The holidays can be a tough time of year for some businesses.
Let’s face it, if you are not in a retail business tied to the holidays, odds are your business dips this time of year. It’s a natural phenomenon - consumers are preoccupied and busy so they tend to put off purchases and decisions that they don’t absolutely have to make, until the first of the year.
So what can you do to drum up some business so December isn’t a total bust? Well I always say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! How can you take advantage of the holidays and gift giving and buying?
One suggestion is to consider selling gift certificates. Just about any type of consumer business, whether you sell products or services, can offer gift certificates.
Promote your gift certificates to your current clients and customers as a way for them to share your products or services that they know and love with a friend or family member. (This can be a great way to facilitate referrals and generate new business, too!).
Gift certificates not appropriate for your business? How about offering an end-of-year or a seasonal special? Make sure your special expires on December 31. This could be a product or service you are discontinuing or closing out. Or it could be a special holiday discount on a regular product or service.
By giving your customers a great deal, or offer they can’t normally get, you give them a reason to purchase from you now vs. waiting until after the holidays. They will appreciate the special price considering their expenses are higher than normal in December. And you win, because you make a sale when you otherwise would not have. Your profit margin may be lower, but at least it is profit!
So be creative. Think about how you can turn your product or service into a unique gift idea. A way for someone to learn the benefits of having a fitness trainer or personal coach first hand, through a gift of a few sessions. Fresh flowers every month for 6 months. $50 toward the purchase of any product or service you offer. A free consultation.
Following are three more holiday marketing ideas you may want to consider:
(1) Offer to donate a percentage of all sales in December to your favorite charity and publicize it with a press release to the media.
(2) Do a promotion giving one lucky customer the chance to win their holiday purchase for free. Select one customer at the end of December and refund them for the full price of their purchase. This will get all buyers excited and will give them an incentive to buy now. Put a maximum value on the prize if you want to protect yourself from having to refund too large of a purchase.
(3) Or just find a way to help your customers see that now is the perfect time to buy, before your prices increase in the new year (Buy Now and Save!), or before you no longer offer a particular product or service. If you don’t want to discount, offer a free gift or value-added bonus with purchase.
Once you’ve decided to make a special holiday offer to your customers. What is the best way to make them aware of this offer?
How about through your regular e-zine or e-newsletter? Along with your regular content, include a line or two about this special promotion. Include a link to the page on your web site where customers can go to take advantage of your special offer.
Don’t publish an e-zine? That’s okay, send out an email notifying your customers of your special holiday offer. Use a compelling Subject Line to get them to open the email. If you have email addresses for both current customers and prospects you may want to send out two different emails.
You could use the email to your current customers to thank them for all of their business over the past year. Or suggest that since they like your products or services so much, they may want to share them with a friend or family member by purchasing a gift. Put together a special gift package to make their shopping easy.
Don’t have email address for your customers or prospects. Here’s six more ways to quickly get the word out about your holiday promotion or special offer.
(1) Put up a poster in your retail location.
(2) Promote your holiday special on your web site home page.
(3) Telephone your best customers to tell them about your end-of-year special, reserved for only your very best customers.
(4) Run a small ad where you usually advertise, but have the ad promote your holiday special.
(5) Include a note on all of your receipts and be sure to make all of your regular December customers aware as well. You may be able to increase the amount of their purchase or get them to return later in the month to make another purchase.
(6) Create a promotional flyer and hand it out in areas your customers and prospects frequent, or find another business you can partner with (a complimentary or non-competing product or service) who might be willing to make your promotional flyers available to their customers, if you do the same for them.
(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa, 10stepmarketing
Beat the Holiday Sales Blues With These Festive Marketing Ideas
Avoid These Resume Mistakes!
It is a mistake to think of your resume as a history of your past, as a personal statement or as some sort of self expression. Sure, most of the content of any resume is focused on your job history. But write from the intention to create interest, to persuade the employer to call you. If you write with that goal, your final product will be very different than if you write to inform or catalog your job history.
Most people write a resume because everyone knows that you have to have one to get a job. They write their resume grudgingly, to fulfill this obligation. Writing the resume is only slightly above filling out income tax forms in the hierarchy of worldly delights. If you realize that a great resume can be your ticket to getting exactly the job you want, you may be able to muster some genuine enthusiasm for creating a real masterpiece, rather than the feeble products most people turn out.
The good news is that, with a little extra effort, you can create a resume that makes you really stand out as a superior candidate for a job you are seeking. Not one resume in a hundred follows the principles that stir the interest of prospective employers. So, even if you face fierce competition, with a well written resume you should be invited to interview more often than many people more qualified than you.
Set aside at least three hours (that's an average length of time to complete a resume if all goes smoothly). Before you start, print out the following set of notes and tape it to your computer, on the wall next to your desk, or someplace where you'll see it throughout the process.
Resume Tips:
Your resume is about your future; NOT your past.
It is not a confessional. In other words, you don't have to tell all. Stick to what's relevant and marketable.
Don't write a list of job descriptions. Write achievements!
Promote only skills you enjoy using. Never write about things you don't want to repeat.
Be honest. You can be creative, but don't lie.
Avoid these advertising mistakes at all costs!
People have taken a number of approaches trying to do their own advertising ranging from silly all the way to insulting. These people choose there approach for various reasons. Some were ignorant about advertising and marketing while others were acting on incorrect information - usually in the form of cliches such as "sex sells." If you're in doubt, I can assure you that unless your business is in Nevada, sex does not sell. If you're going to handle your own advertising, here are a few things to avoid:
Pictures that have nothing to do with your product or service - If your company is in the carpet cleaning business there is no reason to have a picture of a baby. No one is going to say "What a cute baby, I think I want this company to clean my carpets." The same goes for pictures of sexy people (male or female) in provocative poses and little clothing.
Cheesy headlines - I actually saw an ad with a headline that said "We might be able to afford a bigger ad if you'd buy something from us." Yes, this will probably get someone's attention, but do you want to be remembered as the company that is having financial problems?
Illegible fonts - Most people will not take the time to decipher your ad when it is written in brush script, in which case, even the most persuasive copy is rendered useless. You want to use simple, clean fonts for headlines and body copy. Save the artistic fonts for accents and things of that nature.
Beat Your Competition with These New Year’s Hiring Resolutions
Another year has passed and it’s time to make your New Year’s resolutions. While others will be hitting the gym and chomping on nicotine gum, you can get a leg up on your competition with these hiring techniques to build your workforce in 2006.
Hire Slow, Fire Fast
The first and most important resolution you can make in the New Year is to stop waiting until the last minute to hire a new employee and stop letting the dead weight in your department drag the rest of the group down. Management is not an easy task, and hiring always seems to end up on the bottom of the ‘to do’ list. Because of this, managers always tend to rush the hiring process since they, “needed someone yesterday.”
Resolve to make your life easier this year by being proactive when it’s time to hire a new employee. By taking the appropriate amount of time to hire talented candidates, you’ll save yourself the future management headaches that come from rushed hiring mistakes.
Similarly, commit to terminating those employees that aren’t meeting your expectations on a consistent basis. This resolution is a little harder to execute since these people rarely do anything to overtly attract your attention to their poor performance. By establishing clear performance expectations, you’ll have a better understanding of when to deliver a pink slip.
Stop Selling Your Jobs
One of the easiest mistakes in hiring is getting overly excited about great candidates and trying to sell them on all the reasons why they should take your job. This can lead to incorrect assumptions about the position, resulting in unexpected turnover and an overall bad fit.
To solve this problem in the New Year, commit to creating realistic performance expectations in writing for every employee you intend to hire. This should include a dated timeline of expected accomplishments for the first 30 to 180 days of the job depending on the complexity and breadth of responsibilities.
Once you’ve documented these expectations, openly communicate them to any candidate that is being considered. Also, don’t hesitate to talk about the struggles and challenges that a candidate might have. This open communication should weed out unmotivated candidates as well as energize those ready for the task.
Stop Hiring on First Impressions
How many times have you hired someone you really liked and they turned out to be a poor performer? We often rely on our emotions in hiring which leads to making quick judgments based on our initial impressions. When this happens, great candidates are overlooked because of superficial indicators of their ability while poor candidates are hired for their superior presentation skills. While personality is an important factor, intellectual ability, technical skills, desire, and core values should also be considered in any hiring decision.
If you tend to lean toward making snap judgments on job candidates, follow these steps to overcome hiring errors based on initial impressions. First, make sure that before you go into an interview, you write down the areas of competency you intend to assess to get a complete picture of their ability. Second, make a firm decision before going into any interview that you won’t allow the first few minutes to determine your decision. Next, make sure you follow through with the proper line of questioning that will lead to the answers you need. Finally, wait thirty minutes after an interview ends to review your notes and carefully consider the actual answers that were given rather than the style in which they were communicated. .
Create Hiring Partners, not Hiring Vendors
A study released this year by the American Staffing Association revealed that Fortune 500 buyers viewed partnership with their staffing suppliers as an important part of their business. However, the same study revealed that only 2 in 5 customers view their current staffing suppliers as “partners.” What this means is that the majority of companies that work with staffing firms consider them a vendor rather than a strategic staffing partner.
If this sounds like your company, you may be missing out on some of the major benefits of a strong partnership with your staffing firm. To push this relationship to the next level, ensure that your staffing supplier has a firm understanding of your business challenges by inviting them to your workforce development meetings. Also, work with your staffing supplier to develop a strategic staffing timeline that will ensure that your staffing challenges are addressed as the business grows and the economy fluctuates.
This year, resolve to make your hiring process a predictable business practice rather than an unreliable event and 2006 will be a landmark year for your workforce.
Capture the Perfect Snowboarding Moment Using These Tips
Another growing aspect of snowboarding is photography. Yes! Snowboarding pictures are part of the sport’s culture. Taking snowboard riders at their best form has created a great interest for photographers. Now if you are newly venturing into this quest, there are three things that you should consider.
Extreme Weather Condition
You should know how to handle your camera in cold conditions. The primary problem that you will encounter with your camera is cold temperature. Batteries most often do not work in very cold conditions. It may also affect the camera's shutter and your film.
To keep your camera and batteries warm when dealing with cold weather, keep them inside the parka and close to your body. Take them out only when you are prepared to shoot. However, it will be a problem if you have a huge camera. But if you are only taking pictures for souvenir, then a smaller camera will do. Meanwhile, if you are taking professional pictures, then get the best camera you can afford and try to keep it as warm as you can.
Timing and Sharp Focus
When taking a snowboarding picture, you want to capture the agility of the rider and the illusion of speed. To capture that moment, you need great timing and very sharp focus. You have to get yourself in the right position and be in the right location to have a clear visual of the subject and to have a good chance of photographing the moment. However, it will still be very difficult to take a shot without coordinating with the snowboarder. So instead of waiting for the right time, plan the right time.
Have an agreement with the snowboarder about simple signals, location, and the time you will need to set up for the winning shot. Once you have this arranged, agree on what kind of poses you are looking for. It is important to communicate to the subject what you want to capture on film. Before choosing a location, try to survey whether there is enough room for you to move and cover. Meanwhile, when giving signals, it is better to use verbal signs but if that is not possible try to have clear non-verbal signals that both you and the snowboarder will understand.
Pay also special attention on your camera. You have to be adept in using your camera to avoid losing a split second chance of shooting a great snowboarding photo. Run a few shots to check if everything is working. Most importantly check the film. You don't want to put all your efforts in vain when you find out that your film has been exposed or you simply forgot to bring enough of them.
Film Exposure
Another terrible problem that you might encounter when taking pictures is film exposure. Most often than not, your camera is dealing with too much light. The snow is bright. The sky is bright. Both these elements appear nicely on your film but when you take a picture of your subject, he becomes a dark silhouette. To remedy this problem, you can use a light filter to control the light of the background as well as the subject. This will place light on where you want it to be. You should also you fill flash, this way you will avoid having dark silhouettes on your subject.
You may also encounter having bluish colored pictures especially when you are in a high altitude and surrounded with snow. A good solution to these problems is using a UV filter. It will lessen the blue light. This is very useful when you are taking snowboarding pictures at higher altitudes.
Considering these factors will help you come up with great snowboarding photos. Treat your camera as an extension of yourself by protecting it from cold, so that like your body it can function well. Plan the things that you need to do to capture the moment that you want. Lastly, invest on your camera. Add devices that will help you immortalize the perfect moment on your film.
Are You Inadvertently Making One Of These 3 Mistakes Trying To Start A Woman's Sexual Motor?
Summary:
Three common mistakes that men make trying to turn a woman on...
Keywords:
sex, more sex, husband, wife, marriage, relationship, lady, ladies, woman, women, man, men, horny, sexual
Article Body:
It’s Not In Your Looks
You can have a perfect forehead, chin, smile, and even a perfect pair of dimples but none of these will start a woman’s sexual motor. You can work out at the gym all week long, week after week and look like Mr. Atlas, but you aren’t going to start a woman’s sexual motor with your muscles.
Granted, you might get her attention for a brief moment – just like any other kind of abnormality she might notice would get her attention – but your looks won’t turn her sexual motor on. Why? Once a woman decides to enter into a relationship, looks no longer matter to her – if they ever mattered to her at all.
Now, I’m not dismissing the necessity for neatness, trimness, and cleanliness. These are things a woman expects of a man. But, they are not what start her sexual motor.
It’s Not In What You Have
You can wave big wads of cash around. You can wear Armani suits. You can wear a Rolex. You can drive a super expensive car. You can flaunt any other material possessions in front of a woman and you simply aren’t going to turn her on. (As obvious as this may seem, there are men worldwide trying to capture a woman’s attention by means of their possessions.)
The danger with this approach is that you may trigger her “greed factor” such that she is attracted to you in terms of what she can “get” from you. But, because she’s not being true to herself, sex will be something she despises. This phenomenon can easily be seen in “marriages” where an attractive young woman is married to an old and wealthy man. Both the man and the woman know that the marriage is based on purely selfish motives and nobody’s sexual motor has ever been started based on selfishness.
It’s Not Your Social Status
Many men mistakenly believe that if they were in a position of prominence, or if they were a celebrity, or if they held some kind of high-profile social rank, that they would then be able to start a woman’s sexual motor.
And in fact, there are cases where a woman is attracted to a high social status man simply for the attention and prestige that being affiliated with such a man will bring to her.
But once again, this kind of a relationship is founded on shallow and hollow premises. And, as it has been proven again and again, the very thing the woman was attracted to will soon become the thing she despises the most. And when a woman despises, her sexual motor is definitely turned off.
The number of women throughout history who have left high-profile men in favor of a “no-name” man is incalculable. In fact, the tabloid magazines show us this phenomenon on a regular basis – where some starlet has dumped the celebrity she has been dating and is now dating some unknown man who is just short of being down-right ugly. Why would women do this? Because the “no-name” guy clearly knows how to start her sexual motor while the prominent guy did not.