Catégorie : Business Development

Avoid delivery nightmares

A recent study revealed that 26% of respondents would stop buying from a company if they were not happy with the delivery firm used. Losing business over a problem which is not caused by you is certainly the worst way for it to happen.

We found that most online shops use more than one delivery firm – but none of them offer customers a choice over which is used.

With a third of online shopping problems relating to delivery, this seems to be the weak link in the web retail boom. It means customers who have had a bad experience with a particular delivery firm are left pretty powerless if they want to avoid using them again.

How to write great subject lines to get people’s attention

How many unread emails do you have in your inbox? 300? 800? Or maybe, if you are like me and are on countless mailing lists, 2,644?

We get a TON of emails every day, and a lot of them are never opened. People are inundated with boatloads of information – more than ever before in history! But we don’t have more time to soak it all in. The chances of your email being ignored are pretty high – unless of course, you have a rockin’ sockin’ subject line.

Your subject line is your first (and maybe your last) impression on users. In many ways, your email subject line is more important than your email body. After all, a great newsletter is worthless if it never sees the light of day.

There are a few different schools of thought when it comes to creating slam dunk subject lines. We’ll be covering 9 different types of effective email subject lines and sprinkling examples throughout.

Recognising Opportunities

Whether we are going through a good phase in our lives or whether we are in the doldrums, it is always a good idea to be on the lookout for a better opportunity. We tend to get so engrossed in our daily lives that we often end up ignoring opportunities that pass in front of our very eyes.

Here is how you can realise if there is an opportunity to be grabbed and how to work on it:

Why are outside resources the best way to go?

Realising that you can’t do everything internally, and that it’s better to hire outside resources, is a hard truth to take in.

If you need to feel better about your decision to outsource your efforts, here are some things that will reaffirm your choice to let some internal control go:

1. Consider the opportunity costs.

There’s an opportunity cost to everything. Too often, we forget to value our time and attention.

Your employees are your biggest marketing asset

There is a holy grail in the workplace, but like the one in the popular book and movie “The Di Vinci Code,” it’s not exactly what you’d expect. In any company, the products and the location are important.

So, too, are the branding strategies, packaging and pricing — but in the end, it’s the employees who make the difference. That’s why it’s so important that you motivate them to move mountains.

There are lots of examples of great companies and their highly motivated employees: Apple, Disney, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Coca Cola, Zappos and Wynn Resorts are a few that come to mind.

How to make more sales on your eCommerce website

According to a recent study, retailers are losing more than 45% of potential buyers due to inefficiencies in their website and operations.

Here are 10 points to consider when evaluating your current or future eCommerce website:

1. Pricing

The Internet allows shoppers to quickly compare prices. If you are in a competitive market, you need to make sure there is a good reason for your customer to visit and then stay on your website.

The future of Marketing

It’s been more than half a century since Philip Kotler first published his principles of marketing, which has defined the practice of millions of professionals worldwide ever since. It’s no stretch to say that before Kotler, there was no marketing profession.

What made Kotler different than what came before is that he took insights from other fields, such as economics, social science and analytics and applied them to the marketing arena. Although it seems basic now, it was groundbreaking then.

What Is Leadership Really About?

Make a list of the 5 leaders you most admire. They can be from business, social media, politics, technology, the sciences, any field. Now ask yourself why you admire them. The chances are high that your admiration is based on more than their accomplishments, impressive as those may be. I’ll bet that everyone on your list reaches you on an emotional level.

The ability to reach people in a way that transcends the intellectual and rational is the mark of a great leader. They all have it. They inspire us. It’s a simple as that. And when we’re inspired we tap into our best selves and deliver amazing work.

How do you recognise the next big thing?

Can you get better at spotting the most promising opportunities? How does anyone know it when they see it?

If you’re like most people, throughout your life a few great opportunities will land on your doorstep. And again, if you’re like most people, you’ll ignore these rare opportunities because you won’t recognise them as great chances for success.

Don’t feel bad; even people in the opportunity recognition business – including prominent venture capitalists – miss out on great opportunities. Everybody misses a few, no one gets them all.

Why investing abroad can be a good idea

Investment The trend toward investing abroad has been gaining popularity since the 1990s. Companies choose to invest in foreign markets for a number of reasons:

Market seeking

Firms may go overseas to find new buyers for their goods and services. The top executives or owners of a company may realise that their product is unique or superior to the competition in foreign markets and seek to take advantage of this opportunity.

Adapt to changes better than your competitors

Recently, researchers asked a group of 12-year olds if they typically listen to music on YouTube, radio, or a CD? Not surprisingly, the majority answered “YouTube”. However, the second most common response was, “What’s a CD?”

Researchers also asked a group of high school students how they most often use email. Their responses?“To communicate with old people.”

And therein lies one of the most daunting challenges facing today’s companies – the need to reinvent their entire business model rather than just a new product or service.

After all, there’s no point in coming out with a newer and better CD when people no longer use them (much less know what they are). And anyone operating an email-based business might as well get in line right behind the post office because extinction is already knocking on the door, and it won’t take “go away” for an answer.