Coffee news articles http://coffeenews.com.au/portal Thu, 17 May 2012 23:25:23 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/images/M_images/rss.png http://coffeenews.com.au/portal Coffee news articles http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=168&Itemid=354 by Jason Eisner BrandQuestFor many small businesses, branding is as mysterious as the meaning of life and makes BAS statements seem like a ‘walk in the park’. Far too many small businesses fail at marketing because they fail to understand the importance of branding as an outcome of their marketing strategy. Branding is the ‘repeated and consistent’ messages that create awareness of your benefits, and lay the groundwork for a trusting relationship.There are many misconceptions that SME’s don’t have the need, resources or ability to brand themselves. Let’s explore three of the most common branding myths and clear a path for a better understanding of how you can, and why you should effectively brand your company. Wed, 16 Jun 2010 10:50:48 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=167&Itemid=354 By Lenann McGookey Gardner www.YouCanSell.com We work hard to promote our businesses. There's our signage. And our truck or car with a logo on the door, or maybe “wrapping” the entire vehicle. There's our business cards, which we hand out regularly. There's that brochure we put together back in the day. And our website! Oh, our website! We worked hard to get something out onto the internet.... No one notices. Yes, that's right, no one is noticing. Put out an ad, and who calls you? Your mother, your cousin, your best friend: “Saw your ad!” Well that's just great; they're already customers! What about the people who are NOT doing business with you – but who ought to be? Tue, 04 May 2010 23:19:08 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=354 Article: May 2, 2009 - Sue Mazur One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is to fail to accurately monitor their advertising responses - and yet choosing the right means of advertising has a huge impact on a business. If you truly knew what form of advertising worked and what didn’t, then you could save your business substantial money, gain the best response from your budget and have the best chance of success. Even businesses that understand the importance of monitoring their responses experience problems. This starts when you rely on asking customers where they found you. Tue, 04 May 2010 22:55:58 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=165&Itemid=354 Lenann McGookey Gardner is President of Lenann McGookey Gardner Management Consulting, Inc. www.YouCanSell.com! To attract the most desirable and most profitable business, most professional services providers need a program of outreach to the prospective clients they could best serve. Such a program needs to be discreet and tasteful, and it needs to generate interest in your firm. The cornerstone of such a program is Positioning; the most powerful, provocative messages about your firm that you could hope to get into the minds of your best prospects. There are typically four to six messages in a Positioning Statement. If you haven't worked to hone those four to six messages - and if you and your colleagues don't agree on what your messages are -- you're probably all saying different things, and thus making no impact. Tue, 04 May 2010 22:43:36 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=164&Itemid=354 by Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder BNI We are living in some difficult economic times all around the world. Today's news is full of economic soap operas. Voices everywhere seem to be sprouting economic doom and gloom. Now please lean in close and listen very carefully, I'm going to ask you to do something very difficult, yet very important…. IGNORE all those doom and gloom voices. It's not that I want to deny reality, nor am I even judging whether all those important voices are right or wrong. What I am saying is all those voices are sending you useless information. Not only are they urging you to be afraid, very afraid, they are completing ignoring the solutions on which you need to focus. Successful business professionals learn from the past. For many of us, this is not our first recession. Tue, 04 May 2010 22:35:48 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=163&Itemid=354 You may start to hear the new ‘buzz’ word - ‘Relationship Marketing’. This form of marketing has been around for over 30 years but has only recently been enthusiastically embraced. It was developed from direct response marketing campaigns conducted in the 1970's and 1980’s that emphasises customer retention and satisfaction, rather than a dominant focus on 'point of sale' transactions. Relationship marketing differs from other forms of marketing in that it recognises the long term value to the firm of keeping customers, as opposed to direct or Intrusion marketing, which focuses upon acquisition of new customers by targeting majority demographics based upon prospective client lists. Tue, 04 May 2010 22:19:18 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=162&Itemid=354 Extract from C.J. Hayden, for About.com I hear from many entrepreneurs that marketing is a struggle. They just can't get enough clients to pay the bills, or they are spending more money to get each client than the sale is worth. So many of their efforts seem to fail. There must be an easier way, they tell me. I think there is. But making the transition from the hard way to the easy way can be pretty difficult in itself. That's because it requires the toughest kind of change -- a change in thinking. First of all, you must accept that there's nothing noble about working too hard. Working too hard comes in many forms. You may be putting in too many hours, or spending too much to get clients, or trying a dozen different marketing strategies all at once, or simply sounding too desperate when asking for the business. To leave struggle behind, you must be willing to give it up. This may sound odd, because of course you don't LIKE struggling. But old habits die hard. Tue, 04 May 2010 22:11:59 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=161&Itemid=354 Extract from Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder and CEO BNI It’s times like these that I think of situations I’ve been in where some crisis is brewing and one person in the mix stays calm and focused. That person keeps her “eye on the ball” and does what needs to be done – as it needs to be done. As business owners, entrepreneurs, and sales professionals, if you want to be successful during these difficult times, you must be someone who stays focused on solutions and not get drawn into the quagmire of problems. Economic downturns will come and go. Most people don’t know this, but statistically we have one every six years or so. This one is a more serious one. I get that. I also believe that the people who look for opportunities when times are tough will not only survive--they will thrive. I’ve been in business long enough to have seen it over and over again. Tue, 04 May 2010 14:31:48 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=160&Itemid=354 Tighter times are upon us, but calm and prudence will overcome, writes Noel Whittaker, director of Whittaker Macnaught, a division of HBOS Australia - Extract from Sunday Mail Brisbane article 16.11.2008 The season of goodwill is shaping up as the season of gloom. Property and share markets are falling, state governments are ramping up taxes to try to balance budgets that have been bleeding due to falling revenues, and there is even talk of Australia moving into recession. It’s not a pretty picture but those of us with grey hair have seen it all before, and know we will get over it if we hang in there. I appreciate it’s easier said than done, but one of our greatest enemies is fear itself, and in the 21st century, we are vulnerable to a range of intangible enemies - job loss, inability to pay bills, or even fear of losing your home. Tue, 04 May 2010 13:58:18 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=159&Itemid=354 Retina Burn?
by Patrick Williams,
The Selling Sherpa Do you ever wonder why buyers automatically call their established vendors to make a purchase despite the fact that you have a better product, better price, and better service? One factor contributing to this behaviour is something called Retina Burn . The Retina Burn theory suggests buyers have to be exposed to your name at least 21 times during a six month period for you to be Top of Mind when they start to consider who to contact for solutions. Tue, 04 May 2010 13:10:52 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=158&Itemid=354 by Coffee News AUSTRALIA In the mid 1990’s print media was the main advertising media on the schedule for SME’s around the world - how things have changed. Nowadays, media advertising is driven by enhancements to technology and the need for advertisers to reach their target audiences in the places where they are looking for the information.
It seems that Internet Advertising is the fastest growing format of the moment, but print media advertising still has a very firm place in marketing plans. Tue, 04 May 2010 13:07:51 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=157&Itemid=354 by Roy Williams
Founder and President of The Wizard of Ads
Entrepreneur.com’s Advertising columnist The length of the ramping up period your ad campaign will require before you begin to see results is determined particularly by: The Product purchase cycle:
How often is the customer in the market for this product? Due to the fact that we eat more often than we redecorate, ads for restaurants yield results much faster than ads for new carpet or furnishings. Tue, 04 May 2010 13:04:03 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=156&Itemid=354 How Did You Hear About Us?
by Vicki Lenz That is a question that many advertisers want to ask in order to track results of their advertising dollars. Whenever I get the tracking or expected results question from advertisers, I mention Rule #16 from Michael Corbett’s book: The 33 Ruthless Rules of Local Advertising. The rule is: Don’t ask customers what brought them in. Tue, 04 May 2010 12:58:54 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155&Itemid=354 THE COCAINE OF ADVERTISING?
by Roy Williams
www.wizardofads.com Ask your doctor how to feel good, and he’ll look you squarely in the eye and say, ‘’Eat right and exercise.’’ Yet for every dollar spent in the fitness centres, Americans spend nineteen dollars on cocaine. The reason? Two seconds after you snort cocaine you feel like Superman. Two weeks of diet and exercise just makes you hungry and sore. The desire for instant gratification is harmless enough if the only thing it leads you to do is pay higher prices at a convenience store. But heaven help if you demand instant gratification from your advertising! The business person looking for a financial quick fix will soon discover the cocaine of advertising, a four-letter magic chant: SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE! Tue, 04 May 2010 12:50:09 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=154&Itemid=354 by Roy Williams If you’re not drawing in as many customers as you’d like, there are only 4 places you need to look to figure our what’s going wrong. Is your business growing slower than you think it should? Do you suspect it’s slow pace might have something to do with ineffective marketing. Most entrepreneurs feel their business should be growing faster, but few know how to isolate the problem. Today we’re going to fix that. The elements that affect the growth of your business will fit into one of four distinct categories. Understand these categories, and you’ll have a solid framework for self-examination: Tue, 04 May 2010 12:41:07 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153&Itemid=354 by Roy Williams There are approximately 120,000 sales people responsible for selling advertising on the television and radio stations of America. Each of these sales people will make “prospecting calls” on an average of 3 business owners each day. One business owner out of twelve will say “Perhaps your station is the right one for my business. I’ll buy a small schedule to test the waters, and if it works, I’ll start using your station on a regular basis.” Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? In reality, it’s no different than standing at a roulette wheel saying “Perhaps black is the colour for me. I’ll place a small bet on black and if I win, I’ll start betting on black on a regular basis.” Each day, approximately thirty thousand business owners decide to “test the waters,” and while most of them are very disappointed with the results, they are typically not surprised, because most of them have been “testing the waters” for years with very limited success, and the few successes they did have were rarely repeatable. Tue, 04 May 2010 12:36:54 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=152&Itemid=354 by Coffee News AUSTRALIA To understand how your buyers are thinking, be sure to read their eye movement. When a prospect looks up and to the left, they are remembering images. In your presentation, did you use visual words? When they look up and to the right, they are creating new images in their minds, so again be sure to use visual words. Suggest pictorial relationships between objects and ideas. Vivid mental pictures help you hold a buyer’s/prospect’s attention and close more sales. Tue, 04 May 2010 12:29:47 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=354 by Coffee News AUSTRALIA Jean Daum, an international expert on Advertising, Super-Learning and Subliminal Techniques, and founder of Coffee News tells a real life story about two hairdresser’s different approach to advertising: I once had a community newspaper I called the Suburban, and once, I had 2 hairdressers - who happened to be right across the street from each other - advertise exactly the same perm special with the same 1/4 page ad size. They also paid the same price for their ads. The first hairdresser was Unisex Scissors, who had been at the same location 10 years and who had an ad budget that allowed them to buy one quarter page ad once every 3 months or so. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:43:58 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=149&Itemid=354 by Sue Mazur, Coffee News AUSTRALIA I received a call from one of my Advertisers one day telling me that he wanted to stop his Coffee News advertising. I was a bit surprised, and asked why. The fellow shared that he has been receiving quite a lot of response from an on-line local trade directory that he had signed with recently, and it was certainly enough business for him. We had a chat about how Coffee News was giving him exposure in the marketplace, so that when customers saw his listing in the trade directory they were familiar with his name, they would choose him over his competitors in the same directory. I then asked if he had read the publication I sent to him “How to get the best results from your Coffee News Ad” that explains this and shows how to more accurately measure responses. He was very honest and said that he hadn’t read it and wasn’t sure where it was. He was so keen about the on-line local trade directory and said he definitely wanted to give it a go, and would get back to me and let me know how it went. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:13:35 +0100 http://coffeenews.com.au/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=354 by Sue Mazur, Coffee News AUSTRALIA What on earth is a Reticular Activator in the Brain? Seriously, do my potential customers have one? Do I? Should I be worried? Rest assured, it’s perfectly normal - in each of our brains, there is an area known as the Reticular Activator. This is the part of the brain that stays on alert and its job is to make you notice some things, and ignore other things. (If we noticed everything, we’d be too distracted to function.) This is like a control centre for three categories of information: (1) things that are familiar or connected to you (ie branding); (2) things that are unusual, abnormal, shocking or strange; (3) things that are dangerous, threatening or problematic. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:51:01 +0100