same company. They wanted us to keep their name in good regard.”

Author Archives: Jodi Kaplan