All posts by Jay

Offering Premium Goods And Services

Creative Business Ideas

Premium Marketing For Higher Profits

(Photo by cumi&ciki)

If you’re looking to diversify your business menu of services (or products), consider offering premium services. It’s how airlines, hotels, restaurants, and clothiers generate additional income. It is often is a large profit center since for a big price increase, you don’t have a commensurate increase in costs.

Not all businesses are ripe for premium offerings. If you’re known for selling goods inexpensively, higher-priced goods are unlikely to be attractive to your prospective customers. If you’re already selling high-end services, offering an even-higher level of service is likely to create a backlash to your existing clientele. But if you’re selling a middle-of-the-road product, then a premium offering may make sense.

The key is to offer something that people want that’s a natural extension of your offerings: faster (quicker turnaround), more exclusive (better materials, one-of-a-kind products), more convenient (better hours, in-home/office meetings), and/or higher tolerances (higher quality finish, measurement, etc.) . If you offer technical support, then in-home service round-the-clock may be attractive to the right customer. If you offer administrative services, then rush services (three days instead of a week) may command an additional premium. When pricing premium offerings, make sure to account for the cost of the additional level of service (more time, more materials, more travel) to ensure that it’s premium income and premium service.

There’s a subtle secondary psychological benefit to offering premium services/goods. Let’s say you sell dresses that average $100. Now also offer a dress made from a premium material or special fittings for $400. People may initially think that your $100 dress is expensive. But in the face of a $400 dress, your $100 dress seems downright cheap. This “decoy pricing” is used in higher-aspirational stores: restaurants, auto showrooms, shoe stores, etc. and is proven to increase sales.

Treat all your clients wonderfully. Just offer “something extra” for those that are willing to pay for the privilege.

The Why Axis

Book Reviews

The Why Axis Book Cover

Many of the assumptions we make in our marketing are based on commonly-held truths (what we think of as “best practices”). We listen to the experts sharing their expertise on what works (and doesn’t) and adjust our marketing strategy accordingly. That’s also how we likely create our healthy lifestyle. We follow the pundits who share their knowledge and meta-analysis of medical studies. But we often don’t do the research ourselves nor actually ask the question, “Is this the best way to achieve my goal?”

Each of the chapters contains easily-understood economic analysis (i.e., “does it make money?”) on important topics:

Incentivization works only in concert with a deeper understanding of people’s values.

Women earning less than men isn’t caused by genetics, ability, or fear of competition. It’s simple assertiveness: the authors show that in our culture, women are risk-adverse (“it’s not lady-like”), and don’t ask for more money (or raises).

Children in poorer communities not succeeding as well their richer counterparts isn’t simply “just the way it is”. It’s a problem because the children (and their families) have trouble meeting their short-term needs and working towards long-term results. Incentivizing the students (and their families) can make huge difference short-term and produce long-term changes (the incentive simply gives them the freedom to do what they know is the right action).

The way to overcome minority pricing prejudice for services is convey the message to your salesperson that you’re comparison shopping (“I am getting three price quotes today”) rather than simply entrusting the transaction to the first person you deal with. That switches the dynamic from salesperson-as-god to salesperson-as-commodity, and pricing will drop to fair levels.

The way to overcome pricing prejudice for products is to do your homework before starting the buying process. Salespeople will give fairer prices to those that are well-informed, thinking that people who don’t know much about the options are likely not to know what a fair price is.

Sometimes changing the default is all it takes to change people’s actions. In marketing-speak, this is the difference between opt-in (“Please send me information”) and opt-out (“We’ll send you information unless you don’t want it”). And people generally stick with the default option. You can even get people to “pay” you to opt-out (called “Once and Done”) – promise to not contact them again if they only will donate some funds (of course, legally they can always opt-out of your marketing efforts).

People follow the crowd in making decisions, since everyone is busy and they figure if everyone else is doing something, then they likely should also. Simply saying that a large percentage of people in your community are doing something will likely stimulate like-minded action.

People donate to charity not for altruistic reasons, but for self-serving ones. Instead of trying to entice people to donate because others are, give them something tangible: a small prize, a chance at a big prize, or even a smile from someone attractive. In marketing, show people that look like your target audience – it’ll make people feel more connected to your offering.

Replacing management-by-edict with testing-by-design-thinking has been shown to produce dramatically better results. Data trumps intuition or ego and the investment in testing is cheaper than the likely cost of management mistakes (including company acquisitions).

Trying To Sell Many or Just Few?

Creative Business Ideas

How Many Are You Trying To Sell

(Photo by Patrick Hoesly)

It’s too easy to think (and hope) that there’s one-size-fits-all marketing advice. Your marketing strategy needs to reflect many aspects of your business. But one aspect that’s often forgotten is: How many sales do you need?

If you’re a general contractor, you don’t need a hundred (or even ten) clients – you likely need just a couple – since each “sale” will take you 6 months (or more) to satisfy. If you’re selling widgets (or smart phone applications), then you may need to sell tens of thousands to earn a sufficient income. These extreme examples would need different marketing systems (with a different lifetime value for these different customers).

If you need a large volume of clients, then you’re better off with a low-touch approach: email blasts, Facebook, Twitter, a well-stocked website, and easy-to-understand examples of your product or process. You don’t have enough time in the day to send everyone a personal email or phone call – and it’s likely not worth your time to do so. It is worth investing in tools to increase your online conversions – since you can scale the traffic to a website through advertising, but need to ensure that your visitors will become customers.

If you need to gain just a few clients, then you’re better off with both a low-touch and high-touch approach (personalized emails, follow up phone calls, personalized packets, and face-to-face consultations). For example, law firms routinely use pay-per-click advertising (low-touch) to find (high-worth) clients – and they routinely pay a lot of money for high-value clicks (for example, the cost for a PPC click for “new mexico mesothelioma lawyer” is over $400). The lead time is likely long for high-value clients, so it’s important that you start looking for your next client as soon as you get a new client. It may feel like you’re on a never-ending treadmill, but it’s better to keep a constant system in-place than trying to do a “big push”.

Remember: your marketing investment should be in proportion to the number of people and the value of each of these to your bottom line.

Valentine Promotional Headline For TV Sales

Names + Taglines

Hi Jay!  I’m a marketing manager of a large appliance retail store here in the Philippines.  I would like to ask
for the best tag line for my Valentine Promo for my LED television. Basic mechanics would be get the second unit at 50% off.  Any suggestions?

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Jay’s Answer:  I assume you’re asking for a headline for an advertisement, rather than a tagline for a company (or even product line). Here are a couple of quick ideas:

  • Share Your Love…Of TV
  • Make Your Love UnrivalLED

Tagline For New Range Of Eco Friendly Crafts

Names + Taglines

My company has launched started eco friendly handicraft products which go by the name “Go Nature”. We are looking for making tags for the products and now are in need of proper taglines and content for these tags. I am in need of something different and out of the box ideas for crafts. My company specializes in handicrafts made of Bamboo, Jute, Stone, Leather, Wood, Cane products which can be used for home decor, furnishing, utility and more… These are eco conscious products and through my crafts I am promoting environment friendliness. These are made by tribal artisans living in rural India.

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Jay’s Answer: 

  • “From Our Tribal Artisans To You”
  • “From Our Tribe To Your Home”

 

Event Sweet Table Business Name

Names + Taglines

I need help naming my event Sweet Table/Candy bar business. Thinking of using my name Ramona in it somehow, such as Sweet tablescapes by Ramona. Sweet tables are for parties, weddings, events. Current WOW factor at weddings. Sweet tables are set up with assorted glass jars /containers filled with assorted candies and sweet treats. All items customizable.

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Jay’s Answer: 

  • Here Comes The Candy Lady
  • The Candy Lady Can
  • Sweeter Events

Keyword Is #1 In Organic Search, What PPC Strategy

eMarketing

If company ranks well for a brand called “paper jewellry” and at the same time ranks first in organic search for the same keyword, What will be the best PPC strategy to use and why?

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Jay’s Answer:  I’d start by asking “are prospective customers actively searching for those keywords?” Next, before investing in PPC, I’d ask “what % of the traffic I’m getting organically is converting to sales?” If you’re already getting good traffic that’s converting, then PPC will only improve your results. If you’re not getting conversions, then focus on your website first. If you’re not getting traffic, then your keyword ranking aren’t valuable, and you need to focus on related things that people are searching for.

Name/tagline For Annual Educational Fundraiser

Names + Taglines

Need name/tagline for annual fundraiser event to increase visibility of nonprofit educational mission and call to action to existing and potential sponsors to make a difference for low income English Language Learner students who will be first generation to complete high school and aspire to college education. Nonprofit ALearn.org has annual fundraiser event targeting companies, organizations and individuals to become sponsors so we can fund free math acceleration programs (offered through school districts) as catalyst to under-served students to optimize their skills to complete high school, with ultimate goal to enter college. Math skills have been identified as key gatekeeper in preventing these students in completing high school and in college-readiness. The Issue and Opportunity: Low income and minority students have the lowest high school graduation rates in Santa Clara County, with less than 70% of Latino students graduating from high school. Traditional education is not providing the support and resources that low income, immigrant English Language Learner students need to complete high school and go on to succeed in college. With educational budget cuts in California, many of our school districts do not offer the full A to G curriculum to support these students. ALearn designed Math Acceleration, Math Plus and Catalyst to High School programs focused on improving students math skills and provide introduction to high school with emphasis on study and organizational skills as well as motivation to attend college. ALearn also provides free college mentoring social networking website. Our partners in “Catalyst to High School” and “Catalyst to College” mentorship programs include Cal-SOAP, educational foundations and school districts.

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Jay’s Answer:  How about “Every 1 Counts”? It’s a play on words (“Everyone matters”) but also brings to mind the math & personal angle of your fundraiser. You can add a tagline for the event such as “Every 1 Counts: A Fundraiser for ALearn.org”

Tagline For A Corset Store

Names + Taglines

I have a corset store here in New York and I am looking for a tag line for my store. We have high quality, trendy corsets in leather and fabric. The name of the store is named after the Goddess of Beauty. I need a tagline that is chic, elegant, fashionable and sensual because that what the women are like in our target market.

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Jay’s Answer: 

  • Looking Beautiful Is A Cinch
  • Dangerous Curves Ahead

Help Naming Biz That Holds Events For Wedding Pros

Names + Taglines

I am working on a new business in the wedding industry and I am completely stuck. The idea is to have virtual trade shows that educate wedding industry entrepreneurs about the business side of weddings. These shows will feature content from top industry leaders and have lots of interactivity/chances to network with other entrepreneurs. Attendees will also be able to peruse the trade show floor where they can visit exhibits and download useful information from sponsors.

A somewhat similar event exists in the US called Wedding MBA. Our way of educating wedding pros will not be simply preaching to them from a stage-it will incorporate several interactive elements and address issues that these businesspeople want to learn about. Any ideas on a name?

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Jay’s Answer: 

  • The Business of Weddings
  • Weddings 2.0
  • Wedded To Your Business