It’s been found that Tuesday is better than Monday or Wednesday and 9:00am is better than 12:00 or 4:00. Seems people come to work, check their email and visit websites before launching into their day.
The other day I was teaching a class of new businesses about websites and marketing and out slipped the words “people vote for your businesses with their dollars”. For days after that statement, I pondered that statement. How true that is, especially for a B2B service business. A potential customer must, like your business, believe you will do what you said you will do, believe you will look after their best interests, and be assured you will be around when they need you. How do you “get votes” for your service business? Well, you need to develop a great reputation. You need to go out into the community and network, shaking lots of hands and meet other businesses. You need to have a letter writing campaign asking for their “vote” and highlighting why they should use you. The more happy people that use your business, the more that will campaign on your behalf. Who needs to be a politician when you own your own business!
Recently I was fortunate to attend a Google seminar in Toronto. Although the focus was on the automotive sector and how research conducted outlined consumers behavior in the purchasing of vehicles, there were some identified trends that applied to all. One of the most important one is the increase in online video and how important it is to include in your online strategy. And it makes sense. More people have high-speed more people are comfortable with it because of You Tube, it’s easier and sometimes even fun. For me the most important point to remember is the computer is a one to one communication device. It’s a big visual screen in front of your target audience’s face. People skim words, but watch videos. The human mind processes visuals faster than words. So why not include videos to show your commercial, demo your product, show how to fix your product, answer frequently asked question.
At a recent meeting, some advice was shared that stuck out as one of the most memorable pieces of advice of 2007. A successful entrepreneur explained to our group that a business owner needs to acknowledge that they will make good decisions and bad decisions. But not making a decision tends to be worse than making a decision even if it’s bad. Delaying a hard decision tends to eat away at us and keep us up at night. At least once we’ve made a decision we can move forward. If it ends up being a bad decision, we can learn from it and deal with it. As the world speeds up, being decisive will become even more important.