Why Should You Use Customer Surveys to Grow Your Business?

Are you performing customer satisfaction surveys in your business? Do you take the time and effort required to find out what your customers thought about their experience with your business?

If you don't, you're missing out on huge opportunities to improve your services and increase your profits.

What Kind of Questions Should Your Survey Ask?

Your business is unique and your survey should be, too. There are a couple of standard questions that you should ask on every survey, though.

    The friendliness of your staff or support personnel
    Ease of interaction with your company
    Willingness to recommend your company to friends and family members
    Areas in which you can improve

If your survey only asked these four questions it would prove incredibly valuable. It would provide data that you could analyze and act on in order to improve your business. If you improve the way your customers view their experience with you then you can expect more repeat business and referrals.

Take the time to think about your business and come up with some specific questions that might be extremely relevant. You may also want to ask questions about interest in new products or services you are thinking about selling.

Open Ended Questions Can Be Hit or Miss

Studies on customer satisfaction surveys have shown mixed results when it comes to asking open ended questions. These are questions that require the customer to share their thoughts as opposed to choosing from a list of multiple choices.

Many people don't feel comfortable writing, and simply won't share their thoughts. Many individuals, though, won't hesitate to give you a piece of their mind. The real challenge isn't getting the information that shows you where you can improve - it's getting feedback about what you're doing well.

If you want to encourage people to actually put thought and effort into the open ended questions on your survey you should formulate them carefully. Ask this question to learn about positive feedback:

"What have we done to improve your experience that other companies you have used in the past failed to do?"

If you want to find out why your customer decided to go with your product or service instead of a competitor you can ask directly. It's a two part question:

    Did you consider any of our competitors before deciding on us? List your biggest competitors
    Why did you pick us instead of the other options?

You might be surprised that most people chose you because you were the first business they encountered. Others might tell you about the terrible experiences they had with your competitors in the past. No matter the information they provide it will be extremely helpful when it comes time to growing your business.

Unexpected Bonuses from Surveying Your Customers

You may know that testimonials are a great way to help convince new prospects to go with your business instead of other options. Performing regular customer satisfaction surveys shows you who is willing to provide a good testimonial.

If someone sends in a good survey and takes the time to write a few sentences proclaiming how excellent your company is you have a good lead for a solid testimonial. Contact this customer and ask him or her if they would be willing in providing a testimonial. The best are video testimonials, but many people will be hesitant to do this. Consider offering an incentive or discount on future services for anyone willing to provide a written testimonial, a voice recording, or a video. It will be well worth the investment.

Survey Software to Use Instead of Mailers

There are tons of choices out there when it comes to performing these types of surveys. Survey Monkey provides a free tool that allows you to track the results. It provides data analysis tools that help you identify trends that might otherwise remain hidden. All you have to do is remember to send your customer an email with a link to the survey after they have completed their transaction. If you mail your surveys it will be expensive and many people won't take the time to respond. You can use an URL shortening service to put the link to your survey on a postcard if you don't typically obtain your customer's email address when doing business together.

Niche Marketing: The Golden Source of Online Business Success

Niche marketing is one of the most effective ways to make a lot of money off the web. It's about taking a general market and stripping it down into targeted and focused segments or niches. One then develops solutions that meet the needs of a specific segment.

Banks for example operate in many niche markets. At first glance, they may appear to focus on one market, the financial market. There is no doubt that this is correct, but banks perform a number of different functions by serving many different niches.

A typical bank has a number of products and services, such as:

    Investment products
    Home loans
    Vehicle finance
    Financial planning and
    Personal loans

Each product or service caters for a select group of individuals or niche market: Investment products for investors, vehicle finance for vehicle owners, home loans for real estate players, financial planning for seniors or retirees and personal loans for individuals seeking short-term finance.

Does this mean that a bank offering the above-mentioned services is able to compete equally well against all other banks in the respective service categories? Generally it's very difficult for a business to dominate every market it participates in, but it's certainly possible for a company to establish a significant presence in a certain niche.

Of the four major banks in South Africa, ABSA Bank is the 'go-to' bank for home loans, Nedbank tends to be the business bank of choice, First National Bank is well known for their innovative products and Standard Bank for their stock trading platform.

Whatever the business or industry, a market leader will typically enjoy a healthy revenue stream. And by operating in other niche markets (not necessarily dominating them), a business can easily diversify or supplement its primary source of income. The same principle applies to online businesses.

Niche marketing works impressively well in the world of electronic commerce. VirtualBank for example is an online bank that specialises in providing financial services over the internet. Google dominates the search engine market and News24 pride themselves on being the premier news source in South Africa.

What does this mean for your online business, pick a niche market, sell some stuff and Bob's your uncle? Unfortunately it's not that easy. You can't expect to start a new business, offer everything from A to Z, take on the major market players and become the overnight leader.

As a start-up, you simply cannot bite off more than you can chew.

You are not going to compete against News24 for news readers or against Amazon for book sales. However, you might be able to trump News24 in the sports news category or Amazon in the Self-help book category.

The point is taking on a niche market is one of the best low risk ways to start and grow your business. There are three good reasons for this:

1. Niche markets tend to be less competitive than larger markets. Your chances of being successful or dominating the market is a lot greater.

2. Niche marketing can be extremely cost effective. For instance, suppose your business sells books on dog training techniques for German Shepherds. Instead of designing mass marketing campaigns (television or radio) which could potentially cost millions, brochures and flyers situated at select dog training schools may be more than sufficient to attract customers to your business.

3. A niche market is a great way to build a business on a subject that you find interesting or enjoyable. It may be a good model for you to convert those hobbies or passions into a home-based passive income business.

Not too long ago I received an email from a reader asking whether it's a good idea to start an online business in the mattress industry. If you have a look at Google's Keyword Tool, you'll notice that there are over 9 million online searches every month for the keyword 'mattress'. With search volumes like this, the chance of finding a profitable niche market and business model may be good.

Starting your business with a niche market is a good idea. Most successful entrepreneurs will attest to this. However, niche marketing success is dependent on three basic rules:

1. Know exactly what your customers want. Your products and services have to appeal to your market's unique needs. Building a business around mattresses in general may be pointless if your market only has an interest in mattress covers.

2. Learn how to communicate with your customers. You need to understand the psychology or deeper reasons behind their needs. In other words, speak their language and use marketing messages that evoke feelings of action.

How do your customers feel about mattress covers? What words resonate with them? If people are concerned about the 'scratchiness' of mattress covers against their skin when buying, your products and services must speak directly to this.

3. Understand your competition. How will you differentiate your business against all the other players? Look at their websites, products, services and marketing messages. Find out exactly what benefits they are selling. Try and pick out any gaps or under-serviced areas in the market. How could you do things better?

Are there any competitors in your niche? It may be a bad thing if there are no other players. The market may simply not want what you have to offer. Alternatively, the market is untapped and has yet to be exploited.

The key is to ask your customers what they want and value, and then test how they respond to your products, services and brand. This precept is central to niche marketing.

Effective Dental Marketing Tips

"Fixing a tooth is an interesting job, only if you know how to fix it right." Well, the dental world has gone far beyond just fixing teeth. Recent developments in dental procedures such as teeth whitening, bonding and porcelain veneers have left patients craving for dentists. As a result, many dental practices have come up and they are due to increase in coming years seeing the rise in number of patients.

As a dentist, you may feel you are not getting enough patients since the competition is so severe. It may be the case with other dentists in your locality as well. If that is what's bothering you, look no further than marketing your practice. A bit surprised? For all the years you have been practicing dentistry, you must have thought marketing is only for big profit-making firms. Wrong. Your clients are your customers too and customers need to be informed.

It all depends on which methods you chose to inform your patients. If you are anti-marketing, you will realize that you have made a big mistake in a matter of few days of opening your clinic. Going with the marketing aspect, internet has opened several avenues through which you can inform patients and simultaneously carve a niche for your practice. What's more, it is result-driven and cost-effective. Below are some dental marketing tips that you can very well integrate in your marketing plan.

• Enter the world of online dental marketing with a website. A well-crafted website is the first you need to establish an influential online presence. Although there are thousands of dental websites, a good investment is required to hire a professional web designer. Remember: quality never comes cheap. If your website looks dull, it will give a wrong cognizance. While creating your website, focus on appropriate keywords that are frequently used by patients to find a dental practice online. It is crucial to covey your dental marketing message through your website.

• To reap full benefits of a strong online presence, it is not adequate to create a website. Your patients will not come to you just like that. Your website needs to be among the top pages of leading search engines. For example if a prospective patient searches randomly for dentistry, your website should be visible in the first page of Google, Yahoo and Bing. One of the best ways to move your website in search rankings is to hire SEO experts.

• Social media is the newest way to communicate and stay connected with friends and family. If you are an active member of the social media community, you should know how crucial can it be for your practice. Firstly, it gives your patients a chance to connect with you even after the office closure. Secondly, any positive review on your profile will spread like fire in the jungle and subsequently you'll get more referrals.

By virtue of these affordable online marketing ideas, your dental practice will sure reach new heights. Full appointment books, a relatively higher number of satisfied patients and of course, a good cash flow will just be the beginning.

When Marketing To Hispanics, It Is About Culture

The cultural mosaic of the United States has never been more intricate. Varied cultural groups - many in their second and third generation - continuously blending together, maintaining and discarding various aspects of their own heritage while adopting, adapting and integrating different aspects of the new one that surrounds them.

U.S. Hispanics are no exception. Take something as (seemingly) fundamental as language, for example: according to a 2012 Nielsen report, only 56% of U.S. Hispanic adults speak only or mostly Spanish, while a full 40% speak only or mostly English. Four out of every ten Hispanics in the United States now speak more English than they do Spanish!

However, this doesn't mean that Hispanics are losing their culture in the wake of Anglo-American assimilation. Quite the contrary: the Latino culture is a vibrant, emotional, meaningful culture that continues to grow and thrive. But it does shed light on one of the most important lessons for today's marketers and brand managers: when marketing to U.S. Hispanics, culturally-relevant content is primary, and language is secondary.

Director Robert Rodriguez (Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Spy Kids, Sin City) understands this shift and its implications, announcing in February his plans to launch El Rey, a television network which will contain original Latino programming - entirely in English.

"I have five kids of my own," he said, adding that while they're bilingual, they converse mostly in English. "They want to feel integrated into the mass community, but [still] have something they can point to that really reflects their identity."

Rodriguez isn't the only one picking up on this linguistic shift. Cosmopolitan for Latinas is taking aim at bicultural readers, recognizing that even though Hispanics want content that resonates with them on a cultural level, they read, speak and work primarily in English. Blogs like Mamas Latinas and TV channels like NBC Latino are following suit.

Recently launched network MundoFox, on the other hand, is doing the reverse: seeking to emulate American programming "in every way except the language in which it is delivered... That means television that feels, looks, sounds like American shows, but just happens to be created in Spanish." So instead of creating traditionally Hispanic programming in English, MundoFox wants to create traditionally American programming in Spanish.

Although MundoFox might target a different subset of Hispanic consumers than El Rey, and the two approaches may seem to contradict, both apply the exact same principle: when marketing to U.S. Hispanics, culturally-relevant content is primary, and language is secondary. It's no longer a given that marketing must take place in Spanish. Consider the content first.

The same goes for any company, product or brand looking to tap into the Hispanic market. The content of your messaging should be strong enough to transcend the language in which it is presented. Make sure you understand who you're talking to and what resonates with them before jumping to any conclusions about their preferences. The answer - and the language - may surprise you.

The cultural mosaic of the United States has never been more intricate. Varied cultural groups - many in their second and third generation - continuously blending together, maintaining and discarding various aspects of their own heritage while adopting, adapting and integrating different aspects of the new one that surrounds them.

Wining Words in Effective Telemarketing

The phone rings, someone on the other line answers it, now what? Someone has finally stop to listen and you only got less than thirty seconds to explain who you are, what you are offering and why the person on the other line needs to listen to you.

In this fast- paced business environment that we have today and with the continuous declining of people's attention span, having a telemarketing campaign is indeed a risky marketing process to deal with. As a telemarketer, you are like a blind man trying to sell a black cat at midnight. You can't see your customers and neither do they see you and your products and or services.

So, how do you find or make lines that work best for you to offer your product or service in such a small amount of time? Here's how to keep the ball rolling:

Magic words are the sweetest sounds in the decision makers' ears.

Name names- everybody is most likely to feel an instant connection with people who call them directly by their name; so don't just pick up the phone and say "hello there;" try starting and ending a call by saying the name of the person on the other line.

Be polite- keep your manners intact, every time, all the time; make it more than just a habit, rather, make it a practice and will serve as your foundation in selling. Words like "please" and "thank you" are your best buddies in generating sales leads.

The Greeting

"You had me at hello"- it's the biggest moment. Your voice is modulated. You have your goals settled. You know your product well. You know whom to call. You dialed the number and the phone rings. The decision maker answers it. Silence prevailed. Cat got your tongue?

In sales, a warm and delightful "hello" is a plus point for you. You must keep feeding the fire and exude that excitement and energy in your tone because it will surely reflect on your voice; thus, possibly transforming those elements to the decision maker's attitude towards you. The result? a definite good start to jump-off with business.

The Introduction

Getting through your "essential message"- after the greeting and the introduction of your name and your company, your next step is to communicate the "essential message" about your product that in a way, that will make the decision maker wanting to hear more about it.

The "essential message" is a short statement that describes what your product is and its benefits and assets to your prospective sales lead, delivered in fifteen minutes or less. It should be a statement that will give an impact to the buyer and will make him remember when he forgets everything else in your script. Stop fussing around with other non-sense statements. Go directly to your point. Deliver that "essential message." After all, it's only the message that matters.

The Script- hit the highlights! Repeat your name and your company's name. Ask permission to continue. Request for immediate reaction. You are asking not to solicit any final decision regarding your offer, but you are asking to get all the cards out of the table as much as possible.

A minute of Overview

Pitch transitional questions- your call doesn't end with you presenting what your product is all about and bugging the decision maker to purchase the latter. Turn right. It is the best way to keep the conversation going. Ask rhetorical questions to further understand the buyer's needs; you are there to listen and to figure out his necessities, not to manipulate him.

By now, you've greeted the decision maker, introduced your self and your product, delivered the "essential message," and ended with transitional questions; the verdict now comes down to the decision maker. If it's a big "yes" then great job! But if it's a dispiriting "no," then try again; if you keep calling, you will always end up generating qualified sales leads.

Mobile Shopping This Cyber Monday and Black Friday

We noticed a large percentage of our client's traffic comes from those using mobile devices. This observation made us wonder; for this year's biggest shopping days, who is doing their shopping via mobile, and what kinds of mobile shopping trends are we going to see?

The mobile shopper
Mobile shopping has nearly doubled every year since 2010. From a demographic perspective, among mobile consumers, the majority are men, but women more than men use their smartphones to save money with mobile coupons. It isn't just based on gender of course, there are are regional differences as well, an interesting article comparing mobile shopping on the East and West Coasts finds East Coasters are 26% more likely to click on nightlife deals than West Coast shoppers. Mobile marketing makes way for a lot of targeting, be it by their location, which sites your consumers visit, the time of day, income, etc.

Where are they shopping?
We have seen a $24 million increase over last year's online sales and the prediction for next year is an increase of $26 million. Taking a huge piece of this pie are the most popular online shopping websites, number one being Amazon.com. Amazon might be king on the internet, but for mobile shopping, it trails slightly behind EBay according to this Nielsen report. This difference could be because consumers perhaps feel more secure using PayPal on eBay from their phones vs. Amazon because PayPal doesn't expose payment information to the merchant. It could also be because of the gamification aspect (auctions) of eBay that keeps people engaged more regularly.

What can we expect?
After perusing various websites, it seems retailers offering Cyber Monday and Black Friday deals will be offering a majority of their deals on electronics like tablets, portable laptops, gaming consoles and more. From a strategy perspective, we think in the future we will see marketers take a hint from Amazon.com for holiday shopping as Amazon built an impressive lightening deals page for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These pages will not only help people who want to look at deals ahead of time, but it also has deals daily leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday which helps keep their consumers engaged.

And now we wait
It would be nice to see more shopping done online and less people being trampled over in the stores. Cyber Monday already offers this and now Black Friday is getting in on the online action. All signs point to more mobile shopping and it seems that many marketers were prepared for these colossal shopping events and have their online mobile deals ready

Can Internet Marketing Really Help My B2B Business?

My Marketing Still Works Just Fine.

While it is common practice for manufacturers and industrial businesses to have a website, these businesses often shy away from online advertising and instead invest most, if not all, of their marketing budgets in more traditional forms of advertising. Traditional advertising is where these businesses feel most comfortable, as they have a long standing history with these mediums and know what to expect. However, while each business has its own methods of attributing income to each marketing campaign, the reality is that most traditional methods of marketing offer no way to calculate an exact return on investment, as the true level of exposure the business is receiving is often unknown.

Take print campaigns, for example. If you place an ad in a niche trade magazine, you may know the number of subscribers the magazine has, but how many of those actually read the magazine? How many readers actually saw your ad? How many took action based on that ad? The same holds true for direct mail campaigns. Of the targeted addresses you delivered to, how many reached their destination? How many did a clerk or secretary toss aside? How many actually made it in front of the CEO?

Can Internet Marketing Really Do Any Better?

Unlike traditional methods of marketing, Internet marketing campaigns provide businesses with statistical analytics that they can use to track the outcome of their marketing campaign and determine their exact return on investment (ROI). While Internet marketing can provide accurate tracking of exactly what works and why, it is not cheap, and some manufacturers may struggle to justify the initial investment in an environment that demands lean operations. Internet marketing is also not an overnight fix. Campaigns have to be conducted for a number of months to achieve the vaunted ROI, and it takes highly trained technical work by optimization experts, such as those at Net Site Marketing, before businesses will begin to see an improvement in revenues.

However, statistics show that online marketing is well worth the investment, provided you do your homework and go with an accredited Internet marketing company. According to a 2012 State of Digital Marketing Report, 59% of B2B marketers credit Internet marketing with having the biggest direct impact on lead generation. And while the initial fees charged for Internet marketing services may seem pricey, a 2011 Hubspot study found that inbound Internet marketing actually costs 62% less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing.

That's Great, but My Business Doesn't Rely on Website Sales.

Even if you don't use your website to generate leads or sales right now, a properly optimized website will help your target market to find your business when researching product vendors and suppliers. According to a 2012 Buyersphere Report, 73% of B2B industrial buyers use the web to gather information prior to making a purchase. This means those buyers you used to receive through distribution chains and trade shows are turning more and more to the Internet as their primary means for making a purchase decision. This behavior is the driving force behind a trending shift in marketing budgets away from legacy marketing streams and towards Internet marketing.

In addition, younger industrial buyers are much more likely to use the Internet for information than older generations. As the workforce matures, the Internet will become increasingly relied upon as a primary resource and will steadily continue to dominate sales in the marketplace. Those manufacturers who have invested in optimized websites to the point where they are achieving high positions in the search engines, will continue to have an edge over the competition, and will be primed to capitalize on this ever-growing revenue stream.