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How to Make the Most of Black Friday Sales

There is no better time to take advantage of great deals on your favorite merchandise than the day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday as it is known to most. Even if you’ve never participated in the annual event, you know exactly what it entails. With Christmas right around the corner, thousands upon thousands rush to their local retail and department stores to fight the cold and the crowd with nothing but a little bit of cash and a lot of hope that the item they hope to purchase isn’t sold out by the time they gain entrance to the store. You know you want to get that great gift for that special someone and you want an awesome deal and maybe save a little bit of extra cash, but rushing into a store without a plan on Black Friday is a dangerous mistake that could land you with nothing but disappointment when the day is over. I’ve got a few tips for you, and I think that they are pretty reliable. I’m an associate with a large retail chain, and I can help you save time by showing you the shortcuts to Black Friday shopping.

Tip 1 Budget

As with every other aspect of your life, you should set aside a certain amount of money that you plan on spending that is separate from what you’ll use to purchase things necessary to live. You don’t need to overdo it, but you do need to remember that Black Friday is usually a day where high-dollar products are promoted, so you’ll need more than a twenty in your wallet when you leave your home.

Tip 2 - Research

The next step to organizing your Black Friday experience is to research the different stores in your area that are participating in the event and take note of what products they will be featuring this year. Not every item in every store is marked down, so it’s important to know what products you’re interested in, and if any store in your area (or one that you’re willing to drive to) will carry that product, or one similar. You can find advertisements in your local newspaper, in your mailbox, online, or in the store itself.

Tip 3 List

You make a list on any ordinary day when it’s time to go shopping for groceries, don’t you? You should! After you get an idea of the different stores around you and the items that they will be featuring in their doorbuster sales, make a list of what you hope to purchase, and make your most important item first. A list is a great tool to keep you on track, and can act as a quick reference to what you’re after should you get lost in the excitement of discount shopping. Note that you should keep items in the same store together as a way of managing your time, and follow the list from top to bottom, unless you feel that you could potentially sacrifice losing one item in order to get another.

Tip 4 Prepare for THE Day

You’ve set some money aside, you have done the research, and you know exactly what it is that you’re going after and where to find it. All that’s left to do is wait for Friday and get in the car and go! Well, almost.

Just getting in the car and going isn’t going to get you to the product that you want in time. You’ll have to make a few sacrifices, such as going to bed early on Thanksgiving and forcing yourself up at a terrible hour in the wee morning. Utilizing all of your tools is necessary, so get that coffee pot ready, and organize yourself a bit.

You should get up, wake up, and make yourself presentable. Take some time to go over your list, and rehearse the morning over and over in your head until you’re confident you know what you are going after. Leave the house in a timely manner, making sure you arrive at your first location before the sales begin.

(Note: At the retail chain that I am employed at, our store will stay open twenty-four hours and will put special policies in place to ensure organization and calm. We anticipate a crowd to gather all through the night, and intensify as early as three in the morning. Consider getting to your first location a couple of hours before the sale.)

Tip 5 Manage Your Day

You’re at the store. You’re in a long line somewhere, whether it is outside the building or at a pallet of merchandise. Stay calm, and keep yourself organized!

Most stores will have some sort of organization to their products. When you arrive and are able to enter the store, ask an associate at the door where the products that you are interested in are located. Chances are they are not next to where they usually are on the shelf due to spacing issues, so please note each location carefully. Also, ask if the associate has a map or list of where the products are. You’ll find this to be very useful.

While walking through the store, remember that the people around you are just as crowded as you are, and just want to get in, get their stuff, and get out. Be courteous to everyone, or you could create intense situations that could lead to crowd instability. That’s never a good thing, especially when people are tired and in a hurry.

Walk from item to item on your list, making no stops. There isn’t much time, and you are sure to lose out on a deal if you stop!

When you have gathered everything, make your way to the checkouts. Exhale, and be happy that you have found such amazing deals!

Last Notes and Closing Comments

It will be a hectic day, and you’re sure to get frustrated at some point or another. Just remember to be courteous. Don’t argue, push in line, steal from another cart, stalk individuals with the hopes that they will not be able to pay for their item, disrespect associates, etc. Remember that everyone is just like you, and wants that amazing deal for the holidays!

Have fun, stay safe, and keep to the plan. Organization is the best way to make the most out of Black Friday!

Back-to-School Marketing Campaign Ideas

Back-to-school is one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year so you don’t want to miss out on it.
Back to school marketing pays off in sales. Even if you’re not selling school supplies or clothing, there are lots of ways you can attract back-to-school shoppers to your products and services.

Here are some back-to-school marketing ideas.

1)Tried and true.
Back-to-school sales are a tradition now and can work well for you if you sell products that are obviously school related …. or obviously non-school related.

If the kids going back to school is going to cause your sales to slump, now’s the time for “last chance” sales. For example, a kayak rental business might offer “last chance” lessons and outings; a museum might offer discounted tours.

2) Reach for the tie-in.

If your products or services have no obvious back-to-school tie-in, you can still create one.

    * Whether selling services or product, a nutrition-related business might offer information on preparing healthy school lunches.
    * A business selling cleaning products might back-to-school market its products as great for cleaning dorm rooms and sell a special “student-pack” of products.
    * A watch repair business might run a “be on time for school” special.

3) Don’t forget the parents.

Back-to-school means different schedules for parents, too, and for some, more time to do things for themselves or things they’ve been putting off.

    * Personal care businesses, such as hairdressers, manicurists, and massage therapists can offer discounts on “they’ve-gone-back-to-school” appointments.
    * Restaurants could offer special menus and/or dishes to encourage patrons to come in for lunch.
    * Fitness studios and gyms could offer special workshops or session series in school hours.

The really great thing about targeting students’ parents in your back-to-school marketing is that your promotion can carry on right through September and on into Fall.

6 Summer Marketing Tips

It’s warm and sunny, the beach calls. You ask yourself “Why shouldn’t I just give in and go? Marketing is a waste of time at this time of year.”

Summer with its delicious distractions tempts you to decide that nothing is going to happen in your business so why not just enjoy the season.

If you decide to make that choice you will be joining much of your competition in thinking summer time is play time.

With the competition out of the game, now is the time to get out and get serious about your business as they lie on the beach.

Give yourself a break from the everyday pressure of marketing and sales by working on future business NOW!

Going into the fall with business on the books before you start the season is not only a great feeling; it changes your perspective when a prospect that may not be a good fit comes along.

Having core business gives you time to explore and investigate other opportunities that come along. Those other opportunities sometimes form the basis for innovation in how you do business, the way you market and what the primary focus of your business is.

Put the power and control of your future back in your own hands.

Implement these summer marketing tips starting today

1. Summer is a slower time of year for some media which means you can negotiate a better deal and extend the buy into the higher priced fall by planning and booking now.
2. Send a Press Release while media staff is reduced by the holiday season and pressure to produce is on fewer numbers of media writers with less time to look for stories.
3. Do take some additional time to read some new marketing books, write some new articles and learn a new marketing skill i.e. blogging or social marketing
4. Hold an annual or semi-annual sale with clear parameters of what, when, and how to ensure it doesn’t creep into the busy fall.
5. Offer a free seminar, put on a picnic, sponsor a high profile summer time event, and/or hire a student to distribute a coupon. Do something different to capitalize on the opportunity created by large gatherings at special events and more people out on the street in the summer.
6. Make a special offer to your current customers to introduce them to another product or service they haven’t yet bought.

If you need to see the possibilities before you put an effort into summer marketing try the following exercise

Draw a circle on a piece of paper representing the market size of your industry. Mark your pie shaped share of the market, no matter how small.

Draw a larger circle around the same central point and extend the sides of your piece of the pie to the new perimeter.

See what happens to your piece of the pie when people return to their fall routines and the prospects you spoke to and those who decided to do business with you told their friends?

That increase is your customer base growing exponentially from the marketing work you did while others were relaxing in the sun.

“Some people forget to plant in the spring, idle away the summer hours and then expect to reap in the fall.”
Grant M. Bright

There is still time to give attention to your summer marketing and reap the benefits this fall and into 2010.

Article By: Nota Bene Consulting
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Be An Orange

When a prospective buyer is looking at your product or service, he or she is really comparing you to the competition. So the question is, are they comparing an apple to an apple or an apple to an orange? It is vitally important in marketing that you find a way to be THE orange! In other words, what is it about you that makes you completely DIFFERENT from your competitor?

If you can’t find a way to be different, you will constantly find yourself being pressured on price, and small businesses can’t survive on constant price cutting. So how do you differentiate?

First understand that these are NOT differences

1. Great Service
2. Great Quality for the Price

These are expectations for all businesses!

Secondly, just because your product or service is unique doesn’t necessarily mean you are automatically an orange. If others can find another product or service out there that can still give them the same end result then you REALLY aren’t that different! Think about these possibilities:

• Serving a Niche
• Different Form of Distribution
• Unique Process
• Special Offer
• Guarantee
• Unique Service

If you’re not sure what makes you different, ask your top clients, why they chose you and why they keep coming back. They may start with watered down answers like, “you’re great.” Probe a little deeper. Nine times out of ten, what makes us different is the “little things” we do that we didn’t even know mattered!

A good recession brings out creative marketing ideas

WIR Bloggers,

I was on vacation last week and noticed an interesting way for retailers and companies to attract eyeballs.

The baggage claims are rocking!!!

I heard a saying once that one of the most captive audiences are those on airplanes, in prison, or watching bags go round and round at the airport baggage claim.    I like the creativity of the baggage claim advertising.  I think the more creative marking ideas retailers & restaurants can put in place today to drive revenue the better.

I feel too many business owners today in times like our current economic situation get into a shelter or panic mode. The only new thoughts are how you can cost cut everywhere.  This mind set causes a status quo environment and being in that state of mind will never produce creative ideas.  The status quo mindset will shut down the effective brains of a retailer’s organization.

My advice:

• Seek out good ideas from your people and make sure you are stimulating the most important asset you have “the creative minds of your employees”.
• Eliminate the entertainment of just good ideas and only focus on the best one or two ideas.
• Make sure they have a high potential rate of visibility.
• Get excited about a new campaign and have fun running it.

Never let good recessions go to waste; everyone in today’s environment is open to new ideas you just have to bring the ideas to life.

Let me know what creative marketing ideas you have done to attract customers.

Source URL Here

HOW TO: Use Social Media for Enterprise Business

Companies such as Zappos, Dell, and JetBlue are all known as successes in harnessing the power of social media for business. However, the aforementioned businesses sell directly to consumers. How about the business that sells products to other businesses? What if you’re a company that builds inventory software or datacenters for the likes of Walmart? Is Twitter, Facebook, Ning, or a company blog going to be any use?

In fact, the answer may surprise you. There are business-to-business companies that are utilizing the social web to find customers, to build up a reputation, and to get the upper hand on landing the big deal. There’s a great deal that social media offers to the non-consumer business. Here are four of the best ways to use social media when you’re in enterprise:

Step 1. Build a reputation of expertise

What use is a company blog if you only have 10,000 customers, rather than 10 million? While it may be true that a B2B’s blog or Twitter is not going to be followed by as many people, it doesn’t change the fact that it will affect the decisions of your customers. Say a potential customer becomes aware of your software solution, and goes to your website to find out more about you. How can you stand out from the crowd? By building a blog with your expertise in focus.

If a potential customer comes to your company’s website and sees an active blog with insightful posts on how your company’s product helps customers, reads detailed posts demonstrating your company’s knowledge, and comes across a few case studies, they’re going to be far more inclined to come to you for their needs.

Social media provides an outlet for displaying who you and your company are. Talking about your industry in an intelligent way via Twitter and a regularly-updated blog can raise your company’s profile and brand it as a thought leader and expert in its specific business area.

37Signals, the maker of Software-as-a-service business collaboration products, is a prime example of this philosophy in action. Their blog is regularly read by thousands of people, shared among businesses, and has even opened up another revenue stream in the form of a popular job board. Social media builds reputations.

2. Research your customers

Everyone thinks of social media as a communication tool, but not enough people think of it as a research tool. With the ridiculous amount of data produced every day on social networks, blogs, and in conversations, it should be apparent that you can learn tidbits or spot major trends by tracking the social universe.

Know what your customers are saying: If you’re trying to secure a contract from a big business, then they are probably talking to their customers via Twitter, Facebook, and more. Learn what they’re saying to their customers and read the blogs of decision makers to learn what they value and how they think.

Know what your customers’ customers are saying: Your customers don’t care about you – they care about their customers and their bottom line. If you can find behavior patterns in their customers that your product can address, your pitch will resonate more. Driving the point that their current solution doesn’t work, and then proving that with social chatter is even better.

Track industry trends: Think about the keywords that define your industry, and then track them so you know what’s changing in it. If you’re a medical company creating devices for spine fusion surgery, then you’re going to want to track any developments in spinal fusion technology. Use Twilerts and Google Alerts to track keywords by email, or create an RSS feed of new information via the Content Keyword RSS Yahoo Pipe.

Step 3. Ramp up your networking

If you are competing with another company to land a big deal, it always helps to have connections and friendships within the company you’re trying to woo. You should always be networking, because you never know when a contact can become your advocate or even the decision-maker. And that’s where social media can help.

There are a lot of things you can do to get started on the networking front. They key, though, is that you have to reach out. Otherwise, how will people know to listen? While there are literally hundreds of ways to network with potential partners, vendors, clients, businesses, customers, and decision-makers, the truth is it doesn’t matter which tool you use as long as it is one that the other person values. LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo, etc. are always great places to start, but if you can network with him or her on niche social sites, you’ll stand out just a bit more.

Step 4. Learn from others

In the end, you want to come out sharper, more knowledgeable, and better prepared than your competitors. It doesn’t matter if you have 60 or 600,000 customers, and it does not matter whether or not you sell to general consumers or Fortune 500 companies. Almost everyone is using or tracking social media and it provides you a prime opportunity to make you and your business a leader rather than a follower.

- Seek out blogs and publications in your industry and subscribe via RSS
- Network with relevant experts, including those who may only be partially related
- Follow the insights of business leaders on Twitter
- Connect with commenters on your own blog
- Make yourself very easy to find on the web – if people search for your name or your business, you should be at the top of Google’s results. Building a blog, using a Twitter, and creating a decent corporate website always helps
- Keep an open mind

Don’t underestimate how much information is on the web. It’s stunning what you can learn just by reaching out. If you and your business have a strong social presence, it’s simply easier for potential partners, customers, employers, and businesses to find you. In enterprise, it’s about closing the deal and standing out; social media’s one of the easiest ways to achieve this goal.

by Ben Parr
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Google vs Microsoft: A Guide to the Battle

Last night, Google jumped directly into Microsoft’s home turf by announcing Google Chrome OS, its new operating system for PCs and netbooks. And while we’re still debating whether it will take down Windows or flop like a fish on land, we tend to forget that this isn’t the first time Google’s challenged Microsoft. In fact, it’s become almost routine. Whether its operating systems, documents, search, communication, or mobile, the two behemoths have been increasingly butting heads in a war for tech supremacy. Now with Google Chrome OS making headlines, we thought it would be appropriate to perform a straight-up comparison of where the competition between Google and Microsoft stands. So who’s winning the war? And how will Google Chrome OS affect this longstanding battle? Here’s an overview:

1. Search

Google: What is there to say, really? Search is to Google as Windows is to Microsoft. They dominate the search market by a wide margin, despite Microsoft’s best efforts (including the company’s failed attempt to buy Yahoo).

Microsoft: They had to do something drastic to compete in search, and they did with their recent launch of Bing (). It’s received a lot of press, a lot of positive reviews, and has clearly caught Google’s attention. But does anyone seriously think it will overtake Google’s dominance in search anytime soon?

Advantage: Google. By light years.

2. Documents

Microsoft: Microsoft Office, with Word, Powerpoint, and Excel have been the leading way to create and edit documents for years, and for good reason – they’re widely used, widely known, and feature-rich. There’s also now Microsoft Office Live, which while not as collaborative as Google Docs (), isn’t a bad solution and has the benefit of being connected to the desktop apps.

Google: Google Docs have been growing in features and users. They provide a level of collaboration that Microsoft documents simply don’t offer. But they don’t provide as many options as Microsoft Office and they just don’t have nearly as many users. This is one area where the majority of users still prefer the desktop to the web.

Advantage: Microsoft

3. Communication, Email, and IM

Microsoft: While Google’s probably more revered for Gmail () and its communication suite, Hotmail is still bigger, and Live Messenger is heavily used. Microsoft also produces the popular Outlook software and has software in a variety of arenas, such as Windows Live Meeting, giving the company an edge in the enterprise.

Google: The search giant has a suite of very popular communication products – Gmail and Gtalk () being the best known. The X factor in this debate though, is the upcoming Google Wave () communication platform, which has impressed us so far. There’s also the intriguing Google Voice () offering to consider.

Advantage: Push

4. Mobile

Google: Google’s has good traction with its Android () mobile OS given it’s relatively new to the space. It runs on more than one million T Mobile phones and has a strong app platform. Many of Google’s apps also run well on mobile phones, especially Google Maps () and YouTube ().

Microsoft: Windows Mobile still shipped tens of millions of units last year, far outpacing Android. It also has apps to run Office, Outlook, and Windows Media Player. We think the long-term trend favors Google, but as of right now Microsoft is the leader.

Advantage: Microsoft, but perhaps not for long.

5. Operating System

Microsoft: This is Microsoft’s bread and butter. Windows is the reason Microsoft makes $60+ billion in revenue every year and has stayed on top for so long. Its stranglehold is legendary. Yet Windows Vista proved that it is not invincible.

Google: Let’s say this: we can’t wait to see what Google has in store for Google Chrome OS. We’re skeptical that it could ever kill Windows, but Google will be Microsoft’s most powerful challenger yet.

Conclusion: We look forward to the upcoming war.

The New York Times Asks Readers If They’d Pay For Online Version

It’s been a rough year for print media, with numerous publications either going extinct or converting to online-only format. As print subscribers and advertisers abandon newspapers, even the biggest names aren’t immune, and now, The New York Times is toying with the idea of charging for access to its articles online.

The company has sent out a survey to its newspaper subscribers, asking them whether they’d be willing to pay between $2.50 and $5.00 for access to nytimes.com. Such a move wouldn’t be unprecedented for the Times – as Bloomberg notes, the company offered something called “Times Select” several years ago that charged for some content, generating $10 million per year in revenue until the program was shuttered in 2007.

The Times is also currently experimenting with its Times Reader version of the paper that uses Adobe AIR, offered for free to print subscribers, but $14.95/mo to others. Although an impressive app, it’s unclear so far if many people are willing to pay for it.

In any event, The New York Times wouldn’t be the first major paper to charge for access – The Wall Street Journal has provided limited access to its content with a weekly fee for full access for years (the current rate is $1.99 per week) with some success. Recent estimates place WSJ.com revenue at $200 million per year between both subscriptions and advertising.

The massive hurdle The New York Times faces in going this route is that readers are used to not paying for its website. Truth be told, however, like the WSJ, The Times still breaks a significant number of hugely important stories, meaning that for many who depend on timely news, a NYTimes.com subscription might still be a must-have. Is it enough to offset the online readers (and ad dollars) the paper would lose by charging? That’s the equation that the newspaper’s number crunchers will have to run.

Meanwhile, we thought it would be fun to do a survey of our own readers. The results should be fairly predictable, but anyways …

By Adam Ostrow
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How to be happy in business - Venn diagram

By:Bud Caddell
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