Service seekers are excellent customers to target, reports Forrester’s Bruce Temkin.

In previous research, Forrester created four segments of consumers based on their interest in low prices and good customer service: service seekers, price seekers, price & service seekers, and others. The research firm examined the loyalty of these segments across 12 industries.

“Across all industries, service seekers were more likely than price seekers to buy more products, stay with their current provider, and recommend their provider to friends and colleagues,” noted Temkin.

It validates our belief that merely positioning your product on the lowest price is a slippery route. There’s always a business that will come in and undercut you, and swiftly steal your marketshare.

Alternatively, the more reasons you give people to choose your brand, price becomes a less important purchase decision factor. As a result, you’ll attract people that value quality, are willing to pay for it, and will stick around for the long haul.

Here are some valuable tips to help increase your sales, compliments of business consultant Mark Wardell.

1. Up-sell to your customers
For starters, they already know and trust you, plus they have demonstrated a willingness to buy.  So if they are given the option of a volume discount, for example, they just might jump at the opportunity to buy more.

2. Cross-sell to your customers
People appreciate convenience and choice.  Be sure to provide both by making additional products or services available that complement and enhance your customers’ buying experience.  For example, if a customer buys a product from you that requires batteries, be sure to offer him batteries at the time of purchase.  Otherwise he’s likely to be frustrated when he gets home and discovers that he needs to head back out to get some batteries… possibly from someone else’s business.

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When a business is growing, it can be hard to keep up with the workload, which can negatively impact service quality.

Vancouver business coach Mark Wardell, founder of Wardell Professional Development, offers four tools in CGA Magazine that can help any business achieve sustained growth.

Business manual
It houses your strategies, your policies, your systems, and any other information you need to run your firm with cognizance. Not only will this manual help smooth out the daily management of your firm, it will also give everyone involved peace of mind that things are being done according to a plan.

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Businesses are hard-pressed during this difficult recession. Marketing budgets are being scrutinized more than ever and slashed. Fortunately, there are effective and affordable online tools and technologies to gain a competitive advantage.

To explore new technologies businesses can tap into, Webcopyplus spoke to Robert Bosley, CEO Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Fusion Corporate Services Inc., which specializes in customized marketing solutions and business profitability.

What is the key to marketing in an economic downturn?

FCS: Not to stop spending on marketing as you not only need to survive but you have a excellent opportunity to increase your market share as more and more companies are searching for ways to improve their business. You need to focus on spending on methods with a higher than average ROI. One of several areas we have achieved success is on cross-media campaign tools for customer acquisition and retention.

Cross media campaigns are those that use multiple media avenues to achieve the multiple touches necessary today to reach the customer or prospect.

Can you give us an example?

FCS: One valuable component of cross media campaigns is highly targeted direct video email messaging.

Please elaborate.

FCS: Let me be clear, we are not talking about static broadcast email blasts. Those can be impersonal and often end up in the spam mailbox. What I am referring to is a patent pending technology that has a proven track record. Clients normally experience view rates from 30% to 62%, compared to the typical response rate of 1% to 3% with a direct mail campaign.

This technology is a self-opening email that will communicate your message with video and sound with a much greater retention and action rate than standard email. Furthermore, and also very important, is the ability to provide you with the analytics to measure the effectiveness of the message and the ability to modify your campaign. You can see who opened, watched, explored, forwarded, and responded to each email communication.

Can you name some industries that have used this technology with success?

FCS: Manufacturing, wholesale, healthcare products, medical equipment, entertainment, gift giving, non-profit organizations, insurance, employee recruitments, newsletters to name a few. Also, banks and credit unions, universities, hospitals, sports teams, and radio or television stations are excellent candidates.

Is this method expensive?

FCS: It really is not, in many ways. For example, it requires no software investment or IT expertise on the client’s end because the program runs from the vendor’s servers. Furthermore, one measure of success is outcomes so mailing list size is not crucial to the success of the program. Also, it costs virtually nothing to send the message out two or three times.

This tool can be an excellent link to websites; it can qualify recipients for direct mail; and it can help salespeople target the most interested prospects. It can help your overall marketing and communication strategies.
To learn more, about cross media campaigns, you can visit Fusion’s website at www.fcs.us.com or contact Robert directly at robertb@fcs.us.com.

When developing web content, the web writers at Webcopyplus often draw attention to the benefits of our clients’ products and services. It’s upbeat, and it’s effective.

But there is another avenue. Web content can also convey what the perspective customer stands to lose in a situation. It plays on, and builds, fear.

“Don’t miss the chance to get the Website Optimization Package for half the retail price.”

You’re applying pressure. It works. But it can also hinder trust and strain loyalty.

A time element can increase the pressure, and conversions. For instance, you could add: “This deal in only available until midnight tonight.”

It’s persuasive because people are afraid to miss opportunities.

Google, Facebook, MySpace have all done it. Now another player, Yahoo, is dipping its toes into the self-service ad industry.

Yahoo recently unveiled its self-service option for display advertising aimed at small-to-medium sized businesses. The display ad solution is called Yahoo My Display Ads, and according to Yahoo it “puts display advertising within reach for businesses of all sizes.”

Should small businesses jump on board and start advertising with Yahoo My Display Ads?

To get the scoop on Yahoo’s latest venture, we chatted with Tamara Brooks, co-owner of Vancouver-based October 17 Media. Tamara is a seasoned marketing professional, having working in online marketing and the branding industry for roughly 12 years. With her business partner Brenda Cadman, October 17 Media has worked alongside clients such as Future Shop, Fitness Town, Canadian Gene Cure Foundation, Leahy Music, the District of West Vancouver, Homeworks Services Inc, Pennzoil Quaker State US, NAPA Canada and DDB Canada.

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For more than a decade, sales strategists have been advising businesses to take their marketing online. Forward-looking companies have heeded this message.

However, many businesses still prefer traditional media such as TV, radio and newsprint. So while typical consumers might spend 25% of their media time surfing the Web, these companies might only be investing 5% or so of their marketing budgets on websites and other online promotions.

These businesses need to get with the times and accelerate their investments on the Internet, especially during the downturn. Here are a few good reasons why.

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Your shiny new website copy is finally in place, and is starting to bring in business. Great!

But before you amortize your investment, consider how those carefully crafted words can work for your business in other places.

Repurposing your website marketing copy will:

• Reinforce your brand identity
• Establish consistent messaging
• Increase customer recognition

It will also give you more than your money’s worth.

Explore 10 ways to repurpose your website copy so it works overtime for your company, online and offline.

Typesett offers readers a simple, clever feature that compares websites of rival companies.

When you review the website comparisons, notice the ones that have more impact and promote better usability are amazingly clean. The web designers, developers and copywriters made the effort and took the time to define and effectively convey key messages. They strived for a simple website, and they succeeded.

It brings to mind the words of French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint Exupery: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

Kudos to Apple and Gibson in particular. They made every word and image count. Adidas, Fender and Microsoft should take note.

See Comparing websites of rival companies.