5 New Innovative Ideas to Attract More Customers
January 28, 2010 by admin
Filed under Marketing Tips
Creating customers is the main goal of any business because they are the one who makes the business itself. Sometimes, providing time, money and effort in improving your products and services is important, but what counts a lot are the customers. They determine your success whether you are just a small business owner. Therefore, many companies are providing excellent customer service to ensure their continued patronage.
Keeping the old ones is very vital because they spend more of their money buying your products. Because they are more likely t refer you to their family, officemates and friends. The loyalty of the customers to the company is developed. But as a company expands and grow into larger one, new customers are coming in.
New customers are another challenge for entrepreneurs. Some are just “window shoppers” who are just looking around and trying to figure what is new with your product. Some are “doubters” who tend to look that they want to buy but having second thoughts. The goal of the company now is to lure them into the fold and make them their patrons.
There are so many tested tips to attract more buyers. Many corporations had adopted the procedures and were successful. But as time changes, innovative methods in attracting more clients are now being used. Here are some of those:
To increase the potential of gaining more clients, join social networks. To publicize your product, think of signing up in any social network sites. This is where people go to connect to one another. Promoting your product in these sites would probably generate more sales since people are here to chat and talk about what is in.
Follow up letters and e-mails would help. Usually, customers would ask inquiries about your product; take time in answering those questions by replying to them. Give them all the details of your product. Your response would be a clear sign that you are interested making a deal with them.
Offer your clients with some freebies. Consumers don’t purchase the product unless they have tried it themselves. By putting the product in client’s hands, this gives them a first-hand experience and sees the results for themselves. You may be giving a lot of free samples, but in return, you would have more sales more than you have spent.
Try direct response marketing. This one works like as if you are just getting to know a certain person. You call your clients and befriend them. Your new acquaintances would earn you new customers. Then slowly introduce your product to them provide them an irresistible offer plus a gift to make them buy your product
Do direct selling. The salesperson comes in direct contact with the client. These include demonstrations, free delivery, and satisfaction guarantees. The client doesn’t need to go out anymore in order to get something, therefore minimizing the hassle in purchasing.
The traditional way of customers going to the mall to buy is slowly fading away. The trend today is bringing the product to customer’s right in to their doorsteps. The Internet has also revolutionized the system by simply directing their needs in just press of their keypad.
That is why an entrepreneur, in order for him to gain more profits, should switch now to modern methods of attracting more clients into his company.
By: Donna Price
About the Author:
Keeping the old ones is very vital because they spend more of their money buying your products. Because they are more likely t refer you to their family, officemates and friends. The loyalty of the customers to the company is developed. But as a company expands and grow into larger one, new customers are coming in.
New customers are another challenge for entrepreneurs. Some are just “window shoppers” who are just looking around and trying to figure what is new with your product. Some are “doubters” who tend to look that they want to buy but having second thoughts. The goal of the company now is to lure them into the fold and make them their patrons.
There are so many tested tips to attract more buyers. Many corporations had adopted the procedures and were successful. But as time changes, innovative methods in attracting more clients are now being used. Here are some of those:
To increase the potential of gaining more clients, join social networks. To publicize your product, think of signing up in any social network sites. This is where people go to connect to one another. Promoting your product in these sites would probably generate more sales since people are here to chat and talk about what is in.
Follow up letters and e-mails would help. Usually, customers would ask inquiries about your product; take time in answering those questions by replying to them. Give them all the details of your product. Your response would be a clear sign that you are interested making a deal with them.
Offer your clients with some freebies. Consumers don’t purchase the product unless they have tried it themselves. By putting the product in client’s hands, this gives them a first-hand experience and sees the results for themselves. You may be giving a lot of free samples, but in return, you would have more sales more than you have spent.
Try direct response marketing. This one works like as if you are just getting to know a certain person. You call your clients and befriend them. Your new acquaintances would earn you new customers. Then slowly introduce your product to them provide them an irresistible offer plus a gift to make them buy your product
Do direct selling. The salesperson comes in direct contact with the client. These include demonstrations, free delivery, and satisfaction guarantees. The client doesn’t need to go out anymore in order to get something, therefore minimizing the hassle in purchasing.
The traditional way of customers going to the mall to buy is slowly fading away. The trend today is bringing the product to customer’s right in to their doorsteps. The Internet has also revolutionized the system by simply directing their needs in just press of their keypad.
That is why an entrepreneur, in order for him to gain more profits, should switch now to modern methods of attracting more clients into his company.
By: Donna Price
About the Author:
Donna Price is a Success Coach, author of “Launching Your Dream” and “Bizology.Biz – The Science of Business Success”. As a Success Coach, Donna works with individuals and groups on personal development and success focus. To pick up your Entrepreneur’s Resource Guide go to: http://www.resourcesforentrepreneurs.com
Assess Your Company’s Potential to Innovate With a New Business Model
Business concepts are all well and fine, but what do these business model innovation concepts potentially do for you? I want to share some questions designed to help you apply what you have been reading to your existing business.
What is your current business model?
If you offer many products and services, you may have more than one. Understanding how you operate now will make it easier to think about how you can improve upon the present.
In thinking about this question, you will find it helpful to focus first on what benefits customers get from what you provide. Also, consider what benefits the customers’ customers get through to the end user of the product or service. In thinking about benefits, remember that customers always want more and at a lower price. How does your business model accomplish that for them?
As an example, let’s consider the Folger’s coffee business at Procter & Gamble. That business is an industry leader in providing coffee-based products to allow consumers to have a tasty, comforting beverage at home that may or may not stimulate them with caffeine. The products are sold primarily through supermarkets, discounters, and warehouse clubs.
Compare that with the Starbucks coffee business. Starbucks primarily provides high-quality coffee and tea products through a service in complex prepared forms in coffee bars to also provide an enjoyable experience. The company further offers roasted coffee beans as a product for tasty experiences at other coffee bars and eat-away-from home locales as well as for consumers to brew at home, so that customers can always have the good-tasting products they prefer.
The companies have two different business models that provide different products, differing amounts of experience, in different ways, and mostly in different locations. Notice that Folger’s could have innovated with the Starbucks business model before Starbucks even existed as a company. The model already existed in Europe, which is what helped stimulate the Starbucks model.
Had Folger’s taken this path, there would probably be only one business model now in the industry. Interestingly, the two businesses have started to compete directly with each other’s business models by offering prepackaged coffee-based beverages that are manufactured and distributed by others into normal beverage outlets.
What were the last five business models before the current one?
Understanding how you got to where you are today often provides valuable insights into what new business models would be most attractive in the future. The forces that made those innovations work may still be around today, or may have only been slightly changed.
Has your company had a process aimed at developing improved business models?
New business processes almost always emerge from a deliberate process of innovation. If your company has yet to establish such a process, chances are higher that you have a substantial backlog of opportunities for desirable new business models.
If you have such a process, does it look at business model innovation separately from product and technological innovation?
Many companies see new products and technologies as the only potential ways to provide increased benefits to customers and end users. As the coffee discussion suggested, it can be easier to add more value by turning a product into a service than it is to focus only on improving the product itself.
For example, General Food’s Maxwell House division had introduced flavored coffees conceptually like what you get in a coffee bar in the early 1970s. Few would argue that the taste and experience of these canned items are a match for what is offered at a Starbucks or a coffee bar using Starbucks products. Without a separate focus on designing and implementing new and better business models (that may include new products and technologies), you are probably missing most of your opportunities.
When was the last time your company changed its business model?
If the answer is more than two years ago, the odds favor there being a current opportunity to implement an improved business model.
How many times has the business model changed in your industry in the last ten years?
If the answer is less than three times, there is probably untapped potential for a new business model now.
How expensive is it for you to develop and test a new business model?
The answer differs a lot from industry to industry. If the costs are low, then you have very high potential to develop an improved business model. You will face few internal hurdles to doing the necessary early experimentation. Conversely, if the costs are high, you will probably need to create an improved way to develop business models that is less expensive.
How risky is it for you to develop a test a new business model?
For some companies, reputation is so important, for example, that it is difficult to even test new things until they are almost perfect. In other industries, working with crude prototypes is the expectation.
What do you lose if your business model experiment fails in all of the predictable ways that it could? If not very much, what are you waiting for?
If much is at stake, consider ways to reduce the amount at risk or the visibility of your flops. Early experiments should be expected to create “learning” rather than solutions, so you need to have a way to get your learning on the cheap.
Copyright 2008 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
By: Donald Mitchell
About the Author:
What is your current business model?
If you offer many products and services, you may have more than one. Understanding how you operate now will make it easier to think about how you can improve upon the present.
In thinking about this question, you will find it helpful to focus first on what benefits customers get from what you provide. Also, consider what benefits the customers’ customers get through to the end user of the product or service. In thinking about benefits, remember that customers always want more and at a lower price. How does your business model accomplish that for them?
As an example, let’s consider the Folger’s coffee business at Procter & Gamble. That business is an industry leader in providing coffee-based products to allow consumers to have a tasty, comforting beverage at home that may or may not stimulate them with caffeine. The products are sold primarily through supermarkets, discounters, and warehouse clubs.
Compare that with the Starbucks coffee business. Starbucks primarily provides high-quality coffee and tea products through a service in complex prepared forms in coffee bars to also provide an enjoyable experience. The company further offers roasted coffee beans as a product for tasty experiences at other coffee bars and eat-away-from home locales as well as for consumers to brew at home, so that customers can always have the good-tasting products they prefer.
The companies have two different business models that provide different products, differing amounts of experience, in different ways, and mostly in different locations. Notice that Folger’s could have innovated with the Starbucks business model before Starbucks even existed as a company. The model already existed in Europe, which is what helped stimulate the Starbucks model.
Had Folger’s taken this path, there would probably be only one business model now in the industry. Interestingly, the two businesses have started to compete directly with each other’s business models by offering prepackaged coffee-based beverages that are manufactured and distributed by others into normal beverage outlets.
What were the last five business models before the current one?
Understanding how you got to where you are today often provides valuable insights into what new business models would be most attractive in the future. The forces that made those innovations work may still be around today, or may have only been slightly changed.
Has your company had a process aimed at developing improved business models?
New business processes almost always emerge from a deliberate process of innovation. If your company has yet to establish such a process, chances are higher that you have a substantial backlog of opportunities for desirable new business models.
If you have such a process, does it look at business model innovation separately from product and technological innovation?
Many companies see new products and technologies as the only potential ways to provide increased benefits to customers and end users. As the coffee discussion suggested, it can be easier to add more value by turning a product into a service than it is to focus only on improving the product itself.
For example, General Food’s Maxwell House division had introduced flavored coffees conceptually like what you get in a coffee bar in the early 1970s. Few would argue that the taste and experience of these canned items are a match for what is offered at a Starbucks or a coffee bar using Starbucks products. Without a separate focus on designing and implementing new and better business models (that may include new products and technologies), you are probably missing most of your opportunities.
When was the last time your company changed its business model?
If the answer is more than two years ago, the odds favor there being a current opportunity to implement an improved business model.
How many times has the business model changed in your industry in the last ten years?
If the answer is less than three times, there is probably untapped potential for a new business model now.
How expensive is it for you to develop and test a new business model?
The answer differs a lot from industry to industry. If the costs are low, then you have very high potential to develop an improved business model. You will face few internal hurdles to doing the necessary early experimentation. Conversely, if the costs are high, you will probably need to create an improved way to develop business models that is less expensive.
How risky is it for you to develop a test a new business model?
For some companies, reputation is so important, for example, that it is difficult to even test new things until they are almost perfect. In other industries, working with crude prototypes is the expectation.
What do you lose if your business model experiment fails in all of the predictable ways that it could? If not very much, what are you waiting for?
If much is at stake, consider ways to reduce the amount at risk or the visibility of your flops. Early experiments should be expected to create “learning” rather than solutions, so you need to have a way to get your learning on the cheap.
Copyright 2008 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
By: Donald Mitchell
About the Author:
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is coauthor of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. You can find free tips for accomplishing 20 times more by registering at:
www.2000percentsolution.com
