How Can I Better Market Our Shopping Center?

Publicity

I have a small retail store/boutique located in a shopping center that doubles as a local harbor. Most of our customers are local, but there is a perception among many locals that we are only for tourists. We get some tourists, but not a lot, definitely not enough to support a shopping center. We have about 25 stores and a dozen restaurants and a coffee shop. The coffee shop is packed with locals every morning and the restaurants are packed w/ locals every night. As you know getting a group together to market is like herding cats, but we do have a bit of a budget. As we are in a public harbor, the county is our landlord and they are in the process of redoing the website to attract more people. According to the marketing co. that was hired to do a survey our customers are ‘upper crust’ with incomes over $75K a yr, mostly over 50, but with a sprinkling into younger age groups. This holds true to the informal tracking I do in my store. My question is: Do you have any ideas as to how to market our harbor/shopping area to reach more locals and get them to look on us as a local attraction, not a tourist trap. I am hoping you could give ideas both for us as a group & maybe some things that individual stores could do. Most of the stores merchandise is not geared towards tourists. Right now the harbor does a Xmas open house, a whale watching festival and a tall ships festival. They have really been expanding the holiday boat parade also. These events bring a lot of people to the harbor, but many of them come with children & most people coming to the events do not come threw the stores.

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Jay’s Answer: Offer locals-only discount. People need to show their driver’s license to prove it. This is a stronger benefit for lower-income groups, but may help.

Provide free (or discounted) meeting spaces for local meeting groups (clubs, non-profits, etc.).

You hired a marketing company to analyze your customers. Did you ask the customers, "What would make you come here more often?" It may be perception, it may be parking, it may be competition, it may be price, etc.

Support your local artists. Each month have an art show in a different store in the shopping center. The point is to get people to see the store and support the local artists at the same time.

Changing habits doesn’t happen overnight.

How Can I Offer My Chinese Business Interpreter Skills?

Services, Starting Out

I am a girl living in Guangzhou, China. Canton Fair is hold in this city twice every year. Hundreds of thousands of foreigners come to attend these trade fairs. Most of the foreign businessmen can’t speak Chinese and cannot communicate with the Chinese businesses well. So I would like to solve their problems by offering my interpretation services. However, I have so many competitors: government, businesses, individuals, organizations… I find it difficult to compete with them to have good customers. The difficulty for me is how to let my target customer know me and what I do. And I can’t spend much money for this.

In effect, compared with others, I believe that I have much more advantages, because I am very familiar with the wholesale markets in and around Guangzhou, I can show them around the markets and help them find the lowest cost supplier, I can also hire cars at lower prices, and I am willing to offer quality inspection services for them.

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Jay’s Answer: You’ve listed some good benefits: translation skills, familiarity with wholesale markets, familiarity with rental cars, and inspection services.

You haven’t (yet) identified WHO you’re trying to help (other than "foreign businessmen"). Is there an industry that you can specialize in? The more specific your specialization (niche), the easier it is to get your message to them.

Your letter to your prospects should focus on the problem you solve for your potential customers: We help global buyers new to China to efficiently find quality suppliers. We know the Guangzhou market, can translate all of your business negotiations, and provide ongoing quality inspections for your goods. Here are a list of services we can provide: Market Investigation, etc.

How Can I Get More Clients For My Furniture Business?

Products, Publicity

I have owned a very successful furniture showroom in New York City (NYC) for almost 10 years and would like some ideas to increase my business. NYC has become a very tough and competive environment for high end furniture venues. Rents just have climbed to astromical levels and I need to increase traffic! I think that the NYC housing market at the median level is in big trouble. Any information on how we can increase our business would be greatly appreciated. We are not a chain store so we have to be frugal.

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Jay’s Answer: The obvious questions are: What makes the furniture you sell unique (or is it available at other stores in NYC)? How can you justify the "high-end" label/price for it? You mention competition – are other stores having similar problems (i.e., is there a glut of stores) or is the problem specific to your business? Who is your target customer (age, demographic, etc.)?

Obvious suggestions include: contacting (by phone, email, mail) your previous customers. Based on what they purchased before, tell them something that might be of interest to them now. The holidays are coming up – think entertaining. Do they need a new sofa? bed? Invite the furniture maker (if they’re local) to present at a show – invite the public to your art/furniture show, serving wine & hors d’oeuvres. Co-market with art galleries, jewelry designers, clothes boutiques.

If you’re feeling the pinch from Ikea – then you need to advertise why it’s worth paying $$ for products from your store instead of Ikea.

Does Having Resellers Help Or Hurt My Website Ranking?

eMarketing

We make and sell a line of alternative energy products directly to end users (customers). Historically, our web site gave info about the products and invited people to call and order. In addition, several online retailers buy the products from us at a discount and re-sell them for various prices; some identify the products as ours and some don’t. We recently entered the 21st century, up-dated our web site, and added the option to order the products online.

Now that we have the ability to sell on our web site, we’re more aware of the fact that our search engine ranking will affect how many people find our site first and buy from us directly rather than from one of the retailers. But that’s about all we know about SEO.

We’re batting this question around: Does it hurt or help our SEO that our products can be found on several sites? Some of the retailers use photos and text from our literature and/or web site- does this strengthen or weaken our SEO?

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Jay’s Answer: Ignoring the search engine ranking – do you want more dealers to be reselling your products? What is the profit you make when a dealer purchases it vs. a consumer (don’t forget to include customer service, billing, shipping, etc.).

Each of your dealers is actually doing you a huge favor – they’re sales reps for your products. You’ve basically been the manufacturer and didn’t have to deal with the public much. They’ve been doing the advertising and customer service.

If you attempt to compete with them, you may be cannibalizing your sales (taking from the dealer and selling direct). This may in turn reduce the number of dealers/resellers wanting to compete with you.

That said, you asked about SEO. What you really want are customers buying from your website. So what you need to first do is figure out are what keywords are people using to find your (and your competitors’) products? Ignore your resellers (unless you find that one of them is extremely good at getting traffic, in which case you’ll be learning from them). Once you know how people are looking for you, then provide a website full of information. Not just your existing pictures and text. Lots of descriptions of how the products have been used. White papers comparing energy saved (and money, too). Online calculators to compute time of payback. Make your site an authority on your type of product. Now, for the dealers that will cooperate, have them link to your site. Publish your articles in various article banks online. Submit them to various consumer journals.

SEO is a small piece of a bigger picture. Focus on your marketing strategy for attracting customers. Everything else will take care of itself organically.

How Can I Create Effective Web Site Content?

eMarketing

My client want to produce effective web site content and advertising materials suited for target audience. They also want to deeper understanding of what our target consumers are into, what they are thinking, what they like, what make them tick and so on to clearly communicate lifestyle tone, personality and slat of the Web brand. We are assigned to develop a package of market research to provide information for the objectives above. Could you advice me on this. Please note usability test is quite new in my country, and I look forward to get any your advice on this proposal.

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Jay’s Answer: It sounds like you need to understand more about your target audience first. With the proliferation of the Internet, you should be able to find a number of sites that cater to your audience. In addition to sales sites, look for forums where the audience talks about their problems and other offer solutions. Once you understand what they are talking about, then start asking questions of the group: ask for their input, etc. Offer to compile the responses to your questions and email them to everyone who’s interested.

Develop your website, and invite people from the forums to visit it and give your input. They are your beta testers, and they give you great feedback. However, they’ll only give you half the story – the other part is compelling content. Make sure your home page clearly identifies who you’re targeting and what problem of theirs your solving. Make sure to have a compelling call to action to get visitors interested. And use analytics (such as Google Analytics) to study what’s happening on your website.

10 Rules For Effective Home Pages

Creative Business Ideas, eMarketing

Home PagePeople make a split-second judgment of your website. Is it “talking to them?” Is it worth their time to continue reading it? Are you getting the traffic you want? Are visitors converting to customers?

Having reviewed hundreds of websites I wanted to share some rules to help improve your home page:

  1. Who’s the audience? Your home page must clearly identify who you’re talking to. This allows the reader to quickly pre-qualify them self.
  2. What’s the point? Every page in your website should have a primary goal – an action you want the reader to take. Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? Buy something new? Create a “call to action” to encourage them to do what you want (“Get your copy of ‘Top 10 insider secrets’ by clicking here”).
  3. Title. The title is used for the window’s title as well as in the name of your site in search engines. Your home page title should at least contain your business name.
  4. Menu structure. Menus are generally horizontal (underneath the banner/logo) or vertical (left side). Having multiple ways to navigate is confusing. Put your menus in places where people look. Make sure to have a “Contact” and “About” page.
  5. Footer. Make sure your contact information is on every page. You don’t want your potential customer to have to work to find you.
  6. Scan-ability. People don’t read websites like they read books. Their eyes bounce around looking for “landmarks” to help them evaluate the site. Therefore, clearly use headings and subheadings to make it easy to find sections. Don’t write long paragraphs. Have lots of white space.
  7. Fonts. This is related to scan-ability – you want to create a natural scanning sequence. Use one (or two) font families (for example, Arial) at most. Make your general text easy to read for your demographic (for example, make it 14pt for older eyes) and headings at least 14pt. Use bold and italics to help draw the eye to specific words. Don’t use animated text. Use colors only for very important thoughts.
  8. Graphics & alt tags. Make sure your graphics reinforce your “message” and “look”. Graphics also can act like whitespace if used properly. Don’t forget that all your graphics should have alt-tags (it helps the search engines “read” your site).
  9. Columns (1 vs 2 vs 3). The more information you present, the harder it is to figure out what to read. For that reason, I prefer one-column or two-column (with special offers/information in the right column).
  10. Keywords. Use the right keywords to make it easy for people to find you using the search engines. What are the right keywords? The ones people use (for example, using Adwords).

Make sure that when you change your home page you measure its effectiveness. Are you getting more traffic with the new look/text? Are you getting less traffic but more sales? The best solution to effective home pages is the one that works for your business.

In addition to a careful eye, there are many free tools that can help analyze your website. Here’s one: Website Grader

Squirrel, Inc.

Book Reviews

Squirrel Inc. BookStories have the power to ignite, educate, unify, lead, share values, and focus attention. We’re born to tell and listen to stories. Why are we shy to use them to help us in business?

While I’ve already written of how to tell your marketing story, Stephen Denning writes about organizational storytelling. His book is a fable showing how can you use a story to help you inside your business.

Next time you’re tempted to use a PowerPoint slide show or present information for your business, consider instead crafting a story. It will no doubt take you longer to prepare your story, but the results can be dramatic. No glazed eyes staring at handouts or screens. Instead, people will be focused on you, listening and imagining.

The book’s story focuses around a squirrel company that needs to change its business model. It has been a company that helps squirrels bury nuts. But one visionary in the company wants the company to instead help squirrels store nuts. How the visionary learns to convince their peers, their boss, and eventually the board is the fable.

The book lists the high-value forms of organizational storytelling, so you can match the right type of story to achieve a certain result. Here’s a brief synopsis:

  1. To spark action
    • The story must be true and focuses on a positive outcome
    • Have people say: “Just think..” or “Just imagine…”
  2. To build trust
    • Reveal some true strength/vulnerability from your past
    • Have people say: “I didn’t know that about you”
  3. To transmit values
    • Describe how leadership did something before
    • You must walk the talk
    • Have people say: “That’s clearly the right way…”
  4. To get people to work together
    • Tell a story that others can relate to
    • Have people say: “That reminds me…”
  5. To neutralize gossip
    • Commit to tell the truth, but show the humor in the situation
    • Have people question the gossip
  6. To share knowledge
    • Tell the problem, setting, solution, and explanation
    • Have people say: “We need to keep on eye on that…”
  7. To lead people
    • Describe a positive outcome about the future
    • Have people say: “When do we start?”

If you don’t feel comfortable telling stories to people, join a public speaking club to exercise your story-telling muscles (or take an improvisational acting class). Remember that you’re not trying to get people to buy tickets to hear you speak (yet) – you’re just trying to learn a new tool to communicate ideas with others.

Is Online Social Net-working?

Creative Business Ideas, eMarketing, Publicity

Online NetworkingMaybe you’re already a member of LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, or any one of the myriad of social networking websites. You’ve heard people talking about “Web 2.0” and how everyone is online. You clearly don’t want to miss the next wave.

Perhaps you’ve heard about the student artist who posted some of her pictures online, and the next thing you know she’s a millionaire, has hired her friends to help her market her art, and she’s the next “big thing”. When will it be your turn for online fame?

The key to networking effectively is to concentrate your effort to be part of the community. This means that you need to be involved: reading others’ postings, commenting, asking questions, and sharing information about yourself (or business).

Common Online Networking Mistakes

  1. Not showing up. Online, if you don’t write, you’re invisible. Make sure that your “voice” is heard (and you read others’ postings).
  2. Wrong network. Are you the proper demographic for the network (or are you targeting the right network)?
  3. Wasting time. Because the communities are so large, it’s easy to get distracted online. Focus on why you’re a member, and limit your time online to prioritize your activity.
  4. Self-importance. If you’re a member of MySpace, you’re 1 of 217 million. If you write online, will anyone care?
  5. Words are words. Online people communicate (mostly) by text. While you may try to intuit the mood or psyche of the writer, it’s just text. At an in-person networking event, you can at least watch the person’s body language during conversations.

Join a network if it appeals to you, but realize that becoming an expert in that network is hard. It’s even harder to make any money as one in a crowd. Instead, leverage your online marketing effort to improve your marketing message, and get people to contact you directly. It’s much better to have someone’s undivided attention.

You also might be interested in: I’m On LinkedIn – Now What??? and FaceBookAdvice.com for more tips on how to make better use of your social network.

What Is A Good Tagline For A Microfinance Non-Profit?

Names + Taglines

I work for a non-profit (Microfinance Centre) that is a network supporting microfinance (financial services for poor and excluded) in transition countries. We came together with a tagline “Bridging the Market Gap” to reflect the work we do to extend financial services to those that are left behind by the market. However, we would also like somehow to reflect that we are a network organization so we do it in partnerships together with other organizations active in this field. The alternatives we have come up with are: “Together Bridging the Market Gap”, “Bridging the Market Gap Together”, or Microfinance Centre – a Partner for Bridging the Market Gap” I would appreciate your feedback on this tagline as well as any other ideas you may advice. Thank you!

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My confusion is who is referred to with the word “together” – the reader and your organization or your organization and someone else. I understand your intention, but it creates ambiguity.

Why do you want to convey the network aspect in the tagline? Does it help strengthen the benefit you’re providing or is it something politically motivated?

Who is the tagline intended for? Businesses looking for micro finance, other lenders, or donors?

As a business owner, I wouldn’t understand “Market Gap”. I would understand needing money. So a tagline like, “Connecting You With Small Business Lenders” would be more useful.

As a lender, I would think that “A Small Business Investment Cooperative” would be clearer.

As a donor, “Helping Small Businesses Succeed” would be on-target.

How Can I Market My Bathtub Reglazing Company?

Names + Taglines, Services, Starting Out

Our family company reglazes tubs, tiles, kitchen sinks for great price. It’s very convenient because instead of replacing it for so much money you can reglaze it.

Our approaches are hotels, apartment, buildings, residentials, and commercial anyone that needs to reglaze their tubs, clawfoot, sinks, and tiles for a fresh look without spending to much money on replasing.

We need help from you for a slogan and best ways to advertise.

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Taglines:

  • The Smart Investment For Your Bathroom
  • The Inexpensive Bathroom Makeover
  • Redo Your Bathroom For A Song
  • Happy Glaze Are Here Again

If you have a commodity product, you need to offer different service.
Don’t worry about the “family” business – that’s not a bad thing at all (and in some cases, can be turned into a strength). Competition isn’t necessarily a bad thing – each of your competitors will be helping to spread the word about reglazing. What you want is when it’s time to choose a reglazer, that your business is chosen because it’s the best for them.

Study your competitions’ marketing. Who are they targeting? Who are they missing? Landlords? Rental properties? Vacation Homes? Commercial? Hotels? Low Income?

To get known, donate your services (i.e., provide them for free or at cost) to local homeless shelters, etc. The goodwill will translate into free press releases (sent by both you and the non-profit). The photo op for the “grand unveiling” should be attended by local media and begin to establish you as a caring business. It will also attract interest from other non-profits in the area.

To ensure that you’ll be around in 3+ years, spend the time to create a strategic plan for your business. Most businesses start with an idea, use their savings, get some people interested, print business cards and flyers, and…fail in a year or so. The ones that spend time planning the business itself, figuring out who they are targeting, etc. save time and money and ensure lasting success.