Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Year-End Tips for Retailers, Services, and Non-Profits

Customer feedback can give you insight into what may be helping or hurting your business, and what you can do to grow stronger, faster. If you are new to surveys, you can try our There are plenty more ideas of how to improve your business for 2009 in this If you have any questions on these recommendations or anything else about your business, I’m always happy to hear and advise where I can. Just click the comment link below. Until next time, happy growing and Happy Holidays! There are only two ways to know what your prospects want - you can guess or you can ask. When people join your email list for the first time, it’s a good idea to find out exactly what they want so that you can send promotions that emphasize their preferences. Here’s a 3-step way to use the new free auto-responder feature and the survey feature in Constant Contact to find out what your new prospects want before you send them your first promotion Effective events take time, they take money. Wouldn’t it be nice to know in advance that your investment will really pay off? Online surveys can help you get the seats filled, have satisfied attendees, and give you a bigger return on your investment.

Here are three simple event surveys to help you achieve this: 1. Send a Pre-event Survey to find out what will really drive registration and attendance before you put time and money into it. Ask your audience what topics interest them. Often it will be a topic that you didn’t think about or one that is much more popular than you realized. Is there a particular speaker of interest? A particular venue that people prefer? What day and time is going to be the best for the majority of your audience? What food or beverages do registrants like? You can find out all of these things ahead of time with these pre-event survey questions. Capturing sales or donations during the end of this year is going to be more challenging than you’ve been used to in the previous few years. There’s no such thing as fool-proof recession marketing, but there are reliable ways to sustain your business and help ensure a strong recovery. Here are a few tips to get you thinking about ways to sustain and grow. If you sell productsFocus your promotions on products with up-sell and cross-sell potential. That way you can gain sales early next year with add-on promotions.

Make sure you track clicks and purchases so you know which customers own which products. If you sell servicesFocus your promotions on a-la-carte services instead of big service packages or long contracts. When money is tight, people don’t like to pay for anything they think they don’t need. Even one unwanted option in a package might cause hesitation. If you end up selling more a-la-carte services than usual it might impact your margins, but you’re more likely to keep your cash flow up and gain new customers who will purchase higher margin offerings sooner or later.If you’re a non-profit (on purpose)Focus your promotions on the specific rewards related to a donation. For example, when asking for a $50 donation, offer a choice of a tax-deduction, a free gift, a public acknowledgement, or an anonymous thank you. Don’t take the focus off your cause too much. Just remind your audience that you want them to feel even more special about making a donation while money is tight. Our Hints & Tips email newsletters and forum deliver the practical, "how-to" advice you need to succeed.

Learn how email marketing, online surveys, and other proven marketing techniques can help you establish an ongoing dialogue with your customers or members, build relationships, and grow your business or organization. Each month, Constant Contact's experts explore a new topic in email marketing—from growing your email list, to creating effective e-newsletters, to increasing open and click-through rates, and more. Reach newsletter comes complete with real-life, email marketing success stories. Constant Contact's online survey experts share practical advice and techniques for conducting successful online surveys. They'll show you how business and organizations—just like yours—are using online surveys to gain new and revealing insights and build closer customer relationships. The experts at Constant Contact share practical ideas, inspiring success stories, and breaking industry news. Stay ahead of the latest trends and best practices—and boost the effectiveness of your email marketing and online survey communications.

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