Entrepreneurship | BizSieve.com

Why Your Promotional Flyer Is Going Straight In The Bin – And What You Can Do About It

You have spent a lot of money on a promotional flyer to advertise your business, you have printed it on good quality paper and you have paid a distributor to hand them out all over your city. Unfortunately, as soon as your flyer is pushed through the mail slot of 99% of doors, it will be headed straight to the rubbish bin or recycling box. All of your hard work has gone to waste to create something that will probably only used by your customers to line the bottom of their birdcages.

Why are your promotional flyers destined for the bin? Is there anything you can do about it?

Take a Close Look at Your Flyers – Are They the Best They Can Be?

Take a look at the flyers that you have been distributing and ask yourself whether you can really blame your customers for throwing them away without a second thought. Do they stand out from all of the other advertisements, or are they boring and ordinary? It can be difficult to look at your flyers objectively because you are emotionally invested in your business, but try to look at them from the perspective of someone who has never heard of your company or what you do. Would the flyer pique their interest?

Unfortunately when you are distributing flyers for your business you will have a lot of other promotional mail to compete with. Unless your flyer has a great offer or is very interesting and eye-catching, you can’t really blame most people for recycling it with the pile of other junk mail.

Tips for Improving Your Flyers

The good news is that there are a number of ways you can improve your flyers and make it more likely that your customers will pay attention to them and save them. Here are a few tips to apply to your flyers to help them avoid a one-way trip to the rubbish bin.

Make the largest text eye catching. The headline or the largest text on the page should be something that makes the reader look twice. Too many flyers simply state the name of the company, which won’t catch the customer’s interest.
Use a large and impactful font for this big headline, which will make it more readable and make it stand out in a pile of papers from across the room.
Most of the time, people look at images first and then read text. Use an interesting main graphic or a vibrant colour image to grab the attention of the reader. Make sure that it is obvious how the image is related to the text.
Follow up the headline with strong and simple points that outline what you have to offer. Focus on the benefit of your product or service for the customer… what’s in it for them?
Avoid too much text. People will get bored reading the flyer and you will lose their interest.
Include a call to action at the end. Perhaps you want them to visit your website and sign up, or request a free report, or order a free trial. A leaflet or a flyer with no call to action is a wasted opportunity.
Take a random sampling of all of the other common flyers that come through your door. Does your flyer look like every other one? Think about how you can make it stand out, such as using an unusual colour or printing it on a shiny or textured surface.

These are just a few of the main ways that you can make it less likely that your promotional flyer will end up going straight in the bin and instead be read by your potential customers.

About the Author: Paula Whately is a blogger and entrepreneur in London who recently had a new flyer designed for her business. With the new design in flyer distribution, London customers were calling her at a much higher rate than usual.

Planning a customer loyalty programme? Try these

Customer loyalty programmes are one of the most innovative ways to show to your customers that you value them. Businesses that have always aimed at keeping their customers coming back for more without actually letting them wait, know what these programmes can bring to them. Customer loyalty programmes play an instrumental role in helping you gather relevant information about the customer demographic. These are the kind of programmes that go on to boosting your marketing efforts by also helping you fetch the best outputs in the long run. Loyalty programmes outperform several other strategies and campaigns but still a lot of businesses seem to overlook its growing importance.

However, only realising the benefits that these programmes can bring to your business is not enough. Planning them with care and getting them right should be the concerns that follow. We believe that the key to creating a well thought out and successful customer loyalty program is its accessibility and user friendliness.

If you’re planning to start a customer loyalty programme soon, here are the tips that can help you get the most out of it and finally plan it according to your expectations:

# Your first loyalty punch card

The punch card formula is a great way to give it a start. Make sure that you design a card that is specific to your business and aims at offering FREE and attractive gifts after a particular number of purchases being made by the customer. Suggest them to carry the card and let them know the benefits they can gain from the card, well ahead in advance.

# Opt-in programmes

Encourage your customers to avail the benefits of the sign-up in the form of plenty of offers and rewards. Let them share their email addresses with you and you can then add them to your opt-in list. This can be either done online or right at the time of sale. Email sign-up options will ease out the pressure on the application processes and your customers won’t have to download apps every now and then. They won’t be required to share all the personal information, as in most cases, they are denied by the customers.

You can then choose to send them a draft on the attractive and personal offers as well as the regular communications that can only be availed by the loyalty customers. If the recent surveys are to be believed, email campaigns that have mostly been targeting the loyalty members have gradually emerged as an amazing source of revenue. Additionally, these are also easy to track; you can’t deny that you wanted something like this.

# Premium loyalty programme

This is where you can bring the customer relationship management software into use. Track most of the higher value purchases, study them and invite specific customers to join the programme. Find out the customers who have been contributing majorly to boosting up your sales and invite them to join the programme.

# Branded loyalty membership cards

With the help of loyalty card services, you can design branded cards that are specific to your business, activities and brand. They will paint a brighter picture of your image; such services can largely help you in tracking and managing the customer behaviour and lot more. You can track the number of customers that have actually visited your store. The customers that spend a good amount for making a purchase with your store and that too frequently must be noticed.

These loyal members can also be chosen for sending targeted emails; you can also text the campaigns to them. Services that you’re going to add can also include branded gift cards and much more. Think about your brand, its activities and what you would want from your customers in the present scenario and you will see an influx of unique ideas good enough to boost your sales.

# Adding the digital component

All your customers may not be digitally savvy but we still believe that most of them would be and this is what brings the incorporation of digital component into picture. It is important for the businesses to cater to the growing demands of customers addicted to apps which indicate a mobile loyalty trend growing with time. There are plenty of apps that can be tapped into for a fee or for free!

This is getting more important for the businesses that are already involved with the mobile payment platforms. Make sure that you explore all the available options and finally hop onto the services that can also offer a seamless social media integration. Get liked, shared and consider the pace of your progress with the help of online reviews as they also get you a slice of some honest feedback.

# Choice of incentives

The incentives or rewards you have for your customers should be as unique as your business. Make it appealing and moreover – a desirable one. You can go for experiential awards that can serve the purpose of actually ‘rewarding’ your loyal customers. A hair salon can always try and offer interesting monthly workshops to its loyal customers where they can be offered free makeover tips.

These are the kind of experiences that go on to building communities, adding value to the lives of your customers and assisting your business to stand out from the crowd. Don’t forget that these opportunities can be utilised for offering your customers amazing reason/s for coming back.

# Regular communication with customers

If they are your loyal customers – they deserve special treatment. Segment out this section of your customers and don’t forget to communicate with them more often than not. Share the upcoming events with them, let them know about the incentives and lastly – don’t forget their birthdays. Make them feel special at each stage and you can also consider offering them something unique in their birthday months. They deserve a great treatment – after all they are your loyal customers!

About the Author: Michael Evans is a passionate blogger and he occasionally writes for Rope-barriers.com, a leading UK based budget post and rope barriers manufacturer and supplier.

Disabled Access Considerations When Moving Your Business To The High Street

These days, thanks to modern technology, many businesses start their lives online. It is a good way of keeping costs down while the business becomes established. As it grows over time the natural move is to have permanent headquarters or a retail outlet that is physical rather than digital.

As online entrepreneurs know one area that is now under UK law is ensuring the website is disabled access friendly. If the site isn’t accessible your business could face legal action and be sued for discrimination. As you move into permanent premises you must also carry over the accessibility and this is an area you can work on right from the moment you get handed the keys.

A Large Task But It Doesn’t Have to be Daunting

Now you may feel a little out of your depth when it comes to improving the accessibility of your new premises. However, just because the task may seem huge it doesn’t mean that you can afford to ignore it or push it to the back of your to do list. By failing to conduct suitable changes to make the property more accessible you leave yourself open to being sued by employees or customers that feel you are discriminating against them.

There is help available out there so don’t go thinking that you need to read the Equality Act inside and out. The experts will be able to give you the information you need based upon your business, the size and location of your premises and be able to use your budget as a guideline to work out what is affordable. If it is impossible to make dramatic changes all at once the expert may be able to help you by establishing what needs to be worked on as a priority, how you can save money, where to source affordable goods, equipment and labour and what could wait a bit longer.

Doing Renovations Before You Move In?

When you undertake any renovations you must consider the disability access. This is why working with an access consultant right from the get go will benefit you greatly. You can hire them for very little money and their services can help you in many different areas. Make sure that you hire a consultant who is more than happy to discuss any necessary work with your architects and designers. This saves time and money by reducing the need to redo work later for additional costs.

You may have to request planning permission and this can be a long and drawn out process. After months of waiting many applicants have their plans turned down, another frustration. Access consultants are able to help you through the planning permission process. Showing that some parts of the design are required to provide a much better service for the community, by allowing improved access, can help to push through successful planning applications. So when you come to looking for a professional expert to help you, ask them whether they would be happy to help you in this area should it be necessary in the future.

Thinking of the Needs of Everyone

As a modern online business you made sure that your website was user friendly. Now as you have grown and decided to open a physical business you must carry those work ethics and legal responsibilities over to your new premises. Use the consultants to conduct an audit and they will be able to help you spot urgent and required improvements that will allow everyone to make use of your services successfully. By doing so you ensure that your doors are open to everyone and you can become a strong player in your community and your industry by refusing to discriminate.

About the Author: Aki Hashimoto is a business consultant and mentor. She has found that using access audits is the simplest way to overcome the legal documentation and start making steps to create improved disability access.

Old Tricks And Traditional Skills Still Vital To 21st Businesses

You would think, with this being the bright shiny and thoroughly wired 21st Century that the more traditional skills associated with the secretarial world would be thoroughly redundant. However, despite the fact that our lives are dominated by computers, tablets, Smartphone’s and a whole range of peripherals and apps that can be added to them, some traditional skills remain in high demand. From copy typing to audio typing and transcription services, traditional skills still remain in high demand. The latter, in particular, remains a crucial part of content creation for many industries, from humble minute taking to full scale TV transcriptions. Transcription services today are also an important feature for conference organisers and transcription offers a number of significant advantages.

The Bigger Picture

Recording and filming any event was, in the past, a difficult task which required a significant number of professionals and an equally large (and cumbersome) amount of equipment. Today any event, from a pop concert to conference can be (and is) recorded on a phone and the film is often uploaded to the web in seconds. However convenient this may seem it does not replace the need for accurate and professional filming or transcription. In large conference centres where a number of speakers may be talking at one time, or where question and answer sessions are part of the presentation, both professional filming and transcription still have significant advantages. Unlike audio or video files, fully transcribed events offer users a fast look up for significant points and sections. With transcriptions now available digitally, the simple use of the find function can take you straight to the point in a way that no amount of film footage can.

Old Skills and New Methods Combined

Post event publications of transcribed documents have a number of advantages. In terms of web publication, transcription offers a handy SEO tool. The broader the scope of your written content, the more opportunities for lead generation via search engines; again in a way which means that video content alone will not be as beneficial. Also the more traditional print press, while happy to receive audio or visual material, will often rely on transcribed versions of a presentation or conference to make their own jobs easier and making things easy for journalists means they’ll be able to find time to fit your piece in.

Applied Technology

Although transcription is an old skill, long pre-dating the internet, the technological revolution has made the process of finding reliable transcription services easier and more affordable. Most transcription services operate online and transcribers themselves can be located just about anywhere in the world. This has driven down the costs of professional transcription and can open up opportunities for these services. This means any content you need to promote in overseas markets can be quickly made available in a variety of formats or languages. The process is speeded up to almost light speed thanks to modern technology. This gives modern businesses a greater and faster reach than in the past, making it possible for firms of any size to go global.

New Opportunities

While transcription services offer advantages to a range of industries they offer specific advantages to conference organisers in any field. Post conference transcripts can be marketed alongside podcasts as part of a full package for both attendees needing to refer back to the conference and as a valuable product in their own right to sell to a wider market. Working with a professional and established provider makes sense in this context and planning ahead will also make the process run more smoothly. Contacting a transcription service provider well in advance and involving them in the planning of the event will help you both to create a package that suits your needs which will result in a quick and efficient turnaround on the end product. Despite the massive advances in technology and the opportunities that it has opened up for business it seems that some of the oldest tricks are still the best.

About the Author: Pipa Rose is a freelance writer who has a keen interest in business. While technology has made business presentations and conferences far easier and more accessible for many, she believes that many traditional skills such as transcription services still play a crucial role.

Small Business: Shopping Online for Big Savings

As a small business owner, you need to conserve your financial resources as much as possible. Fortunately, there are multiple ways to utilize the Internet to save money on essential supplies and services. In fact, the vast majority of items that an office company uses will be available for a discount online, and most other industries can also find better prices by simply conducting a quick Internet search.

Saving-Money — License: Creative Commons image source

Buying in Bulk

Although you can definitely get discounts on every day office supplies by buying them in bulk quantities at a brick and mortar store, you will most likely be able to save even more from an Internet-based retailer. For example, Amazon sells several common items that small businesses need in bulk, and they also offer a subscription service that will enable you to save even more on the supplies that you use on a regular basis. When you factor in the free shipping and the fact that you will avoid spending money for gasoline, it becomes easy to see how much money you can save by buying items in bulk off of the Internet.

Buying in Smaller Quantities

If you are looking for individual items, it is still usually a better idea to shop online. There are several price comparison websites that have been created with the purpose of enabling consumers to quickly find the absolute best price on any given item. Additionally, some of these sites even include local store prices to help you determine if it makes more sense to buy a specific item locally. You can also download an app for your iPhone that will help you compare prices online for items that you are looking at in a store.

Saving with Comparison Sites

Every company needs to have business insurance and you will also need automobile insurance if you have a company vehicle. Although you could simply get a quote from the insurance provider that you use for personal purposes, you will most likely end up spending more money. Instead, you should use sites like www.monkey.co.uk to help you gather several quotes from various national and local insurance companies. Once you have all of the quotes, you will be able to compare the pricing and available options to easily determine which policies make the most sense for your company.

Shipping Costs and Transit Times

If you absolutely need an item today, you will need to go to a local store to pick it up. Unfortunately, that purchase is probably going to cost a lot more than it would have online. Therefore, whenever you have time to wait, you should always shop online. Most companies offer free shipping over a specific dollar amount, and expedited shipping options are usually available. Even if you end up paying for shipping, you will still save money in most cases.

Shopping online for the majority of your company’s supplies and essential services is one of the best ways to keep your budget in line. If you are not using online comparison sites, you are wasting money on a daily basis.

About the Author: Researcher Shelby Warden provides this information for small business owners who need to watch their bottom line. Small business owners who go to www.monkey.co.uk to compare insurance plans and costs not only get the best online prices, but can even choose a charity to receive a £10 donation when they purchase a policy.